the richest. But on account of the relatively small and rugged areas in which they occur, there is not much cambrian soil available for cultivation.

thickest edge to the north and its thinnest edge to the south, is a great ragged sheet of glacial drift. In Schuyler and Scotland Counties the glacial drift is about 300 feet thick. Further south and west it has been reduced by erosion until large zones of the original land surface have been denuded of this burden and the drift lies in widely separated ridges. The glacial drift consists mainly of angular fragments and rounded. blocks of granite, gneiss, pegmatite, diabase and red quartzites, dispersed in variable beds of gravel, sand and fine plastic clay.

Fragments of trees that were growing on the original land surface, before the glacial period, are often found under the drift, and in a fairly well preserved condition. Flint arrow-heads, stone axes and other durable relics of prehistoric man are also found deeply imbedded or buried in the drift. Valuable pieces of native copper are frequently found, and, I dare say, all of the "lost rocks" in that great sheet of drift look as if they might have been transported from about the north shore of Lake Superior. However, the limits of this article will not permit me to discuss the probable genesis of either glacial drift or

River Loess.

In a ragged zone of very irregular width, along both sides of the Missouri River and along the west side of the Mississippi (so far as Missouri is concerned) lies queer deposit of fine plastic loam. This river loess, or loam, has a light yellowish color and is more fertile along the Missouri River than the heavier brownish colored loess along the Mississippi. In every other respect, however, they have practically the same characters and seem to have been deposited under the same or similar conditions.

Outside of the river plains and loess zones

The soils whose rock minerals have been derived from the Trenton and Burlington limestones are generally durable and fairly productive. They are the prevailing soils in a wide zone, lying diagonally across the State from southwest to northeast, and parallel with the eastern margin of the coal measures. They are also the prevailing soils back of the loess in all of the counties fronting on the Mississippi River, from Marion to Cape Girardeau, inclusive.

But the largest areas of fertile soils lie in north Missouri and in the northwest half of southwest Missouri. Their rock mineral characters are, for the most part, derived from the argillaceous glacial drift, or coal measure cap-rocks. Hence they are usually strong limestone and argillaceous soils. They occur in what were one time wide, undulating prairies.

Forestry.

The forestry of Missouri is as extensive and varied as the rocks and soils are diversified. But her greatest timber resources lie first in the splendid white oak forests of Crawford, Washington, Iron, Reynolds, Shannon, Carter, Douglas, Oregon, Ripley, Butler and Stoddard Counties. Next, in her yellow pine forests, which grow mainly on the St. Thomas sandstone in Iron, Reynolds, Shannon, Carter, Wayne and Oregon Counties. Sweet-gum, beech, yellow poplar and cypress all flourish on the damp, rich soils of the old river plains in several counties in southeastern Missouri.

JOHN A. GALLAHER.

George H. Nettleton Home for Aged Women. — This was formerly known as the Protestant Home for Aged and Friendless Women and Girls, founded December 1, 1890. The need for such a home was presented by Mrs. Patti Moore, now police matron at Kansas City, before a body of philanthropic ladies in St. Louis, who contributed some means. The work was taken up by a committee of ladies representing the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Kansas City and vicinity, and the home was opened on the date named, in rented premises, at the corner of Independence and

Lowell Avenues, Kansas City. A single applicant was received on the day of opening. In 1892 removal was made to a more suitable building at Twenty-ninth and Cherry Streets, which was occupied until November, 1900. The home would accommodate from twentyfive to twenty-seven persons, and this number have been cared for during several years past. In 1900 Mrs. George H. Nettleton presented to the Protestant Home Association her family residence, at the corner of Seventh Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, as a memorial to her deceased husband. The association then re-incorporated as the George H. Nettleton Home for Aged Women Association, and erected an addition to the old Nettleton residence, at a cost. of $10,000, their means being derived from subscriptions by members and friends of the association. The property was occupied in November, 1900, and affords accommodations for some forty old ladies. The home is conducted by a board of managers, exclusively ladies, and the property interests are vested in a board of trustees, chosen from among prudent business men. It is maintained by voluntary contributions, which are for the greater part clothing and provisions contributed by business houses and individual citizens. The beneficiaries are almost altogether aged women who have enjoyed better financial and social circumstances. ligious test is applied.

No re

George R. Smith College. An institution for the higher education of colored people, located at Sedalia and completed in 1872. It is in the western suburbs, and is built in the midst of a beautiful twenty-four acre tract of land, the gift of Mrs. M. E. Smith and Mrs. S. E. Cotton, surviving daughters and heirs of General George R. Smith. The building is three stories, with dormitories for seventy-five pupils, and an auditorium seating 300 persons.

In 1898 there were seven teachers and 200 pupils. The property was valued at $50,000, and the library contained 2,500 volumes.

Georgetown.-A town in Pettis County, on the Kansas Pacific branch of the Missouri Pacific Railway, three miles north of Sedalia. It was platted in 1836 by General David Thompson, father of Judge Mentor Thompson, who named it after his home town in

Kentucky. In 1837, by an act of the General Assembly, Joseph S. Anderson, of Cooper County, John Stapp, of Lafayette County, and John S. Rucker, of Howard County, were appointed commissioners to locate a permanent county seat. They selected Georgetown, and in the same year George R. Smith and James Ramey, as contractors, erected a brick courthouse, at a cost of $4,000, which was considered an elegant and expensive building. The first term of the circuit court held here was in March, 1838, with Judge John F. Ryland presiding; William R. Kemp, sheriff, and Amos Fristoe, clerk. The same year William A. Miller, Thomas Wasson and James Brown were elected county judges. In 1847 Campbell College was founded, and in 1860 the Georgetown Female School; both were well patronized for a time, and then closed. About 1860, the population then numbering 1,200, Professor Neal founded an academy which numbered 150 pupils, and was successfully conducted until about 1865, when the county seat was removed to Sedalia, and the decadence of Georgetown began. The first newspaper in the county was the "Pettis County Independent," at Georgetown. was founded in November, 1857, by Bacon Montgomery, who managed it ably and successfully until early in 1861, when he discontinued its publication and entered the Union Army. The village now has a public school, a Methodist Episcopal Church, a Baptist Church, a cheese factory, and several stores. In 1899 the population was 250.

It

Geret, Benjamin H. A., physician and Knight of the Iron Cross of Germany, was born December 1, 1841, in Mering, Bavaria. His parents were Frederick William and Eleanora (Versmann) Geret. He was descended from a noble Huguenot family which avoided the dreadful massacre in Paris, France, August 24, 1572, known in history as that of Saint Bartholomew's Night, by escaping into Bavaria, taking refuge at Ansbach. Some of these refugees and their descendants attained distinction in the military service of the country of their adoption, while others became students of theology and medicine, and entered those learned professions as ministers or practitioners. Benjamin Geret attended the parochial school in his native town until he was eleven years of age.

In 1854 he entered the Benedictine Convent Academy at Scheyern, Bavaria, afterward entering another of the same order, that of St. Stephan, in Augsburg, where he completed a full classical course, and was graduated in 1858. Under the instruction of his father, a skillful pharmacist and druggist, he completed a three years' course in pharmacy, and graduated "cum laude" in 1861. For three years thereafter he was engaged as a practical druggist in Wurzburg, Bavaria; Manheim, Baden, and Basle, Switzerland. In 1864 he entered the university in Munich, where he studied chemistry and natural science, having as a tutor the accomplished scientist, Liebig. In March, 1866, he passed the State examination and was duly licensed as a royal apothecarian. His studies had led him to the threshold of medicine, and he acquired an interest in the science which impelled him to its mastery. Accordingly, he attended the medical colleges at the Universities of Wurzburg, Munich and Vienna, taking a final course at Erlangen, where he was graduated as a doctor of medicine, July 10, 1868, by the celebrated professor, Frh. Nep. von Nussbaum. In February, 1869, he was appointed a member of the medical staff of the North German Lloyd Steamship Co., a high recognition of his attainments, the company being as exacting as the army in its requirements as to capability. For two years. he served as physician upon their great trans-Atlantic steamers, during which time he visited New York, Baltimore, Havana, Porto Rico, the West Indies, St. Martinique, St. Thomas, Panama, Gibraltar, Africa, Algiers, Tunis, Alexandria, the Suez canal and Cairo.

When the Franco-Prussian War opened, in August, 1870, impelled by patriotic ardor, and moved to assist as he might in relieving the suffering he knew would ensue, he was among the first to volunteer his services to his native country. His standing in his profession was such that his proffer met with ready acceptance, and at Munich, Germany, he was appointed to the position of physician and surgeon of the Fourth Artillery, the Queen Mother's Regiment of the Bavarian Army. Entering upon active service, he was assigned to duty by the chief of the operating staff of the Bavarian army as his assistant. In this capacity his professional skill, personal courage and devotion to duty won for him the gratitude of those

to whom he ministered, the commendation of his superiors, and the proudest distinction brought to any soldier during the war, his investiture by the Emperor William as a Knight of the Order of the Iron Cross, a purely military distinction, conferred by that monarch alone, and only in recognition of most distinguished courage and signal service. From the king of Bavaria he received the Medal of Merit of the Haus Wittelsbach and Military. At the close of the war he might have retained his position, but having no inclination for army service under a peace establishment, and having been favorably impressed with America on his visits while in the employ of the Lloyd, in 1871 he came to New York, where his testimonials of ability and distinguished service obtained for him a cordial reception in the circles of his profession. He was appointed physician in the German Hospital, on Fourth Avenue and Seventy-seventh Seventy-seventh Street, and occupied that position until January, 1872, when he came to St. Charles, Missouri, where he continued to make his home until his death, which occurred in May, 1900. His beginning was auspicious, and he soon acquired a large and lucrative practice, and recognition in the profession as one of its most accomplished members in the State. When St. Joseph's Hospital was instituted, in 1890, he became its chief, a position for which he was peculiarly fitted through his knowledge and skill, especially as a surgeon, derived from unusual advantages, those of thorough training in the best medical schools in the world, supplemented by the wide experience which came to him during his service on the medical staff of the German Army during actual war, when every conceivable class of injury came under his observation and care. In his treatment of the suffering he united with the interest of the scientist, the solicitude and sympathy of the Christian gentleman. In religion he was a Catholic, as was his mother, and his family adhere to the same faith. His father was a Protestant. In October, 1864, while attending the university at Munich, he, became a member of the Corps Bavaria, a social organization of students, with which he maintained connection as a life member. He held membership in other European bodies, the Koesner S. C. Order, extending through Germany, Switzerland and Austria. American societies with which he was con

nected were the United Workmen and the Knights of the Maccabees. In the line of his profession he was a member of the St. Charles County Medical Society, in which he was highly regarded for his brilliant professional attainments, his wealth of experience, and the lucidity of his expression in the discussion of technical topics. Dr. Geret was married, September 17, 1874, to Miss Barbara Schneider, of Harvester, Missouri. Two daughters, Charlotte and Olga, were born of this union. The surviving members of his family dwell in refined comfort, and are highly esteemed in the community. Aside from his profession Dr. Geret was a genial and cultured gentleman, and one of the foremost in all movements for advancing the material and moral welfare of his city.

German, Charles W., lawyer, was born July 10, 1867, in Ontario, Canada. His parents were both natives of that country, and the father still resides there. The mother is deceased. The Gehrmann family left the Bavarian Palatinate, on the Rhine, in the days of King Louis XIV, of France, when that potentate assumed authority over it on account of the marriage of his brother to Princess Elizabeth of that State, and began to persecute the Protestants. About 1685 the Gehrmanns went with the Prince of Orange and settled on the west coast of Ireland, near Limerick. There they remained about fifty years, at the end of that time coming to America and locating in the Hudson, or Susquehanna, region of New York. At the time of the Revolutionary War they were Tories, and, not pleased with the result of that strife, they went to Canada as United Empire loyalists, in 1791, settling in the Bay of Quinte region. Christopher German, the greatgrandfather of the subject of this sketch, drew a farm in Adolphustown, the fourth township west from Kingston. The name, German, had been anglicized at a time unknown. There were three brothers of them, Christopher, John and Jacob, and a cousin, Lewis, all of whom located in the same neighborhood, in the then wilderness of upper Canada. The Purdys, a family of which the mother of Charles W. German was a member, were also United Empire loyalists, the great-grandfather Purdy having been an officer in the British Navy in 1776 and 1783. The Purdys had been tories since the time

of Charles I of England, as the motto on their crest, "Stans cum rege," would indicate. Charles W. German attended the common schools of Ontario, and the high school at Harriston, Canada, graduating from the latter. In 1885 he left the country of his nativity and went to California, remaining there until the spring of 1887, incidentally rounding out his experience with travel in other sections of the country. In the fall of 1887 Mr. German entered the law school of Northwestern University, at Chicago, Illinois, graduating from that institution in June, 1889. Immediately after graduation he went to Kansas City, Missouri, and there entered upon the practice of law, spending the first two years with the legal firm now known as Lathrop, Morrow, Fox & Moore. At the end of the two years Mr. German entered the firm of Meservey & Pierce, as a partner, and the firm became Meservey, Pierce & German. The existence of this partnership dates back to the year 1891, and during these nine years it has grown to be one of the strong legal combinations at the Kansas City bar. Mr. German's practice is devoted to general civil cases covering a wide field, and he and his associates represent a number of the most important corporations and individual interests in Kansas City and vicinity. He is a member of the Kansas City Bar Association, and for the year 18991900 was elected treasurer of that organization, his term of office expiring with the presidency of Mr. H. D. Ashley. He comes from a Methodist family, his father having been a minister of that denomination of long service and high standing. Mr. German was married in October, 1898, to Miss Louise Zoller, daughter of Charles Zoller, president of the Third National Bank, of Greensburg, Indiana, and one of the most substantial men of that part of the State. Mrs. German is a firm believer in the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church, is a member of Central Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, and on account of her affiliation with that denomination her husband is identified with the same religious society. To this marriage one son has been born. Mr. German, although one of the younger members of the Kansas City bar, is numbered nevertheless among its able representatives. He has always held a position of dignity, justified by his methods in the court room and his practices as a coun

sellor. Having a firm faith in the locality and State of which he is a part, he is ever a loyal citizen, faithful to the best interests of the commonwealth and his community.

German Benevolent Society.-A social and beneficiary society organized in February of 1875, at Charding's Hall, corner of Third and Marion Streets, St. Louis, with fifteen charter members. It has been composed exclusively of Germans since it came into existence, and in 1898 had a membership of 125. A similar organization, founded in 1892 and chartered the same year, is known as the South St. Louis German Benevolent Society.

German Club.-A society formed in St. Louis for the study, in the original, of German literature, especially the drama. The German Club originated in 1884, at the suggestion of Mrs. Jonathan Rice and Mrs. August Frank, and has met at the homes of its members every Monday afternoon since, excepting during the summer vacations. All the parts of the play chosen are assigned, and the reading proceeds in the dramatic form and with much dramatic spirit. The principal plays of Goethe, Schiller, Lessig and others have been read, but the work is not confined to the dramatists. One year was given to a German translation of the Iliad, two years to Jordan's Nibelungen, and one year to the second part of Faust, supplemented with explanatory works by German authors. The club has no officers, but its leader is Mrs. Albert Drey, a lady of fine culture, thoroughly familiar with her subjects, and also with the homes and haunts of the authors, which she has visited in her travels. The social feature is not neglected. Light refreshments follow each reading, and at the last meeting of the season, which is invariably held at Forest Park, the programme is miscellaneous and the gathering largely MARTHA S. KAYSER.

social.

German Emigrant Aid Society.A society organized in St. Louis in 1848, and chartered by the act of the Missouri Legislature February 27th of the year 1851. Robert Hanning, Arthur Olshausen, Willliam Stumpf, Ferdinand Overstoltz and others were the incorporators. Its objects were to provide in a systematic way for the relief of

45.

German immigrants, arriving in St. Louis without means, to aid them in securing employment and assist them in gaining such knowledge of the language and custom of the country as would enable them to take care of themselves. It was rechartered at a later date and its powers extended so as to enable it to use its means for divers charitable purposes, and in 1896 it contributed $1,000 to the sufferers from the cyclone. It also gives every year to the Provident Association, the St. Vincent de Paul Society and other benevolent organizations. This society is called in German "Die Deutsche Gesellschaft." Its most active officers and directors have been Isidor Busch, C. R. Frilch, Arthur Olshausen, Charles H. Teichmann, Albert Fischer, C. A. Stifel, H. Eisenhardt, A. Klasing, E. D. Kargan, Dr. H. Kinner, M. C. Lange and H. T. Wilde.

German Evangelical Lutheran Orphans' Home.-An orphans' home in St. Louis, with which is connected an asylum for aged and indigent members of the Lutheran Church. It was erected in 1867 by the German Evangelical Lutheran Hospital Association of St. Louis. This association was incorporated in 1863 by an act of the Missouri Legislature. The first building erected was a log house, which was used for several years after the present building was erected. In 1873 a brick building, three stories in height, was erected and dedicated on the 8th of June in that year. In 1882 a frame building for an orphan school was erected. The house is located at Des Peres, on the Manchester Road, fifteen miles from St. Louis. Forty acres of land belong to the home. The first president of this asylum was Rev. Johann Frederick Buenger, who, at his death in 1882, was succeeded by Rev. Christlieb C. E. Brandt, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran St. Paulus' Church of St. Louis.

German General Protestant Orphans' Home.-An institution founded February 13, 1877, and located on Natural Bridge Road, near St. Louis. The corner stone of the building was laid September 6, 1877. On October 20, 1878, it was dedicated, and occupied by the first orphans a few days after its dedication. The object of the home is to receive, as far as possible, all poor orphans and educate them without charge,