THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST 
Vou. IX. MARCH, 1892. No. 3 
JOHN FRANCIS WILLIAMS.* 
By J. F. Kemp, Columbia College, New York. 
The name of Dr. John Francis Williams will always be asso- 
ciated in American geology with those of Newton, Irving and 
Lewis. His life, like their lives, was one of brilliant achieve- 
ment, of great future promise and of sad untimely termination. 
Although his accomplished results were great, yet coming as they 
did, early in life, his friends could but regard them as indicative 
of the future, and there is thus together with grief for his loss, 
the regret that so many possibilities are nullified. . 
Dr. Williams was born October 25, 1862, at Salem, the county 
seat of Washington Co., N. Y., situated about forty miles north- 
east of Troy. He was the only son of John Martin and Frances 
A. (Shriver) Williams, who with his one sister survive him. His 
boyhood was passed at the beautiful family home, until at twelve 
years he was placed in St. Paul’s School, Concord, N. H.  Leav- 
ing this in 1880 he entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 
at Troy. He completed the studies of the course in Civil Engi- 
neering, and graduated in 1883, with the degree of C. EK. Like 
many geologists he began thus his scientific work in the engineer- 
ing school, but found his tastes inclining irresistibly to pure as 
contrasted with applied science. During August, 1883, he was 
assistant engineer for the Albany, Rutland and Granville R. K., 
*This memorial was originally prepared for the GEOLoaIstT, but at the 
request of the secretary of the Geological Society of America, it was 
read at the Columbus meeting, December 29, 1891. 
