T'rof. A'iYios H. Worthen — Ulrih. ' 115 
Worthen, and on his mother's side, a descendant of the highly 
esteemed and distinguished Adams family. He was the young- 
est, save one, of thirteen children, and received his education in 
the common schools of his native town and at Bradford's then 
famous academy. On January 14th, 1S34, nearly a year before 
attaining his majority, he married Miss Sarah Kimball, of 
Warren, N. H., who proved his faithful and life-long companion, 
her death having preceded his only a little more than a twelve- 
month. In August, 1834, ^""^ emigrated to Kentucky, but 
before the close of the year he began teaching school at Cum- 
minsville, now a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio.' Here he re- 
mained for two winters when, in June, 1S36, he removed to 
Warsaw, 111., which became his permanent home. With his 
brothers-in-law, the Kimball boys, he became first a forwarding 
and commission merchant and later dealt in dry goods at War- 
saw. In 1842, influenced by the depression in business, caused 
by the Mormon difliculties in Hancock county, he removed 
with his family to Boston, Mass., returning, however, in July, 
1844, to Warsaw. Before going to Boston his attention had 
been strongly attracted to the geological features of his new 
home and the fossils preserved in the sedimentary rocks of that 
region. The geode beds in particular had commanded his ad- 
miration and close investigation. Even at that early period he 
felt within him the stirring of that spirit of investigation and 
love for natural science that later caused him, first to neglect, 
then to abandon entirely all business less suited to his tastes, and 
to devote himself to science with a singleness of purpose and a 
devotion as rare as it is honorable and profitable to the individ- 
ual and to mankind. Armed with basket and hammer, all his 
spare moments at that time were spent in rambling over the 
bluffs and among the ravines, so that soon his collection con- 
tained many beautiful and interesting geological specimens. 
When he went to Boston he took with him several barrels of 
fine geodes then so abundant at Warsaw. These with a nat- 
uralist's true love for his (to be) calling, he exchanged, instead 
of selling them, for a cabinet of sea-shells. Similar forms to 
1 In 1886 the writer had the pleasure of escorting the old gentleman 
about Cvimminsville, which he had not seen for fifty years, and he (Prof. 
W.) was more than gratified to find his old landlord still alive and hearty. 
