Background
Percival, James Gates was born on September 15, 1795 in Kensington, Connecticut, United States. Son of James and Elizabeth (Hart) Percival.
(The Geological and Mineralogical Survey of the State was ...)
The Geological and Mineralogical Survey of the State was first suggested by Gov. Edwards in his Annual Message of 1835. The Legislature, in accordance with his recommendation, made an appropriation, in the session of that year, for that object. I was invited by Gov. Edwards to engage in the geological department of that survey, in connexion with Prof. C. U. Shepard, in the mineralogical department. During the summer of that year, I travelled, with Prof. Shepard, through every town in the State, but the short period then allowed me, only enabled me to make a general preparatory rcconnoissancc. An additional appropriation for the continuance of the survey, was made by the Legislature, in the session of 1836. I then commenced, by myself, a regular plan of survey, by sections across the State, from Eastto West, at average intervals of four miles. This I accomplished in nearly eight months constant travel. (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.) About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology. Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008NS0JS4/?tag=2022091-20
university professor author poet
Percival, James Gates was born on September 15, 1795 in Kensington, Connecticut, United States. Son of James and Elizabeth (Hart) Percival.
Percival entered Yale College at the age of 16, and graduated at the age of 20 at the head of his class.
He was a precocious child, and a morbid and impractical, though versatile, man, with a facility in writing verse on all manner of subjects and in nearly every known meter. His sentimentalism appealed to a wide circle, but his was one of the tapers which were extinguished by James Russell Lowell. He had also a reputation as a geologist.
After graduating he was admitted to the practice of medicine and relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, where he pursued that profession.
In 1824 he was briefly a professor of chemistry at West Point, where he resigned after a few months, and subsequently several years of his labor were devoted to assisting Noah Webster in editing his great American Dictionary of the English Language of 1828. In 1835 Percival was commissioned by the governor of Connecticut to prepare a geological survey of the state, which was completed and published in 1842.
In 1854 he was appointed to make a similar geological survey for the state of Wisconsin, with the title State Geologist. The first annual report was issued in 1855, and while preparing the second annual report for the press he succumbed to illness and died in May 1856.
Most of his life was spent at his home in New Haven, Connecticut.
After his death he was the subject of an admiring biography by Julius H. Ward.
(The Geological and Mineralogical Survey of the State was ...)