Mudge, Benjamin F., geologist and educator, was born at Orrington, Me., Aug. 11, 1817, a son of James and Ruth Mudge, who removed to Lynn, Mass., in 1818. There Benjamin attended the public schools and at the age of fourteen years began learning the shoemaker's trade, at which he was employed for the next six years. In the fall of 1837 he began teaching, saved his money to secure a better education, and finally graduated at the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn. He then returned to Lynn, studied law, and practiced in that city for some time. He also served as Mayor of Lynn. In 1850 he went to Kentucky as chemist for a coal and oil company, and some two years later settled at Quindaro, Kan. In 1863 he was appointed state geologist, and in 1865 was elected to the chair of "geology and associated sciences" in the State Agricultural College at Manhattan. From that time until his death he was engaged in scientific research. After serving as professor for eight years a disagreement arose between him and the college management and he accepted a position from Yale Universsity to gather specimens in the west for that institution. In one year he shipped over three tons of fossils, etc., to New Haven. He spent much of his time in camp, and between expeditions spent his time in lecturing and writing for scientific periodicals. In 1878 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he was one of the founders of the Kansas Academy of Science. Up to the time of his death he probably did more than any other one man to make known the geological formation of Kansas. Prof. Mudge married Miss Mary E. Beckford on Sept. 16, 1846, and died at his home in Manhattan of apoplexy on Nov. 21, 1879.