“ He began life as a clerk, but, obtaining an appointment to a cadetship at West Point in 1825, he graduated there in 1829, and acted as assistant professor of mathematics 1829–1832. He was then called to the bar, but in 1836 became professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Cincinnati College. In 1845 he was made director of an observatory established there through his initiative, and also in 1859 superintendent of the Dudley observatory at Albany. ”