THE SCIENTIST. 
155 
A Sketcli of Wil liaiii FciTel. 
By Dr. Jacob Ferrel. 
Ahout the year 1785, two brothers, 
Joseph and Willimn Ferrel came from 
Ireland and settled in Pennsylvania. 
Soon afterwards Joseph went to Ken- 
tncky and i>ave rise to a somewhat num* 
€rous progeny that are scattered through 
the Western states. William remained, 
and in a few years died, leaving but one 
son. The subject of this notice was the 
the oldest son of this Benjamin 
Ferrel, who livei at the time William 
was born at Col. Knable's sawmill, 
in Bedford county, Pa., (now Fulton.) 
William Fei rel was bom the 29th of 
January. 1817 and died Sept 18th 1891 iu 
the 75tli year of his age. 
As William showed an early inclina- 
tion to books his father started him to 
pchool at a very tender age, and his de- 
votion to his studies and his proficiency 
in learning was soon a marvel all over 
the country. When William was 12 years 
old his father moved on a farm in Berke- 
ley county, West Virginia, having pre- 
ivously been engaged in tending sawmill 
The facilities for education in both 
places were crude and unregulated both 
for a want of good school houses and 
competent teachers. Up to the age of 
thirteen, when William quit school, his 
rapid progress was made, a good part of 
the time, in a log school cabin^ 
seated on slab benches before a tire in 
a wooden chimney, under a clapboard 
roo , vvith greased paper for window 
lights. Between the age of thirteen and 
twenty he spent the time in home study; 
every winter, his parents being poor, he 
would gather a supply of rich pine knots 
which he would split and use for light in 
his various studies till a late hour at 
night, every leisure moment was used 
during the day. 
William, at the age of 16, with no 
mathematical literature except a few old 
musty volumns furnished hi in by the 
county surveyor of Bcrklej^ county. West 
Virginia, calculated the eclipse of the 
sun and moon. At 20 he began to teach 
school and continued in that vocation 
about three years. At the end of that 
time, having saved a little money'^ he 
went as a student to Marshall College, 
a cheap institution, at Mercersburg, 
Franklin county, where he remained 
three years. He then spent one term at 
Bethany College, West Vii-giiiia, and 
graduated in 1844, in the first class of 
graduates turned out by that institution, 
composed of Messrs Dearborn, Stone, 
Bryant and Falls, all of Kentucky. Be- 
fore he left Bethany, William Ferrel was 
tendered the chair of mathematics in that 
institution but for some reason he refused 
the honor and went to Libert}^, Missouri 
where he remained nearly two years, 
teaching a common school. He then 
went to Allenville, Ky., and was em- 
ployed to teach, at good wages, a private 
mathematical and classical school by Col 
Duffy and other wealthy planters, for 
the benefit of their sons whom they did 
not wish to send from home. It was here 
that William Ferrel was dubbed Profes- 
sor. After remaining at Allensville a 
few years, through the influence of elder 
Jesse Ferguson, he was induced to go to 
Nashville, Tenn., and take charge of a 
high school and commercial college. 
While here, under the administration of 
President Buchanan, he received the an- 
