2 Benjamin Franklin Shurnard. 
Benjamin Franklin Shumard was born Nov. 24, 1820, at 
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His father, John Shumard, was a 
direct descendant of the Huguenots, a man of rare intelligence, 
culture and moral worth. His mother, the daughter of a dis- 
tinguished inventor of Philadelphia who was at different times 
also an author, editor and publisher, and who received high 
honors in both civil and military life, is described as haWng a 
"taste for letters conjoined with sound judgment, deep piety 
and natural sweetness of disposition." 
Thus the childhood and early youth of Dr. Shumard were 
spent in that best of all training schools, a cultured christian 
home ; and here were laid the foundations of his pure and lofty 
character. 
In 1835 his father removed to Cincinnati and soon after, at 
the age of 15 the son entered Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. 
Here he remained three years, an earnest and successful stu- 
dent. At the end of that time and before he had finished his 
course, his father returned to his native state, taking the son 
with him. Two years later he entered the Medical College of 
Philadelphia, but left after one year to accompany his parents 
to Louisville, Kentucky. Here he continued his medical stud- 
ies and graduated with distinction from the Medical Institute 
of Louisville, in 1842. He entered upon the practice of his 
profession in a small town in Kentucky where he was a 
stranger to all ; and his extreme modesty, scholarly tastes and 
love for science prevented his making acquaintances or secur- 
ing much practice. His father said sadly when he returned 
home discouraged at the end of l^he year, that he was "afraid 
Benjamin had so many rocks in his head there was no room 
left for medicine." His mother sympathized with his love for 
science and urged him to pursue his investigations and his 
geological studies. In Prof. Cobb he found a congenial spirit, 
and together they explored all the localities rich in organic 
remains in the vicinity of Louisville, and made collections of 
fossils. In the study of these Dr. Shumard's medical educa- 
tion was an invaluable aid. 
When Mr. Edward de Verneuil, in the course of a tour to 
determine the parallelism of the paleozoic formations of North 
America with those of Europe, visited Louisville in 1846 he 
was delighted at finding in Shumard's collections fossils so 
analogous to many in his own cabinet as to fix beyond doubt 
