Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/856

834 fashion—he wanted to know the reasons of things; so he kept picking up some knowledge of mathematics to help him understand his business. In the summer he was busy with carpenter work, but in the winter he generally went home. He did the chores on the farm in the early morning and at night, and went to school besides. As he learned more he decided to study and become an architect. He managed to spend one winter in Norfolk, Conn., under the instruction of the Principal of the Norfolk Academy. There he went through algebra and six books of geometry.

When he was twenty-five years old he had saved a little money from his carpenter work. Through the New York Tribune he saw that there was a college at McGrawville, N. Y., where a young man could earn his living and get an education at the same time. He decided to go to this college. So in the summer of 1854 he set out for Central College, as it was called. When he got there he found it was a very different place from what he had expected. It was open to both sexes and all colors, and was the gathering place of a queer set of cranks of all sorts. The teaching was poor, but still to the green country youth the experience was of immense value. His views were broadened and changed. He stayed at the college only a year and a half. In that time he went through algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, and studied some French and Latin. He soon proved himself to be by far the best mathematician in the college.

One of the students was a young woman named Angeline Stickney. She was a country girl of great sensibility and of fine mental qualities. She was working her way through college, and as a senior she helped in the teaching. Asaph Hall was one of her pupils in mathematics. Many were the problems he and his classmates contrived to puzzle their teacher, but they never were successful. When she was graduated Asaph Hall was engaged to her. He decided that he had stayed long enough at McGrawville. His money was about gone, and the college was poor. So in 1855 they set out together for Wisconsin. Angeline Stickney had a brother there, and she stayed at his house while Asaph tramped about the country in search of a school where they could teach. No school was open for them. They became tired of the flat, sickly country, and when spring came they decided to leave. On the 31st of March, 1856, they were married. Then they started for Ann Arbor. Asaph entered the sophomore and junior classes in Ann Arbor University, studying mathematics and astronomy under Prof. Brünnow. He found he could do good work in both these branches. His teacher encouraged him greatly. It was from him that he acquired his taste for astronomy. Prof. Brünnow was an excellent teacher, but he had trouble with his classes, and