34 The American Geologist. January, 1894 
his scientific friends when they called on him, made him the 
almoner of gracious influences. He lived more for the service 
of others than for himself. Disappointments, injustice in- 
flicted upon him through either political or personal motives, 
left him outwardly unecarred, because he harbored neither 
ambition nor resentment. His griefs rose more from his own 
inability to accomplish his beneficent purposes than from tin- 
failures of any personal ambitions. The genial hospitality of 
his home, where the appreciative aid of a loving wife ami 
family surrounded him, embraced all visitors and rendered 
them more than welcome. 
Dr. Laphani was modest, patient, industrious, unwilling to 
appear in public, but ready to act as a private wherever his 
services were needed, one of the few who seek in their own 
labor their chief reward, one of the true noblemen of nature. 
His name will always cast an honor on the State of Wisconsin. 
He married Ann Maria Allcott, whose father was a second 
cousin of A. Bronson Allcott. He left five children, three 
sons, Henry, Seneca George and Charles, and two daughters, 
Mary J. and Julia Allcott. 
The value of Lapham's services to Wisconsin will grow in 
the estimation of competent judges as time passes by. When 
we are near the light we are not so able to judge of its bright- 
ness as When we are so far removed that we can compare it 
with other lights or with surrounding objects. In the distant 
future Lapham's name will appear brighter in Wisconsin be- 
cause of its shining almost alone and in an epoch when such 
lights were few, and generally faint. The effort to honor 
Lapham's name was well begun by the generous offer and the 
prompt responses mentioned at the opening of this sketch. 
That should not be the end of that suggestion. The State 
would honor herself by recognizing Lapham's merits in some 
substantial and permanent manner. The United States Weather 
Bureau cannot allow his name to be forgotten. "He is the 
guardian genius of our lake commerce, and on that crimson 
flag which so often flutters in the rising breeze, the herald of 
the coming storm, should be inscribed — Lapham!" 
[Note. Besides the biographical sketches that are mentioned at the 
opening of this sketch, the following notices have appeared: Popular 
Science Monthly, April, 1883, pp. 835-810, sketch by the editor, based on 
