Education
He graduated from Iowa College -- now called Grinnell College -- which was co-founded by his father . He went to Andover Theological School, then studied in Heidelberg and Berlin for two years, before he went to Johns Hopkins University, where he made Ph.D. in 1878 and became a lecturer from 1880 to 1882. He was afterwards a lecturer in Cornell University. He also became statistician to the Interstate Commerce Committee and was in charge of the transportation department in the 1900 census.