460 
EDWARD T FRISTOE. 
fully forty years of labor. We all remember his quiet 
ways, his indefatigable industry, his shyness, his perpetual 
absorption in the contemplation of some new and complex 
problem. He lived in an atmosphere of abstraction; he 
was with us, yet not of us. In 1886, at the age of 70, he 
resigned public office and prepared to retire to the rest of 
domestic life with near relatives. Among these he lived 
lovingly and died pe.acefulty. His body lies in the cemetery 
at Way wood, Kansas.—It was mortal, but the example that 
he has left us—the ideas that he infused into science—will 
never cease to live. Cleveland Abbe. 
EDWARD T FRISTOE. 
[Read before the Society, May 26,1894.] 
Professor Fristoe, son of Joseph and Martha Fristoe, was 
born in Rappahannock county, Virginia, December 16,1827. 
He received his early training at the old-time country schools 
in the neighborhood of his home. 
At the age of seventeen he entered the Virginia Military 
Institute at Lexington, Virginia, from which he graduated 
in 1849 with the highest honors. 
For two years thereafter he was principal of an academy 
at Surrey court house, Virginia. 
In 1852 he entered the University of Virginia and gradu¬ 
ated in three years, receiving the degree of A. M. in 1855. 
He especially excelled in mathematics and natural sciences. 
In 1855, while still a student at the University of Virginia, 
he was elected to the chair of mathematics in the Columbian 
College of Washington, D. C., which position he filled with 
great credit until 1860, when he resigned to accept the chair 
of mathematics and astronomy in the State University of 
Missouri. 
He entered the Confederate army in 1862 as adjutant gen¬ 
eral of the Army of Southern Missouri, was made major in 
1863, and soon after appointed colonel of cavalry. In 1864 
