triumph.  It produced a strong impression on the public mind and gave Powell a national reputation which was afterwards of great service, although based on an adventurous episode by no means essential to his career as an investigator.”  The qualities which enabled him so splendidly to perform his many self-imposed tasks were an inheritance from his parents, who possessed more than ordinary intelligence.  Joseph Powell, his father, had a strong will, deep earnestness, and indomitable courage, while his mother, Mary Dean, with similar traits possessed also remarkable tact and practicality.  Both were English born, the mother well educated, and were always leaders in the social and educational life of every community where they dwelt.  Especially were they prominent in religious circles, the father being a licensed exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church.  Both were intensely American in their love and admiration of the civil institutions of the United States and both were strenuously opposed to slavery, which was flourishing in America when they arrived in 1830.  For a time they remained in New York City and then removed to the village of Palmyra whence they went to Mount Morris, Livingston County, New York, where, on March 24, 1834, the fourth of their nine children, John Wesley, was born.  Because of the slavery question Joseph Powell left the Methodist Episcopal Church on the organisation of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and became a regularly ordained preacher in the latter.  It was in this atmosphere of social, educational, political, and religious fervor that the future explorer grew up.  When he was four or five years old the family moved to Jackson, Ohio, and then, in 1846, went on westward to South Grove, Walworth County, Wisconsin, where a farm was purchased.  They were in prosperous circumstances, and the boy was active in the management of affairs, early exhibiting his trait for doing things well.  His ploughing, stack-building, and business ability in disposing advantageously of the farm products and in purchasing supplies at the lake ports received the commendation of the countryside.

I am indebted to Major Powell’s brother-in-law, Prof.  A. H. Thompson, for many of the facts herein stated, and for revision of dates to his brother Prof.  W. B. Powell.

** October 10, 1902.

His early education was such as the country schools provided.  He later studied at Janesville, Wisconsin, earning his board 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