History of Deposit, (Broome County) New York United States of America

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Edward Francis Baxter Orton, educator, was born in Deposit, N.Y., March 9, 1829; son of the Rev. Dr. Samuel George and Clara (Gregory) Orton; grandson of Miles Orton, a soldier in the war of 1812, and a descendant, through Samuel Orton, one of the fifty-one colonists who settled in Litchfield county, Conn., of Thomas and Margaret (Pratt) Orton. Thomas Orton came to Massachusetts Bay colony before 1641; settled in Windsor, Conn., and removed to Farmington, Conn., in 1655. Dr. Samuel G. Orton was graduated at Hamilton college, 1822, and was a Presbyterian minister in western New York for fifty years. Edward Orton was fitted for college by his father, and was graduated at Hamilton college, A.B., 1848, A.M., 1851. He was assistant in the academy at Erie, N.Y., 1848-49; private tutor, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1849-50; a student at Lane Theological seminary, 1849-50; assistant at Delaware Literary institute, Franklin, N.Y., 1851-54; student at Lawrence Scientific school, Harvard, 1852, and at Andover Theological seminary, 1854-55. He was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry, Jan. 2, 1856; was professor of natural science, State Normal school, Albany, N.Y., 1856-59; principal of the academy at Chester, N.Y., 1859-65; principal of the preparatory department and professor of natural history, Antioch college, Ohio, 1865-69; assistant state geologist, Ohio, 1869-75; president of Antioch college, 1872-73, and of the Ohio State Agricultural college (Ohio State university) 1873-81; professor of geology in Ohio State university, 1873-99, and state geologist of Ohio, 1882-99. Orton Hall, one of the chief buildings of the university, was named for him. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and its president, 1899, and corresponding and honorary member of various scientific associations in the United States and Europe. He helped to organize and was president of the Ohio State Sanitary association, 1884-85, and of the Geological Society of America, 1896. The degree of Ph.D. was conferred on him by Hamilton in 1876, and that of LL.D. by Ohio State university in 1881. He served on the U.S. geological survey, and his report appears in the "Eighth Annual Report"; on the Kentucky State survey, and his report on the petroleum and gas fields of western Kentucky was published in a separate volume. He was married first, in 1855, to Mary M. Jennings of Franklin, N.Y., who died in 1873, leaving two sons and two daughters; and secondly, in 1875, to Anna Davenport Torrey of Millbury, Mass., and of the two children by this marriage the son was given the ancestral name of Samuel. He is the author of many scientific reports and addresses, and of: Economic Geology of 0hio(1883-88); Petroleum and Inflammable Gas (1887). He died in Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 16, 1899.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Deposit, (Broome County) New York

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