Rev. Father Zahm.

The log school house, the puncheon floor, "the rude desk of the jack-knife's carved initial" have sent forth many a successful graduate into the post-graduate course of actual life. Pigeon Roost School on the Logan road may justly be proud of two of her alumni ---MacGahan and Father Zahm. Both have been en- listed in the same cause---that of Liberty. The one for political, the other for intellectual. One fought to free people's bodies, the other to free their minds. One with pen and sword, the other with pen and micro- scope. One studied the hearts of the people, the other the great heart of nature. Both fought against ene- mies of the Christian religion---the one, the Turk, the other, the agnostic. Both were victorious. Rev. Dr. Father Zahm, priest, scientist and author, is of German origin on the paternal side, while his mother belonged to the famous English family of Gen- eral Bradock of pre-Revolutionary fame. He was born in the southern part of Jackson town- ship, in a log house which stood on land now owned by Mr. James Gordon. He worked on the farm in summer and in the winter attended school at Pigeon Roost, where MacGahan was also a pupil at the same time. It is said that he was a very industrious stu- dent, a trait that has clung to him throughout life. In 1866 at the age of sixteen he went to Notre Dame University, where he graduated five years later with high honors. "After his ordination to the priesthood, which took place at the completion of his theological studies, Father Zahm, who had thus early shown a special fondness and capacity for scientific work, was placed in charge of the university's sci- entific department. 189

"To him, perhaps, more than to any other single individ- ual is the scientific school of Notre Dame indebted for the high renown which deservedly attaches to it; for in behalf of it and the university museum, of which he was for several years the curator, Dr. Zahm traveled far and wide in quest of materials wherewith to equip more fully these departments; and on these journeys he made many valuable scientific researches. "The doctor's reputation as a scientist is by no means confined to this country. He is a member of more than one European scientific society; and his published works, 'Sound and Music,' 'Bible, Science and Faith,' and 'Evolution and Dogma,' are as well known on the other side of the Atlantic as on this, where they are to be found in almost every public library in the land. He is an accomplished linguist, speaking and writing several European languages with facility; and because of his scientific researches, his extensive travels and his recent residence in Rome, he is well and very favorably known to the leading ecclesiastics in this and other coun- tries." "The doctor's attitude in regard to science is that faith and reason are harmonious. In other words, that the teach- ings of science are not incompatible with revealed religion." "The doctor has never forgotten Perry county and the little log school house at Pigeon Roost, where the first founda- tions of his present profound and comprehensive learning were laid. Journeying to the Pacific slope some years ago, he had as traveling companions the late Judge Huffman and wife, and in the course of conversation he learned that the Judge hailed from Perry county. Whereupon the doctor jubilantly exclaimed that that was his native county, and pro- ceeded to ask the latest news from New Lexington and Som- erset and all the adjacent places; and when his curiosity had been in a measure satisfied, he spoke affectionately of the days when he studied under Master Gordon in the little log building that stood on the Logan road." 190

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