REPEESENTATIVE MEN OF OREGON. m
work varied his experience of life, and he next moved out West to Mich- igan, with his father, to find there a home for the family. The father re- turned to New York, a few months later, and the son remained iu Onondajra county, New York. Here he continued for several years, alternately teach- ing to earn means, and then attending some neighboring academy or sem- inary to continue his own progress. It was during this period -1840 to 1849— that the Geological Report of the State of New York was published. The study of the successive volumes of this report gave a new and e;ir:iest energy to his pursuit of natural science; and the stone (piarries of Onon- daga, Cayuga and Madison counties, to whose examination every hour of leisure was devoted, furnished materials to intensify his increasing love of the study of geology. Occasional lectu7-es and frequently pubhshed articles from his pen at this time gave public expression to his interest in this special line of study. In 1849 he entered the Theological Seminary at Auburn, N. Y., from which he graduated in 1852. In the fall of 1852 he was married to Miss Cornelia Holt, of Niagara county, N. Y., and with his bride started for Oregon. They located at St. Helens, on the Columbia, in the spring of 1853, when the yoiuag preacher became a missionary to the people and a teacher of the town school. Ague impaired Mrs. Condon's health, and a call to preach at Forest Grove was cheerfully accepted as a means to reach a less malarial climate. St. Helens, Forest Grove and Al- bany became successive fields of labor. In 1802 a new field opened at The Dalles, and into this Mr. Condon entered with fresh zeal. Dalles people still remember how much of earnest work and cheering fruits clustered around twelve years of earnest efibrt here. It was during this period that Prof. Condon published to the people of the Pacific coast those interesting discoveries he made in the geology of the Jolm Day valley and the valley of the Crooked river, especially those of the fossil horse. The first of these fossil horse bones was brought to Prof. Condon by our present Governor Moody, who found some men digging a well iu 1860, half way between the Touchet river and Palouse Landing. They had dug sixty-eight feet with- out fin ding water, but at that depth struck some bones. Mr. Moody brought these to Prof.\ Condon, who found them to be horse bones, and so published soon after in a lecture in Portland. This was some time before Prof. Marsh's discoveries, but inasmuch as the facts were only published in a public lecture instead of through a scientific journal or society. Prof. Con- don was not scientifically entitled to the credit. After this discoveries in the geology of Oregon rapidly multiplied, and Prof. Condon's frequent pub- lic lectures have for years continued to keep the people of Oregon posted on their results. In 1872 Prof. Condon was made State Geologist of Ore- gon, which office he resigned on accepting the chair oi Geology ot the State University. In 1874 he was elected Geological Lecturer and soon after Pro- fessor of Geology in the college at Poorest Grove. In 1876, at the organ- ization of the Faculty of the State University at Eugene, Prof. Condon was chosen Professor of Geology and Natural History, which post he still occu- pies, spending as of old his vacations in new geological researches, and thus adding to the scope and scientific value of a fine cabinet which has grown
