DENISON OLMSTED was born at East Hartford, June 18th, 1791. His ancestors were among the first settlers of the City of Hartford, having emigrated from the County of Essex, in England. His father was a respectable farmer, of moderate, though competent fortune, but was cut off in the meridian of life, when this his third son was only a year old.

The days of childhood were divided between the village school and the labors of the farm, to which he was very early trained. At the age of thirteen, he was placed in a country store, to be educated to the profession of a merchant; but, at his own solicitation, he was permitted, at sixteen, to exchange the life of a clerk for that of a student. He entered Yale College in 1809, and graduated in 1813. The two following years were passed in New London, in the instruction of Union School, a select Academy for boys. In 1815, he returned to College, and discharged the office of tutor the two succeeding years, pursuing at the same time the study of Theology, under the instruction of President Dwight. In 1817, he received and accepted the appointment of Professor of Chemistry in the University of North Carolina-entering upon the duties of the office near the close of the year 1818, having occupied the interval in the Laboratory of Yale College, as a private pupil of Professor Silliman.

In this situation, he spent the seven years following, during which time he commenced, under the patronage of the Legislature, a Geological Survey of North Carolina-an enterprise peculiarly worthy of note, as being the first attempt of the kind