rd by working nights
and mornings. His parents ever held before him the importance of
achieving the highest education possible. Thus he continually turned
to books, and while his oxen were eating or resting, he was absorbed in
some illuminating volume. In 1851 his family removed to Bonus Prairie,
Boone County, Illinois, where a larger farm had been purchased. About
1853 the Wesleyan College was established at Wheaton, Illinois, and the
family removed there in order to take advantage of the opportunities
afforded. The father became one of the trustees and Powell entered the
preparatory classes. With intervals of teaching and business pursuits,
he continued here till 1855, when, largely through the influence of the
late Hon. John Davis, of Kansas, he entered the preparatory department
of Illinois College at Jacksonville, Illinois. Thus far he had shown no
special aptitude for the natural sciences, though he was always a close
observer of natural phenomena. His ambition at this period, which was
also in accord with the dearest wishes of his parents, was to complete
his college course and enter the ministry. Illinois College not
possessing a theological atmosphere after a year spent there he
departed, and in 1857 began a course of study at Oberlin College, Ohio.
Among his studies there was botany, and in this class Powell at last
discovered himself and his true vocation--the investigation of natural
science. He became an enthusiastic botanist and searched the woods and
swamps around Oberlin with the same zeal and thoroughness which always
characterised his work. He made an almost complete herbarium of the
flora of the county, organising the class into a club to assist in its
collection. In the summer of 1858, having returned to Wheaton, Illinois,
where the family had settled in 1854, he joined the Illinois State
Natural History Society, then engaged in conducting a natural history
survey of the State through the voluntary labour of its members. To
Powell was assigned the department of conchology. This work he entered
upon with his usual application and made the most complete collection of
the mollusca of Illinois ever brought together by one man. Incidentally,
botany, zoology, and mineralogy received attention, and in these lines
he secured notable collections. With the broad mental grasp which was a
pronounced trait, he perceived that these studies were but parts of the
greater science of geology, which he then announced, to