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Letter, 24 January 1879
Item
Dr. Jacob Wilbur Velie was born on February 9, 1829, in Amsterdam, New York.
He was a dentist and naturalist. He was raised and educated at Hammondsport, New York and graduated from the Geneva Medical College. He left Hammondsport and his medical practice in 1854 to move to Rock Island, Illinois, where he worked as a dentist for eleven years. He then moved to Bath, New York, and ran a drug store. He was interested in natural history as a boy, and after achieving financial independence, he gave up his profession to devote himself to natural history. In 1870, he moved to Chicago to teach at the Chicago Academy of Sciences. He also served as secretary, librarian, and curator of the Chicago Academy of Sciences from 1870 to 1893. He moved to St. Joseph, Michigan, in 1892.
In 1860, he married Adelia Noble (1832–1883). He died on October 21, 1908, in Saint Joseph, Michigan.
Letter from J.W. Velie to John William Dawson, written from Chicago.