R. LUTHER J. ABBOTT, superintendent of the Nebraska Hospital for the Insane, at Lincoln, was born in Hancock county, Maine, September 15, 1831. At the age of nineteen his father, Dr. Nicholas Abbott,

sent him to the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, where he remained two years in the office of Dr. Mussey. He spent two years in Jefferson College, Philadelphia, graduating in 1854. He returned to Ohio and entered upon the practice of medicine with his father. In 1860 he went to California, returning next year by the over

land route, locating in Douglas county, Nebraska, where he remained five years. He removed to Washington county, and while residing there was elected to the legislature. At the close of his term he located at Fremont, on the Union Pacific, which was then in process of construction, and the young village was one of the most promising towns. Here he resided, constantly engaged in the practice of his profession until appointed by Governor Holcomb to his present position, in 1895, Early in his professional life Dr. Abbott became a member of the Ohio State Medical Society and of the American Medical Association. In 1868 he was foremost in organizing the Nebraska State Medical Society, of which he became president in 1876. He served for twenty-five years as a member of the insanity commission of Dodge county, during nearly all the time of his residence there has been county physician, and for twenty years was a member of the examining board for pensions. In 1882 he was elected professor of theory and practice of medicine in what is now the University of Omaha. An earnest student, he has kept abreast of the science of medicine in its recent discoveries. He. was married at Troy, Ohio, in 1854 to Miss Clara F. Culbertson, and of a family of eleven children six survive, all of whom were born in Nebraska. Dr. Abbott has rendered high service to the state in the management of the institution of which he is the head.

R. C. E. COFFIN, first assistant physician of the Nebraska Hospital for the Insane, Lincoln, was born in Otsego, Michigan, just before the close of the civil war. His father came from Massachusetts and invaded the Michigan wilderness in an early day, and brought up his sons on the farm, giving them the best education available at that time. In 1881 young Coffin came to Nebraska with his father, and was alternately engaged in farming, stock raising, and teaching school, to obtain the funds necessary to complete his education. He applied himself diligently to the study of medicine, entered the Omaha Medical College, from which he graduated. He then located at North Loup and practiced his profession with success, being honored from time to time with public positions, both elective and appointive. In October, 1895, he was called by Governor Holcomb from his private practice to accept the position he now holds, and in which he has made a most excellent record. Dr. Coffin was raised amid staunch republican environments, and his present position in the populist party is the result of conscientious economic study, which led him to participate as an organizer and officer of the county alliance of Valley county. He is a gentleman of untiring energy, strict integrity, and acknowledged ability.