Biography - Milton L. Comstock
MILTON LEMMON COMSTOCK, A.M., Ph.D., was born in Crosby Township, Hamilton
County, OH, on October 19, 1824. There is a tradition that the progenitor of the
Comstock family in England was a German Baron, Kulmstock, who emigrated to that
country about A. D. 1500. A village named Culmstock exists among the Down Hills,
between Exeter and Taunton, and William Comstock, born in 1608, came with his
wife, Elizabeth, from southwestern England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in
1635. Their fourth child, John, with his wife, Abigail, settled in Lyme, CT.
William, the third of the seven children of John, born January 9, 1669, had two
children, the second of whom was William, born January 16, 1695. James the
eldest of William's four children, was the great-grandfather of Milton L.
The parents of Milton L., Joab and Jane (Lemmon) Comstock, were born in Ohio and
Maryland, respectively; his paternal grandparents Joab and Eunice (Willey)
Comstock, were born in Connecticut; his maternal grandparents, William and
Margaret (McCaine) Lemmon, were born near Armagh, Ireland; his paternal
great-grandparents were James and Thankful (Crosby) Comstock, and Ephraim and
Patience (Becket) Willey; on the maternal side, John and Jane (McCrea) Lemon
(name so spelled originally), and Archibald and Elizabeth (Trimble) McCaine. His
grandfather, Joab Comstock, came with his family from Hadlyme ,CT, to Ohio, in
1801, and settled in the northwestern part of Hamilton County, where he made a
farm out of a dense forest; he died in Ohio in 1825, and his widow died near
Burlington, IA, in 1858. Joab, the fifth of his children who attained maturity,
was born February 9, 1804, removed to Iowa in 1839, and died in Burlington in
1882. He was a farmer and a local Methodist preacher for nearly fifty years, a
kind and faithful man. William Lemmon, Mr. Comstock's maternal grandfather, came
to America in 1801, and to Ohio in 1819; he was a weaver; he died in 1851. His
daughter Jane, who became the wife of Joab Comstock, father of Milton L., was
born in Maryland, February 15, 1807, and died near Burlington, IA, in 1875.
Milton L. Comstock was the eldest of eleven children. His schooling began when
he was four years of age, in a log school house, which had split logs for seats,
and a stick chimney. His winters were spent in school, and his summers on the
farm. After his removal to Iowa, his time was mostly occupied in improving their
farm in the new country. Besides the ordinary work upon a farm, his experience
included breaking prairie, making rails, riving and shaving shingles, running a
shingle machine and sawmill, quarrying stone with drill and powder, running a
threshing machine, raising and caring for flax, and the propagation and culture
of fruit trees.
At the age of twenty, Mr. Comstock began a life of study and teaching. His
physical welfare was assured by early training and habits of temperance, and
during forty-six years of teaching he lost only three days from sickness. In
September, 1844, he entered Knox Academy, Galesburg IL, with a fair common
school education, but never having seen an Algebra or a Latin Grammar. He
studied a year with all possible diligence, for his dominant wish had been to
possess knowledge. In June, 1845, he returned home, taught school, studied and
taught in Yellow Springs Academy, Des Moines County, IA, and after two years
returned to Galesburg, entered Knox College, and at the end of four years of
untiring study, had conferred upon him the degree A. B., June 26, 1851.
On June 30, 1851, he married Cornelia Ann, second daughter of Norman and Anna
(Eggleston) Churchill, of Galesburg, formerly of Herkimer County, NY. Mrs.
Comstock was born at Winfield, NY, March 17, 1831, and was a granddaughter of
Rev. Jesse Churchill, minister at Winfield, who was a son of Jesse Churchill,
who died at Winfield, CT, in 1806, and grandson of Samuel Churchill of
Wethersfield. Her family, on the maternal side, can be traced to an ancestor who
settled at Dorchester MA, in 1635. She completed the Ladies' Course in Knox
College, except one study; taught school several terms; taught in the Haynes
Academy, Cherry Grove, Knox County, and sang in the choir of the "Old First"
Church for thirty-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Comstock have had six children, four
of whom are living: Cornelia Belle, Clara Emily, Clarence Elmer, and Ada
Heletia, all of whom are graduates of Knox College. Cornelia B. is the wife of
Will W. Hammond, a lawyer of Peoria IL, who graduated from Knox College in 1878;
she is a member of the choir of Plymouth Congregational Church. Clara E. is a
stenographer and Notary Public, at Peoria. Clarence E. is in charge of the
Mathematical Department of Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria; he is leader
of the choir, deacon, and trustee of Plymouth Congregational Church. Ada H. is a
member of the choir of Center Congregational Church, Galesburg.
Mr. Comstock taught three years in Knox Academy. In 1854, the degree of A. M.
was conferred upon him by his Alma Mater. In the summer of the same year, he
removed to Des Moines County, IA, and engaged in the horticultural pursuits, and
during the three years spent in that occupation he was, most of the time, Editor
of the Iowa Farmer. In September, 1857, he became a Professor in Yellow Springs
College, IA. In September, 1858, he came to Knox College as Assistant Professor
of Mathematics, and in 1861, became Professor in that department. He discharged
the duties of the position until June, 1898, when he became Professor Emeritus.
In addition to the pure mathematics, he taught Astronomy, Physics, and
Meteorology. He was secretary of the Faculty for twenty years. Devoting an
average of two hours a day to outside studies, he spent at least two years upon
each of the following branches: Trigonometry, analytic geometry, differential
calculus, integral calculus, and astronomy; he also devoted considered time to
quartenions, determinants, trilinear co-ordinates, and differential equations,
and in 1879, when Lombard University conferred upon him the degree Ph. D., he
did not hesitate to accept the honor from fear of being criticized for not being
properly qualified.
Mr. Comstock became a member of the M. E. Church in 1840, but withdrew from that
church on account of the slavery agitation, and joined with others in forming a
Wesleyan Methodist Church, in 1844. He united with the "Old First" Church in
Galesburg in 1851, and was elder and clerk in that church for twenty-seven
years; he sang in the choir twenty-five years, and represented the church in
various associations; he is now a deacon in the Central Church of Galesburg.
His writings are confined to a few articles in different mathematical journals
and in newspapers, over his name and the signatures: "X.Y.Z.", "C", "K", and
"Ecleme". He joined a temperance society in 1833. He has been a republican ever
since that party was organized.
Extracted from the 1899 Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and Knox County,
Munsell Publishing Company.
