274 
EDWIN JAMES 
party to the East Doctor James was selected narrator of the ex¬ 
pedition. His own copious records and the very full notes of 
several other members of the company enabled him to perform 
the task with great credit. This compilation, which was published 
in Philadelphia, in 1823, occupied two thick volumes and an atlas. 
Finally giving up his vocation in the East Doctor James set¬ 
tled near Burlington, Iowa, where he dwelled a foremost and 
public spirited citizen for more than 25 years. Although in this 
later period of his life he appeared not to have been so active in 
scientific persuits as he previously had been, he seemed to have 
had much influence in shaping the geological careers of a number 
of Iowa men. Of a then younger generation who knew him well 
were White, Thieme, Love, Barris, Worthen and Wachsmuth. 
Among his other geological friends in the West were Owen, 
Shumard, Evans, King, Swallow, Englemann, Norwood and 
Broadhead. As a scientist he was best known among the botan¬ 
ists of the country. Yet his geological work was of high order for 
its time, and was really one of the larger undertakings of his day. 
Edwin James was born at Weybridge, Vermont, on August 27, 
1797. The family, of sturdy Puritan stock, originally settled in 
Rhode Island, but at the beginning of the Revolutionary War re¬ 
moved to Addison County, in the northern part of the Green 
Mountain state. Edwin’s boyhood was spent on the farm; but 
he managed to attend rather regularly the grammar school at 
Middlebury. He was graduated from Middlebury College in 
1816. Two years later he went to Albany, N. Y., to study 
medicine with his brother Dr. John James, who was a physician 
with wide acquaintance. There, after another two years, he was 
admitted to practice. 
During his sojourn in Albany, young James fell in with Dr. 
Amos Eaton, the most distinguished geologist of his day and a 
follower in the old Wernerian School. Eaton at this time was 
giving lectures on geology and botany under the auspices of 
Governor DeWitt Clinton who was greatly interested in science. 
Between Eaton and James a warm friendship sprung up which 
lasted until the death of the former. During the years 1819 and 
1820, James served with the Long Expedition to the Rocky 
Mountains and was its narrator. 
After the return and disbanding of the Western expedition 
