the county over twenty years. At this meeting steps were taken to organize the Old Settlers' Association of Story County with the following temporary officers: A. J. Graves, president, and T. J. Miller, secretary. Among those active in its organization were A. J. Graves, L. Q. Hoggatt, S. P. O'Brien, B. Brennan, T. J. Miller, et al. The membership has reached about 300, and Col. John Scott has been the only permanent president. Among its oldest members are Col. Scott, Wesley Arrasmith, William Arrasmith, Dr. W. H. Grafton, E. Elliott, Jacob Born, Henry Cameron, T. E. Alderman, Otis Briggs, and others. It is to be hoped that this society will take special pains to cull from the memories of its oldest members that multitude of early incidents which will otherwise perish.
In professional lines also there has been co-operation. A preliminary meeting was held at Ames in Dr. D. S. Fairchild's office June 19, 1873, which led to the organization of the Story County Medical Society July 17 following. The officers chosen were Dr. D. S. Fairchild, president, and Dr. S. J. Starr, secretary and treasurer. After holding quarterly meetings until 1884 the interest had so increased that monthly sessions were adopted, while the membership, which at first numbered but five, rose in three years to eleven, and now reaches sixteen. The Iowa College of Physicians and Surgeons is represented by one of its professors-Dr. Fairchild, of the chair of principles and practice of medicine and pathology. This society is in striking contrast to the early days of (the early fifties) Dr. Sheldon, of Iowa Center, and Dr. Grafton, of Cambridge, the latter of whom used frequently to boat across the Skunk bottoms in search of a patient who had called him. Those were the ague days, too, when even the dogs " got the shakes." Since then there have been numerous personal changes in the medical fraternity of Story County, not greater, however, than in other lines of occupation. The offices of this society have passed from one to another until the presidency now rests on Dr. F. S. Smith, of Nevada, and the records are in the hands of Dr. H. M. Templeton, of Ames.
Literary activity in Story County has been of a varied character, from the scientific papers of learned professors down to the merest " sizzors " compilation and the spring poet of the local paper. The largest mass of it, however, has been of the nature of college text-books, scientific pamphlets and papers, with a considerable amount of editorial and journalistic contributions, in which the feminine pen bears a very respectable part. The college community and the remainder of the county present two very natural divisions, and the former, on account of the varied character of its production, is treated alphabetically.
Prof. A. C. Barrows, of the chair of English literature and history, a graduate of Western Reserve College, 1861, and located at the Iowa Agricultural College since 1887, has been a contributor to various agricultural and religious papers.
Charles E. Bessey, Ph. D., now acting-chancellor of the University of Nebraska and professor of botany and horticulture, was connected with the college from 1870 to 1884. Among his publications are seven scientific pamphlets, on the flora, insects, geography, etc., of Iowa and Nebraska, three text-books on botany, one of which reached the sixth edition, and botanical papers in the American Naturalist.
Joseph L. Budd, M. H., of the chair of horticulture and forestry since 1877, has published fourteen volumes of the Iowa Horticultural Society, and the Forestry Annual from 1877 to 1884. Besides this he has been the