Address on the scientific life and labors of William C. Redfield, A.M., first president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science : delivered before the Association at their Annual Meeting in Montreal, August 14, 1857 / by Denison Olmsted.

  • Olmsted, Denison, 1791-1859.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address on the scientific life and labors of William C. Redfield, A.M., first president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science : delivered before the Association at their Annual Meeting in Montreal, August 14, 1857 / by Denison Olmsted. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Some time before young Kedfield reached the end of his ap- prenticeship, his widowed mother had married and removed to the state of Ohio, He was no sooner master of his time than he set out on foot to pay her a visit in her new home, distant more than seven hundred miles. It was a formidable undertaking, in that early period before the age of steamboats and railways, and when a large part of the way was covered with dense forests, with hardly an open path even for the pedestrian. Stage coaches, indeed, ran on the nearer portions of the route, but these were too expensive for the slender finances of our young adventurer. Accompanied, therefore, by two other young men, he shouldered his knapsack and commenced the arduous journey. Every eve- ning he noted down the incidents and observations of the day. This journal is now in my possession, and I have perused it with deep interest for the graphic sketches it contains of the countries he passed through, then mostly new settlements, and for the indications it affords of those powers of observation, which after- wards led to the development of the laws of storms. The style of composition is far superior to what might reasonably have been expected from one who had enjoyed so few literary advan- tages, evincing two qualities for which Mr. Kedfield was always distinguished—good sense and good taste. The sketches of Western New York, and of Northern Ohio, taken while the sites of Rochester and Cleveland were dark and gloomy forests, and Buffalo was a mere hamlet, possess no ordinary degree of historical interest. Instead of a Lake Shore road, traversed by the iron horse, as at present, our young pedestrians could find no better paths in which to travel over the southern side of Lake Erie, than to course along the beach. Yet in twenty-seven days they made good their journey, having rested four days on the way, making an average of about thirty-two miles per day. After passing the winter with his friends in Ohio, he resumed his way homeward on foot and alone, returning by a more south- ern route, through parts of the states of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. We shall soon see to what valuable account he afterwards turned the observations made on these early pedes- trian tours, in tracing the course as well as originating the pro- ject, of a great railway connecting the Hudson and the Missis- sippi rivers.