THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST. 
Vol. XXVIII. DECEMBER, 1901. No. 6. 
RALPH DUPUY LACOE. 
By Rev. Horace Edwin Hayden, M. A., 
Corresponding Secretary, Wyoming Hist.-Geol. Society, Wilkesbarre, Pa. 
PORTRAIT. 
Mr. Ralph Dupuy Lacoe, who died at his residence in Pitts- 
ton, Penn., February 5th, 1901, was one of the few scientists in 
America who have attained distinction in his special department 
of paleontology. Indeed in this line of study the number of 
persons capable of filling his place immediately is very limited. 
Mr. Lacoe was born in Luzerne county, Pa., November 14th, 
1824. He was the youngest son of Mr. Anthony Desire Lacoe 
and his wife Emilie Magdalena Dupuy. His father came to 
I'hiladelphia in 1792 from his home in Havre, France, imder 
the care of Francis Gurney, the eminent merchant of Philadel- 
phia, remaining with him four years to learn his business. 
Then preferring a mechanical training he bound himself to 
learn the business of carpenter and builder. The vellow fever, 
which in 1798 carried off his master's family, drove Lacoe to 
the Wyoming valley where he practised his trade with success 
until his death which occurred at the age of 103 years. The 
mother oif Ralph Dupuy Lacoe was the daughter of an intelli- 
gent and well educated Huguenot gentlemen, Jean Francois 
Dupuy, who left his home in France to live in the island of St. 
Domingo, and was driven from there by the insurrection of 
1791, locating in 'Wilkes Barre. Mr. Dupuy had been a mnn of 
wealth and high standing in his West India home. Charles 
Miner, the historian, says of him: "J^an Francis Dupur, a 
French gentlemen from St. Domingo, exiled from thence by 
the success of the blacks, a very estimable and intelligent man. 
