Background
He was born on April 18, 1792 at Pittsfield, Massachussets, United States, of Scotch ancestry, the son of Eleanor (Crofut) and Levi Sartwell, a mechanic.
He was born on April 18, 1792 at Pittsfield, Massachussets, United States, of Scotch ancestry, the son of Eleanor (Crofut) and Levi Sartwell, a mechanic.
He early left home and went to Utica, N. Y. , where he began to study medicine under the tutelage of a local physician. Later he began the study of botany.
Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y. conferred upon him the honorary degree of Ph. D. in 1864.
He finished work with his preceptor and was granted a license to practise medicine by the Oneida County Medical Society on Sept. 7, 1811. Later he started for New Hartford, N. Y. , where he soon had a good practice, owing largely to his agreeable personality and his successful treatment of his first patients.
In riding about the country on professional business, he found an opportunity to cultivate a boyhood interest in natural history and began to collect various specimens, at this period chiefly minerals. His collection, which became quite extensive, was later acquired by the Penn Yan Academy.
During the War of 1812, he served as surgeon in the United States army and at the end of the war settled in Springville, N. Y. He removed thence to Bethel (later Gorham), continuing his practice. In April 1832 he removed to Penn Yan, N. Y. , where he lived and practised his profession until his death.
At one time he made a considerable collection of insects, which was later destroyed by fire, while his meteorological observations were so completely and carefully prepared that they are now on reference at the Smithsonian Institution. He was also an expert horticulturist.
He became acquainted, largely by correspondence, with the leading botanists of his time, both American and European, and often sent them specimens and even quite large collections of plants.
His extensive and thorough knowledge of the subjects he pursued places him unquestionably in the front rank of early American naturalists. The branch he chiefly cultivated, however, was botany. His own most valuable work is Carices Americae Septentrionalis Exsiccatae, of which two volumes were published, 1848-50; the third he was engaged on at the time of his death. His herbarium, the work of nearly a half century, consists of about eight thousand specimens, many gathered by exchange with botanists in all parts of the world. He was the president of the Yates County Medical Society, he was also widely known locally for his knowledge of geology, mineralogy, and natural history, and he contributed liberally to Catalogue of Plants Found in Oneida County and Vicinity (1865). The genus Sartwellia was named for him.
He was of vigorous physique and adventurous spirit. He was regarded as a capable, reliable, and energetic collector.
He is said to have been married four times.
