Biographies of Putnam Museum Herbarium Collectors

Nagel, Jens Jacob (1846 - 1948)

Jens J. Nagel was one of four children born to Thies and Ingeborg Nagel in Stubenberg, Germany (Ancestry.com 2022, Biggs 2010, Jones 1889). In 1852 Thies decided to pursue opportunities in the New World, so he packed up his family, as well as his carpentry and cabinetmaking tools, and booked passage aboard the Copernicus. After a nine-week sea voyage, the family landed in New Orleans in the fall and then spent another eleven days aboard a steamship, which carried them upstream to St. Louis. After their first winter in the United States, the Nagels left St. Louis in the spring of 1853 and settled in Davenport, Iowa, where Thies found work in a carpentry shop (Democrat Company 1911a, Downer 1910b).

There in Davenport, Jens completed his grammar school education and graduated from high school in 1867 (Labath 2012). Nagel began his teaching career at age fifteen, when he taught for a year in a Liberty Township country school in northwestern Scott County (Downer 1910b, Jones 1889).

Davenport lacked sufficient numbers of qualified people to fill existing teaching positions, so in the early 1860s the Davenport Training School was established. The school provided a one-year teaching curriculum, which included a practicum, and Jens Nagel was one of the first graduates of the program (Downer 1910a, Jones 1889). After graduation, Nagel took a clerk's position at the Davenport Post Office, but stayed for only two years, because he found the routine boring. Nagel took a 50% pay cut from his Post Office job, put his teaching certificate to work in 1864, and accepted a position as a grade schoolteacher in Davenport (Jones 1889).

From 1864 through 1869 Nagel taught in two schools in Davenport and served as principal in a school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the fall of 1869 the Davenport School Board hired Nagel for the principalship at Davenport School No. 6 (Jones 1889) and the next year he moved on to Davenport School Number 4 (later renamed Madison School) to serve in the same position. Mr. Nagel remained at School Number 4 for 39 years, a period during which he earned his Ph.B. in 1898 from Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. In 1909 he took a position with Duncan's Business College (Downer 1910b, Shepard 1904).

In July 1872 J.J. Nagel and Sarah E. Gilmore were married in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They made a home in Scott County, Iowa, where they raised four daughters, and two sons. The Nagel family farm was, at the time, just outside the western edge of Davenport (T78N, R3E, NW1/4 Sec. 27), where Jens grew fruit trees and was, evidently like his father, an avid beekeeper (Andreas 1875, Downer 1910b, Jones 1889, Potter 1890). While a resident of the Davenport area during the mid-to-late 1800s, J.J. Nagel botanized with J.G. Haupt, Alfred Sanders, and perhaps others, which led to the publication of "List of Phaenogamous Plants, collected in the vicinity of Davenport, Iowa, during the years 1870 to 1875" (Nagel & Haupt 1876).

In October 1911 Sarah and Jens moved from Davenport to San Rafael, California, to reside near the homes of three of their daughters (Democrat Company 1911b). An 82-year-old Nagel left Los Altos in April 1928, traveled by water to Panama and crossed the isthmus en route to Germany. His goal was to visit his birthplace, other locations in Europe, and retrace his family's path to the United States. He spent the winter of 1928/1929 with his sister in Davenport, Iowa, where he was honored at School No. 4 with a reunion by many of his former students. Jens returned to California in the spring of 1929 and enjoyed a long life there (Anonymous 1928 & 1929). J.J. Nagel perished June 5th of 1948 in Oakland, California at the ripe old age of 102 (Biggs 2010).

Fifty-nine specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium bear Nagel's name as sole collector or in conjunction with someone else.

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Jens Jacob Nagel. Taylor/England/McDaniel/Hunt Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Andreas, Alfred Theodore. 1875. Map of Scott County, State of Iowa. Andreas Atlas Co. Chicago, Illinois.

Anonymous. 1928. Old Number 4 students hold fine reunion. Davenport Democrat and Leader. p. 8. column 3. December 12, 1928.

Anonymous. 1929. Have had just fine time here, says J.J. Nagel. Davenport Democrat and Leader. p. 16. column 3. April 16, 1929.

Biggs, Brent. 2010. Jens Jacob Nagel. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Democrat Company. 1911a. Came here fifty-eight years ago. Davenport Democrat and Leader. p. 10. column 3. January 16, 1911.

Democrat Company. 1911b. J.J. Nagel, Leaving for California, Grows reminiscent. Davenport Democrat and Leader. p. 10. column 4. October 13, 1911.

Downer, Harry, E. 1910a. History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa. Volume 1, part 2. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 938-939 & 944 of 1026.

Downer, Harry, E. 1910b. Thies Nagel Biography. in History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa. Volume 2. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 604-606 of 1026.

Jones, George W. (ed.) 1889. J.J. Nagel, Principal of school no. 4, Davenport, Iowa. Iowa Normal Monthly. 12:471.

Labath, Cathy (coordinator). 2012. Scott County: Iowa School Records. IAGenWeb Project. Davenport High School Class Listings.

Nagel, J. J. and J. G. Haupt. 1876. List of Phaenogamous Plants, collected in the vicinity of Davenport, Iowa, during the years 1870 to 1875. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sciences 1:153-164.

Potter, J.W. (publ.) 1890. Bees out of business. The Rock Island Argus. July 21, 1890. Volume 38. Page 4. Column 2.

Shepard, Irwin (sec'y). 1904. Yearbook and list of active members. National Education Association. University of Chicago Press. Chicago, Illinois. p. 137.

Nevius, Rev. Reuben Denton (1827 - 1913)

Reuben Nevius (photo here), one of Benjamin and Mary Nevius' two sons, was born near Ovid in the Finger Lakes region of New York in November of 1827. Reuben and his brother, John, were both less than two years of age, when injuries caused by a fall took their father's life. Mary then married Chester Eastman and the boys were raised on a farm by their mother and stepfather. Both sons attended the Ovid Academy (French 1860) and then both enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, New York in 1845 (Nevius 1895, Roth 2016). Four years later Reuben earned the D.D. from the school and then began a teaching career in Michigan, where his interest in botany was piqued (Roth 2016, Taylor 1914).

Reuben joined his brother in Columbus, Georgia in November of 1850 (Nevius 1895, Roth 2016) and for a time he lodged at the home of Rev. Thomas Fielding Scott, while continuing his religious studies. Following ordination, Nevius performed religious services at a church in Wetumpka, Georgia (about 70 miles west of Columbus) and taught in an Episcopalian high school (Roth 2016). In 1855 he began his tenure at Christ Episcopal Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and remained there through the years of the Civil War (Davenport 2015). In 1859, and perhaps during other years, Rev. Nevius taught botany and Bible studies at Mrs. S.E. Toumey's "Home School" (Fowler 1859). While in Tuscaloosa, Nevius' interest in botany grew, he corresponded with Asa Gray, and investigated the local flora with William S. Wyman from the University of Alabama.

The year 1866 took Nevius out of Alabama to Oil City, Pennsylvania, where he was installed at as rector of All Saints Church. In Oil City he met and married Margaret Toumey and the couple stayed there until 1869, when Reuben was appointed rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Mobile, Alabama. Alas, Margaret was stricken with yellow fever within a year and died in October 1870 (Carmichael 2016, Davenport 2012, Debbie K 2014, Roth 2016).

In 1872, Nevius moved to eastern Oregon, where he became rector of Trinity Church in Portland. Regrettably, Reuben got in some sort of squabble with various members of his flock and he spent most of the rest of his career working east of the Cascade Mountains. During his life in the Pacific Northwest, Rev. Nevius founded congregations and oversaw the construction of a number of episcopal churches in Oregon and Washington, such as St. Peter's in La Grande and St. Paul's in The Dalles (Carmichael 2016, Roth 2016).

Botanically, Rev. Nevius' interests escalated and his correspondence with Asa Gray blossomed during his residence in the southeast. One thought-provoking circumstance developed in the spring of 1857, when Reuben and William S. Wyman were botanizing along the Black Warrior River near the University of Alabama. They collected a pretty, white-flowered rosaceous shrub on a sandstone slope that was new to both of them. Since neither botanist could identify the plant, Nevius sent a specimen of it to Asa Gray, who decided that it was a species new to the Flora of North America (Davenport 2012, Howard 1967, Pollard 1900).

When Gray asked Rev. Nevius to suggest a name for the genus of the new plant, Reuben offered "Tuomeya" in appreciation for the work of the recently deceased geologist in Alabama, Michael Toumey (who also happened to be the father of the woman with whom Nevius was romantically involved). Gray discovered that the name Toumeya had to be excluded, because it had been used previously to name an alga. Gray, then, took it upon himself to christen the new shrubby member of the Rose Family Neviusia alabamensis (Davenport 2012, Gray 1858, Howard 1967), which was all well-and-good, until Charles Pollard (1900) published a short paper describing his trip to Tuscaloosa to collect Neviusia alabamensis.

"During a recent collecting trip in the South a visit was made to Tuscaloosa for the purpose of seeing this and other rare plants of that region, and I was most fortunate in meeting Prof. W. S. Wyman, who was Dr. Nevius' companion on the trip during which the discovery was made. From his interesting account I learned that Dr. Gray erred ascribing the discovery of the plant to Dr. Nevius; for it was first observed by Dr. Wyman, who had proceeded some distance ahead of his associate. These facts never have been made public, so far as I am aware, and it is unfortunate that the laws of botanical nomenclature forbid the substitution of Wymania for Neviusia" (Pollard 1900). Regrettably, Pollard's statements generated something of a botanical snit, as some individuals interpreted his statements as an indication that Nevius had intentionally denied Wyman credit he was due. Richard Howard's (1967) review of correspondence between Gray and Nevius clearly shows that Nevius was not seeking personal recognition and that Wyman's role in collecting the original specimens cannot be described definitively. Hence, any ill will directed toward Nevius was unjustified and the name Neviusia alabamensis chosen by Gray was justified.

The genus Neviusia is an interesting story in its own right. From the spring of 1857 and the Nevius/Wyman discovery of Neviusia alabamensis, fast forward 130-some years and fly northwest about 2000 miles to northern California. A second surviving member of the genus was discovered northeast of Redding, California in 1992 and named Neviusia cliftonii (Shasta Snow-wreath). Whereas the southeastern species lacks petals, has over 100 stamens per flower, and bears fine-toothed leaves, the western species has white petals, produces about 50 stamens per flower, and generates leaves that have coarse-toothed margins (Shevock et al. 1992). But there's more!

About the same time as Neviusia cliftonii was discovered, a middle Eocene (48 - 38 million years ago) fossil bed was being investigated near Princeton, British Columbia. Several genera from the Rosaceae had been discovered within the fossil flora of the region, but Neviusia dunthornei was not formally described until 2004. The fossil leaves possess leaf morphology and venation that are particularly similar to that of Neviusia cliftonii (DeVore et al. 2004).

A single specimen of Neviusia alabamensis A. Gray collected by Nevius from near Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1857 is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium and is likely from the type location. Hundreds of additional specimens collected by Nevius may be reviewed using the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria, iDigBio, and/or SEINet database. In addition to vascular plants, Rev. Nevius developed an interest in diatoms, which led to his paper "Notes on the habitat of diatoms" (Nevius 1894, Taylor 1914).

Unfortunately, the specimens in the aforementioned databases reveal that Nevius too often failed to note the collection date and/or locality on his specimens. Even so, his plant collection record reflects his movements across the continent. Rev. Nevius' herbarium specimens hailed from Alabama during the 1850s and into 1860, while those from the west (Oregon, Washington, & Idaho) date primarily from the 1870s. One of Reuben's most productive contributions to botany was his chance meeting with rancher William C. Cusick in eastern Oregon's Powder River Valley in the early 1870s (Love 2007, St. John 1923).

Evidently the two men hit it off, because each was interested in the local flora and Cusick was already familiar with Asa Gray's "First Lessons in Botany". With Nevius as a tutor, Cusick learned proper collecting techniques, record keeping (ironically, see paragraph above), and the names of people with whom he could correspond for plant identification help. Equally important, it's likely that Cusick learned he could sell sets of plant specimens from the American West to interested collectors. Regardless of his motivation, Cusick amassed a herbarium that exceeded 10,000 specimens, much of it from Oregon's Wallowa and Blue Mountains. A collection of some 10,000 sheets was sold to the University of Oregon (Love 2007, St. John 1923) and thousands of his plant specimens may be reviewed via the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria, iDigBio, and/or SEINet specimen databases mentioned above.

Let's put Nevius' scientific pursuits aside for the moment. Bowery Bagels of Portland, Oregon has designated the "pastrami, sauerkraut, Gruyere" sandwich on their luncheon menu the "Reuben Nevius" (Bowery Bagels 2016). Reuben's sibling, Rev. John Nevius spent much of his life as a missionary in China. In 1896 he published "Demon possession and allied themes" in which he attributes the cause of mental disease to demonic possession, as opposed to psychological or pathological conditions (Nevius 1896).

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Bowery Bagels. 2016. Menu: The Reuben Nevius. 310 NW Broadway, Portland, Oregon.

Carmichael, Matt. 2016. Case 28: Happy Birthday Reuben Nevius. Eastern Oregon Episcopal Diocese. Cove, Oregon.

Davenport, L.J. 2012. Neviusia. Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University. Auburn, Alabama.

Davenport, L.J. 2015. From Cro-Magnon to Kral: A history of botany in Alabama. Jrnl. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 9:397-431.

Debbie K. 2014. Margarett Mercer Tuomey Nevius. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

DeVore, Melanie L., Steven M. Moore, Kathleen B. Pigg & Wesley C. Wehr. 2004. Fossil Neviusia leaves (Rosaceae: Kerrieae) from the Lower-Middle Eocene of southern British Columbia. Rhodora 106(927):197-209.

Fowler, W.H. (ed.) 1859. Mrs. S.E. Toumey's 'Home School'. Independent Monitor. Tuscaloosa, Alabama. p. 3. column 1. October 1, 1959.

French, J.H. 1860. Gazetteer of the State of New York. R. Pearsall Smith. Syracuse, New York. pp. 129 & 133 of 739.

Gray, Asa. 1858. Neviusia, a new genus of Rosaceae. Memoirs Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 6(2):373-376.

Howard, Richard A. 1967. In defense of the Rev. Dr. Reuben D. Nevius and the plant called Neviusia. Arnoldia 36:57-65.

Love, Rhoda M. 2007. Pioneer botanist William Cusick: His dark and silent world. Kalmiopsis 14:8-16.

Nevius, Helen S. Coan. 1895. The life of John Livingston Nevius. Fleming H. Revell Company. New York City, New York. 476 pp.

Nevius, John L. 1896. Demon possession and allied themes. Fleming H. Revell Company. Chicago, Illinois. 518 pp.

Nevius, R.D. 1894. Notes on the habitat of diatoms. Amer. Monthly Microscopical Jrnl. 15:270-271.

Pollard, Charles Lewis. 1900. A visit to the home of Neviusia. The Plant World 3:136-137.

Roth, Leland. 2016. Reuben Nevius (1827-1913). The Oregon Encyclopedia. Portland State University and the Oregon Historical Society. Portland, Oregon.

James R. Shevock, Barbara Ertter and Dean W. Taylor. 1992. Neviusia cliftonii (Rosaceae: Kerrieae), an Intriguing New Relict Species from California. Novon 2(4):285-289.

St. John, Harold. 1923. William Conklin Cusick. Rhodora 25:101-105

Taylor, Norman. (ed.) 1914. New Items. Torreya 14:19.

Nicholson, Helen (1899 - 1983)

Helen Nicholson was the only daughter of Charles and Priscilla Nicholson of Scranton, Iowa. She had three brothers and graduated from Scranton High School in 1916 (Cheryl 2018, Ogren n.d.). Ms. Nicholson was a first-year liberal arts student at the University of Iowa in 1917 (State University of Iowa 1918) and earned her B.A. from the university in 1921 (State University of Iowa 1921-1922). Helen was an associate member of the Iowa Academy of Science (Iowa Academy of Science 1920), a member of the Spanish Club at the University of Iowa (Overholser 1920), and after earning her bachelor's degree, she continued her education in Iowa City.

Helen's graduate research dealt with "The genus Antennaria in Iowa" and she received a $200.00 scholarship from the University of Iowa's botany department during the 1923-1924 academic year (Iowa State Board of Education 1924). Bohumil Shimek directed Ms. Nicholson's graduate program (Nicholson 1926, State University of Iowa 1924) and she completed her Master of Science degree in 1925 (Adler 1925).

During Ms. Nicholson's career in Iowa City, "a" Helen Nicholson was involved with the Girl Scouts (Starzl 1925) and completed a course of study in library management (Dean 1925). Admittedly, it's uncertain whether Helen Nicholson, the botanist, was the same woman as the individual(s) who was (were) involved in Girl Scouts and library management.

It appears Helen remained in Iowa City until at least 1933, when she and Ralph E. Lewis were married (Ancestry.com 2022). Ralph attended Hastings College (Hastings, Nebraska) prior to earning bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from the University of Iowa. His engineering background led Helen and he to Texas.

Ralph secured a position as a mechanical engineering instructor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and he subsequently acquired a similar post at Southern Methodist University (Breede et al. 1936, Carter 1935, Guy 1934). By 1937 the family was residing in Atlanta, Georgia, where Ralph taught engineering drawing and mechanics at Georgia Tech University (Breede et al. 1936, Clarke 1937, Durham Herald Company 1941). Ralph retained his position at Georgia Tech until 1941, at which time he joined the mechanical engineering staff at Duke University (Durham Herald Company 1941). Ralph continued in that position until at least 1967 (Durham Herald Company 1967).

At the time of this writing it seems safe to write that Helen and Ralph Lewis spent the rest of their lives in the vicinity of Durham, North Carolina. "A" Mrs. Ralph Lewis was often mentioned in Durham newspapers regarding her participation in various civic and/or faith-oriented organizations, but it's impossible to determine which of those women was Helen Nicholson Lewis. Her obituary was modest and stated in part that, "She was born in Scranton, Iowa. Her husband was Ralph E. Lewis, a professor at Duke University (Harrell 1983)." Helen and Ralph Lewis were interred in Parkview Cemetery, Hastings, Nebraska (Ancestry.com 2022, Renschler 2017 a&b).

Ms. Nicholson is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single 1924 collection of Antennaria neglecta (field pussytoes) from along the Cedar River in Muscatine County, Iowa.

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Helen Nicholson. Bicha/Dale Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Adler, Philip (ed.) 1925. University will confer 1174 degrees at exercises today. The Daily Iowan. Iowa City, Iowa. pp. 3 & 6 (column 6). June 9, 1925.

Breede, David, Henry G. Smith, & Davis Lewis. (owners) 1936. page six. Hastings Daily Tribune. Hastings, Nebraska. p. 6. column 3. August 8, 1936.

Carter, Amon G. (publisher) 1935. SMU announces three new faculty members. Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Fort Worth, Texas. p. 15. column 2. June 26, 1935.

Cheryl. 2018. Greene County Schools: Jefferson High School and Jefferson-Scranton High School alumni list. Greene County IAGenWeb. Jefferson, Iowa.

Clarke, Francis W. 1937. Freshman class at Tech largest since '29 record. The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, Georgia. p. 14. column 1. September 12, 1937.

Dean, Graham M. (ed.) 1925. Five complete courses here as librarians. Press-Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 3. column 6. December 17, 1925.

Durham Herald Company. 1941. Six additions are made to Duke faculty. The Durham Sun. Durham, North Carolina. p. 1. column 5. June 2, 1941.

Durham Herald Company. 1967. Duke engineers slated to attend ASEE Conference. Durham Morning Herald. Durham, North Carolina. section c. p. 4. column 4. June 16, 1967.

Guy, Charles A. (ed.) 1934. Tech instructor weds Christmas. Sunday Avalanche-Journal Lubbock, Texas. Society Section. p. 1. column 7. January 7, 1934.

Harrell, Carlton (ed.) 1983. Deaths, funerals in Durham County. The Durham Sun. Durham, North Carolina. p. 14. column 1.January 22, 1983.

Iowa Academy of Science. 1920. Members of the Iowa Academy of Science. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 27:8.

Iowa State Board of Education. 1924. Graduate college salaries: Scholars. Eighth Biennial Report of the Iowa State Board of Education. State of Iowa. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 131 of 344.

Nicholson, Helen 1926. The Taxonomic Value of Style Color in the Genus Antennaria. Proc. Iowa Acad. Science 33(1):129-130.

Ogren, Valerie. n.d. Greene County Iowa High School Alumni List. Greene County Genealogical Society. Greene County, Iowa.

Overholser, Ralph E. (ed.) 1920. Spanish Club elects. The Daily Iowan. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 1. column 3. January 30, 1920.

Renschler, Catherine. 2017a. Helen Nicholson Lewis. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Renschler, Catherine. 2017b. Ralph E. Lewis. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

State University of Iowa. 1918. Catalogue 1917-1918. Bull. State University of Iowa. New Series No. 149. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 478 of 497.

State University of Iowa. 1921-1922. Catalogue 1921-1922. State University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 496 of 559.

State University of Iowa. 1924. Graduate theses. University of Iowa Studies. Iowa City, Iowa. First series. No. 75. p. 28.

Starzl, Francis J. (ed.) 1925. Girl Scouts taking tests. Press-Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 12. columns 3 & 4. January 30, 1925.

Nolan, Dr. Edward J. (1846 - 1921)

Edward James Nolan (likeness here) was born in Albany, New York. His family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when he was young and Edward attended Central High School in that city (Smiley 1921).

Mr. Nolan began his affiliation with the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences in 1862, when he served as a library assistant. He left the Academy to study medicine under Joseph Leidy at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his M.D. in 1867 (Maxwell 1922, Nolan 1846-1915). In 1869 he was chosen to be the Academy's librarian, a position he maintained until his death (Nolan 1846-1915). An honorary Doctor of Science degree was bestowed on him by Villanova College in recognition of his many years of dedication to the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia (Heustis 1916, Nitzache 1916).

Edward also contributed to the Academy as recording secretary and editor of publications (Nolan 1846-1915 & 1913). He penned at least two biographical reports (Nolan 1895 & 1897) and wrote extensively on the history of the Academy (Cope & Kingsley 1896, Nolan 1846-1915 & 1909). Following stipulations made by Dr. Nolan in his last will and testament, no biographical sketch of his life or his 50+ years of service to the Philadelphia Academy was published by that organization (Rehn 1921).

Nolan was involved in a variety of activities outside the Philadelphia Academy. In 1869 he was a signatory to a statement rebuking coeducational medical classes in Philadelphia (Harding 1869). He was an early member (perhaps a founder) of the De Sales Institute (De Sales Institute of Philadelphia 1872-1876, Harding 1873), which morphed into the Catholic Club of Philadelphia: an organization which "offered wealthy men of a certain socioeconomic background cultural, intellectual, and social opportunities" (Catholic Club of Philadelphia Records, 1871-1923). Edward sat on the board of directors of the American Catholic Historical Society (Elverson 1895), and he was a member of various other organizations, such as the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, the American Library Association, and the Philadelphia Art Club (Elverson 1905).

Dr. Nolan is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by two Asteraceae specimens (Diplopappus linariifolius & Xanthium spinosum) collected from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A few dozen specimens collected by Dr. Nolan may be viewed via the iDigBio and Seinet specimen databases.

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Catholic Club of Philadelphia Records, 1871-1923. Historic Papers. Digital Library. Villanova University. Villanova, Pennsylvania. Cattell, J. McKeen. (ed.) 1921. Scientific notes and news. Science 53(1360):72.

Cope. E.D. & J.S. Kingsley. 1896. Proceedings of scientific societies: Academy of Natural Sciences. Amer. Naturalist 30:163.

De Sales Institute of Philadelphia. 1872-1876. Minutes of the De Sales Institute of Philadelphia Meetings, 1872-1876. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 115 pp.

Elverson, James. (president) 1895. In new quarters: A suitable home for the Catholic Historical Society. The Philadelphia Enquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 10. column 1. July 30, 1895.

Elverson, James. (president) 1905. Dr. E.J. Nolan ill. The Philadelphia Enquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 11. column 4. April 9, 1905.

Harding, William W. (publisher) 1869. The college troubles. The Philadelphia Enquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 2. columns 5 & 6. November 22, 1869.

Harding, William W. (publisher) 1873. De Sales Institute. The Philadelphia Enquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 3. column 2. January 31, 1873.

Heustis, Charles H. (ed.) 1916. Honors given to many at Villanova College. The Philadelphia Enquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 3. column 3. June 8, 1916.

Maxwell, W.J. (compiler) 1922. General alumni catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 547 of 1069.

Nitzache, George E. (ed.) 1916. Banquet of 1916 Medical. Old Penn. Weekly Review. June 17, 1916. p. 1241.

Nolan, Edward J. 1895. A biographical notice of W.S.W. Ruschenberger. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 47:452-462.

Nolan, Edward J. 1897. Biographical Notices of Harrison Allen and George Henry Horn. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 49:505-518.

Nolan, Edward J. 1846-1915. Edward James Nolan documents and correspondence on the History of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 38 pp.

Nolan, Edward J. 1909. A short history of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The Academy of Natural Sciences. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 38 pp.

Nolan, Edward J. (ed.) 1913. An index to the scientific contents of the journal and proceedings of The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The Academy of Natural Sciences. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1419 pp.

Rehn, James A.G. 1921. Report of the recording secretary. Annual Reports. Acad. Nat. Sci. of Philadelphia pp. 63-65.

Smiley, David E. (ed.) 1921. Dr. Edward J. Nolan: Eminent scientist dies following long illness. Evening Public Ledger. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 4. column 3. January 8, 1921.

Oakes, William (1799 - 1848)

William Oakes, son of Caleb and Mehitable Oakes, was born in Danvers, Massachusetts in July 1799. He had three sisters, two of whom survived past infancy (Ancestry.com 2022, Ledoux 2001, Robinson 1880, SNAC 2017).

He began his Harvard education in 1816 under the guidance of entomologist and botanist William D. Peck (Massachusetts Historical Society 1823, Oakes 1827-1847). Oakes graduated from Harvard with his A.B. in 1820 and then changed his focus from natural science to law. Mr. Oakes studied for three years under the guidance of Leverett Saltonstall in Salem, Massachusetts, established a law practice in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1824, and ultimately earned his LL.B. from Harvard in 1825. Once established, he found the legal profession distasteful and his career as an attorney lasted for only three years (JSTOR 2013, Oakes 1827-1847, Tapley 1923, Warren 1908). Perhaps to celebrate freedom from a career he came to dislike, Oakes visited New England's White Mountains, was smitten with the region's splendor, and his botanical career was cemented (JSTOR 2013, Redhead & Norvell 1999).

Oakes botanized the Great Swamp just northwest of Wenham, Massachusetts with Dr. Charles Pickering (Robinson 1888), but more significantly he became a dedicated student of New England's flora in general, with a particular interest in the plants of the White Mountains (Robinson 1880), an area he often investigated with Pickering. A major collaborative work of his, "Scenery of the White Mountains" (Oakes et al. 1848), was published shortly after his death. It included 16 lithographs (examples here) of the area he loved to explore and focused on the region's picturesque landscape vs. it's botanical nature (JSTOR 2013, Oakes 1827-1847). Though he did not publish extensively, Oakes did author general works on the plants of New England (e.g. Oakes 1841a, 1847a&b), plant distribution and phenology in Massachusetts (Oakes 1841b), and the flora of Vermont (Oakes 1842). He even guided Sir Charles Lyell on a field trip in exploration of New Hampshire's Mt. Washington during the summer of 1845 (Lyell 1849).

William Oakes appears to have been a bit eccentric (borderline relentless) in his botanical pursuits and varied in his non-science involvement. He was one of the founders of the Essex County Natural History Society in 1833 (Robinson 1888) and a contributor to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society (Walker 1839a&b). He even dabbled in a bit of entomology (Harris 1829).

William, along with other Ipswich residents, was opposed to slavery, which led to his membership in various abolitionist societies, such as the New England Anti-Slavery Convention and the Essex County Anti-Slavery Convention (Berry 2013, Garrison 1834 a&b). He was even a dedicated supporter of the local schools, or at least he tried to be.

Apparently by pure happenstance, Oakes learned that educational materials for children at a school near his home were in short supply and/or substandard. William put his money to work and donated new ink wells, writing quills, and other necessities to the school. A year or two later his generosity continued with the installation of new windows, a new roof, and improved seating for the students. He had neither wife, nor child and made no request for remuneration, yet while some members of the local citizenry praised his munificence, others whispered unkind scuttlebutt about his motives. In the end, though his intentions were simply to improve the educational opportunities for children, the gossip mill proved to be more aggravation than it was worth, so William Oakes thumbed his nose at the muckrakers and withdrew his monetary support (Harris 2016).

The untimely demise of William Oakes in 1848 was a grand loss to botany and the Ipswich community in general. The events leading to that fateful Monday remain a mystery, but Mr. Oakes either fell or leapt off the East Boston Railroad ferry and drowned in Boston Inner Harbor (A.Gr. 1849, Harris 2017, Hovey 1848, Oakes 1827-1847, Tapley 1923, Varrell 2006). According to Thompson (1853), "He was drowned on the 31st of July, 1848, while passing from Boston to East Boston, under circumstances which left it doubtful, whether by accident, or in a temporary fit of insanity, to which he was subject." A report in "The Liberator" stated, "... while in the ferry boat about a third of the way over, he walked off the stern of the boat, and immediately sunk, and was drowned. He had weights of shot under both arms. ... The body was recovered the day after (Garrison 1848)."

Following his death, William Oakes' personal herbarium was split into sets and sold. The most complete sets went to the Boston Society of Natural History, the Essex Institute, and the Gray Herbarium (Day 1901). Significant portions also went to William Sullivant (a bryologist) and Edward Tuckerman (a lichenologist), the latter of whom named the genus Oakesia in the Ericaceae (= Corema) in memory of his friend, William Oakes (JSTOR 2013, Tuckerman 1842). Oakes was also honored by Reverend M.J. Berkeley and M.A. Curtis, when they named a fungus Corticium oakesii (now Aleurodiscus oakesii (Berk. & Curt.) Hoeh. & Litsch.), because a type specimen of it had been collected by Oakes in New England (Berkeley 1873, Redhead & Norvell 1999).

A dozen specimens collected by Oakes, primarily from the White Mountains, are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Other specimens attributed to him may be reviewed via the iDigBio specimen database.

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A. Gr. (Asa Gray?) 1849. Obituary: William Oakes. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts 7:138-142.

Ancestry.com. 2022. William Oakes. Adams_Burfield_vanLaer_Chappell Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Berkeley, Rev. M.J. 1873. Notices of North American fungi. Grevillia 1:161-166.

Berry, Melissa. 2013. Ipswich's anti-slavery roots ran deep. wickedlocal.com. Randolph, Massachusetts.

Day, Mary A. 1901. Herbaria of New England. (continued). Rhodora 3:255-262

Garrison, William Lloyd. (ed.) 1834a. Anti-Slavery Convention. The Liberator. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 2. column 5. April 19, 1834.

Garrison, William Lloyd. (ed.) 1834b. Essex County Anti-Slavery Convention in Salem. The Liberator. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 3. column 2. June 14, 1834.

Garrison, William Lloyd. (ed.) 1848. Death by drowning. The Liberator. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 3. column 5. August 4, 1848.

Harris, Gordon. 2016. The great and famous not so gentle Ipswich putdown. WebLog post. Stories from Ipswich. Republished from "Ipswitch Yesterday", by Alice Keenan. 1982.

Harris, Gordon. 2017. A walking tour and history of Ipswich. WebLog post. Stories from Ipswich.

Harris, T.W. 1829. Corrections and Additions: For the 'Contributions to Entomology'. New England Farmer. 8(1):1.

Hovey, C.M. (ed.) 1848. Death of William Oakes, Esq. The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and all useful discoveries and improvements in rural affairs. 14:430-431.

JSTOR. 2013. Oakes, William (1799-1848). Global Plants.

Ledoux, Patricia A. 2001. The Oakes and Allied Family's Home Page: Information about William Oakes. Genealogy.com. Provo, Utah.

Lyell, Sir Charles. 1849. A Second Visit to the United States of North America. Volumes 1. pp. 66-79 of 273.

Massachusetts Historical Society. 1823. Obituary notice of Professor Peck. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society 10:161-170.

Oakes, William. 1827-1847. William Oakes letters to James Watson Robbins. Archives of the Gray Herbarium. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Oakes, William. 1841a. Notice of some rare plants of New England, with descriptions of some new species. The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and all useful discoveries and improvements in rural affairs. 7:178-186.

Oakes, William. 1841b. On the advance of spring in the eastern part of Massachusetts. The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and all useful discoveries and improvements in rural affairs 7:201-208.

Oakes, William. 1842. Catalogue of Vermont plants. Burlington, Vermont. 36 pp. in Thompson, Zadock. 1853. History of Vermont, natural, civil, and statistical.

Oakes, William. 1847a. Notice of some of the plants of New England: Mosses of the White Mountains. The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and all useful discoveries and improvements in rural affairs. 13:171-174.

Oakes, William. 1847b. Notice of some of the plants of New England. The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and all useful discoveries and improvements in rural affairs. 13:217-220.

Oakes, William, Isaac Sprague, & Benjamin W. Thayer. 1848. Scenery of the White Mountains. Crosby, Nichols, & Company. Boston, Massachusetts.

Redhead, Scott & Lorelei Norvell. 1999. American epitaphs and epithets. Mushroom, The Journal. 17:27-29.

Robinson, John. 1880. Notes on the Flora of Essex County, Massachusetts, with sketches of the early botanists, and a list of the publications on these subjects. Bull. Essex Institute 12:81-97.

Robinson, John. 1888. Science in Essex County. in Hurd, D. Hamilton. (ed.) History of Essex County, Massachusetts with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men. Vol. 1. J.W. Lewis & Co. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. lxxvi-lxxxiii & 170.

SNAC. 2017. Oakes, William, 1799-1848. Social Networks and Archival Context. The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities. University of Virginia. Charlottesville, Virginia.

Tapley, Harriet Silvester. 1923. Chronicles of Danver (Old Salem Village) Massachusetts (1632-1923). Danvers Hist. Soc. Danvers, Massachusetts. pp. 100, 118-119 of 283.

Thompson, Zadock. 1853. Appendix to Thompson's Vermont. Publ. by authors. Stacey & Adams, printer. Burlington, Vermont. p. 36.

Tuckerman, Edward. 1842. On Oakesia, a new genus of the order Empetreae. London Jrnl. Bot. 1:443-447.

Varrell, William M. 2006. Ipswich revisited. Arcadia Publishing. Charleston, South Carolina. p. 23 of 129.

Walker, S. 1839a. Massachusetts Horticultural Society: Exhibition of flowers. New England Farmer and Horticultural Register. 17(51):403. June 26, 1839.

Walker, S. 1839b. Massachusetts Horticultural Society: Exhibition of flowers. New England Farmer and Horticultural Register. 18(2):19. July 13, 1839.

Warren, Charles. 1908. History of the Harvard Law School and of early legal conditions in America. Volume III. Lewis Publishing Co. New York City, New York. p. 3 of 397.

Olear, Sister Mary Charlene (1925 – 2017)

Esther Gertrude Olear was born in September 1925, to Charles and Agnes Olear in Marshalltown, Iowa. She was the second of four children raised by Charles and Agnes — three daughters and a son (Ancestry.com 2024, Nagel 2017).

Esther completed her early education at St. Mary's elementary school and St. Mary's High School in Marshalltown (Curtis & Rehmann 2017, St. Francis School 2024). She entered the Congregation of the Humility of Mary shortly after her 18th birthday and received her name in religion, Sister Mary Charlene, a few months later (Curtis & Rehmann 2017, Phillips 2017).

Sister Mary Charlene continued her education and completed her bachelor's degree at Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa in 1960 (Fulton 1960). It has been reported that she earned a master's degree from Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa and did graduate work at Drake University (Curtis & Rehmann 2017, Phillips 2017).

Sr. Mary Charlene's teaching career spanned a 46-year period. She served as a principal and teacher in several schools, both public and private, in Arizona, Iowa, and Montana (Phillips 2017).

Sister Mary Charlene Olear is included among this collection of biographies, because she collected one specimen of American plum (Prunus americana) in Davenport near the St. Ambrose University campus during July 1958. To date, no other plant collections by her have been located.

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Ancestry.com. 2024. Esther Gertrude Mary Charlene Olear. Orr Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Curtis, Sister Micheline Curtis & Sister Mary Rehmann. 2017. Sister Mary Charlene Olear. Congregation of the Humility of Mary. Davenport, Iowa.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1960. Marycrest awards diplomas to 134 Sunday. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 21. columns 1-8. May 26, 1960.

Nagel, Ken. 2017. Sr. Mary Charlene 'Esther Gertrude' Olear. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Phillips, Autumn. (ed.) 2017. Sr. Mary Charlene Olear. Quad-City Times. p. A7. column 4. November 10, 2017.

St. Francis School. 2024. History. St. Francis of Assisi Parish. Marshalltown, Iowa.

Orcutt, Mrs. (1825 - 1909)

Three specimens, collected by Mrs. Orcutt, were part of a donation made by Dr. Christopher C. Parry to the Putnam Museum. Parry was acquainted with Charles Russell Orcutt and there are three women who could be the "Mrs. Orcutt" in question. Those women were Charles' sister-in-law, his wife, and his mother. So, who was Mrs. Orcutt and how does she fit into the story of the Putnam Museum herbarium? To answer the question a bit of family history is required.

Charles Russell Orcutt (1864-1929), the youngest of five boys, was born to Heman C. and Eliza Eastin Gray-Orcutt in 1864 on the family's farm near Hartland, Vermont (Addie 2011, Linda 2013). Though a traditional agriculturist by occupation, Heman was equally interested in horticulture, cultivated many of the native plants of Vermont, read horticultural journals, and even contributed a few articles for publication (Bullard 1994a, Orcutt 1893). Charles' mother, Eliza, worked with Heman, ran the entire operation during Heman's service in the Union Army during the Civil War, and was a published poet. Though the boys received no formal education, they were taught to read and write by their parents (Bullard 1994a, Orcutt 2010a).

The family left Vermont, arrived in southern California in 1879, and bought land near what remained of the Mission San Diego de Alcala. Heman started a small nursery business and used field trips to Borrego, the Cuyamaca Mountains, Campo, and other locations to acquire nursery stock (Bullard 1994a&b, Orcutt 1893). Charles, his brother John (the only other surviving sibling), and Eliza joined Herman on those field trips (Larry Orcutt pers. comm., Orcutt 1893). In 1882 Charles C. Parry leased a team and buggy from Eliza Orcutt to haul the equipment, plants, and whatnot that he (Parry), Cyrus Pringle, and Marcus Jones might need during an expedition to Ensenada, Mexico. Parry also hired Charles Orcutt to serve as teamster and cook for the troop (Bullard 1994b, Jones 1930). [The Parry-Pringle-Jones-Orcutt field trip resulted in the discovery of Rosa minutifolia and generated a rift between botanists that makes for interesting reading (see Ertter 2001 & Jones 1930).]

It's conceivable that the Mrs. Orcutt of the Putnam Museum herbarium could be Susan B. Eagan Orcutt, spouse of Charles' brother John (Orcutt 2010b). Though this passage, "In February Dr. and Mrs. Parry, Miss Smith, with my father and brother, with his wife, visited Table mountain, south of San Diego, the trip resulting in the discovery of Tetracoccus - a new Euphorbiaceous shrub (Orcutt 1893)", documents Susan Orcutt's presence on a field trip with C.C. Parry, I have found no evidence indicating any further botanical involvement on her part. Therefore, it seems prudent to consider the presence of Susan on the above collection foray to have been a one-time excursion for her, implying that she is likely not the "Mrs. Orcutt" of the Putnam Museum plant collections. It's also possible that "Mrs. Orcutt" the collector was Olive Lucy Eddy (1857-1952), the spouse of Charles. However, the plants in question were collected in 1883, while Charles and Olive were not married until 1892, thus Olive doesn't fit into the timetable (Orcutt 2017).

By virtue of the above occurrences, the "Mrs. Orcutt" of the Putnam Museum herbarium was probably Charles R. Orcutt's mother, Eliza Eastin Orcutt. Eliza Eastin Gray (another image here) was born February 20, 1825 in Woodstock, Vermont to Joseph and Eunice Gray. Joseph was a physician and Eliza was the youngest of five children (four daughters and a son) raised by Eunice and Joseph (Ancestry.com 2022a&b, Linda 2013, Orcutt 2010).

No additional information about her early life (beyond the paragraph above) has been uncovered, but on New Year's Day 1852 she and Heman Orcutt were married (Ancestry.com 2022a). Three sons were born in Vermont to the couple: John, Zalmon, and Charles (Ancestry.com 2022a). John and Charles survived into adulthood, but Zalmon perished shortly before Heman enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War (Bisbee 2013, Ancestry 2022b).

Heman Orcutt served with the Vermont 6th Infantry Regiment beginning in August 1864 and was with the Union Army in a variety of locations, perhaps most importantly he survived the Battle of Cedar Creek. As was indicated above, during Heman's absence, with the help of her sister, Lydia, and her father-in-law, Eliza took care of the family's farm and her sons. Private Heman Orcutt mustered out and returned to his family in July 1865 (Bisbee 2013, Orcutt 2010).

In 1879 the family moved to San Diego, California. Heman and his sons first worked as farmhands (Bisbee 2013), but as was previously stated, they ultimately opened a nursery business. Eliza was a field trip participant, helped with the nursery business (e.g. Orcutt 1884), published a variety of short botanical pieces in Meehans' Monthly (e.g. Orcutt 1901), and even penned a number of poems under various names (E.E., E.E. Orcutt, Mrs. E.E. Orcutt) printed in The West American Scientist (Orcutt 1884-XX, Orcutt 2010a) and posthumously (Orcutt 1989).

Mrs. Orcutt is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by two marine specimens - one a yet-to-be-identified alga and the other an unidentified member of the animal kingdom. Plus, there is one sheet of Azolla caroliniana from San Diego, California in 1883.

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Addie. 2011. Charles Russell Orcutt. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2022a. Eliza Eastin Gray Orcutt. Doshna Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2022b. Joseph Gray. Amy Cooper Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bisbee, Ethan W. 2013. Heman Chandler Orcutt (1825-1892). Letters, 1864-1865. MSA 624:14-16. Vermont Historical Society. Barre, Vermont.

Bullard, Anne D. 1994a. Charles Russell Orcutt. San Diego Hist. Soc. Quarterly Vol. 40 (#1&2).

Bullard, Anne D. 1994b. The San Diego Society of Natural History. Master of Arts thesis. University of San Diego. San Diego, California. 63 pp.

Ertter, Barbara. 2001. Discovery of Rosa minutifolia Engelm. "Ensenada Rose". University and Jepson Herbaria. Berkeley, California.

Jones, Marcus E. 1930. Botanical reminiscences: Charles Parry. Contrib. Western Bot. 17:3-7.

Linda. 2013. Elizabeth Eastin "Eliza" Gray Orcutt. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Orcutt, C.R. 1884. C.R. Orcutt: Dealer in native seeds, bulbs, and plants. The West American Scientist. 1(1):4.

Orcutt, C.R. 1884-XX. The West American Scientist. San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist. C.R. Orcutt - Publisher. San Diego, California.

Orcutt, C.R. 1893. Heman Chandler Orcutt. The West American Scientist. 8:31-35.

Orcutt, Larry. 2010a. E.E. Orcutt. The Dry Quill. WebLog.

Orcutt, Larry. 2010b. John Heman Orcutt. The Dry Quill. WebLog.

Orcutt, Larry. 2017. Charles Orcutt resource page. Victory IV Enterprises. WebLog.

Orcutt, Mrs. E.E. 1901. Salix alba, The cotton plant, The hollyhock, The fragrance of flowers. Meehans' Monthly: A Magazine of Horticulture, Botany and Kindred Subjects. 11:6, 79, 120, 179.

Orcutt, Mrs. E.E. 1989. The Poets' Corner. Barbara Bradford, publisher.

Osborne, C. S. (18XX - XXXX)

Thus far, information about the life and times of C.S. Osborne has been hard to come by and what follows is a meager collection of available facts.

Osborne's plant specimen labels list this address: C. S. Osborne, Niagara Falls, New York. Putnam (1866) reported C.S. Osborne's occupation as being a manager for Western Union Telegraph and included him in the botany section of the Naturalists' Directory. That directory listed Osborne's address as Suspension Bridge, Niagara Co., N.Y. (see p. 62), but that location was amended to Box 12, Rochester, N.Y. (see p. 85). Suspension Bridge Village, New York was a community that surrounded the U.S. side of the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge and is now part of the city of Niagara Falls (National Park Service 2016).

In the 1872 New York State Museum Report, C. S. Osborn [sic], Rochester was shown to have donated "thirty-two species of plants, some of them very fine" (Peck 1871). Zenkert (1934) mentioned C.S. Osborne as the collector of record for Hypericum kalmianum found at Niagara Falls in 1867 and Peck (1897) credited C.S. Osborne with having collected Cardamine purpurea (Torr.) Britton from Goat Island. Specimens of Houstonia longifolia and Asplenium rhizophyllum collected by C.S. Osborne in the vicinity of Niagara Falls are recorded in the iDigBio database.

Thus far, only a single botanical publication has been found that was authored by C.S. Osborne. Osborne (1871) reported on an odd Trillium he spotted while botanizing in the vicinity of LeRoy, New York (the birthplace of Jell-O).

Five angiosperm specimens collected by C.S. Osborne in the Niagara Falls vicinity in the late 1800s are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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National Park Service. 2016. U.S. Customhouse. Niagara Falls National Heritage Area. Niagara Falls, New York.

Osborne, C.S. 1871. Monstrosity in Trillium. Amer. Naturalist 4:125.

Peck, Charles H. 1871. To the botanical department: by donation. 24th annual report on the New York State Museum of Natural History: Additions to the state museum during the year 1870. Albany, New York. p. 19.

Peck, Charles H. 1897. Annual report of the state botanist: Species not before reported. Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co. Albany, New York. p. 277.

Putnam, F. W. 1866. The Naturalists' directory. Pt. II. North America and the West Indies. Essex Institute. Salem, Massachusetts. pp. 62 & 85.

Zenkert, Charles A. 1934. The flora of the Niagara Frontier Region. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. Volume 16. p. 201 of 328.

Paarmann, Juergen Herman (1870 - 1927)

Jurgen Hermann Paarmann, son of Hans Jacob and Christina Paarmann (Long 2009), was born in Davenport, Iowa in September 1870. Jurgen attended grammar school in Davenport and eventually studied at Davenport Business College. His employment career started in the printing trade in 1882 with the Davenport Daily Gazette as a typesetter. He remained in that occupation for two or three years and then established himself in an upholstery business, an occupation in which he continued for six or seven years (Pammel 1929).

Paarmann then attended Iowa State Teacher's College (present day University of Northern Iowa) for a period and from 1892-1896 he taught school in Blue Grass, Iowa. From Blue Grass, Paarmann moved on to Walcott, where he served as the high school principal from 1898 to 1900. Jurgen left to continue his education at the University of Iowa, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1901 and his M.S. in zoology in 1902 (Drake 1902, Hodges 1951, Pammell 1929, Paarmann 1902, Springer 1902, State University of Iowa 1902 & 1905). While at the University of Iowa, Paarmann's studies were guided by geologist Samuel Calvin, botanist Thomas Macbride, and museum curator Charles Nutting (Leysen 1927b, Cain 2009, Pammell 1929).

Paarmann's association with the Museum of the Davenport Academy of Sciences (now the Putnam Museum & Science Center) came about in December 1900, when he classified and arranged the institution's collections of corals and other marine organisms (Davenport Academy of Sciences 1901). Then in 1901 he reorganized the large avian collection and other zoological material (Davenport Academy of Sciences 1904). The Museum's curatorship was vacated in February 1902 due to the death of Willis H. Barris and later the same year Paarmann was offered the position by President Mary Louisa Putnam, along with a first-year salary of $900.00 (Davenport Academy of Sciences 1904, see p. 289; Leysen 1927a).

In her President's message, Ms. Putnam stated, "At this stage of our progress, it is necessary that we have the services of one who can build up the museum and library; one who is able to develop an interest in science by the giving of talks to school children and to the public in general and arousing an interest in our lecture courses." Paarmann was an ideal candidate, not only because of his interest a variety of science related topics (he favored ornithology), but because he was enthusiastic about sharing his love a science with the public.

From 1902 to 1910 he was hired by the Davenport Public Schools to give natural history lectures to student groups. He gave presentations and led field trips for various groups (see image here) such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Y.W.C.A. members (Leysen 1927b, Pammel 1929). J.H. was active in the community as a promoter of city planning and beautification; he gave presentations encouraging the planting of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous vegetation to the Davenport Women's Club, Rotary Club, Garden Club, and the like. Paarmann was remarkably diverse in his interests and used his many public speaking engagements to promote birds, bees, trees, conservation, archaeology, and a variety of other topics (Pammel 1929).

Presumably for use in the aforementioned classes and lectures, J.H. assembled a number of lists and identification keys. Among them were "Key to the principal tree families of Davenport", "Key to the ash trees of Scott and Muscatine Counties", "Key to the oaks of Scott and Muscatine Counties", "Native shrubs of Scott and Muscatine Counties", "Honey plants of Iowa and Illinois", and "Guide to the trees and shrubs of Scott County (co-authored with Ms. S.G.F. Sheldon)" (Paarmann n.d.).

Mr. Paarmann spent the 1918-1919 academic years teaching at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois (Leysen 1927b, Pammel 1929) and he taught periodically at the German Free School in Davenport (Leysen 1927b, Downer 1910). He helped found the Audubon Bird Club in Davenport (Pammel 1929), was a charter member of the Iowa Anthropological Association established in 1903 (Shambaugh 1904), and even completed field work at the Albany Mounds just north of Davenport and across the river in Illinois. During his 25-year tenure at the public museum, Jurgens H. Paarmann, often with the help of Ms. Sarah Sheldon, used limited financial backing to provide innumerable activities and promote developments that would prepare the museum for the future (Putnam 1927).

For what it's worth, Hans Jacob Paarmann, Jurgen's father, registered two inventions with the U.S. Patent Office (Paarmann, Hans Jacob 1896 & 1906). Both dealt with the construction and workings of a washing machine.

Six plant specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium list J.H. Paarmann as collector or co-collector with Sarah Sheldon.

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Cain, Victoria E.M. 2009. From Specimens to Stereopticons: The Persistence of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences and the Emergence of Scientific Education, 1868-1910. The Annals of Iowa. 68:1-36.

Downer, Harry, E. 1910. The Freie Deutsche Schulgemeinde [The Free German school community]. in History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa. Volume 1, part 2. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 833-834 of 1026.

Drake, Fred C. (ed.) 1902. Forty-second annual commencement. Daily Iowan. June 12, 1902. pp. 1 & 3.

Davenport Academy of Sciences. 1901. Synopsis of proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Sciences 1899-1900. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 8:319.

Davenport Academy of Sciences. 1904. Synopsis of proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Sciences 1901-1903. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 9:280 & 289.

Hodges, James. 1951. Sketches of little known Iowa ornithologists. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 58(1):477-480.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1927a. Honor Paarmann for 25 Years as Museum Curator. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 3. July 9, 1927.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1927b. J.H. Paarmann, Curator of Davenport Public Museum for 25 Years, Dies at His Home Following a Long Illness. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. columns 2 & 3. July 15, 1927.

Long, Carol (Schlueter). 2009. Juergen Herman Paarmann. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Paarmann, Hans Jacob. 1896. Washing machine. Patent No. 573349. U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Alexandria, Virginia.

Paarmann, Hans Jacob. 1906. Mechanical movement. Patent No. 811868. U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Alexandria, Virginia.

Paarmann, Juergen Hermann. n.d. Papers of J.H. Paarmann. Putnam Museum and Science Center. Document Archive. Davenport, Iowa.

Paarmann, Juergen Hermann. 1902. A systematic study of the diaphragm and the operculum in the hydroids. Master's thesis. State University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa.

Pammel, L.H. 1929. Prominent men I have met: Professor J. H. Paarmann. Ames, Iowa. 30 pp.

Putnam, E.K. 1927. J. H. Paarmann obituary. Davenport Democrat and Leader. July 15, 1927. in Pammel, L.H. Prominent men I have met: Professor J.H. Paarmann. Also present in Putnam Museum and Science Center document archive.

Shambaugh, Benjamin S. (ed.) 1904. The Iowa Anthropological Association. Iowa Jrnl. History & Politics 2:143-146, 352, 363.

Springer, John. (ed.) 1902. Advanced degrees were conferred as follows. Iowa City Press-Citizen. June 11, 1902. Page 4, column 4.

State University of Iowa. 1902. College of Liberal Arts: faculty and instructors. Bull. State Univ. Iowa. 1902-1903. No. 51. p. 18 of 207.

State University of Iowa. 1905. Calendar of the State University of Iowa. Bull. State Univ. Iowa. 1904-1905. No. 108. p. 520 of 564.

Paine, John Alsop (1840 - 1912)

John Alsop Paine, son of John A. and Amanda Kellogg Paine, was born in January of 1840 in Newark, New Jersey. He earned his B.A. from Hamilton College in 1859 and his master's degree from Andover Seminary in 1862. John was ordained a Presbyterian minister at Andover Seminary in 1867 and received the Ph.D. from Hamilton College in 1874 (Ancestry.com 2022, Andover Theological Seminary Alumni Association 1914).

In October 1877 Mr. Paine married Emma S. Gillett Newton in Gloversville, New York (Ancestry.com 2022, Paine 1883). Emma had one child, George Johnson Newton Jr., with her first husband, George Johnson Newton Sr., but John and Emma Paine did not have any children together (Ancestry.com 2022).

Between his master's program and his ordination, Paine lived in Utica, New York (1862 to 1867), where he worked as a botanist for the state of New York. His 1865 publication of the "Catalogue of plants found in Oneida County and vicinity", as the name implies, was "designed to be a record of the many observations of botanists who have resided in the central part of the State" (Paine 1865). Apparently stricken with wanderlust, following his ordination and the completion of the aforementioned catalogue, Paine accepted a position as professor of natural science at Robert College (Hamlin 1889) in Constantinople, Turkey (1867-69). From Robert College, John moved to Germany, where he continued his education during 1869 and 1870 at Halle University and Leipzig University (Andover Theological Seminary Alumni Association 1914, Anonymous 1912, Haberer 1924).

Paine left Europe and returned to Lake Forest, Illinois (1870-1871) to teach natural history and German at Lake Forest University (now Lake Forest College), which was at that time affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. From 1871-1872 he was an associate editor for "The Independent" published in New York City (Andover Theological Seminary Alumni Association 1914, Anonymous 1912). Paine spent 1872-1874 as an archaeologist and naturalist with the American Palestine Exploration Society on an excursion intended to survey the largely unexplored and biblically significant areas of Amman, Bashan, Gilead, and Moab east of the Jordan River in Palestine (Cobbing 2005, Merrill 1881, Paine 1875a&b). From 1882 to 1884 he edited the Journal of Christian Philosophy in New York and he was on the editorial staff for the Century Dictionary in 1888. From 1889 through 1906, Paine was Curator of Casts with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (Andover Theological Seminary Alumni Association 1914, Anonymous 1912, Howe 1913, Metropolitan Museum of Art 1905).

A dozen plant specimens collected by Mr. Paine are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Over one hundred more are listed in the iDigBio specimen database.

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Ancestry.com. 2022. John Alsop Paine. Witt Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Andover Theological Seminary Alumni Association. 1914. Necrology 1911 - 1914. Andover Theological Seminary. Cambridge, Massachusetts. p. 27 of 45.

Anonymous. 1912. John A. Paine - obituary. Amer. Educational Review 33(11):618.

Cobbing, Felicity J. 2005. The American Palestine Exploration Society and the survey of eastern Palestine. Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 137:9-21.

Haberer, Joseph V. 1924. Prominent botanists visit Utica and nearby towns: part 2. Utica Daily Press. March 8, 1924. in Young, Steve (transcriber) New York Flora Assn. Newsletter. 18(1):7-11.

Hamlin, Cyrus. 1889. Robert College, Constantinople. Proc. Amer. Antiquarian Soc. 6:196-212.

Howe, Winifred E. 1913. The history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York City, New York. p. 219 of 361.

Merrill, Selah. 1881. East of the Jordan: a Record of Travel and Observation in the Countries of Moab, Gilead and Bashan. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 549 pp.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1905. Officers. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1(1):16.

Paine, John A. 1865. Catalogue of plants found in Oneida County and vicinity. in 18th Annual report of the Regents of the University of the State of New York. Albany, New York. 152 pp.

Paine, J.A. 1875a. Identification of Mt. Pisgah. Palestine Exploration Society. Third Statement. pp. 3-90.

Paine, J.A. 1875b. A list of plants collected between the two Zarqas Eastern Palestine in the spring of 1873. Palestine Exploration Society. Third Statement. pp. 93-130.

Paine, Henry D. (ed.) 1883. Paine Family Records. Volume 2. New York. pp. 131 & 136 of 308.

Palmer, Edward (1831 - 1911)

There's a fair degree of uncertainty, when it comes to detailing Edward Palmer's early life. Even so, he was born in Norfolk County, near Wilton, England in January 1831. Edward was a son of William (or Robert) and Mary Ann Armiger Palmer and his father was employed as a gardener or horticulturist (Dexter 1990, Jeter 2007, Noyes 1911, SLGMSD 2009, The Washington Post 1911). At the age of 18, Edward emigrated to the United States and settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where he went to work for John W. Taylor (former U.S. Congressman from New York). Taylor introduced Edward to Jared P. Kirtland, a physician and naturalist, who encouraged Palmer to pursue the study of natural history and taught him the proper methods for collecting and preserving specimens of the local flora and fauna (Dexter 1990, Jeter 1990 & 2007, Palmer 1831-1911, Underhill 1984).

Palmer's professional career began with his appointment to the La Plata River Expedition under the command of U.S. Navy Lieutenant Thomas Jefferson Page. The venture's purpose was to investigate the natural resource and trade related opportunities of the La Plata, Paraná, and Paraguay River systems. From an American perspective, up until that time the region was essentially terra incognita, so maps, pictures, and collections of the native plants and animals were essential. Palmer (though he was never mentioned in Page's (1859) summary of the expedition) assisted the ship's surgeon, by dispensing medications, caring for the sick, and burying the dead; secondarily, he was one of the crew members tasked with the collection, care, and preservation of seeds, living plants, and herbarium specimens (McVaugh 1943a, Noyes 1911, Safford 1911c, The Washington Post 1911).

The crew and investigators aboard the "Water Witch" reached Montevideo, Uruguay in May of 1853 and sailed as far north as Corumbá, Brazil (McVaugh 1943a; see map p. 70). The trip up the Paraguay River, exposed Palmer to South America's natural peculiarities, piqued his curiosity, and set his collecting future in motion. He, sometimes alone and other times with Captain Page, obtained and preserved specimens of plants (about 500 (McVaugh 1943a)), monkeys, insects, snakes, and capybaras. From accessible parts of the countryside and in towns, Palmer collected plants and recorded the local folklore about them and their medicinal properties (Beaty 1964, see Page 1859 appendices J-L). He fell prey to the Plasmodium parasite and was debilitated by the resulting malaria in the first quarter of 1855. Palmer was released from his duties in April and subsequently arrived back in Washington, D.C. by sailing ship in June 1855 (McVaugh 1943a). The Water Witch and its crew did not reach the United States until May 1856.

After recuperating from the La Plata Expedition, Edward sailed to England to spend some time with his mother and in March 1856 he was married to Dinah Riches. The newlyweds returned to the United States aboard the Amazon in April 1856 and settled in Cleveland, Ohio, but little, if anything, else is known of Dinah (Ewan 1958). Edward studied medicine at the Cleveland Homeopathic College during the winter of 1856-1857 (Brown 1967, Dexter 1990, Jeter 2007, Salt 2013). Following that "protracted" period of medical instruction, Palmer lived, and probably practiced medicine, in Highland, Kansas and then Denver at the beginning of the Colorado Gold Rush (Brown 1967, Encyclopedia Staff 2016, Engler 2008). He eventually landed in California and, starting in 1860, worked under Dr. James G. Cooper at the California State Geological Survey collecting marine invertebrates along the Pacific Coast (Dexter 1990, Raymond 1902, Salt 2013).

Palmer enlisted in the Union Army in 1861, began his service in 1862 as an assistant surgeon with the Second Colorado Regiment at Fort Lyon, and served at various posts through the rest of the Civil War (Brown 1967, Dexter 1990, Jeter 2007). Regardless of his location, Dr. Palmer appears to have effectively tended to the sick, but he was unable to resist the temptation to wander afield to collect animals, plants, and other items that interested him (McVaugh 1943a, Safford 1911c). By November 1864 Palmer had developed a chronic rheumatic condition that forced his discharge from the army, but he accepted a position as a contract surgeon caring for wounded Confederate soldiers at Kansas City General Hospital. In April 1865 Palmer was hired as a contract surgeon with the First Arizona Volunteers (Jeter 1990, McVaugh 1956, Underhill 1979 & 1984).

With his arrival in Arizona Territory, the cantankerous, peculiar, and sometimes insensitive side of Palmer surfaced. His career became a series of successes interspersed with missteps that were wholly or at least partially avoidable. Examples of Palmer's miscues appear in the following paragraphs and questions like, "What were you thinking?" and "Why didn't you just ___ to avoid this problem?" often come to mind.

He was first stationed at Fort Whipple (near Prescott), where he became acquainted with fellow naturalist (and physician) Elliot Coues. Palmer arrived in July 1865 and from then until October, when not attending to the sick and injured, the two physicians teamed up to collect several hundred natural history specimens (Underhill 1984). In October, Coues was reassigned to a position in the East and apparently the two men agreed that their joint collections would be sent to an appropriate scientific specialist for identification/verification. Dr. Coues was actually more interested in birds and zoology (see Coues 1866), but he eventually did forward their plant specimens to George Engelmann in St. Louis and the insects they'd collected to Henry Ulke (see Ulke 1902) in Philadelphia.

Unfortunately, some months passed (recall, mail delivery in 1860s era Arizona Territory was not expeditious) and Palmer's specimen contributions had not been acknowledged. Apparently, feeling overlooked, or worse yet intentionally scorned, an embittered Palmer wrote Spencer F. Baird at the Smithsonian complaining of Coues' failure to credit him (Palmer) as co-collector of the Arizona specimens sent to Engelmann. Coues claimed, in a follow up letter to Baird, that he had specifically given Palmer the credit he was due, but proof of Coues' assertion seems to be lacking, and, although each collector was miffed, no direct evidence exists showing that either man contacted the other personally to iron out their differences (Cutright & Brodhead 2001, McVaugh 1956). At any rate, Palmer set Engelmann straight and received the credit he desired/deserved, with the result being that over 50 plant specimens in the Missouri Botanical Garden herbarium list "Coues and Palmer" as co-collectors from the area of Fort Whipple in 1865 (iDigBio specimen database). As Coues had done, Dr. Palmer left Fort Whipple. But unlike Elliot Coues, Palmer ventured only about 35 miles east.

A group of settlers founded a farming community in January 1865 at the confluence of Clear Creek and the Verde River east of Fort Whipple. Their goal was to raise crops to feed the settlers and miners in and around Prescott. Camp Lincoln (name changed in 1868 to Camp Verde) had been established by the New Mexico Volunteers to protect those settlers from theft of crops, loss of livestock, and denial of their mortal existence by hostiles (Apaches). Near the end of October 1865, Dr. Palmer was assigned to join the Arizona Volunteers at that location (Underhill 1979 & 1984).

The road to Camp Lincoln was often rough, steep, and crooked; the mules were dilapidated; the malevolent Apaches burnt the cargo wagon, when it was left unguarded one night. Dr. Palmer arrived in camp with a five-gallon keg of whiskey, which he spiked with an additional two quarts of alcohol for the purpose of preserving specimens. Palmer assumed that tipplers among the ranks would prefer to use his ethanol laden concoction to slake their thirsts rather than preserve his specimens, so he called the troops round his keg and, with them watching, added two pounds of arsenic to the preservative mixture — no imbibition of his preservative ensued (Underhill 1979 & 1984).

Conditions in Camp Lincoln were harsh, malaria was all too common, food rations were often short, good equine mounts were scarce, the indigenous people (Apaches) were less than welcoming, and people were killed (settlers, soldiers, and native inhabitants). In other words, existing at Camp Lincoln was a struggle. Palmer wrote, "Great suffering was experienced at this post during 1866 for want of provisions and clothing and owing to the want of shelter, ... The men were often without shoes or clothing and rarely a complete ration was on hand" (Underhill 1984). Even so, Palmer tended to medical needs, accompanied soldiers on short military campaigns, and still found time to make innumerable archaeological and biological collections during his residence there (McVaugh 1956, Palmer 1874). In fact, Dr. Palmer promoted a bit of "citizen science" during his Camp Lincoln tenure.

An article in the "Arizona Miner" quoted Palmer as follows. "A circular from the Smithsonian Institute asks the co-operation of the friends of science, to make collections of birds, their nests and eggs, — animals, shells, fresh water fossils, minerals, plants, dried insects and reptiles in alcohol. It is wished that Arizona should be represented in the Institute of the nation." The request goes on to state that nests and eggs of birds, both rare and common, were of most interest and directions for collection and preservation were given. Dr. Palmer's directions also requested: "Send with each specimen a description of the bird, its habits, etc., the number of eggs found in the nest; also, giving date of collection and name of the donor, with place of residence (Bentley 1866a)." Unfortunately, his out-reach program seems to have fallen flat. No specimens from the Camp Lincoln region of Arizona are listed in the iDigBio or the American Museum of Natural History databases.

In February 1866 Palmer accompanied troops to the "Battle of the Five Caves", which involved the killing of 30 Apaches and the capture of two women and ten children. One of the wounded children died in Camp Lincoln and Palmer callously wrote, "The females of the camp laid it out after their custom & covered it with wildflowers and carried it to a grave ... They hid it so completely that its body could not be found, as I had a wish to have it for a specimen (McVaugh 1956, Underhill 1984)." Then at the tail end of March, Dr. Palmer accompanied Lt. P. Cervantes and 26 men in Company C on a patrol to the east of Camp Lincoln. Traveling at night, scouts located two "rancherias" (Apache encampments), one of which was in the vicinity of Fossil Creek southeast of Camp Lincoln. At dawn 19 soldiers had surrounded the encampment and opened fire, at which time Palmer, Lt. Cervantes, and the rest of the Arizona Volunteers troop joined the fracas. The Apaches had no firearms — 22 were killed, five were wounded, and three went unharmed (Bentley 1866b). Similar clashes appear to have been commonplace during this period of Arizona's history.

Dr. Palmer was stricken with malaria and was forced to leave the encampment in October 1866. Because of his frail condition, Palmer departed for Fort Whipple, sans his cherished specimens, but with the Camp Lincoln commander's assurance that they would be sent out on the next available supply wagon. Despite many safe opportunities for travel that materialized, the promised delivery never reached Palmer. Two years later, Palmer returned to Camp Lincoln and found that his collections had been taken by soldiers or simply discarded, and the scientific record of his stay had been lost, save a single scrap book (Underhill 1979 & 1984). (Note: One Poa bigelovii specimen and two sheets of Yucca verdiensis collected by Dr. Palmer in the vicinity of Camp Lincoln are present in the Missouri Botanical Garden herbarium.)

Palmer recuperated at Fort Whipple until the following January and was then reassigned to Camp Grant (1866-1867) about 70 miles NE of Tucson (Underhill 1979 & 1984). Dr. Palmer enlisted one of the camp's resident felines to add to his natural history collection. When the cat brought small animals to his dispensary to feed her kittens, Palmer would intercept the feeding long enough to remove the meal's skull and pelt for preservation. He'd then return the rest of the body to the cat, who in turn fed it to her brood (Safford 1911c). His collections in and around the camp included bats, rats, rabbits, pocket gophers, and mice, but in large part he focused on birds and members of the plant kingdom (see iDigBio specimen database). His bird collections from the Camp Grant area were reported by Dr. Elliot Coues (with whom he worked at Fort Whipple) in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences (Coues 1868). At the end of March his request to be released from his army contract was granted and he left for San Francisco in August 1867 (Underhill 1984).

He spent much of 1868 in "Indian Territory, chiefly on the False Washita, between Fort Cobb and Fort Arbuckle" (i.e. southwestern Oklahoma) collecting plants (iDigBio specimen database), amphibians, birds, ethnological specimens, and mammals (McVaugh 1956). He was initially the Kiowa and Comanche Indian Agency's doctor, but in the beginning of May 1868, Palmer wrote, "... officially removed me from the Koway and Comanche Agency assigning as a reason that my time was wholly taken up with my Scientific pursuits" (McVaugh 1956).

In 1869 he was hired by the U.S. Commissioner of Agriculture to explore parts of New Mexico and Arizona. Palmer's assignment was "to report on the agricultural resources, the commercial products, the climate and fertility of the soil, and the general habitable features of the various localities" he visited (Noyes 1911, Safford 1911 a&c). An Arizona newspaper article stated that Dr. Palmer was tasked with "collecting specimens of insects, plants, etc. for the Smithsonian Institute, the Agricultural Bureau, and Surgeon-General's office." Palmer visited Navajo villages near Fort Wingate, New Mexico and acquired "many articles, for the manufacture of which that tribe is famous." His collecting expedition continued to the Zuni Pueblo south of Fort Wingate and then west through the lands occupied by the Hopi Nation. They ventured on to the San Francisco Mountains in the vicinity of Flagstaff, westward to Bill Williams Mountain, and on to Prescott, Arizona (Marion 1869). Palmer's interactions with the people native to the region contributed to his "inquiry into the means of subsistence of the aborigines" of Arizona and New Mexico; all of which was manifested in a publication titled "Food products of the North American Indians" (Palmer 1870). Though Edward Palmer focused on the natural history of the southwestern portion of the United States, he did venture outside the region.

The year 1873 took him on a rare trip out of the desert. At the urging of Asa Gray, Dr. Palmer traveled to Florida and the Bahamas. The results of his algal collections from that period were documented by Eaton (1875) and a list of his flowering plant collections may be accessed via the iDigBio and/or SEINet specimen databases.

He spent much of 1875 investigating the avifauna and flora of Guadalupe Island, Mexico (Ridgway 1876, Watson 1875-1876), which was sufficiently noteworthy so as to garner a four column spread in the Santa Barbara Weekly Press (Otis 1876). During the same year, Palmer collected ethnobotanical data about the plants and people in the southwest. As he had tried in 1866, Edward once again sought community assistance in the collection of "all vegetable productions by the Indians of California, Arizona and New Mexico (Wasson & Brown 1875)." It's unclear whether his call for citizen help was or was not successful, but coincidentally, John Spring, a transplant to Arizona from Switzerland was collecting birds, plants, centipedes, scorpions, reptiles, and the like for submission to the Smithsonian Institution. In fact, an article printed immediately above the July 10, 1875 piece about Palmer's work was written by Mr. Spring summarizing his efforts (Spring 1875).

The year 1876 found Palmer shipping substantial numbers of his botanical collections, including at least one 11-foot saguaro cactus, from the southwest to Philadelphia. They were transported for display in Horticulture Hall at the Centennial International Exhibition held in "The City of Brotherly Love" (Safford 1911c, Wasson & Brown 1876). During the latter part of the same year, he was scheduled to visit Fort Mohave, Arizona with the intention of joining C.C. Parry and J.G. Lemmon in an investigation of the Mohave Desert flora. Regrettably, Palmer was bucked from his horse on a supply run to San Bernadino, suffered a severe spinal injury, and was forced to recuperate in San Luis Obispo until December, when he was hired by the Peabody Museum to excavate Indian mounds in Utah (Dexter 1990, Jaeger 1969, McVaugh 1956).

At the beginning of March 1877, Palmer arrived in Yuma County, Arizona from San Bernadino. He proceeded up the Colorado River by steamboat to the vicinity of the present-day Parker Dam and by the middle of May he had visited Prescott, Camp Willow Grove, Wickenburg, and other localities. Palmer's 1877 botanical forays ventured into areas of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah that were relatively close to his home base in St. George, Utah and they resulted in the collection of several hundred plant specimens that found their way to Asa Gray and George Engelmann (McVaugh 1943b).

In January 1878 Dr. Palmer accompanied Dr. Charles C. Parry on a field trip to central Mexico that was funded by donors (prominent botanists) and Harvard's Peabody Museum. Parry was charged with "managing the botanical division" and Palmer was to make archaeological and other natural history collections for the Peabody. At first the duo progressed fairly well, Parry collected plants and Palmer dug into burial caves, Indian mounds, and other ruins in the region near San Luis Potosi and beyond. By April 1878, Parry had fallen ill (Bye 1979) and had a less sanguine attitude towards plant collecting and towards Palmer, as he wrote in a letter to George Engelmann, "I would gladly turn over the job to Palmer but I am not satisfied with his way of doing work. He is persistent and industrious, but not enterprising. Likes to be waited on" (McVaugh 1956).

As it turned out, Parry collected his last plant specimen toward the end of July, left Mexico for his home in Davenport, Iowa, and Palmer continued the project until February 1879 (Bye 1979, McVaugh 1956). More friction between Parry and Palmer surfaced, when Palmer learned Dr. Parry had sent a complete set of the plants they'd collected to Kew - for free. Giving a plant set away vs. selling it was a financial loss, at least in Palmer's eyes, and he vowed to avoid collaboration with others from then on (Bye 1979, McVaugh 1956). The locations that Palmer botanized from 1878 through 1880 in California, Mexico, and Texas have been enumerated by Watson (1882) and the iDigBio specimen database.

The enormity of the rest of Palmer's career as an ethnobotanist and passionate collector would require more space than can be afforded here. His botanical, zoological, and archaeological collections, from the southwestern United States and Mexico, total to more than 100,000 specimens and he is credited with discovering in the neighborhood of a thousand new species (Harvard Library 2022). Suffice it to say that throughout his career, Palmer was a prolific collector who communicated with and provided specimens to other prominent botanists like Cyrus Pringle, C.C. Parry (Kibbe 1953), John Torrey (Palmer 1867), George Vasey, Sereno Watson (Safford 1911b), and others.

He published the results of some of his work (e.g. Palmer 1874, 1876, 1878a-d, 1882), but his endeavors were more often reported by others (e.g. Allen 1881, Brown 1967, Coues 1868, McVaugh 1943a&b, Ridgway 1876, Scudder 1878, Ulke 1902, Vasey & Rose 1890, Watson 1875-1876 & 1882). Palmer was a preeminent collector of botanical specimens, but equally important (if not more so) are the thousands of archaeological and ethnological artifacts he delivered to institutions like the Peabody Museum and Smithsonian Institution. His collections, observations, and studies of birds, insects, mammals, relics, customs, and foods associated with the indigenous tribes of the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico are truly invaluable (Dexter 1990, Salt 2013, Smithsonian Institution 2016).

Palmer is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by 15 pteridophyte specimens, most of which are referenced in "List of plants from southwestern Texas and northern Mexico, collected chiefly by Dr. E. Palmer 1879-80" (Watson 1882). As mentioned above, many additional collections of his may be viewed by way of the iDigBio and/or SEINet specimen databases. McVaugh (1956) is an eminently readable biography of Edward Palmer's life and a compendium of the specimens he collected.

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Allen, J.A. 1881. List of mammals collected by Dr. Edward Palmer in northeastern Mexico, with field-notes by the collector. Bull. Museum Comparative Zool. Vol. 8. No. 9. 189 pp.

Beaty, Janice J. 1964. Plants in his pack: A life of Edward Palmer, adventurous botanist and collector. Pantheon Books. New York City, New York. 182 pp.

Bentley, E.A. (publisher). 1866a. Birds' eggs and nests. The Arizona Miner. Prescott, Arizona. p. 3. column 3. May 9, 1866.

Bentley, E.A. (publisher). 1866b. Another victory for the volunteers: Twenty-two Apaches killed. The Arizona Miner. Prescott, Arizona. p. 2. column 2. April 11, 1866.

Brown, F. Martin. 1967. Dr. Edward Palmer's collecting localities in southern Utah and northwestern Arizona. Jrnl. Lepidopterists' Soc. 21:129-134.

Bye, Robert A. 1979. An 1878 ethnobotanical collection from San Luis Potosi: Dr. Edward Palmer's first major Mexican collection. Economic Bot. 33:135-162.

Coues, Elliot. 1866. List of the birds of Fort Whipple, Arizona: with which are incorporated all other species ascertained to inhabit the Territory. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 17:39-100.

Coues, Elliot. 1868. List of birds collected in southern Arizona by Dr. E. Palmer; with remarks. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 20:81-85.

Cutright, Paul Russel & Michael J. Brodhead. 2001. Elliott Coues: Naturalist and Frontier Historian. Univ. of Illinois Press. Urbana, Illinois. p. 94 of 513.

Dexter, Ralph W. 1990. The F.W. Putnam-Edward Palmer relations in the development of early American ethnobotany. Jrnl. Ethnobiol. 10:35-41.

Eaton, Daniel Cady. 1875. A list of the marine algae collected by Dr. Edward Palmer on the coast of Florida and at Nassau, Bahama Islands, etc. New Haven, Connecticut.

Encyclopedia Staff. 2016. Colorado Gold Rush. Colorado Encyclopedia. Greenwood Village, Colorado.

Engler, Dan (ed.) 2008. Dr. Edward Palmer: pioneer plant collector and archaeologist in the Verde Valley. The Camp Verde Bugle. Camp Verde, Arizona. Publ.: March 4, 2008.

Ewan, Joseph. 1958. Review: Edward Palmer, Plant Explorer of the American West. by Rogers McVaugh. Madroño 14:214-216.

Harvard Library. 2022. Edward Palmer Collecting Trips to Mexico and the Southern United States, 1853–1910. Curiosity Collections. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Jaeger, Edmund C. 1969. Desert wild flowers. Stanford University Press. Stanford, California. p. 207 of 322.

Jeter, Marvin D. (ed.) 1990. Edward Palmer's Arkansaw Mounds. Univ. Alabama Press. Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 423 pp.

Jeter, Marvin D. 2007. Edward Palmer (1830?-1911). The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. Central Arkansas Library System. Little Rock, Arkansas.

Kibbe, Alice L. 1953. Afield with plant lovers and collectors. Carthage College. Carthage, Illinois. 565 pp.

Marion, J.H. (ed.) 1869. Dr. Edward Palmer. The Weekly Arizona Miner. Prescott, Arizona. p. 2. column 3. July 17, 1869.

McVaugh, R. 1943a. Botanical collections of the La Plata Expedition of 1853-1855. Brittonia 5:64-79.

McVaugh, Rogers. 1943b. Edward Palmer's Collections in Arizona in 1869, 1876, and 1877. Amer. Midl. Naturalist 29:768-778.

McVaugh, Rogers. 1956. Edward Palmer: Plant explorer of the American West. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman, Oklahoma. 430 pp.

Noyes, Theodore W. 1911. Dr. Palmer, botanist, dies at age of eighty. The Evening Star. Washington, D.C. p. 2. column 6. April 10, 19ll.

Otis, Harrison G. (ed.) 1876. The island of Guadalupe: Sketch of the island and description of its flora. Santa Barbara Weekly Press. Santa Barbara, California. p. 5. columns 1-4. August 5, 1876.

Page, Thomas J. 1859. La Plata, the Argentine Confederation, and Paraguay. Harper & Brothers. New York City, New York. 631 pp.

Palmer, Edward. 1831-1911. Edward Palmer (1831-1911) Papers. Library of the Gray Herbarium. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Palmer, Edward. 1867. Correspondence: Palmer and Torrey, 1867. Biodiversity Heritage Library & New York Botanical Garden.

Palmer, Edward. 1870. Food products of the North American Indians. Rpt.Commissioner Agricul. for 1870. Washington, D.C. pp. 404-428.

Palmer, Edward. 1874. The berries of Rhamnus croceus as Indian food. Amer. Naturalist 8:247.

Palmer, Edward. 1876. Exploration of a mound in Utah. Amer. Naturalist 10:410-414.

Palmer, Edward. 1878a. Notes on Indian manners and customs. Amer. Naturalist 12:308-313.

Palmer, Edward. 1878b. Indian food customs. Amer. Naturalist 12:402.

Palmer, Edward. 1878c. Fish-hooks of the Mohave Indians. Amer. Naturalist 12:403.

Palmer, Edward. 1878d. Plants used by Indians of the United States. Amer. Naturalist 12:593-606, 646-655.

Palmer, Edward. 1882. Mexican caves with human remains. Amer. Naturalist 16:306-311.

Raymond, William J. 1902. Dr. James G. Cooper. The Nautilus 16(7):73-75.

Ridgway, Robert. 1876. Ornithology of Guadeloupe Island, based on notes and collections of Dr. Edward Palmer. Bull. U.S. Geological & Geographical Survey of the Territories. Vol. 2. pp. 183-195.

Safford, W.E. 1911a. Edward Palmer. Bot. Gazette 52:61-62.

Safford, William Edwin. 1911b. Edward Palmer. Amer. Fern Jrnl. 1:143-147.

Safford, William Edwin. 1911c. Edward Palmer. Popular Sci. Monthly. 78:341-354.

Salt, Bonnie B. (processor). 2013. Edward Palmer Papers Relating to the American West, 1840-1914. Botany Libraries Archives Gray Herbarium. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Scudder, Samuel H. 1878. Notice of the butterflies collected by Dr. Edward Palmer in the arid regions of southern Utah and northern Arizona during the summer of 1877. Bull. U.S. Geol. & Geogr. Survey of Territories. 4:253-258.

SLGMSD. (2009). Dr. Edward Palmer. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Smithsonian Institution. 2016. Edward Palmer Collections. National Museum of Natural History. Washington, DC.

Spring, John. 1875. Botanical and other collections of Arizona products. The Arizona Citizen. Tucson, Arizona. p. 4. column 2. July 10, 1875.

The Washington Post. 1911. Edward Palmer dead: One of the world's best-known botanical explorers. The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. p. 2. column 3. April 11, 1911.

Underhill, Lonnie E. 1979. A history of the First Arizona Volunteer Infantry, 1865-1866. Master's thesis. University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. 99 pp.

Underhill, Lonnie E. 1984. Dr. Edward Palmer's Experiences with the Arizona Volunteers 1865-1866. Arizona and the West 26:43-68.

Ulke, H. 1902. A list of the beetles of the District of Columbia. Proc. U.S. National Museum 25:1-57.

Vasey, George &. J.N. Rose. 1890. List of plants collected by Dr. Edward Palmer in 1888 in Southern California and List of plants collected by Dr. Edward Palmer in Lower California in 1889. Contrib. U.S. National Arboretum. No. 1. Washington, D.C.

Wasson & Brown. (proprietors) 1875. Indian products wanted. The Arizona Citizen. Tucson, Arizona. p. 1. column 6. June 17, 1876.

Wasson & Brown. (proprietors) 1876. Arizona flora. The Arizona Citizen. Tucson, Arizona. p. 4. column 2. July 10, 1875.

Watson, Sereno. 1875-1876. Botanical Contributions: On the Flora of Guadalupe Island, Lower California; List of a Collection of Plants from Guadalupe Island, Made by Dr. Edward Palmer, with His Notes upon Them; Descriptions of New Species of Plants, Chiefly Californian, with Revisions of Certain Genera. Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 11:105-148.

Watson, Sereno. 1882. List of plants from southwestern Texas and northern Mexico, collected chiefly by Dr. E. Palmer 1879-80. Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 17:316-382, 18:96-196.

Pammel, Edna C. (1888 - 1933)

Edna C. Pammel was the eldest of Louis and Augusta Pammel's six children. She graduated from Ames High School in 1906 (Smalling 1993) and it appears she attended Iowa State University with an interest in botany, as evidenced by the paper on clover (Trifolium pratense) that she co-authored with Clarissa Clark (Pammel & Clark 1911). Edna was also listed as a member of the Cliolian Literary Society and the senior-sophomore basketball team at Iowa State University (Allen 1909). Additional information about her education is yet to be uncovered.

It was reported in 1911 that Ms. Pammel was the assistant high school principal at Coon Rapids, Iowa (Scroggie 1911). Edna met Ray A. Needham at Iowa State University and the couple were married in Berkeley, California on the 11th of November in 1919 (Martin 1919). They started their lives together on a farming operation near Patterson, California and raised two daughters together (Martin 1919, Pohl 1985), but further information about Edna's life has yet to be located.

Edna is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Anemone collected in the vicinity of Ames, Iowa.

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Allen, Shirley W. (ed.) 1909. The Bomb. Iowa State College. Vol. 15. pp. 198 & 221 of 322.

Martin, Irving. (pres.) 1919. College romance leads to altar. Stockton Record. Stockton, California. p. 13. column 2. November 12, 1919.

Pammel, Edna C. & Clarissa Clark. 1911. Studies in variation of red clover. Proc. Iowa Acad. Science. 18(1):47-53.

Pohl, Marjorie C. 1985. Louis H. Pammel: Pioneer Botanist - A Biography. Proc. Iowa Acad. Science. 92(1):1-50.

Scroggie, C.R. (ed.) 1911. News notes. Midland Schools 26(6):188.

Smalling, Jack. 1993. For whom it is named. Ames High Alumni Newspaper 4(1):4.

Pammel, Harold E. (1898 - 1972)

Harold E. Pammel was the youngest of Louis and Augusta Pammel's six children. He graduated from Ames High School in 1916 (Smalling 1993) and then started a degree program at Iowa State University, but it was temporarily derailed when he entered the military during World War I. He returned to Ames and completed an undergraduate program in landscape architecture. Harold continued his education in Syracuse, New York where he earned a master's degree in 1925 from the New York State School of Forestry.

Pammel worked as a landscape architect and the grounds superintendent at the U.S. Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C. He married fellow Iowa State University graduate Mona Thompson and the couple raised two sons — James and Peter (Riggs 1972). Additional biographical information about Mr. Pammel has been elusive.

A half dozen plant specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium list Harold as collector or co-collector.

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Riggs, Rodson, L. 1972. Harold E. Pammel died Jan. 17. Ames Daily Tribune. Ames, Iowa. p. 6. columns 1&2. January 22, 1972.

Smalling, Jack. 1993. For whom it is named. Ames High Alumni Newspaper 4(1):4.

Pammel, Louis Hermann (1862 - 1931)

Louis H. Pammel, the second-oldest child of Louis Carl and Sophia Pammel, was born in LaCrosse, Wisconsin on April 19th of 1862. Family life started in LaCrosse, but Louis senior bought some 600 acres of farmland south of LaCrosse and the family moved to the farm in 1866. Louis Jr. grew up tending livestock, harvesting crops, wandering through the countryside, and becoming familiar with the biota around the family's farm. Louis attended country schools of varying quality through the fifth grade, but at that age he became a greater help to his father, who wanted to pass his farming knowledge on to Louis junior, so the education of the son-come-farmhand was eclipsed by agriculture (Pohl 1985).

Though his formal education was on hiatus, Louis (the younger) did not stop learning. He continued to read on his own and Sophia saw to it, during the winter, that all of the children were tutored to speak and write in German. In 1878 Louis told his parents that even though he enjoyed being outdoors, he did not think that a career in farming was his calling and that he wanted to attend college in Madison. He learned that a high school education was pretty much required to pass the college's entrance exams. So, Louis was tutored in some of the basics by a high school principal in LaCrosse and he attended the LaCrosse Business College.

All-in-all he learned enough to be accepted and in August 1881 Louis H. Pammel was one of 66 freshmen to enter the University of Wisconsin. In Madison he studied botany under the guidance of William Trelease, successfully wrote his senior thesis on legume embryo development, and graduated in 1885 (Conard 2009, Frankenburger 1902, Pammel 1886, Pohl 1985, Thwaites 1900). Job opportunities in botany were scarce, so Pammel moved to Chicago and went to work for a seed company. Soon thereafter, he found he could use his botanical knowledge more effectively in the field of medicine and Louis enrolled at the Hahnemann Medical College in the fall of 1885. But when Professor William Farlow at Harvard University offered Pammel an assistantship (presumably to study fungi) around Thanksgiving, Pammel abandoned his medical studies and moved to Massachusetts (Hersey 2011).

William Trelease had accepted at position with the Shaw School of Botany at Washington University in 1885 and early in 1886 he offered Pammel a position in St. Louis. Though Pammel had worked with Farlow (and probably Asa Gray to some degree) for only a few months, he left the post at Harvard, accepted Trelease's offer, and served as Trelease's assistant until 1889 (Conard 2009, Hersey 2011, Shull et al. 1931, Thwaites 1900). During that same period, Pammel earned his M.S. from the University of Wisconsin in 1889 (Conard 2009, Frankenburger 1902, Shull et al. 1931), where he thesis was "On the root rot of cotton, or Cotton Blight" (Pammel 1888). Prof. Pammel completed his academic education at Washington University by earning the Ph.D. in 1899 via his study "Anatomical characters of the seeds of Leguminosae, chiefly genera of Gray's Manual". That same year, holding recommendations from Drs. Trelease and Farlow, Pammel accepted a professorship in botany at Iowa Agricultural College (Conard 2009, Woermann et al. 1917, Pammel 1899).

It's fair to describe Pammel's interests as scientifically eclectic. His publication history began at age 17, when he wrote an inquiry to the American Bee Journal (Pammel 1879), but did not continue until he published his bachelor's degree senior thesis (Pammel 1886). Once Pammel became established at Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in Ames he worked on projects that varied from bacteriology to climatology, mycology to conservation, plant pathology to forestry (Conard 2009). He authored and co-authored several books (Pammel 1898, 1911, 1912, 1930, Pammel et al. 1901) and published an extensive list of papers on an array of topics dealing with barley, bees, buffalo, floras, fungi, people, pollination, weeds, and Wisconsin. Some of those are listed below, in Marple (1918), and may be accessed via a Google Scholar search.

Pammel was a dedicated student of the dispersal and control of invasive species, because of the crop damage they caused (Pammel 1912, Pammel & King 1913). As a conservationist, he was the first director of Iowa's Board of Conservation and helped the state become a national leader in the creation of state parks (Conard 2009). As an educator Pammel taught a variety of classes, was an early instructor in the field of bacteriology, led field trips, spoke to civic groups, and mentored notable students like George Washington Carver and Ada Hayden (Conard 2009, Hersey 2011, Iowa State University 2013, Lewis 2001, Pammel 1915). Marjorie C. Pohl (1985) was right when she wrote, "In sum, he was one of those precious human beings, a great generator of new ideas and attitudes, a builder and a mover with vision, energy, and force."

Just over 50 herbarium specimens in the Putnam Museum list Pammel as collector or co-collector. Thousands of additional Pammel specimens may be viewed at the iDigBio and/or SEINet specimen databases.

Seventeen plant specimens list Pammel's children (Edna, Harold, Harriet, and Violet) as collector or co-collector. Each of the specimens dates to the early 20th century and all were collected in the vicinity of Ames, Iowa. Short biographies for Edna and Harold precede this summary of Louis Pammel's life, but relevant botany-related information about Harriet and Violet is too scarce to enable the assembly of their life stories. (Photo of the family here.)

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Conard, Rebecca. 2009. Pammel, Louis Hermann. The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa. University of Iowa Press. Iowa City, Iowa.

Frankenburger, David B. (compiler). 1902. General catalogue of the officers and graduates of the University of Wisconsin, 1849-1902. University of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 81, 255, 284 of 375.

Hersey, Mark D. 2011. My work is that of conservation: An environmental biography of George Washington Carver. University of Georgia Press. Athens, Georgia. pp. 24-48 of 306.

Iowa State University. 2013. Louis Hermann Pammel (1862-1931) papers, 1856-2011 . Special Collections Department. Parks Library. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

Lewis, Deborah Q. 2001. Ada Hayden: Champion of Iowa Prairies. Proc. 17th North Amer. Prairie Conf. pp. 215-219.

Marple, Alice. 1918. Iowa Authors and Their Works: A Contribution Toward a Bibliography. Historical Dept. of Iowa. Des Moines, Iowa. pp. 216-220 of 359.

Pammel, L.H. 1879. Our Letter Box. Amer. Bee Jrnl. 15:540.

Pammel, L.H. 1886. On the structure of the testa of several leguminous seeds. B. Agricul. Senior Thesis. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 13:17-24.

Pammel, L.H. 1888. Root rot of cotton, or "Cotton Blight". Bull. 4. Texas Ag. Expt. Station. 18 pp.

Pammel, L.H. 1898. Flower ecology. J.B. Hungerford Press. 157 pp.

Pammel, L.H. 1899. Anatomical characters of the seeds of Leguminosae, chiefly genera of Gray's Manual. Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis. 9:91-273.

Pammel, L.H., J.B. Weems, & F. Lamson Scribner. 1901. The grasses of Iowa. Bull. No. 1. Iowa Geol. Survey. 525 pp.

Pammel, L. H. 1911. A Manual of poisonous plants. The Torch Press. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 977 pp.

Pammel, L. H. 1912. Weeds of the farm and garden. Orange Judd Company. New York City, New York. 281 pp.

Pammel, L. H. 1915. The flora of Star Island and vicinity. The Ames Forester. Iowa State College. Ames, Iowa. 141 pp.

Pammel, L. H. 1930. Honey plants of Iowa. Bull. No. 7. Iowa Geol. Survey. 1192 pp.

Pammel, L.H. & Charlotte M. King. 1913. The weed flora of Iowa. Bull. No. 4. Iowa Geological Survey. 715 pp.

Pohl, Marjorie Conley. 1985. Louis H. Pammel: Pioneer botanist - a biography. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 92:1-50.

Thwaites, Reuben Gold. (ed.) 1900. The University of Wisconsin: Its history and its alumni. J.N. Purcell. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 737 of 889.

Shull, Charles A., Charles B. Lipman, Burton E. Livingston, Carleton R. Ball, & Francis E. Lloyd. (eds.) 1931. Louis Hermann Pammel. Plant Phys. 6:602-603

Woermann, J.W., F.O. Schwartz, J.F. Alcorn, & Douglas W. Robert. (directors) 1917. General alumni catalogue of Washington University. Washington University. St. Louis, Missouri. p. 27 of 74.

Parker, Charles F. (1820 - 1883)

Charles F. Parker was born in Philadelphia in November of 1820. His mother perished when he was an infant and his father, a bookbinder, had only limited financial means to put towards Charles' education. So, as soon as he was old enough, Charles served an apprenticeship in the bookbinding trade. Charles' father remarried a couple of years after the death of his first wife and, when he died in 1835, Charles partnered with his stepmother to take charge of the family business. Parker remained in Philadelphia until about 1842, when he decided to continue his craft in Boston.

After a couple of years in that New England city, the bookbinder met Martha Kellom, nuptials followed in 1844, and the couple maintained a home in Boston until 1851. They moved to Leominster, Massachusetts to run a bookstore and bookbinding business, an enterprise that proved to be insufficiently successful, so in 1853 Charles and Martha moved to Camden, New Jersey across the Delaware River from Philadelphia (Harshberger 1899, JSTOR 2013, Martindale 1883).

Parker had no discernible connection to natural science prior to meeting Martha Kellom. However, Martindale (1883) was convinced that Parker had been nudged towards the study of natural science via his chance acquaintance with Constantine S. Rafinesque (1783-1840). While living in Philadelphia (prior to September 18, 1840, the date of Rafinesque's death), Parker and the eccentric botanist/naturalist Rafinesque (Mosquin 2012) lived in the same boarding house and had a cordial relationship. But it was not until after Charles and Martha Parker established their longtime residence in New Jersey, that Charles' interest in science surfaced (Martindale 1883).

In Camden, Charles became interested in conchology, though he had no background in the area and apparently was acquainted with no one engaged in the field. Even so, as a conchologist, he assembled a collection of approximately 100,000 shells that took seven years to process, organize, and mount. His efforts with Mollusca led to membership in the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science in 1865, where he helped found the Conchological Section and served as librarian (Putnam 1866).

Parker distinguished himself early on as a fastidious and dedicated worker and de facto curator (albeit sans financial compensation) at the Philadelphia Academy. He financed his academy position via employment in the bookbinding department for "Godey's Lady's Book", until his voluntary curatorial duties morphed into a formal curatorship in 1874 (Cope 1873) and then a (paltry) salaried post as Curator-in-charge in 1875 (Martindale 1883, Meehan 1883). In fact, he was frequently lauded on the pages of the Philadelphia Academy's proceedings for his industrious dedication to activities that frequently reached well beyond the duties assigned to his position.

In addition to mollusks, Mr. Parker embarked upon detailed studies in the field of entomology, especially butterflies and beetles. Charles became an active member of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia (later the American Entomological Society (Cresson 1861 & 1909, Knight 1862)) in 1861 and his contributions to the society were frequently mentioned in the organization's proceedings. He and his friend, Isaac Martindale, were also industrious members of the botanical section of the Camden Literary and Library Association, which was founded in 1870 and operated for twenty-five years (Cooper 1905, Prowell 1886).

As Parker's interests in conchology and entomology waned, he became more devoted to the study of plants. That change in direction was bolstered by his acquaintance with bryologist Coe F. Austin and banker/botanist Isaac C. Martindale. The three men botanized the New Jersey pine barrens, investigated the introduced plants growing on the ballast piles and in the wetlands near the Camden/Philadelphia region shipyards (see Burk 1877), and collected the flora of New Jersey in general. In fact, all three men were acknowledged repeatedly in Britton's "Flora of New Jersey" (Britton 1881, Martindale 1883, Meehan 1883, Smith 1867) and Robinson acknowledged Parker's work by dedicating Eriocaulon parkeri (Eriocaulaceae) to him (Robinson 1903).

Over 1000 specimens listing C.F. Parker as collector or co-collector are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Most of them were collected in the New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania region and during the period from 1860 to 1875. Additional plant specimens collected by Mr. Parker may be perused via the iDigBio and SEINet databases.

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Britton, Nathaniel. 1881. A preliminary catalogue of the flora of New Jersey. Office of the Survey. Rutgers College. New Brunswick, New Jersey. 233 pp.

Burk, Isaac. 1877. List of plants recently collected on the ships' ballast in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 29:105-109.

Cooper, Howard M. 1905. Introductory address. Opening exercises at the new main building of the free public library of the city of Camden. Sinnickson Chew & Sons Co. Camden, New Jersey. pp. 7-11 of 39.

Cope, Edward D. 1873. Election of officers for 1874. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 25:437.

Cresson, Ezra T. (corresponding sec'y) 1861. Proposals and Elections. Proc. Entomological Soc. Phila. 1:74.

Cresson. Ezra T. 1909. A history of the American Entomological Society, 1859-1909. The American Entomological Society. 60 pp.

Harshberger, John William. 1899. The botanists of Philadelphia and their work. T.C. Davis & Sons. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 229-231 of 457.

JSTOR. 2013. Parker, Charles F. (1820-1883). Global Plants.

Knight, J. Frank. (recording sec'y). 1862. Report of the recording secretary. Proc. Entomological Soc. Philadelphia 1:vii, 74, 283, 285.

Martindale, Isaac C. 1883. Obituary notice of Charles F. Parker. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 35:260-265.

Meehan, Thomas. (ed.) 1883. Charles F. Parker. The Gardeners' Monthly and Horticulturist. 25:380-381.

Mosquin, Daniel. 2012. Constantine Rafinesque, A Flawed Genius. Arnoldia 70:2-10.

Prowell, Geo. R. 1886. The history of Camden County, New Jersey. L.J. Richards & Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 338 & 339 of 767.

Putnam, F.W. (ed.) 1866. The Naturalists' directory. Pt. II. North America and the West Indies. The Essex Institute. Salem, Massachusetts. pp. 56 & 68 of 85 pp & appendix.

Robinson, B.L. 1903. A hitherto Undescribed Pipewort from New Jersey. Rhodora 5:175-176.

Smith, Aubrey H. 1867. On Colonies of Plants Observed near Philadelphia. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 19:15-24.

Parry, Charles C. (1823 - 1890)

Charles C. Parry, the third of nine children in the family of Reverend Joseph and Eliza Parry, was born in Admington, England, August 28, 1823 (Ancestry.com 2022, Oliver 2014a, White 1906). In 1832 his family emigrated to the United States and settled on a farm in Washington County, New York. Charles enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, New York, graduated in 1842, and then studied medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City (Coulter 1890, Knowlton 1892), from which he earned his medical degree in 1846 (Tucker 1859).

Charles studied botany as an undergraduate and he did some plant collecting near his home in about 1842. His botanical studies continued during medical school via the connection of plants to materia medica and, as a physician-in-training, Parry made the acquaintance of Dr. John Torrey at Columbia College and Asa Gray at Harvard. Both of those senior scientists served as mentors, became lifelong friends, and were collaborators on many of Parry's field expeditions (Gray 1863, Kelly 1914, Parry 1878, Preston 1893).

After earning his medical degree, Parry ventured west, and, in the fall of 1846, he settled along the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa. Charles established a medical practice, which was for the most part, a short-lived venture (Preston 1893, White 1906). In 1847 Parry started collecting and reporting on the local flora (Parry 1847 & 1848) and during the summer of that year he was the staff botanist on the federal survey team, led by Lieutenant Joseph Morehead, to Fort Des Moines at the confluence of the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers in central Iowa (Parry 1848 & 1878, Preston 1893, White 1906). Regrettably only a couple of specimens are present in the SEINet specimen database to document that period of Parry's botanical career.

In 1848 Parry continued his botanical pursuits with the geological survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota led by David D. Owen (Owen 1852). Parry was charged with botanizing along the St. Peter's River (Minnesota River) and St. Croix River as far north as the shores of Lake Superior (Owen 1852, Parry 1848, Parry 1852, Parry 1878). His plant inventory, which contained 727 species, included locations, habitat, and ethnobotanical notes about plants used by the Indian tribes he encountered (Parry 1852).

From 1849 through 1853 Dr. Parry's collecting venues varied widely (e.g. California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Baja California, the Rio Grande Valley), owing to the nature of each project in which he was engaged. In a January 1849 letter to John Torrey, Parry expressed his intention to "... join an emigrant party in the spring and make collections as far as can be done ..." as it headed west to California (Parry 1849). Torrey was able to arrange an appointment for Parry as the botanist and surgeon on the U.S./Mexico Boundary Survey commanded by Lieutenant Amiel W. Whipple. So, with a salaried position in hand, instead of travelling overland, Parry sailed to Panama, crossed the isthmus, and arrived by ship in San Diego in mid-July of 1849. Preparations were completed and the expedition departed from the Mission San Diego de Alcalá on September 11, 1849. The excursion's purpose was to establish two geographic points (one on the coast a few miles south of San Diego Bay and the other at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers near present-day Yuma, Arizona) that would essentially determine the border between California and Mexico (Lightner 2014 & 2016, Parry 1857 & 1859, Whipple 1851).

Parry's duties included treating the troops (for sore throats, syphilis, dysentery, gonorrhea, and probably other maladies), recording observations of the geology and geography, and collecting representative plant specimens. The excursion concluded in December of 1849, but Whipple's return trip to the east coast of the United States didn't occur until March 1850. Dr. Parry entrusted to Whipple the plant specimens from the boundary expedition, plus others he'd collected in and around San Diego. Whipple left California (via the Pacific Ocean) to Panama, crossed the isthmus, and sailed back to the Atlantic Coast of America. Unfortunately, he either lost Parry's specimens or, as Parry wrote, they "were probably involved in a disastrous fire while stored in Panama awaiting transportation" (Adelman 2013, Lightner 2016, Parry 1878).

At any rate, the plant specimens that were acquired, under often challenging circumstances (Scharf 1973, Whipple 1851), reached neither John Torrey nor Asa Gray. In 1850 Parry collected from southern California (as far north as Monterey) and adjacent locations in northern Mexico (32° to 36° latitude) in an attempt to make up for the specimens from the boundary expedition that were lost (Adelman 2013, Lightner 2016, Parry 1878). (Over 100 Parry plant specimens bearing a collection dates of October and November 1849 are listed in the SEINet database. Others collected by him from the same region in 1850 are also included. A few 1850 Parry collections are listed in the iDigBio database.)

From 1851 through 1854, Parry's time was split between collecting locations primarily in the Southwest (iDigBio specimen database) and completing paperwork in Washington, D.C. (Parry 1878). "The interval from 1854 to 1860 was spent mainly in Davenport, not actively engaged in botanical work" (Parry 1878), evidently a period during which Dr. Parry was primarily occupied with personal issues. Charles married Sarah M. Dalzell in 1853 and a daughter, Elizabeth, was born to them in 1855. Sarah died in 1858 (Ancestry.com 2022, Oliver 2014b) and the couple's daughter perished in 1867 (Ancestry.com 2022, Oliver 2014b). Dr. Parry was remarried in 1859 to Emily R. Preston, of Ashford, Connecticut, who worked with Charles at home and in the field for more than 30 years (Ancestry.com 2022, Kelly 1914, Preston 1893, Sue 2015, White 1906).

Parry's life during the Civil War (1861 through 1865) may well be called his Rocky Mountain or Colorado period. He made many collections on his own, but in 1862 he benefited greatly from the help of Elihu Hall and his cousin, Jared P. Harbour (Gray 1863). In 1867 Charles was hired as the botanist for the Kansas Pacific Railway Company whose proposed route was surveyed from Salina, Kansas (starting June 7th) through portions of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and ended (likely in late 1867) in San Diego, California (Bell 1870, Parry 1870 & 1878).

The Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences was established in December 1867 and Dr. Parry was named one of ten trustees for the organization in February 1868 (Barler et al. 1868). Until his death, Dr. Parry's administrative and scientific involvement with the Davenport Academy was often noted in the institution's Proceedings. From 1869 through 1871 Parry was the acting botanist for the Department of Agriculture at the Smithsonian Institution (Parry 1878, Schneider 2016), but evidently he liked neither the tedium of organizing specimens, nor the monotony of tabulating data collected during the preceding years' boundary and railroad surveys. He was dismissed from his Smithsonian duties for neglecting his obligations and replaced by agrostologist George Vasey (Morton & Stern 2010, Tellman 2000).

For the rest of his life, Dr. Parry focused on exploring and botanizing western states like California, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as making one additional excursion to central Mexico with Edward Palmer in 1878 (see iDigBio specimen database). One of his more noteworthy botanical forays occurred with Marcus Jones, Cyrus Pringle, and Charles Orcutt in the spring of 1882.

Near Ensenada, Mexico the group collected what is now known as Rosa minutifolia, an event which generated a contentious botanical controversy. Jones, an oft-times trying and pompous gent, felt that he was first to locate the rose and, therefore, was entitled to publication/naming rights. However, Parry left the field trip early to see his wife in San Diego. Soon thereafter he (Parry) wrote a short paper about the rose (Parry 1882a), which included a description of it written by George Engelmann, hence the name Rosa minutifolia Engelm.

The paper mentioned the presence of M.E. Jones as part of the collecting trip, but Jones considered that a callous diminution of his contribution and his self-esteem was badly bruised. Marcus knew how to hold a grudge, spirited accusations and rebuttals were traded, and, many years later, he described Parry as "a typical toady ... with little brains ... who slobbered over the great to keep in their good graces (Jones 1930b)." In the end, Marcus Jones suffered a tainted reputation and the plant's name was not altered. The details of the Rosa minutifolia affair make interesting reading (Ertter 2001, King 2011, Lenz 1986).

C.C. Parry preferred the life of a field botanist and 76 plant taxa, such as Engelmann Spruce and Torrey Pine, listed in TROPICOS bear his name as author or co-author. In the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado he used his personal cabin as a base camp and often botanized high elevations with other prominent plant scientists of the time — friends for whom he dedicated several peaks, such as Engelmann Peak, Gray's Peak, Torrey's Peak, and for his wife, Mt. Eva (Blakely 2000, JSTOR 2013, Parry 1862, Preston 1893, White 1906).

Dr. Parry's publications in newspapers, popular magazines, and professional journals have been tabulated by his wife, Emily (Parry 1891), Ockerbloom (2016), Google Scholar, and, perhaps, others. Their titles (some of which are listed below) reflect his interest in conveying information about his excursions, geology, people (Parry 1873 & 1888), and plants, such as Arctostaphylos (Parry 1884a), Ceanothus (Parry 1889a&b), Chorizanthe (Parry 1884b), and Oxytheca (Parry 1882b). With a preference for field botany, Dr. Parry seems to have been disinclined towards involvement in professional organizations, with two exceptions — his long-term dedication to the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences and his membership in the Philosophical Society of Washington (Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington 1871-1881).

More than 280 specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium bear labels with Parry's name given as the collector or co-collector. Thousands of additional specimens Parry collected may be viewed at the iDigBio and/or SEINet specimen databases.

This amounts to little more than a cursory overview of Dr. Charles C. Parry's life and accomplishments. The interested student is referred to Iowa State University's assemblage of C.C. Parry's materials, which "includes correspondence, notebooks, clippings, and papers" (Iowa State University 2013, Parry 1849-1850). Also worthy of reading is the biography "King of Colorado Botany; Charles Christopher Parry, 1823-1890" written by William Weber (1997) which "combines the lists of Parry's collections with the scientific and semipopular descriptions of his travels".

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Adelman, Elizabeth. 2013. Parry and the pines. Fremontia 41(2):14-19.

Ancestry.com. 2022. Dr. Charles Christopher Parry. Muir Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Barler, A.U., Luther T. Eads, & W.H. Pratt. 1868. Articles of incorporation. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 1:8.

Bell, William A. 1870. New tracks in North America. Chapman & Hall. London, England. pp. 521-533 of 564.

Blakely, Larry. 2000. Who's in a name? - Charles Christopher Parry. California Native Plant Soc. Newsletter of the Bristlecone Chapter. Volume 20.

Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington. 1871-1881. List of members of the Philosophical Society of Washington. Bull. Philo. Soc. Washington Vol. 1-4.

Coulter, John M. 1890. Dr. Charles C. Parry Botanical Gazette. 15:66-68

Ertter, Barbara. 2001. Discovery of Rosa minutifolia Engelm. "Ensenada Rose". University and Jepson Herbaria. Berkeley, California.

Gray, Asa. 1863. Enumeration of the species of plants collected by Dr. C.C. Parry and Messrs. Elihu Hall and J.P. Harbour during the summer and autumn of 1862 on and near the Rocky Mountains in Colorado Territory, lat. 39° - 41°. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. pp. 55-80.

Iowa State Univ. Library. 2013. Papers of Charles Christopher Parry. Special Collections & University Archives. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

JSTOR. 2013. Charles Christopher Parry. Global Plants.

Kelly, Howard A. 1914. Some American medical botanists. The Southworth Company. Troy, New York. p. 180-186 of 215.

King, William H. 2011. Marcus E. Jones (1852-1934). Sego Lily 34:1&4.

Knowlton, F.H. 1892. Charles Christopher Parry. Bull. Phil. Soc. Washington 12:497-499.

Lenz, Lee W. 1986. Marcus E. Jones: western geologist, mining engineer and botanist. Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, California. 486 pp.

Lightner, James. (ed.) 2014. Parry's Forgotten Discoveries, 1849-51. presented at Recon Native Plant Nursery. Imperial Beach, California.

Lightner, James. 2016. The 1849 Whipple Expedition: from San Diego to Yuma and back. San Diego Flora, Publ. San Diego, California. 25 pp.

Morton, Conrad V. & William L. Stern. 2010. A History of the US National Herbarium. Plant Press. Vol. 13. No. 2.

Ockerbloom, John Mark (ed.). 2016. Online books by Charles C. Parry. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Oliver, Dustin. 2014a. Dr. Charles Christopher Parry. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Oliver, Dustin. 2014b. Sarah M. Dalzell Parry. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Owen, David Dale. 1852. Report of a geological survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota; and incidentally of a portion of Nebraska Territory. Lippincott, Grambo, & Co. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 639 pp.

Parry, C.C. 1847. Review of some botanical observations, made principally in the vicinity of Davenport and Rock Island. Davenport Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. October 14, 1847.

Parry, C.C. 1848. List of wild plants found in the vicinity of Davenport, Iowa - 1847. And others found in connection with the Geological Survey of the North West. in Guldner, Ludwig F. 1960. The Vascular Plants of Scott & Muscatine Counties. Davenport Public Museum, Davenport, IA. 228 pp. (Original document in archive of Putnam Museum and Science Center. Davenport, Iowa. Davenport, Iowa.)

Parry, C.C. 1849. Letter to John Torrey. New York Botanical Garden. LuEsther T. Mertz Library. Bronx, New York. January 30, 1849.

Parry, C.C. 1849-1851. Charles C. Parry field notebooks. University Library Digital Collections. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

Parry, C.C. 1852. Systematic catalogue of plants of Wisconsin and Minnesota. in Owen, David Dale. 1852. Report of a geological survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota; and incidentally of a portion of Nebraska Territory. pp. 606-622 of 639.

Parry, C.C. 1857. Reconnoissance [sic] to the mouth of the Gila River from San Diego, California, September 11 to December 10, 1849. in Emory, William H. 1857. Report on the United States and Mexican boundary survey. Vol. 1. pp. 125-130 of 238.

Parry, C.C. 1859. Botany of the boundary: introduction. in Emory, William H. 1857. Report on the United States and Mexican boundary survey. Vol. 2. pp. 9-26 of 270.

Parry, C.C. 1862. Physiographical sketch of that portion of the Rocky Mountain range, at the head waters of South Clear Creek, and east of Middle Park: with an enumeration of the plants collected in this district, in the summer months of 1861. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts. Series 2. 33:231-243.

Parry, C.C. 1870. Botany of the region along the route of the Kansas Pacific Railway. through Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. in Bell, William A. 1870. New tracks in North America. Chapman & Hall. London, England. pp. 521-533 of 564.

Parry, C.C. 1873. Historical Address on the Early Exploration and Settlement of the Mississippi Valley. Day, Egbert, & Fidlar. Davenport, Iowa.

Parry, C.C. 1878. Personal address: To the trustees of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 2:279-282.

Parry, C. C. 1882a. A new North American rose. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 9(8):97–98.

Parry, C. C. 1882b. Oxytheca - Two new species from southern California. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 3:174-176.

Parry, C.C. 1884a. Arctostaphylos, Adans. - Notes on the United States Pacific Coast species, from recent observation of living plants, including a new species from Lower California. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 4:31-37.

Parry, C.C. 1884b. Chorizanthe, R. Brown. - Revision of the genus, and rearrangement of the annual species - with one exception, all North American.. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 4:45-63.

Parry, C.C. 1888. Rancho Chico. The Overland Monthly. 11:561-576.

Parry C.C. 1889a. Ceanothus L. - A synoptical list, comprising thirty-three species, with notes and descriptions. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sciences 5:162-174.

Parry C.C. 1889b. Ceanothus L. - Recent field notes with a partial revision of species. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sciences 5:185-194.

Parry, Charles Christopher. 1849-1850. Charles Christopher Parry digital collection; field notebooks. University Library. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

Parry, Mrs. C.C. 1891. List of papers published by the late Dr. C.C. Parry. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 6:46-52.

Preston, C.H. (Preston, Charles Hicklen) 1893. Biographical sketch of Charles Christopher Parry. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sciences Vol. 6.

Scharf, Thomas L. 1973. Amiel Weeks Whipple and the boundary survey in Southern California. San Diego Hist. Soc. Quarterly. Vol. 19. No. 3.

Schneider, A. 2016. Biographies of scientists and explorers. in Wildflowers, ferns, & trees of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, & Utah (here).

Sue. 2015. Emily R. Parry. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Tellman, Barbara. 2000. Outstanding Arizona botanists VI: Charles Christopher Parry. The Plant Press. 24:2-3.

Tucker, George H. (compiler) 1859. Catalogue of the alumni, officers and fellows of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Baker & Godwin, printers. New York City, New York. p. 42 of 66.

Weber, William A. 1997. King of Colorado Botany; Charles Christopher Parry, 1823-1890. Univ. Press of Colorado. Louisville, Colorado. 183 pp.

Whipple, A.W. 1851. Extract from a journal of an expedition from San Diego, California, to the Rio Colorado, from September 11 to December 11, 1849. Rpt. Sec. of War. Ex. Doc. No. 19.

White, Charles A. 1906. Biographical Memoir of Charles Christopher Parry. The Annals of Iowa. 7:413-430.

Parry, Emily R. (1831 - 1915)

Mrs. Emily R. Preston of Ashford, Connecticut was born May 1831 to Michael and Polly Richmond (Sue 2015). Emily was the widow of Dr. John Preston and became the second wife of Dr. Charles C. Parry in 1859. Though the couple lived in Washington, D.C. and San Diego, California, they most often called Davenport, Iowa their home. For over 30 years, Emily often traveled with Parry, mounted plants while Charles was engaged at the Smithsonian, and generally assisted with his botanical pursuits (Anonymous 1915, Kelly 1914, Lemmon 1876, Preston 1893, White 1906). Following the death of Dr. Parry, Emily published a summary of his scientific works (Parry 1891a) and a catalogue of his personal herbarium (Parry 1891b).

During the latter half of the 1800s, Dr. Charles C. Parry, named several peaks after people with whom he was acquainted, like John J. Audubon, George Engelmann, Asa Gray, and John Torrey. Similarly he named Mt. Eva (less than a mile from Parry Peak in the Colorado Front Range) after his wife, whom he affectionately referred to as "Eva" (Blakely 2000, Larry V 2005). Even Asa Gray thought highly of Mrs. Parry.

He gave the scientific name for sand blossoms a feminine Latin ending (Gilia parryae, current name Linanthus parryae) in her honor (Blakely 2000, Gray 1876). Prof. Gray wrote: "At the suggestion of Mr. Lemmon, this dainty plant is dedicated to Mrs. Dr. Parry, one of the botanical party who passed the last winter and spring in the San Bernadino District — making many interesting discoveries — and whose services to botany merit this recognition." (See J.G. Lemmon's letter of May 16, 1876 requesting that Asa Gray consider naming the plant to honor "Mrs. Dr. C.C. Parry".)

Over two dozen herbarium specimens (most of which were collected in California) in the Putnam Museum herbarium list Mrs. C.C. Parry as the collector. Scattered among the latter issues of the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences are reports of Emily Parry's donations to the society (e.g. here, here, and here).

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Anonymous. 1915. Funeral of Mrs. Parry Norwich Bulletin. May 08, 1915. Page 11. Column 5. Norwich, Connecticut.

Blakely, Larry. 2000. Who's in a name? - Charles Christopher Parry. California Native Plant Soc. Newsletter of the Bristlecone Chapter. Volume 20.

Gray, Asa. 1876. Contributions to the botany of North America. Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 12:51-84 (see pp. 76-78).

Kelly, Howard A. 1914. Some American medical botanists. The Southworth Company. Troy, New York. p. 180-186 of 215.

Lemmon, J.G. 1876. John Gill letter to Asa Gray. "Crafton Retreat" near San Bernadino, Cal. May 16, 1876.

Parry, Mrs. C.C. 1891a. List of papers published by the late Dr. C.C. Parry. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 6:46-52.

Parry, Mrs. E.R. 1891b. Catalogue of the herbarium of the late Dr. Charles C. Parry of Davenport, Iowa. H.N. Patterson, printer. Oquawka, Illinois. 82 pp.

Sue. 2015. Emily R. Parry. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Larry V. 2005. Mount Eva. Summitpost.org. Front Range.

Preston, C.H. (Preston, Charles Hicklen) 1893. Biographical sketch of Charles Christopher Parry. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sciences Vol. 6.

White, Charles A. 1906. Biographical Memoir of Charles Christopher Parry. The Annals of Iowa. 7:413-430.

Parsons, Bert C. (1872 - 1950)

Bert C. Parsons was the oldest of four children (siblings: Elmer, Ella, & John) born to George R. and Mary Adele Parsons. Bert and his brother, Elmer, were born when the family lived in the vicinity of Chebanse, Illinois (Ancestry.com 2022, Salter & Salter 1950). George, a physician (H 1874) and tuberculosis sufferer, decided in about 1875 to relocate to the Hill Country of Texas in an attempt to find a climate that was more charitable to his health.

He arrived in Kerrville ahead of his family and established sanatorium there. (Fisher (1894) implied that George Parsons was referred to an existing sanatorium in Kerrville, but local historian Joe Herring (pers. comm.) has not uncovered any evidence of one existing there prior to Parsons' arrival.) By 1880 the rest of the family (Mary, Bert, and his brother, Elmer) rode the train to San Antonio and then completed the trip to Kerrville by covered wagon (Ancestry.com 2022, Salter & Salter 1950, Fisher 1894, Nielsen-Reynolds 2009, Parsons 2009).

It doesn't appear that George Parsons practiced medicine for long, if at all. By 1880 he was running a stagecoach line from Kerrville to Boerne and later he ran another line from Comfort, Texas to Fredericksburg. He also served as mayor of Kerrville for a time (Herring 2016a&b) and the family's two youngest children, Ella and John, were born in Kerrville (Ancestry.com 2022).

Bert completed his grammar and secondary schooling in Kerrville. He then went on to study at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (present day Texas A&M University), where he served as a corps commander from 1892 to 1893 (Corps of Cadets Association 2015) and graduated with a degree in horticulture. Following graduation, he was employed by the Water Department of San Angelo, Texas and for at least the first half of 1900, Bert and his brother, Elmer, ran a horse stable in Kerrville (Daily Express 1900).

Augusta Nimitz and Bert Parsons were married in January 1902 — their lives together produced two daughters and two sons. (A noteworthy tangent — One of Augusta Nimitz's cousins was Admiral Chester W. Nimitz who served as Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas in WWII (Ancestry.com 2022, U.S. Navy 2019).) From San Angelo the couple moved to Fort Bayard, New Mexico, where Bert held a position with the U.S. Government Hospital, which was transformed at the turn of the 20th century into the first sanatorium dedicated to the treatment of Army personnel infected with tuberculosis (Salter & Salter 1950, Herring 2016, Kammer 2001).

Dr. George Parsons died in 1893 and was interred in Kerrville's Glen Rest Cemetery (Webb 2003). His wife remained in the community for a number of years, but her health began to fail, so in 1925 Bert and the family returned to Kerrville to care for her. Once back in Kerrville, Bert made a living as a real estate, investment broker, and funded the construction of Kerrville's Rialto Theater. In his spare time, he studied botany and was known in the community as an authority on trees and wildflowers of the region (Salter & Salter 1950, Herring 2018).

Three dicot specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium were "collected by Bert C. Parsons" in 1892 from Texas. The three specimens were part of a bound herbarium assembled by Rebecca Merritt Austin.

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Bert Calais Parsons. Dabney-Frazier and Gardinier Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Corps of Cadets Association. 2015. Corps commanders. The Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets Association. Bryan, Texas.

Daily Express. 1900. The traveling men's page. San Antonio Daily Express. San Antonio, Texas. p. 17. column 7. May 6, 1900.

Fisher, C.E. (ed.). 1894. Editor's Table. Medical Century. 2:24.

H. (Dr. E.M. Hale?) (ed.) 1874. Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago. American Observer Medical Monthly 11:240.

Herring, Joe. 2016a. Stagecoach Days in Kerrville. Web Log. Kerrville, Texas. August 29, 2016.

Herring, Joe. 2016b. How early settlers found their way to Kerr County. Web Log. Kerrville, Texas. September 5, 2016.

Herring, Joe. 2018. 80 Years Ago Today in Kerrville. Web Log. Kerrville, Texas. February 11, 2018.

Kammer, David. 2001. Fort Bayard. New Mexico History. Office of the State Historian. State Records Center & Archives. Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Nielsen-Reynolds, Linda. 2009. Bert Calais Parsons. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Parsons, A.K. 2009. George R. Parsons. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Salter, W.A. & Forrest Salter. (eds.) 1950. Rites held Thursday for B.C. Parsons. Kerrville Mountain Sun. Kerrville, Texas. p. 13. columns 1&2. November 23, 1950.

U.S. Navy. 2019. Nimitz, Chester William. Naval History and Heritage Command. Washington Navy Yard. Washington, D.C.

Webb, Shirley. 2003. Glen Rest Cemetery (N-Q). USGenWeb Archives. Kerr County, Texas - Cemeteries. Kerrville, Texas.

Patik, Sister Claire Marie (1919 - 2005)

Claire Marie Patik, one of Frank and Anna Patik's eleven children, was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She completed her early education in the Catholic schools of Cedar Rapids and then earned her Associates Degree from Ottumwa Heights College in Ottumwa, Iowa. In 1946 Sr. Claire Marie earned her B.A. in education from Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa and eventually earned her master's degree in science education from the University of Iowa (CHM 2021, Humenik 2005, Leysen 1946, Tbel 2020).

In addition to the formal degrees Sister Claire Marie earned, she often worked to improve her skill set through a variety of graduate studies in various locations in the United States — Ball State University, Marquette University, Southern Illinois University, Syracuse University, and the University of Oregon. Sr. Claire Marie sought not only to improve her own education, but that of her students. She held positions in elementary and secondary schools in Cosgrove, Davenport, Des Moines, and Neola, Iowa (Humenik 2005). It seems that during her teaching career, Sr. Claire Marie had her fingers in several education pies.

She practiced and published on what she called an "individual pupil instruction policy", which incorporated independent study and research for secondary students (Patik 1968). A few years later Sr. Claire Marie reported her successes and suggestions for the instruction of motivated and less-than-motivated students in the high school science curriculum (Patik 1972). Additionally, it's not surprising that Sr. Claire Marie was a member of the Science Teaching section of the Iowa Academy of Science (Yager & Harding 1975).

Following the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Vatican II), Sr. Claire Marie answered the call to teach in Papua New Guinea. Her venture to the southwestern Pacific region was not unique to her family. — Sr. Claire Marie's brother, Rev. Anthony Patik, for many years served in a variety of capacities in Papua and Australia (Humenik 1999). It's uncertain how much the two Patik's collaborated and the exact timeline for Sr. Claire Marie's involvement in Papua New Guinea is unclear. Regardless, she not only taught at Catholic Elementary Mission School and Malala Catholic Secondary School , but was in charge of writing and printing the textbooks needed by her students (CHM 2021, Humenik 2005).

In 1967 Sr. Clair Marie co-authored a paper, with M.J. Smith and M.A. Rosinski, which reported their findings regarding the cell wall composition of four taxa in the fungal genus Ceratocystis (Smith et al. 1967). Sister Claire Marie Patik is represented in the Putnam Museum and Science Center herbarium by 28 flowering plants. All of the plants were collected in the vicinity of Iowa City, Iowa during 1964. An additional 44 specimens collected by Sr. Claire Marie may be perused via the iDigBio specimen database.

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CHM. 2021. Sister Claire Marie Patik. Congregation of the Humility of Mary. Davenport, Iowa.

Humenik, John M. (ed.) 1999. The Rev. Anthony Patik. Quad City Times. Davenport, Iowa. November 17, 1999. p. 17. column 1.

Humenik, John M. (ed.) 2005. Sr. Claire Marie Patik, CHM. Quad City Times. Davenport, Iowa. April 5, 2005. p. 19. column 4.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1946. Baccalaureate is set Sunday for Catholic schools. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 11. columns 3 & 4. May 29, 1946.

Patik, Claire Marie. 1968. The Mini-Bloc: Chance and Challenge for Independent Study. Proc. Iowa Acad. Science. 75(1):39-348.

Patik, Claire Marie. 1972. Given: The Chance. Iowa Sci. Teachers Jrnl. 9(4):4-8.

Smith, Marilynn J. Smith, Sister Claire Marie Patik, & M. A. Rosinski. 1967. A Comparison of Cellulose Production in the Genus Ceratocystis. Mycologia. 59(6):965-969.

Tbel. 2020. Sr. Claire Marie Patik. Find a grave. Provo, Utah. Yager, Robert E. & Delma E. Harding. 1975. Science Teaching and the Iowa Academy of Science. Proc. Iowa Acad. Science. 82(1):48-51.

Patterson, Harry Norton (1853 - 1919)

Harry Norton Patterson was the eldest of three children born to Edwin and Laura Patterson in Oquawka, Illinois. Harry's father (Edwin Howard Norton Patterson) published the Oquawka Spectator, a newspaper established by Harry's grandfather, John B. Patterson. Edwin Patterson moved to Colorado and became the editor of the Colorado Miner about the end of July 1873 (see "Daily Colorado Miner masthead here), so it was about that year that Harry Patterson assumed a more active role in the control at the Spectator (Ancestry.com 2022, Chapin 2012, Downing 2007, Scott 1910, Edgar Allan Poe Society 2016).

Harry became a formal partner with his grandfather in the ownership of the newspaper in 1880 (Scott 1910, Selby et al. 1911). Harry and Florence Annie Beaty (photographs here.) were married in February 1883, Grandfather Patterson retired from the newspaper business, and from that point forward the married couple ran the newspaper and printing business together (Kibbe 1953, Pence 1912, Scott 1910).

Harry was evidently an adherent to temperance and in 1886 he and the newspaper switched political allegiance from the Democratic Party to the National Prohibition Party. Though that move dealt the newspaper (and the family) a serious financial blow, they continued to publish in opposition to alcohol consumption (Scott 1910, Selby et al. 1911). But Harry was also a botanist.

He evidently got his start as a naturalist, while hiking through the Oquawka countryside and observing nature with his father. In his mid-teens he started assembling a checklist of the plants of the region and published the first edition of it prior to his 20th birthday (see Patterson 1874a). Soon thereafter, Harry proposed to distribute a monthly circular "devoted to the publication of a Catalogue of Plants of Illinois" (Patterson 1874b). The circular requested from botanists the names of plant species and varieties growing in Illinois. He sought and received George Engelmann's assistance with the flora of Illinois growing adjacent to St. Louis (Patterson 1874c&d), but the amount of input Harry received from other botanists is unknown. Regardless, Harry published the "Catalogue of the phaenogamous and vascular cryptogamous plants of Illinois: native and introduced" two years after the circular's inception (Patterson 1876).

Over time, Harry not only amassed an impressive collection of plants from the Oquawka area, Colorado (Patterson 1885), and other states, but he cultivated an important list of connections with prominent North American botanists (like Asa Gray, George Engelmann, Edward L. Greene, E.J. Hill, Charles C. Parry, Cyrus Pringle (Pringle 1884), and many others).

So, in addition to editing the Spectator, Harry and Florence developed an extensive cadre for whom they printed botanical labels. In fact, even though their anti-alcohol campaign proved to be a funding pitfall, the printing business grew as they accepted orders to print card indices for the John Crerar Library in Chicago, plant labels and check lists for a number of botanists, and general print orders for other merchants and the like. When the paper terminated publication in January 1908, the printing work orders kept a considerable team of printers employed (JSTOR 2013, Kibbe 1953, Selby et al. 1911).

Asa Gray honored Harry Patterson by naming a milk-vetch Astragalus pattersonii and in his description of the plant Gray stated, "the only flowering specimens seen were collected by Mr. H. N. Patterson, for whom it is named, in the foot-hills of Gore Mountains, Colorado" (Gray 1878, Schneider 2016). Additionally, Patterson's bindweed or dawnflower, one of Illinois' endangered plants (Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board 2015) was named Stylisma pickeringii var. pattersonii (Fernald & B.G. Schub.) Myint in honor of Patterson's collection of the type specimen (Myint 1966).

Harry sold his impressive personal herbarium to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago prior to his death (JSTOR 2013, Kibbie 1953). The breadth of his collecting and locations from which they were obtained is clearly illustrated by the information available via iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases. An 1882 specimen of Fimbristylis autumnalis collected by H.N. Patterson in the Oquawka area is the sole representative of Harry in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

An interesting side note to Harry Patterson's story is that his father (Edwin), was well known in his own right. He and Eugene Field were associates of Edgar Allen Poe and the pair tried to coax Poe into moving to Oquawka. Patterson and Poe discussed financing Poe's dream of publishing a literary magazine, he wished to call "The Stylus". But before the publishing details were finalized, Poe died of alcohol poisoning (Edgar Allan Poe Society 2016, Schneider 2016). A nice history of the establishment of the Patterson family in Oquawka, which describes the work of Edwin Patterson and his father in that town is given in "The history of Mercer and Henderson Counties" (Mercer & Henderson County Historical Societies 1882).

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Harry N. Patterson. Patterson Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Chapin, Ron. 2012. Harry N. Patterson. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Downing, Doug. 2007. E.H.N. Patterson. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Edgar Allan Poe Society. 2016. Edwin Howard Norton Patterson. Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore.

Gray, Asa. 1878. Astragalus pattersoni, new species. in Brandegee, T.S. The flora of southwestern Colorado. p. 235 of 248.

Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board. 2015. Checklist of Illinois endangered and threatened animals and plants. Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board. Springfield, Illinois. 18 pp.

JSTOR. 2013. Patterson, Harry Norton (1853 - 1919). Global Plants.

Kibbe, Alice L. 1953. Afield with plant lovers and collectors. Carthage College. Carthage, Illinois. pp. 1-4 of 565.

Mercer and Henderson County Historical Societies. 1882. The history of Mercer and Henderson Counties. H.H. Hill & Company, publ. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 692-694 of 1414.

Myint, Tin. 1966. Revision of the Genus Stylisma (Convolvulaceae). Brittonia 18(2):97-117.

Patterson, Harry N. 1874a. A list of plants growing in the vicinity of Oquawka, Henderson County, Ills. Oquawka Spectator Print. Oquawka, Illinois. 18 pp.

Patterson, Harry N. 1874b. Cataloque of the Plants of Illinois circular. Oquawka, Illinois. 1 p.

Patterson, Harry N. 1874c. Letter to George Engelmann. Oquawka, Illinois. November 16, 1874.

Patterson, Harry N. 1874d. Letter to George Engelmann. Oquawka, Illinois. December 7, 1874.

Patterson, Harry N. 1876. Catalogue of the phaenogamous and vascular cryptogamous plants of Illinois: native and introduced. Spectator Print. Oquawka, Illinois. 54 pp.

Patterson, Harry N. 1885. Colorado Flora. Collection of 1885. 151 species and varieties. Price for complete set, $11.25, delivered. 1 p. Oquawka, Ills.

Patterson, Harry N. 1892. Patterson's numbered check-list of North American plants north of Mexico. H.N. Patterson, publisher. Oquawka, Illinois. 158 pp.

Pence, Kingsley Adolphus. (compiler) 1912. The History of Judge John Pence and Descendants. Denver, Colorado. p. 42 of 126.

Pringle, Cyrus. 1884. Pringle's distribution of 1884: Flora of Arizona and Sonora. H.N. Patterson, printer. Oquawka, Illinois. 3 pp.

Schneider, A. 2016. Patterson, Harry Norton (1853-1919). Biographies of scientists and explorers. in Wildflowers, ferns, & trees of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, & Utah.

Scott, Franklin William. 1910. Newspapers and periodicals of Illinois 1814-1879. Illinois State Historical Library. Springfield, Illinois. pp. 267 & 268 of 610.

Selby, Paul, Newton Bateman, & James W. Gordon. (eds.) 1911. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Hancock County. Vol. 2. Munsell Publishing Co. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 707 & 708 of 905.

Peck, Charles Horton (1833 - 1917)

Charles H. Peck, a son of Joel B. and Pamelia Horton Peck, was born at the end of March 1833 in Sand Lake, New York, about ten miles east of Albany. His father (and his grandfather) ran a sawmill that provided planking and other building materials for the construction trade in Albany. So, it's not surprising that when Charles was old enough (about age 14) and strong enough to be helpful, he worked at the sawmill during the warm months and attended school during the winter (Burnham 1919, Harsha 1891, Johnson 2009 a&b). In 1851 Charles enrolled at the Albany State Normal School (now SUNY University at Albany), where he took his first formal, though non-credit, class in botany from Prof. James H. Salisbury, physician and inventor of the salisbury steak (Harsha 1891, Kelly & Burrage 1920).

Peck completed one year of the two-year program, then in the fall of 1852, he accepted a position with a school district in Rensselaer County, New York (Ballard 2001, Harsha 1891). Apparently teaching lacked appeal, because in the summer of 1853 Charles left that post in favor of a clerking position in a country dry goods store. The clerkship lasted about four months, when a period of ill health forced him to return home to recuperate (Harsha 1891).

Evidently Charles' employment experiences taught him that a quality education would result in a career for which he was better suited, so he attended Sand Lake Collegiate Institute to prepare for his post-secondary education studies. Charles enrolled in Union College at Schenectady in the fall of 1855 (Harsha 1891), where he once again studied botany (in the classroom and the field), this time under the instruction of Prof. Jonathan Pearson. (Pearson was an interesting chap, who began his career at Union College in 1836 as a tutor. At various times during his following years at the college he served as a professor of agriculture, botany, chemistry, mathematics, and natural history. Prof. Pearson even served as the college's treasurer and held the position of librarian (Alexander 1883, Cutter 1907, Pearson 1828-1875)).

Charles graduated from Union College in 1859 and subsequently accepted a position teaching botany, the classics, and mathematics at his alma mater, Sand Lake Collegiate Institute. During his tenure at Sand Lake Institute, Peck continued his studies at Union College and earned an M.A. in 1862 (Burnham 1919, Harsha 1891). He remained at Sand Lake until the fall of 1863 when he moved, with his spouse (Mary), to Albany, New York, to take a position at the State Street High School (a private institution also known as Albany Classical Institute and Cass' Academy) teaching bookkeeping, Greek, and Latin (Atkinson 1918, Burnham 1919, Harsha 1891, NYSM 2017, Petersen 1980).

His teaching career in Albany lasted until the private high school was closed and sold in 1867. Charles had been volunteering in the herbarium of the State Cabinet of Natural History and had made the acquaintance of Judge George W. Clinton. Clinton was an avid botanist/naturalist in Buffalo, New York and he helped Peck secure the position of botanist with the New York State Museum of Natural History in May 1868, with an initial stipend of $1500.00 (Atkinson 1918, Both & Ortiz-Santana 2010, Harsha 1891, NYSM 2017, Petersen 1980).

The New York State Botanist position was created in 1883 and Peck was appointed to it. He remained there until his retirement in 1915, with one of his significant accomplishments being the dramatic expansion of the New York State Herbarium, including the addition of approximately 36,000 of his own specimens (Atkinson 1918, Burnham 1919, Slack 2001).

Charles Peck was a hardworking, teetotaling, Darwin denying, devout Presbyterian (Kuo 2015), who contributed significantly to bryology, mycology, and organismal botany in general. His published "reports of the state botanist" (e.g. Peck 1904-1907) served as important reference materials for studying the flora of New York (Bessey 1914). Not long after being appointed state botanist, Peck was encouraged by his friend Elliot Calvin Howe to become involved in the investigation of the fungi of North America. It was then that Peck, with identification help from Howe in Troy, New York and Moses Ashley Curtis in North Carolina, began a distinguished career as a mycologist (Both & Ortiz-Santana 2010, NYSM 2017).

Charles Peck authored many papers entitled "New species of fungi" (e.g. Peck 1881, 1900) and described in the neighborhood of 2700 new taxa (Kibbe 1953, Slack 2001). He sometimes summarized large groups (e.g. Peck 1889) and, on at least one occasion, authored a work on the economic importance of fungi (Peck 1897). Peck was even the author of a couple of floras that included vascular plants (e.g. Peck 1880 & 1899). In recognition of his "faithful labors and high attainments in the realm of Science and for long and fruitful service" Charles Peck was awarded an honorary D.Sc. from Union College in 1908 (Burnham 1919). He continued his work until failing health forced him to stop in early 1913 and he perished in July 1917 (NYSM 2017).

Traveling by rail, stagecoach, buggy, buckboard, and/or shoe leather, Charles Peck investigated the plant biota of much of the state of New York. During his career Peck described over 2700 new fungal taxa, published over 4000 pages of text, and collected about 36,000 specimens (Gilbertson 1962, Haines 1986). As a tribute to Peck's work in the field of mycology, several genera were named in his honor: Chapeckia, Peckia, Peckiella, Neopeckia, Peckifungus.

Four specimens collected by Peck from near Albany, New York are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Hundreds of additional Peck collections may be reviewed using the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Alexander, George. 1883. Sketch of Jonathan Pearson. in Pearson, Jonathan. 1883. A History of the Schenectady Patent in the Dutch and English Times. Joel Munsell's Sons Printers. Albany, New York. pp. xv-xvii of 466 + i-xvii.

Atkinson, Geo. F. 1918. Charles Horton Peck. Bot. Gazette 65:103-108.

Ballard, Allen. 2001. The Albany Normal School - history. University at Albany. Albany, New York.

Bessey, Charles E. 1914. A notable botanical career. Science 40:48.

Both, Ernst E. & Beatriz Ortiz-Santana. 2010. Clinton, Peck and Frost - the dawn of North American Boletology. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. 39:11-28.

Burnham, Stewart H. 1919. Charles Horton Peck. Mycologia 11:33-39.

Cutter, William Richard. 1907. Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic Genealogical Society: 1880-1889. Vol. 8. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 301-302 of 475.

Gilbertson, Robert L. 1962. Index to Species and Varieties of Fungi Described by C. H. Peck from 1909 to 1915. Mycologia 54(5):460-465. Haines, J.H. 1986. Charles Peck and his contributions to American Mycology. Mycotaxon 26:17–27. (On the lefthand side click journals, then click Mycotaxon.)

Harsha, David Addison. 1891. Noted living Albanians and state officials, A series of biographical sketches. Weed, Parsons, and Company. Albany, New York. pp. 325-330 of 644.

Johnson, Carl. 2009a. Charles H. Peck. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Johnson, Carl. 2009b. Joel B. Peck. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Kelly, Howard A. & Walter L. Burrage. 1920. American medical biographies. The Norman, Remington Company. Baltimore, Maryland. pp. 1014 & 1015 of 1320.

Kibbe, Alice L. 1953. Afield with plant lovers and collectors. Carthage College. Carthage, Illinois. pp. 490-492 of 565.

Kuo, Michael. 2015. The evolution of a Great-Big Headache: "Understanding" mushroom taxonomy and phylogeny. MushroomExpert.com

NYSM. 2017. Charles Peck. New York State Museum. Albany, New York.

Pearson, Jonathan. 1828-1875. Diary of Jonathan Pearson, 1833. Schaffer Library. Archives & manuscripts. Union College. Schenectady, New York.

Peck, Charles H. 1880. Plants of the summit of Mt. Marcy. Seventh report on the Adirondack Region of New York. State of New York. Albany, New York. No. 8. pp. 139-412.

Peck, Charles H. 1881. New species of fungi. Bot. Gazette 6:274-279.

Peck, Charles H. 1889. Boleti of the United States. Bull. New York State Museum. Vol. 2. No. 8. pp. 71-166.

Peck, Charles H. 1897. Mushrooms and their use. Cambridge Botanical Supply Company. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 80 pp.

Peck, Charles H. 1899. Plants of North Elba: Essex County, N.Y. Bull. New York State Museum. Albany, New York. Vol. 6. No. 28. pp. 65-237.

Peck, Charles H. 1900. New species of fungi. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 27:14-21.

Peck, Charles H. 1904-1907. Report of the State Botanist. New York State Museum. Albany, New York. 572 pp.

Petersen, Ronald, H. 1980. Charles Horton Peck. in Vogelenzand, L. (ed.) Annual Reports of the State Botanist (1868-1912). Vol. 1 (1868-1877). 1980 reprint. Booerhaave Press. Leiden, Netherlands.

Slack, Nancy G. 2001. Peck, Charles Horton (1833-1917). in Rothenberg, Marc. (ed.) The history of science in the United States: an encyclopedia. Garland Publishing. New York City, New York. pp. 431-432 of 615.

Peck, Emma (1869 - 1889)

Emma Peck was an 1887 graduate of Davenport High School (Labath 2012) and it appears she was preparing to enter the teaching field the year after her high school graduation, because her name is listed as a student in the "county normal" activities (Forrest 1888). Her name was again listed in 1889 as a registrant from Davenport in the Scott County teachers' institute (Forrest 1889). An article dated September 17, 1889 reported that the "Committee on Teachers" recommended to the Davenport School Board "the appointment of Miss Emma Peck to F room No. 5 ... (Richardson 1889)". No additional information about Emma Peck's life has been uncovered, because she perished September 27, 1889 (C. 2014c) and no obituary for Ms. Peck has been located.

Amanda "Amy" (Peck) Toll (1878-1918), Anna Peck (1867-1951), Augusta Peck (1866-1923), Emma Peck (1869 - 1889), Carl Peck (1831-1887), and Maria Peck, nee Wendt, (1848-1890) were all interred in the same section and lot of the Fairmount Cemetery in Davenport, Iowa. The inscriptions on Carl and Maria's headstones are "Father" and "Mother", respectively (C. 2014 a,b,&c). Anna and Augusta were listed as sisters in the obituary of Amanda Peck Toll (spouse of Rudolph Toll) and Anna Peck was mentioned as a surviving sister in Augusta's obituary (Leader Company 1898, Hardman 1918, & Cram 1923). Anna Peck's obituary mentioned three sisters that predeceased her (Leysen 1951). Given the preceding bits of information, it's at least plausible that Carl and Maria Peck were the parents of Amanda, Anna, Augusta, and Emma. Even so, the aforementioned kinship proposal requires further verification.

Edward Decker (class of 1891), Edwin Farber (class of 1892), Naomi Melville (class of 1891), Emma Peck (class of 1887), Inez Rabell (class of 1888), John Randall (class of 1886), Anna Richter (class of 1890), and Edith Ross (class of 1886) were Davenport High School graduates who have herbarium specimens preserved at the Putnam Museum (Labath 2012). Evidently during the 1880s and 1890s at least some Davenport High School seniors completed science projects that involved assembling a personal herbarium.

Fifty-two herbarium specimens donated to the Putnam Museum herbarium by Ms. Anna Peck list Emma Peck as the collector.

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C., Tom & Carol. 2014a. Amanda "Amy" Peck Toll. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

C., Tom & Carol. 2014b. Peck gravesites. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

C., Tom & Carol. 2014c. Emma Peck. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Copyright Office. 1918. Catalogue of copyright entries: Class D - Dramatic compositions. Part 1, group 2. New series. Vol. 15. No. 8. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. pp. 1260 & 1268 of 1611.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1923. Heart trouble causes death of Miss Peck. Quad-City Times. April 29, 1923. p. 21.

Downer, Harry, E. 1910. History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa. Volume 1, part 2. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 938-939 of 1026.

Forrest, W.H. (business mngr.) 1888. The second day of county normal. Davenport Morning Star. July 31, 1888. page 8.

Forrest, W.H. (business mngr.) 1889. The final day. Davenport Morning Star. July 9, 1889. page 3.

Leader Company (publisher) 1898. Have gone east. Daily Leader. May 29, 1898. p. 7.

Leysen, Ralph J. (ed.) 1951. Death notices - Peck. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 2-b. column 2. January 16, 1951.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1918. Death notices. Daily Times. September 11, 1918. p. 7.

Labath, Cathy (coordinator). 2012. Scott County: Iowa School Records . IAGenWeb Project. Davenport High School Class Listings.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1889. Board of Education. Democrat-Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 3. September 17, 1889.

Peck, James H. (1948 - 20XX)

James Peck, a son of William and Ellenlouise Peck (Ancestry.com 2022), grew up in Davenport, Iowa and earned the Ph.D. at Iowa State University. His path to earning the doctorate was strongly influenced by his introduction to Dr. Ludwig Guldner in 1957, who at that time was in the process of finishing his flora of the Quad Cities region. Dr. Guldner took time to introduce the fledgling naturalist, Jim Peck, to the flora of the Davenport area on plant collecting field trips and in the Davenport Public Museum (now the Putnam Museum and Science Center). After graduate school James went to work for the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse and then he accepted a position as a professor of botany at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, which he retained until his retirement (Guldner 1960, Hanson 1979, Peck 1980, pers. comm. Dr. Stewart Peck, University of Arkansas 2012).

Peck's first publication "Pteridophyte Flora of Iowa" (Peck 1976) and his dissertation "Life history and reproductive biology of the ferns of Woodman Hollow, Webster County, Iowa" (Peck 1980) were indicative of the direction in which his research career headed. Dr. Peck was particularly interested in the natural history of the pteridophytes of Arkansas and Iowa (Peck 1982, Peck & Buck 1978, Peck & Peck 1988, Peck et al. 1989). In addition to ferns and fern allies, he co-authored several papers on the flora of various counties in Iowa (e.g. Peck et al. 1978, 1980, 1981, & 1984) and, though Prof. Peck's research efforts tended toward things botanical, he did not tie himself to plants exclusively.

James Peck's foray into the field of zoology began as a junior high school student in Davenport. Then, during his Davenport Central High School career, he won local, state, and national honors for research completed on the sphinx moths of Scott County (Bills 1962,1963 a&b).

As an adult, Dr. Peck co-authored a series of papers describing various aspects of the fur-bearing mammal pelt harvest in Arkansas (e.g. Clark et al. 1985, Heidt et al. 1984, Peck & Heidt 1985) and he collaborated with his brother, Stewart Peck, on a study of the invertebrate fauna of a cave in Arkansas (Peck & Peck 1982). A subset of his scholarly publications is listed below, but a comprehensive tally of Dr. James H. Peck's research history is available at via Google Scholar and/or ScholarWorks@UARK.

Two specimens of swallow-wort (Cynanchum nigrum = Vincetoxicum nigrum) and one of a snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) were collected by "Jimmie Peck" in Davenport, Iowa and are on file in the Putnam Museum herbarium. A large number of additional collections made by Dr. Peck (especially pteridophytes) may be reviewed via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2022. James H. Peck. 1950 United States Federal Census. Davenport, Scott County, Iowa. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1962. Science top prizes to RI High. The Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa p. 3A. column 4. April 1, 1962.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1963a. Science papers. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa p. 20. column 1. March 21, 1963.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1963b. Davenport youth gives paper in Ohio. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa p. 39. columns 4 & 5. October 24, 1963.

Clark, J.D., G.A. Heidt, T. Sheldon, & J.H. Peck. 1985. Analysis of Arkansas Fur Harvest Records-1942-1984: III. Harvest-Price Relationships. Jrnl. Arkansas Acad. Sci. 39:89-91.

Guldner, Ludwig F. 1960. The Vascular Plants of Scott & Muscatine Counties. Davenport Public Museum, Davenport, IA. 228 pp.

Hanson, Robert W. 1979. Annual Report of the Iowa Academy of Science 1978-79. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 86:106-120.

Heidt, Gary A., James H. Peck, & Lew Johnston. 1984. Analysis of Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) Fur Harvests in Arkansas. Jrnl. Arkansas Acad. Sci. 38:49-52.

Peck, J.H. 1976. The pteridophyte Flora of Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 83(4):143-160.

Peck, J.H. 1980. Life history and reproductive biology of the ferns of Woodman Hollow, Webster County, Iowa. Ph.D. dissertation, Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

Peck, J.H. 1982. Ferns and fern allies of the Driftless Area of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Milwaukee Publ. Museum Contr. Biol. and Geol. 53: 1-140.

Peck, J.H. & W.R. Buck. 1978. The Selaginella apoda complex in Iowa. Amer. Fern Jrnl. 68:29.

Peck, J.H. & C.J. Peck. 1988. Distribution, abundance, status, and phytogeography of log ferns (Dryopteris: Woodsiaceae) in Arkansas. Jrnl. Arkansas Acad. Sci. 42(1):74-78.

Peck, J.H., L.J. Eilers, & D.M. Roosa. 1978. The vascular plants of Fremont County, Iowa. Iowa Bird Life 48:3-18.

Peck, J.H. & G.A. Heidt. 1985. Model to Predict Arkansas Gray Fox Fur Harvests. Jrnl. Arkansas Acad. Sci. 39:92-94.

Peck, J.H., B.W. Haglan, L.J. Eilers, D.M. Roosa, & D. Vander Zee. 1984. Checklist of the vascular flora of Lyon and Sioux counties, Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 91:92-97.

Peck, J.H., T.G. Lammers, B.W. Haglan, D.M. Roosa, & L.J. Eilers. 1981. A checklist of the vascular flora of Lee County, Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 88: 159-171.

Peck, J.H., J.C. Nekola, & D.R. Farrar. 1989. Five pteridophytes new to Iowa. Amer. Fern Jrnl. 79: 28-29.

Peck, J.H., D.M. Roosa, & L.J. Eilers. 1980. A checklist of the vascular flora of Allamakee County. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 87:62-75.

Peck, S.B. & J.H. Peck. 1982. Invertebrate fauna of Devils Den, a sandstone cave in northwestern Arkansas. Jrnl. Arkansas Acad. Sci. 36(1):46-48.

University of Arkansas. 2012. Budget for 2011/2012. University of Arkansas. Little Rock, Arkansas.

Peck, Stewart (1942 - 20XX)

Stewart B. Peck, is the elder son of a son of William and Ellenlouise Peck (Ancestry.com 2022). The young "Brothers Peck" were the same, but different. Both were bitten by the "science enthusiast" bug at an early age, but each harbored unique interests.

It seems that Stewart's interest in science first surfaced when he was in junior high, because then 12-year-old Stewart submitted a "want ad" offering to "exchange rocks, minerals or fossils" (Fulton 1954). In 1956 Stewart won an award in the Quad-City Science Fair with his beetle collection and by the next year Stewart had added speleology and chiropterology to his existing interests in entomology and geology (De Mouth 1957). In 1958 he won a "one-week cruise on a Navy vessel" for the research project he entered in the Quint-City Science Fair (Kilmer 1958) and the following year his "Contributions to Speleo-zoology" project earned him an entry in the National Science Fair in Hartford, Connecticut (Fulton 1959). In 1960 Stewart duplicated his success of the previous year and presented his findings from research he completed on the "Fauna of Wind Cave", South Dakota at the National Science Fair held in Indianapolis, Indiana and at the National Speleological Society meeting in Carlsbad National Park, New Mexico (Fulton 1960 a&b)

Stewart's future, like that of his younger brother James, was strongly influenced by his work with Dr. Ludwig Guldner at the Davenport Public Museum. He served as an assistant to Dr. Guldner on field trips in the 1950s to the Wapsipincon River, Big Sand Mound natural area, and other points that were part of Guldner's work on the flora of the Quad Cities region (Guldner 1957 & 1960). Dr. Peck credited what he learned from Guldner as being an important foundation that led to his future as a researcher and teacher (pers. comm. Dr. Stewart Peck).

Stewart enrolled at St. Ambrose College in the fall of 1960 (Fulton 1960c) and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1964 (St. Ambrose Univ. Alumni Assoc. pers. comm.). The capstone to Peck's education was the Ph.D. he earned from Harvard University (Peck 1971a & 1973). Following graduate school, Stewart Peck accepted a position at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and he is currently a Professor Emeritus with that institution (Carleton University 2018).

As a speleologist, Stewart Peck was intrigued by cave-dwelling invertebrates, an interest that led him to excursions across the western hemisphere and resulted in a series of publications addressing the "invertebrate fauna of tropical American caves" (e.g. Peck 1971b, 1974, 1975). A scan through Dr. Peck's publication history (Google Scholar 2018, Research Gate 2018) reveals his commitment to the study of the Coleoptera of the world. Beetles in caves, beetles in forest litter, common beetles, rare beetles, fungus-eaters, and those that are scatophagous, were all part of Dr. Peck's research interests (e.g. Newton & Peck 1975, Peck 1968, 1971a, 1973). But he was not limited to the living! He collaborated with his wife, Jarmila Kukalová-Peck, on a project dealing with fossil insects from the late Pennsylvanian stratum of New Mexico's Carboniferous Period (Kukalová-Peck & Peck 1976) and he was involved in an investigation of fossil beetles found in California's La Brea tar pits (Miller & Peck 1979).

Professor Peck stepped away from his work on beetles to co-author a study of gut parasites hosted by a cave salamander (Dyer & Peck 1975) and he continued his departure from Coleoptera with some work on the Galapagos Islands. That foray led him away from beetles to the study of other Arthropods, such as millipedes (Shear & Peck 1987), flying insects (Peck 1992), parasitic lice (Palma & Peck 2013), cockroaches (Peck & Roth 1992), and spiders (Gertsch & Peck 1992). An additional contribution was a collaboration that assembled a concise description of the Galapagos Archipelago's endemism, biodiversity, and climatic and geological histories (Tye et al. 2002).

Dr. Stewart Peck's 15,000+ insect specimens, primarily beetles of various types, in the iDigBio specimen database, serve as a testament to his pan-global collecting career. He started by collecting ants from Cape Cod in 1970 and the next year he accumulated specimens in northern Venezuela, as well as Oaxaca and Puebla in southern Mexico. In 1972 he spent the first three months of the year back in South America doing field work in Colombia and Peru, followed by a bit of time in Canada's provinces of Ontario and the Northwest Territories. By August he was in Belize and then he spent December in Jamaica collecting beetles. In 1973 he went to Papua New Guinea, followed by another reconnaissance mission to Jamaica — all interspersed by various collecting trips within the United States. His specimens — including ants, wasps, beetles, and bees — came from localities in North America, South America, the Arctic, Africa, the Galapagos Islands, and points beyond, so assembling a complete travelogue here would be lengthy and pointless. Suffice it to say, Dr. Stewart Peck is well traveled.

Dr. Peck is included here because of single specimen of Senecio plattensis (= Packera plattensis (Nutt.) W.A.Weber & Á. Löve) present in the Putnam Museum herbarium that he collected in May of 1956 near Buffalo, Iowa. A large number of additional specimens, all of which are insects, collected by Dr. Stewart Peck are available for inspection via the iDigBio database.

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Stowert [sic] Blaine Peck. Iowa Department of Health - Certificate of Birth. Davenport, Scott County, Iowa. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Carleton University. 2018. Stewart Peck, professor emeritus. Department of Biology. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

De Mouth, Wayne (ed.) 1957. Bats, beetles, books, and boy. Democrat-Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 15. columns 1-4. December 1, 1957.

Dyer, William D. & Stewart B. Peck. 1975. Gastrointestinal parasites of the cave salamander, Eurycea lucifuga Rafinesque, from the southeastern United States. Canadian Jrnl. Zoology. 53(1):52-54.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1954. Boys and girls want ads. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 21. column 7. October 19, 1954.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1959. Quad-City News. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 24. columns 7&8. May 6, 1959.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1960a. 2 area students enter national science fair. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 13. columns 1-4. May 10, 1960.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1960b. Honeymooners will join trip to cave meet. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 3. column 1. May 20, 1960.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1960c. Sixty-nine from area enroll at St. Ambrose. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. columns 1&2. August 25, 1960.

Gertsch, W. J. & S.B. Peck. 1992. The pholcid spiders of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (Araneae: Pholcidae). Canadian Jrnl. Zoology. 70(6):1185-1199.

Google Scholar. 2018. Publications of Stewart B. Peck. Google LLC. Mountain View, California.

Guldner, L.F. 1957. Expense reports. Document archive. Putnam Museum and Science Center. Davenport, Iowa.

Guldner, L.F. 1960. The vascular plants of Scott and Muscatine Counties. Davenport Public Museum, Davenport, IA. 228 pp.

Jarmila Kukalová-Peck, Jarmila & Stewart B. Peck. 1976. Adult and Immature Calvertiellidae (Insecta: Palaeodictyoptera) from the Upper Palaeozoic of New Mexico and Czechoslovakia. Psyche 83(1):79-93.

Kilmer, Forrest. 1958. Science fair winners. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 11. columns 5 & 6. March 29, 1958.

Miller, S.E. & Peck, S.B. 1979. Fossil Carrion Beetles of Pleistocene California Asphalt Deposits, with a Synopsis of Holocene California Silphidae (Insecta: Coleoptera; Silphidae). Trans. San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist. 19:85-106.

Newton, A. & Peck, S.B. 1975. Baited pitfall traps for beetles. The Coleopterists Bulletin. 29(1):45-46.

Palma, R.L. & S.B. Peck. 2013. An annotated checklist of parasitic lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) from the Galapagos Islands. Zootaxa. 3627(1):1-87.

Peck, Stewart B. 1968. Natural history of Alabama cave Ptomaphagus beetles: A progress report. Bull. Nat. Speleological Soc. 30:32.

Peck, Stewart B. 1971a. A systematic revision and the evolutionary biology of the Ptomaphagus (Adelops) beetles of North America (Coleoptera; Leiodidae; Catopinae). Ph.D. Thesis. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Peck, S.B. 1971b. The invertebrate fauna of tropical American caves, part I: Chillibrillo Cave, Panama. Ann. Speleol. 26:423-437.

Peck, Stewart B. 1973. A systematic revision and the evolutionary biology of the Ptomaphagus (Adelops) beetles of North America (Coleoptera; Leiodidae; Catopinae), with emphasis on cave-inhabiting species. Bull. Museum Comp. Zoology. 145:29-162.

Peck, S.B. 1974. The invertebrate fauna of tropical American caves, part II: Puerto Rico, an ecological and zoogeographic analysis. Biotropica 6:14-31.

Peck, S.B. 1975. The invertebrate fauna of tropical American caves, part III: Jamaica, an introduction. Int. Jrnl. Speleology 7:303-326

Peck, Stewart B. 1992. The dragonflies and damselflies of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (Insecta: Odonata). Psyche 99:309-321.

Peck, S.B. & L.M. Roth. 1992. Cockroaches of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, with descriptions of three new species (Insecta: Blattodea). Canadian Jrnl. Zoology. 70(11):2202-2217.

Research Gate. 2018. Publications of Stewart B. Peck. Berlin, Germany.

Shear, W. A. & S.B. Peck. 1987. Millipeds (Diplopoda) of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Canadian Jrnl. Zoology. 65(11):2640-2645.

Tye, A., H.L. Snell, S.B. Peck, & H. Adsersen. 2002. Outstanding terrestrial features of the Galapagos Islands. in R. Bensted-Smith (ed.). A biodiversity vision for the Galapagos Islands. Charles Darwin Foundation and World Wildlife Fund. Puerto Ayora, Galapagos. pp. 25-35 of 141.

Peters, Sister Joseph Marie (1903-1978)

Bernice Peters was born in Dunlap, Iowa. She was the eldest of David and Margaret Cecilia Peters' eleven children (Ancestry.com 2024, Gartner 1978). As a youngster, Bernice apparently enjoyed writing and she published two short stories in a Council Bluffs, Iowa newspaper (Peters 1913 a&b). By age 12 she had become an accomplished pianist and was performing at various public gatherings (New Nonpareil Co. 1915, 1916).

It appears that Bernice attended the local schools in the vicinity of Dunlap until 1920. At that time she enrolled in a private college operated by the Sisters of Humility of Mary in Ottumwa Heights, Iowa, known as Visitation Academy (Conner 1920, Wise 2017).

She entered the Congregation of the Humility of Mary sometime before 1935 and selected her name in religion as Sister Joseph Marie (Cram 1935, Curtis 2013). She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from St. Ambrose College in 1935 (Cram 1935) and a master's degree from the University of Iowa in zoology. Sister Joseph served as an elementary teacher in Davenport, Des Moines, and Melrose, Iowa (Gartner 1978).

She was selected to teach biology at Marycrest College, when the school was established in 1939 (Cram 1939) and she then moved on to the biology department at Ottumwa Heights Junior College and served as the chair of the department for a time (Wilson 1964). For five years prior to her retirement in 1971, Sister Peters taught at Drake University (Des Moines Register 1966, Gartner 1978, Young 1966). Sister Joseph Marie was a member of the Iowa Academy of Science (Getchell 1949).

Sister Joseph Marie Peters is included among this collection of biographies, because nineteen plant specimens, which were originally part of the Marycrest College herbarium, are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. They were collected by her during the summer of 1959 and all, save one, are flowering plants from the state of Arizona (e.g. Desert Willow - Chilopsis linearis). Regrettably, specific collection location data are missing from most of the specimens.

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Ancestry.com. 2024. Bernice Marie? Peters. Goebel Peters Primary Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Conner, R.P. (manager) 1920. Dunlap items. The Denison Review. Denison, Iowa. section 3. p. 1. column 1. September 15, 1920.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1935. Graduates to assemble at Sacred Heart. The Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. columns 1&2. May 24, 1935.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1939. Faculty for new college is announced. The Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 13. column 4. March 23, 1939.

Curtis, Sister Micheline. 2013. Sister stories: Sister Ann Leahy. Congregation of the Humility of Mary. Davenport, Iowa.

Des Moines Register. 1966. Des Moines newcomers. The Des Moines Register. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 16. column 1. October 14, 1966.

Gartner, Michael. (ed.) 1978. Sister Joseph Marie Peters. Des Moines Register. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 2b. column1. March 28, 1978.

Getchell, R. W. 1949. Report of membership committee. Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science. Vol. 56(1):42-43.

New Nonpareil Co. 1915. The Farmers' Club picnic a success. The Evening Nonpareil. Council Bluffs, Iowa. p. 1. column 6. August 23, 1915.

New Nonpareil Co. 1916. The Riverside Farmers' Club. The Evening Nonpareil. Council Bluffs, Iowa. p. 2. column 2. January 16, 1916.

Peters, Bernice. 1913a. Charley's pets. The Nonpareil. Council Bluff, Iowa. p. 11. column 5. January 12, 1913.

Peters, Bernice. 1913b. A disobedient boy. The Nonpareil. Council Bluff, Iowa. p. 14. column 7. June 29, 1913.

Wilson, Howard B. (ed.) 1964. Scientist to visit club April 28. Carroll Daily Times Herald. Carroll, Iowa. p. 4. column 4. April 25, 1964.

Wise, Ryan. (director) 2017. Accreditation Report: Interim state evaluation - Indian Hills Community College. Iowa Department of Education. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 2 of 11.

Young, Gordon. 1966. At institute on prejudice. Des Moines Tribune. p. 10. columns 2-4. November 29, 1966. photo of Sr. Joseph Marie.

Petersen, P. C. (1936 - 1997)

Peter "Pete" Petersen (photo here, p. 7) was born in December 1936 in Davenport, Iowa to Peter and Paula Petersen. Pete Jr. married Mary Lou Peterson in 1962 and couple remained residents of the Quad Cities area until their deaths (Ancestry.com 2022, Petersen 2015). Pete was an only child; he and Mary Lou had no children (Ancestry.com 2022).

Pete's career as an avid birder began when he suffered a broken leg in grade school. The damage was so severe and the healing process so protracted, that he was incapable of participating in most athletic activities. He became interested in birds as a way to pass the time from the confines of his bed and, with the encouragement of his parents, a life-long commitment to the feathered world began (Bielema 1997, Cook 1994, Oppenheimer 1997).

Petersen graduated from Iowa State University in 1958 with a bachelor's degree in zoology and wildlife management. After working in Davenport at Crescent Macaroni and Cracker Company and Thompson-Hayward Chemical Company, Petersen decided that education and ornithology were more to his liking. He joined the staff at the Davenport Public Museum as curator of natural history and then became director of education. He was also the staff ornithologist at the Deere-Winman House in Moline, Illinois. Pete was perhaps best known for his "Wild Bird Shop", which opened in East Davenport in 1983. As a birder, Petersen gave 100s of presentations, made field trips to various localities in the United States as well as to over 30 other countries, such as Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Guatemala (Cook 1994, Willard 1997).

Pete, as an expert on birds of the Quad Cities region, was active in the local chapter of the Audubon Society, the Illinois Bird Banding Association, the Iowa Ornithologists' Union, and the Wilson Ornithological Society. He recorded 3669 avian species on his life list (378 he had seen in Iowa), banded 101,470 birds from 2567 species, and participated in 242 Christmas Counts. Pete appeared on over 50 local television programs to promote interest in birding and conservation, compiled the lists for the annual Christmas Counts in the Quad Cities area, assembled a variety of field checklists (e.g. Dismore et al. 1984, Petersen & Fawks 1977) and documented the habits of the Quad Cities' bald eagle population (Barker 1986, Bielema 1997, Oppenheimer 1997). A comprehensive collection of Mr. Petersen's correspondence and reports regarding all things ornithological is available online through Iowa State University (Avian archives of Iowa 2022).

Twenty-six plant specimens collected by P.C. Petersen from seven different states are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. In addition, during the 1960s and 1970s, Pete contributed a number of local bird specimens to the ornithology collection of the Putnam Museum (Putnam Museum & Science Center 2017). A large collection of documents, photographs, scrapbooks, and sketchbooks associated with the life of Peter C. Petersen, Sr. (Pete's father) are also preserved at the Putnam Museum (Putnam Museum & Science Center 2015).

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Peter Christian Petersen Jr. Flores-Quinn Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Avian archives of Iowa. 2022. Petersen, Peter C. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

Barker, Ann M. 1986. Meet an Iowa ornithologist: Peter C. Petersen. Iowa Bird Life. 56:2-5.

Bielema, Ross. 1997. Bird expert's life list ends at 3,669. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 8s. columns 1-6. July 16, 1997.

Cook, Linda. 1994. The birdman of the Q-C. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 10J. columns 1-6. March 13, 1994.

Dinsmore, J.J., T.H. Kent, D. Koenig, P.C. Petersen, and D.M. Roosa. 1984. Iowa Birds. Iowa State University Press. Ames, Iowa.

Oppenheimer, Laura. 1997. Bird expert Pete Petersen always focused on interests. Davenport Democrat and Leader. July 16, 1997. p. 1A.

Putnam Museum & Science Center. 2015. Pete C. Petersen, Sr. Collection 1997-60 Dates: 1869 - 1968. Putnam Museum & Science Center. Davenport, Iowa.

Putnam Museum & Science Center. 2017. History and background of the collections. Putnam Museum & Science Center. Davenport, Iowa.

Petersen, Peter C. 2015. Peter C. Petersen papers, 1916-1996.

Petersen, P.C. 1979. Birding Areas of Iowa Iowa Ornithologists' Union.

Petersen, P.C, and E. Fawks. 1977. A Field List of Birds of the Quad City Region. Davenport: Quad City Audubon Society.

Willard, John. 1997. 'Bird man of Davenport' loses battle against cancer. Quad City Times. Davenport, Iowa. section M. p. 1. column 1-4. July 13, 1997.

Philip, Marta (1870 - 1896)

Marta H. Philip, a daughter of Jacob M. and Frieda Philip of San Francisco, California, was born in Hamburg, Germany. She had a sister, Helen, and a brother, Martin (Ancestry.com 2022, De Young 1894 & 1914). Prior to his death in November 1894 (Morning Call 1894), Jacob was an insurance underwriter and became one of the principals of Philip, Speyer, & Company, a fire insurance agency (Langley 1881). Helen, like one of the major contributors to the Putnam Museum herbarium, Edith A. Ross, was a fine china artist. Helen D. Philip's name began appearing in San Francisco newspaper articles and in the San Francisco Directory in the 1890s as she and other members of the California Keramic Club, exhibited and sold various pieces of porcelain artwork (e.g. De Young 1892 & 1895, Crocker-Langley 1896 & 1899). Frieda Philip, who was predeceased by her husband and both daughters, survived until December 23, 1914 (De Young 1914).

Marta Philip was one of the graduates "of the normal class of 1889 of the Girls' High School" in San Francisco. She received a "first-grade certificate", which entitled her to "teach in any county of the State" (Hearst 1889). Marta perished June 5, 1896 of tuberculosis and was buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery (Shortridge 1896b). That burial ground no longer exists and the remains interred there were moved to other locations (Ancestry.com 2022, Find a grave 2005).

The Golden Gate Kindergarten Association was established in 1879 by Phoebe A. Hearst (mother of newspaper publisher, William Randolph Hearst (Hearst Castle 2017)) and Jane Lathrop Stanford (co-founder of Stanford University (Stanford University 2017)) in an effort to help disadvantaged children in the San Francisco area (Hartwig 2010). (The number of impoverished students was estimated to be in excess of 16,000 in 1894 (see p. 38 of Blake 1894)). Marta was an active member of the Association (Blake 1894, Cooper 1894) and acknowledged for her donations to it (GGKA 1889 & 1890).

Ms. Philip was a talented photographer and maintained a studio on Sutter Street in the northeastern section of San Francisco (Crocker-Langley 1896). Marta contributed greatly to the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association's exhibit at the World's Fair in Chicago and she was praised for the quality of her photographic work in the Association's reports (Blake 1894, Cooper 1894, Morning Call 1893). Marta displayed her work in the California Camera Club's annual print exhibition at the California Academy of Sciences in March 1896 (Shortridge 1896a), but she perished just ten weeks later (Shortridge 1896b). One of Marta Philip's photographs, titled "The Busiest Day of the Week" was published on page 24 of the December 1, 1895 issue of the San Francisco Call (Shortridge 1895).

One hundred plants from California in the Putnam Museum herbarium (including one of California pipevine) were collected by Marta Philip. Each was part of the herbarium assembled by Edith A. Ross and subsequently donated to the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. Since Philip advertised with the Agassiz Association for plant exchange (Ballard 1887) and Edith Ross was a member of the Association (Holzinger 1892), it is conceivable that an acquaintanceship developed and plants were exchanged between the two women via that society.

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Ancestry.com 2022. Mortuary record of the city and county of San Francisco. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ballard, Harlan H. (ed.) 1887. Exchanges. The Swiss Cross, a Monthly Magazine of Popular Science. 1(3):120.

Blake, Henry W. (ed.) 1894. Progress of the movement: San Francisco, California. The Kindergarten News. 4:20.

Cooper, Sarah B. (president). 1894. Success of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Exhibit. 15th Annual Report of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association. Geo. Spalding and Company. San Francisco, CA. pp. 37 & 72.

Crocker-Langley. 1896. San Francisco Directory. H.S. Crocker Company. San Francisco, California. p. 1261.

Crocker-Langley. 1899. San Francisco Directory. H.S. Crocker Company. San Francisco, California. p. 1920.

De Young, M.H. (proprietor) 1892. The Ceramic Club - A display of decorative art work. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California. p. 3. column 3. November 30, 1892.

De Young, M.H. (proprietor) 1894. Deaths - Philip. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California. p. 12. column 5. December 1. 1894.

De Young, M.H. (proprietor) 1895. A specimen leaf of the Goethe-Schiller calendar. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California. p. 3. columns 4 & 5. October 25, 1895.

De Young, M.H. (proprietor) 1914. Died - Philip. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California. p. 4. column 8. December 24, 1914.

Find a grave. 2005. Laurel Hill Cemetery (Defunct). Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

GGKA. 1889. Further donations. Golden Gate Kindergarten Association. 10th Annual Report. San Francisco, California. pp. 168-170 of 186.

GGKA. 1890. Further donations. Golden Gate Kindergarten Association. 11th Annual Report. San Francisco, California. pp. 174-176 of 192.

Hartwig, Daniel. 2010. Guide to the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association Records. Online Archive of California. Stanford University Libraries. Stanford, California.

Hearst Castle. 2017. Phoebe Apperson Hearst. Hearst Castle. San Simeon, California.

Hearst, W.R. (ed.) 1889. They are teachers now. The Daily Examiner. San Francisco, California. p. 3. column 2. May 29, 1889.

Holzinger, John M. 1892. Reports - First Quarter. The Observer. 3:192, 222, 224.

Langley. 1881. San Francisco Directory The Directory Publishing Company. San Francisco, California. p. 760 of 1170.

Morning Call. 1893. Golden Gate Kindergarten receives the Exposition Award. The Morning Call. San Francisco, California. p. 8. column 3. December 5, 1893.

Morning Call. 1894. Births - Marriages - Deaths. The Morning Call. San Francisco, California. p. 9. columns 5 & 6. December 5, 1893.

Shortridge, Charles M. (ed.) 1895. In Childhood's Realm. San Francisco Call. Vol. 79. No. 1. March 24, 1896. Page 24. Columns 2-4.

Shortridge, Charles M. (ed.) 1896a. Amateur photography: Display of prints by California Camera Club. San Francisco Call. Vol. 79. No. 115. March 24, 1896. Page 10. Column 3.

Shortridge, Charles M. (ed.) 1896b. Births, marriages, deaths. San Francisco Call. Vol. 80. No. 6. June 6, 1896. Page 15. Column 7.

Stanford University. 2017. A history of Stanford. Stanford University. Stanford, California.

Pieper, Sister Bernadine Elizabeth (1918-2000)

Bernadine Elizabeth Pieper, the oldest child of Frank and Mary Pieper, was born February 21, 1918 in Mt. Hamill, Iowa (Ancestry.com. 2024, Humenik 2000, Social Security Administration 2024, Tbel 2020). Little about Bernadine's early life has been uncovered other than she grew up on a farm near Mt. Hamill and she St. John High School in Houghton, Iowa (Ancestry.com. 2024, Humenik 2000, Leysen 1942). In 1938 Bernadine became part of the Congregation of the Humility of Mary (Humenik 2000) and her chosen name in religion was Sister Mary Benita. Later in her career Sister Bernadine published a history of the women who were the "Sisters of the Humility of Mary" (Pieper 1978).

Sister Mary Benita continued her education at Ottumwa Heights College (Ottumwa, Iowa), and earned her bachelor's degree from Marycrest College in 1942. She completed a master’s degree program at St. Louis University and then continued her education at the University of Iowa and earned the Ph.D. in 1952. She also completed post-doctoral work at several universities in the United States (Bills 1966a, Humenik 2000, Leysen 1942 & 1952, Peiper 1952 & 1953).

Sister Mary Benita joined the Marycrest College science faculty in 1943 (Leysen 1943). She eventually was selected to be the Chair of the Division of Science and Mathematics at the college and she held that position 22 years (Arland-Fye 1997, Bills 1965). She relinquished the department chair, when she was chosen to lead the Sisters of the Humility of Mary as superior general (Bills 1966b). During her career the sister assumed many roles. She retained the superior general position for 10 years, sat on the Marycrest College Board of Trustees, and accepted the position of president of Ottumwa Heights College (Arland-Fye 1997, Gartner 1977, Kilmer 1971 & 1972).

Sister Mary Benita used her name in religion and she was referred to using that name in documents published prior to 1968. From 1968 and going forward, she exchanged her name in religion for her baptismal name and was referred to as Sister Bernadine Pieper. The reversion to her baptismal name was made possible by decisions made by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Levandoski 2020).

Sister Bernadine helped oversee the consolidation of Ottumwa Heights College with Indian Hills Community College, a move that served to maintain the level of quality education at an affordable cost (Harpster 1979). In 1979 she took on an administrative role with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization with regional headquarters in Des Moines (Simbro 1982). Sister continued her work with AFSC until the early 1980s, when she relocated to Maloy, Iowa and began work with the South Central Catholic Community (Gannon 1986, Lucas 1993).

While Sister Bernadine was living in Maloy, the Catholic Church acquired a plot of land that was an abandoned railroad right of way. Sister Bernadine and Father John Zeitler began a prairie reconstruction plan intended to transform the right of way into a plot that would reflect the pre-settlement vegetation of the Maloy area. In May 1989 locally harvested seeds were sown and seedlings were transplanted to establish the JZ Prairie and Grove (later renamed the Old Railroad Prairie and Grove) on the east side of Maloy. In April 1993 the prairie was burnt for the first time to reduce woody invaders and help maintain the desired nature of the prairie (Becker 2011).

Sister Bernadine Pieper is included among this collection of biographies, because nearly 350 plant specimens (e.g. Shinleaf - Pyrola elliptica)in the Putnam Museum herbarium were collected by her. (The collector listed on each is Sister Mary Benita.) Her herbarium specimens may be perused online via the SEINet database.

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Ancestry.com. 2024. Bernadine Elizabeth Pieper. Winnike-Nichting Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Arland-Fye, Barb. 1997. God is with us, God is with me. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4m. columns 1-5. October 4, 1997.

Becker, Sharon R. 2011. Ringgold County biographical files: Sister Bernadine Elizabeth Pieper. IAGenWeb Project.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1965. Marycrest to host science seminar. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 17. columns 6-7. December 7, 1965.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1966a. Humility Sisters elect Davenporter. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 21. columns 5-7. June 28, 1966.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1966b. Marycrest fills post. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 8. column 4. September 9, 1966.

Gannon, James P. (ed.) 1986. D.M. Catholic Schools head elected to cabinet. Des Moines Register. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 12. column 4. August 23, 1986.

Gartner, Michael. (ed.) 1977. College head quits. Des Moines Tribune. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 4. column 4. May 14, 1977.

Harpster, Charles. 1979. Junior college merge OK'd for Ottumwa. Des Moines Register. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 12. column 3. January 12, 1979.

Humenik, John M. (ed.) 2000. Obituaries: Sister Bernadine Pieper, 81. Quad-City Times. p. 2m. columns 2-3. February 23, 2000.

Kilmer, Forrest (ed.) 1971. Marycrest plans event. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 7. column 1. March 10, 1971.

Kilmer, Forrest (ed.) 1972. New direction for 2 colleges. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 2. columns 1-2. March 23, 1972.

Levandoski, Michele. 2020. What’s in a name? School Sisters of Notre Dame. Baltimore, Maryland & Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1942. 110 Marycrest-St. Ambrose seniors will get degrees. Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. columns 2-5. May 28, 1942.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1943. Announce schedule for fifth year at Marycrest College. Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 10. column 3. September 9, 1943.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1952. Marycrest boasts four new doctors. Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 15. column 1. August 6, 1952.

Lucas, Mariene. 1993. Rural churches offer haven. The Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. p. 1b. columns 2-5. June 28, 1993.

Pieper, Mary Benita. 1952. Germ cell cycle of Spirorchis artericola, Ward, 1921 (Trematoda: Spirorchiidae). Ph.D. dissertation. University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa.

Peiper, Mary Benita. 1953. The Life History and Germ Cell Cycle of Spirorchis artericola (Ward, 1921). Jrnl. Parasitology. 39(3):310-325.

Peiper, Sr. Bernadine. 1978. Footprints: The story of the Sisters of Humility of Mary. Ottumwa, Iowa. 164 pp.

Simbro, William. 1982. Catholic nun feels at home with her job with Quakers. Des Moines Sunday Register. p. 7b. November 28, 1982.

Social Security Administration. 2024. Social security applications and claims index (1936-2007). Via Ancestry.com. 2024.

Tbel. 2020. Sr. Bernadine Elizabeth Pieper. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Porter, Thomas Conrad (1822 - 1901)

Thomas Conrad Porter was born January 22, 1822 in Alexandria, Pennsylvania to John and Maria Porter. In 1834 he began studies at Harrisburg Academy where he proved to be a talented athlete and an excellent student. Porter enrolled at Lafayette College in 1836 (age 14) and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1840. Thomas then continued his education at Princeton Theological Seminary and graduated in 1843, the same year he earned a Master's Degree from Lafayette College (Britton 1901, Harshberger 1899, Heller 1901, Princeton Theological Seminary 1847, Skillman Library 2009, Spengler-Moser 2013).

He became a licensed minister in 1844 and tended to his first flock at the Presbyterian Church of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Porter remained at Huntingdon for only a year and then served at the Presbyterian Mission Church in Monticello, Georgia until 1847. He left Georgia and, for a brief period, assisted theologian George Bethune in Philadelphia. In 1848 he became the pastor at the Second Reformed Church in Reading, Pennsylvania, but resigned in May of 1849 to follow a different calling (Britton 1901, Harshberger 1899, Miller 1905, Sargent 1892, Skillman Library 2009).

In 1849, Porter turned to a professional career as a scientist at Marshall College in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania (now Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania). There he assumed a teaching position made vacant the previous year by the resignation of Traill Green (Appel 1886) and Porter taught botany, chemistry, and zoology from 1849-1866 (Harshberger 1899, Sargent 1892, Skillman Library 2009). In the summer of 1866 Porter resigned his position at Marshall and accepted an academic post at Lafayette College, just as Traill Green had done before him (Appel 1886, Britton 1901, Harshberger 1899, Heller 1901, Skillman Library 2009).

Rev. Thomas C. Porter spent the rest of his professional career (1866-1896) at his alma mater teaching botany, geology, and zoology (Special Collections and College Archives 2016). Under his supervision, the herbarium grew vastly, with the collection's focus being on bryophytes and the general flora of Pennsylvania. Porter founded the Natural History Society at Lafayette College in 1863 with the goal of exploring and documenting the natural history of the region within a 20-mile radius of the school, as well as collecting specimens that could be exhibited on campus (Owen 1876). He was awarded an honorary D.D. from Rutgers University in 1865 and an LL.D. from Franklin & Marshall University in 1880 (Britton 1901, Skillman Library 2009).

Professor Porter completed a catalogue of the plants encountered by the 1871 U.S. Geological Survey of Montana and adjacent territories (Porter 1872b). He published the "Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado" with John M. Coulter in 1874, which relied heavily on collections made between 1861 and 1873 by C.C. Parry, E. Hall, J.P. Harbour, T.S. Brandegee, F.W. Hayden and others (Porter & Coulter 1874). Porter began his personal investigations of the flora of Pennsylvania in 1836, but did not publish "so that his State Flora might ultimately be essentially perfect." A laudable goal, but he died in April 1901, without having sent his flora to press. Fortunately, Rev. Porter made financial allowances in his will for the publication of his work, John K. Small agreed to edit the manuscript, and printing of the Flora of Pennsylvania began in 1903 (Porter & Small 1903). Other publications authored by T.C. Porter are listed below and may be found in Harshberger (1899) and Wilson & Fiske (1888).

Ten specimens (nine from Pennsylvania and one from New Jersey) collected by Thomas C. Porter are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. As mentioned above, though Porter's plant collecting focused on Pennsylvania, he botanized in a number of other locations, with Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado being regions of concentration outside the eastern U.S. (iDigBio specimen database). John Torrey dedicated the monotypic genus Porterella in the Campanulaceae to Rev. Porter (see Heller 1901 & p. 488 of Porter 1872b).

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Appel, Theodore. 1886. Recollections of college life at Marshall College, Mercersburg, Pa., from 1839 to 1845. Daniel Miller, printer & publisher. Reading, Pennsylvania. pp. 186-194 of 348.

Britton, N.L. 1901. Thomas Conrad Porter. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 28:369-373.

Harshberger, John William. 1899. The botanists of Philadelphia and their work. T.C. Davis & Sons. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 236-243 of 457.

Heller, A.A. 1901. Thomas Conrad Porter. The Plant World. 4:130-131.

Miller, Daniel. 1905. History of the Reformed Church in Reading, Pennsylvania. Daniel Miller - printer & publisher. Reading, Pennsylvania. pp. 225, 226, 254, 259 of 468.

Owen, W.B. 1876. Historical sketches of Lafayette College. in Coffin, Selden J. 1879. Record of the men of Lafayette. Skinner & Finch, printers. Easton, Pennsylvania. p. 45 & 63 of 71.

Porter, Thomas C. 1850. A list of plants collected by Mr. Culbertson. in McDermott, Francis John. (ed.) 1952. Journal of an expedition to the Mauvaises Terres and the Upper Missouri in 1850 by Thaddeus A. Culberson Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bull. 147. pp. 124-127 of 164.

Porter, Thomas C. 1869. An enumeration of indigenous and naturalize Plants found growing in the County of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. in Mombert, J.I. 1869. An authentic history of Lancaster County in the state of Pennsylvania. pp. 580-604 of 617 + appendix.

Porter, Thomas C. 1872a. Botany. in Walling, Henry F & O.W. Gray. 1872. New topographical atlas of the state of Pennsylvania with descriptions historical, scientific, and statistical. Stedman, Brown, & Lyon. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 25-26 of 110 + classified directory.

Porter, Thomas C. 1872b. Catalogue of plants. in Hayden, F.V. 1872. Preliminary report of the U.S. Geological Survey of Montana and portions of adjacent territories; being a fifth annual report of progress. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. pp. 477-498 of 538.

Porter, Thomas C. 1887. A list of the Carices of Pennsylvania. Proc. Philadelphia Acad. Nat. Sci. 39:68-80.

Porter, Thomas C. 1889. Notes on two Rhododendrons. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 16:220-221.

Porter, Thomas C. 1899. Flora of the Pocono Plateau. Rhodora. 1(10):182-185.

Porter, Thomas C. 1893. Aster Leiophyllus, n. sp. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 17:254-255.

Porter, Thomas C. & John M. Coulter. 1874. Synopsis of the flora of Colorado. Government Printing Office, Washington D. C. 180 pp.

Porter, Thomas Conrad & John Kunkel Small (ed.) 1903. Flora of Pennsylvania. Ginn & Company. Boston, Massachusetts. 362 pp. (see p. iii)

Princeton Theological Seminary. 1847. General catalog of the theological seminary. John T. Robinson. Princeton, New Jersey. p. 23 of 38.

Sargent, Charles Sprague. 1892. The Silva of North America. Houghton, Mifflin, & Company. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 28 of 141.

Skillman Library. 2009. Porter, Thomas Conrad. Papers, 1834-1903. Lafayette College. Easton, Pennsylvania.

Special Collections and College Archives. 2016. Thomas Conrad Porter Papers, 1855-1903. Lafayette College. Easton, Pennsylvania.

Spengler-Moser, Peggy. 2013. Rev. Thomas Conrad Porter. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Wilson, James Grant & John Fiske. (eds.) 1888. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 5. Pickering - Sumter. D. Appleton & Company. New York City, New York. p. 80 of 752.

Pratt, Lucy M. (1851 - 1930)

Lucy M. Pratt, born May 3rd, 1851 in Tremont, Illinois, was one of William Henry and Elizabeth Matilda Pratt's five children (four girls and a boy). The family moved to St. Charles and then Peoria, while William taught penmanship and accounting in various night schools (Gone Too Soon 2011a, Pratt 1861, Pratt 1894, Preston 1901). In 1857 the Pratt family left Illinois and settled in Davenport, Iowa, where William taught penmanship at Davenport Commercial College until the fall of 1865, when he became a penmanship instructor in Davenport's public school system (Preston 1901).

William Henry Pratt (Lucy's father, not his namesake the actor Boris Karloff) was one of the founding members of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences (Gone Too Soon 2011b, Preston 1901). He served as president and a curator for the organization, published several papers in the Davenport Academy's Proceedings, and he was an inventor (Pratt 1872, Preston 1901). As mentioned above, W.H. Pratt made a living, at least in part, by teaching penmanship. He also parlayed his skills as a calligrapher to create at least four works of art. William used differential shading of letters in the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to create portraits of George Washington. Applying the same technique, he also produced likenesses of Abraham Lincoln using the Emancipation Proclamation and of Ulysses S. Grant using the 1868 Republican Party platform (Mount Vernon 2018).

Lucy taught in Davenport's public grammar schools as well as the Teacher Training School and, following in her father's footsteps, she taught penmanship. Also like her father, Lucy Pratt was active in the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. She held the position of Recording Secretary in 1882, 1883, 1884, & 1885 (Pratt 1882-1884) and she sat on the library committee during 1879 and 1880 (Block et al. 1876, Harrison 1879-1881, Russell 1883).

Outside the school system and the Academy, Lucy was active in the Lend-a-Hand Club, an organization founded in 1886 to provide women working in downtown Davenport with clean and safe lodging, meals, and educational opportunities. Though the club was situated in a dicey area populated by brothels and other rough-and-tumble establishments (Archive and Manuscript Collections 2011, Wikipedia contributors 2021, Wood 2005), Ms. Pratt taught penmanship to women at the Club, an essential skill for merchants, clerks, and secretaries who needed to clearly record business and other professional transactions (Wood 2005). It seems likely that the involvement of the Davenport Academy of Sciences with Lend-a-Hand may have been due to Ms. Pratt's influence (Pratt 1890).

By 1893 Ms. Pratt, her parents and brother were living in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Gone Too Soon 2011a&b, Lucy Matilda Pratt 2017). Lucy was a music instructor in the Minneapolis School District at the time (McFadon 1893) and she spent most of her career teaching at Logan Elementary School. Lucy remained in that area until her death in 1930 (Gone Too Soon 2011a, McLain 1904, Lucy Matilda Pratt 2017).

A single specimen of Hippophae rhamnoides (Elaeagnus rhamnoides) collected from Davenport, Iowa by Lucy Pratt is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Archive and Manuscript Collections. 2011. Lend-A-Hand Club, Davenport, Iowa. Accession #1989-11. Davenport Public Library. Davenport, Iowa.

Block, Herman, Stibolt, J.P., & Daniel Gould (Directors). 1876. Rules and regulations, course of study, and annual reports of the Independent School District of the City of Davenport. Day, Egbert, & Fidlar. Davenport, Iowa. (in Putnam Museum of Science and Science Center. Document archive. Davenport, Iowa.)

Gone Too Soon. 2011a. Lucy Matilda Pratt. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Gone Too Soon. 2011b. William Henry "W.H." Pratt. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Harrison, Charles E. (secretary). 1879-1881. Regular meeting minutes. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 3:67, 107.

McFadon, O.E. 1893. Report of the supervisor of music. Sixteenth annual report of the board of education of the City of Minneapolis. p. 104 of 234.

McLain, J.S. (ed.). 1904. Public school staff for next school year. The Minneapolis Journal. Minneapolis, Minnesota. page 3, column 4. May 7, 1904.

Mount Vernon. 2018. Objects associated with William Henry Pratt. George Washington's Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Pratt, Lucy. 1882-1884. Report of the recording secretary. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 4:10-11, 214, 235-236.

Pratt, William Henry. 1861. Pratt Family Record. Personal letter transcribed by and in the possession of Tracy St. Claire.

Pratt, William Henry. 1872. Improvement in portfolios. U.S. Patent No. 129,589. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Pratt, William Henry. 1890. Work of the Academy in connection with the public schools. June 13, 1890. Regular meeting. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 6:290.

Pratt, Frankie L. 1894. Letter to Mrs. Putnam (January 4, 1894). in Papers of William Henry Pratt. Putnam Museum and Science Center. Document archive.

Preston, C.H. 1901. William Henry Pratt. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 7:ix-xiii.

Russell, Edward. (ed.) 1883. School Matters: Meeting of the board yesterday afternoon - petitions, reports, bills allowed, etc. Davenport Weekly Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. December 12, 1883. page 8. column 5.

Wikipedia contributors. 2021. Lend-A-Hand Club. in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Wood, Sharon E. 2005. The Freedom of the Streets: Work, Citizenship, and Sexuality in a Gilded Age City. University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. p. 80.

Price, Myrtle (1876 - 1959)

Myrtle Vivian Price (photo here), one of four children of John and Nancy (McGuire) Price, was born in Bowerstown (now Bowerston), Ohio (Deemer 2015a, Howe 1959, Weitzel 1940). The family moved to Albion, Nebraska in 1884 (Deemer 2015a), and Myrtle graduated from Albion's high school in 1892. She earned her B.A. in 1902 at the University of Nebraska and completed her Master of Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin in 1931 (Anonymous 1916, Weitzel 1940). Price attended the Harvard University summer school program in 1916, where she enrolled in the history curriculum (Robinson 1916) and she also completed graduate work at Columbia University (Weitzel 1940).

Myrtle began her teaching career in Albion High School in 1903 (Howe 1959) and continued in the district through May 1929 (Gaskill 1929). She was a principal for nearly 25 years and superintendent of schools for five years (beginning in 1923) at Albion High School in Albion, Nebraska (Gaskill 1930, Howe 1959, Weitzel 1940). In addition, she was a member of the Nebraska High School Debating League at Albion High School (Fogg 1908). Ms. Price also held positions in the educational systems of Schuyler, Scottsbluff, and Wayne, Nebraska (Hosman 1923, Towne et al. 1913).

Pringle, Cyrus Guernsey (1838 - 1911)

Cyrus G. Pringle, son of Louise and George Pringle, was born (May 1838) in East Charlotte, Vermont and grew up on a farm there. He attended the schools at Hinesburg and Bakersfield, Vermont, and later at Stanbridge, Quebec. After graduation he enrolled at the University of Vermont in 1859 (Nicholson 2001). Unfortunately, during his first semester at the university, his older brother died and, since his father was already deceased, Cyrus abandoned formal education and returned to the farm to help his mother (Davis 1936, Nicholson 2001).

As a young man, Pringle became an adherent of the Friends' (Quakers) religious (and pacifist) teachings. It was at meetings of the Friends that Cyrus met Miss Almira L. Greene of Starksboro, Vermont, whom he married on February 25th of 1863. Then on July 13th of the same year, Pringle and two other Quakers from the area (Lindley M. Macomber & Peter Dakin) were drafted into the Union Army for service in the Civil War (Davis 1936, Pringle 1918).

At the time, the Quakers' deep anti-war convictions were acknowledged and special allowances were made for those that were drafted. Conscientious objectors were assigned non-combat roles, such as working in hospitals, or any draftee could pay a $300.00 commutation fee (Murley 2013) and avoid the conflict all together. Pringle refused the offer of an uncle to pay the $300 fee, so he and the other two men eventually found themselves in an Army camp in Culpepper, Virginia. Cyrus was offered a position in an Army hospital, but he refused the assignment on the grounds that even war-related hospital work would violate his pacifist principles (Brainerd 1911, Pringle 1918). Though the trio was bullied, harassed, and incarcerated with groups of scoundrels, drunks, and other general malcontents, they steadfastly refused to serve. Equally, the army persisted in its attempt to gain their cooperation and the following excerpt (Brainerd 1911, see also Pringle 1918) depicts the Army's efforts to convince the men to accept hospital employment to serve the Union's cause:

"The brutal punishments resorted to compel the men to serve are a disgrace to our military history. The men were kept for days in the guard house with the vilest of the conscripts - thieves, gamblers, and men crazed by drink: they were forced to march with guns strapped to their backs. On October 3d Mr. Pringle was tied prone on the ground with cords about his wrists and ankles, in the form of the letter X. Thus he was left for hours, until "so weak he could hardly walk or perform any mental exertion." The corporal urged him to give up, or worse would follow; even death was threatened if he did not submit. Mr. Pringle's only reply was "it can but give me pain to be asked or required to do anything I believe to be wrong." His tormentors were amazed that he showed so little resentment - that he "wasn't the least bit ugly." With a will as unconquerable as that of Prometheus he simply endured, and was ready to endure even unto death."

"When the Secretary of War learned of the case, he ordered the three incorrigibles sent to Washington. They were there treated with marked consideration. Secretary Stanton told them that only his oath of office stood in the way of his giving them a discharge; he could only parole them indefinitely. But public discussion was so heated that this had to be deferred for a few weeks, and the men were sent to Douglas hospital to do merely nominal service. Even this life with all its freedom was irksome; he "longed to be released, if it be by imprisonment;" his physical strength began to give way, and for two weeks he was most of the time confined to the bed. On the 6th of November the Commissioner of Agriculture, Isaac Newton, who had taken a deep interest in the Quaker conscripts, presented their case to President Lincoln at the White House. Moved to sympathy he exclaimed to Newton, "I want you to go and tell Stanton that it is my wish all those young men be sent home at once."

"A little later, while Newton at the War Department was urging the Secretary to consent to the parole, the President entered. "It is my urgent wish," said he. The Secretary yielded, the order for the parole was given, and the men started that afternoon for New York."

It wasn't at all surprising that, once Cyrus was back in Vermont and his health had been restored, he returned to working with plants. Even as a young man Pringle was interested in horticulture. In 1857 he grafted buds of a desirable apple onto another species and the following year he established a nursery of fruit trees, currants, and potatoes (Davis 1936). So, between 1864 and 1880 Pringle spent most of his time as a horticulturist and plant breeder. He worked to generate new hybrids of corn, currants, grapes, oats, tomatoes, and wheat. There was a period of time when Pringle grew over 100 types of Iris and he even maintained a plant clinic (Brainerd 1911, Davis 1936).

During the 1870s Cyrus became more interested in the native plants of Vermont, owing to his involvement with the Massachusetts Horticulture Society in 1873. That society introduced him to botanists like Asa Gray, Daniel Eaton, and George Davenport, who were interested in joining him on field trips and/or receiving native plant specimens from him (Pringle 1897). During that decade Cyrus collected plants throughout Vermont, perhaps motived by his plant science acquaintances' hunger for specimens and perhaps due to his own desire to be away from his wife. It seems that Mrs. Pringle wanted to evangelize, while Mr. Pringle was far more inclined to botanize. The couple divorced in October 1877 (Davis 1936, Jones 1930).

Pringle made his first trip to the western part of the continent in 1880. On that trip he was given three assignments: (a) make general collections for Asa Gray, (b) collect specimens of wood from the western region that could be added to the Jesup Wood Collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (see Sargent 1885), (c) complete a general reconnaissance of the forests of the west (Brainerd 1911, Davis 1936). Though it was his first exposure to western North America, it was not his last.

Asa Gray's supply of plant information from Arizona for his Synoptic Flora of North America was inadequate, so he enlisted Pringle, who he nick-named "the prince of collectors" (Brainerd 1911), to collect specimens from there (Davis 1936). Judging from the collection dates on specimens present in the iDigBio database, most of Pringle's plant prospecting in Arizona for Asa Gray occurred from 1881 to 1884. Data specific to Pringle's activities in Arizona is available from Mauz (2014).

Again, judging from the collection dates on Pringle specimens in the iDigBio database, Pringle first made significant plant collections in Mexico in 1882 when he was part of party that discovered Rosa minutifolia Engelm. On that occasion Cyrus, with Charles C. Parry and Marcus Jones, ventured in Baja California, the aforementioned rose was located, and a botanical kerfuffle worth reading about ensued (Ertter 2001, Jones 193, Lenz 1982). Pringle's truly large-scale collecting in Mexico began during the 1885 season and he continued his comprehensive efforts there through 1909. Pringle initially used young men from Vermont and environs as assistants, but he soon learned they were unaccustomed to the challenging conditions common in Mexico and fell prey to infections that required their return to the Northeast.

He eventually hired local workers for help with collecting, pressing, and drying of the specimens. Daily collecting trips from the base camps were commonly arduous hikes of an hour or more, that required team members to carry food, plenty of water for coping with temperatures that were often high, and the bulky plant presses loaded with paper. Usually between 50 and 70 duplicates of several species were collected daily. While the field team was gone finding new material, a base camp contingent tended to the plant driers and presses that commonly held 500 to 1000 desiccating specimens (Brainerd 1911, Davis 1936, Nicholson 2001). Given that Pringle undertook 39 botanical expeditions to Mexico, some of which lasted 10 months, it's not surprising that about 155,000 of his collections were present in the University of Vermont's herbarium when he died in 1911 (Nicholson 2001).

Cyrus Pringle wasn't a wealthy man and he needed income to cover his day-to-day expenses, so he sold sets of plants he collected like his "Plantae Mexicanae". For example, he offered sets (126 species) of his 1886 Mexico collections for $10.00 — about $310.00 in today's money (see Morgan Friedman inflation calculator). But that wasn't his sole revenue source.

Cyrus was hired as a botanical collector for the Gray Herbarium (Nicholson 2001) and the Harvard Botanical Museum (salary of $800/year from the former and $200/year from the latter, if resources were available) (Davis 1936). The Harvard funding lasted until Asa Gray's death in 1888 and Sereno Watson's demise in 1892. With Watson's death, Pringle was forced to consider selling his personal herbarium to raise money for his livelihood and to fund further exploration in Mexico. But in October of that year Asa Gray's widow loaned him $1,026.11 (at 6% interest), so that he could avoid the sale of his collection. The loan went uncollected, because Mrs. Gray burned the agreement in honor of her husband and in 1893 Harvard reinstated at least part of Pringle's salary. From then on, Cyrus supplemented his Harvard salary with sales of duplicates of his collections and by collecting plants for pharmaceutical firms (Davis 1936, Nicholson 2001).

It's been estimated that during his 35-year career, Cyrus Pringle distributed over 500,000 specimens from 20,000 species to at least 40 herbaria around the world (Brainerd 1911, Nicholson 2001). One of those specimens is in the Putnam Museum herbarium: Asplenium ruta-muraria (Wall rue). It was collected by Pringle in Vermont and was donated to the Putnam Museum by Edith A. Ross. Other specimens from the Pringle Herbarium at the University of Vermont may be viewed using the links provided on the herbarium's website.

Two asides. One gets a special perspective of Pringle's thinking when reading his thoughts written in his own hand. Some of Cyrus' collecting notebooks (Pringle 1885-1909) and his agriculture journals (Pringle 1869) provide that unique frame of reference. From 2001 through early 2022 Red Hen Baking Company (Middlesex, VT) produced Cyrus Pringle Bread "to celebrate the Vermont wheat harvest and to support local farmers".

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Brainerd, Ezra. 1911. Cyrus Guernsey Pringle. Rhodora 13:225-232.

Davis, Helen Burns. 1936. Life and work of Cyrus Guernsey Pringle. Natural History Museum. University of Vermont. Burlington, Vermont.

Ertter, Barbara. 2011. Discovery of Rosa minutifolia Engelm. - "Ensenada Rose". The University and Jepson Herbaria. University of California. Berkeley, California.

Jones, Marcus E. 1930. Botanists whom I have known. Contrib. Western Botany. 16:43-44.

Lenz, Lee W. 1982. The Thorny Rose Affair: Discovery and Naming of Rosa minutifolia. Aliso 10(2):187-217.

Mauz, Katherine. 2014. The Arizona Botanical Catalogue of Cyrus G. Pringle (1881-1884). University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona.

Murley, Kevin. 2013. The Union commutation fee. Civil War History. Weblog.

Nicholson, Rob. 2001. The splendid haul of Cyrus Guernsey Pringle. Arnoldia 61:2-9.

Pringle, C. G. 1897. Reminiscences of botanical ramblings in Vermont. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 24:350-357.

Pringle, Cyrus Guernsey. 1885-1909. Cyrus Pringle Collection Notebooks 1885-1909. University of Vermont. Burlington, Vermont.

Pringle, Cyrus Guernsey. 1869. Agricultural Journal 1869-1875. Cyrus Pringle Collection Notebooks. Book 26. University of Vermont. Burlington, Vermont.

Pringle, Cyrus. 1918. The record of a Quaker conscience. Cyrus Pringle's diary. The MacMillan Company. New York. 93 pp.

Sargent, C.S. 1885. Jesup Collection: The woods of the United States. D. Appleton & Company. New York City, New York. 203 pp.

Rabell, Inez (1870 - 1890)

Ms. Rabell was born in December 1870 in Pennsylvania to Anthony and Catherine Rabell. She had one sibling, an elder sister, Zoe, who was also born in Pennsylvania (Ancestry.com 2022, Colleen "Family Finder" 2016). Cram (1917) mentioned another younger sister, Iven, but that appears to have been an error. Also from Ancestry.com (2022), we know that Anthony was a veteran of the Battles of Bull Run and Gettysburg during the Civil War. The family moved to Davenport, Iowa in 1880 (Cram 1917), but the reasons for that move are unknown.

Inez graduated from Davenport High School in 1888 (Labath 2012), but Zoe's name is not listed among the graduation records. Anthony Rabell (1835-1899), Catherine A. Rabell (1837-1917), Inez Rabell, and Zoe Rabell (1865-1889) are all buried in the same section and lot of the Oakdale Memorial Gardens in Davenport, Iowa.

Following her high school graduation, Inez completed the one-year program at the Davenport Teacher Training School in 1889. She accepted a position in the Davenport school system, but perished in August 1890 of the same ailment, inflammation of the pericardium, which claimed the life of her sister a few months earlier (Richardson 1890).

Randall, John H. (1867 - 1894)

John H. Randall was born in Iowa in 1867 to Henry and Rebecca Randall (Ancestry.com 2022, Merllene 2013b). John had an older sister, Jessie, and he graduated from Davenport High School in 1886 (Labath 2012). John continued his education by earning a law degree from the University of Iowa (Richardson 1888) and began his law practice in Davenport the following year (Richardson 1889a), but that tenure lasted only until the latter half of 1889.

In July 1889 John Randall was accused of attempting to extort $40.00 from the owners of "The Office" Saloon. It was alleged that "The Office" was illegally dispensing intoxicating beverages and Randall threatened an injunction against them unless they paid the aforementioned fee. Over the ensuing few months, Randall was threatened with disbarment by the Scott County Bar Association and a trial was undertaken (The Times Company 1889a). In early October Randall's defense attorney argued that the evidence presented "did not show that Randall ever threatened to accuse Moore & Hood [owners of "The Office"] of a crime". The judge agreed with the defense and dismissed the case (Richardson 1889b). A hearing to consider the propriety of allowing Randall to continue to practice law was set for December 10, 1889 (The Times Company 1889b), but no information about the outcome of that hearing has been located.

In August 1889 Mr. Randall entered into a law partnership in Omaha and the firm of Miller, Dick, and Randall was created (Daily World-Herald 1889 a&b). In 1890 he married Lotta Curtis and soon after their wedding, John and Lotta moved to Genoa, Nebraska. In Nebraska John continued practicing law and Lotta gave birth to a son, Worth, later in the same year (Ancestry.com 2022, Jenkins & Nichols 1898).

The first newspaper article mentioning Mr. Randall's connection to Grand Island, Nebraska appeared August 27, 1892. That snippet stated that the Randall family moved to Grand Island from Colorado and that John had established a law office with W.H. Sampson (Hedde 1892). He was referred to occasionally in articles about various court cases in Grand Island and he ran an unsuccessful candidacy for county judge in Hall County, Nebraska in 1893 (Williams 1893). John was an active member of the Knights of Pythias and the Fraternal Aid Association, two philanthropic organizations in the community (Hedde 1894, Richardson 1894).

In the morning of July 28th, 1894 John was apparently walking to a business appointment in Grand Island and, while crossing the tracks in the Union Pacific rail yard, he was struck and killed by a locomotive backing down the rails. It seems that Mr. Randall quickly stepped across one set of tracks to avoid a train, but failed to notice a locomotive approaching on the adjacent tracks from the opposite direction. His remains were transported to Davenport, Iowa, his former home, where they were interred (Anonymous 1894, Jenkins & Nichols 1898, Merllene 2013b, Richardson 1894). Nearly four years later, Mrs. Randall perished in Estherville, Iowa from complications brought on by appendicitis surgery (Jenkins & Nichols 1898, Merllene 2013a).

Edward Decker (class of 1891), Edwin Farber (class of 1892), Naomi Melville (class of 1891), Emma Peck (class of 1887), Inez Rabell (class of 1888), John Randall (class of 1886), Anna Richter (class of 1890), and Edith Ross (class of 1886) were Davenport High School graduates who have herbarium specimens preserved at the Putnam Museum (Labath 2012). Evidently during the 1880s and 1890s at least some Davenport High School seniors completed science projects that involved assembling a personal herbarium.

Randall is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by only a single specimen, that of Cypripedium pubescens (= Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens).

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Ancestry.com. 2022. John Henry Randall. Wolfe-Hutchinson-Tyrell Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1894. Killed by the Cars. Northern Vindicator. Estherville, Iowa. August 2, 1894. Listed in Merllene 2013b (see below).

Daily World-Herald. 1889a. Personal. Daily World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska. p. 8. column 5. August 18, 1889.

Daily World-Herald. 1889b. A murderer not ready to try — Lingonner acquitted. Daily World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska. p. 4. column 2. October 9, 1889.

Hedde, Fred (ed.) 1892. Local & personal. Grand Island Daily Independent. Grand Island, Nebraska. p. 4. column 1. August 27, 1892.

Hedde, Fred (ed.) 1894. Funeral of J.H. Randall. Grand Island Independent. Grand Island, Nebraska. p. 4. column 3. August 8, 1894.

Jenkins & Nichols. (publishers) 1898. Obituary: Lotta Curtis Randall 1870-1898. Emmet County Republican. Estherville, Iowa. p. 5. column 4. February 17, 1898.

Labath, Cathy (coordinator). 2012. Scott County: Iowa School Records . IAGenWeb Project. Davenport High School Class Listings.

Merllene. 2013a. Randall, Lotta Curtis. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Merllene. 2013b. Randall, John H. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1888. Items in Brief. Davenport Democrat-Gazette. page 1. column 6. June 24, 1888.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1889a. Personal. Davenport Democrat-Gazette. page 1. column 2. February 6, 1889.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1889b. Randall discharged. Davenport Democrat-Gazette. page 1. column 3. October 3, 1889.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1894. Funeral of J.H. Randall. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. page 1. column 3. July 31, 1894.

The Times Company. 1889a. John H. Randall bound over to answer the charge of attempting to extort money. Davenport Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. columns 1&2. July 22, 1889.

The Times Company. 1889b. The District Court. Davenport Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 4. November 19, 1889.

Williams, C.P.R. 1893. Abstract of vote: Cast at the general election held in Hall County, Nebraska, Tuesday, November 7. 1893. The Evening Times. Grand Island, Nebraska. p. 4. columns 1-4. November 8, 1893.

Ravenel, Henry William (1814 - 1887)

Henry W. Ravenel, a child of Henry and Catharine Ravenel, was born in May of 1814 at Woodville Plantation, South Carolina. In April of 1816 his father, Dr. Henry Ravenel, moved the family to Pineville in what is now Berkeley County, South Carolina (40-some miles north of Charleston). Moves of that nature were common among the wealthy as they tried to escape the perils of malaria during the summer months. Unfortunately, in June 1816 Henry William's mother, Catherine, died and he was sent to live with his paternal grandparents, René and Charlotte Ravenel.

Though his father remarried twice following Catherine's death, Henry (the younger) remained with his grandparents. Henry William's grandfather died in 1822 and his grandmother perished in November of 1826, at which time Henry (the elder) inherited the operation and turned his full-time attention to running the family plantation (Farlow 1887, Haygood 1987). That estate, named Pooshee (a name probably of Indian tribe derivation (Kirk 2016)), which now rests at the bottom of Lake Moultrie (South Carolina Plantations 2016b), was in fact one of eight plantations owned by the extended Ravenel family (Ravenel 1898).

So, Henry W. Ravenel called the 1200 acre Pooshee cotton and rice plantation home. He benefited from being born into an established upper social class that valued education and his schooling began at Pineville Academy in 1820. At age 15 he entered South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina), which had a student population of about 100 and a faculty of six. Henry, who was particularly interested in chemistry, mineralogy, and natural science, graduated number seven in his class of December 1832 (Farlow 1887, Haygood 1987, South Caroliniana Library 1995).

Following graduation, Henry W. joined the family enterprise, became a "planter", and ran Northampton plantation (purchased by his father) in St. John's Parish (present-day Berkeley County), South Carolina (Haygood 1987). Today Northampton, like Pooshee, lies at the bottom of Lake Moultrie (South Carolina Plantations 2016a). In 1835 Henry and Elizabeth Gaillard Snowden were married, established a residence in Charleston, and summered at their second home in Pinopolis, in an attempt to avoid the menace of malaria (Ancestry.com 2022, Haygood 1987).

In 1842 Henry became actively involved in the workings of the Black Oak Agricultural Society, an association organized to research and promote improved agricultural practices (Haygood 1987, Ravenel 1843). In 1850 he was a Strawberry Agricultural Society participant (J.B.I. 1850). By 1853 he had been named a curator of the newly formed Elliot Society of Natural History (Willington 1853) and his name often appeared in the Society's Proceedings in recognition of his contributions to it (Holmes 1853-1858). As a member of the Aiken Vine-Growing and Horticultural Society, Henry presented a paper on native and imported species of grapes, their cultivation, and use in winemaking (Ravenel 1859). Though he made a living via agriculture and was interested in many aspects of that field, Ravenel developed an increasingly profound interest in botany.

It seems that at some time in the early 1840s, a botanist by the name of Olmstead (Center for Digital Humanities 2009, Haygood 1987 - p. 33) met Ravenel and taught him the proper methods for collecting, drying, and storing native plant specimens (Haygood 1987, Taylor 1998). Henry's general interest in botany progressed and his maturation benefited from correspondence with botanists such as Asa Gray, Alvan W. Chapman, Moses A. Curtis, William Sullivant, and Edward Tuckerman. Eventually his interest in plants took a bit of a turn and morphed into a particular fondness for fungi (though his interest in flowering plants never dissolved completely).

Initially Ravenel struggled with several mycological problems — (a) the preservation of fungal specimens was difficult, because desiccation often resulted in disfigured specimens, (b) whiskey preservative, an alternative to desiccation, was expensive, (c) insects constantly tried to destroy collections, (d) seeing tiny morphological features was often difficult, because he had no microscope (Haygood 1987). In spite of the difficulties, Henry recognized he was participating in ground-breaking science, as evidenced by this quote from his May 17, 1856 letter to Edward Tuckerman. "We are all but pioneers in the present state of knowledge, and must be content to do the work of Pioneers in collecting together the materials upon which they who come after us, may be able to build with more success and permanence (Stevens 1932)." So, in spite of the problems, Henry continued to collect, his mycological skills improved, and he successfully completed the Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati in five volumes (Ravenel 1852-1860, Stevens 1932) prior to the Civil War.

Ravenel was drafted by, but did not serve in, the Confederate Army, because he "suffered from frequent attacks of dysenteria [sic], lumbago, and carbuncles" (South Caroliniana Library 1995). Though not involved in the conflict, Ravenel was financially devastated by the Civil War. In fact, in an August 26, 1865 letter to his friend Edward Tuckerman, Henry Ravenel wrote "I have lost all my property, and must henceforth seek some employment for the support of my family. ... The deplorable state of affairs can scarcely be appreciated. Accustomed as we have been in this new country to abundance of the necessaries of life, we had come to think of destitution and famine as evils only belonging to the old world. The reality has been brought home to us - and many a family who lived in affluence, now scarcely knows from day to day, the means of living (Stevens 1919)."

Post-war, he earned a living for his family by authoring articles for agricultural journals, editing "The Aiken Press" newspaper, and operating a nursery/seed business (Center for Digital Humanities 2009, Ravenel 1867 & 1874, Rural Carolinian 1871). Henry experimented with shipping peaches, grapes, and even asparagus (Stevens 1932), but perhaps most importantly, Ravenel resumed his plant collecting and mycological work following the war. In collaboration with Mordecai C. Cooke, he published the 8-volume Fungi Americani Exsiccati (Ravenel & Cooke 1878-1882) which, like Ravenel's pre-war Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati, was distributed widely (Nelson & Scott 2005).

In addition to his own work, Henry Ravenel contributed to the efforts of others. He was a major plant specimen donor to George Engelmann's Herbarium Juncorum Boreali-Americanorum Normale (Trelease & Gray 1887) and to Steven T. Olney's 5-part Carices Boreali Americanae, distributed in 1870 and 1871 (Center for Digital Humanities 2009). In 1869 Ravenel was called upon by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for his mycological skills.

Southern Cattle Fever, oft times called Spanish Fever, Texas cattle fever, and other things, was a scourge of the beef industry that seemed to not effect longhorn cattle driven from Texas to railheads in states farther north, but it wreaked a high death toll among infected other breeds common outside Texas. The problem had been known to exist in North America since the 1790s, but, lacking a cure, only quarantine efforts had been effective in preventing its spread (Pasquill 2012).

The investigation conducted by Ravenel and veterinarian John Gamgee was in response to a disaster spawned by Texas longhorns shipped to Illinois and Indiana in 1868. Thousands of cattle in those states were infected with and died from the Fever. Ravenel was involved in the inquiry, because it had been proposed that the disease was caused by a fungal pathogen that detrimentally effected the cattle or the grasses eaten by cattle (Center for Digital Humanities 2009, Gamgee 1871, Gee 1918, Mohler 1949, Pasquill 2012, Ravenel 1871). It was ultimately determined that neither fungi, nor grasses were involved in the disease. In reality Southern Cattle Fever, which remains a potential problem today, is caused by a protozoan transmitted to livestock by a tick. The tick vectors, native to India, the Middle East, and Mediterranean region, came to the United States with introduced, tick-infested cattle in the early 1800s (Giles et al. 2014, Guerrero et al. 2005, Mohler 1949, Pasquill 2012).

Ravenel's personal herbarium of approximately 6500 specimens, was originally housed at Converse College in Spartanburg. It has since been transferred to the A.C. Moore Herbarium at the University of South Carolina (Nelson & Scott 2005). Sixty-five specimens collected by Ravenel from the vicinity of Aiken, South Carolina are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. A few of the Putnam specimens were collected in 1866 or 1867, but most of them lack a specific collection date. Many additional specimens collected by Henry Ravenel may be viewed via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Dr. Henry William (Stevens) Ravenel. Ronda Young Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Center for Digital Humanities. 2009. Henry William Ravenel - Plants & Planter. University of South Carolina. Columbia, South Carolina.

Farlow, W.G. 1887. H. W. Ravenel. Bot. Gazette 12:194-197.

Gamgee, John. 1871. Professor Gamgee on the Splenic or Periodic Fever of Cattle. in Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture on the Diseases of Cattle in the United States. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. pp. 82-155.

Gee, Wilson. 1918. South Carolina botanists: Biography and bibliography. Bull. Univ. South Carolina. No. 72. pp. 38-41 of 51.

Guerrero, F.D., R.J. Miller, M.E. Rousseau, S. Sunkara, J. Quackenbush, Y. Lee, and V. Nene. 2005. BmiGI: A database of cDNAs expressed in Boophilus microplus, the tropical/southern cattle tick. Insect Biochem. & Molecular Biol. 35:585-595.

Haygood, Tamara Miner. 1987. Henry William Ravenel, 1814-1887: South Carolina Scientist in the Civil War Era. University of Alabama Press. Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 215 pp.

Giles, John R., A. Townsend Peterson, Joseph D. Busch, Pia U. Olafson, Glen A. Scoles, Ronald B. Davey, J. Mathews Pound, Diane M. Kammlah, Kimberly H. Lohmeyer, and David M. Wagner. 2014. Invasive potential of cattle fever ticks in the southern United States. Parasites & vectors. 7:189.

Holmes, F.S. (sec'y) 1853-1858. Proceedings Elliot Society of Natural History. Charleston, South Carolina. Volume 1.

J.B.I. 1850. The Strawberry Agricultural Society. Charleston Daily Courier. Charleston, South Carolina. p. 2. columns 5&6. April 29, 1850.

Kirk, F.M. 2016. Pooshee Plantation. Berkeley County Historical Society. Moncks Corner, South Carolina.

Mohler, John R. 1949. Tick Fever USDA. Farmers' Bull. No. 1625. 28 pp.

Nelson, John & Patrick Scott. 2005. Henry William Ravenel (1814-1887): South Carolina Botanist. The Ravenel Collection of Converse College. Thomas Cooper Library. University of South Carolina. Columbia, South Carolina.

Pasquill, Robert G. 2012. Arsenic and old bovine lace - History of the cattle tick eradication program in the South. U.S. Forest Service. National Forests in Alabama. Montgomery, Alabama. 397 pp.

Ravenel, Henry Edmund. 1898. Ravenel Records. The Franklin Printing and Publishing Co. Atlanta, Georgia.

Ravenel, Henry W. 1843. The first anniversary meeting of the Black Oak Agricultural Society. Charleston Daily Courier. Charleston, South Carolina. p. 3. column 7. March 2, 1843.

Ravenel, Henry W. 1859. H. W. Ravenel's remarks. Charleston Mercury. Charleston, South Carolina. p. 1. column 7. March 2, 1843.

Ravenel, Henry W. 1852-1860. Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati. Mycology Collections Portal. MyCoPortal. 2017.

Ravenel, Henry W. 1867. The Aiken Press. Charleston Daily News. Charleston, South Carolina. p. 3. column 3. January 21, 1867.

Ravenel, Henry W. 1871. Report on the fungi of Texas. in Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture on the Diseases of Cattle in the United States. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. pp. 171-174.

Ravenel, Henry W. 1874. Fertility of fruit trees and the rationale of fruit-bearing. Anderson Intelligencer from Rural Carolinian for October. Anderson Court House, South Carolina. p. 1. column 6. October 8, 1874.

Ravenel, Henry W. & Mordecai C. Cooke 1878-1882. Fungi Americani Exsiccati. Mycology Collections Portal. MyCoPortal. 2017.

Rural Carolinian. 1871. Ask for the March number of the Rural Carolinian. Charleston Daily News. Charleston, South Carolina. p. 2. column 6. February 27, 1871.

South Caroliniana Library. 1995. Henry William Ravenel Papers, 1739-1935. South Caroliniana Library. South Caroliniana Library. University of South Carolina. Columbia, South Carolina.

South Carolina Plantations. 2016a. Northampton Plantation - Lake Moultrie - Berkeley County.

South Carolina Plantations. 2016b. Pooshee Plantation - Lake Moultrie - Berkeley County.

Stevens, Neil E. 1919. Two Southern Botanists and the Civil War. The Scientific Monthly 9:157-166.

Stevens, Neil E. 1932. The Mycological Work of Henry W. Ravenel. Isis 18(1):133-149.

Taylor, David. 1998. South Carolina Naturalists: An Anthology, 1870-1860. Univ. South Carolina Press. Columbia, South Carolina.

Trelease, William & Asa Gray. (eds.) 1887. The botanical works of George Engelmann. Collected for Henry Shaw. John Wilson & Son. Cambridge, Massachusetts. p. 269 of 548 + plates.

Willington, A.S. 1853. Elliot Society of Natural History. Charleston Daily Courier. Charleston, South Carolina. p. 2. column 2. October 10, 1853.

Redfield, John Howard (1815 - 1895)

John H. Redfield, the eldest (and sole surviving) child of William C. and Abigail Redfield (née Wilcox), was born July 10, 1815. Abigail died in May 1819, when John was only four years of age and a year and a half later William married Abigail's cousin. But she perished in September 1821, so starting at age six and for a large part of his youth, John was raised by his father's cousin, Mary Churchill. Because William was frequently absent dealing with business concerns, "Cousin Mary" served as housemaid, teacher, and caretaker for John and his younger brother (Redfield 1860 & 1900, T.V.F.T.H. 2010).

The Redfields originally called Middletown, Connecticut home and it was there that John's education began in the area's public school. At the time of John's birth his father ran a country store and was in the business of making and repairing saddles and harnesses, but about 1824 William became interested in steam-powered boats.

He developed a steamboat and barge operation in New York that moved freight along the Hudson River. William married his third wife, Jane Wallace, in 1828 and he ultimately moved the entire family to New York City in 1834. During the interim, John continued his education in the Stamford, Connecticut system (Harshberger 1899, Redfield 1860, Youmans 1896) and he finished his secondary education in public and private schools (Canby 1895, Harshberger 1899, Redfield 1900).

J.H. Redfield was first gainfully employed in a dry goods store, but eventually (like his father) became involved in the river freight business. He became the New York representative of the Sureswift Line moving freight on the Hudson River (Redfield 1860). In August 1843 Mary Jane Whitney of Philadelphia married John Redfield and for a number of years John worked for A. Whitney & Sons — his father-in-law's rail car wheel making business (Canby 1895, Marsh 2011, Meehan 1895a, Redfield 1860).

John Redfield's interest in science was a product of several influences. His father, an active member of the American Association of Naturalists and Geologists (progenitor of AAAS), was an accomplished observer of meteorological phenomena. For example, his observations of Atlantic Coast hurricanes led to his description of rotational winds and other characteristics of the storms (Meehan 1895b, Redfield 1831 & 1842a, Youmans 1896). Additionally, William's pursuits in paleontology resulted in the publication of several articles on fossil fishes (Redfield 1841, 1842b, 1856).

John's interest in botany was attributed to his early use of Robert J. Thornton's "A Grammar of Botany" and to his introduction to Dr. John Torrey, whose chemistry lectures Redfield attended at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. John Redfield became a member of the New York Lyceum of Natural History in 1836, where he met and befriended Asa Gray, but, at least judging from his publication history, his head was not turned toward botany until later (Canby 1895, Harshberger 1899, Meehan 1895 a&b, Redfield 1900).

At any rate, John Redfield published his first paper in 1836, which addressed some of the fossil fish of Connecticut and Massachusetts (Redfield 1836). In that report he proposed the name Catopterus gracilis for a fork-tailed fossil fish with rhomboidal scales. Later, in the interest of clearing up some nomenclatural confusion generated by Redfield's choice of Catopterus, Hay (1899) moved Catopterus gracilis and five other fossil taxa into the genus Redfieldius (image here) "in honor of William C. Redfield and John Howard Redfield, father and son, two of the early students of American palaeichthyology". Currently Redfieldius and eight other genera are placed within the family Redfieldiidae and the order Redfieldiformes (Rees 2022).

With the Lyceum, Redfield was listed as the Recording Secretary and as a member of the Committee of Publication for a number of years. It was during his association with the Lyceum that John showed an interest in conchology, which was reflected in his series of publications that described several new species (Redfield 1848 a&b, 1852, 1858 a&b). In about 1846 John also became a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, but he was not mentioned in the Proceedings of that group until 1869 (Hays 1869).

Prior to the minutes of the April and May 1869 Philadelphia Academy meetings, no published indication of Redfield's change of scientific focus from conchology to botany emerged (Hays 1869). Redfield's first botanical publications appeared in the 1870s in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club (Redfield 1871).

John visited the Philadelphia Academy's herbarium from time to time, but he was not actively engaged in the plant collection until after the death of Elias Durand, the curator. So in the mid-1870s Redfield's business responsibilities were diminished and he began filling the vacant time with herbarium activities. Ultimately John became the Conservator of the Herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, which led to at least an acquaintanceship with a number of the leading botanists of his time, such as Townshend Brandegee, Charles C. Parry, Thomas C. Porter, John Torrey, and perhaps others (Marsh 2011, Meehan 1895a&b). His interests were varied and, though his publication record was not voluminous, Canby (1895) listed 54 scholarly works attributable to Mr. Redfield. His publications may also be accessed via Google Scholar.

He co-authored "Flora of Mount Desert Island, Maine - A preliminary catalogue of the plants growing on Mount Desert and the adjacent islands" with Edward Rand in 1894 (Rand & Redfield 1894) and another floristic snippet about Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket (Redfield 1885). Other papers dealt with specific plants, such as species of Aspidium, Scabiosa, Corema, Hieracium, and others (Canby 1895). George Vasey described a new genus in the Poaceae and named it Redfieldia (now considered a synonym of Muhlenbergia Schreb.) "for Mr. J. H. Redfield, the genial curator of the Herbarium of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences" (Vasey 1887).

Six dicot species collected by J.H. Redfield from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Hundreds of other plants collected by Mr. Redfield are available for review at the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Canby, Wm. M. 1895. John H. Redfield. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 22:162-171.

Harshberger, John W. 1899. The botanists of Philadelphia and their work. T.C. Davis and Sons. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 211-219 of 457.

Hay, O.P. 1899. Some changes in the names, generic and specific, of certain fossil fishes. Amer. Naturalist 33(394):783-792.

Hays, Isaac. (President). 1869. Minutes: April 21, 1869 - Minutes: May 4, 1869. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 21:13&91.

Marsh, John. (ed.) 2011. John Howard Redfield: Recollections of Colorado & California in 1872. John Randolph Marsh Publications. Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. 188 pp.

Meehan, Thomas. 1895a. John Howard Redfield. Bot. Gazette 20:175-176.

Meehan, Thomas. 1895b. Memoir of John Howard Redfield. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 47:292-301.

Rand, Edward L. & John H. Redfield. 1894. Flora of Mount Desert island, Maine. A preliminary catalogue of the plants growing on Mount Desert and the adjacent islands. John Wilson & Son. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 285 pp.

Redfield, John H. 1836. Fossil fishes of Connecticut and Massachusetts, with a notice of an undescribed genus. (publ. in 1848) Annals Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York. 4:35-40.

Redfield, John H. 1848a. Description of some new species of shells. Annals Lyceum Nat. History New York 4:163-168.

Redfield, John H. 1848b. On the distinctive characters of Cypraea reticulata of Martyn, and Cypraea Histrio of Meuschen. Annals Lyceum Nat. History New York 4:477-488.

Redfield, John H. 1852. Descriptions of new species of Marginella, with notes on sundry species of Marginella and Cypraea. Annals Lyceum Nat. History New York 5:224-228.

Redfield, John H. 1858a. Descriptions of New Species of Helicidae. Annals Lyceum Nat. History New York 6:14-18.

Redfield, John H. 1858b. Descriptions of new species of shells. Annals Lyceum Nat. History New York 6:130-132.

Redfield, John H. 1860. Genealogical history of the Redfield family in the United States. Munsell & Rowland. Albany, New York. 337 pp. See pp. 107-109 & 209-210.

Redfield, John H. 1871. Tetramerism in Lilium auratum. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 2(8):32.

Redfield, John H. 1885. On the flora of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 37:378-379.

Redfield, John Howard. 1900. Recollections of John Howard Redfield. Morris Press. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 360 pp.

Redfield, William C. 1831. Remarks on the prevailing storms of the Atlantic Coast of the North American States. Amer. Jrnl. Arts & Sci. 20:17-51.

Redfield, William C. 1841. Short notices of American fossil fishes. Amer. Jrnl. Science and Arts. 41(1):24-28.

Redfield, , William C. 1842a. On whirlwind storms: with replies to the objections and strictures of Dr. Hare. J.S. Redfield, Clinton Hall. New York City, New York.

Redfield, William C. 1842b. Notice of newly discovered fish beds and a fossil foot mark in the Red Sandstone Formation of New Jersey. Amer. Jrnl. Science and Arts. 44(1):134-136.

Redfield, William C. 1856. On the relations of the fossil fishes of the sandstone of Connecticut and other Atlantic States to the Liassic and Oolitic periods. Amer. Jrnl. Science and Arts. Series 2. 22:357-363.

Rees, T. (compiler). 2022. Redfieldiidae Berg, 1940. Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera. Belgium. European Union.

T.V.F.T.H. 2010. John Howard Redfield. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Vasey, Dr. Geo. 1887. Redfieldia, a new genus of grasses. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 14:133-134.

Youmans, William Jay. (ed.) 1896. Sketch of William C. Redfield. Popular Sci. Monthly 50:114-119.

Reid, J.E. (18XX - 19XX)

Evidently Reid was a student in a two-year agriculture program at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (present-day Iowa State University), who assembled a collection of plants to fulfill a class requirement. His specimen labels read: "Botany T2. Two year course in agriculture". According to the college's 1917 General Catalog, the program was "Non-Collegiate Work: The courses described on the following pages are open to young men and young women seventeen or more years of age who have had, at least, an eighth grade preparation." Furthermore, successful completion of the requirements for the 2-year program resulted in the issuance of a certificate (Iowa State College 1917-1918).

The 73 specimens collected by J.E. Reid in 1916 and housed at the Putnam Museum herbarium are found in two bound herbaria - one compiled by Reid and one assembled by Arthur Meints (fellow student in the same two-year ag program at Iowa State University from Dixon, Iowa). Alas, none of the specimens bear a designated collection locality. Equally unfortunate is the fact that too little information is present on the herbarium specimens to locate any additional information about Mr. Reid.

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Iowa State College. 1917-1918. General Catalogue. Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Ames, Iowa. Vol. 15. No. 32. pp. 319-320

Reppert, Ferdinand K. (1848 - 1902)

Ferdinand K. Reppert was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri in 1848 to Johan and Margaret Reppert. He had one sibling, Samuel, who was born in 1852 (Ancestry.com 2022a). Mr. Reppert earned a pharmacy degree from the University of Michigan in 1872 and moved to Muscatine, Iowa, where he first went to work at Mr. J.H. Canon's "City Drug Store" (Mahin Bros. 1875b, Shimek 1903, University of Michigan 1880). In 1877 F.W. Olds and Ferdinand Reppert bought out the drug store of Amos Miller. The resulting "Olds and Reppert Druggists" offered not only prescription pharmaceuticals, but held paints, perfumes, kerosene, combs, whale oil, toilet soap, and feather dusters in their inventory (Mahin 1877 a&b). Whether in the employ of someone else or in his own business, Mr. Reppert remained a practicing pharmacist until his death.

In addition to the work as a druggist, Reppert was an apiarist (Alley 1889) and was active in the Iowa and Muscatine Academies of Science (Shimek 1903, Witter 1879). Fred, as he was sometimes referred to, displayed his talents as a thespian at least once, when he assumed the role of a soldier in a production of "The Union Spy" at the Olds' Opera House (Mahin Bros. 1874b).

In September 1875 Emma Olds and Ferdinand Reppert were married in Muscatine. Both people were well known in the community — Emma had been involved in musical performances and charitable functions in the city (Mahin Bros. 1874a & 1875a) and Ferd had established himself as a reputable businessman. Four years after their nuptuals the pair had a son, Lyell, who graduated from Muscatine High School in 1896 (Daily News-Tribune 1896).

Lyell continued his education at the University of Iowa and graduated from that institution's medical school in 1902. After spending time completing further study in Europe and practicing medicine Ireland, Dr. Lyell Reppert returned to Muscatine and established a medical practice (Mitchell 1906, Muscatine News Co. 1913, Richman 1911).

In 1885 Emma and Ferdinand's daughter, Ella, was born. She attended school in Muscatine until the fall of 1903, when Ella at Forest Park Academy in St. Louis, Missouri (Daily New-Tribune 1903). She continued here studies in St. Louis for a year and then split her time between Muscation and visiting relatives in Warsaw, Kentucky (News-Tribune 1905, Sheppard 1904). Ella married William P. Perry in 1905, but she perished in December of the same year at the age of 20 (Ancestry.com 2022b, Settimae 2014a). The Reppert family home at 617 W. Fourth Street gained in significance, when it was described as an important "contributing building" in the "West Hill" section of Muscatine that was being nominated to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places (Rudisill 1999).

The Scientific Club of Muscatine came into being in June 1871 and met once annually. Though it was organized for the purpose of discussing scientific topics, the annual meeting was an eclectic assemblage of lectures with titles such as: "Adventures and discoveries in the Arctic regions", "Clear grit", "The education of women", "Transit of Venus", "Law and design in Creation", "The ruins saddens, But the unfinished building chills" (a poem), and "Possible accumulation of carbonic acid" (presented by Reppert in in October 1875). The club was reorganized as the Muscatine Academy of Science in late 1877 with the expressed intent of focusing solely on original scientific investigation. From then on, the group met on a more regular basis, Ferdinand Reppert was elected president of the Academy in October 1878, and the membership grew from about 35 in late 1877 to about 50 in early 1879 (Witter 1879).

Reppert was an avid field botanist, whose collections were cited in a number of works (e.g. Pammel 1896, Thorne 1956, Trelease 1896). Ferdinand tended to botanize in and around Muscatine, which resulted in his co-authorship of "The Flora of Scott and Muscatine Counties" (Barnes et al. 1901). His personal herbarium, which was donated to the State University of Iowa (now part of the Ada Hayden Herbarium in Ames), was primarily a collection of plants from Iowa. Even so, it included plants he and Finley M. Witter (Jones 1889, Shimek & Pammel 1910) collected on two field trips, which included excursions through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming circa 1898 (Shimek 1903). Two papers published by Witter may document one of those excursions (Witter 1892a&b).

Approximately 270 herbarium specimens collected by Reppert primarily in the 1890s are present in the Putnam Museum collections. Most of the plants were collected in either Louisa or Muscatine county, Iowa. Other Reppert specimens may be reviewed via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Alley, Henry. (ed.) 1889. Beekeepers' Directory. Salem Press Publishing and Printing Company. Salem, Massachusetts. p. 54 of 139.

Ancestry.com. 2022a. Ferdinand Reppert. Geller & Borchert & Associated Family Trees. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2022b. Ella Olds Reppert Perry. Gallatin Payne, William J. Family Tree Warsaw. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1940. Muscatine Business Directory. Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune: Centennial edition. column 4. May 31, 1940.

Barnes, W.D., Fred Reppert, & A.A. Miller. 1901. The Flora of Scott and Muscatine Counties. Davenport Acad. Sci. Davenport, Iowa. 287 pp.

Daily News-Tribune. 1896. The thirty-first: Annual commencement exercises of Muscatine High School at Olds' Opera House. Daily News-Tribune. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 1. columns 1-5. June 6, 1896.

Daily News-Tribune. 1899. 52 from Muscatine. Daily News-Tribune. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 1. column 2. April 9, 1899.

Daily News-Tribune. 1903. Local news. Daily News-Tribune. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 4. column 1. September 8, 1903.

Daily News-Tribune. 1905. City news. Daily News-Tribune. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 4. column 2. January 12, 1905.

Guldner, Ludwig F. 1960. The Vascular Plants of Scott & Muscatine Counties. Davenport Public Museum. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9 of 228.

Jones, Geo. W. (ed.) 1889. F.M. Witter: City superintendent of the Muscatine graded schools. Iowa Normal Monthly 12:447-448.

Mahin Bros. (publ.) 1874a. Musical - Opening concert of the Handel & Haydn Club. Muscatine Daily Journal. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 4. column 3. May 14, 1874.

Mahin Bros. (publ.) 1874b. The Union Spy. Muscatine Daily Journal. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 4. column 4. August 31, 1874.

Mahin Bros. (publ.) 1875a. Acknowledgement from Nebraska. Muscatine Daily Journal. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 4. column 4. April 7, 1875.

Mahin Bros. (publ.) 1875b. The wedding. Muscatine Daily Journal. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 4. column 3. September 9, 1875.

Mahin Bros. (publ.) 1877a. Drug store sale. Muscatine Daily Journal. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 4. column 2. April 2, 1877.

Mahin Bros. (publ.) 1877b. New advertisements. Muscatine Daily Journal. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 4. column 1. May 25, 1875.

Mitchell, Frank J.R. (compiler) 1906. Annual circular letters of the 75 active chapters of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Bowman Publ. Evanston, Illinois. p. 150 of 427.

Muscatine News Co. 1913. Dr. Reppert found dead in his bed. Muscatine News-Tribune. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 1. column 7. May 30, 1913.

Pammel, L.H. 1896. Notes of some introduced plants of Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 4:110-118.

Reppert, F. 1892. Pellaea atropurpurea Link. on sandstone ledges in Muscatine County, Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 1:93.

Richman, Irving B. 1911. History of Muscatine County, Iowa. Volume II: Biographical. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 552 & 553 of 787.

Rudisill, Jim (coordinator). 1999. Reppert House. Muscatine Historic Preservation Commission. State Historical Society of Iowa. State Inventory No. 70-01091.

Settimae. 2014a. Ella Reppert Perry. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Settimae. 2014b. Ferdinand "Fred" Reppert. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Sheppard, H.M. 1904. Local News. The Muscatine Journal. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 8. column 3. August 20, 1904.

Shimek, B. 1903. Ferdinand Reppert. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 13:xi.

Shimek, B. & L.H. Pammel. 1910. Finley M. Witter. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 17:7-10.

Thorne, Robert F. 1956. Notes on rare Iowa plants - II. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 63:214-227.

Trelease, William. 1896. Juglandaceae of the United States. Missouri Bot. Gard. Annual Rpt. pp. 25-46.

University of Michigan. 1880. Annual announcement of the school of pharmacy. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan. p. 29 of 49.

Witter, F. M. 1879. Muscatine Academy of Science. in The History of Muscatine county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. Western Historical Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 541-545 of 692.

Witter, F. M. 1892a. Some observations on Helix cooperi. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 1:28-29.

Witter, F. M. 1892b. On the absence of ferns between Fort Collins and Meeker, Colorado. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 1(3):29-30.

Richter, Anna (1872 - 19XX)

Anna Richter (photo here), born April 1872 in New Jersey, was the eldest daughter of August P. and Anna May Richter, who had emigrated to the United States from Germany (Ancestry.com 2022a). One of Anna's younger sisters, Katherine, was born in Iowa in March of 1877, so we know that the family moved to Iowa in that year or earlier (TLS 2009 a&b). Anna was an 1890 graduate of Davenport High School (Labath 2012).

Mr. Richter was commonly referred to as "Dr. August Richter" in local newspaper articles. In 1882 he was mentioned as a practicing physician just north of Davenport in Mt. Joy of Sheridan Township and two years later he became the editor of Der Demokrat (Daily Democrat 1882, Richardson 1894). He was engaged in a variety of Davenport's educational, civic, and cultural activities during his life (Cram 1926, Reimers 1899, Republican Co. 1902), which may have influenced Anna's career choice and community involvement.

Ms. Richter taught German at Davenport School No. 9 and authored an introductory text for the study of the German language that was adopted by the Davenport school district (Hamilton 1901, Davenport Iowa History 2015, Douglass 1901). On August 23, 1892, she married Lieutenant John Byron Hamilton, who served as principal of the German-English school in Rock Island, Illinois (Ancestry.com 2022a, Davenport Iowa History 2015), but in 1896 the two were divorced (Halligan 1896) and Anna returned to Davenport (Ancestry.com 2022a). During her marriage, Anna was at least engaged in some part-time teaching in Davenport (Richardson 1895) and following the divorce she continued in the profession in that city.

The specific timing of events is unclear, but in 1902 Anna obtained a leave of absence from her teaching position at School No. 12 in Davenport and traveled to Europe. Her goal was to promote the publication of her text on the teaching of the German language. She met Johan Gustav Victor Lang in Berlin and months later, April 8, 1903, the pair was married in London, England. Mr. Lang was an engineer for Johnson-Lundell Electric Traction Company and, though the couple settled in London, Gustav's work required that he travel frequently to other parts of Europe (J.W. Potter Co. 1903, Lee 1903). Mr. and Mrs. Lang visited Davenport in November 1908 (Ancestry.com 2022b).

Shortly after the November 1908 visit, Anna and Gustav settled in Davenport, Iowa. Gustav began promoting Stave Flaming Arc Lamps for use in indoor and outdoor applications (Democrat Company 1909 a&b) and Anna developed her talents in the performing arts with her portrayal of "Mrs. Ondigo Jones" in the 2-act comedy "A Box of Monkeys" (Democrat Company 1909c, Hardman 1909). She also became involved in civic activities.

Anna gave a keynote address to the Ladies Industrial Relief Society of Davenport, which addressed the importance of donating to the underprivileged (Democrat Company 1910). In the 1911 she was elected president of the Davenport Woman's Club (Hardman 1911 a&b), a position she chose to retain for only one year (Democrat Company 1912 a&b). The Langs called Davenport home until the early part of 1915 (Hardman 1915a), but then moved to New York City (Richardson 1915), where Anna continued her civic involvement (Adler 1916). Evidently during World War I Gustav acted as a go-between for European companies that were interested in purchasing locomotives from American companies (Hardman 1915b).

In 1921 Gustav and Anna established a limited partnership in New York's Borough of Manhattan whose business was to act as "commission merchants and purchasing and export agents" (Reid 1921). Another article mentioned Gustav Lang and his connection to the use of "gas-formed concrete" in the construction of building walls (Xavier 1926), but other articles tying the Langs to New York are rare. Two items from 1933 state that Anna Lang was still living in New York City (Cram 1933, Leysen 1933) and the death announcement for Katherine Richter, Anna's younger sister, in the Los Angeles Times confirmed that Anna was living in New York City in 1938 (Hotchkiss 1938). Clara Murdoch, another of Anna's younger siblings, perished in April 1945 and notices for her probate hearing, state that Anna Richter Lang was seeking legal authority to act as executor of Clara's will (Citizen-News 1945). Anna was presumably still living in New York City at that time. No information about Anna's existence after May 1945 has been found, hence the missing death date following her name above.

Edward Decker (class of 1891), Edwin Farber (class of 1892), Naomi Melville (class of 1891), Emma Peck (class of 1887), Inez Rabell (class of 1888), John Randall (class of 1886), Anna Richter (class of 1890), and Edith Ross (class of 1886) were Davenport High School graduates who have herbarium specimens preserved at the Putnam Museum (Labath 2012). Evidently during the 1880s and 1890s at least some Davenport High School seniors completed science projects that involved assembling a personal herbarium.

Ms. Richter is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by 55 specimens collected in Illinois and Iowa.

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Adler, Betty. 1916. Iowa delegates for Mrs. Sherman or Mrs. Dow. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 2. column 1. May 30, 1916.

Ancestry.com. 2022a. Anna R. Richter. Candy Porras Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2022b. Johan Gustof Viktor Lang. List or manifest of alien passengers for the United States Immigration Officer at port of arrival. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Citizen-News. 1945. Notice of hearing of petition for probate of will. Citizen-News. Hollywood, California. p. 3. column 8. May 5. 1945.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1926. Dr. Aug. Richter, venerable editor, is dead. Davenport Democrat & Leader. pp. 1 & 4. February 8, 1926.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1933. Will organize past president's group in the Woman's Club. Davenport Democrat & Leader. p. 12 column 3. June 15, 1933.

Daily Democrat. 1882. Items in brief. The Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 4. June 7, 1882.

Davenport Iowa History. 2015. School No. 9. Retro Quad Cities.

Democrat Company. 1909a. Personal. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. column 2. March 8, 1909.

Democrat Company. 1909b. Personal. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. column 3. July 13, 1909.

Democrat Company. 1909c. Vaudeville is grand success. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 7. November 3, 1909.

Democrat Company. 1910. Mrs. Gustav Lang on relief work. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. pp. 4 & 5. November 27, 1910.

Democrat Company. 1912a. President of Davenport Women's Club discusses the high cost of living. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 11. columns 1-3. February 11, 1912.

Democrat Company. 1912b. Davenport Women's Club holds second annual meeting. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 11. columns 1-5. April 9, 1912.

Douglass, F.L. (ed.) 1901. Reviews: A german primer. Midland Schools. 16:36.

Halligan, J.E. 1896. District Court. Davenport Daily Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 6. November 8, 1896.

Hamilton, Anna Richter. 1901. Deutsche Fibel nach der phonetisch-synthetischen methode. Western Publ. House. Chicago, Illinois. 108 pp.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1909. Vaudeville entertainment at the Outing Club. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 4. October 19, 1909.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1911a. Mrs. Starkweather address the club. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. columns 1-3. October 10, 1911.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1911b. Some leaders of the women's clubs. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 120. column 1. December 29, 1915.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1915a. Charity ball committees. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. column 2. March 9, 1915.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1915b. Huge European concerns send agent to city. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 7. column 1. December 29, 1915.

Hotchkiss, L.D. (ed.) 1938. Deaths - Richter. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. pt. 2. p. 18. column 4. January 25, 1938.

J.W. Potter Co. 1903. Davenport dots. Rock Island Argus. Rock Island, Illinois. p. 2. column 3. April 10, 1903.

Labath, Cathy (coordinator). 2012. Scott County: Iowa School Records . IAGenWeb Project. Davenport High School Class Listings.

Lee, R. M. (ed.) 1903. Mrs. Anna Richter Hamilton married in London. The Davenport Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 4. April 9, 1903.

Leysen, R.J. 1933. Is president of new organization. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 12. column 3. May 12, 1933.

Reid, Ogden. (president) 1921. J. Gustaf V. Lang certificate of formation of limited partnership. New York Tribune. New York City, New York. p. 16. column 8. February 11, 1921.

Reimers, C.D. (manager) 1899. A local institute - Free German School Society and its worthy evening school. The Davenport Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 3. September 14, 1899.

Republican Co. 1902. New work from pen of Dr. August Richter. Davenport Daily Republican. Davenport, Iowa. p. 6. column 2. July 6, 1902.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1894. Personal. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 1. July 8, 1884.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1895. Our schools: receipts and expenditures for a year. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 2. columns 4 & 5. February 13, 1895.

Richardson, J.J. (ed.) 1915. Personal. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 13. column 1. December 27, 1915.

TLS. 2009a. Katherine Richter. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

TLS. 2009b. August P. Richter. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Xavier, Frank E. (ed.) 1926. New method makes concrete pliable. The Yonkers Herald. Yonkers, New York. p. 18. column 2. September 13, 1926.

Riley, Charles B. (1877 - 1936)

Charles B. and Helen A. Riley (see biography below) were the children of Judge Charles W. and Harriet Anne Riley, with Helen being Charles' elder by two years (Boone County, Nebraska 1898, Cupples 2008). Charles and his sister were born in Illinois and the family moved to Albion, Nebraska in 1888, when their father established a law practice in the community. Both children graduated from Albion High School in 1892. Charles married Mary (Mammie) H. Connell in about 1905 (Ancestry 2022; Ladd 1912; Boone County, Nebraska 1898, Sheldon 1904).

Charles enlisted in the U.S. Army in June 1898 and ultimately achieved the rank of lieutenant (Cupples 2008, Deemer 2015, Fold3 2021, Lloyd 2010). He served in the Spanish-American War (Fold3 2021) and in 1900 he was a member of the 22nd Infantry Unit stationed at base Arayat, Luzon, Philippines (U.S. Federal Census 1900). It appears he in remained with the Army in the Philippines until at least 1912 (Anonymous 1912). By 1920 he had moved to Alexandria, Virginia and was stationed at Fort Myer (U.S. Federal Census 1920). For a period of time Charles was stationed at Fort Sam Fordyce, Texas (Howard 1919, Norton 2021), but the Federal Census of 1930 shows he and his wife living in Omaha with Mary's mother (U.S. Federal Census 1930). It appears that Charles succumbed to a coronary occlusion just a few weeks after he and Mary had moved from San Antonio to Omaha (Texas Department of Health 1937).

The Albion High School class of 1892 consisted of nine students (Ladd 1892 & 1902). Five of those nine, Myrtle Price, Chas. B. Riley, Helen Riley, Etta Roberts, Fannie Roberts, and Rose Whitehead are represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Seven dicot specimens collected by those students somehow found their way to Rebecca Merritt Austin in California and they (the plants, not the students) then made their way to Davenport, Iowa as part of a small bound herbarium assembled by Ms. Austin. A definitive link between Mr. Riley, Ms. Austin, and botany has yet to be discovered.

Charles B. Riley was the collector of record for one sheet of Penstemon grandiflorus.

.......

Ancestry. 2022. 1st Lieut. Charles B. Riley. Riley Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Boone County, Nebraska. 1898. Marriage license. Office of the county judge. Albion, Nebraska. September 6, 1898.

Cupples, Warren. 2008. Lt. Charles B. Riley. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Deemer, Pam. 2015. Harriet Anne Dickenson Riley. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Fold3. 2021. Charles B. Riley - facts. Ancestry.com.

Howard, Edgar. (ed.) 1919. No title. The Columbus Telegram. Columbus, Nebraska. February 28, 1919. page 1. column 2.

Ladd, A.W. 1892. Commencement. Albion Weekly News. Albion, Nebraska. Page 3. Column 4. May 20, 1892.

Ladd, A.W. 1902. Albion High School Alumni. Albion Weekly News. Page 8. Column 4. July 25, 1902.

Ladd, A.W. 1912. Charles Riley. Albion Weekly News. Albion, Nebraska. p. 1. column 2. December 12, 1912.

Lloyd, Tony & Cindy. 2010. Judge Charles W. Riley. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Norton, Robert E. 2021. Sam Fordyce, TX. Handbook of Texas Online.

Sheldon, A.E. 1904. Semi-Centennial history of Nebraska. Lemon Publ. Company. Lincoln, Nebraska. p. 165 of 376.

Texas Department of Health. 1937. Standard certificate of death. Bureau of Vital Statistics. San Antonio, Texas.

U.S. Federal Census. 1900. Twelfth census of the United States - Military and naval population. Ancestry.com.

U.S. Federal Census. 1920. Fourteenth census of the United States: 1920 population. Ancestry.com.

U.S. Federal Census. 1930. Fifteenth census of the United States: 1930. Ancestry.com.

Riley, Helen A. (1875 - 1924)

Helen A. Riley, the daughter of Judge Charles W. and Harriet Anne Riley of Albion, Nebraska, was born August 25, 1875 in Geneseo, Illinois. The Riley family moved from Illinois to Albion, Nebraska in 1888, when Charles established a law practice in the community. Helen graduated from Albion High School in 1892 and she was the older sibling of Lt. Charles B. Riley (see biography above), U.S. Army (Ancestry.com 2022, Cramer 1924; Deemer 2015a&b, Lloyd 2010, Ladd 1902).

Helen attended the University of Nebraska, where she was one of the founding members of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority. It appears that Ms. Riley became an accomplished musician, as her performances were mentioned in several newspaper articles associated with the Hagenow School of Music (e.g. Baird & Baird 1896, State Journal 1894). The exact timing is uncertain, but Helen accepted a teaching position in Cedar Rapids, Nebraska (Ladd 1896 a&b) and she survived the outbreak of diphtheria there in late 1896 (State Journal 1896). Helen became an active member in Cedar Rapids community affairs and was one of the original organizers of community's musical and literary club (Baird & Baird 1897). An article in the Cedar Rapids Outlook, which stated that the academic year at the high school ended May 20th, 1898. Thirty-five students were in attendance under the guidance of two teachers, Helen A. Riley and J.J. King (Baird & Baird 1898). The last mention of Helen's teaching career that's been located appeared in her wedding announcement and stated that she had served as the assistant principal of the Cedar Rapids schools for two years (Poynter & Baird 1898).

Helen became the spouse of Carson C. Goodrich in September 1898 and they remained in Cedar Rapids, Nebraska, where Carson was employed in the banking industry with the S.S. Hadley Company. The couple had one child, Florence Louise, and in 1915 the family set permanent roots in Columbus, Nebraska, when Carson's career took them there (Ancestry.com 2022, Boone County, Nebraska 1898, Cramer 1924, Poynter & Baird 1898, World-Herald 1894). Helen occasionally gave musical performances after her marriage (Ladd 1899).

The Albion High School class of 1892 consisted of nine students (Ladd 1892 & 1902). Five of those nine, Myrtle Price, Chas. B. Riley, Helen Riley, Etta Roberts, Fannie Roberts, and Rose Whitehead are represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Seven dicot specimens collected by those students somehow found their way to Rebecca Merritt Austin in California and they (the plants, not the students) then made their way to Davenport, Iowa as part of a small bound herbarium assembled by Ms. Austin. A definitive link between Ms. Riley, Ms. Austin, and botany has yet to be discovered.

Helen Riley was the collector of record for one sheet labeled Dicentra spectabilis. (Dicentra spectabilis is a synonym of Lamprocapnos spectabilis (L.) Fukuhara, which is native of eastern Asia.)

.......

Ancestry. 2022. Helen Abigail Riley. Riley Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Baird, J.A. & J.R. Baird. (publishers) 1896. The Musicale. Boone County Outlook. Cedar Rapids, Nebraska. p. 3. column 3. April 24, 1896.

Baird, J.A. & J.R. Baird. (publishers) 1897. Local. Boone County Outlook. Cedar Rapids, Nebraska. p. 3. column 4. January 29, 1897.

Baird, J.A. & J.R. Baird. (publishers) 1898. School notes. Boone County Outlook. Cedar Rapids, Nebraska. p. 8. column 1. May 27, 1898.

Boone County, Nebraska. 1898. Marriage license. Office of the county judge. Albion, Nebraska. September 6, 1898.

Cramer, Glenn. (ed.) 1924. Long illness ends in death. Albion Weekly News. Albion, Nebraska. February 21, 1924. p. 1. column 6.

Deemer, Pam. 2015a. Harriet Anne Dickenson Riley. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Deemer, Pam. 2015b. Helen Abigail Riley Goodrich. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Ladd, A.W. 1892. Commencement. Albion Weekly News. Albion, Nebraska. Page 3. Column 4. May 20, 1892.

Ladd, A.W. 1896a. Boone County Teachers Association - Cedar Rapids meeting. Albion Weekly News. Albion, Nebraska. Page 4. Column 4. March 20, 1896.

Ladd, A.W. 1896b. Small talk of the town. Albion Weekly News. Albion, Nebraska. Page 7. Column 3. October 23, 1896.

Ladd, A.W. 1899. County News - Cedar Rapids. Albion Weekly News. Albion, Nebraska. Page 1. Column 3. February 17, 1897.

Ladd, A.W. 1902. Albion High School Alumni. Albion Weekly News. Albion, Nebraska. Page 8. Column 4. July 25, 1902.

Lloyd, Tony & Cindy. 2010. Judge Charles W. Riley. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Poynter, D.J. & J.F. Baird. (publishers) 1898. Riley-Goodrich. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. p. 5. column 4. September 9, 1898.

State Journal. 1894. Students in concert. The Nebraska State Journal. Lincoln, Nebraska. p. 8. column 2. April 11, 1894.

State Journal. 1896. Cedar Rapids schools closed. The Nebraska State Journal. Lincoln, Nebraska. p. 6. column 7. December 18, 1896.

World-Herald. 1894. Thrice Delta - Chapter of the girls' fraternity organized at Ashland. Evening World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska. p. 3. column 3. December 3, 1894.

Robbins, Dr. James Watson (1801 - 1879)

James Watson Robbins, son of Reverend Ammi Ruhammah Robbins (a chaplain during the Revolutionary War and a pastor in Norfolk, Connecticut) and Salome Robbins, was born in Colebrook, Connecticut in November 1801. James had an older brother, Ammi, and a younger sister, Elizabeth, but only his sister lived to maturity. At least part of James' early education came under the supervision of Rev. Chauncey Lee in Colebrook (Ancestry.com 2022, Ford 2014, Manchester 1935). James' first gainful employment was as a teacher in Enfield, Connecticut and he then pursued the same career in Warrenton and Arlington, Virginia. He was even a private tutor for Robert E. Lee (eventual Confederate Army general) prior to Lee's enrollment at West Point. Regardless, Mr. Robbins evidently grew weary of teaching and in 1825 he returned to Connecticut to continue his education (Yale College 1879).

Robbins settled in New Haven to study medicine and graduated from Yale College in 1828. During medical school, James interests in botany were piqued, likely to some degree due to his studies under Dr. Eli Ives, one of the founders of Yale Medical School and professor of Materia Medica and Botany (Blumer 1932, Kelly & Burrage 1920). Following graduation, James spent half of 1829 botanizing the region of New England, a period during which he made the acquaintance of Dr. George Willard. Willard convinced Robbins to join his medical practice in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, an arrangement which Robbins apparently found agreeable, because he continued in the medical profession there for a total of 30 years (Post Publishing Co. 1879a, Yale College 1879).

In 1859 James W. Robbins became staff physician for the Quincy Mining Company on the Keewenaw Peninsula of northern Michigan (Quincy Mining Company 1848-1988). During his four-year stint in Michigan (1859-1863), Robbins attended to his patients, communicated his medical experiences to other members of his profession (Cutter et al. 1861), and botanized the peninsula enough to expand his personal herbarium considerably. He left Michigan and traveled down the Mississippi River to Texas and Cuba (1863-1864), botanizing along the way (Voss 1978, Yale College 1879). Robbins then "returned to Uxbridge, where he spent the remainder of his life, mostly retired from medical practice and devoting his leisure to his favorite pursuit. He died there, Jan. 10, 1879, in his 78th year, of a disease of the kidneys, caused by the presence of trichinae (Yale College 1879)."

Dr. Robbins' botanical career was highlighted by extensive collecting, not only in New England, but New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and other states (Robinson 1828-1880, see iDigBio & SEINet below). He was acknowledged as the collector of record for a number of the taxa listed in "Flowering plants and ferns of Connecticut" (Graves et al. 1910) and Robbins' friend, William Oakes, made note of his (Robbins') contributions to the understanding of Vermont's flora (Oakes 1842).

Robbins' interest in Potamogeton led to this recognition by Asa Gray in his Manual, "I have also to express my special acknowledgements to my friends, DR. J. W. ROBBINS, of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, who contributed the whole article on the difficult genus Potamogeton ..." (Gray 1868). Asa Gray also credited Dr. Robbins with being the first person to find Wolffia growing in the United States (Gray 1878). Starting in 1850, Dr. Robbins was acknowledged as a contributor to and was frequently mentioned in Alphonso Wood's "A Class-Book of Botany" (Wood 1850). Additionally, Robbins' plant collections in Vermont were recognized by Zadock Thompson in his "Catalogue of Plants" for that state (Thompson 1842).

A pondweed Potamogeton Robbinsii, a spikerush Eleocharis robbinsii (Oakes 1841), and dwarf cinquefoil Potentilla robbinsiana (Rydberg 1896) are three plants named by William Oakes to commemorate Robbins' botanical efforts. Dr. Robbins' personal herbarium was split up in 1872, part of the collection went to Mt. Holyoke College and another part was contributed to the South Natick Historical and Natural History Society (Day 1901, Post Publishing Co. 1879b).

Seven herbarium specimens collected by Dr. Robbins are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. One was collected in Vermont from a locality on Mansfield Mountain and the others have a collecting location of "Lake Superior", which lack any sort of collection date, but were undoubtedly obtained by Robbins during his 1859-1863 employment on the Keewenaw Peninsula. Additional specimens collected by Robbins may be perused via the SEINet, iDigBio, and Peabody Museum of Natural History specimen databases.

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Ancestry. 2022. James Watson Robbins. Woodward Roots & Branches. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Blumer, George. 1932. Eli Ives - practitioner, teacher and botanist. Yale Jrnl. Biology and Medicine. 4:649-663.

Cutter, E., Truman Rickard, & Wm. Ingalls. 1861. On Veratrum viride as an arterial sedative. Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 41:394-409. (see pp. 398-399).

Day, Mary A. 1901. Herbaria of New England. Rhodora 3:255-262.

Ford, Pattie. 2014. Dr. James Watson Robbins. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Graves, Charles Burr, Edwin Hubert Eames, Charles Humphrey Bissell, Luman Andrews, Edgar Burton Harger, & Charles Alfred Weatherby. 1910. Flowering plants and ferns of Connecticut growing without cultivation. Connecticut State Geological and Natural History Survey. Hartford, Connecticut. Bull. No. 14. 569 pp.

Gray, Asa. 1868. Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States. Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman, & Co. New York City, New York. pp. 12, 480 (Wolffia, & 484-490 of 703.

Gray, Asa. 1878. Botanical necrology of 1878: James Watson Robbins, MD. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts. 17:180.

Kelly, Howard A. & Walter L. Burrage. 1920. American medical biographies. The Norman, Remington Company. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 984 of 1320.

Manchester, Irving E. 1935. The history of Colebrook. Sesqui-Centennial Committee. Colebrook, Connecticut. 208 pp.

Oakes, William. 1841. Notice of some rare plants of New England, with descriptions of some new species. The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and all useful discoveries and improvements in rural affairs. 7:178-186.

Oakes, William. 1842. Catalogue of Vermont plants. Burlington, Vermont. 36 pp. in Thompson, Zadock. 1853. History of Vermont, natural, civil, and statistical.

Post Publishing Co. 1879a. Other deaths. Boston Post. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 2. column 7. January 13, 1879.

Post Publishing Co. 1879b. Obituary - Dr. James Watson Robbins. Boston Post. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 2. column 8. January 17, 1879.

Quincy Mining Company. 1848-1988. Quincy Mining Company Collection. J. Robert Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library. University Archives and Historical Collections. Michigan Technological University. Houghton, Michigan.

Robinson, James Watson. 1828-1880. James Watson Robbins papers. Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University.

Rydberg, P.A. 1896. Notes on Potentilla - III. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 23:304.

Thompson, Zadock. 1842. The history of Vermont: natural, civil, and statistical. Part 1. Chauncy Goodrich. Burlington, Vermont. p. 176 & 177 of 224.

Voss, Edward G. 1978. Botanical beachcombers and explorers . Contrib. Univ. Michigan Herbarium. Vol 13. p. 77 of 100.

Yale College. 1879. Obituary record of graduates of Yale College. Tuttle, Morehouse, & Taylor. New Haven, Connecticut. pp.335-336 of 380.

Wood, Alphonso. 1850. A Class-Book of Botany. Crocker & Brewster. Claremont, New Hampshire. p. 5 & many others of 645.

Roberts, Etta (1874 - 1955)

Etta Mae, Fannie Pearl, and Clara Bell were the daughters born to Sarah V. and Britton A. Roberts in the vicinity of Creston, Iowa. Only the former two survived until 1883, when the family moved to Albion, Nebraska (Ancestry.com 2022, Gaskill 1918, Ladd 1918).

Etta and Fannie were members of the Albion High School graduating class of 1892 (Barns 1912, Ladd 1892 & 1902). Following high school the two women attended a business college in Scotia, Nebraska (Gaskill 1922). It seems Etta ultimately embraced a career in education as evidenced by her involvement in various teacher institute events during the 1890s (Ladd 1895, 1896a&b) and the announcement of her appointment to a teaching position in District No. 11 (World-Herald 1895).

Etta and Fred J. Mack were married May 27, 1896 and the couple had three children — Alan, Helen, and Robert (Ancestry.com 2022, Ladd 1896c). Etta was an active member of the Woman's Club in Albion (Poynter 1903). The couple moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in about 1913, where Fred was one of the principals in the law office of Wilson and Mack. Etta's name appeared in a few St. Petersburg newspaper articles dealing with bridal showers, home parties, and other social engagements. So it appears that Etta's life in Florida focused on her children and other family responsibilities vs. employment outside the home. Etta died in St. Petersburg in 1955 and she was predeceased by Fred in 1947 (Anonymous 1955, Lough 1955, St. Petersburg Times 1947, Straub 1947).

The Albion High School class of 1892 consisted of nine students. Five of those nine, Myrtle Price, Chas. B. Riley, Helen Riley, Etta Roberts, Fannie Roberts, and Rose Whitehead are represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Seven dicot specimens collected by those students somehow found their way to Rebecca Merritt Austin in California and they (the plants, not the students) then made their way to Davenport, Iowa as part of a small bound herbarium assembled by Ms. Austin.

Etta Roberts was the collector of record for one sheet of Penstemon albidus. A definitive link between Ms. Roberts, Ms. Austin, and botany has yet to be discovered.

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Etta May Roberts. Hicks_2018_07_02. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1955. Obituaries - Funeral Services. St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Florida. April 17, 1955. p 29. columns 2 & 3.

Barns, C.G. 1912. High School Graduates. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. June 7, 1912. page 4. columns 1 and 2.

Gaskill, G.M. (ed.) 1918. Obituary - Sarah V. Hariman Roberts. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. February 21, 1918. p. 4. column 2.

Gaskill, G.M. (ed.) 1922. Old Time Memories - 30 Years Ago. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. September 7, 1922. p. 7. columns 2 & 3.

Ladd, A.W. 1892. Commencement. Albion Weekly News. Page 3. Column 4. May 20, 1892.

Ladd, A.W. 1895. Local Gossip. Albion Weekly News. Page 5. Column 3. August 9, 1895.

Ladd, A.W. 1896a. Cedar Rapids meeting. Albion Weekly News. Page 4. Column 4. March 20, 1896.

Ladd, A.W. 1896b. Program of teachers' meeting. Albion Weekly News. Page 2. Column 3. May 8, 1896.

Ladd, A.W. 1896c. Married: Roberts - Mack. Albion Weekly News. Page 5. Column 3. May 29, 1896.

Ladd, A.W. 1902. Albion High School Alumni. Albion Weekly News. Page 8. Column 4. July 25, 1902.

Ladd, A.W. 1918. Obituary - Sarah V. Hariman Roberts. Albion Weekly News. Page 8. Column 4. February 21, 1918.

Lough, Jack. (ed.) 1955. Mrs. Etta Mack died in Florida April 16. Albion News. Albion, Nebraska. April 28, 1955. p. 8. column 7.

Poynter, S.J. (ed.) 1903. Womans Club. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. p. 1. column 2. October 9, 1903.

Straub, W.L. (ed.) 1947. Col. Mack dies, Was former city attorney. St. Petersburg Daily Times. St. Petersburg, Florida. p. 3. column 1. November 1, 1947.

World-Herald. 1895. Short news from Albion. The World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska. p. 2. column 3. February 25, 1895.

Roberts, Fannie (1876 - 1948)

Fannie Pearl (photo here), Etta Mae, and Clara Bell were the daughters born to Sarah V. and Britton A. Roberts in the vicinity of Creston, Iowa. Only the former two survived until 1883, when the family moved to Albion, Nebraska (Ancestry.com 2022, Gaskill 1918, Ladd 1918).

Fannie and Etta were members of the Albion High School graduating class of 1892 (Ladd 1892 & 1902) and they then attended a business college in Scotia, Nebraska (Gaskill 1922). Following high school Fannie, like her sister, chose a career in education as shown by her involvement in at least one teacher institute in 1895 (Ladd 1895). Fannie's name appeared in local newspapers with regard to a few social activities like the Leap Year Dance (Barns 1895) and the Bon Ami Cooking Club (Bump 1896), but nothing was revealed regarding steady full-time employment.

Fannie married Frank D. Williams (Boone County Superintendent of Schools) on September 9th, 1896 (Barns 1896 & 1912, Ladd 1902) and they had a son, Dana, born November 7, 1897 (Ladd 1897). Frank remained county superintendent of schools until the beginning of 1898, when he entered into a partnership with Charles Riley. Charles was a practicing attorney and Frank dealt with real estate and insurance matters associated with the Continental Insurance Company (Ladd 1898 a&b). In 1899 Charles and his brother, George, established the Williams Bros. real estate firm (Ladd 1904, Poynter 1899). By 1903 Frank was practicing law in Albion (Poynter 1903a) as well as selling real estate with his brother, George, and another gent by the name of George P. Lewis (Poynter 1903b).

Etta's career focused on caring for her child and other family responsibilities vs. employment outside the home. Her community activities involved things like hosting a meeting of the High Five Club (Poynter 1900). Their son, Dana, was admitted to practice law in California in 1937 (Chandler 1937), but Etta and Robert continued to call Albion home. In 1932 Robert and Etta began wintering in Long Beach, California and it appears they moved permanently to Long Beach in October 1947, perhaps to live nearer their son. Sadly, Fannie survived only until January 12th, 1948, but Frank lived until 1957. The Williamses were interred in Glendale, California (Lough 1948, Prisk 1948, Romper90069 2014).

The Albion High School class of 1892 consisted of nine students. Five of those nine, Myrtle Price, Chas. B. Riley, Helen Riley, Etta Roberts, Fannie Roberts, and Rose Whitehead are represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Seven dicot specimens collected by those students somehow found their way to Rebecca Merritt Austin in California and they (the plants, not the students) then made their way to Davenport, Iowa as part of a small bound herbarium assembled by Ms. Austin.

Fannie Roberts was the collector of record for two specimens, Capsella bursa-pastoris and Lithospermum angustifolium (= Lithospermum incisum). A definitive link between Ms. Roberts, Ms. Austin, and botany has yet to be discovered.

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Ancestry. 2022. Fannie Pearl Roberts. Hicks_2018_07_02. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Barns, C.G. (ed.) 1895. Leap Year Dance. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. page 1. column 2. December 20, 1895.

Barns, C.G. (ed.) 1896. Williams-Roberts. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. page 1. column 3. September 11, 1896.

Barns, C.G. (ed.) 1912. High School Graduates. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. page 4. columns 1 and 2. June 7, 1912.

Bump, J.G. 1896. Grand finale. Albion Daily Critic. Albion, Nebraska. p. 1. column 3. February 14, 1896.

Chandler, Harry. (president) 1937. Judges' sons among sixty admitted to law practice. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. p. 17. columns 6&7. December 4, 1937.

Gaskill, G.M. (ed.) 1918. Obituary - Sarah V. Hariman Roberts. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. February 21, 1918. p. 4. column 2.

Gaskill, G.M. (ed.) 1922. Old Time Memories - 30 Years Ago. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. September 7, 1922. p. 7. columns 2 & 3.

Ladd, A.W. 1892. Commencement. Albion Weekly News. Page 3. Column 4. May 20, 1892.

Ladd, A.W. 1895. Local Gossip. Albion Weekly News. Page 5. Column 3. August 9, 1895.

Ladd, A.W. 1897. Local Items. Albion Weekly News. Page 5. Column 1. November 12, 1897.

Ladd, A.W. 1898a. Professional cards. Albion Weekly News. Page 8. Column 1. January 21, 1898.

Ladd, A.W. 1898b. Real estate for sale. Albion Weekly News. Page 9. Column 4. June 24, 1898.

Ladd, A.W. 1902. Albion High School Alumni. Albion Weekly News. Page 8. Column 4. July 25, 1902.

Ladd, A.W. 1904. Williams Bros. Albion Weekly News. Page 20. Column 5. September 23, 1904.

Ladd, A.W. 1918. Obituary - Sarah V. Hariman Roberts. Albion Weekly News. Page 8. Column 4. February 21, 1918.

Lough, Jack. (ed.) 1948. Notice of probate of will. The Weekly News. Albion, Nebraska. January 22, 1948. p. 14. columns 5 & 6.

Poynter, D.J. (ed.) 1899. Williams Bros. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. p. 2. column 6. October 20, 1899.

Poynter, D.J. (ed.) 1900. Society column. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. p. 5. column 4. January 26, 1900.

Poynter, D.J. (ed.) 1903a. Frank D. Williams - Lawyer. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. p. 4. column 1. June 26, 1903.

Poynter, D.J. (ed.) 1903b. Real estate. Boone County, Nebraska. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. p. 1. columns 4-7. July 10, 1903.

Prisk, W.F. (president) 1948. Obituaries - Williams. Long Beach Press-Telegram. Long Beach, California. p. 13. columns 3&4. January 13, 1948.

Romper90069. 2014. Fannie P. Williams. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Rodman, Mary (1854 - 1919)

Mary C. Rodman and her sisters, Fanny and Elizabeth, were the children of Francis and Elizabeth Rodman (née Hussey) of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Francis, after completing his education as Philips Andover Academy, went into business with his father in New Bedford. The family ultimately moved to Boston and then settled in Concord, Massachusetts (Boston Evening Transcript 1914). The girls were great-granddaughters of Captain William Howland, a mariner, merchant, and builder of whaling vessels in New Bedford (Ancestry.com 2022, Emery 1919, Howland 1917) and Mary spent her entire life, except for a five-year stint in California, living in Massachusetts (Boston Globe 1919).

Newspaper reports show that Ms. Rodman was active in a few civic organizations. For example, she was a member of Concord's Woman's Club (Globe Newspaper Co. 1905). She, also, participated in a fund raising effort to purchase and preserve Orchard House, the homestead purchased in 1857 by Amos Bronson Alcott and the location in Concord, Massachusetts where Louisa May Alcott lived and wrote Little Women (Boston Evening Transcript 1911, Globe Newspaper Co. 1911). But most of Mary's activities hovered around the fields of botany and horticulture.

In 1895 Ms. Rodman "... established a fine lemon ranch at Lemon Grove near San Diego, on which she is demonstrating what a wide awake Yankee lassie can do in the strawberry line. Her experiments in berry culture have been of value to Southern Californians in several ways. By careful attention to the plants she has demonstrated that berries of exceptional size can be grown. She secured a number of plants from Arizona and so large are the berries that fourteen of them will make a full cup (Otis 1895)." It's unknown during exactly what five-year period Mary resided in California, but she retained ownership of the San Diego parcel until 1912, when she sold it for $12,000.00 (Andrews 1912).

Mary Rodman was an amateur botanist and a member of the Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Association in Bedford, Massachusetts (Clute 1891a). She was mentioned as a contributor to not only the Association (Clute 1891b), but to knowledge of the native flora in and around Concord, Massachusetts (Eaton 1974). Mary published a couple of brief works in "The Ornithologist and Botanist" (Rodman 1891) and "The Observer" (Rodman 1892). Beyond that she was active in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society (Manning 1900, Adams 1905), a member of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA 1911 & 1913), and one of the founders of the "Concord Canoe Club" (Concord Canoe Club 1902-1921).

In 1900 "Miss Mary Rodman, of Concord" was elected a member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society (Appleton 1902). In subsequent years Miss Rodman was listed as a contributor to the "Committee on School Gardens and Native Plants" and the "Committee on Native Plants", until 1906. From that year on until her death in November 1919, Ms. Rodman was simply acknowledged as a member of the Society (Massachusetts Horticultural Society 1877-1919).

Mary Rodman's personal herbarium was mentioned, but not discussed at length, by Eaton (1958) and her collections were referenced in Angelo's update of Eaton's "Flora of Concord" (Angelo 2012). In Davenport, Iowa 54 specimens bearing her name as collector are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Nearly all of them were part of the herbarium assembled by Edith A. Ross and subsequently donated to the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. Since Ms. Rodman (like other collectors represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium) was affiliated with the Agassiz Association (Ballard 1887), it is at least conceivable that she, like Marta Philip and others, had direct contact with Edith Ross through that society. Additional specimens that appear to be attributable to Mary C. Rodman may be viewed via the iDigBio and Harvard University Herbaria databases.

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Adams, Henry S. (chair) 1905. Committee on school gardens and native plants. Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc. 1:237 & 278.

Ancestry.com. 2022. Mary Rodman. Rodman Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Andrews, Harry E. (ed.) 1912. San Diego. Los Angeles Sunday Times. Los Angeles, California. Part VI. p. 1. column 3. May 19, 1912.

Angelo, Ray. (compiler) 2012. Vascular Flora of Concord, Massachusetts. Harvard Univ. Herbaria. Cambridge. Massachusetts.

Appleton, Francis H. (President). 1902. Business meeting: February 3, 1900. Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc. Part 1. p. 51.

Ballard, Harlan H. (ed.) 1887. Exchanges. The Swiss Cross. 1:80.

Boston Evening Transcript. 1911. To aid Alcott Fund . Boston Evening Transcript. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 4. column 4. March 28, 1911.

Boston Evening Transcript. 1914. Recent deaths - Francis Rodman of Concord . Boston Evening Transcript. Boston, Massachusetts. part 2. p. 6. column 7. August 8, 1914.

Boston Globe. 1919. Miss Mary Rodman dies at Concord home. The Boston Daily Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 3. columns 3& 4. November 13, 1919.

Clute, Willard N. (ed.) 1891a. List of Members. The Ornithologist and Botanist. 1:96.

Clute, Willard N. (ed.) 1891b. Notes. The Ornithologist and Botanist. 1:48.

Concord Canoe Club. 1902-1921. Concord Canoe Club records. Special Collections. Concord Free Public Library. Concord, Massachusetts.

Eaton, Richard J. 1958. Some interesting records from eastern Massachusetts. Rhodora 60:316-320.

Eaton, Richard Jefferson 1974. A flora of Concord. Spec. Publ. 4. Museum of Comparative Zoology. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp. 40, 113, 124, 166, 186 of 236.

Emery, William M. 1919. The Howland Heirs. E. Anthony & Sons. New Bedford, Massachusetts. pp. 168-169 of 484.

Globe Newspaper Co. 1905. Tenth annual meeting of Concord Woman's Club - officers elected. The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 5. column 2. April 18, 1905.

Globe Newspaper Co. 1911. Table gossip. The Boston Sunday Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 63. column 5. March 26, 1911.

Howland, Ellis L. 1917. Gideon Howland's 439 Heirs (2nd installment). The Massachusetts Magazine 10(2-3):3-157. (see pp. 85 & 88.)

Manning, Robert. (secretary) 1900. Business meeting. Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc. Part 1. pp. 51 & 303.

Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 1877-1919. Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Boston, Massachusetts.

Otis, H.G. (president) 1895. All along the line. The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. p. 7. column 1. May 13, 1895.

Rodman, Mary. 1891. A rare New England plant. The Ornithologist and Botanist. 1:64.

Rodman, Mary. 1892. Drawing of Plantago patagonica var. arisitata [sic]. The Observer. 3:223.

SPNEA (Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities). 1911. Membership of the Society: Associate Members. Bull. Soc. Pres. New England Antiquities. 2:27.

SPNEA (Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities). 1913. Membership of the Society: Associate Members. Bull. Soc. Pres. New England Antiquities. 4:38.

Rohm, Helen L. (˜1868 - 1955)

Helen L. Rohm was born in about 1868 in Iowa and her parents were Christoph[opher] and Louise Rohm. She had three brothers and two sisters (Ancestry.com 2022a). For reasons unknown at this time, by 1880 her family had disintegrated and Helen was living with her aunt and uncle, John and Christiana Melchert (Ancestry.com 2022b). Helen L. Rohm, like Edith Ross, was a member of the Davenport High School class of 1886 (Labath 2012).

A March 1888 report documented her affiliation with Davenport's "Lend-a-Hand Club" (Times Company 1888a), an organization founded in 1886 to provide women working in downtown Davenport with clean and safe lodging, meals, and educational opportunities (Wood 2005). Another newspaper snippet later in the same year reported that Helen had returned to Davenport "from Brooklyn, where she has been teaching" (Times Company 1888b), but which U.S. city named Brooklyn was not specified.

A story about the history of the Congregational Church in Davenport appeared in The Daily Times in 1889 and Helen was listed as a member (Times Company 1889). In September 1889 the Melcherts (see paragraph above) were forced to sell real estate to settle a debt owed the German Savings Bank in Davenport and Helen Rohm was listed among the defendants (Richardson 1889). Helen's name did not appear in another newspaper account until May 1892, when she graduated from the Mt. Sinai Training School for Nurses (Morning Democrat 1892). At sometime after that, Helen settled in Connecticut.

The first Connecticut newspaper article to mention Ms. Rohm listed her as the treasurer of the Berlin Literary Society (Hartford Courant 1904a) and it was during that period of time the "society page" of the Hartford Courant began reporting on Helen's travel itinerary. Alone and at times in the company of Elizabeth P. Wilcox, Helen visited "the shore", "the south", New York, Washington, D.C., and other domestic localities (e.g. Hartford Courant 1904b & 1905). In March 1907 Elizabeth, Helen, and two other women sailed to Naples, Italy (Hartford Courant 1907a). They toured Europe for several months and were scheduled to disembark from the passenger vessel, Celtic, on December 5th (Hartford Courant 1907b&c). By 1910 she was sharing accommodations with Elizabeth P. Wilcox in Berlin and that arrangement continued until at least 1930 (Ancestry.com 2022c&d). The newspapers in the vicinity of Berlin, Connecticut, not only documented Helen's travel itineraries (with or without Ms. Wilcox) to destinations exotic or familiar, but they were replete with stories documenting Helen's civic involvement.

She headed, participated in, chaired, organized, directed, supervised, etc. various committees or social enterprises. In addition to her involvement with Berlin's Literary Society, Helen participated in the Village Improvement Society, the Library Association, the Motherhood Club, the Equal Suffrage League, and other civic entities (Hartford Courant 1908, 1909, 1910, 1915). A survey of Berlin-area newspapers from the 1920s and 1930s showed that Helen took part in local church-related activities with the Berlin Congregational Church, political campaigns, nonpolitical civic events, and other types of volunteerism. She was particularly involved in committee work associated with the Worthington Community Center Association.

For many years the travels of Helen Rohm and Elizabeth Wilcox continued to be reported in the Berlin-area newspapers. Elizabeth died in June 1949 and bequeathed a sizeable sum to Helen (Hartford Courant 1949, Meriden Record 1949). Helen survived for another six years, but her community involvement was greatly diminished during her later years. She died after a short illness February 23, 1955 (Hartford Courant 1955).

Information documenting Ms. Rohm's mode of employment is scarce. A report on the death of a stroke victim implied that Helen had called upon her training as a nurse to help the victim (Herald Publishing Co. 1914). Another piece about the Red Cross during World War I described Helen's having completed a course in the preparation of surgical dressings (Herald Publishing Co. 1918), but definitive documentation of her means of earning an income is missing.

A single specimen of Cypripedium candidum collected by Miss Rohm from Long Grove, Iowa in May of 1887 is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Since they were high school classmates, it's reasonable to assume that Helen Rohm and Edith Ross were acquainted and that Miss Rohm collected an orchid that became part of Ms. Ross' private collection. The sheet was part of Edith A. Ross' personal herbarium that was donated to the Putnam Museum.

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Ancestry.com. 2022a. U.S. Federal Census - 1870. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2022b. U.S. Federal Census - 1880. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2022c. U.S. Federal Census - 1910. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2022d. Elizabeth Peck Wilcox. Schoonover 001_2015-01-06_2015-01-17. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Hartford Courant. 1904a. Berlin. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 9. column 2. May 24, 1904.

Hartford Courant. 1904b. Berlin. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 14. column 5. July 12, 1904.

Hartford Courant. 1905. Berlin. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 13. column 1. August 14, 1905.

Hartford Courant. 1907a. Notes. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 9. column 3. March 1, 1907.

Hartford Courant. 1907b. Berlin. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 17. column 2. November 27, 1907.

Hartford Courant. 1907c. Berlin. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 15. column 2. December 10, 1907.

Hartford Courant. 1908. Berlin. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 14. column 3. June 11, 1908.

Hartford Courant. 1909. Berlin. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 6. column 2. February 11, 1909.

Hartford Courant. 1910. Berlin. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 12. column 1. January 4, 1910.

Hartford Courant. 1915. Women of the town ask for "justice". The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 9. column 1. November 19, 1915.

Hartford Courant. 1949. Deaths - Elizabeth P. Wilcox. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 4. column 2. June 13, 1949.

Hartford Courant. 1955. Miss Helen Rohm, one of oldest residents, dies. The Harford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 8. column 7. February 24, 1955.

Herald Publishing Co. 1914. Second shock causes death of Miss North. New Britain Herald. New Britain, Connecticut. p. 7. column 2. July 8, 1914.

Herald Publishing Co. 1918. Surgical classes end. New Britain Herald. New Britain, Connecticut. p. 2. column 6. January 19, 1918.

Labath, Cathy (coordinator). 2012. Scott County: Iowa School Records. IAGenWeb Project. Davenport High School Class Listings.

Meriden Record. 1949. Helen L. Rohm is left $5000 in Wilcox will. Meriden Record. Meriden, Connecticut. p. 18. column 1. June 30, 1949.

Morning Democrat. 1892. Personal. The Morning Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 3. May 3, 1892.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1889. Sheriff's sale. Davenport Democrat Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 5. September 27, 1889.

Times Company. 1888a. Their anniversary. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 3. March 22, 1888.

Times Company. 1888b. Their anniversary. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 1. June 9, 1888.

Times Company. 1889. Walks amid the churches - the Edwards Congregational Church. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. columns 3-5. September 14, 1889.

Wood, Sharon E. 2005. The Freedom of the Streets: Work, Citizenship, and Sexuality in a Gilded Age City. University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. p. 80.

Ross, Carrie Louise Scarlett (1844 - 1932)

Carrie L. Scarlett was born October 23, 1844 in Wilmington, Massachusetts, but the identity of her parents and other birth-family members is presently unknown. She completed her early education in Boylston, Massachusetts. At age 22, Ms. Scarlett met John W. Ross and in 1866 the two were married in Elmhurst, Massachusetts (Ancestry 2024, Cram 1932).

The couple lived in Northampton and Westfield, Massachusetts until 1876, when they moved west to Davenport, Iowa. During their lives together, Carrie and John raised five children — two daughters and three sons. John became a well-known and successful architect in Davenport during his lifetime (Cram 1932, Hardman 1914a), but little has been uncovered regarding Carrie's activities in that city, other than to say she was involved with various social engagements conducted by the Calvary Baptist Church (e.g. Hardman 1914b, Leyson 1925).

One of their children, Edith, assembled a noteworthy personal herbarium during the early part of her life, which was donated to and is now part of the Putnam Museum herbarium. A biographical sketch of Edith's career may be found in the discussion that follows this report.

Four plant specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium — Baptisia tinctoria, Drosera rotundifolia, Sarracenia purpurea, Trifolium agrarium — were collected in the 1880s by Mrs. J.W. Ross. The assumption is that Mrs. J.W. Ross was in fact Edith Ross' mother, Carrie.

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Ancestry.com. 2024. Carrie Louise Scarlett. Melinda Santoro Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1932. Obituary: Mrs. Carrie Ross. Davenport Democrat & Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 13. column 2. February 1, 1932.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1914a. Aged architect dies suddenly. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 7. column 4. June 20, 1914.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1914b. Baptist women plan a unique entertainment. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 6. column 5. October 9, 1914.

Leyson, R.J. (ed.) 1925. Reception for old members of church. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 6. column 3. April 4, 1925.

Ross, Edith Alma (1867 - 1940)

On March 25, 1867, just a few days before the United States finalized the purchase of Alaska from Russia, the eldest of John Wesley and Carrie Louise Ross's five children, Edith, was born in Westfield, Massachusetts. They called Massachusetts home until 1874, when they moved to Davenport, Iowa, where John flourished and distinguished himself as an architect. John designed a number of the city's noteworthy historic buildings, like the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home and the Davenport City Hall, that are now on the National Record of Historic Places (Ancestry.com 2022, Democrat Company 1914, Carol 2013, Hardman 1914, Leysen 1940, NRHP 2019, Wherry n.d.).

Little information about Edith's early life has been located, other than she had a sister, three brothers, and attended grade school and high school in Davenport. Among a collection of student essays and projects, maintained by the Davenport school system, is one document authored by an 11th grade Edith Ross dated 1884, yet she did not graduate until 1886. Evidently Edith took a one-year hiatus from school (to work?), which postponed her high school graduation for a year. Regardless, Edith and 27 classmates received their Davenport High School diplomas in 1886 (Carol 2013, Labath 2012, Leysen 1940, Scott 2016, Wherry n.d.).

Evidently during the 1880s and 1890s at least some Davenport High School seniors completed science projects that involved assembling a personal herbarium. Eight individuals, Edith Ross and classmates John Randall and Helen Rohm (class of 1886), Emma Peck (class of 1887), Inez Rabell (class of 1888), Anna Richter (class of 1890), Edward Decker (class of 1891), Naomi Melville (class of 1891), and Edwin Farber (class of 1892) were graduates (Labath 2012) whose herbarium specimens are preserved in the Putnam Museum.

Nothing in Edith's academic record hints at her general interest in science; botany in particular. Did she and other high school students have a connection to the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences? Were there particular occurrences and/or people that motivated Edith and the others towards natural science? One possibility was Edith Ross' and Edward Decker's connection to the Agassiz Association (Ballard 1888, Clarke 1941).

In 1875 Harlan H. Ballard founded the Agassiz Association with the goal of promoting the study of nature and instilling the importance of conservation among young people. Edith Ross was already an active member by 1884 and was the presiding president of the Iowa Assembly's first convention held in Fairfield, Iowa (Block 1887). Chapter 158 of the Agassiz Association was established in Davenport in 1885 by Edward K. Putnam, Carl A. Hamann, and others. Hamann, Putnam, and Ms. Ross all graduated from Davenport High School, Hamann a year before and Putnam a year after Ms. Ross (Labath 2012). When the chapter, which met regularly at the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, voted to allow women to join, an intrachapter spat materialized and several members resigned in protest (Wherry n.d.).

August 1886 is noteworthy, because the second national Agassiz Association meeting and the annual Iowa Agassiz Assembly were held concurrently in Davenport, Iowa. Edith Ross was one of the active members involved in the planning and execution of the conference and it was during those proceedings that Ms. Ross was elected the 3rd president of the Association's Iowa Assembly. It's unknown how many people attended the conference in Davenport, but the following year the national Agassiz Association acknowledged 980 chapters in the United States with a membership of 12,000. Edith remained an active member of the organization for several years (Clarke 1941, Democrat-Gazette 1887 & 1889, Ferrall & Ziemann 2016).

So, Edith Ross and Edward Decker had a connection to the Agassiz Association, and yet, seven non-aligned students contributed to the herbarium too. What was their motivation? Did all of the students have a mentor? The answers may lie in a quirk of the hiring process.

In the fall of 1883, Davenport found itself in need of a new high school principal. The first person to whom the position was offered declined the opportunity and subsequently the city was "fortunate in securing a gentleman for the place who bears as high a reputation as teacher as any man recommended to the board - Mr. F.E. Stratton of Orange, Mass." (Richardson 1883). Frederick Stratton was a Williams College graduate who had botanized in Central America (Myers & Myers 1871) and had taught for several years. The details of his personal story may be of interest (see Frederick Stratton biography), but suffice it to say that he was a trained botanist, published a botany textbook during his stay in Davenport (Stratton 1891), and nine students represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium graduated from high school during his tenure from 1883 through 1892 (Downer 1910, Labath 2012). It seems reasonable, then, to consider him a leading contender for the position as Davenport High School "plant science promoter". But was he the students' only mentor?

Dr. Charles C. Parry arrived in Davenport, Iowa in the fall of 1846 and he practiced medicine for a brief period. But Parry was far more interested in botany, so he soon discontinued his efforts as a community physician and succumbed to the allure of field work. Dr. Parry dedicated himself to a life of exploration and plant prospecting in the West, which included a number of excursions between Davenport and the Pacific Coast; from Mexico to Montana. His expeditions included botanizing in Colorado in 1861, exploring the Yellowstone region in 1873, and a venture into central Mexico in 1878. C.C. Parry was actively engaged with the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences and it's easy to envision Dr. Parry, like F.E. Stratton, as someone with whom Edith Ross, and perhaps other students, had a botanical relationship (Jones 1875, Parry 1878, White 1906).

Regardless of how it came about, Edith, far beyond her fellow high school graduates, was smitten with the plant collection bug. Her earliest specimen in the Putnam Museum bears a collection date of April 1886 and, during the ensuing years, Ms. Ross assembled an impressive personal herbarium. She completed most of her field work by the close of 1891, but she acquired a number of plants dating from 1859 to 1912 via exchange with other collectors. Evidently the relationships she established with other members of the Agassiz Association proved to be particularly valuable to her plant exchange efforts. People like Charles A. Davis (Michigan), Constance G. DuBois (Connecticut), John Higgins (Illinois), John M. Holzinger (Minnesota), Harriet H. Keyes (New York), William S. Moffatt (Illinois), Marta Philip (California), Mathilde Schlegel (New York), Emma A. Shumway (Washington), and Charles F. Wheeler (Michigan) were affiliated with the Agassiz Association and contributed specimens to Edith's herbarium. Though Ross assembled a collection that included plants from ten countries, over 85% of her herbarium came from the United States.

Edith's most significant botanical foray took place, when she traveled by rail to Yellowstone National Park. Though C.C. Parry may have discussed Yellowstone with Edith, he succumbed to influenza earlier in the year and could not have been part of the final preparations. That Ms. Ross made the excursion with her father, John, was implied by a "Personals" column in "The Daily Independent" of Helena, Montana posted July 22, 1890. "Mr. Ross, Davenport, Ia." and "Miss Ross, Davenport, Ia." stayed at "The Helena" hotel on July 22, 1890. "Miss Ross" is presumably Edith and "Mr. Ross" must have been her father, because at the time, Edith's brothers, Harry and John, would have been 12 and 2 years of age, respectively. It appears that Albert, her eldest brother, was living in New York at the time, making him an unlikely travel partner (Ancestry.com 2022, Daily Independent 1890, Tatman 2022).

Edith's herbarium revealed that she collected a few specimens outside the park at various stops along Northern Pacific Railway route: Minneapolis, Minnesota; Valley City, Dakota [sic] (present-day North Dakota); Glendive and Livingston, Montana. The exact dates for the train trip cannot presently be determined, however, plants collected by Ross from the Davenport, Iowa area bear dates from early June and from the latter part of August of 1890, indicating the Yellowstone trip was sandwiched between the two. All of her national park collections bear dates of "July 1890", sans additional detail.

Regrettably, a detailed account of Ms. Ross' Yellowstone trip is lacking; only the following announcement about the excursion has been uncovered: "Miss Edith A. Ross recounts a brief trip made last summer to the Yellowstone Park in which about 100 species were collected. Five of these are figured in the report. By taking advantage of the stops of the train a number of interesting plants were taken en route (Clute 1891)." Though no written account of Edith's trip to Yellowstone has been located, train schedules, photos, and other remnants from 1890, along with bits of imagination, extrapolation, and cogitation, allow for a reconstruction of Edith's trip (see Edith A. Ross: A Trip to Wonderland).

In short, a review of the Putnam Museum's 107 Edith Ross specimens from Yellowstone shows that the group traveled to a variety of localities in the park. Though they visited geysers, canyons, and rivers, it's Edith's experience at the hot springs that is of greatest interest. She collected a short, innocuous grass growing near hot springs along the Firehole River (Whipple 2012), specimens of which somehow made their way to Dr. George Vasey at the U.S. National Herbarium. Vasey determined the grass to be a species new to science and named it Agrostis rossiae (Ross' bentgrass) in tribute to Ms. Ross (Harvey 2007, Vasey 1892). Still today, Ross' bentgrass is known from but a few geothermally active locations in Yellowstone National Park (Heidel 2012), such as Beehive Geyser.

Edith Ross' interests extended beyond plant collecting. She became an active member of the Tri-City Garden Club late in her life and she was a founding member of the Davenport area's Nature Study Club; functioning as corresponding secretary until November 1939. She worked as a clerk and stenographer for two department stores, she was a secretary for a transfer company, an office worker for a storage company, and she worked on the membership committee for the Davenport Chamber of Commerce (Leysen 1940, Wherry n.d.). More significantly, Edith was an artist.

Tableware manufacturers often produced pieces of plain, white, porcelain dinnerware and, from the late 1800s into the early 1900s, thousands of women became china painters. It was an important endeavor, because at the time, it was one of the few respected and socially acceptable ways for a woman to be employed (Veith & Frelinghuysen 2013). So, whether for income or a diversion, women would purchase the blanks from a porcelain factory and use overglaze paints to add a desired design to the piece, which was subsequently fired to make the addition permanent. Edith Ross was a teacher of the art and a vendor of merchandise she created (Alsop-Robineau 1914-1915, 1919); many of her designs are illustrated in Volume 6 of Keramic Studio. She was even awarded design patent number 40,602 on April 5, 1910 for a decorative pattern she created (Ross 1910).

Edith donated some 2500 plant specimens to the Davenport Public Museum in April 1931 (Klingaman 1931) and hundreds of them show Edith Ross as the collector or co-collector. Her donation included a set of moss specimens (Klingaman 1931) entitled Bryotheca Brasiliensis that was collected by Ernst Ule in 1889 and 1890 in Brazil and includes a number of type specimens (Camara et al. 2014). Ms. Ross purchased the collection from Dr. Viktor F. Brotherus in Helsingfors, Finland and she presented a discussion of the collection to her chapter of the Agassiz Association (Holzinger 1892). As mentioned above, many of the specimens in Edith's personal herbarium were undoubtedly acquired via relationships she cultivated with other members of the Agassiz Association throughout North America and perhaps through her listing in the "The Naturalists' Directory" (Cassino 1894). The vast majority of Edith's plant collections are housed in the Putnam Museum herbarium and a few at other herbaria may be viewed via the iDigBio and/or SEINet specimen databases.

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Alsop-Robineau, Adelaide. (ed.) 1914-1915. Keramic Studio. Volume 16. Supplement page 4. Keramic Studio Publ. Syracuse, New York.

Alsop-Robineau, Adelaide. (ed.) 1919. Keramic Studio. Volume 21. Keramic Studio Publ. Syracuse, New York.

Ancestry.com. 2022. Edith Alma Ross. Melinda Santoro Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ballard, Harlan H. (ed.). 1888. Exchanges. The Swiss Cross 3:159.

Block, Louis. 1887. Assembly Report. The Swiss Cross 2:156-157.

Camara, Paulo E.A.S., Micheline Carvalho-Silva, Maria Sulamita Dias da Silva, Denilson Fernandes Peralta. 2014. A catalog of Bryophyta types deposited at the National Museum of Brazil. Acta Bot. Bras. Vol.28 No.4.

Carol. 2013. John Wesley Ross. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Cassino, Samuel Edson. 1894. The Naturalists' Directory. in The Scientists International Directory. S.E. Cassino, Publ. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 194 of 279.

Clarke, James Frederic. 1941. Reminiscences of the Agassiz Association in Iowa with special reference to the Fairfield chapter. Iowa Jrnl. History & Politics. 8(3):286-315. (See pp. 306, 308, 309, 310.)

Clute, Willard N. (ed.) 1891. Notes - Gray Memorial Chapter: Agassiz Association. The Ornithologist and Botanist. 1:48.

Daily Independent. 1890. Arrivals at the Helena. The Helena Independent. Helena, Montana. p. 8. column 3. July 22, 1890.

Democrat Company. 1914. Architect and pioneer called. Davenport Democrat & Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 13. column 7. June 21, 1914.

Democrat-Gazette. 1887. The Agassiz - President Edith Ross issues a circular. Morning Democrat-Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 1. August 9, 1887.

Democrat-Gazette. 1889. State Agassiz meeting. Morning Democrat-Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 3. August 30, 1889.

Downer, Harry E. 1910. History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa. Vol. 1. Chapter 18 - The Scott County Bar. S.J. Clarke Publishing. Chicago, Illinois. p. 938 of 1011.

Ferrall, Sheryl & Linda Ziemann. (eds.). 2016. Agassiz Association. Evening Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. August 26, 1886. in Iowa Old Press. IAGenWeb Project.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1914. Aged architect dies suddenly. The Daily Times. June 20, 1914. p. 7. col. 4.

Harvey, M.J. 2007. Agrostis. Publ. in Barkworth et al. (eds.) Flora of North America. 24:656.

Heidel, Bonnie. 2012. Wyoming plant species of concern, April 2012. Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, Laramie, Wyoming.

Holzinger, John M. 1892. Reports - First Quarter. The Observer. 3:192, 222, 224.

Jones, William A. 1875. Report upon the reconnaissance of northwestern Wyoming : including Yellowstone National Park made in 1873. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. 331 pp. + maps.

Klingaman, O.E. 1931. Report of the assistant director. Davenport Public Museum. Putnam Museum and Science Center document archive.

Labath, Cathy (coordinator). 2012. Scott County: Iowa School Records. IAGenWeb Project. Davenport High School Class Listings.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1940. Miss Edith A. Ross, active in garden club, found dead. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 6. column 7. May 6, 1940.

Myers, H.M. & P.V.N. Myers. 1871. Brief Record of an Expedition to Central America. in Life and nature under the tropics (revised edition). D. Appleton & Company. New York City, New York. pp. 325-351 of 358.

NRHP (National Register of Historic Places). 2019. National Register of Historic Places Public Dataset. National Park Service. U.S. Dept. Interior. Washington, D.C.

Parry, C.C. 1878. Personal address: To the trustees of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 2:279-282.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1883. High School Principal. The Davenport Democrat. September 28, 1883. page 1. column 3.

Ross, Edith. 1910. Design for a plate. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Washington, D.C.

Scott, DM. 2016. Edith Alma Ross. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Stratton, Frederick E. 1891. Questions in Botany. Mossman & Volmer. Davenport, Iowa. 58 pp.

Tatman, Sandra L. 2022. Ross, Albert Randolph (1868 - 1948). Philadelphia architects and buildings. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Vasey, G. 1892. Monograph of the Grasses of the United States and British America. Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herbarium 3:76-77.

Veith, Barbara & Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen. 2013. Women China Decorators. in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Wherry, Maryan. n.d. Biography of Edith Alma Ross (1866 - 1940). Unpublished manuscript. Putnam Museum and Science Center document archive.

Whipple, Jenifer J. 2012. Endemic plants of Yellowstone. Yellowstone Science 20:17-24.

White, Charles A. 1906. Biographical Memoir of Charles Christopher Parry. The Annals of Iowa. 7:413-430.

Sanders, Alfred (1819 - 1865)

Alfred Sanders was born March 13, 1819 in Cincinnati, Ohio (see portrait here). He was the middle child of the seven offspring raised by Hezekiah and Mary (Suffrins) Sanders (Ancestry.com 2022, Jones 2013). It seems that Hezekiah and Mary had settled in the vicinity of Greensboro, North Carolina (Guilford County), but as Quakers, they were displeased with the slavery climate in the area and they moved northwest to Cincinnati (Rathman 2016).

There in Cincinnati, Alfred and his brother Addison H. Sanders completed their education at Woodward College (Green 1836, Old Woodward Club 1884, Richardson 1882). Alfred's newspaper career began in Ohio, when as a boy he worked with Levi Davis on the Dayton Journal. Then in 1840, Sanders visited various locations on the upper Mississippi River and decided Davenport, Iowa was in need of a newspaper. He left Cincinnati with Levi Davis in 1841 and moved to Davenport.

They arrived in August via steamer at a time when the Mississippi River's water level was low. Once the vessel was made fast (run aground?), a crude wooden gangway/walkway was assembled, because there was no pier at which the boat could be moored. A crowd had gathered to witness the arrival of the newspaperman and his printing press, but evidently the new gangway was an unstable track and the printing press was dropped into the river during offloading (Andreas 1875, Wilke 1858). In spite of the unexpected christening, the press was dried out and the Davenport Weekly Gazette went to press on August 26, 1841 (Brigham 1918, J.C. 1865, McMurtrie 1933, Mott 1928, Richardson 1882, Wilkie 1858). With Alfred as the editor and Levi as the printer (Chronicling America 2022) they successfully cultivated a significant following — by 1853 the duo had introduced a tri-weekly newspaper and in the following year they had added the Davenport Daily Gazette to their publication roster (Richardson 1882).

Sanders feared too few people would be able to afford the Gazette's $6.00 annual subscription fee, so to offset publication costs the front and back pages of the first edition were covered with advertisements (photo here) and news stories were sandwiched between the two. The daily paper proved to be a success, but Alfred began supplementing his income in 1848 by operating a drug store/grocery store business with Bezaleel Sanford (his father-in-law). Their retail business sold "drugs and medicines", "paints and oils", "dye stuffs", "brushes", "fancy articles and perfumery". Alfred's career in the retail arena lasted for a dozen years, but his newspaper career continued until 1862, when he sold the enterprise to the Gazette Company (Mott 1928, Richardson 1882, Sanders 1848a, SCblogger 2011, Wilkie 1858).

Sanders was interested in natural science, botany in particular, and he was known for completing numerous field trips into the region surrounding Davenport collecting and identifying the local flora (Richardson 1882). In 1845 he authored a snippet offering to identify plants whose "blossoms at this season are so liberally strewn over the lap of nature" (Sanders 1845) and the following year Alfred listed a half-dozen spring ephemerals he'd seen flowering in Davenport on a botanical foray (Sanders 1846). By 1848 Mr. Sanders was active in the Horticultural Society of Davenport and Rock Island and later his wife also participated in the Society (Richardson, West, & Co. 1860, Sanders 1848b & 1850).

Overall, Sanders' plant collections had sufficient impact so as to earn him recognition from other local botanists. Dr. Charles C. Parry (1847) drafted a short report about the flora of the Davenport region and listed Alfred as the collector of record for Penstemon grandiflorum [sic]. Alfred's contributions were recognized in the "List of Phaenogamous Plants, collected in the vicinity of Davenport, Iowa, during the years 1870 to 1875" (Nagel & Haupt 1876) and in "The Vascular Plants of Scott & Muscatine Counties" (Guldner 1960).

For a time Sanders developed an interest in mollusks and, as a conchologist, he assembled a sizeable collection of shells from not only North America, but foreign countries as well. Then later in life, his interests turned to geology and he assembled a noteworthy reference library on that subject. As an antiquarian, Alfred was particularly interested in coins, and medals (Richardson 1882). In fact, his coin collection included relics that dated back as far as 330 BCE (Sanders 1864).

Alfred Sanders married Miss Marie Antoinette Sanford a year after his arrival in Iowa (1842). They established a home in East Davenport and together raised four daughters and three sons (Ancestry.com 2022). Alfred was active in his community and a scan of many years of The Davenport Gazette and other newspapers in Davenport reveals his opinions in the political realm, on living conditions of American Indians, on Iowa's railroads, on temperance, with the Old Settlers Association, local schools, and a host of other topics. Alas, Alfred contracted typhoid fever from his brother and died at the age of 46 (Rathmann 2016, Richardson 1865a&b; 1882).

In the neighborhood of 200 of the Putnam Museum's herbarium specimens list Alfred Sanders as collector or co-collector. Most are part of the Scott County flora, but a few (~ two dozen) were collected by Sanders in Ohio. In fact, some of the oldest specimens in the herbarium (circa 1830s) were collected in the Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio regions. Many, if not all, of these specimens were donated to the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences by Mr. Sanders' widow, Marie Antoinette Sanders in 1876 (Pratt 1876-1878, Richardson & Richardson 1876).

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Alfred C. Sanders. Kathrein Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Andreas, A.T. 1875. Illustrated historical atlas of the state of Iowa. Andreas Atlas Co. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 7 & 428 of 558 + tables.

Brigham, Johnson. 1918. Iowa: Its history and its foremost citizens. Vol. 1. S.J. Clarke Publ. Co. Des Moines, Iowa. pp. 180 & 410 of 434.

Chronicling America. 2022. The Davenport Gazette (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?. Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.

Green, William. (president) 1836. Catalogue, by-laws, and course of study of the Woodward College, and of the high school. Printed by L'Hommedieu & Co. Cincinnati, Ohio. p. x of xi + 47.

Gue, Benjamin F. 1882. History of Iowa from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century. Volume 4: Iowa biography. The Century History Company. New York City, New York. pp. 231-232 of 325.

Guldner, Ludwig F. 1960. The Vascular Plants of Scott & Muscatine Counties. Davenport Public Museum, Davenport, IA. 228 pp. (See comments in the foreword.)

J.C. 1865. Obituary: Alfred Sanders. Newspaper clipping. Likely from a Davenport, Iowa newspaper. April 25, 1865. Putnam Museum and Science Center archive.

Jones, Emily. 2013. Alfred Sanders. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

McMurtrie, Douglas C. 1933. The beginnings of printing in Iowa. The Annals of Iowa 19:3-22.

Mott, David C. 1928. Early Iowa Newspapers. The Annals of Iowa 16:161-221.

Nagel, J. J. and J. G. Haupt. 1876. List of Phaenogamous Plants, collected in the vicinity of Davenport, Iowa, during the years 1870 to 1875. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sciences 1:153-164.

Old Woodward Club. 1884. Old Woodward : a memorial relating to Woodward High School, 1831-1836, and Woodward College, 1836-1851, in the city of Cincinnati. Press of Robert Clarke & Co. Cincinnati, Ohio. p. 269 of 315.

Parry, C.C. 1847. Review of some Botanical observations, made during the last season; principally in the vicinity of Davenport and Rock-Island. The Davenport Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. columns 1-3. October 14, 1847.

Pratt, W.H. 1876-1878. Curator's report: Additions to the museum during the year 1876. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 2:8 & 54.

Rathmann, Elaine. 2016. Descendants of John Sanders. Scott County, Iowa. USGenWeb Project.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1865a. Death of Alfred Sanders, Esq. Daily Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 3. April 25, 1865. .

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1865b. Such is life. Daily Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 3. April 26, 1865. .

Richardson, D.N. (chair). 1882. History of Scott County, Iowa. Inter-state Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 575-578, 623-624, & 627-628 of 1265.

Richardson, West, & Co. 1860. Horticultural Society. Daily Democrat and News. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 3. September 20, 1860.

Richardson, D.N. & J.J. Richardson. (eds.) 1876. Items in brief. Daily Iowa State Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 2. July 31, 1876.

Sanders, Alfred. (ed.) 1845. Flowers. The Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. April 3, 1845. Putnam Museum and Science Center archive.

Sanders, Alfred. (ed.) 1846. Spring flowers. The Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. April 30, 1846. Putnam Museum and Science Center archive.

Sanders, Alfred. (ed.) 1848a. New drug store. The Davenport Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 3. column 3. May 11, 1848.

Sanders, Alfred. (sec'y) 1848b. Horticultural Meeting. The Davenport Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 2. column 3. November 9, 1848.

Sanders, Alfred. (sec'y) 1850. Horticultural Meeting. The Davenport Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 3. column 2. June 20, 1850.

Sanders, Alfred. 1864. Numismatic collection of Alfred Sanders, Esq., of Davenport, Iowa. The Annals of Iowa. 1864:327-329.

SCblogger. 2011. Davenport's first daily newspaper. Primary Selections from Special Collections. Davenport Public Library. Davenport, Iowa. October 13, 2011.

Wilkie, Franc B. 1858. Davenport, past and present; including the early history, and personal and anecdotal reminiscences of Davenport. Publishing house of Luse, Lane, and Co. Davenport, Iowa. p. 93, 210, & 235-236 of 334.

Sanders, Mrs. (1821 - 1902)

Mrs. Alfred Sanders (née Marie Antoinette Sanford) was born December 23, 1821 in New York City. Her parents, Bezaleel and Orra Sanford, moved the family to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1838, where Bezaleel was in business. In 1840 the family moved to Iowa and purchased a farm near Rockingham, along the Mississippi River bordering Davenport on the south. In 1842 Ms. Sanford married newspaper publisher Alfred Sanders and, as mentioned above, they raised four daughters and three sons (Ancestry.com 2022, Davenport Democrat 1902, Rathmann 2007, Richardson 1882).

Perhaps due to her husband's encouragement, Marie was participating in functions held by the Davenport and Rock Island Horticultural Society as early as 1849 (Sanders 1849 a&b). She remained active throughout her life in a variety of community organizations like the Soldiers' Aid Society (Richardson 1865a), Independence Day celebrations (Richardson 1865b), the Ladies Christian Association (Richardson 1869, Davenport Democrat 1899), and the Old Settlers of Scott County Association (Times Co. 1888).

Marie Sanders (photo here), as a community organizer and philanthropist, was one of the motivating forces that helped found the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home (Richardson 1865a, SCblogger 2014). Ms. Sanders was elected an honorary member of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences in 1868, became regular member in 1875 (McCowen 1897, Richardson & Richardson 1875), and completed a variety of organizational tasks for the Academy (Pratt et al. 1876-1878). She sat on the board of trustees for the Ladies Industrial Relief Society (Anonymous 1900, Rathmann 2007) and "Sanders Hall", part of the Annie Wittenmyer Complex, was named in her honor (Anonymous 1900, Rathmann 2007).

Fourteen herbarium specimens in the Putnam Museum list Mrs. Sanders as collector or co-collector. Most bear no location data and those that do are from either Iowa or Ohio. Similarly, many have no collection date listed, but others were collected in the 1830s or 1840s. One example is an 1839 collection of yellow pond-lily (Nuphar advena) showing Mrs. Sanders and J.G. Haupt as "collectors". Marie would have been 18 years old that year, but Haupt wasn't born until 1855. A peculiarity to be sure. At any rate, she donated Alfred Sanders' personal herbarium to the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences in 1876 (Pratt 1876-1878, Pratt et al. 1867-1876, Richardson & Richardson 1876) and Marie contributed a complete set of the Davenport Gazette that was published during Alfred's tenure as the newspaper's editor (1841-1862) to the Academy in 1879 (Richardson 1879).

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Maria Antoinette Sanford. Kathrein Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1900. These Sturdy Pioneers are the Ancestors of Our Present Ladies' Industrial Relief Society. The Democrat. in Scott Co., Iowa USGenWeb Project.

Davenport Democrat. 1899. Obituary - Sanders. The Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. columns 1 & 2. December 30, 1899.

Davenport Democrat. 1902. Obituary - Sanders. The Davenport Sunday Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 2. February 9, 1902.

Pratt, W.H. 1876-1878. Curator's report: Additions to the museum during the year 1876. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 2:8 & 54.

McCowen, Dr. Jennie. 1897. Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences: Silver Anniversary Address. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 6:311-313.

Pratt, W.H., J. Duncan Putnam, C.H. Preston, R.J. Farquharson, & Geo. H. French. (Publ. Comm.) 1867-1876. Record of Proceedings. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 1:7, 80, 212, 216.

Pratt, W.H., J. Duncan Putnam, R.J. Farquharson, & C.H. Preston. 1876-1878. Report of the committee of publication Women's Centennial Association. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 2:65-75.

Rathmann, Elaine. 2007. Descendants of Bezaleel Sanford. Scott Co, Iowa. USGenWeb Project.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1865a. Iowa Orphan's Home. Daily Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 4. January 16, 1865.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1865b. Fourth of July celebration. Daily Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 4. June 26, 1865.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1869. Ladies Christian Association. Daily Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 2. May 3, 1869.

Richardson, D.N. (chair) 1882. History of Scott County, Iowa. Inter-state Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 623-624 & 627-628 of 1265.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1879. Pioneer schools. Daily Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 6. January 14, 1879.

Richardson, D.N. & J.J. Richardson. (eds.) 1875. Items in brief. The Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 2. November 1, 1875.

Richardson, D.N. & J.J. Richardson. (eds.) 1876. Items in brief. Daily Iowa State Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 2. July 31, 1876.

Sanders, Alfred (ed.) 1849a. Horticultural Society. Davenport Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 3. column 1. June 21, 1849.

Sanders, Alfred (ed.) 1849b. Horticultural exposition. Davenport Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 3. column 2. August 16, 1849.

SCblogger. 2014. A New (Old) Look at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home. Primary Selections from Special Collections. Davenport Public Library. Davenport, Iowa.

Times Co. 1888. The Old Settlers. The Davenport Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. columns 1&2 . September 19, 1888.

Sartwell, Henry Parker (1792 - 1867)

Henry Parker Sartwell was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts (April of 1792) to Levi and Eleanor (Crofut) Sartwell. The family moved to New Hartford, New York, where Henry studied medicine with Dr. Amos G. Hull. He was granted a medical license by the Oneida County Medical Society in September 1811 and the 19-year-old Sartwell began his medical practice there in New Hartford at that time (Barnhart 1920, Foote 1865, Homes et al. 2006, Prabook 2022, Wright 1937). He was an Army Surgeon for the United States during the War of 1812 and following his military service, Sartwell settled in Ontario County, New York in 1821 (Barnhart 1920, D. Appleton & Co. 1870). During his career, Dr. Sartwell practiced in the New York towns of Springfield, Bethel, and Penn Yan from 1832 until the year of his death (Homes et al. 2006).

Henry met Rebecca Stewart from Bethel, New York and they were married January 20, 1825. Rebecca gave birth to five children, three daughters and two sons (Ancestry.com 2022, Oster 2013).

In about 1830 the Sartwells moved to Penn Yan (an appellation born, when immigrants to the region from Pennsylvania and Yankees from New England reached a compromise for the name of the community (Aldrich 1892)) in the Finger Lakes region of New York. He was awarded an honorary M.D. by St. Mary's College (Baltimore, Maryland) in 1841 (Barnhart 1920, D. Appleton & Co. 1870, Wright 1937).

Outside his medical practice, Dr. Sartwell was interested in entomology, mineralogy, and prevailing long-term weather conditions. He filled several volumes with meteorological observations and measurements and, for at least a few years, reported his data to the Smithsonian Institution (Dorr 1992, Smithsonian Institution 1869, Wright 1937). He was also active outside the realms of science and medicine.

Henry served on a slate of electors in New York affiliated with the Free Soil Party supporting Martin Van Buren for president in the 1848 election (Evening Post 1848, Maynard & Welch 1848). He held the position of toll collector for traffic along the Crooked Lake Canal, which connected Crooked Lake (now Keuka Lake) at Penn Yan with Seneca Lake at Dresden (Thomas & Lathrops 1856) and he was appointed to the position of Yates County Surgeon during the Civil War (Bennett 1862). However, Sartwell dedicated much of his life to the study of plants, with his primary interest being the genus Carex.

His goal in Carex, to collect all of the native species in North America, resulted in the publication and distribution of two volumes of "Carices Americae Septentrionalis exsiccatae" in 1848 and 1850. Unfortunately, the third volume went uncompleted, because Sartwell died with only 40 of the intended 50 species collected (Barnhart 1920, Gray 1868, Wilson & Fiske 1888).

Sartwell also published a checklist entitled the "Catalogue of plants growing without cultivation in the vicinity of Seneca and Crooked lakes, in western New York" (Sartwell 1845). In about 1864 Henry sold his personal herbarium to Hamilton College in Clinton, New York (Barnhart 1920, Cholewa, & Wetter 1988, Silliman & Dana 1868), which interestingly was the same year that Hamilton College granted Sartwell an honorary Ph.D. in recognition of his accomplishments (Wilson & Fiske 1888, Wright 1937). In 1850 Asa Gray named a genus of Composites Sartwellia as a tribute to Dr. Henry P. Sartwell (Gray 1850) and Dewey also named Carex Sartwellii in his honor (Dewey 1842). With his botanical achievements came membership in several leading scientific societies.

In 1853 Dr. Sartwell became a corresponding member of the California Academy of Natural Sciences (Leviton & Aldrich 1997). He was elected a corresponding member of the St. Louis Academy of Science in 1866 (Engelmann 1861-1868) and the following year Henry was awarded membership in the Buffalo Society of Natural History (Wright 1937).

Sartwell's personal herbarium of approximately 6200 specimens was ultimately transferred from Hamilton College in New York to the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden in 1983 (Cholewa & Wetter 1988, Mills Photographer 1864-1865, Silliman & Dana 1868, Wright 1937). Sheets of Carex alopecoidea, Carex decomposita and one of Scirpus polyphyllus collected by Sartwell in New York are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Another 100-plus specimens may be reviewed using the iDigBio and the SEINet plant databases.

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Aldrich, Lewis Cass. (ed.) 1892. History of Yates County, N. Y. D. Mason & Co. Syracuse, New York. p. 303 of 670.

Ancestry.com. 2022. Henry P. Sartwell. Scott Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Barnhart, John H. 1920. Sartwell, Henry Parker (1792 - 1867). in Kelly, Howard A. & Walter L. Burrage. American Medical Biographies. The Norman, Remington Company. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 1019 of 1320.

Bennett, James Gordon. (ed.) 1862. Order for the draft in New York. The New York Herald. New York City, New York. p. 8. column 4. October 15, 1862.

Cholewa, Anita F. and Mark Allen Wetter. 1988. The Henry Parker Sartwell Herbarium of Hamilton College. Brittonia 40:66-75.

D. Appleton &. Co. 1870. The American annual cyclopedia and register of important events of the year 1867. Vol. 7. D. Appleton & Co. New York City, New York. p. 583 of 799.

Dewey, C. 1842. Caricography. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts 43:90-91.

Dorr, Laurence J. 1992. "That Land of Flowers, Swamps and Alligators": S. B. Buckley's 1843 Trip Up the St. Johns River, Florida. Brittonia 44:1-13.

Engelmann, George. (President). 1861-1868. Proceedings of the Academy of Science of St. Louis: September 17, 1866. Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis. 2:561.

Evening Post. 1848. The names of electors. The Evening Post. New York City, New York. p. 2. column 2. November 3, 1848.

Foote, E.T. 1865. Early History of Chautauqua County Physicians. Trans. Med. Society of State of New York. pp. 272-283. (see p. 277)

Gray, Asa. 1850. Plantae Wrightianae: Texano-Neo-Mexicanae. Smithsonian Contrib. Knowledge 45: pp. 122-123.

Gray, Asa. 1868. Botanical necrology for the year 1867. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts (second series) 45:121-122.

Homes, R.W., A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt, & Monika Wells. (eds.) 2006. Regardfully Yours: Selected Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller. Volume III: 1876-1896. Peter Lang Publ. New York City, New York. p. 284.

Leviton, Alan E. & Michele L. Aldrich. (eds.) 1997. Theodore Henry Hittell's: The California Academy of Sciences. A narrative history: 1853-1906 . California Acad. Sci. San Francisco, California. pp. 13, 17, 27, & 614 of 623.

Maynard & Welch. (eds.) 1848. Democratic Free Soil Nominations. The Buffalo Daily Republic. Buffalo, New York. p. 1. column 1. and p. 2. columns 2 & 3. November 6, 1848.

Mills Photographer. 1864-1865. Dr. Henry Parker Sartwell, botanist. Increase A. Lapham papers, 1825-1930. Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. Madison, Wisconsin.

Oster, Kathleen. 2013. Dr. Henry Parker Sartwell. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Prabook. 2022. Henry Parker Sartwell. World Biographical Encyclopedia. New York City, New York.

Sartwell, H.P. 1845. Catalogue of plants growing without cultivation in the vicinity of Seneca and Crooked lakes, in western New York. in Annual Report of the Regents of the University. Senate: No. 51. State of New York. Albany, New York.

Silliman, B. & James B. Dana. (eds.) 1868. Botanical necrology for 1867. The American Jrnl. Sci. & Arts. Second series. Vol. 45. pp. 121-122.

Smithsonian Institution. 1869. List of Smithsonian meteorological stations and observers in North America and adjacent islands from 1849 up to the end of the year 1868. Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C. 42 pp.

Thomas & Lathrops. (publishers) 1856. By telegraph. Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. Buffalo, New York. p. 3. column 4. January 22, 1856.

Wilson, J. G. & J. Fiske (eds.) 1888. Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 5. p. 402.

Wright, Berlin Hart. 1937. Dr. H.P. Sartwell, Former Penn Yan resident, Became noted naturalist. Chronicle-Express. Penn Yan, New York. p. 9. columns 1 &2. August 5, 1937.

Saurman, Benjamin F. (1839 - 1932)

Benjamin Saurman, a son of Jacob and Sarah (Hollowell) Saurman, was born on Halloween October 1839 in Moreland, Pennsylvania. He had ten siblings — four brothers and six sisters — and either Benjamin or his sister Caroline was the youngest of the progeny (Ancestry.com 2023, SueAnn 2019). According to the U.S. Federal Censuses of 1850 & 1860, Jacob was a farmer and the family remained in Moreland through 1850, but by 1860 the household had moved to Philadelphia. In Philadelphia Jacob continued to farm and Benjamin was a public-school teacher (Ancestry.com 2023). The Civil War Draft Registration records for July 1863 list Benjamin's residence on Broad Street in Philadelphia and he was still employed as a teacher (Ancestry.com 2023), but no evidence that he served in the military during the Civil War has surfaced.

Later in the 1860s, Benjamin studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of his brother-in-law Joseph C. Martindale (Archives 2016, Biddle 1866) and earned his M.D. in 1867 from that university (Biddle 1868, Harding 1867, University of Pennsylvania 1867). Judging from his correspondence with George Engelmann, Saurman was considering a field trip to California, Colorado, and Nevada during the spring of 1867 (Saurman 1866), but there's no evidence that his proposed trip west ever materialized.

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Dr. Alvan W. Chapman sent word to Philadelphia that he had funding available to hire an assistant for his botanical work in Florida. Chapman's request found its way to the desk of Charles E. Smith (president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and active member of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences). Smith recommended Elias Diffenbach for the position, but Diffenbach turned down the opportunity due to health concerns. So, it was Benjamin Saurman who accepted the Chapman assistantship in Apalachicola, Florida (Harshberger 1899). Judging from dates recorded on specimens in the iDigBio plant database, Dr. Saurman completed most of his plant collecting in Florida during 1867. However, a few specimens are dated as late as 1869.

It appears that while he was botanizing the Apalachicola region Dr. Saurman made the acquaintance of Sarah Love Goodlett (photo here). Though she was 13 years his junior, Ms. Goodlett seems to have found Saurman to be a pleasing companion and they were married in Franklin County, Florida (the county within which Apalachicola is located) March 24, 1869. The couple had one daughter, JoAnna, who was born in 1870 (Ancestry.com 2023, SueAnn 2019). According to the U.S. Federal Census and the Philadelphia Business Directory, the Saurmans were living in Philadelphia and Benjamin's business was located at the corner of North 5th and Poplar Streets in 1870 (Ancestry.com 2023, Costa 1870). The family remained there until at least 1873 and Benjamin was making a living as a druggist (Boyd & Boyd 1873). Sarah survived only until 1873 (Ancestry.com 2023).

Rowell (1875) listed the "Apalachicola Times" as a weekly newspaper that was established in 1873 and claimed Dr. B.F. Saurman as the editor and publisher. In 1878 "a" B.F. Saurman was mentioned as the associate editor of the Norristown, Pennsylvania "National Defender" newspaper (Anonymous 1878). Similarly, in October 1881 "a" B.F. Saurman became editor of the "Manchester Union" newspaper in Manchester, New Hampshire and he continued in that position until April 1882 (Hurd 1885, The Central News 1881). It appears that the editor, B.F. Saurman, and B.F. Saurman the botanist are one and the same, so Dr. Saurman transitioned from physician (who apparently never hung out a shingle) and botanist to newspaper editor.

By 1882 Benjamin was a member of the editorial staff with the Boston Daily Globe. He remained single until that year, when the 43-year-old married Leonora Marakatha Shelley. Together they raised two sons, John and Benjamin, and a daughter, Blanche (Ancestry.com 2023, Globe Newspaper Company 1882). It seems their union became less convivial with time, because according to the U.S. Federal Census of 1910, Leonora was working as a clerk at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, Blanche was a salesperson at a department store, and there was no mention of Benjamin (Ancestry.com 2023). Even so, in addition to being a father, a pharmacist, a botanist, and a newspaperman, Dr. Benjamin Saurman was an inventor and historian.

Benjamin was awarded U.S. patent number 187,487 for a "Lady's Thread-Cabinet", the application for which is dated 1875 (patent was awarded in 1877) and his address at the time was Apalachicola, Florida (Saurman 1877). It seems that by May 1905, Saurman had moved back to Philadelphia, because in that year the U.S. Patent Office awarded him patent number 790,320 on May 23rd, and he listed Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as his place of residence on that patent document (Saurman 1905). The patent, for a "railway signaling system", was apparently inspired by an 1899 head-on train collision that Dr. Saurman evidently witnessed near Plainfield, New Jersey (Anonymous 1907, Otis 1907). In June 1905 Saurman, Julius T. Weber, and Frederick G. Ernott formed the Safety Signal Company to manufacture, install, and license the use of that "railway signaling system" (Post-Telegram Company 1905). Isaac C. Martindale, Joseph C. Martindale, and Saurman worked together on "A history of the townships of Byberry and Moreland, in Philadelphia, Pa.", which was published with Joseph as the author (Academy of Natural Sciences 2017, Martindale 1867).

Just over 200 specimens collected by Saurman are recorded in the iDigBio and SEINet plant databases. Most of them were collected from Florida in 1867, presumably when he was assisting Alvin Chapman, but some bear collection dates of 1905, which is several years after Chapman's death. Six Saurman specimens collected in Florida are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Academy of Natural Sciences. 2017. Martindale, Joseph C., fl. 1866-1911. Papers, 1863-68. Archives of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

Ancestry.com. 2023 . Benjamin Franklin Saurman MD. Sue Ann Robson Mortimer Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1878. What Norristown citizens who heard that speech have to say. The Times. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 4. column 1. November 5, 1878.

Anonymous. 1907. To avert railway accidents. The San Bernardino County Sun. San Bernardino, California. p. 12. columns 4 & 5. May 15, 1907.

Archives. 2016. Martindale, Joseph C. Papers, 1863-68. Academy of Natural Sciences. Drexel University. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Biddle, Cadwalader (secretary). 1866. Catalogue of the Trustees, Officers, and Students of the University of Pennsylvania. Collins Printer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 47 pp.

Biddle, Cadwalader (secretary). 1868. Catalogue of the Trustees, Officers, and Students of the University of Pennsylvania. Collins Printer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 45 of 48.

Boyd, Andrew & W. Harry Boyd. 1873. Boyd's Business Directory. Andrew Boyd - Syracuse, New York. W. Harry Boyd - Pottsville, Pennsylvania. p. 554.

Costa, Isaac. (compiler). 1870. Gopsill's Philadelphia Business Directory for 1870. James Gopsill, publisher. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 221.

Globe Newspaper Company. 1882. A journalist's wedding. The Boston Daily Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 2. column 3. October 4, 1882.

Harding, William W. (publisher). 1867. University of Pennsylvania - Annual commencement. The Philadelphia Enquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 3. column 3. March 15, 1867.

Harshberger, John William. 1899. The botanists of Philadelphia and their work. T.C. Davis & Sons. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 353 & 417 of 457.

Hurd, D. Hamilton. (ed.) 1885. The Manchester Union. in History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. J.W. Lewis and Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 56-60 of 748.

Martindale, Joseph C. 1867. A history of the townships of Byberry and Moreland, in Philadelphia, Pa. T. Ellwood Zell. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 379 pp.

Otis, H.G. (president) 1907. To save life on railways. Los Angeles Daily Times. Los Angeles, California. p. 5. column 3. May 14, 1907.

Post-Telegram Company. 1905. Three new concerns - Articles of incorporation filed with county clerk. Camden Post-Telegram. Camden, New Jersey. p. 9. column 2. June 19, 1905.

Rowell, Geo. P. 1875. Geo. P. Rowell & Co's. American Newspaper Directory. Geo. P. Rowell & Co. New York City, New York. p. 31 of 984.

Saurman, Benjamin F. 1866. Correspondence : Saurman (Benjamin) and Engelmann (George), 1866. . Engelmann Papers, Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis, Missouri.

Saurman, Benjamin F. 1877. Improvement in thread-cabinets. United States Patent Office. Washington, D.C.

Saurman, Benjamin F. 1905. Railway signaling system. United States Patent Office. Washington, D.C.

SueAnn. 2019. Dr. Benjamin Franklin Saurman. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

The Central News. 1881. No title. The Central News. Perkasie, Pennsylvania. p. 3. column 2. November 3, 1881.

University of Pennsylvania. 1867. Catalogue of the trustees, officers, and students of the University of Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 18 of 46.

Savage, Thomas Edmund (1866 - 1947)

Thomas Savage, a son of John and Tacy Savage (née Crew), was born near Salem, Iowa in January 1866 (Acme Publishing 1888, Godwin 2015, Yale University 1949). Thomas' education began in the local schools and he continued his education at Whittier College in Salem (Acme Publishing 1888, Western Historical Company 1879). Mr. Savage attended Iowa Wesleyan College in Mt. Pleasant, earned an A.B. in 1895 (Brown 1896), and then worked as an instructor and principal in the Mount Pleasant High School following graduation (Acme Publishing 1888, Brown 1896). He also taught at Iowa Wesleyan from 1899 through 1903 (Collinson 2013).

Thomas then completed a B.S. and an M.S. (1897 & 1898, respectively) at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City (Wanerus 1916, Yale University 1949). Evidently, during his course of study at the University of Iowa, Thomas met Elinor Claire Dubal (photo here) and the couple exchanged marriage vows (July 21, 1900) in Iowa City (Family Search 2020, Godwin 2015, Springer 1900).

During part of his graduate program (1899 through 1903 & 1909) Savage was professor of Biology and Geology at Western College in Toledo, Iowa (Leander Clark College 1909). He joined the Iowa Geological Survey and served as Assistant State Geologist for three years (1903-1906), which resulted in geological surveys of five counties (Marple 1918; Savage 1905 a&b, 1906). In 1906 Savage accepted a position in the Geology Department at the University of Illinois and he began a Ph.D. program at Yale, which he completed in 1909 (Collinson 2013, Embree 1912).

During his 28 years at the University of Illinois, Savage taught historical geology, paleontology, and stratigraphy (1907-1934). He held a joint appointment, during that period, with the Illinois State Geological Survey (1907-1922), where his research included the completion of the geological maps of ten quadrangles, encompassing 200 square miles (Collinson 2013, Yale University 1949). During his tenure in Illinois, Savage was part of a geology expedition to Hudson Bay in 1911 that traveled about 1800 miles by canoe and collected geological specimens from the region (Wanerus 1916, Yale University 1949). He also published on the geology, paleontology, and stratigraphy of Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Canada (Savage 1913, 1916, 1917, 1926, 1930, 1931; Savage & van Tuyl 1919) and other locations (see Google Scholar). The trilobite Ceraurus savagei was dedicated to Dr. Savage by Walter (1924).

Savage is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by four 1897 specimens that he collected with (Ray?) Stull in Missouri and another six specimens he collected in the Decorah, Iowa area in 1899. Several Savage and Stull lichen collections may be reviewed at the Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria database. An additional 20+ lichen specimens recorded by Savage and Stull may be examined using the Iowa Lichen Project database and 14 more collected by them in 1897 from Missouri may be viewed at the Field Museum's Botany Collections database.

Elinor Dubal Savage is also represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium. She and Lucy Cavanagh collected one specimen of Euphorbia corollata from Council Bluffs, Iowa in August 1898.

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Acme Publishing. 1888. Portrait and biographical album of Henry County, Iowa. Acme Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 302-303 of 694.

Brown, James T. 1896. Beta Theta Pi. The Beta Theta Pi 23:73 & 548.

Collinson, Charles W. 2013. Thomas E. Savage. Il. State Geol. Survey. Springfield, Illinois.

Embree, Edwin Rodgers. (registrar). 1912. Directory of the living graduates of Yale University. Yale University. New Haven, Connecticut. p. 285 of 640.

Family Search. 2020. Elinor Claire Dubal. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Godwin, David. 2015. Thomas E. Savage. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Leander Clark College. 1909. Annual catalogue of Leander Clarke College. Leander Clark College Bulletin. Vol. 4. No. 2. pp. 173-174.

Marple, Alice. 1918. Iowa Authors and Their Works: A Contribution Toward a Bibliography. Historical Dept. of Iowa. Des Moines, Iowa. pp. 257-258 of 359.

Savage, T.E. 1905a. The geology of Benton County. Iowa Geol. Survey Annual Rpt. Vol. 15. pp. 125-226.

Savage, T.E. 1905b. The geology of Fayette County. Iowa Geol. Survey Annual Rpt. Vol. 15. pp. 436-546.

Savage, T.E. 1906. The geology of Jackson County. Iowa Geol. Survey Annual Rpt. Vol. 16. pp. 563-648.

Savage, T.E. 1913. Stratigraphy and paleontology of the Alexandrian Series in Illinois and Missouri. Il. State Geol. Survey. Urbana. Illinois. Bull. 23. 124 pp. + plates.

Savage, T.E. 1916. Alexandrian rocks of northeastern Illinois and eastern Wisconsin. Bull. Geol. Soc. of America 27:305-324.

Savage, T.E. 1917. The Thebes Sandstone and Orchard Creek Shale and their faunas in Illinois. Trans. Ill. Acad. Sci. 10:261-275.

Savage, T.E. 1926. Silurian rocks of Illinois. Bull. Geol. Soc. of America 37:513-534.

Savage, T.E. 1930. Devonian rocks of Kentucky. Kentucky Geol. Survey Series 6. 33:1-161.

Savage, T.E. 1931. The Paleontology of Kentucky. Kentucky Geological Survey Series 6. 36:217-247.

Savage, T. E., and Francis M. Van Tuyl. 1919. Geology and stratigraphy of the area of Paleozoic rocks in the vicinity of Hudson and James bays. Bull. Geol. Soc. America 30:339-378.

Springer, Johnathon. (ed.) 1900. Thomas E. Savage and Miss Eleanor E. [sic] Dubal united in marriage. Iowa City Press Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. July 23, 1900. p. 4. column 3.

Walter, Otto Theodore. 1924. Trilobites of Iowa and some related Paleozoic forms. Iowa Geol. Survey Annual Rpt. Vol. 31. pp. 179-349 + plates.

Wanerus, Theodore A. (ed.) 1916. News from the classes. The Iowa Alumnus 14(2):62.

Western Historical Company. 1879. The history of Henry County, Iowa. Western Historical Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 537-542 of 667.

Yale University. 1949. Obituary record of graduates of Yale University deceased during the year 1947-1948. Bull. Yale Univ. Series 45. New Haven, Connecticut. p. 185 of 253.

Schlegel, Mathilde (˜1865 - 1950)

Mathilde "Tillie" Schlegel was born in New York in about 1865 to Charles H. and Hermine Schlegel. She grew up in the village of East Aurora, a few miles southeast of Buffalo, New York, with her mother, Hermine, and her younger sister, Clara (Ancestry.com 2023). Hermine's obituary (Butler 1929) indicated that Mathilde had a brother, Charles A. Schlegel, but no additional information about him has been uncovered. Mathilde's father, operator of a local dry goods store, died in 1886 and her younger sister, an accomplished china painter, perished in 1931 (Butler 1929, City of Buffalo 1886, Matson 1931).

Mathilde graduated from the University of Buffalo and was a teacher in the Buffalo school system for a period of time. She then transferred to Ithaca, New York, where she apparently became an assistant in Cornell University's entomology department (Butler 1897 a&b, 1950; Warren's Sons 1898b). Her diverse set of natural history pursuits included subjects like photography (e.g. Schlegel 1911 & 1912), botany, ornithology, zoology, and taxidermy (Cassino 1919, Miller 1899, Posson 1899).

Ms. Schlegel's adept use of a microscope, led to her selection as the microscopist for the Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Association (Bigelow 1892, Telegraph Publishing Co. 1884) and her membership in Buffalo's Microscopical Club in 1885 (Warren 1885). Through the 1890s and the early part of the 20th century, Mathilde's name appeared often in the newspapers of the Buffalo region, where she was recognized for her contributions to organizations like the Young People's Association, the Auxiliary Society, the Contemporary Club, the Field Club, as well as Buffalo's Natural Science Society. She spoke on a variety of topics before professional audiences, amateurs, and even school children (e.g. Bleistein 1894 & 1897, Butler 1895 & 1899, Warren's Sons 1898a&b), but it seems she was most interested in natural history, particularly the study of birds.

Mathilde was an instructor in the New York Chautauqua "School of Psychology and Pedagogy" where she taught a three-week nature study course on bird life from 1900-1902 (Bray 1900-1902). Her interest in and promotion of ecological topics, both natural and in backyard reconstructions, is reflected in her commentaries entitled "Fishing in winter", "Bird founts in the garden", and " New ways of attracting and protecting birds" (Schlegel 1907, 1917 a&b). Though Ms. Schlegel's interests were diversified among native flora and fauna topics, time and again her focus returned to birding.

Her dedication to ornithology was captured in an interview she gave for the Buffalo Courier. "I scarcely care to be known as a taxidermist ... My work means a more thorough knowledge of birds and bird life than is necessarily implied by the term taxidermist. ... I have sometimes sat for hours at a time studying their different maneuvers and clever ways. ... It is estimated that there are over 237 different kinds of birds which yearly pass through Buffalo in their migrations. I have with my own eyes seen and analyzed the greater part of this number. ... It is curious to note the distinctive characteristics which distinguish birds of one family or class, not only in appearance, but in habits and bird manners, as in the poise of the head and general position of the body ... (Bleistein 1890)."

Mathilde's penchant for birding was a life-long commitment that led to occasional newspaper reports. She combined her skills in photography with ornithology to contribute to her local Audubon Society (Mack 1913, Greene 1914) and she documented the arrival of the European starling, an introduced species, to Buffalo and its environs (Greene 1923). During her birding career Mathilde curated a sizeable personal collection of mounted and stuffed avian specimens, which was purchased by East Aurora High School in 1941 for $150.00. Mathilde's collection was the basis for the district's permanent exhibit highlighting the migratory and resident birds of the Buffalo region (Butler 1941, 1942, 1950). Ms. Schlegel may have been an ornithologist at heart, but she did not ignore the plant world.

Mathilde, the botanist, published brief works dealing with Claytonia, Arisaema, and Epipactus (Schlegel 1891, 1894, 1896). In fact, her involvement with Epipactus helleborine was mentioned by Drew and Giles (1951) and Ms. Schlegel published a snippet about an effort to avoid extirpation of the species by transplanting specimens of it in favorable locations near Buffalo, New York (Schlegel 1896). "Autumn in the woods", "Woodland studies", "Picture writing in the snow", and "Sunny Hours" (Schlegel 1892, 1893, 1906, 1910) were open invitations for readers to enjoy the floral and faunal transformations that occur seasonally in woodland settings. She also ventured outside the domain of natural history and dabbled in the world of cultivated plants.

In the 1800s and early 1900s corn was considered good for animal feed and not much else. But the development of bantam corn (sweet corn) changed that and Mathilde Schlegel developed an interest in plant breeding. Evidently bantam corn that produced white kernels was considered to be superior to any other color and Mathilde crossbred plants to produce a white-kernel hybrid. Her bantam corn won prizes at the Erie County Fair and she sold seed (1¢ per kernel) of her "silver queen" variety for others to raise (Mack 1914).

Twenty-seven specimens (26 from New York state and one from Ontario, Canada) collected by Ms. Schlegel from the 1885 through 1891 time period are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. All results for Mathilde Schlegel. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bigelow, Edward F. (publisher). 1892. Reports. The Observer. 3:192, 221, 223, 245, 320.

Bleistein, George. (president). 1890. Woman's work - Studying birds and learning to stuff them. Buffalo Courier. Buffalo, New York. p. 12. column 1. February 9, 1890.

Bleistein, George. (president). 1894. Our winter birds - One of Miss Schlegel's at the Franklin kindergarten. Buffalo Courier. Buffalo, New York. p. 3. column 4. March 11, 1894.

Bleistein, George. (president). 1897. Bird lore. Buffalo Courier. Buffalo, New York. p. 7. column 5. March 28, 1897.

Bray, Frank Chapin. (ed.) 1900-1902. The Chautauquan Summer Schools: Summary of courses. The Chautauquan. Vol. 31, 33, 35. e.g. see vol. 35, pp. 392-393.

Butler, Edward H. (ed.) 1895. Some professional people. Buffalo Evening News. Buffalo, New York. p. 1. column 4. November 14, 1895.

Butler, Edward H. (ed.) 1897a. Matters of moment. Buffalo Evening News. Buffalo, New York. p. 7. column 2. March 17, 1897.

Butler, Edward H. (ed.) 1897b. Society. Buffalo Evening News. Buffalo, New York. p. 3. column 4. June 10, 1897.

Butler, Edward H. (ed.) 1899. Miss Schlegel's lecture. Buffalo Evening News. Buffalo, New York. p. 7. column 4. November 18, 1899.

Butler, Edward H. (ed.) 1929. Mrs. Hermine Schlegel Buffalo pioneer dies. Buffalo Evening News. Buffalo, New York. section 2. p. 27. column 3. October 4, 1929.

Butler, Edward H. (ed.) 1941. Bird collection purchased. Buffalo Evening News. Buffalo, New York. section 3. p. 33. column 8. December 3, 1941.

Butler, Edward H. (ed.) 1942. School adds bird collection for permanent exhibit. Buffalo Evening News. Buffalo, New York. section 3. p. 21. columns 5 & 6. January 9, 1942.

Butler, Edward H. (ed.) 1950. Mathilde Schlegel, 85; Ornithologist, ex-teacher. The Buffalo News. Buffalo, New York. p. 4. column 2. October 23, 1950.

Cassino, S.E. 1919. The Naturalists' Directory. Samuel E. Cassino. Salem, Massachusetts. p. 136 of 172.

City of Buffalo. 1886. Index of deaths in 1886 Health Dept. Buffalo, New York. in Ancestry.com. Lehi, Utah.

Drew, W.B. & R.A. Giles. 1951. Epipactis helleborine (L.) Crantz in Michigan and its general range in North America. Rhodora 53:240-242

Greene, James W. (ed.) 1914. Birds of Buffalo. The Illustrated Buffalo Express. Buffalo, New York. p. 10. columns 1-4. May 17, 1914.

Greene, James W. (ed.) 1923. Miss Schlegel reports the European starling. The Buffalo Morning Express. Buffalo, New York. p. 9. column 5. January 31, 1923.

Mack, Norman E. (ed.) 1913. Bird calendar by Audubon Society a great success. Buffalo Evening Times. Buffalo, New York. p. 3. column 4. December 26, 1913.

Mack, Norman E. (ed.) 1914. Won two prizes on one exhibit. Buffalo Sunday Times. Buffalo, New York. p. 53. columns 4-7. September 27, 1914.

Matson, Carlton E. (ed.) 1931. Vital news - Deaths. Buffalo Times. Buffalo, New York. p. 18. column 7. November 21, 1931.

Miller, Gerrit S. 1899. Preliminary list of the mammals of New York. Bull. N.Y. State Museum. 6:273-390 (see p. 313).

Posson, Neil F. 1899. Some birds of unusual occurrence in Orleans County, N.Y.. The Auk 16:193-196 (see page 194).

Schlegel, Mathilde. 1891. Transplanting Epipactis helleborine. The Ornithologist and Botanist. 1:56.

Schlegel, Mathilde. 1892. Autumn in the woods. The Observer. 3:313.

Schlegel, Mathilde. 1893. Woodland Studies. Bull. Gray Memorial Bot. Chapter - Agassiz Assoc. 1:6-7.

Schlegel, Matilde [sic]. 1894. Winter growth in Claytonia. The Asa Gray Bull. p. 16.

Schlegel, Matilde [sic]. 1896. Arisaema triphyllum. The Asa Gray Bull. 4(1):1-2.

Schlegel, Mathilde. 1906. Picture writing in the snow. The Illustrated Buffalo Express. Buffalo, New York. p. 2. columns 1-4. January 28, 1906.

Schlegel, Mathilde. 1907. New ways of attracting and protecting birds. Country Life in America. 40(6):638 & 640.

Schlegel, Mathilde. 1910. Sunny hours. The Illustrated Buffalo Express. Buffalo, New York. pp. 3 & 7. May 29, 1910.

Schlegel, Mathilde. 1911. Going to visit Santa Claus. The Illustrated Buffalo Express. Buffalo, New York. p. 3. columns 1-2. December 24, 1911.

Schlegel, Mathilde. 1912. Winter sunsets. The Illustrated Buffalo Express. Buffalo, New York. p. 12. columns 3-6. March 3, 1912.

Schlegel, Mathilde. 1917a. Fishing in winter. Nature-Study Review. 13:112-116.

Schlegel, Mathilde. 1917b. Bird founts in the garden. Nature-Study Review. 13:197.

Telegraph Publishing Co. 1884. Town Talk. The Evening Telegraph. Buffalo, New York. p. 4. column 1. June 28, 1884.

Warren, James D. (proprietor) 1885. Among The People. Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. Buffalo, New York. p. 3. column 3. April 15, 1885.

Warren's Sons, James D. (proprietors) 1898a. Talk on nature study. Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. Buffalo, New York. p. 8. column 7. February 9, 1898.

Warren's Sons, James D. (proprietors) 1898b. Teacher from Cornell - Miss Schlegel has taken charge of nature study for the rest of the term. Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. Buffalo, New York. p. 15. column 1. August 2, 1898.

Seaman, Mrs. Don B. (1884 - 1955)

Florence Edna Taylor, the daughter of James Andrew and Sarah Elizabeth Taylor, was born in Carson, Iowa on January 22, 1884. By 1895 her family had moved to Davenport, Iowa and Florence attended school there. She graduated from the 9th grade, Grammar School No. 4, in June 1898, but no record of Florence's further education has been uncovered (Ancestry.com 2022, Labath 2012, Times Company 1898).

James earned a living as a railroad conductor on the Rock Island Line between Davenport and Des Moines. He then operated a fruit orchard in the vicinity of what is the intersection of Farnam Street and 29th Street in present-day Davenport (Hardman 1903). Tragically, James was stricken by a mental disorder and was treated at the Iowa Hospital for the Insane at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa (Hardman 1903, Republican Company 1904). Sarah was granted a divorce from James in June 1904 (Davenport Democrat 1904) and he ultimately died in Mt. Pleasant in December 1920. Mr. Taylor was survived by Florence, six other children, his mother, and two brothers (Cram 1920).

Florence (photo here) and Don Bruce Seaman (photo here) were married February 23, 1918. Records show that the couple farmed in Sheridan Township, just north of Davenport, until at least 1940 (Ancestry.com 2022, Archives 2017). The 227 acre farm, nicknamed "Golden Sheaf" and originally owned by Don's father, Bruce T. Seamon, was located in section 33 of Sheridan Township (Cram 1929 & 1935, Leysen 1927). A detailed biography of the Seaman family and the "Golden Sheaf" farm by the State Historical Society of Iowa (2010) is available, but it offers nothing in the way of describing the life of Florence Seaman.

During her life, Florence was a member of a number of civic, fraternal, and farm-oriented organizations. Beginning in 1919, Florence's name appeared often in newspaper articles documenting her contributions to groups such as the Club of '89, Daughters of the Nile, Davenport Woman's Club, Delphian Society, First Christian Church, Order of Amaranth Court, Order of the Eastern Star, and the Scott County Farm Bureau. Florence died August 6, 1955 (Ceperley 1955, Cunningham 1922).

Mrs. Florence Seaman is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single 1926 collection of Callirhoe triangulata from Green River, Henry County, Illinois.

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Ancestry.com 2022. Florence Edna Taylor. Newman Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Archives. 2017. Don B. Seaman in the 1940 Census. Lehi, Utah.

Ceperley, W.A. (ed.) 1955. Mrs. Florence Seaman, 71, dies. Democrat and Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 15. column 4. August 7, 1955.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1920. Obituary - Taylor. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 11. column 2. December 20, 1920.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1929. To celebrate 84th birthday Tuesday, Nov. 19. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 12. column 2. November 18, 1929.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1935. Rites at 2:30 Tuesday for B.T. Seaman. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. column 6. July 1, 1935.

Cunningham, E.H. 1922. Reviewing the last year. Report of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation. in Iowa Yearbook of Agriculture. Iowa Dept. Agriculture. Part 5. page 372.

Davenport Democrat. 1904. Brief city items. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 1. June 7, 1904.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1903. Records of the court. The Davenport Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 10. column . May 21, 1903.

Labath, Cathy (coordinator). 2012. Scott County: Iowa School Records. IAGenWeb Project. Davenport High School Class Listings.

Leysen, R. J. (ed.) 1927. Bruce T. Seaman selects farm name of "Golden Sheaf". The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 6. column 6. June 9, 1927.

Republican Company. 1904. Wife is made guardian of her insane husband. Davenport Daily Republican. Davenport, Iowa. p. 8. column 4. January 29, 1904.

State Historical Society of Iowa. 2010. To celebrate 84th birthday Tuesday, Nov. 19. Compiled by volunteers and staff at the State Historical Society of Iowa Library, Des Moines, Iowa. Iowa Territorial and State Legislators Collection.

Times Company. 1898. Closing of public schools - Annual commencement exercises will be in order next week. Davenport Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 5. June 18, 1898.

Shattuck, Lydia W. (1822 - 1889)

Lydia White Shattuck and her younger brother William were the only surviving children (of six) born to Timothy and Betsey Shattuck (née Fletcher). The family lived on a farm in East Landoff (now Easton), New Hampshire, which is a few miles west of the Franconia Ridge in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Lydia was born in June 1822 and, having completed her early education by 1836, Ms. Shattuck taught in local schools from 1837 until 1848. At that time, she enrolled at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (South Hadley, Massachusetts).

Lydia earned her degree in 1851, and accepted a position teaching botany and chemistry at her alma mater in the fall following her graduation. During her Mount Holyoke tenure, Shattuck taught a variety of classes (e.g. algebra, geometry, physiology, natural physiology, astronomy, and physics). But more importantly, she was dedicated to better science education and improved professional involvement in science for women, at a time when their opportunities were limited due to gender-based restrictions (Archives and Special Collections 2016, Laurie 2003, Ogilvie et al. 2000, Segal 1997, Shmurak & Handler 1992).

As a botanist, she was able to integrate her acceptance of evolution with her religious faith and she befriended Harvard's distinguished botanist Asa Gray. Though her early interests were primarily in botany (taxonomy in particular), she later gained recognition in chemistry and was known to have said that she favored botany in the summer and chemistry in the winter. In 1874 she was among a small number of women who attended a gathering of chemists in Pennsylvania that led to the establishment of the American Chemical Society. The meeting's results were later heralded as a grand accomplishment, but indicative of their status at the time, the women were scuttled off to the side and excluded from the gathering's commemorative group photo (Ogilvie et al. 2000, Rossiter 1982, Segal 1997).

In December 1872 the "Programme of a Course of Instruction in Natural History, to be delivered by the Seaside, in Nantucket, during the Summer Months, chiefly designed for Teachers who propose to introduce the Study into their Schools and for Students preparing to become Teachers" was announced (Kohrs 2014, Wilder 1898). That "course of instruction" became a science-based summer school established as the "Anderson School of Natural History" (named after the island's owner, John Anderson).

The school was set up by Louis Agassiz and others on Penikese Island in Buzzard's Bay about 10 miles northwest of Martha's Vineyard (Massachusetts Historical Commission 1984). Though some male students objected to their presence (Rossiter 1982), among the 44 students present for the inaugural season (1873) were a number of women, among them Lydia Shattuck and Susan Bowen from Mt. Holyoke (Burstyn 1977, Rossiter 1982, Segal 1997, Wilder 1898). Ms. Shattuck was so pleased with the experience that she returned the following year with another faculty member from Mt. Holyoke (Burstyn 1977).

Lydia's enthusiasm for science and her ability to share/instill the same level of excitement in her students is hard to quantify. Shmurak and Handler (1992) summarized Ms. Shattuck's impact by writing that she (and others at Mt. Holyoke) "created a climate in which women doing science were accepted and, even more, revered. These first generations of scientifically productive women thus served as role models, demonstrating that women could live satisfying, useful lives apart from marriage and family, and thus set the stage for the next generation of women scientists, who would achieve higher degrees and credentials like those of their male colleagues." Hooker (1890) and Stow (1890) expressed sentiments of thanks, respect, admiration, and reverence, when they recounted some of the accomplishments achieved by Lydia Shattuck as she studied science and taught students how to do the same.

Lydia's work in botany produced no publications, but she did communicate with prominent botanists like Alphonso Wood and Asa Gray (Archives and Special Collections 2016) and she became a corresponding member of the Torrey Botanical Club in 1887 (Britton 1887). Ms. Shattuck served as president of the Connecticut Valley Botanical Association for a time and she became a corporate member of the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in 1889 (Hooker 1890, Segal 1997).

Lydia Shattuck, along with other notable faculty members, was responsible for much of the early development of the Mt. Holyoke herbarium. In its heyday the herbarium contained at least 7000 specimens obtained by exchange, donation, and campus staff collections. It remained active until 1917, when the herbarium and the building (Williston Hall) within which it was housed were destroyed by fire. Following its incineration, the herbarium was rebuilt via collections/exchanges/donations to a total of several thousand specimens, but in the 1970s the disused collection was archived on the Mt. Holyoke campus (Dildine 2014, Hooker 1890, Scott 2015). Ms. Shattuck also established the Mt. Holyoke Botanic Garden. Her teaching philosophy was such that she "wished to bring the wild plants nearer her classes so they could watch their behavior when at work" (Gaylord Memorial Library 2010) and, therefore, the entire campus became a botany teaching laboratory.

Eight plant specimens collected by Ms. Shattuck are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium and a couple of other Shattuck specimens may be viewed via the iDigBio specimen database.

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Archives and Special Collections. 2016. Lydia W. Shattuck Papers, 1841-1890. Mount Holyoke College. South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Britton, Elizabeth G. (ed.) 1887. Proceedings of the club. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 14:131-132.

Burstyn, Joan N. 1977. Early women in education: The role of the Anderson School of Natural History. Jrnl. of Education. 159:50-64.

Dildine, Kimberly. 2014. Mount Holyoke's Herbarium: Plants of the Past. WebLog. Library, Information, & Technology Services. Mt. Holyoke College. South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Gaylord Memorial Library. 2010. Lydia Shattuck: So grew the botanic garden. WebLog. Gaylord Memorial Library. South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Hooker, Henrietta E. 1890. Miss Shattuck as a student and teacher of science. in Memorial of Lydia W. Shattuck. Beacon Press. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 25-31 of 46.

Kohrs, Donald G. 2014. Hopkins Seaside Laboratory of Natural History. Stanford University. Stanford, California.

Laurie. 2003. Lydia White Shattuck. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Massachusetts Historical Commission. 1984. Gosnold. MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Reports. Massachusetts Historical Commission. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 2 & 9 of 11.

Ogilvie, Marilyn, Joy Harvey, & Margaret Rossiter. (eds.) 2000. The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Vol. 2. Routledge. New York City, New York. pp. 1182-1183.

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1982. Women scientists in America. Vol. 1. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. Baltimore, Maryland. pp. 19, 78, 83, & 86 of 441.

Scott, Taylor. 2015. Herbarium collection: A window into plant life of the past. Mt. Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly. 99:34-35.

Segal, Philip Duhan. 1997. Lydia White Shattuck (1822-1889). in Grinstein, Louise S. Carol A. Biermann, and Rose K. Rose (eds.) Women in the biological sciences : a biobibliographic sourcebook. Greenwood Press. Westport, Connecticut. pp. 495-500 of 609.

Shmurak, Carole B. and Bonnie S. Handler. 1992. "Castle of Science": Mount Holyoke College and the Preparation of Women in Chemistry, 1837-1941. History Educ. Quarterly 32:315-342.

Stow, Sarah D. (Locke). 1890. Biographical sketch. in Memorial of Lydia W. Shattuck. Beacon Press. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 5-23 of 46.

Wilder, Burt G. 1898. Agassiz at Penikese. The Amer. Naturalist 32:189-196.

Sheldon, Sarah Foote (1854 - 1931)

Sarah Foote-Sheldon was born in Burlington, Iowa in November of 1854. It appears she was the only surviving child of Moses Scott Foote and Laura Amba Fletcher Foote. Laura died in May 1857 and evidently Moses was inclined to neither support nor care for his daughter, so Sarah was adopted by one of his sisters, Mary Latimer Sheldon. Mary and her husband, David, also had one biological child, Harriet, who perished before Sarah's birth (Ancestry.com 2023a,b,&c, Foote 1907, No Reins 2013). The relatives-cum-parents, Mary and David, must have provided Sarah with a good education, as evidenced by her successful career, but no other details about her childhood have been uncovered.

Sarah maintained a long association with the Davenport Academy of Sciences (Copyright Office 1900, Ficke 1901, Pammel 1929). Ms. Foote-Sheldon was mentioned as a donor to the Academy in 1888 (Times Company 1888) and in 1889 she became more actively engaged in the workings of the Academy. That year Dr. Jennie McCowen was elected president of the Davenport Academy and Sarah began a multiyear tenure serving as the society's "recording secretary" or "corresponding secretary" (Downer 1910, Foote-Sheldon 1901, Thompson 1889-1897, Times Company 1889).

It was not until January 1891 that Sarah was first mentioned in the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy as the caretaker of the conchology section of the Academy's museum (Rea 1929, Thompson 1889-1897). Her curatorial expertise in that area may have been brought about by her adoptive father, David S. Sheldon. Mr. Sheldon was a founder of and the first president of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences (Foote 1907, Parry 1893, Wood 2005). But, and perhaps more importantly, he was an avid collector of mollusks and the original curator of the conchology collection for the Academy (Barris 1899-1900, Parry 1893, Putnam 1913). At any rate, for over 25 years Sarah worked as an assistant curator of the Academy's museum under Willis H. Barris and Juergen H. Paarmann (Leysen 1931b).

In addition to her curatorial and record-keeping functions, she gave presentations to school groups (Paarmann 1903a). She was a dedicated student of natural science who incorporated photography in her studies of botany and birding (Struck 1931). Her great interest in ornithology led to public presentations on the subject and a donation of preserved birds of Central American origin to the museum (Paarmann 1903b, Struck 1931). When possible, she was known to have incorporated images of her discussion topic through the use of lantern slides (Struck 1931).

Sarah became a museum trustee in 1904 (Miller 1904-1906) and in 1905 she donated storage cases to house the Academy's large shell collection that she and her father had assembled (Richardson 1905). Though many of her activities hovered around the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, Sarah also had a life beyond that organization.

Ms. Foote-Sheldon was an active member of Davenport's Ladies Industrial Association from 1889 through at least 1900, when she helped direct the sewing school (Leader Company 1900, Richardson 1889). She was elected to the librarian position at Griswold College in 1889, but that position lasted for only a year (Davenport Democrat 1900, Democrat-Gazette 1889). Sarah was prominent in the Tuesday Club, a women's study group, where she spoke on a variety of topics through 1930 (e.g. Davenport Democrat 1899 & 1901, Leysen 1930). She was also a music composer and her compositions were featured in recitals hosted by the Music Students Club (Reimers 1901), the S.L.A. Club (Hardman 1911) and the Lend-a-Hand Club (Cram 1920).

As mentioned in Leysen (1931b) and Struck (1931), Sarah shouldered an important, but voluntary, position at the Davenport Museum for 25 years. She may have been compensated for her efforts during the brief periods when she took charge of the museum following the death of director W.H. Barris and again when J.H. Paarmann perished, but it appears most of her curatorial career efforts went unpaid. Certainly she may have received an honorarium for some of her presentations, but specific mention of any such compensation has not be uncovered. So, how did Sarah support herself financially?

Daniel S. Sheldon, inherited considerable holdings from his father and was financially successful in his own right as an educator. Mr. Sheldon bequeathed his entire estate to his adopted daughter, which allowed her to enjoy a comfortable existence. At the time of her death in 1931 the value of Sarah's assets — personal property, real estate, bonds, and certificates — was estimated to have been between $50,000 and $60,000. Following her death, Sarah left her assets to a friend and various religious, educational, and healthcare entities in Davenport (Cram 1931, Leysen 1931a, Parry 1893, Richardson 1886).

Ms. Foote-Sheldon is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by thirteen herbarium specimens. Another 18 specimens list "Sheldon" as collector or co-collector, but it's not possible to determine whether they should be attributed to Sarah or Daniel Sheldon.

.......

Ancestry.com. 2023a. Mary Latimer Foote. French Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2023b. Sarah Graham Foote. French Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2023c. David Sylvester Sheldon. French Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Barris, W.H. (curator) 1899-1900. Regular meeting: Additions to the museum. December 28, 1900. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 8:318-319.

Copyright office. 1900. Catalogue of Title Entries of Books and Other Articles: Musical Compositions. Volume 25. Library of Congress. Washington, D.C. p. 58 of 450.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1920. Music of Davenport composers given by Etude Club members. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 11. column 4. February 25, 1920.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1931. Much jewelry owned by late aid to museum. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 13. column 1. August 13, 1931.

Davenport Democrat. 1899. Household economics - The Tuesday Club will study them in careful detail. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 3. June 27, 1899.

Davenport Democrat. 1900. All closed up. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 1. September 18, 1900.

Davenport Democrat. 1901. Their country's story - The Tuesday Club will take up United States history next week. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 6. column 4. June 5, 1901.

Democrat-Gazette. 1889. Kemper Hall - The commencement exercises yesterday afternoon. Morning Democrat Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 1. June 19, 1889.

Downer, Harry E. 1910. Foreword. in History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. p. 14 of 1011.

Ficke, Arthur Davidson. 1901. Chats on Japanese prints. T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd. London. p. 12 of 456.

Foote, Abram W. 1907. Foote family; comprising the genealogy and history of Nathaniel Foote of Wethersfield, Conn. Vol. 1. Marble City Press. Rutland, Vermont. pp. 240 & 372 of 607.

Foote-Sheldon, Sarah. 1901. Publications of the Davenport Academy of Sciences. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. Vol. 8. 1899-1900. Back cover.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1911. S.L.A. Club arranges an interesting program. Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 6. column 4. April 18, 1911.

Leader Company. 1900. Relief work - Work done at the industrial home is told in reports. Davenport Sunday Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 2. January 14, 1900.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1930. Announcements. Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 8. columns 6 &7 . April 1, 1930.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1931a. St. Lukes Hospital and Trinity Parish benefit in $20,000 gifts contained in Sarah Sheldon will. Daily Times p. 6. columns 5-6. July 6, 1931.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1931b. Museum trustees mourn death of late Miss Sheldon. Daily Times p. 26. columns 3-5. July 31, 1931.

Miller, A.A. (recording sec'y). 1904-1906. Records of the Davenport Academy of Sciences: Trustees. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 8:177.

No Reins. 2013. Sarah Graham Foote Sheldon. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Paarmann, J.H. 1903a. Report of the curator. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 1901-1903. 9:285-286.

Paarmann, J.H. 1903b. Additions to the museum. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 1901-1903. 9:313-317.

Pammel, L.H. 1929. Prominent men I have met: Professor J. H. Paarmann. Ames, Iowa. pp. 9 & 30 of 30.

Parry, C.C. 1893. Professor David S. Sheldon, LL.D. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 1885-1889. 5:179-184.

Putnam, E.K. 1913. Collections of the Academy of Sciences. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 21. February 2, 1913.

Rea, Paul Marshall (compiler). 1929. A directory of American museums. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. Vol. 10. Buffalo, New York. p. 82 of 360.

Reimers, C.D. (ed.) 1901. Social events. Davenport Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 4. October 22, 1901.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1886. Deep sorrow. Davenport Sunday Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. columns 3&4. June 6, 1886.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1889. Helping Hands - Those of the Ladies Industrial Association. Sunday Davenport Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 3. May 5, 1889.

Richardson, J.B. (manager) 1905. Monthly meeting of the academy. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 6. column 5. July 2, 1905.

Struck, Kuno. 1931. Miss Sheldon paid tribute by Struck. Daily Times p. 4. column 7. July 3, 1931.

Thompson, James. (president). 1889-1897. Annual meeting reports. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 6:276, 285, 286, 299, 308, 320, 356.

Times Company. 1888. Academy of Science. Davenport Daily Times. p. 4. column 6. March 31, 1888.

Times Company. 1889. Academy of Science. Davenport Daily Times. p. 4. column 4. January 17, 1889.

Wood, Sharon E. 2005. The Freedom of the Streets: Work, Citizenship, and Sexuality in a Gilded Age City. University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. p. 109.

Shimek, Bohumil (1861 - 1937)

Bohumil Shimek was born in June of 1861, thirteen years after his parents Francis (Frank) and Maria Shimek emigrated to the United States from Bohemia (perhaps to escape the political and social unrest in their homeland and other parts of Europe at the time (Gawdiak 1987)). The family made a living on a farm near Shueyville, Iowa until 1866, when Maria died. Then Frank sold the farm, moved the family to Iowa City, and took a position as a cobbler. Bohumil claimed that he started contributing to the family's finances at age eleven and, because funds were in short supply throughout his early life, he learned to be self-reliant through high school and college. Frank was apparently plagued by ill health and perished in 1880 (Conard 2009, JIAS 1937, JSTOR 2013, Scott 2011b&c, Staff 1906).

Shimek graduated from high school in 1878 and earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the State University of Iowa in 1883. After college, Mr. Shimek's gainful employment began in Iowa as a surveyor for Johnson County and continued in the northwestern part of the state for the B.C.R. & N. Railway Co. He also taught science at the Iowa City Academy, during at least part of his stint as county surveyor (1883-1885), and he taught for another three years (1885-1888) at Iowa City High School (Betzer 1885, Conard 2009, Morelli 2010, Staff 1906, State University of Iowa 1904, University of Iowa Archives 2016).

Shimek married Anna Konvalinka in 1887 and the following year the pair moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where Bohumil took a position teaching zoology at the University of Nebraska (Conard 2009, Daily Journal 1888, Fairbrother 1888, Scott 2011 a&b). In 1890 the family returned to Iowa City, which marked the beginning of Bohumil's long career at the University of Iowa. He remained with the university until his death in 1937 and served in a variety of capacities - botanist, teacher, student (he earned an M.S. in civil engineering in 1902 (State University of Iowa 1904)), advisor, herbarium curator, and department chair (Conard 2009, Martin 1937, Morelli 2010, University of Iowa Archives 2016, Staff 1906).

Prof. Shimek preferred the life of a field biologist and he, with Samuel Calvin and Thomas Macbride, made several field trips to northwestern Iowa in the 1890s. They shared a vision of establishing a field station in that region for the study of nature in nature. Shimek led his first student field trip to Lake Okoboji in 1901 (Conard 1991, JIAS 1937) and eight years later the Okoboji Lakeside Laboratory (now the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory) was established on the western shore of the lake. From its inception, the classes offered at the Laboratory were to serve "... first, all students of nature competent to enjoy the laboratory method of instruction ... second, teachers of biologic subjects in academies and high schools everywhere, who may desire to ... better equip themselves for serving the children of the schools ... third, graduate students who may desire to perfect themselves in some line of research ... (Macbride 1909)." Macbride served as the facility's first director and Shimek succeeded him (Conard 1991, 2009).

The American School of Wild Life Protection was established in McGregor Heights, Iowa in 1919. Since the goal of the school was to educate the public in the appreciation of natural history and the proper methods of resource management, courses such as archeology, botany, ecology, and ornithology, among others, were offered. Louis Pammel and Bohumil Shimek were among the people recruited to teach courses at the summer school. The institute continued in existence until 1941 and Shimek served as a pro bono instructor there for a number of years (Federal Writers Project 1938, National Park Service 1991a&b)

Shimek's diversity of interests, research topics, and accomplishments are well illustrated by his publications listed in Marple (1918) and Google Scholar (2017). They are also addressed at length in the published remembrances of his life listed below. However, the following quote seems to summarize his research life nicely, "As a zoologist Professor Shimek found his chief interest in the study of snails and from his original interest along these lines developed his well-known work on fossil forms for which he was long been recognized throughout the world. His study of fossil malacology gradually developed into a broad interest in the Pleistocene geology of Iowa. He published a number of papers on loess and its fossils and he is the author of the term Nebraskan, applied to the till sheet which underlies the Aftonian interglacial deposits." ... "Professor Shimek's botanical contributions were in the field of ecology in relation to prairies. ... His notes comprise over fifty years of meticulous, quantitative observations which have followed the transitions of Iowa and surrounding prairies from pioneer times to the year of this death. ... He was known for his insistence upon study in the field and the synthesis of the entire natural environment (JIAS 1937)."

Shimek was an exchange professor at Charles University in Prague in 1914 just as World War I was commencing (Blase 2014, Conard 2009). His friend, Thomas G. Masaryk, a leader among Czechs seeking the independence of Czechoslovakia from the Austrian Empire, left the region in 1914 and lived for several years in different countries working to promote his homeland's independence. In 1918 he found himself in the United States, where Prof. Shimek aided him in developing an appropriate strategy for independence. Masaryk was elected the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic in November 1918 (Kovtun 1988). Shimek was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from Charles University in 1919 and the Czech Medal of Honor in 1927 in recognition of his accomplishments in science and the independence effort, respectively (Conard 2009, Rechcigl 2016).

Slightly over 900 specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium list Shimek as the collector or co-collector (the vast majority of them were collected in Iowa). Because of the herbarium transfer from the University of Iowa to Iowa State University in 2004, in excess of 20,000 specimens collected by Bohumil Shimek are now located in the Ada Hayden Herbarium in Ames, Iowa. Shimek's lichen herbarium (numbering somewhere between 5,000-8,000 specimens) is now present at the University of Minnesota (McCormick 2012). Thousands of Shimek's collections, including flowering plants, ferns, mollusks, birds, insects, mosses, and other organisms, may be scanned via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

.......

Betzer, James H. (ed.) 1885. People and Events. Blue Valley Blade. Seward, Nebraska. p. 4. column 2. March 18, 1885.

Blase, Julia. 2014. Down the Rabbit Hole: Bohumil Shimek and the onset of WWI. Field Book Project. Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C.

Conard, Rebecca. 1991. Iowa Lakeside Laboratory Historic District. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. U.S. Dept. of Interior. Washington, D.C.

Conard, Rebecca. 2009. Shimek, Bohumil. The biographical dictionary of Iowa. University of Iowa.

Daily Journal. 1888. At the university: Instruction in zoology. Daily Nebraska State Journal. Lincoln, Nebraska. p. 8. column 4. September 21, 1888.

Fairbrother, Al. (ed.) 1888. Under way: The fall term of the university begins. Lincoln Daily Call. Lincoln, Nebraska. p. 4. column 1. September 20, 1888.

Federal Writers Project. 1938. A guide to McGregor: Points of interest. American Guide Series. J.F. Widman & Sons. McGregor, Iowa. p 14.

Gawdiak, Ihor. (ed.) 1987. Czech Republic History: Revolutions of 1848. in Czechoslovakia: A Country Study. Government Printing Office. Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.

Google Scholar. 2017. Publications by Bohumil Shimek. Google, Inc.

JIAS. 1937. In Memoriam: Dr. Shimek (1861-1937). Jrnl. Iowa Acad. Sci. 44:31-33.

JSTOR. 2013. Shimek, Bohumil (1861-1937). Global Plants.

Kovtun, George J. 1988. Masaryk and America: Testimony of a relationship. Library of Congress. Washington, D.C. 82 pp.

Marple, Alice. 1918. Iowa Authors and Their Works: A Contribution Toward a Bibliography. Historical Dept. of Iowa. Des Moines, Iowa. pp. 270-273 of 359.

Macbride, Thomas H. 1909. The Okoboji Lakeside Laboratory. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 16:131-133.

Martin, G.W. 1937. Bohumil Shimek, 1861-1937. Mycologia 29:364-365.

McCormick, Carol Ann. 2012. Bohumil Shimek (25 June 1861 - 30 January 1937). Collectors of the UNC Herbarium. University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Morelli, B.A. 2010. Bohumil Shimek. in Iowa City's Fabulous 150. The Press Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa.

National Park Service. 1991a. American School of Wild Life Protection Historic District. U.S. Dept. of Interior. National Register of Historic Places. U.S. Dept. of Interior. Washington, D.C.

National Park Service. 1991b. Bohumil Shimek house. U.S. Dept. of Interior. National Register of Historic Places. U.S. Dept. of Interior. Washington, D.C. (Map here.)

Rechcigl, Miloslav. 2016. Encyclopedia of Bohemian and Czech-American Biography. AuthorHouse. Bloomington, Indiana. p. 107.

Scott, DM. 2011a. Anna Konvalinka Shimek. (1st wife of Bohumil Shimek) Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Scott, DM. 2011b. Bohumil Shimek. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Scott, DM. 2011c. Frank Jos Shimek. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Staff. 1906. Bohumil Shimek. Iowa Alumnus. October 1906-June 1907. Vol. 4. pp. 39-40.

State University of Iowa. 1904. The alumni register of the State University of Iowa (1856-1904). Bull. State Univ. Iowa. New Series No. 91. pp. 11, 101, & 279 of 284.

University of Iowa Archives. 2016. Bohumil Shimek Papers. The University of Iowa Libraries. Iowa City, Iowa.

Shumway, Emma A. (1849 - 1929)

Emma Shumway, christened Emily Adelaide Shumway, was born in Belchertown, Massachusetts in July of 1849 and she was the fifth of a dozen children born to John R. and Mary C. Shumway. John ran a sawmill and manufactured hay harvesting equipment. After his death in 1871, John's sons took over the business, but by 1881 surviving sons, Edward, George, and John Jr., decided the business had become insufficiently profitable. John Jr. went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad in Denver, Colorado, but the other sons moved to near Belfast in Skagit County, Washington. In 1882 Edward and George laid claim to separate 160-acre parcels and founded what became a successful logging business near Puget Sound (Ancestry.com 2023, Shiach 1906, Shumway 1909).

Emma graduated from Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary (South Hadley, Massachusetts) in 1873 (Stow 1889). By 1883 she, her sisters, and mother had moved to Washington to be with the other members of the family and John Jr. had moved his family to Washington from Colorado. All told, eight of John and Mary C. Shumway's offspring took up residence in Washington (five sisters - Carrie, Elizabeth, Emma, Harriet, Mary - plus the three brothers) and eventually the "Shumway Farm" was established on about 80 acres near Kirkland, Washington (Ely 1975, Fabre 2010).

Emma, Carrie, and Mary were teachers who all ended up as employees of the Seattle school system. Emma began her teaching career at Seattle High School by 1890 (Barnard 1890-1894, Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1890, see photo at Washington State Historical Society 2007) and she served as a vice-principal in the Seattle system (Barnard 1890-1894; Farnum 2001; Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1891; Seattle Public School Archives 1886; Shumway 1909). Emma taught botany, general history, natural history, physiology, and zoology. She also established a specimen exchange program and by the end of the 1892 academic year the Seattle High School herbarium held over 2000 plant specimens (Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1892a).

Though the family was large (twelve children total (Ancestry.com 2023)), it appears that only Emma took a meaningful interest in science. She was placed in charge of the Women's World Fair Club's minerology committee in preparation for their display at the upcoming World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1892b), but her primary interest was in botany.

Emma focused on the flora of the Seattle region and the Pacific Northwest in general. Judging from the collection dates on specimens in Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria, most of Ms. Shumway's botanizing occurred in a variety of locations in Washington. However, in 1891 and 1892 she collected plants in the vicinity of Juneau, Alaska; Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; and on portions of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. She, like a number of other collectors represented in the Putnam Museum, was a member of the Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Association (Bigelow 1892, Clute 1891).

H.H. Keyes (New York), Mathilde Schlegel (New York), Constance G. DuBois (Connecticut), Edith A. Ross (Iowa), John M. Holzinger (Minnesota), John Higgins (Illinois), Charles A. Davis (Michigan), Charles F. Wheeler (Michigan), William S. Moffatt (Illinois), and Emma A. Shumway (Washington) were all members of the Agassiz Association and all have herbarium specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium. It is likely they became acquainted via correspondence through their Agassiz Association memberships and that the acquaintanceship led to plant specimen exchanges with Edith Ross in Davenport, Iowa. Edith's personal herbarium was donated to the Putnam Museum in 1931 and that's how Ms. Shumway and other members of the Agassiz Association came to be represented in the Putnam Herbarium.

Nearly 140 of Ms. Shumway's herbarium specimens collected in Washington and Oregon during the 1880s and 1890s are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. As mentioned above, other specimens collected by Ms. Shumway are available for review via the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria, iDigBio, and SEINet databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Emily Adelaide Shumway. Helgesen-Weiner Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Barnard, Frank J. (supt.) 1890-1894. Annual report of the Board of Education of the city of Seattle. Press of Ingraham & Coryell. Seattle, Washington. pp. 46, 49, 51, 52, 55, 60, 90.

Bigelow, Edward F. (publisher). 1892. Reports prior to January, 1892. The Observer. 3:223.

Clute, Willard N. (ed.) 1891. List of members. The Ornithologist and Botanist. 1:96.

Ely, Arlene. 1975. Our founding fathers: the story of Kirkland. Kirkland Public Library. Kirkland, Washington. 127 pp.

Fabre, Rene. 2010. The Shumway Farm, a history. ActiveRain. Blog. Seattle, Washington.

Farnum, Carolyn. 2001. Emily Adelaide Shumway. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 1890. Vacation is over - The public schools will open next Monday. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Seattle, Washington. p. 5. column 5. September 6, 1890.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 1891. A three year term. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Seattle, Washington. p. 8. column 3. June 18, 1891.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 1892a. The high school - What has been accomplished during the year. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Seattle, Washington. p. 10. columns 1-4. June 26, 1892.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 1892b. Preparation for an exhibit at the World's Fair at Chicago. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Seattle, Washington. p. 5. column 3. July 23, 1892.

Seattle Public School Archives. 1886. Program for first Seattle public high school graduating class, 1886. King County Collects. Association of King County Historical Organizations. Seattle, Washington.

Shiach, William Sidney. (ed.) 1906. An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties. Interstate Publishing Company. pp. 366, 630, & 664-665 of 1117.

Shumway, Asahel Adams. 1909. Genealogy of the Shumway Family in the United States of America. Tobias A. Wright. New York City. p. 284 of 478.

Stow, Sandra D. (Locke). 1889. General catalogue of officers and students of Mount Holyoke Seminary, South Hadley, Mass. Mount Holyoke Seminary and College. South Hadley, Massachusetts. p. 116 of 264.

Washington State Historical Society. 2007. Seattle High School Teachers. Photo includes: Emma Shumway (2nd row from top, 3rd from left) & Mary Shumway (2nd row from top, 6th from left). Date of photo: 1880s or 1890s[?].

Small, John Kunkel (1869 - 1938)

John K. Small (photo here) was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in January of 1869. He had six older half-siblings who were the children of George H. Small and his first wife, Elizabeth Willis Small. It appears that Elizabeth perished sometime after 1856. George H. and Catharine Kunkel Small were married in 1866 and John was the only child born to them (Ancestry.com 2023).

It seems the Small family was comprised of several musicians, John among them. He was a flutist and for a period of time performed with the New York Philharmonic Symphony (New York Botanical Gardens 2014, Shinners 1962). In 1896 Elizabeth Jane Wheeler accepted John's proposal and the couple were married in New York City. They resided in the Bronx during their lives together and raised four children, two daughters and two sons (Ancestry.com 2023). Elizabeth and John encouraged each of their children to learn to play different musical instruments and family recitals often followed their evening meals (Wherry 1957).

John graduated from Franklin & Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) with a botany degree in 1892. While at Franklin & Marshall, he collected plants in the vicinity of the college and places beyond with fellow student A. Arthur Heller. One such field trip, undertaken by the duo in the summer of 1891, led to the publication of "On the Flora of Western North Carolina and Contiguous Territory" (Small & Heller 1892). That was Small's first exposure to the flora of the Southeast and the publication caught the attention of Nathaniel Britton, who subsequently offered Small a graduate fellowship at Columbia College. Small's Ph.D. work at Columbia (completed in 1895) was a monograph on the North American species of Polygonum (Barnhardt 1938, Maxwell 1916, Small 1895).

After graduating from Columbia College, Small became the institution's herbarium curator and when the collection was transferred to the New York Botanical Garden in 1898, he went along as curator. Small held the position of "Curator of Museums" at the botanic garden until 1906, when he was appointed "Head Curator". In that role he was an important contributor to the overall development of the New York Botanic Garden and in 1934 he was named "Chief Research Associate and Curator" (New York Botanical Gardens 2014).

As mentioned above, J.K. Small first became interested in the flora of southeastern America, during his studies at Columbia. That introduction led him to become the successor to Dr. Alvin W. Chapman as the primary investigator of the flora of the Southeast. Chapman (1809-1899) settled in Apalachicola, Florida in 1847 and that locality functioned as the headquarters for his studies of the plants of Florida and the flora of the Southeastern United States in general for the next 50+ years (Kimball 1921). Then near the close of Chapman's career, John Small began carrying the torch for the flora of that region.

Small published his first of many papers entitled "Studies in the Botany of the Southeastern United States", while still at Columbia (Small 1894). In that first issue, Small stated his goal was "to put on record facts concerning the plants of that very interesting region not yet made known, with a view to more extended and connected work when the field has been better explored" (Small 1894). That "extended and connected" work materialized as the nearly 1400 page "Flora of the Southeastern United States". First published in 1903, it was twice revised over the next 30 years (Barnhardt 1938; Hume 1943; New York Botanical Gardens 2014; Small 1903, 1913, 1933). Enlightening reviews of the first two editions of Small's flora were published by Coville (1903), Shinners (1962), and Wherry (1957).

Nathaniel Britton, as director of the New York Botanical Garden, made it clear that John Small's primary salaried function was that of herbarium curator. Early on, gas lights were installed to illuminate the Botanical Garden offices, including the herbarium. Britton evidently feared a lighting-caused fire and banned work after dark at the Garden, so, when Dr. Small had after-hours work to complete, he hauled bundles of herbarium sheets to his home, about a mile from the Garden (Shinners 1962, Wherry 1957).

In addition to the problems caused by Britton's work rules, when Small decided to immerse himself in the study of the flora of the Southeast, his species descriptions and identification keys were flawed, because he possessed too few herbarium specimens and he had not seen many of the plants in situ. John recognized his need for first-hand experience with the plants in their native settings, but that desire was stymied by his inability to drive an automobile. Luckily family and friends solved that problem by chauffeuring him to and through states in the south (Coville 1903, Shinners 1962, and Wherry 1957).

J.K. Small never set down permanent roots in Florida, but visited the state, often with his family, more or less annually for 28 years beginning in 1901. Over that period, he documented the changes and deterioration of the southern Florida flora in writing and with photographs. He published "From Eden to Sahara: Florida's Tragedy" (Small 1929) to bring attention to the degradation of the landscape caused by the arrival of the railroads and the development that followed. Small's photos (see Small 1869-1938) and writings are credited with bringing the plight of Florida's native habitats to the attention of the public and the concerns that he expressed contributed to the eventual formation of Everglades National Park (Hume 1943, New York Botanical Gardens 2014, Swan 2016).

During Small's research career, governmental and institutional sources of funding were in short supply (Barnhardt 1938, New York Botanical Gardens 2014), but philanthropists and research benefactors, such as Charles Deering and Arthur C. James, were willing to fund Small's professional ventures. Deering was the son of the Deering Harvester Company (currently known as Case IH Agriculture) founder, William Deering. Charles became familiar with southern Florida while visiting his father in the Miami area during the winter months. He purchased an estate in the area, which led to his acquaintance with botanist David Fairchild and, through some happenstance, an introduction to John K. Small (New York Botanical Gardens 2014, Scott & Harshe 1929, Wikipedia 2016).

On his estate in Cutler, Florida Deering "planned to preserve the natural and botanical south Florida environment and to establish additional agricultural production areas". "Dr. Small implemented Deering's plans and plantings for groves, windbreaks, coastal vegetation, irrigation and fire protection for the large native hammock and pinelands at the estate (Matthews 1992)."

Arthur C. James, a wealthy mining and railroad philanthropist, donated handsomely with his time and money to the New York Botanical Garden and other civic organizations in New York City (Korst 2016). James' financial support, like that of Deering, was important to the research J.K. Small completed.

Beyond his "Flora of the Southeast", Small amassed a long list of publications (Google Scholar 2017), in spite of challenges caused by uncertain and often inadequate funding (New York Botanical Gardens 2014). Among his more noteworthy inquiries was work completed in conjunction with E.J. Alexander on the Louisiana wild Iris. Small and Alexander published the descriptions of nearly ninety species of Iris (American Iris Society 2015 & 2016, Barnhardt 1938, New York Botanical Gardens 2014) and 52 of those taxa bear Small's authorship yet today (Tropicos 2017). He followed up the Iris publications with works on ferns and palms, such as "Ferns of Florida" (Small 1931a) and "Palms of the Continental United States" (Small 1931b).

During the last 20 years of his life, Dr. Small wrote, not only about ferns and palms, but other topics varying from pumpkins to prickly pears, Jamaica walnut to a relative of black pepper, and a variety of other subjects dealing with Florida's flora (Barnhardt 1938, Google Scholar 2017, New York Botanical Gardens 2014). For four years (1927 - 1931) J.K. Small served as both plant collector and sample analyst for the Edison Botanic Research Corporation. Thomas Edison, along with Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford, feared international political upheaval could place U.S. rubber production in jeopardy. The project sought an American source of latex for the production of rubber for vehicle tires in case imports of the raw material were interrupted (New York Botanical Gardens 2013 & 2014, Vargues 2013).

Though only a single specimen of Lycopodium annotinum L. collected by J.K. Small in Monroe County, New York in 1889 is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium, thousands of specimens bearing his name as collector may be reviewed at the iDigBio specimen database. A portion of Small's botanical career was documented in a collection of photographic images available through the State Archives of Florida. The collection, which includes black-and-white prints and glass plate negatives, records part of Small's botanical career as well as fossil corals, life activities of Seminole Indians, the precursor to Everglades National Park, primitive sugar refining, and other activities (Small 1869-1938).

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American Iris Society. 2015. Scientist John Kunkel Small 1839-1938. Iris Encyclopedia.

American Iris Society. 2016. Scientist Edward Johnston Alexander. Iris Encyclopedia.

Ancestry.com. 2023. John Kunkel Small. Small Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Barnhardt, John Hendley. 1938. The Passing of Dr. Small. Jrnl. New York Bot. Gard. 39:73-79.

Coville, Frederick V. 1903. Small's Flora of the Southeastern United States. Science. 18(463):627-628.

Google Scholar. 2017. Publications by J.K. Small. Google, Inc.

Hume, H. Harold. 1943. Botanical explorers of the Southeastern United States. The Florida Historical Quarterly 21:289-302.

Kimball, Winifred. 1921. Reminiscences of Alvan Wentworth Chapman . Jrnl. New York Bot. Garden. 22:1-11.

Korst, Lindsay. 2016. Arthur Curtiss James . Great Northern Railway Page. Excerpt from the October, 1926 issue of Great Northern Semaphore.

Matthews, Janet Snyder. 1992. The Charles Deering estate at Cutler. Metro-Dade County Parks and Recreation Department. Miami, Florida. 210 pp.

Maxwell, W.J. (compiler) 1916. Catalogue of officers and graduates of Columbia University. 16th edition. Columbia University. New York City, New York.

New York Botanical Gardens. 2013. Thomas A. Edison papers. Mertz Library: Archives and Manuscript Collections. Bronx, New York.

New York Botanical Gardens. 2014. John Kunkel Small records (1892-1938). Mertz Library: Archives and Manuscript Collections. Bronx, New York.

Tropicos. 2017. Genus: Iris, Author: Small. Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis, Missouri.

Scott, Walter Dill & Robert B. Harshe. 1929. Charles Deering 1852-1927: An Appreciation. Privately printed. Boston, Massachusetts. 93 pp.

Shinners, Lloyd H. 1962. Evolution of the Gray's and Small's manual ranges. SIDA 1(1):1-31.

Small, John Kunkel. 1869-1938. Correspondence and Photographs, 1902-1938. Florida Memory. State Library and Archives of Florida. Tallahassee, Florida.

Small, John K. 1894. Studies in the Botany of the Southeastern United States - I. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 21:15-20.

Small, John K. 1895. A monograph of the North American species of the genus Polygonum. Memoirs Botany Dept. Columbia College. Vol. 1. 183 pp.

Small, John K. 1903. Flora of the Southeastern United States. 1st edition. Published by the author. New York City, New York.

Small, John K. 1913. Flora of the Southeastern United States. 2nd edition. Published by the author. New York City, New York.

Small, John K. 1929. From Eden to Sahara: Florida's Tragedy. The Science Press Printing Company. Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Small, John K. 1931a. Ferns of Florida. The Science Press. New York City. New York. 237 pp.

Small, John K. 1931b. Palms of the Continental United States. The Scientific Monthly. 32:240-255.

Small, John K. 1933. Manual of the Southeastern Flora. Univ. of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Small, John K. & A.A. Heller. 1892. On the Flora of Western North Carolina and Contiguous Territory. Memoirs Torrey Bot. Club 3:1-39.

Swan, Marianne. 2016. Dr. John Kunkel Small: Explorer of Old Florida. Archives and Natural History Collection. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Miami, Florida.

Vargues, Lisa. 2013. In search of Thomas Edison's botanical treasures. Science Talk blog. New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, New York.

Wherry, Edgar T. 1957. Reminiscences of John K. Small. Castanea. 22(3):126-129.

Wikipedia. 2016. Charles Deering. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Smith, Charles Eastwick (1820 - 1900)

Charles Eastwick Smith (see Ancestry.com below for image), the youngest child of Charles E. & Mary Smith, was born November 1, 1820 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had four siblings, three brothers and a sister (Ancestry.com 2022). Charles E. Smith Sr. ran a "Drug Establishment and Castor Oil Manufactory" in Philadelphia (Fry 1821 & 1823), but died when Charles E. Smith Jr. was just eight years old. Mary survived until her youngest son's 18th birthday (Cutter 1912).

The education of Charles (the younger) at the Quaker school known as Westtown Boarding School just west of Philadelphia, was provided for by one of his paternal uncles, Thomas Smith. Charles completed his studies at Westtown in three years and, at the age of 16 (in 1836), he was able to find employment with the Tioga Navigation Company, because Uncle Thomas' brother-in-law was a finance officer with the company (Harshberger 1899, Scott 1902).

Charles Smith continued with that company for the next six years, rising among the ranks to become a railroad superintendent and a mining engineer for the new coal mines near Blossburg. His position with the railroad gave him experience in the planning and construction of the rail line connecting Blossburg, Pennsylvania with Corning, New York (Corning & Blossburg Railroad). The rail line was intended to supply coal to the Syracuse Salt Works and various other fuel consuming businesses in New York. But the salt works found a supplier of wood fuel at a lower price and, even though the distance from Blossburg to Syracuse was only about 110 miles (as the crow flies), importing coal from England proved to be cheaper than the Tioga Navigation Company could supply it from Blossburg (A.S. Abell Company 1900, ExplorePAhistory.com 2023, Meehan 1901, Scott 1902).

Smith left Blossburg for Philadelphia in 1842, where he entered the field of metalworking and was a founder of the Fairmont Rolling Mill. Shortly after the mill began production, tariffs established to protect U.S. iron interests were repealed, which ultimately made the iron mill unprofitable and Smith sold out to his partners in 1847. In the same year Charles accepted a managerial position with the Rensselaer Iron Works in South Troy, New York, where many miles of railroad rails were produced (Harshberger 1899, Scott 1902, Swank 1900).

By later 1848, Charles had returned to Philadelphia and was residing with his brother, Pemberton, who ran a foundry and eventually became a successful hardware merchant. Charles was convinced that the only way to learn the proper methods necessary to run a profitable iron works, was to study the methods employed in Europe. With Pemberton's financial backing, Charles spent a portion of 1848 in Europe documenting in detail the iron manufacturing methods of Germany, France, England, Scotland (Cutter 1912; Scott 1902; Swain, Abell, & Simmons 1849). In 1849, Smith addressed the attendees of the Convention of Iron Masters in Philadelphia to present the data he had amassed during his European studies. He and others became convinced that the formation of an iron producers' alliance was necessary to promote their cause, improve their profitability, and further their needs politically. By virtue of his efforts was born the American Iron Association (today's American Iron and Steel Institute) in 1850 (Meehan 1901, Scott 1902, Swank 1900).

Little has been written to document the activities of Charles E. Smith during the subsequent ten years, but in 1861 (two months after the beginning of the Civil War) he was chosen President of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. His appointment appears to have been a pivotal one, not only for the company, but for the Union. Under Smith's guidance (until his resignation in 1869), the Reading Railroad went from near insolvency to dividend paying profitability. The company's success was such that in 1861 it was able to loan the U.S. Government 2.5 million dollars (about $84 million in 2022 dollars) for the Civil War effort (Meehan 1901, Scott 1909, Swank 1900).

By 1869 the railroad was on sound financial footing, but Smith's health had begun to deteriorate. Following the advice of his physician, Charles resigned from the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, but retained a position on the Board of Directors. In April 1869 he sailed to Europe on an extended tour, which continued until mid-September 1870 and served to ignite his botanical career (Meehan 1901). To occupy his post-retirement free time, Smith became involved in the biological and botanical sections of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences and he developed into a dedicated proof-reader for botanical papers submitted to the Academy (Meehan 1901, Scott 1902, Swank 1900). He was elected president of the Union League of Philadelphia, and was a founder of the School of Design for Women, as well as the Academy of Music, both in Philadelphia (Geni 2016, Meehan 1901).

Mr. Smith's occupational conduct tended to be of a utilitarian or down-to-earth nature, which spilled over into his other activities. That "what good is this" attitude, coupled with his natural curiosity, was illustrated in an anecdote written by one of Charles' friends, Thomas C. Porter of Lafayette College (Easton, Pennsylvania). The occasion was a collecting trip to the shores of Lake Superior in 1865 with Porter, Joseph Leidy, and Aubrey H. Smith (see plant collections of Porter and Smith in Michigan during 1865 at iDigBio). Evidently at least C.E. Smith had read Huc's "Recollections of a journey through Tartary, Thibet, and China" (Huc 1863), in which the author described the burning of various "argols" (dried manure) for cooking and warmth. Smith tested (and allegedly confirmed) Huc's assertion that "cow pies" made better kindling, but a bed of smoldering "horse apples" was better for producing long-term heat beneath one's bed on a cold night (Huc 1863 - vol. 2 & p. 42, Meehan 1901).

As a businessman he was constantly collaborating with or directing people and policy, but retired life was less hectic. Smith appears to have been a man with a knack for detail and a need for regular mental stimulation, which in combination with the more or less constant supply of manuscripts coming into the Philadelphia Academy, led to his labors as a proof-reader. Smith also developed a keen, but not well publicized interest in botany, that was apparently spawned during his education at West Town Boarding School. He was particularly interested in members of the sedge (Cyperaceae), rush (Juncaceae), and grass (Poaceae) families; those interests led to his correspondence with professionals like Francis Boott, George Engelmann, Asa Gray, Stephen T. Olney, and Thomas C. Porter (Meehan 1901, Scott 1909).

Smith's publication record is a short one. He is mentioned as a contributor or collector of record in a number of publications (e.g. Smith 1882a, Porter 1887, & Redfield 1884), but he's listed as author on only three (Smith 1882b & 1887, Smith et al. 1886).

Charles Eastwick Smith bequeathed his personal herbarium of 5000 species (specimens?) to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. About half of those included his collections that were made within 15 miles of the Philadelphia City Hall and the remaining half were obtained via purchase or exchange (Archives of the Academy of Natural Sciences 2016, Brown 1900).

Nine Putnam Museum herbarium specimens were collected by Charles E. Smith in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. A collection date of 1866 is present on one specimen, but all others are sans date. An additional 14 specimens collected by C. Eastwick Smith are listed in the Harvard University Herbaria database . Other herbarium specimens listing Charles E. Smith as collector or co-collector may be accessed via the iDigBio and SEINet databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Charles Eastwick Smith. Douglas_12-31-2011 Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Archives of the Academy of Natural Sciences. 2016. Smith, Charles Eastwick, 1820-1900. Letters from botanists, 1867-1899.. Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A.S. Abell Company. 1900. Charles E. Smith dies. The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 8. column 5. April 16, 1900.

Brown, Stewardson. 1900. Report of the Botanical Section. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 52:773-775

Cutter, William Richard. 1912. Genealogical and family history of western New York. Vol. 1. Lewis Historical Publ. Company. New York City, New York. pp. 132-134 of 500.

ExplorePAhistory.com. 2023. Corning and Blossburg Railroad [bituminous coal] historical marker. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Fry, William. (publisher) 1821. Advertisement. The National Gazette and Literary Register. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 3. column 5. March 6, 1821.

Fry, William. (publisher) 1823. Advertisement. The National Gazette and Literary Register. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 1. column 2. September 10, 1823.

Geni. 2016. Charles Eastwick Smith. Geni: A MyHeritage company.

Huc, Evariste Regis. 1863. Recollections of a journey through Tartary, Thibet, and China, during the years 1844, 1845, and 1846. D. Appleton &. Co. New York City, New York. Vols. 1 - 245 pp. & Vol. 2 - 248 pp.

Meehan, Thomas. 1901. A biographical notice of Charles Eastwick Smith. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 53:4-9.

Harshberger, John William. 1899. The botanists of Philadelphia and their work. T.C. Davis & Sons. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 227-229 of 457.

Porter, Thos. C. 1887. A list of the Carices of Pennsylvania. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 39:68-80. Published by: Academy of Natural Sciences.

Redfield, John H. 1884. Corema Conradii and its localities. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 11:97-101.

Scott, E.A. 1902. Memoir of Charles E. Smith. The Matthews-Northrup Works. Buffalo, New York. 83 pp.

Smith, Aubrey. 1882a. On colonies of plants observed near Philadelphia. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 19:15-24.

Smith, Charles E. 1882b. New Station for Corema Conradii. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 9:83-84.

Smith, Charles E. 1887. A method of drying plants with little loss of color. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 14:33-34.

Smith, John Donnell, Isaac C. Martindale, J. W. Chickering, Jr., Chas. E. Bessey, A. W. Chapman, R. I. Cratty, J. J. Davis, Chas. F. Johnson, C. E. Smith and Gerald McCarthy. 1886. Specimens and specimen making. Bot. Gazette 11:129-134.

Swain, Abell, & Simmons. (publ.) 1849. Business advertisement. Public Ledger. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 2. column 6. April 4, 1849.

Swank, James M. (ed.) 1900. Death of Charles E. Smith, the First Statistician of the American Iron Trade. Bull. Amer. Iron & Steel Assoc. 34:82.

Smith, Dale M. (19XX - 2011)

Dale was a botany instructor at the University of Kentucky in 1955 and he was promoted from assistant professor to associated professor in 1959 (Stoll 1959, Underwood 1955). Smith continued his education as a graduate student under the direction of Charles Heiser at the University of Indiana (Evolution Tree 2017). After earning his Ph.D. with Dr. Heiser, Smith became an associate professor of botany at the University of Illinois (Janata 1962). He moved on to the University of California - Santa Barbara in 1963 (Morris 1963) and retired in 1988 (Martin 2011).

Dale M. Smith and Donald A. Levin were among the recipients of the George R. Cooley Award for the best paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists in 1963. Their work entitled "A chromatographic study of reticulate evolution in the Appalachian Asplenium complex" was published in the American Journal of Botany (Smith & Levin 1963, Stern 1963). During Dr. Smith's tenure in the biology department of UC-Santa Barbara, he authored or co-authored a number of papers in plant systematics and biology dealing with Helianthus (Heiser & Smith 1954 & 1960, Heiser et al. 1969), the Polemoniaceae (Harborne & Smith 1978, Levin & Smith 1967), various pteridophytes (Smith 1959, Smith & Harborne 1971, Smith & Levin 1963, Wollenweber et al. 1985), hybrid mints (Tanowitz et al. 1987), and honey bee behavior (Wells et al. 1981 & 1982).

Two specimens of Helianthus strumosus collected by Smith are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Evolution Tree. 2017. Dale M. Smith. The Academic Family Tree.

Harborne, Jeffrey B. & Dale M. Smith. 1978. Correlations between anthocyanin chemistry and pollination ecology in the Polemoniaceae. Biochem. Syst. & Ecology 6:127-130.

Heiser, C.B. and D.M. Smith. 1954. New chromosome numbers in Helianthus and related genera (Compositae). Proc. of the Indiana Acad. Sci. 64:250-253.

Heiser, Charles B. & Dale M. Smith. 1960. The origin of Helianthus multiflorus. Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 47:860-865.

Heiser, Charles B. Jr., Dale M. Smith, Sarah B. Clevenger and William C. Martin. 1969. The North American sunflowers (Helianthus). Memoirs Torrey Bot. Club 22:1-218.

Janata, A.J. (secretary). 1962. Budget for 1962 summer session and faculty appointment. Meeting of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. p. 1280.

Levin, Donald A. & Dale M. Smith. 1965. An enigmatic Phlox from Illinois. Brittonia 17:254-266.

Martin, Debra. (ed.) 2011. In memoriam. Emeriti/Retirees Newsletter. University of California - Santa Barbara. p. 5 of 8.

Morris, Maynard. 1963. Appointments. University Bulletin. University of California. 12(17):102.

Smith, Dale M. 1959. Additional Distribution Records of Ferns and Fern-Allies from Kentucky. Castanea 24:48-50.

Smith, Dale M. & Jeffrey B. Harborne. 1971. Xanthones in the Appalachian Asplenium complex. Phytochemistry 10:2117-2119.

Smith, Dale M. & Donald A. Levin. 1963. A chromatographic study of reticulate evolution in the Appalachian Asplenium complex. Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 50:952-958.

Smith, Dale M. & Donald A. Levin. 1967. Karyotypes of Eastern North American Phlox. Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 54:324-334.

Stern, William M. 1963. Cooley awards of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. Plant Sci. Bull. 9:5.

Stoll, John G. (ed.) 1959. 4 new department heads appointed at university. The Lexington Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. p. 8. column 1. May 23, 1959.

Tanowitz, Barry D., Dale M. Smith, & Steven A. Junak. 1987. Terpenoid constituents of three taxa of Monardella. Phytochemistry 26:2751-2752.

Underwood, Tom. R. (ed.) 1955. Staff changes are approved at university. Lexington Herald. Lexington, Kentucky. p. 49. column 4. August 3, 1955.

Wells, Harrington, Patrick H. Wells, & Dale M. Smith. 1981. Honeybee responses to reward size and colour in an artificial flower patch. Jrnl. Apicultural Res 20:172-179.

Wells, Harrington, Patrick H. Wells, & Dale M. Smith. 1982. Ethological Isolation of Plants 1. Colour Selection by Honeybees. Jrnl. Apicultural Res. 22:33-44.

Wollenweber, E., Dietz, V. H., Schilling, G., Favre-Bonvin, J., & Smith, D. M. 1985. Flavonoids from chemotypes of the goldback fern, Pityrogramma triangularis. Phytochemistry, 24:965-971.

Smith, George (1804 - 1882)

George Smith (photograph here) was born February 12, 1804 to Benjamin Hayes Smith and Margaret Dunn Smith in Haverford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. His only sibling, Elizabeth, was born in May 1802 (Ancestry.com 2023, Baier 2006, McDevitt 2005-2006). Benjamin, a devout pacifist Quaker, was appointed to the position of Justice of the Peace by Pennsylvania's governor in 1804 and he worked as an assistant teacher at his father's school. Ironically, Benjamin, the pacifist, died of an apparent wound inflicted by one of his students in 1806 (McDevitt 2005-2006). Inspite of the family tragedy, Margaret and George mustered their resolve and carried on.

For George that meant his attendance in the local schools of Delaware County. He eventually transferred out of the Philadelphia area to West Chester Academy run by Jonathan Gause (Ashmead 1914, Baier 2006, Davis 2016, The Gombach Group 2008). Ultimately George enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania medical school and earned his M.D. on April 7, 1826 (Baier 2006, Hart 1883, McDevitt 2005-2006).

Dr. Smith started a medical practice in Darby, Pennsylvania, just a few miles southwest of Philadelphia and, soon thereafter he met, through the Haverford Friends Meeting, Mary Lewis. Mary, an only child, and her mother had inherited the family farm, when Mary's father (Abraham Lewis) died in 1825. The Mary Lewis/George Smith courtship happily ended with their February 26, 1829 marriage in Philadelphia. In October of the same year Rebecca, Mary's mother, died and the newlyweds found themselves heirs to about 800 acres of land. George found the demands of being a physician and overseeing the family's land to be mutually exclusive tasks, so he relinquished his medical practice and devoted his efforts full-time to the development and cultivation of the family's holdings (Ancestry.com 2023, Baier 2006, McDevitt 2005-2006).

In 1831, George was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate and championed a very contentious issue, that of universal public education in Pennsylvania financed via tax collection. Senator Smith was a member of Pennsylvania's Education Committee and helped pass the Act of April 1, 1834 into law. That statute made taxpayer financed public education free to all students in districts that chose to participate. Finances were raised via real estate taxes and those in turn were paid (and opposed) by citizens who could afford to own land. Various religious bodies were also opposed, because they wanted to retain control of education and felt threatened by public education. The new law specified that instruction was to be completed in English, so there was additional opposition from German communities that wanted to educate students in their native tongue. The law passed through the legislature with ease, but obviously many segments of the citizenry were opposed and most school districts opted out of the new system. The legislation went through several unpopular and consequently unsuccessful iterations, until finally in 1836 an amended version of the statute mollified opponents of the bill and it was passed into law (Ashmead 1914, Hewitt 1934, Jordan 1914, McDevitt 2005-2006).

George became the superintendent of the public school in Delaware County and sat on the Upper Darby school board for a number of years. Following his resignation from the state senate in 1836, he was appointed Associate Judge for Delaware County by Pennsylvania's governor. Beyond the judgeship, George was on the Board of Directors for the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad (WC&P), he had a hand in establishing the Delaware County Mutual Insurance Company, and he was one of the directors of the Delaware Insurance Company in Philadelphia (Ashmead 1914, East Lansdowne 2017, Hart 1883, Jones 2006, Jordan 1914, McDevitt 2005-2006). Outside his commitment to public service, George developed a keen interest in science and often used his free time to dabble in natural history.

In September 1833, he and four other gentlemen made what turned out to be an enduring contribution, when they founded the Delaware County Institute of Science (DCIS) in Media, Pennsylvania. Smith was elected the institute's first president in May of 1834 and retained that position until his death. The group was organized to collect botanical, mineralogical, and geological specimens from Delaware county and display those collections in a museum. The membership, which included doctors, lawyers, and at least one college professor, published a diverse assemblage of works on astronomy, biology, poetry, and other topics in the "Proceedings of the Delaware County Institute of Science" (Ashmead 1914, Caust-Ellenbogen 2014, Hart 1883, McDevitt 2005-2006, Smith 1862).

Homer E. Hoopes, a druggist, published an anthropological paper regarding the inscriptions on El Morro in New Mexico (Hoopes & Broomall 1905) and 74 photographs from his excursion to that sandstone formation are archived at the Smithsonian Institute (National Anthropological Archives 2017). Graceanna Lewis, another resident of Media, was a contributor to the DCIS herbarium, a women's suffrage activist, a supporter of the temperance movement, and an abolitionist who worked with the Underground Railroad (Caust-Ellenbogen 2014, Rushing 2021, Still 1872). It has been rumored, but as yet unconfirmed, that the Institute of Science served as a station on the Underground Railroad. To further fan-the-flames of speculation and intrigue, a small and previously unknown chamber, whose access door was hidden by a large chest of drawers, has been found beneath the basement of the building (Ashmead 1914, Jordan 1914, McDevitt 2005-2006, Still 1872).

Some considered writing to be one of Dr. Smith's greatest talents. Smith et al. (1843) documented in detail the causes, both man-made and natural, of the devastating "Flood of 1843". When sources of aggregate were being chosen for the construction of the Delaware Breakwater, Dr. Smith penned a monograph on "the fitness of the stone quarried at Lieper's Quarry, in Delaware County, for the construction of the Delaware Breakwater". Though his promotion of the Delaware County stone source was successful, the veracity of his "science" was questionable (Dixon 2011).

Smith's most comprehensive work was his complete re-write of a project started by Joseph Edwards (and left unfinished due to his death). The "History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania" was a tome that included not only biographical sketches and a summary of the region's history, but included sections on the geology, mineralogy, plants, quadrupeds, and birds of the county (McDevitt 2005-2006, Smith 1862). Some of Dr. Smith's works, botanical and otherwise, are cited in publications such as Price (1876), Ward (1879), and Gould (1882), but I've found no reference attributing a major scientific project to Dr. George Smith.

A specimen of Pinguicula lutea and another of Pinguicula pumila collected near Palatka, Florida by Smith in 1872 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. In 1869 Dr. George Smith donated his personal herbarium of 2400 specimens to the Delaware County Institute of Science (Delaware County Institute of Science 2015). A few specimens collected by "G. Smith" or "George Smith" that coincide with Dr. Smith's lifetime are present in the iDigBio database.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. George Smith. Banks and Simler Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ashmead, Henry Graham. 1914. History of the Delaware County National Bank. Press of The Chester Times. Chester, Pennsylvania. pp. 158-159 of 175.

Baier, Lila. 2006. Smith, George, Dr. in PA-Roots: Bringing our past into the future.

Caust-Ellenbogen, Celia. 2014. Graceanna Lewis and the Delaware County Institute of Science. Hist. Soc. of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Davis, David E. 2016. Trimbleville; A Chester County hamlet that time passed by. Chester County Day. West Chester, Pennsylvania. October 1, 2016. p. 10.

Delaware County Institute of Science. 2015. Herbarium. Delaware County Institute of Science. Media, Pennsylvania.

Dixon, Mark E. 2011. The local history behind the Delaware Breakwater. Main Line Today. September 2011. Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

East Lansdowne. 2017. History. East Lansdowne. Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Gould, E.R.L. 1882. Local self-government in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Magazine Hist. & Biog. 6:156-173.

Hart, Charles Henry. 1883. Necrological notices for the year 1882. Proc. Numismatic and Antiquarian Soc. Philadelphia pp. 30-33.

Hewitt, Warren F. 1934. Samuel Breck and the Pennsylvania Law of 1834. Pennsylvania History 1(2):63-75.

Hoopes, Homer E. & Broomall, Henry L. 1905. Photographs of some of the inscriptions on El Morro, New Mexico. With translations and notes. (including ten plates). Proc. Delaware County Inst. Sci. 1:13-24.

Jones, James. 2006. Railroads of West Chester: 1831 to the present. West Chester University. Taggart Printing. West Chester, Pennsylvania. 147 pp.

Jordan, John W. 1914. A history of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and its people. Vol. 2. Lewis Historical Publ. New York City, New York.

McDevitt, Bill. 2005-2006. Dr. George Smith. Abridged from Historically Speaking. Fall 2005 & Winter 2006.

National Anthropological Archives. 2017. Photographs of the Southwest by Homer E. Hoopes. Dept. of Anthropology. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Washington, D.C.

Price, Eli K. 1876. The Michaux trees. Proc. Amer. Philosophical Soc. 16:340-345.

Rushing, Erin. 2021. Graceanna Lewis: A naturalist and abolitionist. Unbound. Smithsonian Libraries & Archives.

Smith, George. 1862. History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Henry B. Ashmead, printer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 581 pp.

Smith, George, John P. Crozer, & Minshall Painter. 1843. The flood of 1843. reprinted in: Proc. Delaware County Inst. Sci. 1910. 6(1):1-46 & 6(2):54-86.

Still, William. 1872. The Underground Railroad: A record of facts, authentic narrative, letters &c. Porter & Coates. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Gombach Group. 2008. Trimbleville Historic District. Living Places. Morrisville, Pennsylvania.

Ward, Townsend. 1879. A walk to Darby (continued). Pennsylvania Magazine Hist. & Biog. 3:250-268.

Smith, Sidney G. (18XX - xxxx)

Information about Sidney G. Smith is illusive. Scans through 19th century newspapers have produced nothing that can conclusively be linked to the Sidney G. Smith of this biography. General internet searches have produced only the following.

Sidney Smith corresponded and exchanged plant specimens with G.W. Clinton, as is reflected in following notations from Clinton's personal records. "July 7 ... Recd. letter & package from Sidney G. Smith, Esq. Norway, Maine (Clinton 1864)." "Jan. 5. Put into American Express packages for Prof. Traill Green, Easton, Pa., Wm. M. Canby, Esq, Wilmington, Del., Dr. Daniel Clarke, Flint, Mich., Sidney G. Smith, Esq, Norway, Maine, and into the P.O., a letter of advice to each (Clinton 1865)."

Seven specimens collected by Sidney (or S.G.) Smith from Norway, Maine are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. All were likely collected during the 2nd half of 1800s.

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Clinton, George W. 1864. The botanical journal of G. W. Clinton - July 1864. P.M. Eckel, ed. The Clinton Papers. Res Botanica, Missouri Botanical Garden Web Site. St. Louis, Missouri.

Clinton, George W. 1865. The botanical journal of G. W. Clinton - January 1865. P.M. Eckel, ed. The Clinton Papers. Res Botanica, Missouri Botanical Garden Web Site. St. Louis, Missouri.

Smith, Sidney Irving (1843 - 1926)

Sidney Irving Smith, son of Elliot and Lavinia Howard Barton Smith, was born in Norway, Maine in February 1843. Sidney had two full-siblings, Flora, who was three years his senior, and Clarence, who was three years his junior. Lavinia was Elliot Smith's second wife. Prior to that union Elliot was married to Sarah Barton (genealogical connection to Lavinia Howard Barton unknown) and their daughter Helen Augusta Smith was born in March 1828. Sarah perished in 1835, Elliot remarried and Helen became Sidney's half-sister, when he was born (Ancestry.com 2023).

Sidney first studied in the public schools of Norway, but eventually continued his education at Gould's Academy in Bethel, Maine. Smith completed his Ph.B. in 1867 after completing a two-year course of study at Yale University Sheffield Scientific School (Cutter 1913, Hannaford 1907, Lapham 1886). Sidney completed his Ph.B. under the supervision of Addison E. Verrill, his older sister's husband and he served as Prof. Verrill's assistant in zoology from 1867 through 1874 (Verrill 1958). He received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Yale in 1887 (Coe 1929, Cutter 1913, Yale University 1888).

Prior to enrolling at Yale, Sidney had already developed such a keen interest in natural science that he published in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History one paper dealing with orchids (Smith 1863a) and a second dealing with a moth (Smith 1863b). Smith's collection of insects from Maine was of such high quality that Louis Agassiz purchased it for Harvard College's Museum of Comparative Zoology (Coe 1929) and many of his insect specimens are present in the entomology collection of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. Apparently, Asa Gray was sufficiently impressed with Smith's botanical acumen that he encouraged Sidney to enroll at Harvard College. However, Smith felt entomology was a field with greater discovery opportunities and he entered the junior class at Yale University in September 1865 to study zoology under the direction of his friend, brother-in-law (husband of Sidney's sister, Flora Louise), and curator of Yale's Peabody Museum, Addison E. Verrill (Cutter 1913, Hannaford 1907, Lapham 1886, Peabody Museum 2017, Yale University 2016).

Following his graduation, Smith worked as an assistant in the Yale zoology department until his appointment as professor of comparative anatomy in 1875, a position he retained until his retirement in 1906 (Cutter 1913, Hannaford 1907, Yale College 1868). Sidney published the results of his investigations on the orthopterans of Maine (Smith 1868a) and another paper on general animal biogeography (Smith 1868b), before his attentions were drawn to aquatic organisms.

In 1871 he was part of a deep-water scientific investigation, which documented some of the physical and biological characteristics of Lake Superior. That's when he began working with A.E. Verrill for the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries (Smith 1874a-c), a commitment that continued, at least during summer months, until 1887 (Coe 1929). Though professionally Smith turned his attention away from insects to crustaceans, he did not turn his back on entomology in its entirety. For many years he continued to observe and collect insects in Maine and Connecticut, all the while communicating with the prominent entomologist Samuel H. Scudder in Boston, Massachusetts. Scudder cited the insect collections of S.I. Smith and A.E. Verrill frequently in his list of butterflies of New England (Scudder 1863, 1868, 1874), as well as his three-volume opus, "The butterflies of the eastern United States and Canada with special reference to New England" (Scudder 1889).

With the exception of his stint as Connecticut State Entomologist in 1872 and 1873 (Coe 1929, Peabody Museum 2017) and his contribution to "Webster's International Dictionary" (Harris & Porter 1907), it seems that in about 1870 Smith's research, and his subsequent publications, focused exclusively on the biology and taxonomy of Crustaceans (Hannaford 1907; Smith 1869; 1871; 1877a,b,&c, 1879, 1883, 1884; Smith & Verrill 1871). All told, during his life Sidney I. Smith authored or co-authored over 70 scholarly articles (Coe 1929, Google Scholar 2018).

Personally, Sidney Smith was a teetotaling nonsmoker, who was nearly blinded by glaucoma by the age of 60. He married Eugenia Pocahontas Barber in 1882, but they had no children. Socially, though not a particularly outgoing man, Smith's personality seemed to engender feelings of trust among his students and to inspire them toward success. Sidney moved away from botany early in his career, but he had not lost his appreciation of plants. Even during later years, after losing his vision, Smith continued to tend annuals, perennials, and vegetable crops in his garden (Barber 2013a&b, Coe 1929). Sidney's career successes led him to become a "favorite son" of Norway, Maine and he was honored with the founding of the Sidney I. Smith Society of Science (Howe 1905, Lewiston Journal Co. 1904).

Sidney I. Smith is included here, because of his 1860 & 1863 collections of Dentaria and Ophioglossum from near Norway, Maine that are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Just over 600 preserved specimens listed in the iDigBio database list Sidney I. Smith as collector or co-collector and all of them, save two, are animals.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Sidney Irving Smith. Banks and Simler Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Barber, James Edward. 2013a. Eugenia Pocahontas Barber Smith. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Barber, James Edward. 2013b. Sidney Irving Smith. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Coe, Wesley, R. 1929. Biographical memoir Professor Sydney Irving Smith. Nat. Acad. Sciences. Biographical Memoirs. 14:5-16.

Cutter, William Richard. (ed.) 1913. New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial. Lewis Historical Publ. Co. New York City, New York. Volume 3. pp. 1237 & 1238 of 1568.

Hannaford, Foster. 1907. Professor Sydney Irving Smith. Yale Scientific Monthly. 13:155-156.

Harris, W.T. & Noah Porter (eds.) 1907. Webster's International Dictionary of the English Language. Vol. 1. A-M. G. & C. Merriam and Co. Springfield, Massachusetts. see p. iv of Preface. 960 pp.

Howe, George Robley. 1905. A work with boys at Norway, Maine. Work with boys. 5(2):75-79.

Google Scholar. 2018. Publications of S.I. Smith. Google LLC. Mountain View, California.

Lapham, William Berry. 1886. Centennial History of Norway, Oxford County, Maine, 1786-1886. Brown Thurston & Company. Portland, Maine. pp. 376-377 & 399 of 659.

Lewiston Journal Co. 1904. The Norway boy scientists climb Mt. Washington. Lewiston Saturday Journal. Lewiston, Maine. Magazine section. p. 11. columns 2-4 September 24, 1904.

Peabody Museum. 2017. Sidney Irving Smith. Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Archives. New Haven, Connecticut.

Scudder, Samuel H. 1863. A list of the butterflies of New England. Proc. Essex Institute 11:161-179.

Scudder, Samuel H. 1868. Supplement to a list of the butterflies of New England. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 11:375-384.

Scudder, Samuel H. 1889. The butterflies of the eastern United States and Canada with special reference to New England. 3 vols. W.J. Wheeler, printer. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Scudder, Samuel H. 1874. The distribution of insects in New Hampshire. in Hitchcock, C.H. & J. H. Huntington (eds.). The geology of New Hampshire. A report comprising the results of explorations ordered by the legislature. Pt. 1. Physical geography. Edward A. Jenks, state printer. Concord, New Hampshire. pp. 331-380 of 668.

Smith, S.I. 1863a. Notes on the fertilization of Cypripedium spectabile Swartz and Platanthera psycodes Gray. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 9:328-329.

Smith, S.I. 1863b. Description of a species of Samia, supposed to be new, from Norway, Me. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 9:342-345.

Smith, Sidney I. 1868a. On the Orthoptera of the state of Maine. Proc. Portland Soc. Nat. Hist. 1:143-151.

Smith, Sidney I. 1868b. The geographic distribution of animals. Amer. Naturalist 2:14-23 & 124-131.

Smith, Sidney Irving. 1869. Notice of the Crustacea collected by Prof. C.F. Hartt on the coast of Brazil in 1867. Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts & Sci. 2:1-43.

Smith, S.I. 1871. Dredging in Lake Superior under the direction of the U.S. Lake Survey. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts. 2:373-374.

Smith, S.I. 1874a. Crustacea of the fresh waters of the United States. Report of the U.S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries for 1872-1873. Washington, D.C. Pt. 2. pp. 637-665.

Smith, S.I. 1874b. Sketch of the invertebrate fauna of Lake Superior. Report of the U.S. Commissioner for Fish and Fisheries for 1872-1873. Washington, D.C. Pt. 2. pp. 690-707.

Smith, S.I. 1874c. Food of fresh-water fishes. Report of the U.S. Commissioner for Fish and Fisheries for 1872-1873. Washington, D.C. Pt. 2. pp. 708-709.

Smith, S.I. 1877a. On the species of Pinnixa inhabiting the New England Coast, with remarks on their early stages. Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts & Sci. 4:247-253.

Smith, S.I. 1877b. Occasional occurrence of tropical and subtropical species of decapod Crustacea on the coast of New England. Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts & Sci. 4:254-267.

Smith, S.I. 1877c. On the Amphipodus genera, Cerapus, Unciola, and Lepidactylis, described by Thomas Say. Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts & Sci. 4:268-284.

Smith, Sidney Irving. 1879. The stalk-eyed crustaceans of the Atlantic coast of North America north of Cape Cod. Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts & Sci. 5:27-138.

Smith, Sidney I. 1883. Preliminary report on the Brachyura and Anomura dredged in deep water off the south coast of New England by the United States Fish Commission in 1880, 1881, and 1882. Proc. U.S. National Museum 6(343):1-57.

Smith, Sidney Irving. 1884. Report on the decapod Crustacea of the Albatross Dredgings off the East Coast of the United States in 1883. Annual Rpt. Commissioner Fish & Fisheries for 1882. pp. 345-426.

Smith, S.I. & A.E. Verrill. 1871. Notice of the Invertebrata dredged in Lake Superior in 1871. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts. 2:448-454.

Verrill, George E. 1958. The Ancestry, Life and Work of Addison E. Verrill of Yale University. Pacific Coast Publ. Co. Santa Barbara, California.

Yale College. 1868. Catalogue of the officers and students. 1868-1869. Tuttle, Moorehouse, & Taylor. New Haven, Connecticut. pp. 5 & 15.

Yale University. 1888. Catalogue of 1888-1889. pp. 9, 28, 48, 99, 111 of 232.

Yale University. 2016. Addison Emery Verrill. Peabody Museum of Natural History Archives. New Haven, Connecticut.

Sollers, Basil (1853 - 1909)

Basil Sollers was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Basil Dennis and Pleasant (Goodwin) Sollers. He was the third of eight children in the Sollers family, two daughters and six sons (Ancestry.com 2023, A.S. Abell Co. 1909). Basil attended the local Baltimore public schools and graduated from Baltimore City College (A.S. Abell Co. 1885, Baird 1871, Johns Hopkins University 1884), which was founded in 1839 as Male Central High School (Scharf 1881). It appears that Basil studied at Johns Hopkins University from 1883 through 1885, during which time he was active in the Historical Seminary, the Historical and Political Science Association, and the Baltimore Naturalists' Field Club (Johns Hopkins University 1884).

The earliest record of Basil's teaching career was in 1874, when he was named vice-principal at a new high school in Reistertown, Maryland (Longnecker 1874). It seems that he remained in the Reistertown system until 1877, when he applied for a teaching position in the Baltimore School District (A.S. Abell Co. 1877). By 1878 he'd become active in the Maryland State Teachers' Association, when he presented a paper on best practices for teaching geography (A.S. Abell Co. 1878), and he remained active in that organization for many years (A.S. Abell Co. 1894a). As a member of the teaching community Sollers lectured at teacher institutes (A.S. Abell Co. 1894b), edited "The New Pedagogue" (a journal written by teachers for the discussion of new teaching methods (A.S. Abell Co. 1898c)), and helped create an organization geared towards field study in the biological and physical sciences called "The Field Club" (A.S. Abell Co. 1899a&b). In October 1882 Basil was promoted to the position of principal at Male Grammar School No. 9 (A.S. Abell Co. 1882).

By 1901 Mr. Sollers had transferred from the principalship at Male Grammar School No. 9 to the same position at the Teachers' Training School in Baltimore (A.S. Abell Co. 1901a&b), then in 1902 it appears that Baltimore's elementary schools were reorganized into Groups A through X. Basil was assigned to the principal's position at Group X in 1903 (A.S. Abell Co. 1903a&b), but later in the same year he was transferred to Group B (A.S. Abell Co. 1903c). His obituary (A.S. Abell Co. 1909) mentioned that Mr. Sollers started his career teaching at the "House of Refuge", now the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, which is the Maryland juvenile detention center in East Baltimore County (Department of Juvenile Services 2016). Though many newspaper articles discuss the House of Refuge, none have been located that associate Basil Sollers with that institution.

As a botanist, Sollers' pursuits included his continued affiliation with the Baltimore Naturalists' Field Club (Johns Hopkins University 1888 & 1889) and the study of the flora of the Baltimore, Maryland region (Arps 2008, Sollers 1888). His "Check list of plants" (Sollers 1888) documented over 1600 taxa in the vicinity of Baltimore and was a collaboration with Dr. Bolling W. Barton, who for a time taught botany at Johns Hopkins University (A.S. Abell Co. 1888, Barton Family Papers 2002, Brooks 1891). The year 1891 saw Sollers and Barton, in affiliation with the Naturalist Field Club of Johns Hopkins University, investigate the plants of Jamaica. Their discoveries were summarized in a pair of lectures: "Botany of Jamaica" by B.W. Barton and "People of Jamaica" by Basil Sollers (Brooks 1891).

In the Maryland Geological Survey report for 1898 Sollers and Bolling W. Barton were listed as a special assistants in botany (A.S. Abell Co. 1898b, Clark 1898). Their botanical survey of the state resulted in "The Flora of Maryland" (A.S. Abell Co. 1898d, Sollers 1893), a part of "Maryland, its Resources, Industries and Institutions", which was published in part to extoll the virtues of Maryland at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The flora was a descriptive work that included no identification keys, but described the general nature of Maryland's Coastal Plain, Piedmont Plateau, and Appalachian Mountain regions. It also described plants that were members of some artificial groups like climbers, weeds, shore and water plants, and medicinal plants. From a somewhat more traditional botanical perspective, the work discussed the state's orchids, grasses, and ferns.

His botanical investigations led to an acquaintanceship with the McDonogh School near Baltimore and Mr. Sollers donated extensively to the library of the school's debating society (Macdonald 1892). He was also a member of the Maryland Academy of Sciences (A.S. Abell Co. 1890) and he was a dedicated student of Maryland's history.

As an active member of the Maryland Historical Society for 27 years (A.S. Abell Co. 1909, Fisher et al. 1909), Sollers' work on the history of Maryland included two publications that described the forced emigration of people (Acadians and indentured servants) to the region (Sollers 1907 & 1908). Other historical contributions included a life history of Jonathan Hagar and his hand in the founding of a German community (Hagerstown) in Maryland (Sollers 1887), plus papers on the history of education in Maryland (Sollers 1894 a&b).

Mr. Sollers was twice betrothed. He met and married (date unknown) Harriet Elizabeth Plummer. She died of heart disease in May 1898 and the couple had no children (A.S. Abell Co. 1898a). In 1900, when Basil was the principal at Grammar School No. 9 in Baltimore, Lucy Andrews Ford, a graduate of the Maryland Institute (now the Maryland Institute College of Art ), was an artist and drawing instructor in the same city. How and when the couple met has not been uncovered, but they evidently developed a compatible relationship and in June 1900 the two were married. In 1902 their first child, Basil Jr., was born; the couple ultimately raised three sons and a daughter (Ancestry.com 2022, A.S. Abell Co. 1900).

An interesting side note is that Lucy A. Ford was one of the children of John T. Ford, owner of Ford's Grand Opera House in Baltimore and Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. The latter of which became infamous on April 14th, 1865, when John Wilkes Booth shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln there during a production of "Our American Cousin" (Baublitz 2014a,b,&c, CJBiller 2005, Klein 2015, McKenzie 2018).

Basil Sollers is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by two plant specimens, Coreopsis verticillata and Sabatia stellaris, collected near Baltimore, Maryland in the 1880s. Another 40 of Sollers plant specimens are present at the Missouri Botanical Garden and may be scanned via the iDigBio database.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Basil Sollers. Sollers Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Arps, Walter E. 2008. Maryland Mortalities 1876-1915. From the (Baltimore) Sun Almanac. Heritage Books. Westminster, Maryland. p. 214.

A.S. Abell Co. 1877. The school board of Baltimore City. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 4. column 1. May 30, 1877.

A.S. Abell Co. 1878. Maryland State Teachers' Association. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 4. column 2. August 29, 1878.

A.S. Abell Co. 1882. The school board. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 4. column 2. October 11, 1882.

A.S. Abell Co. 1885. Reunion of old schoolmates. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 4. column 5. February 12, 1885.

A.S. Abell Co. 1888. Flora of Baltimore. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 2. column 2. June 13, 1898.

A.S. Abell Co. 1890. Plants and flowers at Sparrow's Point. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 6. column 5. October 15, 1890.

A.S. Abell Co. 1894a. Public School Teachers' Association. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 10. column 7. June 11, 1894.

A.S. Abell Co. 1894b. Educational classes for teachers. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 10. column 7. October 6, 1894.

A.S. Abell Co. 1898a. Mrs. Harriet E. Sollers. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 7. column 4. May 13, 1898.

A.S. Abell Co. 1898b. Geological Survey. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 7. column 1. July 15, 1898.

A.S. Abell Co. 1898c. The New Pedagogue. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 7. column 1. September 22, 1898.

A.S. Abell Co. 1898d. Studying plants: A careful botanical survey of the state is being made. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 10. column 3. September 23, 1898.

A.S. Abell Co. 1899a. Field Club formed. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 12. column 6. June 7, 1899.

A.S. Abell Co. 1899b. The Field Club. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 7. column 4. July 18, 1899.

A.S. Abell Co. 1900. Sollers-Ford. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 7. column 2. June 29, 1900.

A.S. Abell Co. 1901a. Answers to queries: Information on a variety of topics sought by readers of The Sun. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 12. column 6. January 15, 1901.

A.S. Abell Co. 1901b. Teachers' Training School. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 7. column 7. June 28, 1901.

A.S. Abell Co. 1903a. 69,754 pupils in schools. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 7. column 2. October 8, 1903.

A.S. Abell Co. 1903b. Prof. William T. Markland. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 6. column 6. October 31, 1903.

A.S. Abell Co. 1903c. Gift to Mr. Basil Sollers. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 6. column 6. November 24, 1903.

A.S. Abell Co. 1909. Mr. Basil Sollers dead. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 7. column 7. July 28, 1909.

Baird, Thomas D. 1871. Thirty-third annual report of Baltimore City College. in Forty-third annual report of the Board of Commissioners of public schools to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. John Cox, printer. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 90 of 276.

Barton Family Papers. 2002. A guide to the Barton family papers, 1855-1869; 1912. Virginia Military Institute Archives. Lexington, Virginia. mss 00020.

Baublitz, Ron. 2014a. Basil Sollers. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Baublitz, Ron. 2014b. Harriet Elizabeth Plummer Sollers. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Baublitz, Ron. 2014c. Lucy Andrews Ford Sollers. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Brooks, W.K. 1891. Report of marine laboratory session of 1891. in Sixteenth annual report of the president of Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins Press. Baltimore, Maryland. pp. 84-87 of 101.

Clark, William Bullock. 1898. Reports of the Maryland Geological Survey. Vol. 2. Maryland Geol. Survey. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. Baltimore, Maryland.

CJBiller. 2005. John Thomson Ford. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Department of Juvenile Services. 2016. History of juvenile justice in Maryland. Baltimore, Maryland.

Fisher, Richard D., Richard H. Spencer, & Andrew C. Trippe. 1909. Proceedings of the society: necrologies. Maryland Historical Magazine 4:392-393.

Johns Hopkins University. 1884. Johns Hopkins University Circulars. Nos. 27-33. Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, Maryland. pp. 20 & 66 of 134.

Johns Hopkins University. 1888. Proceedings of societies. Johns Hopkins University Circulars. 8:25.

Johns Hopkins University. 1889. Proceedings of university societies. Johns Hopkins University Circulars. 9:105.

Klein, Christopher. 2015. 10 Things You May Not Know About the Lincoln Assassination. History. A&E Television Networks. New York City, New York.

Longnecker Bros. (publishers) 1874. Local matters: Reistertown. The Baltimore County Union. Towsontown, Maryland. p. 3. column 1. July 11, 1874.

Macdonald, J.G. 1892. The Basil Sollers Library. The Week. 9:1.

McKenzie, David. 2018. Photos from the archives: Ford's many theatres. Ford's Theatre Blog. Washington, D.C.

Scharf, John Thomas. 1881. History of Baltimore City and County, from the earliest period to the present day. Louis H. Everts. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 222-237 of 947.

Sollers, Basil. 1887. Jonathan Hagar, the founder of Hagerstown. in Second Annual Report of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland. pp. 14-30.

Sollers, Basil. 1888. Check list of plants, Compiled for the vicinity of Baltimore. John Murphy & Company. Baltimore. 72 pp.

Sollers, B. 1893. The Flora of Maryland. in Maryland, its Resources, Industries and Institutions. Chapter VI. pp 218-235 of 504.

Sollers, Basil 1894a. Education in the colony. in Steiner, Bernard C. History of education in Maryland. Chapter I. pp 13-38 of 331.

Sollers, Basil 1894b. Secondary education in the state of Maryland. in Steiner, Bernard C. History of education in Maryland. Chapter II. pp 39-68 of 331.

Sollers, Basil. 1907. Transported convict laborers in Maryland during the Colonial Period. Maryland Historical Magazine 2:17-47.

Sollers, Basil. 1908. The Acadians (French Neutrals) transported to Maryland. Maryland Historical Magazine 3:1-21.

Somerset, Margaret Faith (1857 - 1916)

Margaret F. Somerset was born in Portland, Connecticut and had one brother, William. She graduated from Middletown High School, then after completing a course of study at New Britain Normal School, Margaret taught in the elementary schools of Middletown and Portland (Beckstein 2012, Farmer Publishing Co. 1916a). It was then, at the beginning of her teaching career, that Margaret published her only paper entitled "Life worth the living" (Somerset 1874).

In 1878, after four years of teaching in central Connecticut, Margaret moved about 40 miles southwest to Bridgeport. There she started teaching in the elementary grades at Waterville School and during the subsequent four years she moved among various schools in the district. In 1882 she was transferred to the Congress Street school and began teaching ninth-graders. In 1886 she moved again, this time to Bridgeport High School (Farmer Publishing Co. 1916a), where Margaret was primarily a teacher of mathematics and French (Harvard University 1909, Bridgeport Board of Education 1877-1882). Ms. Somerset was a teacher, but she was also a dedicated learner.

She earned her A.B. degree from the University of West Virginia with a major in French (Farmer Publishing Co. 1916a, West Virginia University 1917). She spent a year studying at Radcliffe College and during several summers Margaret completed classes at Cornell, Harvard, McGill, and Middlebury Universities. She even took courses, likely via correspondence, from the university of Chicago. Margaret spent several summers in France honing her skills in French; she was proficient in Italian as well (Farmer Publishing Co. 1916a, Harvard University 1909, Middlebury College 1911). Ms. Somerset also served as the local secretary of the Fairfield County Teachers' Association (Saxe 1904), but not all of her activities were directly connected to the classroom.

In the early 1900s Ms. Somerset's interest in French led her to help found the Bridgeport Groupe of Alliance Francaise, an organization in which she served as president and on the board of directors (Farmer Publishing Co. 1909, 1910 & 1911a). Her dedication to the promotion and development of Bridgeport's Alliance Francaise was honored in September of 1911 by the French Academy (Académie Française) when she was made an officer of the Academy in recognition of her efforts (Farmer Publishing Co. 1911b & 1916a). On one occasion, the Bridgeport Alliance Francaise promoted a performance by Madame Anna A. Guêrin to raise funds for the Red Cross (Farmer Publishing Co. 1915). Guêrin later became known as an international promoter of the red poppy as a remembrance for veterans of WWI, just as Ms. Moina Michael had done in North America (Pruitt 2017). Though Margaret's greatest commitment was to Romance languages, she was also involved in the sciences.

The Bridgeport Scientific Society was in existence by August 1878 (Pearce 1878 a&b) and public lectures were presented several times per month from the fall through the spring seasons. Topics broached a diverse set of subjects such as astronomy, anthropology, civil engineering, suspended animation, and interplanetary communication. Brief summaries of presentations given at the Society were published in various newspapers in Connecticut and examples of a season's lecture topics were printed by Carrington & Co. (1881 & 1886). The original Bridgeport Scientific Society was an unincorporated nonprofit organization, but perhaps due to liability concerns, the Society incorporated in 1893.

Ms. Somerset was one of the incorporators and served as the first recording secretary of the legal entity known as the Bridgeport Scientific Society (Connecticut General Assembly 1893, Trumble 1892). According to their charter, the society was established "... for the promotion and encouragement of science and the arts, and for the diffusion of knowledge ..." (Connecticut General Assembly 1893) and about the time of incorporation, they began holding meetings in the Barnum Institute of Science and History. The Barnum Institute building, commissioned by Phineas T. Barnum, the showman, philanthropist, and founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, was built in order "to house the meeting space, research archives, and collections of the Bridgeport Scientific, Bridgeport Medical, and Fairfield County Historical societies in an effort to promote the advancement of public knowledge" (National Part Service 2010). Though Phineas T. perished shortly before the end of construction, the building was completed, and his widow honored his legacy by funding the maintenance of the premises for a time (Trumble 1892).

Though she'd been battling an illness for a prolonged period, Ms. Somerset continued teaching until January 28, 1916. The exact nature of her infirmity is unknown, but on January 29th she traveled to New York City and was admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital, where she underwent a long-needed surgery. The post-surgery trauma was too severe and she perished February 2, 1916. Her death was a great blow to many of the staff and students among the Bridgeport school system and plans to establish a Margaret Somerset Memorial Fund were set in motion. By May 1916 volunteers had raised $1200 towards a $5000 goal — the scholarship's funds were to be used annually to provide post-secondary education financial support to select students (Farmer Publishing Co. 1916a&b).

Margaret Somerset's biography is presented here, because she collected two plant specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Both plants — Creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea) and Bellwort (Uvularia sessilifolia) — were collected by her for Naamon Reynolds. The plants were collected by Margaret from Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1892 and, regrettably, no information as to the identity of Naamon Reynolds has been located. Additional specimens that can be directly attributed to Ms. Somerset are present in neither the iDigBio, nor the SEINet plant database. The Putnam Museum specimens are part of a bound herbarium assembled by Rebecca M. Austin; how plants collected by Ms. Somerset in Connecticut reached Ms. Austin in California is unknown.

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Beckstein, John. 2012. Margaret F. Somerset. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Bridgeport Board of Education. 1877-1882. Annual report of the board of education of Bridgeport, Conn. Bridgeport Board of Educ. Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Carrington & Co. 1881. Bridgeport Scientific Society. Morning Journal and Courier. New Haven, Connecticut. p. 3. column 8. November 1, 1881.

Carrington & Co. 1886. Lecture course. Morning Journal and Courier. New Haven, Connecticut. p. 2. column 4. October 27, 1886.

Connecticut General Assembly. 1893. Incorporating the Bridgeport Scientific Society - House joint resolution no. 180. Special Acts and Resolutions Passed by the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut. pp. 308 & 309 of 1228.

Farmer Publishing Co. 1909. Social: Personal and musical. Bridgeport Evening Farmer. p. 3. column 4. May 5, 1909.

Farmer Publishing Co. 1910. Alliance Francaise annual session. Bridgeport Evening Farmer. p. 3. column 1. May 4, 1910.

Farmer Publishing Co. 1911a. Alliance Francaise elect its officers. Bridgeport Evening Farmer. p. 4. column 4. May 6, 1911.

Farmer Publishing Co. 1911b. Miss Somerset is honored by French Academy. Bridgeport Evening Farmer. p. 4. column 5. September 12, 1911.

Farmer Publishing Co. 1915. Social and personal. Bridgeport Evening Farmer. p. 4. column 6. March 20, 1915.

Farmer Publishing Co. 1916a. Miss Somerset, B.H.S. teacher, is dead at 58. Bridgeport Evening Farmer. p. 1. column 1. February 2, 1916.

Farmer Publishing Co. 1916b. Memorial fund of B.H.S. grows to over $1200. Bridgeport Evening Farmer. p. 1. column 6. May 10, 1916.

Harvard University. 1909. Romance languages. Official Register - The summer school of arts and sciences. 6:195.

Middlebury College. 1911. A catalogue of Middlebury College: Summer session students. Middlebury College. Middlebury, Vermont. p. 139 of 156.

National Park Service. 2010. Barnum Institute of Science and History Nat. Register of Hist. Place. U.S. Dept. of Interior. Washington, D.C.

Pearce, John T. (ed.) 1878a. Local jottings. Newtown Bee. Newtown, Connecticut. p. 2. column 4. August 29, 1878.

Pearce, John T. (ed.) 1878b. Indian relics. Newtown Bee. Newtown, Connecticut. p. 2. column 2. September 12, 1878.

Pruitt, Sarah. 2017. The poppy and the poet: How a remembrance symbol was born. History.com. A&E Networks.

Saxe, Henry W. (secretary) 1904. Educational research in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The School Journal. 68:323.

Somerset, Margaret F. 1874. Life worth the living. Connecticut School Jrnl. 4:174-175.

Trumble, Alfred (ed.) 1892. Bridgeport's scientific society. The collector 4:67.

West Virginia University. 1917. Alumni record. Morgantown, West Virginia. pp. 26 & 92 of 124.

Speer, Darius Buchanan (1846 - 1935)

D.B. Speer was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in August of 1846 to John Crawford Speer and Nancy Patterson Speer. Darius was one of the youngest of eleven children in the family, when they moved to Blue Grass, Iowa in 1866 (Ancestry.com 2023, Speer 2008). Nancy Speer died in 1878 and by 1880 Darius was living in the household of John and Mary Ann (Speer) Barnes. They were the parents of William D. Barnes and were perhaps Darius' aunt and uncle (Ancestry.com 2023, Bason 2014, Garrison 2002). Darius served in the Civil War (Cram 1935), but details of his engagement in that conflict have not been uncovered.

Darius' name first appeared in newspapers of southeastern Iowa in 1873, when he was part of a group lobbying for the construction of the "People's Narrow Gauge Railroad of Iowa" through Blue Grass. It was proposed that the new rail line would improve commerce and increase the availability of high-quality coal to the community (Richardson 1873). Mr. Speer was mentioned in the newspaper in the 1880s, because he was awarded his first patent in 1884 (see paragraph below for details) and because he bought some pastureland in Nebraska (Morning Democrat-Gazette 1887).

The 1890s were significant, because Darius married Euretta Ann Benshoof in April 1892 and the couple raised three children, Howard, Minerva, and Mary Jane (Ancestry.com 2023, Bason 2014). It's unknown at this time whether Mr. Speer was a teetotaler, but in 1898 Darius, E.E. Hartwell, and L.S. Robinson filed suit against Asmus Mueller, who was the proprietor the "Blue Grass House". The Mueller's facility offered guest rooms, a bowling alley, and a saloon, which the plaintiffs claimed was a nuisance to Blue Grass' citizenry and they asked the court to terminate the defendant's ability to sell intoxicants. At least one newspaper implied that the filing was a frivolous lawsuit that lacked merit (Delvichio 2020, Richardson 1898 a&b, Times Co. 1898) and the judgement handed down, if any, is unknown. But two years later, the census of 1900 listed Asmus Mueller's occupation in Blue Grass as that of "hotel keeper" (U.S. Federal Census 1900), so at least part of Mueller's business persisted after the lawsuit.

A July 1904 incident provides an interesting follow-up to Darius' objection to Asmus Mueller's saloon. Darius and four other gents from Blue Grass were fishing on the Mississippi River one evening near Montpelier. Their catch was a good one, the men were excited over their great fortune, and they went ashore to count their fish. While divvying up the catch, they ignored the boat, which broke loose from its mooring and floated downstream. The wayward vessel was found the next morning about seven miles downriver and the fisherman had to pay to retrieve their watercraft. The men claimed they'd lost their fishing boat, because "they had too much strong coffee" (Van Lent 1904). It's unclear whether their claim was a literal reference to "robust java" or a euphemism for distilled spirits.

While in Iowa, D.B. was an active member of the Southeast Iowa Horticulture Society and he was involved in the cultivation of strawberries (Speer 1900). In 1905 Darius' in-laws migrated to Seattle, Washington and around 1906 Darius moved his family to that area (Bason 2014, Shewman 1909). In the spring of 1909 Darius and Euretta moved their family to Albany, Oregon, with the intension of getting a new start in the fruit orchard trade (Nutting 1909a). The breadth of services offered by Darius has not been uncovered, but in newspaper advertisements he offered various types of woody plant landscape work, such as "budding trees, fruits, and roses" (Nutting 1909b & 1910). It appears Darius continued his business enterprise in Albany until 1919, when his wife perished. A few weeks after Euretta's death, Mr. Speer listed his house for sale (Jackson & Cronise 1919 a&b).

According to the 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Darius was living with his daughter, Minerva, in Silverton City (Ancestry.com 2023, Bason 2014), about 30 miles northeast of Albany, Oregon. By 1925 he was spending considerable time on Whidbey Island, Washington, but the U.S. Federal Census of 1930 lists Darius as a resident of care facility in Everett City, Washington (Ancestry.com 2023, Jackson & Cronise 1925). He perished in 1935 on Whidbey Island, Washington (Bason 2014, Speer 2008) and was interred next to his wife in Silverton, Oregon (Bason 2014, Garrison 2002 & 2004).

Speer, an inventor, was awarded four patents. His machine for cutting green corn off the cob earned patent number 295,831 in March of 1884 (Richardson 1884, United States Patent Office 1884). Darius' grafting-machine was awarded a patent twice (patent number 348,592 in 1886 and number 796,160 in August of 1905) and was intended for use in the woody plant nursery trade (Hardman 1905, United States Patent Office 1886 & 1905). If the number of advertisements is any indicator of its success, his grafting-machine was evidently well received. Marketing notices for it may be found in several of the trade magazines of the time (e.g. Craig 1905 & 1906 and Irvine 1908). Finally, his porch swing patent (number 721,339) was issued in February of 1903 (Republican Co. 1903, United States Patent Office 1903).

Mr. Speer is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by two plants. First, Darius collected a single specimen of Silverleaf Scurfpea (Psoralea argophylla = Pediomelum argophyllum) in Cedar Falls, Iowa (no collection date is listed). The Cedar Falls collection is perhaps from land owned by Robert P. Speer, Darius' brother (Speer 2008). Second, William Barnes and Alonzo Miller collected a specimen of Plantago patagonica (Woolly Plantain) from "D.B. Speer's clover field" in 1891.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Darius Buchanan Speer. Washington Speer Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bason, Bob. 2014. Darius B. Speer - obituary. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Craig, John. (ed.) 1905. The Speer grafting machine. The National Nurseryman. 13:116.

Craig, John. (ed.) 1906. Advertisements. The National Nurseryman. 14:24, 137, 176, 209, 312.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1935. D.B. Speer, Once Blue Grass man, dies at age 89. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 21. column 1. April 12, 1935.

Delvichio, Davina. 2020. Blue Grass House. Scott County Library System. Eldridge, Iowa.

Garrison, Katie Baptiste. 2002. Euretta Ann "Gretta" Benshoof Speer. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Garrison, Katie Baptiste. 2004. Darius B. Speer. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1905. In other towns: Blue Grass. Semi-Weekly Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 6. July 11, 1905.

Irvine, James M. (ed.) 1908. The Fruit Grower. 19: (January) 31, (March) 26, (June) 15, (September) 15, (October) 35, (December) 22.

Jackson, W.L. & Ralph R. Cronise. (eds.) 1919a. Mrs. D.B. Speer is called by death. Albany Daily Democrat. p. 1. column 2. June 6, 1919.

Jackson, W.L. & Ralph R. Cronise. (eds.) 1919b. Classified-Business Directory. Albany Daily Democrat. p. 2. column 1. July 30, 1919.

Jackson, W.L. & Ralph R. Cronise. (eds.) 1925. Town Talk. Albany Daily Democrat. p. 2. column 3. October 19, 1925.

Morning Democrat-Gazette. 1887. Neighborhood notes: Buffalo. Morning Democrat-Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 5. August 12, 1887.

Nutting, F.P. 1909a. No title. Albany Democrat. Albany, Oregon. p. 3. column 4. April 30,1909.

Nutting, F.P. 1909b. Business advertisement. Albany Democrat. Albany, Oregon. p. 2. column 3. August 27,1909.

Nutting, F.P. 1910. Business advertisement. Albany Democrat. Albany, Oregon. p. 2. column 4. August 5, 1910.

Republican Co. 1903. Patents for Iowa inventors. Davenport Daily Republican. Davenport, Iowa. p. 2. columns 2 & 3. March 3, 1903.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1873. Railroad meeting in Blue Grass. Daily Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 5. March 18, 1883.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1884. Just the thing: A new corn-cutting machine which supplies every want. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 1. May 13, 1884.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1898a. In court: The Blue Grass saloon case the center of attention today. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 5. March 30, 1898.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1898b. So shy! Mr. Hubbell really hadn't the courage to come to court. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 3. March 31, 1898.

Shewman, W.A. (proprietor) 1909. Local brevities. Albany Weekly Herald. Albany, Oregon. p. 3. column 3. March 26, 1909.

Speer, D.B. 1900. Strawberry culture. Proc. Southeastern Iowa Hort. Soc. pp. 242, 315-318. in Rpt. Iowa State Hort. Soc. Volume 35.

Speer, George D. 2008. Speer family genealogy of Scotland to Ulster, Ireland to San Francisco, U.S.A in 1883. Rootsweb. An ancestry.com community.

Times Co. 1898. The bluff suit: A campaign dodge again foisted upon the public. Davenport Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 2. column 6. March 9, 1898.

U.S. Federal Census. 1900. Twelfth Census of the United States. Blue Grass Township. Scott County, Iowa. June 22, 1900.

United States Patent Office. 1884. Machine for cutting green corn from the cob. Official Gazette. Washington, D.C. Volume 23. Jan. 1 to March 25. p. 1190.

United States Patent Office. 1886. Grafting machine. Official Gazette. Washington, D.C. Volume 36. July - September. p. 1062.

United States Patent Office. 1903. Swing. Official Gazette. Washington, D.C. Volume 102. February. p. 1637.

United States Patent Office. 1905. Grafting machine. Official Gazette. Washington, D.C. Volume 117. August. p. 1361.

Van Lent, J.G. (president) 1904. Montpelier Ridge. Muscatine Daily News Tribune. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 5. column 5. July 30, 1904.

Stevens, George Thomas (1832 - 1921)

George T. Stevens (photo here), a son of Reverend Chauncey Coe Stevens and Lucinda Hoadley Stevens, was born in Jay, New York in July of 1832. He had one sibling, Charles, who was two years his junior (Ancestry.com 2023, Leonard 1906-1907, Stevens 1921). George grew up and was educated in the local schools of Essex County, New York, where his father ministered to members of Congregational Churches in Crown Point and Elizabethtown. He earned the M.D. in 1857 from Castleton Medical College (now Castleton University) in Vermont and subsequently established a medical practice in Wadhams Mills, New York during the same year (Duane 1921, Leonard 1906-1907, Stevens 1913 & 1921). Stevens was granted an honorary Ph.D. by Union College in 1877 (Duane 1921, Leonard 1906-1907, Stevens 1921).

Dr. Stevens met Harriet Weeks Wadhams, when he was attending to patients in Wadhams Mills. Apparently theirs was a healthy, compatible relationship and they exchanged marriage vows April 17, 1861. The couple raised three children. Frances (Fannie) was born in 1865, Charles in 1867, and Georgianna entered the world in 1871. Fannie married George T. Ladd, a professor of "Moral Philosophy" at Yale University. Charles W. Stevens followed in his father's footsteps and became a physician who specialized in the treatment of the human eye. Georgianna survived for only eleven years (Ancestry.com 2023, Duane 1921, Stevens 1921).

Five days after George and Harriet were married the Civil War started, when Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861). Shortly thereafter George enlisted in the 77th Regiment of the New York Volunteers as an assistant surgeon (Duane 1921, Stevens 1870 & 1913). He served from November of 1861, until his dismissal (for health reasons?) in October 1862. However, he rejoined the Union medical corps in February 1863 and continued until December of 1864, during which time he became his regiment's commanding surgeon and was acting Medical Inspector for the Sixth Corps (Cox 1997, Stevens 1915).

Stevens' post-Civil War career first involved the establishment of a private practice in Albany, New York. He served as a surgeon at Albany Hospital and in 1870 Dr. Stevens was selected to be Professor of Ophthalmic and Orthopedic Surgery in the Department of Medicine of Union College (Raymond 1907). Dr. Stevens decided to focus on the treatment of eye diseases, so in 1880 he established an ophthalmology practice in New York City. There he remained active and dedicated the greater portion of his efforts to studying the link between neurological disorders and control of the muscles of the eye. He continued in that vein until about two years prior to his death (Duane 1921, Stevens 1921).

While a practicing physician in New York City, Dr. Stevens' investigations and treatment of eye disorders led him to become an innovator who designed a number of medical instruments (e.g. clinoscope (Wood 1914), phorometer (Stevens 1888), and tropometer (Du Plessis 1936, Reber 1912, Wood 1913 & 1915)). Most of his published works dealt with maladies of the eye and how to treat them (Stevens 1881, 1887, 1889, 1906 & Google Scholar), but a few reveal his interest in the plant life of the region he called home.

Though no thorough summary of Dr. Stevens' pursuits in botany has been located, available snippets make it obvious that he dedicated a noteworthy portion of his life to the study of plants. Some of Stevens' collections were cited in Peck's "State Botanist Report" (Peck 1878) and he, like Peck, had an apparent particular fondness for the flora of the Adirondack region. His enjoyment of the Adirondack Mountains and New England in general led to his publication of "The Flora of the Adirondacks" (Stevens 1868) and "An illustrated guide to the flowering plants of the middle Atlantic and New England states" (Stevens 1910). The size of his personal herbarium is unknown at present, but Duane (1921) and Stevens (1921) reported that George T. Stevens' "extensive herbarium included plants and flowers from all parts of America and Europe". Hough (1876) wrote that Stevens donated his herbarium to Union College, but that collection has not yet been inventoried, so the extent of Stevens' collections there is unknown at present.

Three plant specimens collected by Dr. Stevens are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. One sheet of Ludwigia alternifolia is from New Hampshire and was collected in 1863. The other specimens are sheets of Arenaria stricta, one of which was collected in 1863. Neither Arenaria specimen includes any additional collection data. Neither the iDigBio nor the SEINet database lists any plant collections attributable to George T. Stevens.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. George Thomas Stevens, M.D. Cole Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Cox, Rob S. 1997. George T. Stevens Papers. James S. Schoff Civil War Collection. William L. Clements Library. The University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Duane, Alexander. 1921. George Thomas Stevens, M.D., Ph.D. Trans. Amer. Ophthalmol. Soc. 19:15-19.

Du Plessis, G.L. 1936. The tropometer. Australasian Journal of Optometry. 19(9):440-450.

Hough, Franklin Benjamin. 1876. Historical Sketch of Union College. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. p. 47 of 81.

Leonard, John W. (ed.) 1906-1907. Who's who in America. A.N. Marquis Company. Chicago, Illinois. p.1705 of 2215.

Peck, Charles H. 1878. Report of the Botanist. in The thirtieth annual report on the New York State Museum of Natural History. Regents of the University of the State of New York.

Raymond, Andrew Van Vranken. 1907. Union University: its history, influence, characteristics, and equipment. Vol. 1. Lewis Publishing Company. New York City, New York. pp. 456-458 of 564.

Reber, Wendell. 1912. The findings of the tropometer in 100 normal eyes and its value in the study of strabismus. Jrnl. Amer. Medical Assoc. 59(12):1082-1087.

Stevens, Charles W. 1921. Biographical sketch: George Thomas Stevens, M.D., Ph.D. Amer. Jrnl. Ophthalmology 4:552-554.

Stevens, Geo. T. 1868. The Flora of the Adirondacks. Joel Munsell. Albany, New York. 18 pp.

Stevens, Geo. T. 1870. Three Years in the Sixth Corps. D. Van Nostrand. New York. 449 pp.

Stevens, George T. 1881. Oculo-Neural Reflex Irritation. Trans. International Med. Congress. Seventh Session. pp. 111-114.

Stevens, George T. 1887. Functional nervous diseases. D. Appleton and Company. New York City, New York. 217 pp.

Stevens, George T. 1888. New instruments: A phorometer. Medical record. 33:511-512.

Stevens, George T. 1889. The anomalies of the ocular muscles. Archives of Ophthalmology. 16:149-176.

Stevens, George T. 1906. A treatise on the motor apparatus of the eyes. F.A. Davis Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 496 pp.

Stevens, George T. 1910. An illustrated guide to the flowering plants of the middle Atlantic and New England states. Dodd, Mead, & Company. New York City, New York. 749 pp.

Stevens, Harriet Weeks Wadhams. 1913. Wadhams genealogy, preceded by a sketch of the Wadham family in England. Frank Allaben Genealogical Company. New York City, New York. pp. 410-411 of 652.

Wood, Casey A. (ed.) 1913. The American encyclopedia and dictionary of ophthalmology. Vol. 2. Cleveland Press. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 1414-1415 of 1505.

Wood, Casey A. (ed.) 1914. The American encyclopedia and dictionary of ophthalmology. Vol. 3. Cleveland Press. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 2294-2296 of 2305.

Wood, Casey A. (ed.) 1915. The American encyclopedia and dictionary of ophthalmology. Vol. 6. Cleveland Press. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 4697-4698 of 4847.

Stewart, Fred Carlton (1868 - 1946)

Fred Carlton Stewart, the son of Almeron and Charlotte Stewart, was born in the northwest corner of New York (French Creek, Chautauqua County) in February of 1868. (Photos of Fred Stewart here and at Bowen & Lee 1894.) By 1870 the extended family — Fred's paternal grandparents (Robert and Minerva Stewart); two of Almeron's brothers (William and Marvin); Almeron, Charlotte, and Fred — were farming near Burlington, Illinois. According to the 1880 U.S. Federal Census the Stewart family (Almeron, Charlotte, and Fred) was residing in Summerset Township in Adair County, Iowa and the listed occupations for Almeron, Charlotte, and Fred were farmer, keeping house, and laborer, respectively (Ancestry.com 2023, Fitzpatrick 1947).

Fred attended high school in Greenfield, Iowa and then continued his education at Adair County Normal Institute. He taught school during the winter months from 1886 through 1891 and graduated from the Normal Institute in 1888. Stewart enrolled at Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in the spring of 1889 and during the summer of that year he earned a few dollars selling books and nursery stock. In June 1890 he worked as a census taker in Adair County.

Fred received his Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State College in 1892 and then continued his education in Ames to earn the Master of Science degree in 1894. Stewart held an assistant botanist position with the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station (1891 to 1894) and his interest in plant pathology was cultivated, while studying under the direction of Dr. L.H. Pammel. In December 1894 Stewart left Iowa State College and joined the New York Agricultural Experiment Station (Geneva, New York) as a mycologist (Bowen & Lee 1894, Fitzpatrick 1947, Gruff 2007, Massey et al. 1946). About a year after moving to New York, Fred celebrated an important personal milestone.

Annie A. Chestek, the eldest daughter of John and Amelia Chestek, was born in Waukegan, Illinois and by the 1870s the family was farming in Chickasaw County, Iowa. How Annie Chestek and Fred Stewart met is a mystery at present, but November 20, 1895 they were married in Bassett, Iowa. The couple raised five children, three daughters and two sons (Ancestry.com 2023).

Fred was transferred from Geneva to work at the New York Ag. Experiment Station's Long Island Branch at Jamaica, where his mycological research dealt with various issues in plant pathology. He remained there for three years (until 1897) and then took a leave of absence to complete graduate work at Cornell College. During his stay at Cornell, Stewart decided that his goals in the field of mycology would be better served by meeting prominent mycologists in Europe and studying abroad.

After spending a number of months in Europe, Stewart and his wife came back to the United States and in 1898 he returned to the New York Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva as the chair of the Department of Botany. When the Experiment Station became part of Cornell University in 1923, Stewart was awarded a botany professorship. He remained at Cornell until his retirement in 1936, when he was granted Professor Emeritus status (Fitzpatrick 1947, Gruff 2007, Massey et al. 1946).

Though Professor Stewart was probably most recognized for his studies on potatoes, he became a prolific author/co-author of papers addressing diseases of corn, cabbage, carnations, cucumbers, fruit trees and other crops. It's worth noting that Stewart collaborated with fellow Iowa State College graduate, George Washington Carver, on rust fungi research (Stewart & Carver 1895). An additional half dozen of his early manuscripts are listed below (Duggar & Stewart 1901, Pammel & Stewart 1894; Stewart 1895, 1897, 1900; Stewart & Eustace 1901), but many others may be accessed via Google Scholar and/or Ockerbloom (2017). Stewart's 1897 publication described a bacterial infection of sweet corn, which later became known as "Stewart's wilt of corn" and the causal pathogen was named Pseudomonas stewartii (now Pantoea stewartii) in Stewart's honor (Pataky 2003). Beyond academia, Stewart wrote about edible wild mushrooms (Stewart 1918) and mushroom cultivation (Stewart 1927). In all, Fred C. Stewart authored in excess of seventy publications dealing with topics related to plant pathology and mycology (Massey et al. 1946). Dr. Stewart's role as a serious-minded researcher pursuing a better understanding of plant diseases did not preclude him from having a sly sense of humor.

One day when Susan Gruff (then curator of the Cornell University Pathology Herbarium) was adding information to the herbarium's specimen database, she happened across an item collected by Stewart in 1937. At first glance the specimen label appears to legitimately document collection data for a bracket fungus (genus Stereum), but the specimens themselves don't fit particularly well in Stereum! The specimen of Stereum seashellia was just a prank by Stewart intended to wrest a chuckle from an unsuspecting user (Gruff 2007).

Evidently when Prof. Stewart was with the Ag. Station at Geneva, New York the herbarium (presumably mycological herbarium) was important, but quite limited in size. It consisted of Stewart's personal herbarium, specimens that had been purchased, and some collections made by various ag. station staff members. The specimens housed at Geneva were ultimately transferred to the Cornell University Plant Pathology Herbarium, because at Geneva they were considered to be little-used items that occupied precious space (Korf 1991).

Dr. Stewart's story is presented among these biographical sketches, because three grass specimens from Adair County, Iowa and seven grasses from Ames, Iowa that were collected by him in 1892 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. F.C. Stewart specimens present in the Cornell University's Plant Pathology Herbarium may be accessed via the MyCoPortal database and another group of his collections may be inspected at the SEINet plant database.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Fred Carlton Stewart. William Barrell Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bowen, H.S. & C.G. Lee. (eds.) 1894. Professors of Natural Science. The Bomb. Iowa Agricultural College. Ames, Iowa. pp. 84a (photograph) & 88 of 200.

Duggar, B.M. & F.C. Stewart. 1901. The Sterile Fungus Rhizoctonia - as a cause of plant diseases in America. Bull. 186. Cornell Univ. Ag. Expt. Station. Ithaca, New York.

Gruff, Susan. 2007. Something funny in the herbarium. Cornell Mushroom Blog. Cornell University. Ithaca, New York.

Fitzpatrick, Harry M. 1947. Fred Carlton Stewart: 1868-1946. Phytopathology 37:687-697.

Korf, Richard. 1991. An historical perspective: Mycology in the Departments of Botany and of Plant Pathology at Cornell University and the Geneva Agricultural Experiment Station. Mycotaxon 40:107-128.

Massey, L.M., M.T. Munn, & O.A. Reinking. 1946. Fred Carlton Stewart. Office of the Dean of the University Faculty. Cornell University. Ithaca, New York.

Ockerbloom, John Mark (ed.). 2017. Online books by F. C. Stewart. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Pammel, L. H., & Stewart, F. C. 1894. Influence of fungicides on seeds. Agricultural Sci. 8:215–231.

Pataky, Jerald K. 2003. Stewart's Wilt of corn. APSnet Features. American Phytopathological Society.

Stewart, F.C. 1895. Effects of heat on the germination of corn and smut. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 2:74-78.

Stewart, F.C. 1897. A bacterial disease of sweet corn. Bull. New York Ag. Expt. Station. No. 130. pp. 423-439.

Stewart, F.C. 1900. An anthracnose and a stem rot of the cultivated snapdragon. Bull. New York Ag. Expt. Station. No. 179. pp. 105-113.

Stewart, F.C. 1918. The velvet-stemmed Collybia - a wild winter mushroom. Bull. No. 448. New York Ag. Expt. Station. Geneva, New York.

Stewart, F.C. 1927. Experiments with cottonseed meal in mushroom culture. Bull. No. 546. New York Ag. Expt. Station. Geneva, New York.

Stewart, F.C. & G.W. Carver. 1895. Inoculation Experiments with Gymnosporangium macropus Lk.. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 3(1):162-169.

Stewart, F.C. & H.J. Eustace. 1901. An epidemic of currant anthracnose. Bull. No. 199. New York Ag. Expt. Station. Geneva, New York.

Strachey, Richard (1817 - 1908)

Richard Strachey, born in Sutton Court, Somerset, England in July of 1817, was a child of Edward and Julia Strachey. Richard was the sixth of nine children born to Edward and Julia, five sons and four daughters (Ancestry.com 2023, Woodward 1908). Richard attended private school near his home and then continued his education in 1834 as a cadet at Addiscombe Military Seminary (Hocking 1908, Lee 1912) in the present-day London Borough of Croydon. Strachey graduated from the Seminary in June 1836 and, after a short stint with the Royal School of Military Engineering (Chatham, England), his career in India began.

In fact, Strachey spent the better part of 35 years (1836-1871) with the British Military in India (Woodward 1908). In 1836 he entered the Bombay Engineers Corps as a 2nd lieutenant (Lee 1912, Strachey 1908), but he was soon transferred to the Bengal Engineers. (Engineers in this military sense included people who built and destroyed bridges, roads, fortifications, etc. as necessary to support friendly combat forces and hamper the enemy (British Army 2016).) Strachey was assigned to irrigation projects starting in 1840 and he was appointed executive engineer on the Ganges Canal project in 1843 (Hocking 1908, Strachey 1908). Though the 1845-1846 period found him engaged in battle during the First Anglo-Sikh War (Singh 2002, Thackeray 1900), Strachey spent most of his career in India involved in the construction and/or supervision of public works projects such as irrigation and railroad systems (Elliot 1908, Hocking 1908, Lee 1912, Woodward 1908).

In addition to his military engineering/construction career, Strachey was interested in botany, geology, meteorology, and physical geography (Lee 1912, Strachey 1908, Woodward 1908). He used his involvement in topographic surveys to record observations of the glaciers (Strachey 1847) and the geology of the Himalayan Region (Strachey 1851, 1854). Fossils collected by him from areas like the Niti and Spiti Valleys of the Himalayan Region were described in detail by Salter & Blanford (1865). Colonel Strachey even used his influence to promote conservation of India's forests and the implementation of sound silviculture practices (Brandis 1897).

Strachey's geological and botanical surveys provided an opportunity for him to document the previously poorly known flora of the Kumaon Province (Elliot 1908, Hocking 1908). In fact, between 1846 and 1849 Strachey and his partner, J.E. Winterbottom, made extensive plant collections within the Kumaon Province and in adjacent parts of Garhwal and Tibet. That collection, which was known as the Strachey and Winterbottom herbarium, came from an area (not including that in Tibet) with a footprint of approximately 11,500 square miles and elevations that ranged from 1000 feet to 15,000 feet above sea level on the Tibetan Plateau (Anonymous 1908). However, the resulting "Catalogue of the plants of Kumaon and of the adjacent portions Garhwal and Tibet" was not published until much later (Strachey 1906).

Strachey and J.E. Winterbottom surveyed the region around Lakes Manasarowar and Rakas-tal in Tibet in 1848 — an effort that was actually a continuation of work completed in 1846 by Richard's brother Lieutenant Henry Strachey (Sandberg 1904). Sir Richard's detailed account of that journey was published belatedly in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London (Strachey 1900). Additional information about the efforts of Strachey and Winterbottom is present in the "Flora of Tibet or High Asia" published in the Journal of the Linnean Society (Hemsley 1902).

Sir Richard Strachey's botanical forays uncovered a large number of new species, one of which was Stracheya tibetica (originally a monotypic genus named after Sir Richard), which is a legume now known as Hedysarum tibeticum (photos here). It was collected in the Guge Valley of Tibet (B 1908), the same valley that is home to Lake Manasarowar and Lake Rakas-tal. Though George Bentham named the plant to honor Strachey (Bentham 1853), its actual discoverer was J.E. Winterbottom who "positively declined to allow his name to be perpetuated in such a way" (Strachey 1900, p. 244). Another interesting plant collected by Strachey and Winterbottom is the Himalayan endemic Circaeaster agrestis (B 1908). Their collection of the plant was cited in the original description of the species (Maximowicz 1881) and it, like Stracheya tibetica, is the only member of its genus (Stevens 2016).

Two days after Christmas in 1854 Richard Strachey married Caroline Anne Bowles in Worcester, England, but the 24-year-old Caroline died tragically the following year. Strachey remained single until January 1859, when he married Jane Maria Grant, who was 23 years his junior, in Calcutta, India (Ancestry.com 2023). Jane was a cigar-smoking, book-writing, bonnet-wearing, billiard-playing suffragette, who bore 13 children — ten of whom survived to adulthood (Ancestry.com 2023, Liverpool Post & Mercury 1932). The Strachey family was large, dynamic, and multifaceted. A thorough family history will not be attempted here, but according to reviews by others (e.g. Levine 2005 & Taddeo 2006), Barbara Caine's book "Bombay to Bloomsbury: A Biography of the Strachey Family" (Caine 2005) provides an interesting look into the nature of the Strachey clan.

In 1877, between assignments in England and India, Richard and Jane Strachey (photo here) joined Richard's friend, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Asa Gray, F. V. Hayden, and others on an excursion through the United States. The trip ventured west through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of southern Colorado to Utah, Nevada, and west into the Rocky Mountains of California (Keller 2017, Lee 2015, Lemmon 1877). It's not clear to what degree Sir Richard's involvement was scientific vs. that of a tourist. Regardless, the expedition generated one important botanical work — "The vegetation of the Rocky Mountain Region and a comparison with that of other parts of the World" (Gray & Hooker 1880).

In total, the Strachey/Winterbottom herbarium contained over 2000 species and was distributed in sets during 1852 and 1853 to various herbaria around the world (B. 1908). Strachey's (1906) publication was a revised catalogue of that herbarium and just over 450 specimens from the Strachey/Winterbottom herbarium, present at the Royal Botanical Gardens, may be reviewed via the Kew specimen database. A similarly sized collection may be viewed at the iDigBio plant database. Strachey and Winterbottom are represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Hemiphragma heterophyllum Wall. (in the Plantaginaceae) collected by them in Kumaon, India.

.......

Ancestry.com. 2023. General Sir Richard Strachey. Smith Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1908. Miscellaneous Notes. Bull. Misc. Info. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. No. 3. pp. 127-144.

B. [sic] 1908. Sir Richard Strachey's contributions to Indian botany. The Spectator. London. Volume 100. p. 293. February 22, 1908.

Brandis, D. 1897. Sir Richard Strachey and Indian Forestry. Indian Forester. 23:329-339.

British Army. 2016. Combat Engineer. Corps of Royal Engineers. United Kingdom.

Bentham, George. 1853. On three new genera connected with the Indian Flora. Hooker's Jrnl. Botany & Kew Garden Misc. 304-309

Caine, Barbara. 2005. Bombay to Bloomsbury: A Biography of the Strachey Family. Oxford Univ. Press. Oxford and New York City. 488 pp.

Elliot, C.A. 1908. Sir Richard Strachey. The Spectator. London. Volume 100. pp. 292-293. February 22, 1908.

Gray, Asa & John D. Hooker. 1880. The vegetation of the Rocky Mountain Region and a comparison with that of other parts of the World. Bulletin U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. Vol. 6. No. 1. pp. 1-78.

Hemsley, W. Botting. 1902. The flora of Tibet or High Asia. Jrnl. Linnean Soc. 35:124-265.

Hocking, S.E. (publisher) 1908. Sir Richard Strachey - obituary. The Kalgoorlie Miner. Volume 13, page 5, column 4. February 14, 1908.

Keller, Karen. (ed.) 2017. From the Florilegium. Desert Breeze. December 2017. p. 69 of 70.

Lee, Sidney. 2015. Gray & Hooker’s Blanca Peak expedition: The Asian connection. The Crestone Eagle. Crestone, Colorado.

Lee, Sidney. (ed.) 1912. Dictionary of national biography. 2nd supplement. Vol. 3. Macmillan Company. New York City, New York. pp. 439-442 of 728.

Lemmon, John G. 1877. Distinguished botanists coming. Pacific Rural Press. 14(2):24. 14 July 1877.

Levine, Philippa. 2005. Book review. Victorian Studies. Vol. 48. Issue 1.

Liverpool Post & Mercury. 1932. A brilliant family. Liverpool Post & Mercury. Liverpool, England. p. 4. column 7. January 23, 1932.

Maximowicz, C.J. 1881. Diagnoses plantarum novarum asiataricum. IV. Bulletin de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St-Petersbourg, ser. 3. 27(4):556-558.

Salter, J.W. & H.F. Blanford. 1865. Paleontology of Niti in the Northern Himalaya: Descriptions the Palaeozoic and Secondary Fossils. O.T. Cutter, Military Orphan Press. Calcutta, India. pp. 1-111, plus figures.

Sandberg, Graham. 1904. The exploration of Tibet: Its history and particulars from 1623 to 1904. W. Thacker & Co. London, England. pp. 127-140 of 324.

Singh, Harbans. (ed.) 2002. Anglo-Sikh War I. in The encyclopedia of Sikhism. Vol. 1. Punjabi University. Patiala, India. pp. 164-169 of 607.

Stevens, P.F. 2016. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website: Circaeasteraceae Hutchinson. Version 12. University of Missouri and Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis, Missouri.

Strachey, J.M. 1908. Lieut.-General. Sir Richard Strachey, G.C.S.I., F.R.S., late R.E. Royal Engineers Jrnl. 7:309-311.

Strachey, R. 1847. A description of the glaciers of the Pindur and Kuphinee Rivers in the Kumaon Himalaya. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 44:108-122.

Strachey, Richard. 1851. On the Geology of Part of the Himalaya Mountains and Tibet. Quarterly Jrnl. Geol. Soc. London. 7:292-310.

Strachey, Richard. 1854. On the physical geology of the Himalaya. Quarterly Jrnl. Geol. Soc. London. 10:249-253.

Strachey, Richard. 1900. Narrative of a journey to the Lakes Rakas-Tal and Manasarowar, in western Tibet, under-taken in September, 1848. The Geographical Journal 15:150-170. Continued pp. 243-264. Continued pp. 394-415.

Strachey, Richard. 1906. Catalogue of the plants of Kumaon and of the adjacent portions Garhwal and Tibet. Lovell Reed and Company. London. 269 pp.

Taddeo, J. 2006. Book review: Bombay to Bloomsbury: A Biography of the Strachey Family. Journal of British Studies. 45(2):459-461.

Thackeray, Col. Sir Edward T. (compiler) 1900. Biographical notices of the Royal (Bengal) Engineers. Smith, Elger, & Co. London, England. 276 pp.

Woodward, Henry (ed.). 1908. General Sir Richard Strachey, R.E., G.C.S.I., LL.D., F.R.S. Geological Magazine. 5:191.

Stull, Ray Thomas (1875 - 1944)

Four plant specimens collected by "Savage and Stull" are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. "Savage" is Thomas E. Savage (1866-1947) and "Stull" may be Ray Thomas Stull who is described in brief below. Though I've found no conclusive proof that Ray Thomas Stull is the "Stull" of the "Savage and Stull" collection team, their tenures at the University of Illinois overlapped for about 9 years and it's conceivable that they botanized together, while completing other work.

Ray T. Stull, born March 12, 1875 in Elkland, Pennsylvania, was the third of four sons raised by the farming couple of Mary and David Stull (Ancestry.com 2023, Genealogy.com 2017). Ray studied at Mansfield State Teachers College (present day Mansfield University of Pennsylvania) and then completed his education in 1902 by earning a degree in ceramic engineering from Ohio State University. The exact timing is uncertain, but Mr. Stull left Ohio for northern Illinois.

Ray went to work for American Terra Cotta & Ceramic Company (ATC&C) in Terra Cotta, Illinois (see sections 21 & 22, Nunda Township, just north of present-day Crystal Lake). The company made drainage tile, bricks, decorative pottery, and architectural ceramics. The timing of Stull's arrival at the company hasn't been determined, but he was an employee and a member of the company band by February 1903 (Beatty 1903a, Crystal Lake Historical Society 2023). How and where Ray met his fiancée is a mystery, but on April 8th of 1903 some of Ray's friends at ATC&C organized a soirée to celebrate his upcoming nuptials (Beatty 1903b).

Lena Taylor married Ray T. Stull in Mansfield, Pennsylvania on April 15, 1903 and they settled in Nunda, Illinois (Ancestry.com 2023, Beatty 1903c). Birth records show that the couple's first two children, Frances (July 1905) and David (January 1907), were both born in Mansfield (Ancestry.com 2023). August 29, 1907 the family left the Crystal Lake area and arrived in Champaign, Illinois (Chapin 1907a), when Ray joined the faculty at the University of Illinois. Their youngest child, Frederica, was born in Urbana (Ancestry.com 2023).

Ray became a member of the University's Ceramics Department and was advertised as an expert in terra cotta work (Chapin 1907b). In addition to completing research, Ray was an instructor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1911 and continued to work at that campus until 1915 (Anonymous 1944, Chapin 1911, Coles 1944, Coles & Baily 1948, Noyes 1944, Rea 1915), when he took another position in private industry.

Mr. Stull was employed by the Dunn Wire-Cut Lug Brick Company (Conneaut, Ohio), a paving brick manufacturing firm (Glover 1916), and then accepted an appointment as chief ceramist in the Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior. He was named senior ceramic engineer of the Heavy Clay Products Division of the National Bureau of Standards in 1927 and remained there until the time of his death on January 5, 1944. Mr. Stull was survived by his wife and three children (Anonymous 1944, Noyes 1944).

Stull's publications primarily dealt with the mining of clay and the generation of products from it. Titles referring to kilns, glazes, and bricks are among the topics in the sample of his publications listed below (Bleininger & Stull 1910; Stull 1908a&b, 1919; Stull & Bole 1926, Stull & Hursh 1917; Stull & Johnson 1940; Stull & Knote 1910; Stull & Radcliffe 1910) and at Google Scholar (2018). In 1923 Ray was granted a leave-of-absence from the Bureau of Mines to take a post with the Central of Georgia Railway. In that position he helped produce a report that "contains brief descriptions of the commercial mineral deposits in the sections of Alabama and Georgia served by the Central of Georgia Railway" (Maynard et al. 1923). Another report describing the nature, distribution, and uses of Georgia clay deposits was published later (Stull & Bole 1926).

Stull is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium as co-collector of three legumes and a mint (Blephilia hirsuta) obtained by Savage and Stull in Missouri in 1897. Several Savage and Stull lichen collections may be reviewed at the Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria database, an additional 20+ lichen specimens recorded by the pair may be examined using the Iowa Lichen Project database, and another 14 specimens collected by Savage & Stull in 1897 from Missouri may be viewed at the Field Museum's Botany Collections database. None of the specimens refer to Mr. Stull by anything other than his surname.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Ray Thomas Stull. Manley-Demun-Roberts-Buick Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1944. Stull, Former U. of I. Ceramics Chief, Dies. Decatur Daily Review. Decatur, Illinois. p. 3. column 3. January 6, 1944.

Beatty, Justin V. (publisher) 1903a. A.T.C. & C. Co. Band. The Nunda Herald. Nunda, Illinois. p. 1. column 4. February 5, 1903.

Beatty, Justin V. (publisher) 1903b. Nunda. The Nunda Herald. Nunda, Illinois. p. 1. columns 1& 2. April 9, 1903.

Beatty, Justin V. (publisher) 1903c. Memorial Day program. The Nunda Herald. Nunda, Illinois. p. 4. column 3. May 28, 1903.

Bleininger, A.V. & R.T. Stull. 1910. A study of vitrification range and dielectric behavior of some porcelains. Trans. Amer. Ceramic Soc. 12:628-675.

Chapin, E.B. (ed.) 1907a. The Twin Cities: Urbana. Champaign Daily News. Champaign, Illinois. p. 3. column 3. August 30, 1907.

Chapin, E.B. (ed.) 1907b. The University. Champaign Daily News. Champaign, Illinois. p. 3. column 4. September 6, 1907.

Chapin, E.B. (ed.) 1911. Promotion for faculty people. Champaign Daily News. Champaign, Illinois. p. 7. column 5. July 11, 1911.

Coles, Edwin S. (publisher) 1944. Ray T. Stull dies. Mansfield Advertiser. Mansfield, Pennsylvania. p. 1. column 1. January 12, 1944.

Coles, Edwin S. & Chester P. Baily. (publishers) 1948. Plaque honors Ray T. Stull late ceramist. Mansfield Advertiser. Mansfield, Pennsylvania. p. 1. column 1. November 24, 1948.

Crystal Lake Historical Society. 2023. American Terra Cotta & Ceramic Co. Crystal Lake Historical Society. P.O. Box 1151. Crystal Lake, Illinois.

Genealogy.com. 2017. Information about Ray Thomas Stull. Genealogy.com. Lehi, Utah.

Glover, D.M. (ed.) 1916. Two more ceramists enroll in short course. The Daily Illini. University of Illinois. Champaign, Urbana, Illinois. p. 8. column 2. January 19, 1916.

Google Scholar. 2018. Publications of R. T. Stull. Google LLC. Mountain View, California.

Maynard, T. Poole, J.M. Mallory, & R.T. Stull. 1923. Directory of commercial minerals in Georgia and Alabama along the Central of Georgia Railway. Industrial Dept. Central of Georgia Railway. Savannah, Georgia. 154 pp.

Noyes, Theodore W. (ed.) 1944. Ray T. Stull, 68, dies; Veteran engineer at Bureau of Standards. The Evening Star. Washington, D.C. p. 10. column 3. January 6, 1944.

Rea, T.W. (ed.) 1915. Personals. Urbana Daily Courier. Urbana, Illinois. p. 5. column 1. August 19, 1915.

Stull, R.T. 1908a. A cheap enamel for stoneware. Univ. Illinois Bull. Vol. 5. No. 9. pp. 3-30.

Stull, R.T. 1908b. Notes on the manufacture of enamel brick with some investigations on enamel brick slips. Trans. Amer. Ceramic Soc. 12:711-767.

Stull, R.T. 1919. Work of the Ceramic Experiment Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines. Ohio State Engineer. 2:14-15, 29.

Stull, R.T. & G.A. Bole. 1926. Beneficiation and utilization of Georgia clays. Bull. 252. U.S. Bureau of Mines. Washington, D.C.

Stull, R.T. & R.K. Hursh. 1917. Tests on clay materials available in Illinois coal mines. Il. State Geol. Surv. Bull. 18. 128 pp.

Stull, Ray T. & Paul V. Johnson. 1940. Some properties of the pore system in bricks and their relation to frost action. Jrnl. of Research Nat. Bureau Standards 25:711-730.

Stull, R.T. & J.M. Knote. 1910. A new type of laboratory kiln. Trans. Amer. Ceramic Soc. 12:124-128.

Stull, R.T. & B.S. Radcliffe. 1910. Opalescence and the function of B₂0₃ in the glaze. Trans. Amer. Ceramic Soc. 12:129-140.

Swift, Diane Cecile (1938 - 20xx)

Diane Swift, seemingly born in 1938, and her elder brother, Richard, were the children of Mildred and Richard Swift (U.S. Federal Census 1940). For approximately four years during her early education, Diane was an active member of Davenport’s music club (Harrison 1947 & 1950). After elementary school, Diane continued her academic studies at Villa de Chantal, beginning in the fall of 1951 (Fulton 1952). Villa de Chantal was a Catholic girls school in Rock Island, Illinois operated by the Sisters of the Visitation and existed from about 1900 through 1975 (Historic Structures 2024). Diane was among the 31 seniors who graduated from Villa de Chantal in June 1956 (Fulton 1956a).

Ms. Swift began her pursuit of a bachelor's degree at Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa in the fall of 1956. In spite of the unexpected death of her father in 1959 (Ancestry.com 2024, Fulton 1959b), Diane graduated from Marycrest in 1960 with a major in biology (Fulton 1956b, 1959a, 1960).

Following graduation, Ms. Swift taught in the Davenport, Iowa and Morton Grove, Illinois school systems. She also completed some graduate studies at the University of Colorado and the University of Iowa (Bills 1963b, Kilmer 1961). In 1962 she accepted a position as a biology instructor at Marycrest College and in 1963 she was accepted into a one-year study program in radiation biology at the University of Minnesota (Bills 1962, 1963a&b).

Apparently, while doing graduate work at the University of Colorado, Diane met Norman John Castellan, who was a Ph.D candidate. Evidently each found the other's company enjoyable, because in July 1964 the couple was married in Boulder (Lee Enterprises 1964) and they ultimately raised three children – Caryn, Tanya, and Norman (Pulliam 1993).

After completing his doctoral program, Dr. Castellan accepted a position at Indiana University, where his research and teaching load included work in the fields of computer technology, mathematical psychology, and statistics (Indiana University 2024, Pulliam 1993). Prof. Castellan died unexpectedly in 1993 and it appears that Diane remained there in Bloomington, Indiana. Ms. Castellan maintained her connection with Villa de Chantal and returned to the Quad Cities region for various class reunions (Marx 2016, Ruthhart 2006).

Diane Swift-Castellan is included among this collection of biographies, because 40 plant specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium were collected by her. Those specimens were originally part of the Marycrest College herbarium that was adopted by the Putnam Museum. All 40 specimens were collected in July 1959, when Diane was completing her undergraduate degree at Marycrest College.

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Ancestry.com. 2024. Richard Bernard Swift. Clark Megafamily. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1962. Enrollment to hit 900 at Marycrest. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 13. columns 1-2. August 15, 1962.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1963a. Miss Diane C. Swift. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 6. column 2. March 16, 1963.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1963b. Marycrest instructor gets grant. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 6. column 3. March 18, 1963.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1952. Rock Island Society – Class officers of Villa are named. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. column 3. September 13, 1952.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1956a. Villa slates graduation on Thursday. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 16. column 5. June 4, 1956.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1956b. College wear for all. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 20. columns 3-5. August 7, 1956.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1959a. Marycrest students to report on research. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 3. columns 6-7. May 7, 1959.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1959b. Richard Swift, 61, dies after attack. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 8. columns 2-3. May 7, 1959.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1960. Marycrest awards diplomas to 134 Sunday. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 21. columns 1-8. May 26, 1960.

Harrison, Hugh. (ed.) 1947. Junior music club meets at Hertners. Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 6. September 22, 1947.

Harrison, Hugh. (ed.) 1950. Progressive Club plans recital. Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. column 7. April 28, 1950.

Historic Structures. 2024. Villa de Chantal. Planning & redevelopment division. Rock Island, Illinois.

Indiana University. 2024. About N. John Castellan. University honors and awards. Indiana University. Bloomington, Indiana.

Kilmer, Forrest. (ed.) 1961. Teachers taking science course. Morning Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4. column 5. October 12, 1961.

Lee Enterprises. 1964. Swift-Catellan. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 4c. column 8. January 26, 1964.

Marx, John. 2016. Members of Villa's class of '56 reunite: 'We sure had lots of fun'. The Dispatch & Rock Island Argus. Rock Island, Illinois. August 29, 2016. p. A2. columns 3-6. August 29, 2016.

Pulliam, Russel B. (ed.) 1993. N.J. Castellan, I.U. professor. The Indianapolis News. Indianapolis, Indiana. p. 18. column 4. December 22, 1993.

Ruthhart, Roger A. (ed.) 2006. Villa Chantal class celebrates 50th class reunion. The Dispatch & Rock Island Argus. Rock Island, Illinois. p. B2. columns 3-5. October 9, 2006.

U.S. Federal Census. 1940. Sixteenth census of the United States. Davenport, Scott County, Iowa. Dept. of Commerce. Bureau of Census. via Ancestry.com.

Thew, Thomas B. (1937 - 1982)

Thomas Thew was born February 3, 1937 in Lima, Ohio to Harold Clay and Zelpha Faye Thew. It seems that Harold and Zelpha met, when Mr. Thew was traveling through Iowa in the employ of the Buckeye Incubator Company. Harold and Zelpha were married in 1936 and the couple moved to Harold's hometown, Lima, Ohio. Apparently the marriage was an unhappy one, because Zelpha filed for divorce in 1937 and the proceeding was finalized in 1938 (Register & Tribune Co. 1937 & 1938). The timing of events is not clear, but by July 1939 Zelpha and Tom were living in Iowa and Zelpha was teaching school in Gowrie, Iowa, just a few miles east of her hometown of Farnhamville (Perkins Bros. Co. 1939). Zelpha and Tom remained in the vicinity of Farnhamville until September 1943, when she was hired to teach kindergarten at Lincoln School in East Moline (Leysen 1943). Zelpha remained single until she and Charles G. Bossarte were married in Kansas City, Kansas in June 1947 (Moline Daily Dispatch 1947).

Thomas completed his early education in the local schools of East Moline and graduated from East Moline United Township High School (J.W. Potter Co. 1982, MyHeritage 2018, Rock Island Argus 1958). Thomas began his pre-med student classwork at the University of Illinois in 1956 and earned his medical degree from the same institution in June 1962. During the summer following his graduation from medical school, Thomas entered into an internship program at Cook County Hospital in Chicago (Moline Dispatch Publishing Co. 1962a, Thew 1956b).

On June 23, 1962 Dorothy A. Wyrens and Thomas B. Thew were married in Omaha, Nebraska. Ms. Wyrens was a graduate of Northwestern University and the married couple set up housekeeping in Chicago, while Thomas completed his internship (Moline Dispatch Publishing Co. 1962b). In about 1968 Thomas joined the medical practice of W.R. Rose and Ralph D. Ade in Moline, Illinois (Coopman 1973, J.W. Potter Co. 1968). Dr. Thew continued to practice medicine in Moline until December 22, 1975 (Thew 1975).

Prior to earning his medical degree, Thomas taught natural history classes for the Davenport Public Museum in the 1950s. The summer coursework he taught was geared toward outdoor education, where junior high school age students investigated the flora and fauna of the Davenport area (Anonymous 1957, Baily 1957, Richard 1958). Though interested in outdoor education, Thomas' primary focus fell in the world of insects.

Thew's entomological research dealt with mayflies of the world, but focused primarily on the species in Illinois and Iowa region near his home (Thew 1956a, 1957, 1958a&b, 1960a&b). Tom's interest in the Ephemeroptera continued through most of his college career and his skills in the identification of them were acknowledged by Carlson (1963) and Fleming (1960). As mentioned above, Mr. Thomas Thew became Dr. Thomas Thew in 1962, when he graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine (University of Illinois 1962). His marriage and earning the M.D. marked the end of his serious commitment to entomology. Tom's last mayfly related investigation was a species description published in 1961 (Berner & Thew 1961).

Dr. Thew was a Green Beret veteran of the U.S. Army, who served in Vietnam. He died April 3rd in 1982 at the age of 45 in Cook County, Illinois and Captain Thew was interred at the Rock Island National Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, three daughters, and two sons (djsatterberg 2000, J.W. Potter Co. 1982).

Thew is represented as in the Putnam Museum herbarium by seven plant specimens he collected in 1957 from near Arnold's Park in Dickinson County, Iowa. He also donated 2000 pinned insect specimens and another 1000 insects preserved in alcohol to the museum's entomological collection (Baily 1956). Several hundred specimens collected by T.B. Thew are housed at the Field Museum of Natural History, with the lion's share of those being insects that were collected in either Illinois or Iowa (iDigBio database).

.......

Anonymous. 1957. Summer nature workshops. Daily Times. June 14, 1957. p. 13.

Baily, A. Lang. (ed.) 1956. Recent accessions. Davenport Public Museum Quarterly. 1(1):7.

Baily, A. Lang. (ed.) 1957. Division of education summer nature workshops. Davenport Public Museum Quarterly. 2(1):2-3.

Berner, Lewis & Thomas B. Thew. 1961. Comments on the mayfly genus Campylocia with a description of a new species (Euthyplociidae: Euthyplociinae). Amer. Midl. Naturalist 66(2):329-336.

Carlson, Clarence Albert. 1963. Bottom fauna of the Mississippi River near Keokuk, Iowa, with particular reference to possible control of Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera. Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 2956.

Coopman, David. (advisor). 1973. Moline High School - 1973 Yearbook. Moline, Illinois. Volume 61. p. 248 of 299.

djsatterberg. 2000. Thomas B. Thew. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Fleming, Calvin R. 1960. Biology of a large mayfly, Hexagenia bilineata (Say), of the upper Mississippi River. Research Bulletin (Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station). Vol. 33. No. 482. Article 1.

J.W. Potter Co. (publisher) 1968. Newspaper advertisement. Rock Island Argus. Rock Island, Illinois. p. 11. columns 7 &8. July 8, 1968.

J.W. Potter Co. (publisher) 1982. Dr. T. B. Thew. Rock Island Argus. Rock Island, Illinois. p. 6. column 1. April 8, 1982.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1943. School board names three new teachers for fall semester. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 23. column 6. June 18, 1943.

Moline Daily Dispatch. 1947. Marriage licenses: Issued at Kansas City, Kas. Moline Daily Dispatch. Moline, Illinois. p. 3. column 5. June 12, 1947.

Moline Dispatch Publishing Co. 1962a. To get medical degree. Moline Daily Dispatch. Moline & East Moline, Illinois. p. 14. column 6. June 5, 1962.

Moline Dispatch Publishing Co. 1962b. Married in Omaha. Moline Daily Dispatch. Moline & East Moline, Illinois. p. 10. columns 1 & 2. June 23, 1962.

MyHeritage. 2018. Dr. Thomas Bruce Thew, 1937 - 1982. MyHeritage Ltd. Lehi, Utah.

Perkins Bros. Co. (publishers) 1939. Child, 2 1/2, elected officer of family. Sioux City Journal. Sioux City, Iowa. p. 2. collumn 4. July 7, 1939.

Register & Tribune Co. 1936. Miss Zelpha Hittle is bride of Harold Thew. The Des Moines Register. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 9. column 6. March 7, 1936.

Register & Tribune Co. 1937. Divorce petitions. The Des Moines Register. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 6. column 7. September 18, 1937.

Register & Tribune Co. 1938. Obtains divorce. The Des Moines Register. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 14. column 3. December 10, 1938.

Richard, Adrienne. 1958. No shortage of future scientists here. Recreation [sic]. May. pp. 167-168.

Rock Island Argus. 1958. Area students to honored at University. The Rock Island Argus. Rock Island, Illinois. p. 28. columns 1-3. April 16, 1958.

Thew, Thomas B. 1956a. List of the mayflies of Iowa (Ephemeroptera). Davenport Public Museum Quarterly 1(3):1-6.

Thew, Thomas B. 1956b. The values of an honor system. The Green Caldron. 26(1):14-16. October 1956.

Thew, Thomas B. 1957. Observations on the oviposition of a species of Baetis (Ephemeroptera). Davenport Public Museum Quarterly 2(2):6.

Thew, Thomas B. 1958a. Dodd's types for two species of Callibaetis (Ephermeroptera). Entomological News 59:137.

Thew, Thomas B. 1958b. Studies on the mating flights of the Ephemeroptera I. The mating flights of Ephoron album (Say) and Stenonema canadense (Walker). Florida Entomologist 41(1):9-12.

Thew, Thomas B. 1958c. Reexamination of some neararctic species of the genus Callibaetis Eaton, with the description of new species (Ephemeroptera; Baetidae). Trans. Amer. Entomological Soc. 86:187-205.

Thew, Thomas B. 1960a. Revision of the genera of the family Caenidae (Ephemeroptera). Trans. Amer. Entomological Soc. 86:187-205.

Thew, Thomas B. 1960b. Taxonomic studies on some Neotropical Leptophlebiid mayflies (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 36:119-132.

Thew, Thomas B. 1975. To my patients. The Rock Island Argus. Rock Island, Illinois. p. 8. columns 7 & 8. December 31, 1975.

University of Illinois. 1962. University of Illinois College of Medicine Class of 1962. Univ. of Illinois at Chicago. Chicago, Illinois.

Thompson, Arthur Dorsey (1874 - 1957)

Arthur Dorsey Thompson was born in Winchester County, Virginia on April 9, 1874 to William and Margaret Thompson. He had two siblings, Martha and Harriet (Ancestry.com 2023). Detailed knowledge of Arthur's education is lacking, but in 1887 he was enrolled at McDonogh School in Maryland and graduated from there in 1891 (Blaha 2017). Arthur was commended for excellence in the classroom and was enrolled in a "Military Tactics" program, where he held the position of 3rd Corporal in Company B (Lyle 1891, Taggart 1890). Thompson was a skilled member of the Debating Society (Lyle 1891) and worked as a reporter for "The Week", a school paper published by McDonogh School (Thompson 1890a&b).

By some happenstance, Arthur met Miss Alice Virginia Peterson, a native of Maryland. Alice and Arthur were not fellow students at McDonogh, because it was a males only educational institution until 1975 (McDonogh 2023). Perhaps, she was a friend or relative of one of Thompson's classmates. Regardless of how or why they were introduced to each other, the two fell in love and were married on August 16, 1898. The couple had six children, three daughters and three sons (Ancestry.com 2023).

According to the U.S. Federal Censuses of 1900 and 1910, Arthur was employed as an assistant librarian and a library clerk, respectively. Arthur's 1918 World War I draft registration card showed that he was the "Chief of the Tech. Dept." at the Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, but the 1920 Federal Census shows that Arthur had left the library's employ and was employed as a clerk in an office machine shop. The 1930 and 1940 censuses documented Arthur's third career change in that he had become an insurance adjuster (Ancestry.com 2023).

The Arthur D. Thompson of this biography appeared only occasionally in newspaper reports from the Baltimore area. In 1909 he was the object of an investigation of sorts that questioned whether or not Arthur could be prevented from voting based upon the "grandfather clause" (A.S. Abell Co. 1909). In the summer of 1915 Arthur represented the Enoch Pratt Free Library in the legal prosecution over two books that were three months overdue. The crime perpetrator, Arthur Bush, had borrowed two books, loaned them to someone else, and then claimed he could not find the person to whom he had loaned them. The charge was unique and one must wonder, if the situation would have been handled less dramatically had Mr. Bush not been Black (A.S. Abell Co. 1915). In May 1916 the Enoch Pratt Free Library opened up a satellite branch dedicated to "natural science and industrial arts" and Arthur D. Thompson was put in charge of the collection (A.S. Abell Co. 1916). Mr. Thompson seems to have remained affiliated to some degree with McDonogh School throughout his life.

Arthur attended a McDonogh School alumni meeting in July 1921 to welcome the school's new principal and at the same meeting Thompson was named the "orator" for the school's next Independence Day celebration (A.S. Abell Co. 1921). Little else about Mr. Thompson's life has been uncovered other than he spoke formally to the McDonogh School Alumni Association in 1922 (Thompson 1922). Arthur perished on February 6, 1957, and was interred in Baltimore, Maryland (Baublitz 2016).

"Chas. H. Unverzogt. Dan'l W. Unverzogt, Dr. F. Penington, Wm. Baumgarten, Arthur D. Thompson, Baltimore, Md." were listed as incorporators of the "Consolidated Mining and Trading Company" (West Virginia 1899). The degree to which Thompson was involved in mining is not yet known, but the Inverzogts were mentioned in conjunction with "The Northern and Great Pacific Mining Company" and "Hoopert Pneumatic Milling Company", all of which were headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland (West Virginia 1899 & 1901). Judging from snippets of information from late 19th century publications, it seems that the aforementioned Monsieurs Unverzogts, Penington, and Baumgarten served in supervisory roles in several different mining concerns including those mentioned above, plus the British-American Gold Mining and Trading Company. It appears that each of the companies suffered from poor leadership and/or inept execution of company goals, which led to a lack of profitability (United States Investor 1901). Several Arthur D. Thompsons were mentioned in various issues of "The Sun" newspaper, so it's entirely possible that the Arthur D. Thompson discussed in this paragraph was not the Arthur D. Thompson who graduated from McDonogh School.

Fourteen plant collections made at McDonogh by A.D. Thompson from 1887 to 1891 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Arthur Dorsey Thompson. Wright-Lee_genealogy Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

A.S. Abell Co. (publisher) 1909. Cannot lose his vote. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 12. column 6. October 17, 1909.

A.S. Abell Co. (publisher) 1915. Got religious books; nabbed. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 12. column 5. July 22, 1915.

A.S. Abell Co. (publisher) 1916. Library branch to open. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 10. column 4. May 28, 1916.

A.S. Abell Co. (publisher) 1921. Alumni greet W.T. Childs as McDonogh School head. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 8. column 2. July 5, 1921.

Baublitz, Ron. 2016. Arthur Dorsey Thompson. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Blaha, Katie. 2017. Pers. comm. regarding Arthur Dorsey Thompson. McDonogh School. Owings Mills, Maryland.

Lyle, D.C. 1891. Report of the principal. in Mayor's message and reports of the city officers. Baltimore, Maryland. pp. 1195, 1217, & 1219 of 1278.

McDonogh. 2023. History of McDonogh School. McDonogh School. Owings Mills, Maryland.

Taggart, Samuel H. (president) 1890. Annual report of the trustees of the McDonogh Fund. in Mayor's message and reports of the city officers. Baltimore, Maryland. pp. 1087 - 1201.

Thompson, A.D. 1890a. The new tailor. The Week. Vol. 8. No. 20. November 15, 1890.

Thompson, A.D. 1890b. Typewriting. The Week. Vol. 8. No. 21. November 20, 1890.

Thompson, A.D. 1922. Address before the Alumni Association of McDonogh School at its annual meeting at McDonogh. McDonogh School. Maryland. 11 pp.

United States Investor. 1901. Mining Inquiries: British-American Gold Mining and Trading Co. Vol. 7. No. 50. December 14, 1901. p. 2036.

West Virginia. 1899. Abstracts of certificates of incorporation issued by the Secretary of State. in Acts of the Legislature of West Virginia at its 24th regular session. Press Butler Printing Co. Charleston, West Virginia. pp. 52 & 144 of 230.

West Virginia. 1901. Abstracts of certificates of incorporation issued by the Secretary of State. in Acts of the Legislature of West Virginia at its 25th regular session. The Tribune Co. Charleston, West Virginia. p. 619 of 810.

Thorne, Robert F. (1920 - 2015)

Robert F. Thorne was born in July 1920 at Spring Lake, New Jersey to Henry and Kathryn Thorne. He had a sister, Barbara, who was two years his junior. According to the 1930 U.S. Census, Henry, Kathryn, and Henry's father were living in Gulfport, Florida, but the odd thing is that neither Bob, nor Barbara were mentioned. Regardless, it appears that Bob completed most of his pre-college education in Florida's Tampa Bay area (Ashworth & McDade 2015, Ancestry.com 2023).

After high school, Robert earned a botany degree from Dartmouth College in 1941 and then was awarded a master's degree in economic botany at Cornell University in 1942 (Ashworth & McDade 2015, JSTOR 2013). Following World War II, Bob made two important life decisions. First, on Valentine's Day in 1947 he and Mae Blanche Zukel were married in Yale University's Dwight Memorial Chapel. Second, he returned to Cornell University and earned the Ph.D. by completing a study of the flora of southwestern Georgia in 1949 (Ancestry.com 2023, JSTOR 2013, Thorne 1949 & 1954b).

Bob spent the period between earning his M.S. and Ph.D. touring the northern Mediterranean Region as a voluntary member of the Army Air Corps engaged in World War II. Navigator Thorne was assigned to the 767th Bombardment Squadron of the 461st Bombardment Group based near Cerignola, Italy. On April 23rd in 1944, during the 11th of 40 missions flown by Thorne, his B-24 bomber group was assigned to attack the Bad Voslau Airdrome about 20 miles southwest of Vienna. After dropping a fragmentation bomb payload, their plane was struck by antiaircraft flak, which perforated the plane's fuselage, wings, and tail, destroyed one engine, set a 2nd engine on fire, demolished the hydraulic system, and cut fuel lines. Quoting Thorne, "None of the ten crew members were injured but just badly scared (Thorne 2006)."

The crew was preparing to bail out, when the pilot managed to extinguish the engine fire and keep the plane in formation for the return flight "home". Besides, wrote Thorne, "It was not a good idea to bail out near the target because the locals seemed to resent our dropping bombs on them and occasionally lynched captured fliers before the military could take them prisoner." The crippled plane and crew made it about 300 miles over the Dinaric Alps of Yugoslavia (now Bosnia & Herzegovina) to the coast of the Adriatic Sea. By then the fuel supply was low, only one engine was functioning properly, and the plane was not going to be able to carry the crew back to their Italian base. So following Navigator Thorne's suggestion, they changed course, headed to the island of Vis, and the crew parachuted out of the plane. Thorne came down in the water, the others landed on the island, and all were picked up by Croatian freedom fighters, not the German military (Thorne 2006).

Four days after being collected by the Croatians, the battered, but alive, flight crew (in its entirety) was returned to Italy by the British Navy. Thorne (and probably other members of the crew) was awarded the Purple Heart and they were given the "privilege" of returning to combat. After flying an additional 29 missions, they were grounded, promoted, and returned to the United States (Schadle 1945, Thorne 2006). Bob Thorne's postwar career was eventful, but less hair-raising than his wartime experience.

Following the completion of his doctoral work, Thorne accepted a botany professorship at the University of Iowa. The university's Curator of Vascular Plants, William A. Anderson died unexpectedly in 1949 and Thorne assumed those curatorial duties the following year (Horton 2006, World Heritage Encyclopedia 2017). During his tenure at Iowa, Thorne's graduate students completed extensive floristic studies of the state of Iowa (e.g. Carter 1960, Cooperrider 1962, Davidson 1959, Eilers 1971, Van Bruggen 1958) and the size of the University's herbarium increased considerably (Horton 2006). Though much of Dr. Thorne's personal research at Iowa involved studying the state's flora (e.g. Thorne 1953, 1955, 1956), he also worked in other parts of the U.S. (Thorne 1951 & 1954a, Thorne & Cooperrider 1960) and in the South Pacific (Fosberg et al. 1961). Dr. Thorne was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1959 and spent the time at the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia) studying the plant communities of New Caledonia and New Guinea (Ashworth & McDade 2015, Google Scholar, Horton 2006, JSTOR 2013, World Heritage Encyclopedia 2017).

Thorne left Iowa in 1962 for a position as professor and herbarium curator at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG) in California (Ashworth & McDade 2015, JSTOR 2013, McDade 2015). Dr. Thorne was particularly proud of the growth of the RSABG herbarium, not only in terms of its sheer size, but also in the wide diversity of plants represented (Ashworth & McDade 2015). At RSABG he completed research and published on the flora of California (Lathrop & Thorne 1968 & 1978, Thorne 1967), the phylogeny of the plant kingdom (Thorne 1975, 1976, 1992), biogeography (Thorne 1963, 1972, 1989), and the history of the development of the American Southwest's flora (Thorne 1986). Thorne remained at Rancho Santa Anna (now the California Botanic Garden) until his retirement in 1987 (Ashworth & McDade 2015).

Four plant specimens collected in Iowa are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium that show Robert Thorne as collector or co-collector. Hundreds of additional specimens listing Robert F. Thorne as collector or co-collector may be reviewed using the iDigBio or SEINet databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Robert Folger Thorne. Arnold Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ashworth, Vanessa E. T. M. & Lucinda A. McDade. (eds.) 2015. Obituary for Robert F. Thorne. Aliso 33(1):1-2.

Carter, J. L. 1960. The flora of northwestern Iowa. Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City.

Cooperrider, T. S. 1962. The vascular plants of Clinton, Jackson, and Jones counties, Iowa. Univ. Iowa Studies Nat. Hist. 20:1-80.

Davidson, R. A. 1959. The vascular flora of southeastern Iowa. Univ. Iowa Studies Nat. Hist. 20:1-102.

Eilers, L. J. 1971. The vascular flora of the Iowan area. Univ. Iowa Studies Nat. Hist. 21:1-137.

Fosberg, F.R., R.F. Thorne, & J.M. Moulton. 1961. Heron Island, Capricorn Group, Australia. Nat. Acad. Sci. Atoll Research Bull. No. 82. pp. 5-14.

Horton, Diana. 2006. History of the University of Iowa herbarium: A legacy lost. Iowa's Fragile Flora.

JSTOR. 2013. Thorne, Robert Folger. Global Plants.

Lathrop, Earl W. & Robert F. Thorne. 1968. Flora of the Santa Rosa Plateau of the Santa Ana Mountains, California. Aliso 6:17-40.

Lathrop, Earl W. & Robert F. Thorne. 1978. Flora of the Santa Ana Mountains, California. Aliso 9:197-278.

McDade, Lucinda. 2015. In Memoriam: R. F. Thorne. Amer. Soc. Plant Taxonomists.

Schadle, Joseph J. (ed.) 1945. Thornes back from Florida. The Coast Advertiser. Balmer, New Jersey. p. 5. column 1. June 22, 1945.

Thorne, Robert F. 1951. Vascular Plants Previously Unreported from Georgia. Castanea 16:29-48

Thorne, Robert F. 1949. The Vascular Plants of Southwestern Georgia. Unpubl. Ph.D. thesis. Dept. of Botany. Cornell University. Ithaca, New York.

Thorne, R. F. 1953. Notes on rare Iowa plants. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 60:260-274.

Thorne, Robert F. 1954a. Flowering plants of the waters and shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Fishery Bulletin. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Washington, D.C. pp. 193-202.

Thorne, Robert F. 1954b. The Vascular Plants of Southwestern Georgia. Amer. Midl. Naturalist 52:257-327.

Thorne, R. F. 1955. Flora of Johnson County, Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 62:155-227.

Thorne, R. F. 1956. Notes on rare Iowa plants, II. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 63:214-227.

Thorne, Robert F. 1963. Biotic distribution patterns in the tropical Pacific. in J.L. Gressitt (ed.) Pacific Basin Biogeography pp. 311-350. Bishop Museum Press. Honolulu, Hawaii.

Thorne, Robert F. 1967. A flora of Santa Catalina Island, California. Aliso 6:1-77.

Thorne, Robert F. 1972. Major disjunctions in the geographic ranges of seed plants. Quarterly Rev. Bio. 47:365-411.

Thorne, R. F. 1975. Angiosperm Phylogeny and Geography. Annals Mo. Bot. Garden. 62:362-367.

Thorne, Robert F. 1976. A phylogenetic classification of the Angiospermae. Evol. Biol 9:35-106.

Thorne, Robert F. 1986. A Historical Sketch of the Vegetation of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts of the American Southwest. Annals Mo. Bot. Garden. 73:642-651

Thorne, Robert F. 1989. Phylogeny and phytogeography. Rhodora 1:10-24.

Thorne, Robert F. 1992. Classification and geography of the flowering plants. Bot. Review. 58:225-348.

Thorne, Robert F. 2006. Botanists go to war. The 461st Liberaider. Gunnison, Colorado. 23:38-39.

Thorne, Robert F. & Tom S. Cooperrider. 1960. The flora of Giles County, Virginia. Castanea 25:1-53.

Van Bruggen, T. 1958. The flora of south-central Iowa. Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City.

World Heritage Encyclopedia. 2017. Robert F. Thorne. World Library Foundation. Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press.

Tiffany, Asa Scott (1818 - 1900)

Asa S. Tiffany (photo at Ancestry.com 2023) was the middle child of three raised by Asa D. Tiffany and Abigail Scott Tiffany. He was born April 6th of 1818 in Becket, Massachusetts, but within three years Asa (the senior) moved the family to the Adirondack Mountain region of northern New York (Ancestry.com 2023, ReLyRoTh 2015, Tiffany 1901). Abigail died when Asa (the younger) was only five (1823) and his father was remarried to woman named Fanny Hall (date unknown). Evidently home life for Asa (the younger) was abusive, so he left at the age of eleven to take up residence with a farmer whose treatment of him was far more cordial (Ancestry.com 2023, Reimers 1900, Tiffany 1901).

At the age of 18 (about 1836) Asa left the farm for Albany, New York, where he learned and entered the craft of harness making. By the time he was 21, Asa had established himself and ran his own harness making business. By 1844 Mr. Tiffany had switched his focus to the grocery trade and he moved to Rock Island, Illinois in 1854. He pulled up stakes and relocated to Davenport, Iowa in 1856 (Tiffany 1901), perhaps because of a March 7th fire at Rock Island's New York House, "a German tavern and saloon, on the corner of Illinois and Madison Streets". The fire broke out in the morning and was thought to have been extinguished, but it made a resurgence at midday. "Large numbers collected, lines formed to the river, men mounted the buildings and, with axes, cut and tore up the roofs, and water flowed in torrents. On each side of this house were grocery stores whose contents were thrown in the streets in great confusion." The goods from A.S. Tiffany's grocery store were among those displaced, the damage was considerable, and he had no insurance. The loss may have helped Asa decide that greener pastures could be found on the other side of the Mississippi River (Danforth 1856).

In Davenport, Tiffany became a tobacco grower and a tobacconist in a business enterprise with Mr. H.C. Carmichael (See advertisement for H.C. Carmichael's cigar store in the upper left-hand corner of this Scott County map.) "Mr. Tiffany exhibited some very nice specimens of tobacco raised in this township" at the 1857 Scott County Agricultural Fair (Talmage et al. 1857). The business partnership lasted until 1859, when Mr. Carmichael retired and Asa took full control of the business (Richardson & West 1859). Tiffany operated the business continuously through 1868 (Tiffany 1901).

Asa enjoyed literature and preferred to read works dealing with history, mechanical activities, and health related topics (Tiffany 1901). His mechanical capabilities led to an alliance with Albert L. Wilson and the duo devised a piece of equipment that was "a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Vinegar and Rectifying of Spirits". Their invention was awarded U.S. Patent #54,041 in 1866 (Tiffany & Wilson 1866).

Asa's interest in science led him to the field of geology and a commitment to the study and collection of Paleozoic fossils. In fact, a group of his Devonian Period fossils from the Paleozoic Era were donated by Luther Scott Tiffany (Asa's youngest son) to the University of Chicago in 1916 (Goodspeed 1916). Tiffany's 400-volume personal library of geology and other natural history texts was donated to Augustana College (Rock Island, Illinois) following his death (Holmgrain 1908). Tiffany published two papers in the field — one dealt with an artesian well in Davenport, Iowa and the rock strata through which it flowed (Tiffany 1889); the second was a description of the geology of Scott County, Iowa and the surrounding region (Tiffany 1885).

Mr. Tiffany was one of the four original founders (specifically: A. U. Barler, L. T. Eads, W. H. Pratt, & A. S. Tiffany) and he sat on the original Board of Trustees of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences (Pratt 1867, Starr 1897). His contributions to the Academy and a number of his publications may be found scattered throughout the pages of the first six volumes of the Davenport Academy's Proceedings (Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences 1867-1897). Tiffany became embroiled in a controversy within the Davenport Academy, a somewhat lengthy tale that is nevertheless worthy of being summarized here.

During the 1800s, European immigrants in America settled farther and farther west of the Atlantic Coast in territory already occupied by Native Americans (Indians) and others. The phrase "manifest destiny" was often used to describe their belief that, as the more principled and honorable people, the westward bound settlers were justified, even obligated, to stake claim to "open" land and reshape it and the indigenous people living there in a way that reflected the "American" standards of the settlers (HistoryNet 2017).

As western expansion progressed, westbound migrants discovered mound structures scattered in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Initially the immigrants credited the Indians with building the mounds, but the "manifest destiny" concept led them to "know" that the unintelligent natives were incapable of such construction. Hence was born the notion that an ancient group of Europeans (or some other population from the Old World) must have lived in the area before the Indians, built the mounds, and died out. This notion worked well for the immigrants, because it justified their acts of expansion and land confiscation. After all, they were simply reclaiming territory previously occupied by their own ancestors and driving out illegitimate interlopers (McKusick 1970, Pinsky 2007). That attitude about the alleged predecessors of Native North Americans was reflected in the newspaper article that described a Davenport Academy of Sciences field trip to excavate burial mounds along the east side of the Mississippi River near Albany (Richardson & Richardson 1873).

"Relic hunters, preachers, savants, and charlatans fed on, enlarged and elaborated the myths" about who built the mounds, because "fame, and possibly fortune, awaited the man who could prove one or another theory about the origin and fate of the Mound Builders (Fowler 1971)." The "Davenport Conspiracy" turned out to be a major event in the search for the answer to whether Indians or ancient Europeans were the mound builders, with the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences and Asa S. Tiffany playing key roles (McKusick 1970 & 1988).

In the winter of 1877 Reverend Jacob Gass (a Lutheran: Zion Lutheran Church 2017) and friends excavated a small burial mound on a farm near Davenport. Within it they found two tablets engraved with symbols resembling a compass rose, zodiac signs, men, animals, and other figures (see images at Gass 1877, SCblogger 2022 and Sprague 2012). In 1878 Reverend Gass sifted through a second mound on the same farm and recovered a limestone tablet bearing pictures of a man, two effigy pipes, and the sun. Then in 1880 Reverend Gass and his brother-in-law, Reverend Adolph Blumer, reported finding an elephant or mastodon effigy pipe in yet another mound (Blumer 1880, Gass 1880, McKusick 1970). Later, Gass purchased a second elephant pipe from a local farmer, who claimed he'd found the item in a corn field (McKusick 1970). (See pipe images here Putnam (1885).)

A flourish of publicity heralded the potential importance of the discovery of the pipes and the tablets, because their nature supported the notion that the Mound Builders were not Indians. But nearly as quickly came doubts about the authenticity of the "discoveries". Reverend Gass claimed "that after the penetration of the frozen crust of the earth, they did not leave the spot until the tablets were unearthed", but a team of individuals from the Davenport Academy visited the same mound site shortly after Gass had reported his discovery to the Academy. The Academy team stated, "that from the unbroken condition of the layers of shells, and from other evidences visible, they were of the opinion that no disturbance of the mound had taken place since the formation of these layers (see pp. 107 & 108 of Farquharson 1877)." In other words, they seem to be calling into question the claim that the artifacts had been excavated from the indicated mound, because the frozen ground appeared to have been undisturbed. That may have been the first formal refutation of the authenticity of Gass' discoveries, but it was not the last.

In 1877 the "discovered" tablets were sent to the Smithsonian Institution for authentication. The authority at the Smithsonian, Edward Foreman, proposed that the tablets were not antiquities, but of recent creation. Quoting from Fowler's (1971) review of McKusick's publication, "Thus began the rather incredible drama that McKusick calls the "Davenport Conspiracy". The controversy over the genuineness of the tablets and elephant pipes raged for nearly ten years. It ultimately involved John Wesley Powell, as Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, and his employees Henry Wetherbee Henshaw and Cyrus Thomas. Both Thomas and Henshaw were critical of the finds and questioned their authenticity in print in somewhat sarcastic terms. The leaders of the Academy, especially Charles E. Putnam, the Academy president, were incensed and fought back in print. They gained some sympathy as scholarly underdogs struggling against the Washington Scientific Establishment. Putnam eventually became convinced of a national conspiracy to discredit the Academy. The Academy held kangaroo courts and dissident members were drummed out amid threats of libel suits." (See Putnam 1885 & 1886 for his protestations.)

Asa Tiffany was apparently one of the skeptics regarding Gass' antiquities. Even though Asa was a founder of and active in the Davenport Academy, he embarrassed the organization by publicly declaring Gass' artifacts as frauds. Mr. Tiffany (and evidently others) was expelled from Davenport Academy in 1886, because of his opinions and the manner in which he expressed them (McKusick 1970, McVicker 2007, Pratt 1889, Switek 2009).

McKusick's work (1970 & 1988) indicates "that not only were the tablets and pipes fakes, but that they, and other effigy pipes as well, were manufactured in the basement of the Academy building. The whole affair seems to have begun as a prank to deceive Gass. The tablets were fabricated and planted in the mounds. The hoax was successful, but it also deceived Putnam and other Academy members. Once the publicity began, the pranksters were compelled, out of embarrassment and fear of retribution, to remain silent. In the end, the prank grew into an international scholarly incident and local dissidence and recriminations ultimately destroyed the Academy (Fowler 1971)."

Tiffany's expulsion from the Davenport Academy wasn't the only obstacle he encountered during the 1880s. He bought a parcel of land about 30 miles east of Davenport near Atkinson, Illinois, that included a sizable apple orchard. On the parcel he built a house and intended to sell fruit from over 600 trees that were growing. It's unknown how successfully his nursery business was over time, but Mother Nature's August winds reduced 1882's apple harvest by 80% (Democrat Co. 1881 & 1882). In 1885 Mr. Tiffany published "Geology of Scott County, Iowa, and Rock Island County, Illinois, and the Adjacent Territory" (Tiffany 1885). Many of Tiffany's claims in the publication were rebuked in public (Richardson 1886a) and among the pages of the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences by geologist Willis H. Barris (Barris 1886), but that did not deter him from being active in geology and paleontology going forward.

In 1885 Tiffany, Barris, and others from Davenport to Minneapolis were swindled out of important documents, valuable specimens, and other artifacts by a gent who called himself "Professor F.A. Arendel". "Arendel" was a knowledgeable geologist and gifted grifter, who was caught and jailed. But soon after his release the man emerged as "Capt. Clarence E. Dutton" and promptly reestablished his geo-larcenous habits in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana (Richardson 1885a,b & 1886b). In 1887 the Iowa State Board of Health awarded A.S. Tiffany a medical certificate. Upon what qualifications it was based is unknown, but going forward Asa Tiffany was sometimes referred to as Mr. Tiffany and in other instances Dr. Tiffany (American Museum of Natural History 1890, Richardson 1888, Udden 1896).

While Asa was running his harness business in New York he met Christiana Von Coughnet and the two fell in love. On February 22, 1842 they were married in Johnstown, New York. Two of their children, William and Catherine, were born in New York; their three younger children, Hattie, Edward, and Luther, were born in Iowa. Misfortune struck the family twice. Edward Tiffany survived for only a year and William was "declared of unsound mind by the commissioners of insanity in April, 1885, and sent as a patient to the Mt. Pleasant asylum" (Ancestry.com 2023, Davenport Democrat 1891).

Asa S. Tiffany is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by one specimen identified as Clematis viorna from Credit Island (Scott County, Iowa) collected sometime in the 1800s.

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American Museum of Natural History. 1890. Annual report of the trustees. Wm. C. Martin Press. New York City, New York. pp. 35 & 54 of 65.

Ancestry.com. 2023. Asa Scott Tiffany. Schneider-Cabrera Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Barris, W.H. 1886. A defense of our local geology. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 5:15-22.

Blumer, Rev. A. 1880. Exploration of mounds in Louisa County, Iowa. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 3:132-133.

Danforth, J.B. (ed.) 1856. Fire. Rock Island Morning Argus. Rock Island, Illinois. p. 3. column 1. March 8, 1856.

Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. 1867-1897. Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Sciences. Davenport, Iowa.

Davenport Democrat. 1891. A guardian asked for. The Morning Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 6. April 2, 1891.

Democrat Co. 1881. Personals. Davenport Daily Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 4. March 5, 1881.

Democrat Co. 1882. Items in brief. Davenport Daily Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 4. October 12, 1882.

Farquharson, R.J. 1877. Farquharson on INSCRIBED TABLETS, found by Rev. J. Gass in a mound. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 2:103-116.

Fowler, Don D. 1971. The Davenport Conspiracy. Review of McKusick, Marshal. 1970. The Davenport Conspiracy. Iowa State Archeologist. University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. 142 pp. American Anthropologist 73:1406-1408.

Gass, Rev. J. 1877. A connected account of the explorations of Mound No. 3, Cook's farm group. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 2:92-98.

Gass, Rev. J. 1880. Exploration of mounds in Louisa County, Iowa. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 3:140-146.

Goodspeed, Thomas Wakefield. 1916. A history of the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago Press. Chicago, Illinois. p. 491 of 522.

HistoryNet. 2017. Westward expansion. HistoryNet. Vienna, Virginia.

Holmgrain, O.V. (ed.). 1908. Schools and Colleges: Augustana. The Young Lutheran's Companion. 16(32):6.

McKusick, Marshal. 1970. The Davenport Conspiracy. Iowa State Archeologist. University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. 142 pp. reviewed by Don D. Fowler in 1971. American Anthropologist 73:1406-1408.

McKusick, Marshal. 1988. The Davenport Conspiracy, revisited. Iowa State Univ. Press. Ames, Iowa. 193 pp. reviewed by George H. Daniels in 1992. Annals of Iowa 51:296-297.

McVicker, Donald. 2007. Elephant Pipes and Israelite Tablets: the controversy between the United States Bureau of Ethnography and the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. Bull. Hist. Archaeology 17:9-19.

Pinsky, Randy. 2007. The Davenport Conspiracy: Revisited and revised. Pseudoarchaeology Research Archive. McGill University. Montreal, Quebec.

Pratt, Lucy M. (recording secretary) 1889. March 26, 1886 - Regular meeting minutes. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 5:219-221.

Pratt, W.H. 1867. Record of proceedings: December 14th, 1867. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 1:1.

Putnam, Charles E. 1885. Elephant Pipes and Inscribed Tablets in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Glass & Hoover. Davenport, Iowa.

Putman, Charles E. 1886. The Davenport Tablets. Science 7:119-120.

Reimers, C.D. (manager) 1900. Passing of a pioneer. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 3. column 2. January 19, 1900.

ReLyRoTh. 2015. Dr. Asa Scott Tiffany. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1885a. A geologic fraud. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 3. August 7, 1885.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1885b. The artful Arendel. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 3. August 17, 1885.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1886a. Local fossils. Davenport Sunday Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 6. February 28, 1886.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1886b. Abroad again. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 2. December 18, 1886.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1888. Personal. Sunday Democrat-Gazette. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 2. January 1, 1888.

Richardson, D.N. & G.R. West. (eds.) 1859. Dissolution notice. Daily Iowa State Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 5. July 10, 1859.

Richardson, D.N. & J.J. Richardson. (eds.) 1873. The Albany excursion. Daily Iowa State Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 4. November 10, 1873.

SCblogger. 2022. The Davenport Conspiracy. Special Collections. Davenport Public Library. Davenport, Iowa.

Sprague, Ralph & Judy. 2012. Putnam Museum displays Davenport Tablets and Elephant Pipes. Gustav's Library. Davenport, Iowa.

Switek, Brian. 2009. The mystery of the mastodon pipes. ScienceBlogs.

Starr, Frederick. 1897. The Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. Appleton's Science Monthly. 51(5):83-98.

Talmage, Isaac M., D.N. Richardson, & G.R. West. 1857. (eds.) Scott County Agricultural Fair. Daily Iowa State Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 6. September 17, 1857.

Tiffany, A.S. 1885. Geology of Scott County, Iowa, and Rock Island County, Illinois, and the Adjacent Territory. Glass & Hoover. Davenport, Iowa. 35 pp.

Tiffany, A.S. 1889. The artesian well at City Park, Davenport, Iowa. Amer. Geologist 3:117-118.

Tiffany, Asa Scott & Albert Lucien Wilson. 1866. Apparatus for the manufacture of vinegar. Patented April 17, 1866. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Alexandria, Virginia.

Tiffany, Nelson Otis. 1901. The Tiffanys of America: History and genealogy. Buffalo, New York. pp. 169-170 of 254.

Udden, J.A. 1896. An account of the Paleozoic rocks explored by deep borings at Rock Island, Ill. and vicinity. in The Seventeenth Annual Report of the U.S. Geological Survey. pp. 843 & 844 of 864.

Zion Lutheran Church. 2017. About us - Zion's Pastors. Zion Lutheran Church. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Davenport, Iowa.

Torrey, John (1796 - 1873)

John Torrey was unquestionably one of the founding fathers of North American botany. Because others have chronicled his life, his writings, and his botanical accomplishments effectively and voluminously, this author will not attempt to encapsulate them here. Any reader interested in learning more about the life of Prof. Torrey is referred to the seven publications listed below, others that may be available, and John Torrey's publications available via Google Scholar Ockerbloom's Online Books Page.

Five specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium can be attributed to John Torrey, they are: a Linaria from Florida, a Scirpus from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a Lophiola from New Jersey, a Rubus from "arctic America", and a Sarracenia that is sans location. Collection dates for all of the specimens are lacking. Hundreds of additional Torrey collections may be viewed via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. John Torrey. Ehrhart-Crumb Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Fraser, Susan (archivist) 2000. John Torrey Papers. Archives. The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, New York.

Gray, Asa. 1873. Memoir of John Torrey. Nat. Acad. Sci. Biographical Memoirs. Volume 1. pp. 265-276.

Kelly, Howard A. 1914. Some American medical botanists. The Southworth Co. Troy, New York. pp. 136-144 of 215.

Parry, C. C. 1876. Obituary Notice of Prof. John Torrey, M.D. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. pp. 44-47.

Reveal, J.L. 2014. John Torrey: A botanical biography. Phytoneuron 100:1-64.

Schneider, A. 2016. Biographies of scientists and explorers. in Wildflowers, ferns, & trees of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, & Utah (here)

Tryon, Edward K. (1844 - 1904)

George W. Tryon, Sr. (1791-1878) served as an apprentice with gunsmith Frederick W. Goetz (or Getz) in Philadelphia. In 1811 the gun making firm of Tryon & Getz was born and shortly thereafter (perhaps the same year), Tryon bought Getz out of the company. During the War of 1812 the company manufactured arms for the U.S. Government and continued to manufacture muzzle loading firearms until the 1870s. The firm of "Geo. W. Tryon - Gunmaker and Dealer" continued in business until 1836, when Edward K. Tryon, Sr. (son of George W. Tryon, Sr. and father of the subject of this biography) joined the business. At that time the firm's name was changed to Geo. W. Tryon & Co., "Manufacturers, Importers, and General Dealers in Fire Arms, etc." The next iteration of the company was "Edw. K. Tryon & Co.", which was established in 1841, when G.W. Tryon, Sr. retired (Gluckman & Saterlee 1953, Russell 1957, Tryon 1911). During subsequent years the company went through several name changes and continued to manufacture guns until 1894. It ultimately became a hardware/sporting goods store that continued in operation until it was purchased in 1962 by Banner Industries. The new corporate entity, named Tryon-Supplee-Biddle Company, survived only until 1965, when it went through "reorganization bankruptcy" (Gluckman & Saterlee 1953, Spector 2019).

George Washington Tryon, Jr. (1838-1888) was the eldest son of Edward K. Tryon, Sr. and Adeline (Savitd) Tryon. He was involved in the family business, but took a greater interest in natural science and activities outside gun making. George, Jr. was elected a member of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences in 1859 and an honorary member of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences (Harrison 1889, Ruschenberger 1888). Tryon was a specialist in malacology, who edited and funded the American Journal of Conchology for a time and published a number of papers in it (e.g. Tryon 1865a-d). G.W. Tryon (the younger) initiated the publication of "The Manual of Conchology" in 1879, which was continued for many years thereafter by Henry Pilsbry (Tryon 1879 & 1885). He also published "Structural and systematic conchology: an introduction to the study of the Mollusca" (Tryon 1882-1884), which was not well received by all professionals (see note below). During his life, G.W. Tryon, Jr. was a contributor to and conservator of the conchological section of the Philadelphia Academy, which grew to over 180,000 specimens during his tenure (Ruschenberger 1888).

Edward K. Tryon, Jr., the subject of this biography (photo here) and brother to George W. Tryon, Jr., was born in Philadelphia April 14, 1844. He completed his education "in Friends schools and Germantown Academy" and then joined the family business (Ancestry.com 2023, Harrell-Sesniak 2012, Kirchhoff 1904). Health concerns motivated Edward K. Tryon, Sr. to retire from the business world in 1863 and in that same year, following a short stint with the Pennsylvania Volunteers, Edward K. Tryon, Jr. became a partner in the business. The firm's name became "Tryon & Brother" (Gluckman & Saterlee 1953, Kirchhoff 1904, Tryon 1911). The two brothers remained partners until 1868, when George Tryon, Jr. decided to focus his efforts on natural science and other interests full time. That change brought about the formation of "Edw. K. Tryon Jr. & Co." and by that time the business had expanded its inventory to include all manner of sporting goods. Charles Z. Tryon, son of Edward K. Tryon, Jr. became a partner in 1892 and that organization remained in existence until E.K. Tryon, Jr's. death in 1904 (Tryon 1911).

Edward K. Tryon, Jr. and Mary Adelaide Zimmerling were married on May 14, 1868 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They had two children Florence and Charles (Ancestry.com 2023).

According to Ruschenberger (1888, see pp. 15 & 16) George Tryon, Jr., enjoyed studying plants in addition to mollusks. Evidently George was known to make forays into the countryside, after which "he was almost sure to be laden with flowers and grasses, gathered by the way, some for study in connection with his herbarium, which was large ..." Perhaps Edward (the younger) was in the habit of accompanying his brother on some of his botanical excursions and that led him to collect a few specimens on his own.

At any rate, one specimen of Acer spicatum in the Putnam Museum herbarium lists E.K. Tryon as the collector and two others (Campanula rotundifolia and Lobelia nuttallii) list E.K.T. as the collector. All of them were collected on July 12, 1873 and I'm assuming each was harvested by Edward K. Tryon, Jr. The collection locality is the "Delaware Water Gap", which is likely in the state of Pennsylvania, but may be from New Jersey. The collection locality is insufficiently specific to be certain.

A brief note regarding which Tryon collected the aforementioned plants. In 1873 Edward Jr. would have been about 29 years old and Edward Sr. about 57, so either man could have been the collector. But according to Tryon (1911, see pp. 35-37), "Having been in ill health for a number of years, Edward K. Tryon had moved to his country home in Pittville, near Philadelphia. Therefore, on January 1, 1863, he decided to retire entirely from business and enjoy his favorite pastime of horticulture". I'm assuming that a health condition bad enough to force him into retirement, would have prevented Edward Sr. from joining his son on a field trip to the shores of the Delaware River sixty-some miles (as the crow flies) from Pittville. In 1863 a horse and buggy conveyance of 60+ miles would probably have been a two-day round-trip venture — not counting the number of days spent exploring.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Edward Kunckel Tryon Jr.. American Tryon Roots research Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Gluckman, Arcadi & L.D. Saterlee. 1953. American Gun Makers. The Stackpole Co. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. pp. 217 & 218 of 243.

Harrell-Sesniak, Mary. 2012. Edward K. Tryon, Jr. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Harrison, C.E. (president). 1889. President's address. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 1889-1896. p. 279.

Kirchhoff, Charles. (ed.) 1904. Death of Edward K. Tryon, Jr. The Iron Age. September 29, 1904. 74:47.

Ruschenberger, W.S.W. 1888. A biographical notice of George W. Tryon, Jr. H. Binder, printer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 4 of 22.

Russell, Carl P. 1957. Guns on the early frontiers: A history of firearms from colonial times. Univ. of Nebraska Press. Lincoln, Nebraska. p. 139 of 357.

Spector, Gus. 2019. The sign of the golden buffalo: The Edward K. Tryon Gun Company. Bull. Pennsylvania Postal History Soc. 47(3):6-14.

Tryon, Charles Z. 1911. A history of a business established one hundred years ago. Franklin Printing Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 120 pp.

Tryon, George W. 1865a. Description of New Species of Strepomatidae. Amer. Jrnl. Conchology 1:38.

Tryon, George W. 1865b. Descriptions of New Species of Pholadidae. Amer. Jrnl. Conchology 1:39-40.

Tryon, George W. 1865c. Observations on the Genus Io. Amer. Jrnl. Conchology 1:41-44.

Tryon, George W. 1865d. Catalogue of Mollusca, Collected by Prof. D. S. Sheldon, at Davenport, Iowa. Amer. Jrnl. Conchology 1:68-70.

Tryon, George W. 1879. Manual of Conchology. Vol. 1. Publ. by Author. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Tryon, George W. 1882-1884. Structural and systematic conchology: an introduction to the study of the Mollusca. Published by author. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 3 vols. [At least one reviewer did not hold this text in high regard.]

Tryon, George W. 1885. Manual of Conchology. Continued by Henry A. Pilsbry. Ser. 2. Vols. 1-26.

Ule, Ernst Heinrich Georg (1854 - 1915)

Ernst Heinrich Georg Ule (photo here) was born on the 12th of March in 1854 in Halle an der Saale, Germany. His father, Otto Eduard Vincenz Ule, was a science writer, who evidently instilled a love of science in Ernst and his brother, Wilhelm. While Ernst's interests drifted toward plant science, Wilhelm became a Professor of Geography at the University of Rostock (Harms 1916, Wagenitz 2016).

Ernst completed his early education in the local school of his hometown, then between 1874 and 1876, he attended horticulture classes (perhaps at the Royal Pomological Institute (Anonymous 1900, Hansen 1894)) in Proskau, Germany (now Prószków, Poland). Ule received some of his training from Paul Sorauer, who was a plant pathologist at the Royal Pomological Institute and Agricultural Experiment Station in Dahme, Germany (Harms 1916). Sorauer encouraged Ule to study plant diseases, which led Ernst to develop an interest in parasitic fungi (Harms 1916).

After graduation, Ule worked for a short period as a gardener at the botanic garden in Halle, Germany (now the Botanical Gardens of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg) and then moved to Berlin in 1877. About that time his career as a mycologist began to blossom, when he collected what turned out to be a new species of smut growing on Kentucky Bluegrass. It was named Urocystis ulei in his honor and it marked the beginning of a period where Ule's mycological interests focused on grass-borne smuts (Harms 1916).

By 1879 Ernst Ule had decided to continue his education in Coburg, Germany, but the effort went poorly. Ernst contracted scarlet fever as a youngster and, from then on, he periodically suffered from some sort of mental health disorder, whose onset may have been triggered by the high body temperatures associated with scarlet fever. At any rate, in late 1880 he suffered from an onset of serious mental problem that forced him to drop out of school and to be committed to a mental institution. He underwent psychiatric care for two years. At one time he escaped from the treatment facility and remained at large for several weeks, all the while foraging on the periphery of civilization. Whether by luck, healing, or divine intervention, Ernst was able to re-enter society and by 1883 he had made a complete recovery (Harms 1916).

Because the protracted illness had thwarted his educational goals, Ernst decided that a change of venue would bolster his prospects. Late in 1883, Ernst sailed to Brazil and began making a living as a tutor in Joinville and Sao Francisco, Santa Catharina. By 1891 Ule's plant collecting travails were associated with his position as "naturalista viajante" with the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro. In 1895 he was named subdirector of the museum's botany department and he was eventually elevated to the department's directorship (Harms 1916, JSTOR 2013, Wagenitz 2016). Ernst returned to Berlin for a time during 1898 and 1899, when he worked at the Royal Botanical Garden to use the herbarium to verify and/or identify his Brazilian plant collections. In 1900 he was dismissed from the position at Brazil's National Museum, a political move borne of accusations that his botanical labors were intended to benefit foreign and not Brazilian entities (Harms 1916). Whether or not Ernst Ule's dismissal from the Brazilian National Museum was justified is a matter of opinion, but at least part of his work in 1899 followed directives set by German rubber interests.

In 1899, an excursion to tropical South America was organized with the support (organizational, managerial, and financial) of, among others, Senator Dr. Traun, a leader in Germany for the importation of raw materials and the manufacture of rubber products (Harms 1916, Pearson 1909, Schumann 1901, Ule 1901b). The expedition's purpose was to study "the geographical distribution and ecology ("Lebensbedin-gungen") of rubber plants as well as the methods of harvesting rubber [practised] in the Amazon region; along with this, however, other botanical questions were envisaged, the biological relations of the flora of the region" (Harms 1916). Dr. Kuhla from the Botanical Institute in Marburg, Germany was chosen as the venture's botanist, but by mid-1899, after only a month on the job, he had contracted and died from yellow fever. Ule, because of his experience in the region, was called upon to fill in for the late Dr. Kuhla. That "rubber excursion" and the others that followed led to many of Ule's plant collections (see iDigBio database) and over a dozen publications dealing with the different species of latex producing plants (e.g. Hevea, Micrandra, Sapium, and Castilloa), their distribution in South America, and the methods used to harvest latex from them (see "Publications by E. Ule" in Harms 1916, Google Scholar, Ferguson 1905, Maclaren & Sons 1905, Ule 1905 b&c).

Judging from the specimens recorded in the iDigBio database, Ernst Ule botanized the Brazilian state of Santa Catharina almost exclusively from 1883 through 1886. In 1887 most of his collections came from farther north in the state of Rio de Janeiro and from 1888-1891 he split his time working in both states. From 1892 through the turn of the century, Ule collected extensively from Rio de Janeiro in the south, throughout Amazonas in the northwest, in the more centrally located state of Goias, and a smattering of other Brazilian states. His collections included monocots, dicots, fungi, ferns, mosses, and liverworts.

Ule's publication history was summarized nicely by Harms (1916). Some papers discuss the flora of a region, others address specific plants or plant families, and, following his employment history discussed above, some articles describe the rubber producing plants of Brazil. A few are bit more unique in that one addresses ant/epiphyte interactions (Ule 1901a) and another focuses more closely on the people native to an area (Ule 1913).

Ernst Ule was an accomplished photographer, who used a variety of well-crafted lantern slides (sample images here)in his public and professional presentations. Given that his speaking style was more likely to sedate, than enliven his audience, his high-quality images kept presentation attendees engaged. Though his presentations were known to be mundane at best, people tended to enjoy his diatribes on things botanical and anthropological (Harms 1916). Sets of Ule's photographs were also available for purchase (Ule 1905d).

Recently Ule's plant collections from Brazil have regained importance. In 1906 at the behest of a Leipzig-based rubber syndicate Ernst traveled to Bahia, Brazil to evaluate the rubber producing capacity of plantations there. Bureaucratic circumstances delayed his return to Germany, so Ule used the time to botanize the region. As it turned out, 38 of the 40 flowering plant specimens he collected in the Serra do Sincorá region of the Bahia state of Brazil are type specimens. Recently one specimen of Anthurium petrophilum (Araceae family) that Ule collected in 1906 has been designated an isosyntype and another an isolectotype (Pontes et al. 2016).

Ule's Bryotheca Brasiliensis collections (Camara et al. 2016, Ule 1899 & 1905a) connect him to the Putnam Museum's herbarium. Ninety-six bryophytes collected from a variety of locations in Santa Catharina, Brazil (during 1889 & 1890) are on file in Davenport. Ule returned to Berlin, Germany and spent the last few years of his life as a scientific assistant at the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. Unfortunately, many of his collections present in the Berlin museum's herbarium were destroyed during the Allied bombing of the city during World War II (Camara et al. 2014, Hiepko 1987, JSTOR 2013, Ridley 2016). A large number (> 8000) of Ule's duplicates may be reviewed using the iDigBio specimen database.

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Anonymous. 1900. Horticultural education in Germany. The Gardeners' Chronicle. 28(712):131.

Camara, Paulo E.A.S., Micheline Carvalho-Silva, Maria Sulamita Dias da Silva, Denilson Fernandes Peralta. 2014. A catalog of Bryophyta types deposited at the National Museum of Brazil. Acta Bot. Bras. Vol.28 No.4.

Ferguson, John. (ed.) 1905. Rubber on the Amazon. [E. Ule, Kautschukgewinnung und Kautschukhandel am Amazonenstrome. Beihefte zum Tropenpflanzer, VI., I., January, 1905, 71 pp. and map.] The Tropical Agriculturist & Magazine of the Ceylon Ag. Soc. 24(8):54-57.

Harms, Hermann. 1916. Ernst Ule. Nachruf. Mit Bildnis. Verhandlungen des botanischen Vereins der Provinz Brandenburg. pp. 150 to 184. Edited translation by Matthias Schultz of H. Harms's original biography in German.

Hansen, N.E. 1894. Horticulture in the public schools. Rpt. Iowa State Hort. Soc. 29:216-218.

Hiepko, Paul. 1987. The collections of the Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem (B) and their history. Englera 7:219-252.

JSTOR. 2013. Ule, Ernst Heinrich Georg (1854-1915). Global Plants.

Maclaren & Sons. 1905. The rubber industry of the River Amazon. The India-Rubber & Gutta-Percha and Elec. Trades' Jrnl. 30(12):620-621.

Pearson, Henry C. (ed.) 1909. Tribute to the late Senator Dr. Traun. India Rubber World. 41:49.

Ridley, Geoff. 2016. Weraroa and the bombing of Berlin. Spores, moulds, and fungi: A natural history of mushrooms and other fungi in New Zealand. WebLog.

Schumann, K. 1901. Ule's Expedition nach den Kautschuk-Gebieten des Amazonenstromes. [Ule's expedition to the rubber areas of the Amazon River]. Botanische Jahrbiicher fur Systematic Pflanzengesehichte und Pflanzengeographie. 3(26):109-111.

Pontes, Tiago A., Ivanilza M. Andrade, Matthias Schultz, & Simon J. Mayo. 2016. Ernst Ule’s collecting localities in the Serra do Sincorá, Bahia, Brazil and the lectotypification of Anthurium petrophilum (Araceae). Phylotaxa 266(2):80-90. Publication available from ResearchGate here.

Ule, E. 1899. Bryotheca brasiliensis. Herausgegeben von Dr. C. H. Brotherus in Helsingfors, bestimmt von Carl Müller, C.H. Brotherus und C. Warnstorf. [edited by Dr. C.H. Brotherus in Helsingfors, determined by Carl Müller, C.H. Brotherus and C. Warnstorf.] Beiblatt zur Hedwigia 38(1):57-59.

Ule, E. 1901a. Ameisengarten im Amazonasgebiet. [Ant gardens in Amazonia]. Botanische Jahrbiicher fur Systematic Pflanzengesehichte und Pflanzengeographie. 30(68):45-52.

Ule, E. 1901b. Erster Bericht über den Verlauf der Kautschuk-Expedition bis zum Beginn des Jahres 1901. [First report on the course of the Rubber Expedition until the beginning of the year 1901]. Notizblatt des Königl. botanischen Gartens und Museums zu Berlin. 3(26):111-118.

Ule, E. 1905a. Bryotheca brasiliensis. Fortsetzung, herausgegeben von E. Ule in Berlin W., Grunewaldstr. 6/7, bestimmt von Dr. C. H. Brotherus und C. Warnstorf. [Continued, edited by E. Ule in Berlin W., Grunewaldstr. 6/7, determined by Dr. C.H. Brotherus and C. Warnstorf.] Beiblatt zur Hedwigia 44(1):90-91.

Ule, E. 1905b. Die Kautschukpflanzen der Amazonas-Expedition und ihre Bedeutung fur die Pflanzengeographie. [The rubber plants of the Amazonas Expedition and their importance for plant geography]. Botanische Jahrbiicher fur Systematic Pflanzengesehichte und Pflanzengeographie. 35:663-678

Ule, E. 1905c. Kautschukgewinnung und Kautschukhandel am Amazonenstrome. [Rubber extraction and rubber trade in Amazonia]. Beihefte zum Tropenpflanzer. 6(1):1-71.

Ule, E. 1905d. Verzeichnis von Photographien (13/18) botanischer Typenbilder vom Amazonenstrom. [List of photographs (13/18) of botanical type images of the Amazon River] 150 Nummern M 135. Einzelnummern M 1.50, bei Abnahme mehrerer entsprechende Preisreduktion. Botanische Jahrbiicher fur Systematic Pflanzengesehichte und Pflanzengeographie. 34:39.

Ule, E. 1913. Unter den Indianern am Rio Branco in Nordbrasilien. [Among the Indians on the Rio Branco in northern Brazil]. Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie. 2:278-298.

Wagenitz, G. 2016. ULE, Ernst Heinrich Georg 1854 - 1915. Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen. Albrecht-von-Haller Institute for Plant Sciences. Index Collectorum. Gottingen, Germany.

Van Cleve, John W. (1801 - 1858)

John Whitten Van Cleve, a son of Benjamin and Mary Whitten Van Cleve, was born on June 27, 1801, in an area that is now Dayton, Ohio. John was the eldest of five children in the family, two sons and three daughters (Ancestry. com 2023, Bond 1922). John's keen intellect showed through when he started learning Latin at age ten and by the age of 16, Van Cleve had enrolled at Ohio University (Athens, Ohio). At the university he developed a particular interest in mathematics and was employed as a teacher of Latin and Greek (Brennan 1879, Edgar 1896, Rickey 2012, Rickey & Baldwin 2010, Steele & Steele 1896).

After graduation, John studied law under Judge Joseph H. Crane and was authorized to practice law in 1828, but he never entered the legal profession. Instead, he bought a half-interest in the Dayton Journal and Advertiser and edited that newspaper until July 1834. He followed in his father's footsteps as a successful surveyor and served as Dayton's city engineer for several years. He was the "Van Cleve" in Van Cleve & Newell, a drugstore established in partnership with Augustus Newell. Apparently, John provided the venture capital and Newell ran the business, until 1851, when Van Cleve retired (Brennan 1879, Crew 1889, Drury 1909, Edgar 1896, Hover et al. 1919, Rickey 2012, Rickey & Baldwin 2010, Rylands 2021).

John Van Cleve, the politician, was elected to the position of recorder (1824 & 1828) and served three terms as Dayton's mayor (1830 to 1832). He helped establish and organize Dayton's first fire department and municipal water company. Mr. Van Cleve was labeled a visionary, when in 1840 he recommended the formation of a corporation to purchase 40 acres of land on a hill overlooking the city of Dayton for the establishment of a cemetery. Van Cleve designed, surveyed, and kept the records for that plot (now Woodland Cemetery & Arboretum) for a number of years (Brennan 1879, Drury 1909, Edgar 1896, Rickey 2012, Rylands 2021, Woodland Arboretum Foundation 2017).

Mr. Van Cleve was something of a renaissance man as he became a successful botanist, engraver, geologist, horticulturist, musician, and painter. As an artist, John's work featured oil and watercolor renderings (example here) that focused on landscapes, trees, and fruits (Edgar 1896, Rickey & Baldwin 2010, Steele & Steele 1896). His political entanglements led him to complete much of the song writing and design/engraving for the "Log Cabin Minstrel" published by the Whig party in support of 1840 presidential candidate William Henry Harrison (Brennan 1879, Drury 1909, Hover et al. 1919, Roxbury Democratic Whig Association 1840). John the musician played several instruments (among them the violin, piano, and organ), served as organist and choirmaster at the Christ Church, and helped organize the Pleyel Society, Dayton's first music society (Drury 1909, Edgar 1896, Hover et al. 1919, Steele & Steele 1896).

In geology Mr. Van Cleve preferred to study of the fossils present in the limestone bed of the Dayton region. His will stipulated that many of the specimens he'd collected were to be donated to the local high school. Van Cleve produced several engravings of the fossils he collected (Brennan 1879, Collett 1881, Hall 1883), many of which were given to the Dayton Public Library (Edgar 1896, Kentuckiana Mike 2012, Steele & Steele 1896, White 1881). At the 1836 Convention of Teachers and Friends of Education Mr. Van Cleve submitted a resolution stating "that the science of Geology is of sufficient importance and utility to make it desirable that its elements should be generally taught in schools" (Allen & Haynes 1836).

He was one of the organizers of the Dayton Horticultural Society established in Dayton in 1846, which eventually morphed into the Montgomery County Horticultural Society. J.W. Van Cleve served at the society's secretary for a number of years and was instrumental the community movement to plant trees along the levees and streets of Dayton (Drury 1909, Edgar 1896, Montgomery County Horticultural Society 1846-1970, Ramsey 1875, Steele & Steele 1896). In a section of The Gardener's Monthly and Horticultural Advertiser, called "Nurseries of the United States & Canada" a "J.W. Van Cleve, Dayton, Ohio" was listed several times (Meehan 1860). Similarly, in the "Nurserymen's Directory" of The Cincinnatus (Cary & Warder 1860) Jno. Van Cleve was listed as the proprietor of "Dayton Nurseries". Both publications date from two years after Van Cleve's death and he had no children, so the connection to him, if any exists, is unknown.

Van Cleve, a robust man of over 300 pounds, was fond of children and was once asked by a friend's five-year-old son, "Mr. Van Cleve, when you was a little boy, was you a little boy?" A life-long bachelor, Van Cleve died of consumption on September 6, 1858 in his residence at the Phillips House and was buried in Woodland Cemetery he helped found (Edgar 1896, Rickey & Baldwin 2010, Steele & Steele 1896).

John the botanist learned the flora in and around Montgomery County and his personal herbarium, originally donated to Cooper Female Seminary, ended up in the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery (formerly Dayton Museum of Nature History) (Edgar 1896, Steele & Steele 1896, Stuckey 1984). He is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Erythronium americanum that was collected three miles north of Dayton, Ohio in 1837.

.......

Allen, Ethan & D.A. Haynes. 1836. Convention of Teachers and Friends of Education. Western Courier And Enquirer. Piqua, Ohio. pp. 1& 2. August 27, 1836.

Ancestry.com. 2023. John Whitten Van Cleve. noelle 03-17-12 Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bond, Beverley W. (ed.) 1922. Memoirs of Benjamin Van Cleve. Qrtly. Publ. Hist. & Philosophical Soc. Ohio 17(1&2):3-71.

Brennan, J. Fletcher. (ed.) 1879. A biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery of distinguished men with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. John C. Yorston & Co. Cincinnati, Ohio. Vol. 1. p. 279 of 304.

Cary, F.G. & J.A. Warder. (eds.) 1860. Nurserymen's Directory. The Cincinnatus. Vol. 5. p. 2. column 2.

Collett, John. (ed.) (1881). Van Cleve's Corals. Plates 44-55. in Geology of Indiana. Indiana Depart. Geol. and Nat. Resources. Eleventh Annual Report. Indianapolis, Indiana. 414 pp.

Crew, Harvey W. 1889. History of Dayton, Ohio with portraits and biographical sketches of its pioneer and prominent citizens. United Brethren Publishing House. Dayton, Ohio. 728 pp.

Drury, A.W. 1909. History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio. Vol. 1. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Dayton, Ohio.

Edgar, John F. 1896. Pioneer life in Dayton and vicinity. W.J. Shuey. Dayton, Ohio. pp. 72-76 of 265.

Hall, James. 1883. Van Cleve's fossil corals. Report of State Geologist. Vol. 12. pp.239-270 and for plates 1-14.

Hover, John H., Joseph D. Barnes, Walter D. Jones, Charlotte Reeve Conover, Willard J. Wright, Clayton A. Leiter, John Ewing Bradford, & W.C. Culkins. (eds.) 1919. Memoirs of the Miami valley. Vol. 2. Robert O. Law Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 106, 139, 142, & 176 of 670.

Kentuckiana Mike. 2012. Fossil Illustrator John W. Van Cleve. Louisville Fossils. WebLog.

Meehan, Thomas. (ed.) 1860. Nurseries of the United States & Canada. The Gardener's Monthly and Horticultural Advertiser.

Montgomery County Horticultural Society. 1846-1970. Guide to the Montgomery County Horticultural Society. OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository. Ohio Technology Consortium. Columbus, Ohio.

Ramsey, William. (sec'y) 1875. First horticultural society. Proc. Montgomery County Hort. Soc. December 1875. pp. 61-63.

Rickey, Lisa P. 2012. Bio Sketch: John W. Van Cleve (1801-1858), early settler and mayor in Dayton, Ohio. Glancing Backwards (blog).

Rickey, Lisa P. & Jared Baldwin. 2010. Van Cleve-Dover Collection. A Special Collection of Historical Materials at the Dayton Metro Library. Dayton, Ohio.

Roxbury Democratic Whig Association. 1840. The Log Cabin Minstrel. Publ. at the Patriot and Democrat Office. Roxbury, Massachusetts.

Rylands, Traci. 2021. First in Flight: Remembering Dayton, Ohio’s Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum, Part II. Adventures in Cemetery Hopping. WebLog.

Steele, Robert W. & Mary Davies Steele. 1896. Early Dayton. U.B. Publishing House. W.J. Shuey, publisher. Dayton, Ohio. pp. 67-76 of 247.

Stuckey, R. L. 1984. Early Ohio Botanical Collections and the Development of the State Herbarium. Ohio Jrnl. Sci. 84:148-174.

White, C.A. 1881. Fossils of the Indiana rocks. Indiana Department of Geology and Natural History. Eleventh Annual Report. pp. 347-401.

Woodland Arboretum Foundation. 2017. Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum: history and landmarks. Woodland: Historic cemetery, arboretum, and foundation. Dayton, Ohio.

Vasey, George (1822 - 1893)

George Vasey was born near Scarborough, England on February 28, 1822. He was the third of ten children, eight sons and two daughters, born to William and Jane Vasey (Ancestry.com 2023a, Kelly 2009). In 1823 his family emigrated to the United States, where they settled in Oriskany, New York. As a member of a large and not particularly well-to-do family, George's early educational opportunities were likely scant. Even so, he was apparently an earnest student who learned a fair amount of algebra and Latin by the age of twelve, when he entered the world of employment as a clerk in an Oriskany dry goods store (Canby & Rose 1893, Robinson 1892-1893).

Early in his life George became fascinated with the plants of upstate New York and he used Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps' "Botany for Beginners" (Phelps 1837) to learn the local flora. Apparently, George didn't have enough cash to purchase the text, so he borrowed the book and copied the entire volume for his personal use. By chance, Vasey met his first "real" botanist one day, when he was standing in the doorway of his employer's store. Quoting George Vasey himself, "I saw a gentleman approaching who stooped down and plucked a flower from the sidewalk. Coming to where I stood he held up the plant and asked me if I knew the name of it. I replied, 'Yes, it is a buttercup.' 'Well,' said he, 'do you know its botanical name'? 'Yes,' I replied, 'it is Ranunculus acris.' This was probably more than he had expected. We entered the store and he talked with me to ascertain how much I knew of botany (Canby & Rose 1893)."

That "real" botanist was Dr. Peter D. Knieskern, a local physician. Vasey visited Knieskern and not long thereafter the two were on field trips together collecting and pressing specimens from the local flora. Dr. Knieskern published a checklist of the plants in Oneida County, New York, which listed George Vasey as collector of record for three taxa (Knieskern 1842) and he successfully coaxed George into corresponding with John Torrey (Columbia University) and Asa Gray (Harvard University). Vasey soon became interested in Carex, which led to correspondence and specimen exchange with Chester Dewey (Rochester, New York), Henry P. Sartwell (Penn Yan, New York), Torrey, and others (Canby & Rose 1893, Robinson 1892-1893, Smithsonian Institution Archives 2017).

Vasey returned to school and graduated from the Oneida Institute (Whitesboro, New York) in 1841. In pursuit of a medical degree, Vasey attended the Berkshire Medical Institute (in Pittsfield, Massachusetts) and graduated from there in 1846. He continued his studies for a few weeks at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons (now part of Columbia University), but later that year George and Martha Jane Scott were married, and he established a medical practice in Dexter, New York. In 1848 he moved, with his wife and child, to the Ringwood, Illinois area, where (in addition to Elgin) he practiced medicine for 18 years. In northern Illinois, Vasey continued his botanical pursuits with studies that focused on the vegetation of the region's marshes and prairies, which had in large part escaped the ravages of drainage and cultivation (Ancestry.com 2023a, Canby & Rose 1893, Frear 1893, iDigBio database, Robinson 1892-1893, Smithsonian Institution Archives 2017). Dr. Vasey's sole publications from that period were a checklist entitled "Additions to the Illinois Flora" (Vasey 1860) and "Additions to the Flora of Illinois" (Vasey 1861).

In 1864 severe sickness in the form of measles, scarlet fever, and whooping cough struck the family. It seems that no one was spared and their youngest child, Aaron, died of whooping cough at the age of four months. Martha was particularly hard hit and her health continued to deteriorate, so in early 1866 Vasey moved the family to Richview, Illinois (about 60 miles southeast of St. Louis), where he hoped his wife's health would benefit from a more moderate climate. The location change proved to be ineffective and Mrs. Vasey died later the same year (Ancestry.com 2023a, Canby & Rose 1893, Collins 2001, Frear 1893, Robinson 1892-1893). Towards the end of 1867 Dr. Vasey married the widow of Army surgeon Major John W. Cameron (62nd Regiment Illinois Volunteers), Rachel (Barber) Cameron (Ancestry.com 2023b, Canby & Rose 1893, Committee on Military Affairs 1876, Wilson 1909). Their marriage was almost immediately the point of impact for good and bad fortune.

Shortly after George and Rachel's marriage the couple was struck with a costly real estate disaster, but good news arrived soon thereafter in the form of John Wesley Powell. Powell was organizing his second foray to Colorado and he offered George Vasey the position of expedition botanist (Canby & Rose 1893, Coville 1893, Frear 1893, Robinson 1892-1893). Vasey was undoubtedly motivated to join the Powell expedition by professional curiosity and by his underfunded bank account, a financial funk likely brought on (at least in part) by one of the deep recessionary economic periods that followed the Civil War (Noll 2012). Regardless, the group arrived in Colorado in July and Vasey returned to his family in December. George collected at least 1181 plant specimens that were distributed to various herbaria in the eastern United States (iDigBio 2023). Another piece of good fortune for George at that time was the temperament of his spouse. The new Mrs. Vasey must have had the patience of Job, the leadership skills of Ghandi, and the herding ability of a border collie. She successfully kept the household and the children (seven of George's with his first wife and her two biological offspring) in fine fettle during George's multimonth period of botanizing the west.

The Natural History Society of Illinois (predecessor of the Illinois Natural History Survey) was established in June 1858 at the "Normal University" (now Illinois State University) in Bloomington, Illinois. Dr. Vasey was one of the original contributors to the Society's formation and he remained active in it for several years (Bateman 1858, Dupee 1859, Willard 1860). Upon returning to Illinois from his excursion to Colorado with Powell, Vasey became the third curator (after J.A. Sewall and John Wesley Powell) of the Natural History Museum at the Normal University (Forbes 1907, Robinson 1892-1893). Then in 1870 Dr. Vasey took on an additional responsibility as co-editor of "The American Entomologist and Botanist", but that task lasted for only a single volume.

In April of 1872, Dr. Vasey resigned his curatorship in Illinois and accepted a position as the first Chief Botanist with the USDA and Curator of the U.S. National Herbarium at the Smithsonian Institution (Canby & Rose 1893, Morton & Stern 2010). Vasey found that the National Herbarium's vast holdings, owing to many U.S. surveys like that of Powell mentioned above, were poorly organized, with many yet-to-be-identified specimens. Under Vasey's guidance, he and the corps of people he hired transformed the U.S. Herbarium from a common repository to a valuable reference collection (Canby & Rose 1893, Coville 1893, Frear 1893, Pennington 2004, Robinson 1892-1893). Though Vasey and his staff made important improvements, their work was not without error. "For example, his policy of distributing duplicates without care in copying the data from the original labels leads to our finding in many herbaria almost worthless specimens bearing his characteristic handwriting (Ewan 1950)."

At the USDA, Vasey's working conditions were such an upgrade, that his research output increased and the caliber of his publications dramatically improved. Perhaps as an indication of how the native prairies of northern Illinois influenced him, Dr. Vasey turned much of his attention to agrostology and the economic importance of grasses in agriculture. He recognized that the differing soils and climatic conditions across the U.S. necessitated the cultivation of different types of grasses across the country. Vasey's involvement was critical to the establishment of the Grass Experimental Station at Garden City, Kansas. He felt that it was important to experiment in that region with native and introduced species in order to find taxa that could thrive without irrigation in the semi-arid region of Kansas (Canby & Rose 1893). A record of Vasey's publications (agrostological and otherwise) was published by Clarke (1893) and a bibliography of his scholarly works may be accessed via Google Scholar.

Though George Vasey dedicated a large portion of his career to the study of grasses, he is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by ten specimens from Illinois, none of which are grasses. Specimens he collected with the Powell excursion to Colorado may be viewed via the Smithsonian Herbarium database. Others may be reviewed using the iDigBio and SEINet plant databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023a. George S. Vasey. Snyder Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2023b. John W. Cameron. U.S., Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, 1861-1865. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bateman, N. (ed.) 1858. Natural History Society. The Illinois Teacher 4:258-259.

Canby, Wm. M. & J.N. Rose. 1893. George Vasey: A Biographical Sketch. Bot. Gazette 18:170-183.

Clarke, Josephine A. 1893. Bibliography of publications by George Vasey. see pp. 176-183 in Canby, Wm. M. & J.N. Rose. 1893. George Vasey: A Biographical Sketch. Bot. Gazette 18:170-183.

Collins, Ed. 2001. Searching for Doctor Vasey. Chicago Wilderness. 4:13-16

Committee on Military Affairs. 1876. John W. Cameron. House of Representatives. 44th Congress. 2d session. Report No. 49. December 19, 1876.

Coville, Frederick Vernon Coville. 1893. Death of Dr. George Vasey Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 20:218-220.

Dupee, Charles A. (ed.) 1859. State Natural History Society. The Illinois Teacher 5:302-304.

Ewan, Joseph. 1950. Rocky Mountain Naturalists. University of Denver Press. Denver, Colorado. 358 pp.

Forbes, S.A. 1907. History of the former State Natural History Societies of Illinois. Science 26:892-898.

Frear, Wm. 1893. George Vasey, A.M., M.D. - A biographical sketch. Ag. Science 7:249-252.

Kelly, Jay. 2009. Dr. George S. Vasey. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Knieskern, P. D. 1842. Catalogue of plants found in the county of Oneida. Cabinet of natural history of the state of New York. Report no. 55. pp. 275-299.

Morton, Conrad V. & William L. Stern. 2010. A History of the US National Herbarium. Plant Press. Vol. 13. No. 2.

Noll, Franklin. 2012. Repudiation! The Crisis of United States Civil War Debt, 1865-1870. Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. Geneva Pierre du Bois Foundation.

Pennington, Susan J. 2004. The Rebirth of the Contributions Series. The Plant Press. Vol. 7. No. 4.

Phelps, Almira Hart Lincoln. 1837. Botany for beginners. 3rd edition. F.J. Huntington & Co. New York City, New York. 216 pp.

Robinson, B.L. 1892-1893. George Vasey. Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 28:401-403.

Smithsonian Institution Archives. 2017. George Vasey Papers, 1889-1893. Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C.

Vasey, George. 1860. Additions to the Illinois Flora. The Prairie Farmer (old series) 22(8):119.

Vasey, George. 1861. Additions to the Flora of Illinois. Trans. Illinois Nat. Hist. Soc. 1:139-143.

Willard, Samuel. (ed.) 1860. Natural History Society of Illinois. The Illinois Teacher 6:253-262.

Wilson, Lillian May. (ed.) 1909. Barber genealogy: Descendants of Joseph Barber of Jonesville, N.Y. Press of the Nichols Print. Haverhill, Massachusetts. pp. 395-396 & 398 of 659 plus index.

Verrill, Addison Emery (1839 - 1926)

Addison Emery Verrill was born on Patch Mountain (near Greenwood, Maine) on February 9th, 1839. He was the third of eight children born to George Washington and Lucy Hilborn Verrill who were married in May 1834. George made a living as a farmer and carpenter until 1844, when a load of hay fell on him and badly injured his back. Thereafter, he was gainfully employed as a merchant and was the proprietor of general stores in several communities in southern Maine. In 1853 George and Lucy moved the family to Norway, Maine and it was there that Addison first showed an interest in nature, some of which can be attributed to his maternal grandfather (Ancestry.com 2023, Verrill 1958). Varney's (1881) gazetteer provided a succinct history of the town.

Addison first attended the local schools and later continued his education at the Norway Liberal Institute (a private high school). His attendance (and that of his brothers Byron and George jr.) at the Institute was a somewhat intermittent affair, because at least one of the eldest sons (there were four sons and four daughters in the family) was needed to help run the general store. Addison more-or-less mastered French, German, Greek, Latin, and mathematics via instruction at the Institute. Equally important to his future was his program of self-instruction, which led to the study of birds, botany, chemistry, mammals, minerals, and physics (Verrill 1958). His interest in natural history drove Verrill to become a collector. He started with various rock and mineral samples, but then turned to plants and built a herbarium of several hundred species. Zoology eventually captured Addison's attention and he amassed a collection of amphibians, birds, insects, mammals, and reptiles (Coe 1929, Howe 2008).

Verrill enrolled in the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University in May 1859, where he studied under Louis Agassiz, whose lectures apparently tended to focus on geology and zoology. In addition to Agassiz's instruction, Verrill attended lessons on a variety of topics such as, anatomy, cellular biology, embryology, and osteology during his time in Cambridge (Verrill 1958).

Prof. Agassiz realized Addison Verrill had great potential and assigned the undergraduate to several special projects. In the summer of 1859, Verrill traveled to Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy to collect specimens for Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. That field trip netted about 1200 bird embryos and many bird and fish skeletons. The summer of 1860 found Verrill and two classmates on a field trip to Trenton Point and Mount Desert Island along the coast of Maine. Though their main objective was to dredge for marine invertebrates, they also returned to Cambridge with a number of bird and plant specimens (Verrill 1862, Verrill 1958).

Then in February 1861, Agassiz sent Verrill and two classmates to Washington, D.C. This time the goal was to promote a friendly working relationship with the Smithsonian Institution and to obtain as many zoological specimens from them as possible. For Verrill, the field trip to Washington lasted until March, during which time he identified, cataloged, and organized a collection of coral specimens at the Smithsonian. Perhaps as importantly, during that venture Addison took advantage of the opportunity to meet, work with, and learn from a number of prominent scientists (e.g. geologist Ferdinand V. Hayden, ornithologist John Cassin, invertebrate zoologist William Stinson, and others). He even attended the first inauguration of Abraham Lincoln and subsequently met the president and his wife. Verrill and others from Harvard spent June to September of 1861 on a chartered fishing schooner collecting specimens from the Anticosti and Mingan Islands in Labrador. That trip netted them many plant and animal specimens, along with 40 barrels of fossils (iDigBio, Verrill 1862 a&b, Verrill 1958). Following that trove of accomplishments, Addison was awarded his Bachelor of Science degree in July of 1862 (Verrill 1958).

For much of his time at Harvard, Verrill held the position of assistant to Louis Agassiz in the Museum of Comparative Zoology and he oversaw the bird, coral, mammal, and osteological specimens. That appointment continued until about May of 1864, when he was hired to complete geological evaluations of some mining properties in New Hampshire, New York, and Pennsylvania. Later that year, Verrill was named Yale University's first Professor of Zoology (Verrill 1958, Yale University 2016) and he continued at the university in New Haven for some 40 years as a teacher, curator of the Peabody Museum, and a researcher who investigated a wide variety of invertebrate organisms (Yale University 2016).

Verrill was a tireless worker, who published hundreds of papers on thousands of species. A quick glance through his work via Google Scholar shows that he was primarily interested in marine invertebrates (mollusks, crustaceans, echinoderms, corals, and the like). Even so, he produced scholarly work on plants (Verrill 1862b) and vertebrates (Verrill 1862a, 1863, & 1897), as well as popular articles published in newspapers like Bermuda's "Royal Gazette" (Verrill 1903), "The New York Times" (Verrill 1882), and "The Hearth and Home" (Verrill 1958). Though he retired in 1907, Addison continued working and publishing until his death in Santa Barbara, California in 1926 (Yale University 2016).

An interesting quirk in Addison Verrill's story stems from his publications that did not deal with a marine invertebrate. Verrill visited the Bermuda Islands in about 1900 and in subsequent publications he discussed the "extinct" cahow (a petrel), which had been a critical food source for shipwrecked sailors and island settlers in the early 1600s (Verrill 1901 & 1902). In the 50 or so years following Verrill's publications, occasional reports hinted that the bird might be extant, not extinct. One of those accounts was made by another contributor to the Putnam Museum herbarium, Fred Hall.

Fred was an ornithologist and one-time director of the Davenport Public Museum (1949 to 1951), who the Army stationed in Bermuda near the end of World War II. He found the remains of three birds he thought to be cahows and sent them to the Smithsonian Institution for verification. Fred's verified collections and those of others that followed, showed that the birds, once thought hunted to extinction, could be found on a few isolated islets in the Bermuda archipelago. By modern count, around 100 breeding pairs are in existence (Brinkley & Sutherland 2020). This brief sketch does not do justice to the much longer and interesting story that is summarized nicely in an easy-to-read style by Brinkley & Sutherland (2020), Verrill (1901 & 1902), and Zimmerman (1973).

One specimen of Oysterleaf (Mertensia maritima) collected from Grand Manan in New Brunswick, Canada is all that represents Verrill in the Putnam Museum herbarium. No date of collection is listed, but as was mentioned above, Verrill visited the island for Louis Agassiz and Harvard University in the summer of 1859 (Verrill 1958), so it's likely the plant was collected that year, unless Verrill traveled to the island again at some later date. Another specimen of this plant that was collected by Verrill from the same island in 1859 is present in the Yale University Herbarium. Other plant collections made by Prof. Verrill may be viewed via the iDigBio and SEINet databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Addison Emery Verrill. David Stephenson Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Brinkley, Edward S. & Kate Sutherland. 2020. Bermuda Petrel (Pterodroma cahow). Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Ithaca, New York.

Coe, Wesley R. 1929. Biographical memoir of Addison Emery Verrill. Nat. Acad. Sciences 14:17-66.

Howe, Stanley Russell. 2008. Addison Emery Verrill: eminent zoologist. The Courier. Bethel Historical Society. 32:1-2.

Varney, Geo. J. 1881. A Gazetteer of the State of Maine. B.B. Russell. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 402-403 of 611.

Verrill, A.E. 1862a. Catalogue of the birds observed at Anticosti and Vicinity. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 9:137-143.

Verrill, A.E. 1862b. List of the plants collected at Anticosti and the Mingan Islands during the summer of 1861. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 9:146-152.

Verrill, A.E. 1863. Notice of the eggs and young of a salamander Desmognathus fusca Baird, from Maine. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 9:253-255.

Verrill, A.E. 1882. Life in the Gulf Stream: reasons for the destruction of fish in adjacent waters. The New York Times. October 29, 1882.

Verrill, A.E. 1897. Nocturnal protective coloration of mammals, birds, fishes, insects, etc. Amer. Naturalist 31:99-103.

Verrill, A.E. 1901. The story of the Cahow: the mysterious extinct bird of the Bermudas. Pop. Sci. Monthly 60:22-30.

Verrill, A.E. 1902. The "Cahow" of the Bermudas, an extinct bird. Annals & Magazine Nat. Hist. 9:26-31.

Verrill, A.E. 1903. To restore the orange trees. The Royal Gazette January 20, 1903. Vol. 76, p. 2, column 3.

Verrill, George E. 1958. The Ancestry, Life and Work of Addison E. Verrill of Yale University. Pacific Coast Publ. Co. Santa Barbara, California.

Yale University. 2016. Addison Emery Verrill. Peabody Museum of Natural History Archives. New Haven, Connecticut.

Zimmerman, David R. 1973. The cahow: saved from hog, rat and man. The New York Times. December 2, 1973.

Ward, Lester Frank (1841 - 1913)

Lester Frank Ward the youngest son of Justus and Silence Rolph Ward was born June 18, 1841 in Joliet, Illinois. When Lester was only a year old, Justus and Silence moved to the vicinity of present-day Downer's Grove and then on to St. Charles in about 1850. For his War of 1812 military service Justus was awarded a land grant, so the family left Illinois by covered wagon in 1855 and headed to the northeastern corner of Buchanan County, Iowa where they began making a living on a 160 acre parcel granted to them. Their stay in Iowa lasted only until 1857, when Justus' death forced the family to return to St. Charles, Illinois. Lester attended a grammar school in St. Charles, but there was little extra income for formal education and he, like his brothers Cyrenus and Erastus, was largely self-taught (Ancestry.com 2023, ASA 2016, Mitchell 1993, Rose 2012, Ward 1913a&b, Ward 1872-1953).

Silence lived with one of her daughters in Geneva, Illinois, while Lester and Erastus lived alone on the homestead in St. Charles and supported themselves. The two boys tried to work enough during the summer to be able to afford schooling during the winter. The pair found success in languages, mathematics, and geology via their self-study programs and then, in 1858, a path to their dreams of going to college seemed to open. That year their older brother, Cyrenus, asked them to work in his wagon wheel hub manufacturing business in Myersburg, Pennsylvania and off the boys went (ASA 2016, Mitchell 1993, Ward 1913a&b, Ward 1872-1953).

Unfortunately the wagon wheel hub (sample image here) business was not particularly well run and was defunct by 1860. When Lester left the business he was paid with only wheel hubs that he couldn't sell, so his financial situation was not encouraging. But Lester wasn't lazy. Teaching in a country school during the winter and doing farm work during the summer, allowed Lester to amass enough savings to enroll at Susquehanna Collegiate Institute in Towanda, Pennsylvania. He attended classes during the spring and fall, but continued to support himself as a farmhand during the summer. That continued from January 1861 to late summer 1862, when in August he married Elizabeth Carolyn Vought (Bought?). Lester was an abolitionist, so it wasn't terribly surprising that he and Erastus answered President Lincoln's call-to-arms and enlisted in the Union Army a few days after the wedding (ASA 2016, Cape 1922, Mitchell 1993, Ward 1913a&b).

Ward's military experience continued until he was thrice wounded in the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30 - May 6, 1862), a fateful day he described as follows. "... Directly in front of me, they were crowding through a gap in an old fence, and into this dense mass of gray backed humanity (?) I poured round after round. I was chuckling over this grand opportunity offered me for thinning out the enemies of human liberty, when a silent messenger came and entering the upper part of my right knee, glanced on the bone, and making its egress, passed to the rear, bringing me to the ground. ... Not knowing how small or great the wound might be, and thinking, perhaps, it was not of much account, and not wishing to abandon a good job for a mere 'pin scratch,' I picked up my gun and again 'went in.' ... when a couple more of their friendly peacemakers came whizzing along in quick succession, making a pair of holes through me, in a workmanlike manner. The first, after it had entered my left pant's pocket and demolished a small wooden screw inkstand, which I had carried there for three quarters of a year, passed through the thick muscle of my thigh, just missing the bone. The next one paid a similar tribute to the other thigh. I took the hint, and started for the rear, taking with me my gun, knapsack, and everything I had, being determined that the enemy should not get my arms and accoutrements, unless they got me. I could scarcely navigate, but managed to gain a wretched old log tenement, behind our batteries, where I remained throughout the awful storm of battle that raged ... (Ward 1913a&b)"

Ward's position in the log house was overrun by the Confederate Army and he was captured. The structure in which he sought refuge was converted to a makeshift battlefield hospital, where he was treated and remained eleven days. Then, he and other wounded survivors were transported to a Union hospital along Potomac Creek in Virginia. Ward recuperated and survived, but wasn't discharged from the Army until November 1864, about 19 months after being wounded (Mitchell 1993, Ward 1913a&b).

Relieved of his military obligations, Ward settled in Washington, D.C. and from 1865 to 1881 he worked as a clerk for the U.S. Treasury Department. Lester was not satisfied with continuing his education via self-study and he lobbied Columbian College (now George Washington University) to offer Saturday classes that government employees might attend. Ward's campaign convinced college administrators to make scheduling adjustments and he took advantage of classes in botany, chemistry, geology, medicine, and physics. He ultimately earned three degrees from Columbian College: his B.A. in 1869, his LL.B. in 1871 (with admission to the bar in Washington D.C.), and his master's degree in 1872 (Burnham 1954, Cape 1922, Mitchell 1993, Palmer 1906, RIAMCO 2017, Ward 1913a&b, Zimmerman 2006).

Ward's introductory comments in his flora of the Washington region (see p. 9 of Ward 1881a) imply that he began focusing on the plants of the area soon after earning his law degree. In addition to a checklist of plants, phenological data, distribution notes, etc., Ward compared the "current" flora (circa 1881), with that recorded in 1830 (Brereton 1830). He noted changes to the flora that are still lamented today, "A primeval flora is usually more rich in indigenous species, but the artificial changes caused by cultivation often offset this to a great extent by the introduction of foreign ones." Ward's other biological publications dealt with observations about individual taxa like gingko trees, bur-reed, scurfpea, compass plant, and others (e.g. Ward 1882b&c, 1885c, 1898b&c), as well as evolution (e.g. Ward 1877, 1881b, 1882a, 1885a, 1890, 1891).

Then in 1881 he was hired as assistant geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, he advanced to geologist two years later, and was finally promoted to paleontologist in 1892. In addition to his USGS work, Ward was an honorary curator in the Department of Fossil Plants at the U.S. National Museum. He remained in charge of the national collections of fossil plants from 1882 until his retirement from the USGS in 1905 (Cape 1922, Mitchell 1993). Ward's paleobotanical pursuits tended to focus on plants of the Mesozoic Era (often cycads) (e.g. Ward 1885b, 1887, 1888, 1894; Ward et al. 1899 & 1905), but his work was not widely accepted or cited. It seems that Lester Ward remained a good collector, classifier, and curator of fossil plants, but he failed to embrace developing new methods that were more laboratory oriented (Burnham 1954, Zimmerman 2006).

The journal Ward kept during the Civil War period and for a few years thereafter (Ward 1935), proved to be a window into his societal mindset, which favored equality among genders, races, and socioeconomic classes. Given the views he expressed in his journal and the fact that he'd published several major works in the field of sociology (e.g. Ward 1883, 1898a, 1903), it's not particularly surprising that in 1905 he approached Brown University with a proposal to teach at the school. After some negotiations, he was offered a position, and in 1906 Lester F. Ward began his career in Providence as a professor of sociology. Many authors considered Ward's career in the field of sociology as that of a pioneer, as a promoter of equality for all, as a proponent of universal education, and as a key figure in the formation of the American Sociological Society (ASA 2016, Mitchell 1993, Palmer 1906). To understand his impact upon not only Brown University, but the sociology community in general, one need only scan through the tributes published after his death (Dealey et al. 1913).

As mentioned above, on August 13, 1862 Lester F. Ward and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Caroline Bought (Vought?) were married shortly before Lester left for Civil War combat. Ancestry.com (2023) lists no children from that union, but Ward (1913a) wrote, "After the war ... I expected still to go to college as soon as I could gain the wherewithal. But with a wife and child to support, this was a slow process (see pp. lxxvi-lxxvii)". According to Cape (1922), Lester and Lizzie had one son, but the child survived for less than twelve months. Elizabeth died in 1872 and Lester remarried the following year. According to Ancestry.com (2023) and Rose (2012), Ward's second wife was Rose A. Pierce, but Cape (1922), Noyes (1913), and Washington Herald Co. (1913) wrote that she was Rosamond Asenath Simons.

Lester F. Ward is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Lycopodium complanatum, that he collected in the vicinity of Washington, D.C. in October of 1878. Several hundred fossils specimens either collected by or identified by Lester F. Ward may be viewed using the Smithsonian Institution's paleobiology collection. Many plant specimens attributed to Ward are also available for review from the Smithsonian's herbarium. Ward's publication history is well documented by Ockerbloom (2017) and Google Scholar.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Lester Frank Ward. Lavey-Pearl Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

ASA. 2016. Lester Ward. American Sociological Association.

Brereton, John A. 1830. Florae Columbianae Prodromus. Printed by Jonathan Elliot. Washington, D.C. 86 pp.

Burnham, John C. 1954. Lester Frank Ward as natural scientist. Amer. Quarterly 6:259-265.

Cape, Emily Palmer. 1922. Lester F. Ward: a personal sketch. G.P. Putnam's Sons. New York City, New York. 208 pp.

Dealey, James Q, Edward Alsworth Ross, Franklin H. Giddings, Ulysses G. Weatherly, Charles A. Ellwood, George Elliott Howard, Frank W. Blackmar, & Albion W. Small. 1913. Lester Frank Ward. Amer. Jrnl. Sociology 19:61-78.

Mitchell, Martha. 1993. Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Brown University. Providence, Rhode Island.

Ockerbloom, John Mark. (ed.) 2017. Online books by Lester F. Ward. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Noyes, Theodore W. 1913. Mrs. Rosamond Ward dead. The Evening Star. Washington, D.C. p. 4. column 2. December 6, 1913.

Palmer, Henry Robinson. (ed.) 1906. Lester Frank Ward. The Brown Alumni Monthly 6:1-3.

RIAMCO. 2017. Lester Frank Ward papers. Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online. Rhode Island.

Rose, C. 2012. Lester Frank Ward. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Ward, Lester F. 1877. Cosmic and organic evolution. Pop. Sci. Monthly 11:672-682.

Ward, Lester F. 1881a. Guide to the flora of Washington and vicinity. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. 265 pp.

Ward, Lester F. 1881b. Incomplete adaptation as illustrated by the history of sex in plants. Amer. Naturalist 2:89-95.

Ward, Lester F. 1882a. Darwin as Botanist. Proc. Bio. Soc. Washington 1:81-86.

Ward, Lester F. 1882b. Decumaria barbara. Bot. Gazette 7:99-100.

Ward, Lester F. 1882c. Proterogyn in Sparganium eurycarpum. Bot. Gazette 7:100.

Ward, Lester F. 1883. Dynamic sociology. Vol. 1 & Vol. 2. D. Appleton & Company. New York City, New York.

Ward, Lester F. 1885a. Evolution in the vegetable kingdom. Amer. Naturalist 19:637-644, 745-753.

Ward, Lester F. 1885b. Synopsis of the flora of the Laramie group. Sixth Ann. Rpt. U.S. Geol. Survey. pp. 399-557.

Ward, Lester F. 1885c. The Ginkgo-Tree. Science 5:495-497.

Ward, Lester F. 1887. Types of the Laramie flora. Bull. 37. U.S. Geol. Survey. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. 354 pp.

Ward, Lester F. 1888. The paleontologic history of the genus Platanus. Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum. 11:39-42.

Ward, Lester F. 1890. The course of biologic evolution. Proc. Bio. Soc. Washington 5:23-55.

Ward, Lester F. 1891. Neo-Darwinism and Neo-Lamarckism. Proc. Bio. Soc. Washington 6:11-71.

Ward, Lester F. 1894. Fossil cycadean trunks of North America, with a revision of the genus Cycadeoidea Buckland. Proc. Bio. Soc. Washington 9:75-88.

Ward, Lester F. 1898a. Outlines of sociology. The MacMillan Company. New York City, New York. 328 pp.

Ward, Lester F. 1898b. Psoralea tenuiflora as a tumble-weed. The Plant World 1:59.

Ward, Lester F. 1898c. A new compass plant. The Plant World 1:118.

Ward, Lester F. 1903. Pure sociology. The MacMillan Company. New York City, New York. 607 pp.

Ward, Lester F. 1913-1918. Glimpses of the cosmos. Volumes 1-6. The Knickerbocker Press. New York City, New York.

Ward, Lester F. 1913a. Glimpses of the cosmos. Vol. 1. The Knickerbocker Press. New York City, New York. 244 pp.

Ward, Lester F. 1913b. Letter to Mr. W.H. Thompson - May, 1863. in Glimpses of the cosmos. Vol. 1. The Knickerbocker Press. New York City, New York. pp. 29-35 of 244.

Ward, Lester F. 1935. Young Ward's Diary: A Human and Eager Record of the Years Between 1860 and 1870 as They Were Lived in the Vicinity of the Little Town of Towanda, Pennsylvania; in the Field as a Rank and File Soldier in the Union Army; and Later in the Nation's Capital. Bernard J. Stern (ed.). G.P. Putnam, Publ. 321 pp.

Ward, Lester F., William M. Fontaine, Arthur Bibbins, & G.I. Wieland. 1905. Status of the Mesozoic floras of the United States. Vol. 48. Part I - Text. U.S. Geological Survey. Washington, D.C. 616 pp.

Ward, Lester F., William M. Fontaine, Arthur Bibbins, & G.I. Wieland. 1905. Status of the Mesozoic floras of the United States. Vol. 48. Part II - Plates. U.S. Geological Survey. Washington, D.C. 119 plates.

Ward, Lester F., Walter P. Jenny, William M. Fontaine, & F.H. Knowlton. 1899. The Cretaceous formation of the Black Hills as indicated by the fossil plants.. U.S. Geol. Survey. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. pp. 521-958.

Ward, Frank Edwin. 1872-1953. Ward Family Papers. Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Washington Herald Co. 1913. Died - Ward. The Washington Herald. Washington, D.C. p. 2. column 7. April 20, 1913.

Zimmerman, Katharine. 2006. Disciplining the reception of Darwin: the botanical and sociological work of Lester Frank Ward. Master's thesis. Oregon State University. Corvalis, Oregon. 99 pp.

Waterbury, Rhoda (1830 - 1888)

Rhoda Waterbury (photo here) was born May 12, 1830. She was the third daughter of thirteen children, three of whom did not survive past the age of four, born to James and Esther Waterbury (Ancestry.com 2023, Dwight 1871). Beyond that, no information about her childhood and early education has been uncovered.

At age 20 Rhoda was living with Jacob and Rhoda Groat in Watervliet, New York (Ancestry.com 2023 - see 1850 U.S. Federal Census). Mrs. Groat was Rhoda Waterbury's aunt — her mother's younger sister (Dwight 1871). The point may seem inconsequential, but Watervliet is only about three miles from Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary (Troy, New York), where Rhoda Waterbury is thought to have been a student for a time (see next paragraph). Perhaps she was a temporary boarder with the Groats, while a student at the seminary? Regardless, some of Rhoda's correspondence hints at the extent of her education.

In her letter of January 19, 1866 to Judge George W. Clinton (Eckel 2006) Rhoda wrote, "... It would be contrary to all rules of etiquette besides Mrs. Willard used to tell us in her private lectures never to be in too great haste in these things, but then there is that "Please do" that always prompts me to obey as soon as possible! ..." Ms. Waterbury was referring to an exchange of photographs in the statement, which, taken out of context, is significant only in that she mentioned Mrs. Willard. It implies that Rhoda was acquainted with Emma Hart Willard, who established the Troy Female Seminary in 1821 (Emma Willard School 2017) and that Rhoda was familiar with Emma Willard, as was mentioned above, because she was a student at Mrs. Willard's seminary. However, it's also worth noting that her younger sister, Jerusha, is the only member of the family listed as a Troy Female Seminary graduate (Fairbanks 1898). At any rate, Rhoda Waterbury, regardless of her academic achievement, became a teacher.

The Schoharie Academy was a co-educational boarding school established in 1837 (Roscoe 1882). According to the U.S. Nation Censuses (1860 & 1870), Rhoda had presumably completed her education, was living with her parents, and was making a living as a teacher in Schoharie, New York (Ancestry.com 2023). From correspondence between Ms. Waterbury and Judge Clinton, Eckel (2006) determined that Rhoda taught at the Schoharie Academy for a time, but apparently was replaced when she spent time in Warsaw, New York caring for ill relatives. By the end of 1866 she was teaching painting at Gloversville Union Seminary (Eckel 2006). At least during the October 1868 term at the Gloversville school, principal H.A. Pratt and nine teachers oversaw about 500 students. Rhoda Waterbury's job title was that of "preceptress" (Frothingham 1892), which likely made her responsible for "deportment and character development" (Isbell 1971).

The tone of some of Rhoda's letters (Eckel 2006) implied she was at times a bit embittered, because she felt compelled to conceal her interest in botany from members of the community who considered her botanical pursuits to be inappropriate for a woman. Even so, for a few years she carried on a relationship (in writing and in person) with Judge Clinton. In addition to correspondence and field trips with Judge Clinton, Ms. Waterbury was also acquainted (at least via the written word) with other botanists such as bryologist/lichenologist Coe Finch Austin and New York state botanist Charles H. Peck. Ms. Waterbury occasionally referred to herself as an "old maid" in her letters and she remained single into her forties.

Rhoda married Ezra Botsford Hayden on March 12, 1873 in Schoharie, New York. The 1880 U.S. Census showed that the couple was living in Mentz, New York, where Ezra was a "wool manufacturer" and Rhoda was "keeping house". It seems the couple remained in that Finger Lakes region between Auburn and Port Byron for the rest of their lives, as Rhoda died in 1888 in Port Byron. Ezra perished three years later and was buried near Rhoda at Pine Hill Cemetery just west of Throop (Ancestry.com 2023, Mojo Warren 2011 a&b).

Though Rhoda may have maintained an interest in botany throughout her life, her iDigBio collection record is focused on her life in Schoharie. She was mentioned as the collector of record in several publications describing the activities and collections by the state botanist (Charles H. Peck) of New York in the 1800s (e.g. Peck 1917; Pruyn 1864 & 1865). Specimens Rhoda sent to Coe Finch Austin were acknowledged in Musci Appalachiani (Austin 1870) and some are accessible via the Consortium of North American Bryophyte Herbaria database.

Two bryophytes, Climacium dendroideum (a moss listed in Austin (1870)) and Grimaldia barbifrons (a liverwort, = Mannia fragrans (Balb.) Frye & L. Clark), collected by Miss Waterbury in Schoharie county, New York are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Two specimens, one moss and one liverwort, collected by her in the 1860s may be viewed via the iDigBio specimen database and others may be accessed through the bryophyte database mentioned above. Eckel (2006) listed eleven specimens (mostly bryophytes), collected by Ms. Waterbury, which are present in the Clinton Herbarium in Buffalo, New York.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Rhoda Waterbury. Colletti Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Austin, C.F. 1870. Musci Appalachiani: Tickets of specimens of mosses collected mostly in the eastern part of North America. Academiae Typographorum. Closter, New Jersey. p. 49 of 92.

Dwight, Benjamin W. 1871. The history of the descendants of Elder John Strong of Northampton, Massachusetts. Vol. II. John Munsell. Albany, New York. pp. 908-910 of 1586.

Eckel, P.M. (ed.) 2006. Correspondence of Rhoda Waterbury and G. W. Clinton. Res Botanica, Missouri Botanical Garden Web Site. St. Louis, Missouri.

Emma Willard School. 2017. History. Emma Willard School. Troy, New York.

Fairbanks, A.W. 1898. Emma Willard and her pupils or Fifty years of Troy Female Seminary (1822-1872). Publ. by Mrs. Russell Sage. New York City, New York. p. 410 of 895.

Frothingham, Washington (ed.) 1892. History of Fulton County. Pt. 1. D. Mason & Co. Syracuse, New York. p. 354 of 635.

Isbell, Egbert R. 1971. A History of Eastern Michigan University: 1849-1965. University Archives Book Collection. 1. (see chapter 26, p. 305.)

Mojo Warren. 2011a. Ezra Botsford Hayden. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Mojo Warren. 2011b. Rhoda Waterbury Hayden. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Peck, Charles H. 1917. Local flora notes IV. New York State Museum Bull. No. 197. Report of the State Botanist. Albany, New York. pp. 54-55 of 122.

Pruyn, John V.L. 1864 & 1865. Additions to the state cabinet in 1864. - additions to the state cabinet in 1865. in Special report of the regents of the university, in relation to the State Cabinet of Natural History.

Roscoe, William E. 1882. History of Schoharie County, New York, 1713-1882. D. Mason Co. Syracuse, New York. pp. 377-388 of 470.

Watson, Samuel Harding (1837 - 1928)

Samuel Harding Watson, the eldest of seven children raised by William and Charlotte Watson, was born in Mildenhall, England on December 1, 1837. The family emigrated to the U.S. in 1847 and settled on a farm near Dunkirk, Wisconsin about 15 miles southeast of present-day Madison. One of Samuel's brothers, Alfred, and both of this sisters, Emily and Mary, were born in the United States (Kim 2010c, Musselman 1969, Western Historical Company 1880). Nothing else about the family's early life in Wisconsin has been located to date.

Watson enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in 1859 as a member of the "preparatory school" and in 1860 his was listed as an undergraduate in the "scientific and normal schools" (University of Wisconsin 1859 & 1860). In 1861 he was registered as a "first year undergraduate" in the "scientific school", then in 1862 he was named as a "second year undergraduate" (University of Wisconsin 1861 & 1862). Though he obviously was a University of Wisconsin student for several years, no documents have thus far surfaced to indicate that S.H. Watson earned a degree.

Following his studies at the university, Samuel taught school near Waunakee and Okee, Wisconsin, but the 1860 and 1870 Federal Censuses categorized him as a farmer. He eventually studied law under Richard Lindsay in Lodi, Wisconsin and joined Mr. Lindsay's practice in May 1876 (Ancestry.com 2023, Musselman 1969, Western Historical Company 1880). Samuel practiced law in Lodi for over 50 years and in the 1870s was elected at least twice as a town trustee (Anderson 1928, Historical Company 1880, Osgoodby 1880-1881).

Sam married Martha Rebecca Patton in July 1863. The couple had two children (Ida & Edward), but Martha perished in 1886 and was interred in Lodi's Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Following Martha's death, Sam remained single until July 1892, when he married Clara C. Kingsley (née Stevens), who had been a widow for 15 years (Kim 2010 a,b,&c). Part of Clara and Sam's legacy was their Queen Anne style house in Lodi that was built by carpenter Carl C. Menes in 1899. It and other homes built by Menes are listed, or were considered for listing, on the Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory and the National Register of Historic Places (Ancestry.com 2023, Heggland 1999, Loranger 1998, Matson 1948, Wisconsin Historical Society 2000). But how did Samuel Watson become connected to the world of botany?

Musselman's (1968, 1969) examination of the Milton College herbarium, which became part of the Wisconsin State Herbarium in 1982 (Wisconsin State Herbarium 2017), revealed that Samuel Watson's interest in botany began about 1854, when he wrote an "Alphabetical index of plants sent to the University of Wisconsin". That list included 303 species, but the actual specimens were likely lost in the 1884 fire that destroyed the University's herbarium. Watson's formal botanical training began in 1859, when he took a botany course at the University of Wisconsin taught by Dr. Ezra Carr (Musselman 1969). Samuel undoubtedly crossed paths with John Muir, as Muir was enrolled at the University of Wisconsin from 1861 through 1863 and he too was one of Ezra Carr's students (Sierra Club 2023, University of Wisconsin 1861 & 1862, Western Historical Society 2023).

Why Watson's personal herbarium, composed of native and cultivated plants, found its way to Milton College as opposed to some other repository is uncertain. But it is known that two of his younger brothers attended the school and that may have been the controlling factor. Though most of his collections came from the vicinity of the Madison and the area around his parent's farm, Watson also evidently exchanged specimens with other collectors, such as T.J. Hale and I.A. Lapham (from Wisconsin) and Samuel Mead (from Illinois) (Iltis & Cochrane 1999, Musselman 1968, 1969, WisFlora Specimen Detail 2018).

Samuel H. Watson is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen identified as Chenopodium hybridum collected in Madison, Wisconsin. Quite a large number (hundreds) of Watson's plant specimens (encompassing the years 1855-1861) from Wisconsin may be viewed via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases. Evidently, he collected large numbers of duplicates that he exchanged with other botanists (see above) and various institutions (Iltis & Cochrane 1999), which explains why his specimens are found in a number of herbaria outside Wisconsin.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Samuel Harding Watson. Charlotte Mystrom Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Anderson, Don. (ed.) 1928. Veteran attorney dies in Waunakee. Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 2. column 4. December 10, 1928.

Loranger, Carrie. 1998. Buildings to be put to the test of history. Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. pp. 1b & 4b. May 4, 1998.

Heggland, Timothy F. (consultant) 1999. Portage Street Historic District : First & second Samuel H. Watson houses. Nat. Park. Serv. Nat. Register Hist. Places. Lodi, Columbia County, Wisconsin.

Iltis, Hugh H. & Theodore S. Cochrane. 1999. A Cabinet of Natural History: The University of Wisconsin-Madison Herbarium's Sesquicentennial, 1849-1999. Wisconsin Acad. Review. Spring 1999. pp. 30-33.

Kim. 2010a. Clara C. Stevens Watson. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Kim. 2010b. Margaret Rebecca Patton Watson. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Kim. 2010c. Samuel H. Watson. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Matson, Roy L. (ed.) 1948. Carl Menes rites. Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 4. column 6. December 15, 1948.

Musselman, Lytton J. 1968. The Milton College Herbarium. Mich. Bot. 7: 269-271.

Musselman, Lytton J. 1969. Samuel H. Watson, pioneer botanist of southern Wisconsin. Michigan Bot. 8:35-37.

Osgoodby, Wm. G. (ed.) 1880-1881. Attorneys & bankers' directory of the United States & Canada for lawyers, bankers, & businessmen. Traders & Manufacturers' Commercial Union. Buffalo, New York. p. 315 of 880 + index.

Sierra Club. 2023. Jeanne Carr (1825-1903). The John Muir Exhibit.

Western Historical Company. 1880. History of Columbia County, Wisconsin. Western Historical Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 780 & 997 of 1095.

Western Historical Society. 2023. Muir, John (1838-1914). Madison, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Historical Society. 2000. Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory: Samuel H. Watson House. Lodi, Columbia County, Wisconsin. Ref. Num.: 3556.

Wisconsin State Herbarium. 2017. History. Department of Botany. University of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin.

WisFlora Specimen Detail. 2018. Silene nivea (Nutt.) Muhl. ex Otth. Accession Num.: UWM0003940. Wisconsin Botanical Information System. University of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin.

University of Wisconsin. 1859. Undergraduates. Catalog and circular of the State University of Wisconsin for the year ending September 30, 1859. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 57.

University of Wisconsin. 1860 Undergraduates. Catalog and circular of the State University of Wisconsin for the year ending June 27th, 1860.. Madison, Wisconsin. pp. 50 & 54.

University of Wisconsin. 1861. Undergraduates: First year. Catalog of the officers and students of the State University of Wisconsin for the year closing June 26, 1861. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 33.

University of Wisconsin. 1862. Undergraduates: Second year. Catalog of the officers and students of the State University of Wisconsin for the year closing June 25, 1862. Madison, Wisconsin. p. VI.

Watson, Sereno (1826 - 1892)

Sereno Watson, the ninth of Henry and Julia Watson's thirteen children, was born December 1, 1826 in East Windsor Hill, Connecticut. Sereno grew up on the family's farm and completed his college preparatory education at the East Windsor Hill Academy. He enrolled at Yale College in the spring of 1844 and graduated in 1847. The extremely introverted Watson, though a good student, was neither particularly good at bonding with his classmates, nor committed to a specific career (Ancestry.com 2023, Brewer 1903, Chapin 1897, Peterson 2002).

Watson spent his first four post-graduation years teaching school at various locations in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. At the same time, he studied medicine with several private practitioners and attended lectures at an assortment of medical colleges. He was not especially enamored with teaching and practicing medicine did not have overwhelming appeal, so Sereno returned to work on the farm in East Windsor Hill. In 1852 one of Sereno's maternal uncles, Rev. Dr. Julius A. Reed, offered him a position as a lecturer at Iowa College in Davenport, Iowa (present-day Grinnell College). Sereno moved to Davenport, remained at Iowa College for two years, and then accepted an invitation to study and practice medicine in his brother's office in Quincy, Illinois. But by January of 1856, Sereno Watson had, once again, decided that a clinical career was not his life's calling and he moved to Greensboro, Alabama. In Greensboro Watson was employed as secretary of the Planters' Insurance Company, whose president was his eldest brother, Henry (Brewer 1903, Chapin 1897, Deane 1893, Grinnell College 2012).

Sereno stayed with the insurance company, until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. He then returned to Connecticut and went to work as a writer for Dr. Henry Barnard, a prominent educator and the editor of the American Journal of Education. In 1866 Dr. Barnard moved on to new employment in Washington, D.C. and offered Sereno a position there, but Watson, now age 40, chose to return to Yale College and enrolled in the Sheffield Scientific School, where he studied chemistry and mineralogy (Brewer 1903, Chapin 1897).

While Sereno was studying in New Haven, William H. Brewer, a professor in the Sheffield School, had recently arrived from a position with the State Geological Survey of California. Similarly, Clarence King, another assistant with the California Survey, split time during the winter of 1866 between New Haven and Washington, D.C. King's goal in the capital was to successfully lobby Congress to fund a topographical/geological survey of a swath of land along the railroad being built from California to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains (Brewer 1903, Chapin 1897). The reticent Watson once again proved to be a diligent student, but a poor maker-of-friends. So, it's not really known whether Brewer and/or King influenced Watson's decision, but he'd apparently been looking for a suitable time to change addresses. Quoting Sereno, "one Friday I found myself clear of all questions of the kind and, to give no more time for anymore to come, I determined to take the steamer which sailed on Monday." Thus, in early 1867, Watson left New York City and sailed to San Francisco, by way of the Isthmus of Panama and then traveled inland to Sacramento (Brewer 1903).

Sereno had spent at least a couple of months in the Sacramento Valley and had given some thought to returning to his previous occupation of farming, when he learned that Clarence King's topographical/geological survey (see above) was underway. Sereno was in Woodland, California, when he decided that farming was not a particularly alluring prospect and that he'd rather join the "U.S. Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel". He took the train to its eastern endpoint and began to hike from the Sacramento Valley, across the Sierra Nevada range, into Nevada. Sereno finally caught up with the survey crew — about three days and 200 miles later — along the Truckee River at Wadsworth, Nevada. Sereno introduced himself to King, presented him with a letter of introduction from Henry Barnard, and offered to work in whatever capacity was available. King hired Watson to help with topographical duties, take barometric measurements, and to "make himself generally useful" (Brewer 1903, Goodale 1892, Smithsonian Institution 2017). To this point Watson's botanical expertise has not been mentioned, because his commitment to the field appears to have been minimal. Then, an opportunity arose.

Professor William W. Bailey (Brown University) was the botanist with the King Expedition. Watson evidently had some familiarity with the flora of eastern North America (perhaps due to his medical training), so he assisted Bailey with the care and collecting of botanical specimens. Clarence King described Watson's efforts and demeanor thusly, "He impressed me as a man of work, grimly and conscientiously in earnest. ... He smiled only as a forced concession to humor (Goodale 1892)." Though Watson shouldered the rigors of life in the intermountain wilderness well, they took a heavy toll on Bailey. He fell prey to ill health, resigned his post, and returned to Rhode Island in 1868 (Brewer 1903, Mitchell 1993).

Upon Bailey's exit, King appointed Sereno Watson to the position of expedition botanist and it was then that the 41-year-old Sereno seems to have realized he'd found his "lot in life" (Fertig 2013). Again, relying upon King's description of Sereno after he took charge of the expedition's botanical efforts: "He was then as nearly perfectly happy as I have ever seen a human being (Goodale 1892)."

During the 1867 and 1868 collecting seasons, Watson documented Nevada's flora from the Carson Valley near Reno to localities such as the Virginia Mountains, Soda Lake, the Carson Desert, the Humboldt Mountains, Ruby Valley, and many other localities that can be extracted from the SEINet database. According to SEINet, some of Sereno's earliest plant collections in Nevada, like Thelypodium integrifolium subsp. complanatum, were made along the Truckee River.

In 1869 after botanizing the Salt Lake City area, Watson's collecting continued in the Wasatch and Uinta ranges. All told, more than five dozen of the plants Watson collected from Utah turned out to be type specimens for new species and during the growing seasons of 1867 through 1869 (Fertig 2013), Bailey and Watson collected approximately 19,000 plant specimens from Nevada and Utah (see Smithsonian Institution 2017 & the Smithsonian plant database here). Finally, the routes followed by the expedition during that three-year period are clearly mapped here in Sereno (1871).

At the end of the 1869 field season, Watson left Utah via the Union Pacific Railroad at Green River, Wyoming and made his way back to Yale College. He began working on the botany summary report there in New Haven, Connecticut and labored for about a year with the help of Daniel Eaton and Eaton's herbarium. In 1870 Sereno moved his operation to Harvard's Gray Herbarium in Cambridge. Watson completed his report in August 1871 and it was published as the fifth volume of Clarence King's U.S. Geological Survey of the Fortieth Parallel (Brewer 1903, Chapin 1897, Watson 1871, Watson & Bailey 1869). The quality of Watson's work was so impressive, that Asa Gray hired him in 1872 as his assistant at the Harvard University herbarium. Then in June of 1874, Watson was selected as Curator of the Herbarium at Harvard; there he remained ensconced, until his death in March 1892 (Brewer 1903, Schneider 2016).

His employment at Harvard led to the publication of several important "Contributions to American Botany" in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Watson was a collaborator on two other large-scale works following his report for the U.S. Geological Survey of the Fortieth Parallel. He worked with William Henry Brewer and Asa Gray to publish the "Botany of California" for the California Geological Survey (Brewer, Watson, & Gray 1880). Then, in conjunction with John Colter, Watson published a revision of Gray's Manual of Botany (Gray, Watson, & Colter 1889). Other items authored by Sereno Watson were listed by Goodale (1892), Ockerbloom (2017), and Google Scholar (2017).

Just over 100 herbarium specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium show Sereno Watson as the collector. Regrettably, most of them are sans collection location and collection date. Other specimens of his may be reviewed via either the iDigBio or SEINet specimen database.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Sereno Watson. McNabb II Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Brewer, William H. 1903. Biographical Memoir of Sereno Watson. National Academy of Sciences. pp. 267-290.

Brewer, W.H, Sereno Watson, & Asa Gray. 1880. Botany. Geological Survey of California. Little, Brown, & Co. Boston, Massachusetts. Vol. 1 & 2.

Chapin, Henry Barton (ed.) 1897. The Jubilee Anniversary Report of the Class of 1847, Yale University. Styles & Cash, printers. New York City, New York. pp. 75-76 of 104.

Deane, Walter. 1893. Sereno Watson. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 19:125-128.

Fertig, Walter. 2013. Sereno Watson, the accidental botanist. Sego Lily. 36(6):5.

Goodale, George L. 1892. Sereno Watson. Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 27:403-416.

Google Scholar. 2017. Sereno Watson. Google Inc.

Gray, Asa, Sereno Watson, & John M. Colter. 1889. Manual of the botany of the Northern United States. American Book Company. New York City, New York. 760 pp. & 25 plates.

Grinnell College. 2012. Griswold College: The relationship between Grinnell and Griswold Colleges. Grinnell, Iowa.

Mitchell, Martha. 1993. Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Brown University. Providence, Rhode Island.

Ockerbloom, John Mark. (ed.) 2017. Online books by Sereno Watson. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Peterson, Kris 'Peterborough K'. 2002. Sereno Watson. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Schneider, A. 2016. Biographies of scientists and explorers. in Wildflowers, ferns, & trees of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, & Utah (here)

Smithsonian Institution. 2017. U.S. Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel - Clarence King (1867-1871). National Museum of Natural History. Washington, D.C.

Watson, Sereno. 1871. Botany. in King, Clarence. U.S. Geological Survey of the Fortieth Parallel. Vol. 5. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. 525 pp.

Watson, Sereno & William W. Bailey. 1869. Field notebook for Botany of United States Geological Exploration, 40th Parallel. Sereno Watson papers. Archives of the Gray Herbarium. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Weller, Stuart (1870 - 1927)

Stuart Weller (portrait here) was born in Maine, New York (about 10 miles northwest of present day Binghamton) on December 26, 1870 to Reverend James and Henrietta Weller. Stuart had an elder sister, Marion, and a younger sister, Annie (Ancestry.com 2023, Chamberlin & Moore 1928, Yale University 1928). In about 1882 the family moved to Springfield, Missouri and there Stuart attended Drury Academy (Drury College Preparatory School (Stringer 2017)). Encouraged by Edward Shephard, who taught sciences at Drury, Stuart became interested in botany. He participated in a U.S. Geological Survey field trip, which "flipped a switch" that motivated Weller to study geology and ultimately led to a geology/paleontology career (Chamberlin & Moore 1928, Leighton 2013).

Weller enrolled at Cornell University in 1891 and graduated in 1894, a period during which he served as museum assistant in paleontology and assistant in geology. In 1894 Stuart enrolled in the geology program at Yale University, but he was only in New Haven for a year, because he received an offer from the recently organized geology department at the University of Chicago to work on its paleontology collection. Prof. Weller remained associated with the University of Chicago in various capacities until his death in 1927 (Chamberlin & Moore 1928, Leighton 2013, Yale University 1928).

In addition to his teaching duties at the University of Chicago, Weller completed his Ph.D. at Yale University in 1901 (Motter 1912, Yale University 1928). Adjunct to his position at the University of Chicago, Dr. Weller was a paleontologist with the New Jersey Geological Survey (1889-1907), a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (1891-1927), and a paleontology consultant for the Illinois State Geological Survey (1906-1927). During his career on the University of Chicago campus, Dr. Weller spent a great deal of time and effort managing and exhibiting the geological collections in the Walker Museum. In 1919 he was named director of the museum and he retained that responsibility until his death (University of Chicago Library 2006).

His research focused on the stratigraphy within and the invertebrate fauna of the Mississippian Period of the Paleozoic Era of the Mississippi Valley. Much of his field work was completed in the region around Ste. Genevieve, Missouri about 45 miles south of St. Louis (Chamberlin & Moore 1928, Leighton 2013). Though his concentration was on Mississippian paleontology, his work was not strictly confined to that area. A quick survey of his published works via Google Scholar or Ockerbloom (2023) reveals investigations of invertebrate Cretaceous fossils of New Jersey (Weller 1907a), the structural/stratigraphical/paleontological geology of parts of Illinois (Weller 1907b, Weller et al. 1920), a report on a historic fossil collection (Weller 1903), and the parallels that exist between the rise and fall of various creatures from Earth's distant past and contemporary developments among diverse groups of humans (Weller 1927).

In 1897 Stuart married Ms. Harriet Annie Marvin (a Drury College graduate) and they raised three sons, James, Chester, and Allan (Chamberlin & Moore 1928, Leighton 2013, Drury College 1899). It was James who followed in his father's footsteps. Just as Stuart had done, James worked for the Illinois Geological Survey, earned his Ph.D., and became a professor of paleontology at the University of Chicago (Willman 1978). Stuart suffered a severe angina attack while completing a geological survey in Kentucky and perished August 5, 1927 in Livingston, Kentucky. He was survived by his widow and three sons (Ancestry.com 2023, Tribune Company 1927).

Dr. Weller's plant collecting focused on two locations: the vicinity of Springfield, Missouri during the 1887-1890 time period and the area around Babb, Montana just outside Glacier National Park in 1901. The U.S. Geological Survey sent a party of investigators to Montana in 1901. They were tasked with determining the condition of the international boundary monuments in the area and to record observations of the region's geology. Stuart Weller was the party's paleontologist and he took advantage of the opportunity to collect part of the local flora (Standley 1922). Stuart is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by twenty plant specimens he collected near Springfield, Missouri in 1887. Several hundred additional specimens (plant and fossil) collected by Stuart Weller may be viewed via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Stuart Weller. Kenyon/Weller/Kallander/Simons Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Chamberlin, Thomas C. & Raymond C. Moore. 1928. Memorial of Stuart Weller. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 39:115-126.

Drury College. 1899. Twenty-sixth annual catalogue of Drury College. Drury College. Springfield, Missouri. p. 90 of 95.

Leighton, Morris W. 2013. Stuart Weller. Illinois State Geol. Survey. Champaign, Illinois.

Motter, H.L. (ed.) 1912. The International who's who: who's who in the world: 1912. The International Who's Who Publ. Co. New York City, New York. p. 1081 of 1133.

Ockerbloom, John Mark. (ed.) 1912. Online books by Stuart Weller. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Standley, Paul C. 1922. Flora of Glacier National Park, Montana. Contrib. U.S. National Herbarium. Washington, DC. Vol. 22. No. 5. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 252 of 438.

Stringer, Payton. 2017. Founders of Drury pave way to liberal arts education. The Mirror.

Tribune Company. 1927. Dr. S.E. Weller, U.C. geologist, Dies suddenly. Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. p. 14. column 7. August 6, 1927.

University of Chicago Library. 2006. Guide to the Stuart Weller Papers 1900-1927. Special Collections Research Center. University of Chicago. Chicago, Illinois.

Weller, S. 1903. The Stokes Collection of Antarctic Fossils. Jrnl. of Geology. 11:413-419.

Weller, S. 1907a. A report on the Cretaceous paleontology of New Jersey. Geol. Survey of New Jersey. Vol. 4. Paleontology Series. Trenton, New Jersey. 871 pp.

Weller, S. 1907b. The geological map of Illinois. Bull. No. 6. Illinois State Geol. Survey. Univ. of Illinois. Urbana, Illinois.

Weller, S. 1927. Paleontology and human relations. Annual Rpt. Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Inst. pp. 309-319 of 580.

Weller, S., Butts, C., Currier, L. W., & Salisbury, R. D. 1920. The geology of Hardin County, and the adjoining part of Pope County. Illinois State Geol. Surv. Bull. No. 41. Urbana, Illinois. 416 pp. + maps.

Willman, H.B. 1978. Memorial to James Marvin Weller (1899-1976) . Geol. Soc. America Memorials. Vol. 8. p. 12.

Yale University. 1928. Obituary record of Yale Graduates. Bull. Yale University. No. 87. Yale University. New Haven, Connecticut. pp. 266-267 of 365.

Wells, Wayne W. (1892 - 1972)

Wayne Winfield Wells was born January 28, 1892 in Lee's Summit, Missouri. He was the third of seven children (six boys and one girl) raised by John and Ella Wells. By 1895 the family had moved to California, the same year that two of Wayne's younger brothers, Jacob and William, died in Compton. The family remained in the Los Angeles area at least until 1902, when the youngest child, Archibald, was born. By 1910, according to the U.S. Federal Census, the Wells family had moved to Eugene, Oregon, John was working as a common laborer, and everyone else was unemployed (Ancestry.com 2023).

Wayne graduated from Eugene High School in June 1912 and soon thereafter began teaching at Blue River, Oregon (Fischer & Finneran 1912, Wells 1912). It appears that Wayne was not a teacher in the school, but the only teacher in the school (Finneran 1913 a&b). He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon in 1919 and accepted a position teaching mathematics and science at Baker High School (Churchill 1919 &1921, Shelton 1919b, Truwe 2017). The following year Wayne moved on to Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Oregon where he taught science (Jackson 1920, Maloney 1921). Wayne stayed at Marshfield through June 1925 (Maloney 1925) and in 1926 he left secondary education all together for a position as a biology instructor at Whitman College (Walla Walla, Washington). Later that year he became a member of the biology faculty at Southern Oregon Normal School (the present-day Southern Oregon University) in Ashland, Oregon (Truwe 2017, Whitman College 1926). Wedged among the pieces of that employment latticework were Wayne's other activities.

Wayne was a thespian, a member of Coos Bay's Little Theatre Association, and he had roles in a variety of productions (e.g. Maloney 1922 & 1923, Ruhl 1931). Wells registered for the draft in June 1917 during World War I (Ancestry.com 2023), but he did not serve until the beginning of 1919. At that time he was assigned to the 65th Coast Artillery Corps and completed training at Camp Dix, New Jersey (Shelton 1919a, Truwe 2017). Beyond his military service, Wayne also found time to complete his education by earning a master's degree in 1926 and the Ph.D. in 1931 from the University of Washington (Truwe 2017, Wells 1931).

Beyond his Ph.D. work and one other publication (Wells 1928 & 1931) on the Pinnotheridae (Crustaceans known as Pea Crabs), Dr. Wells does not appear to have engaged in a research program geared toward any specific organism. Instead, he focused on teaching biology at the collegiate level, as well as developing appropriate academic policies and improvements in teaching methods (Cowper 1938). He investigated biological stations established in other parts of the United States (Ruhl 1937), perhaps to acquire methods that might be employed to improve the summer classes he taught at the Puget Sound Biological Station (Fisher 1928). Dr. Wells was mentioned by Brown (1959) as the collector of a fossil oak leaf and he was cited by Jewett (1955) as the collector of Mexican free-tailed bats made near Ashland. The point being that, though Dr. Wells did not publish on investigative research, he was actively involved in field work that contributed to scientific inquiries.

On a completely different topic of discussion, Dr. Wells was the one-time owner of a house in the Siskiyou-Hargadine Historic District of Ashland, Oregon. It's a stucco-clad bungalow style house that was built between January and April 1922 by A.L. Lamb for Carl Loveland and his wife (Ashland Printing Co. 1922a&b). The home was purchased by Wells in about 1944 (National Park Service 2002).

Three specimens of Rosa collected in 1952 by Wayne Wells in Jackson County, Oregon are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Five specimens collected by W.W. Wells are listed as part of the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database and a few others are among the listing in the iDigBio database.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Wayne Winfield Wells. Lindseth Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ashland Printing Co. 1922a. To build home. Ashland Weekly Tidings. Ashland, Oregon. p. 4. column 2. January 25, 1922.

Ashland Printing Co. 1922b. Will move this week. Ashland Weekly Tidings. Ashland, Oregon. p. 4. column 3. April 26, 1922.

Brown, Roland W. 1959. Some paleobotanical problematica. Jrnl. Paleontology 33:120-124.

Churchill, J.A. 1919. Official directory of superintendents, supervisors, principals, high school teachers, and standard high schools of the State of Oregon 1921-1922. Dept. of Educ. State of Oregon. State Printing Dept. Salem, Oregon. p. 20 of 120.

Churchill, J.A. 1921. Official directory of superintendents, supervisors, principals, high school teachers, and standard high schools of the State of Oregon 1921-1922. Dept. of Educ. State of Oregon. State Printing Dept. Salem, Oregon. p. 33 of 133.

Cowper, William. 1938. Keeping abreast of the times. The Phi Delta Kappan. 21:14-25. (see p. 18.)

Finneran, E.J. (ed.) 1913a. Blue River exercises. Eugene Daily Guard. Eugene, Oregon. p. 4. column 2. May 26, 1913.

Finneran, E.J. (ed.) 1913b. Visits M'Kenzie Schools. Eugene Daily Guard. Eugene, Oregon. p. 3. column 2. November 24, 1913.

Fisher, Robert. (ed.) 1928. Normal to have new laboratory on biological station grounds. The Weekly Messenger. Washington State Normal School. Bellingham, Washington. Vol. 27. p. 1. columns 5 & 6. May 11, 1928.

Fisher, Charles H. & E.J. Finneran. 1912. Class of 62 will graduate on Friday. Eugene Daily Guard. Eugene, Oregon. p. 2. column 4. June 6, 1912.

Jackson, C.S. (publisher) 1920. Youngsters face return to books. Oregon Daily Journal. Portland, Oregon. p. 2. column 7. September 1, 1920.

Jewett, Stanley G. 1955. Free-Tailed bats, and melanistic mice in Oregon. Jrnl. Mammalogy. 36:458-459.

Maloney, M.C. (ed.) 1921. Teachers gather. Coos Bay Times. Coos Bay & North Bend, Oregon. p. 2. column 2. May 7, 1921.

Maloney, M.C. (ed.) 1922. Little Theater play very . Coos Bay Times. Coos Bay & North Bend, Oregon. p. 5. column 5. October 27, 1922.

Maloney, M.C. (ed.) 1923. Many see play. Coos Bay Times. Coos Bay & North Bend, Oregon. p. 6. column 1. November 24, 1923.

Maloney, M.C. (ed.) 1925. Over 600 vote in school election. Coos Bay Times. Coos Bay & North Bend, Oregon. p. 1. column 2. June 16, 1925.

National Park Service. 2002. Carl Loveland House: Siskiyou-Hargadine Historic District. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Dept. of the Interior. Washington, D.C. Sec. 7. Page 163.

Ruhl, Robert W. (ed.) 1931. Ashland Normal faculty to give three-act play. Medford Mail Tribune. Medford, Oregon. p. 14. column 1. November 12, 1931.

Ruhl, Robert W. (ed.) 1937. Dr. Wells is granted leave. Medford Mail Tribune. Medford, Oregon. Second section. p. 1. columns 7&8. December 17, 1937.

Shelton, J.E. (ed.) 1919a. Local boys in 65th at Camp Dix. Eugene Daily Guard. Eugene, Oregon. p. 1. column 7. January 31, 1919.

Shelton, J.E. (ed.) 1919b. Teachers sent out by 'U' find positions. Eugene Daily Guard. Eugene, Oregon. p. 2. columns 1-3. June 30, 1919.

Truwe, Ben. 2017. Who was who in Southern Oregon history. WebLog. Southern Oregon History.
Original sources: Who's Who in Oregon 1929-1930. Oregon City Enterprise. p. 230. and Capitol's Who's Who for Oregon 1948-49. p. 583.

Wells, Wayne W. 1912. Stories from school public [sic] at Blue River. Eugene Daily Guard. Eugene, Oregon. p. 10. column 4. December 21, 1912.

Wells, Wayne W. 1928. The Pinnotheridae of Puget Sound. Publ. Puget Sound Biol. Station. Univ. Washington. 6:283-314.

Wells, Wayne W. 1931. Ecology and taxonomy of the Pinnotheridae of Puget Sound. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Washington. Seattle, Washington. 78 pp.

Whitman College. 1926. Catalogue of Whitman College. Whitman College Quarterly. 29:11 & 91.

Wells, William DeWitt (1858 - 1909)

William D. Wells, a son of Sanford and Jennie M. Wells (née Mehitable Jane DeWitt), was born in Rutland Township, Pennsylvania in August 1858. He had three younger siblings, two sisters and a brother, all of whom were born in Iowa (Ancestry.com 2023, Downer 1910, Jones 2006). Sanford, a contractor and bridge builder, moved the family to the vicinity of California, Missouri shortly after William's birth. Ill will that developed between them and Confederate sympathizers forced the family to move to Waterloo, Iowa, when William was two years old. In fact, the coup de grâce, occurred when a group of pro-slavery malcontents attacked the Wells family in about 1860. That attack forever left a mark on William in the form of a scar on his forehead, where a rifle slug grazed him, while he lay in his cradle (Ancestry.com 2023, Downer 1910).

Mr. Wells began his education in the schools of East Waterloo, Iowa, graduated from the high school in that city, and then obtained his Black Hawk county teaching certificate in 1874. Wells began his teaching career in a school two miles from Cedar Falls and later continued teaching in Finchford for a year. He then moved on to serve as principal in Jesup for three years — less six months spent at Iowa State Normal School (present-day University of Northern Iowa) in Cedar Falls (Downer 1910, Ronge 1909).

From Jesup, Wells went to Ames, where he graduated in 1883 with a Bachelor of Science degree in liberal arts & sciences (Iowa State College 1904, Stanton 1883). Wells then left Ames and moved to Scott County, Iowa where he became the principal of the school at LeClaire on the Mississippi River. He remained in LeClaire for four years and then moved on to a teaching position in Grundy Center, Iowa. After eight years in Grundy Center, Wells was offered the principal's position of public school No. 3 (Jefferson School) in Davenport, Iowa. In 1898 he was promoted to principal of Davenport High School (Downer 1910, Ronge 1909).

Mr. Wells was elected Scott County Superintendent of Schools in 1906, a position he retained until his death. In 1891 he was awarded the distinguished "Life Diploma" by the state in recognition of his conscientious and effective efforts in education (Downer 1910, Ronge 1909, Sabin 1891). In addition to his duties as teacher and supervisor, Mr. Wells produced the occasional publication regarding his thoughts on education (e.g. Wells 1897a,b,c; 1900; 1908).

While teaching in LeClaire, William met Kate Moore and they were married in March 1886. Reports differ regarding the number of children the couple raised, but six of them (three daughters and three sons) were living at the time of William's death. Mr. Wells perished of tuberculosis in 1909 and Kate in 1951; both were interred in Davenport, Iowa's Oakdale Cemetery (Ancestry.com 2023, Downer 1910, Hardman 1909, Ronge 1909, Scott 2017 a&b).

There are 131 specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium that were collected by W.D. Wells. Many were collected in the early 1880s, when William was a student at Iowa State College and nearly all of the rest were collected about 1887, when he was teaching in LeClaire along the Mississippi River. Other than those stored in the Putnam Museum, no W.D. Wells collections are listed in either the SEINet or the iDigBio specimen database.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. William DeWitt Wells. Winter-VanArtsdalen Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Downer, Harry, E. 1910. History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa. Volume 2. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 137-139 of 1026.

Hardman, J.E. (ed.) 1909. Superintendent W.D. Wells is called to rest. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 1. April 26, 1909.

Jones, J. Kelsey. 2006. Families of Wells, Wells Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania. WebLog. in Tice, Joyce M. Tri-Counties Genealogy & History. Mansfield, Pennsylvania.

Iowa State College. 1904. List of graduates. Bull. Iowa State College of Agric. & Mech. Arts. Vol. 2. Bull. 2. p. 359 of 382.

Ronge, H.E. 1909. In memoriam: W.D. Wells Proc. 55th Annual Session Iowa State Teachers Assn. pp. 27-29 of 264.

Sabin, Henry. 1891. Biennial report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Iowa. G.H. Ragsdale, printer. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 118 of 209.

Scott, D.M. 2017a. Kate Edvena Moore Wells. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Scott, D.M. 2017b. William DeWitt Wells. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Stanton, E.W. 1883. Tenth biennial report of the Board of Trustees of the Iowa State Agricultural College. Geo. E. Roberts, state printer. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 167 of 185.

Wells, W.D. 1897a. Corporal punishment. Iowa Normal Monthly 21:15-17.

Wells, W.D. 1897b. Botany in the seventh and eighth grades. Iowa Normal Monthly 21:156-161.

Wells, W.D. 1897c. Iowa school matters. Iowa Normal Monthly 21:384-385.

Wells, W.D. 1900. The young teacher. Iowa Normal Monthly 24:53-54.

Wells, W.D. 1908. The new certificate law - Its merits and its defects. Proc. 53rd Annual Session Iowa State Teachers Assn. pp. 67-71 of 296.

Wheeler, Charles Fay (1842 - 1910)

Charles Fay Wheeler (photograph here), the younger of two sons in the family, was born June 14, 1842 in Mexico, New York to Charles and Mary (née Walker) Wheeler (Wheeler 1914). He attended the district schools near his home until he was 15, at which time he enrolled at Mexico Academy to complete his education (Beal 1910, Beers 1900). In October 1861, following his graduation from the academy, Wheeler enlisted in Company B of the Seventh Regiment of the New York Cavalry (aka Black Horse Cavalry). He was mustered out at the end of March in 1862 and subsequently re-enlisted in August of the same year in Company F of the 147th Regiment of New York Infantry (Beal 1910).

Exposure to the tormenting snow, rain, and low temperatures of late 1862 and early 1863 took its toll on the Union and Confederate Armies (Krick 2007 - see chapters 3 & 4). Wheeler served three years in the 147th and he spent the winter of 1862/63 on a hill in Washington, D.C. in the vicinity of present-day Howard University. The onerous conditions caused Wheeler's health to deteriorate severely (Beal 1910, McWhood 2016, Perry 2007, Wight 1910) and he was stricken with typhoid fever, which in November 1862 sent him to Catholic College Hospital in Georgetown. Then in December he was transferred to Philadelphia's United States General Hospital with an exacerbating case of pneumonia. All-in-all, because his afflictions rendered him incapable of performing his military duties, Wheeler was discharged from service March 21, 1863 (Beal 1910, McWhood 2016, MSU Archives 2017, Perry 2007).

So physically debilitated was Wheeler that he was forced to take accommodations with friends in Hubbardston, Michigan (about 30 miles northwest of Lansing). Taking advantage of what he hoped were the recuperative powers of fresh air and the "great outdoors", Charles began investigating the plant life in and around Hubbardston with a copy of Gray's Field, Forest, and Garden Botany Manual in hand. In 1866 his physical condition had improved and Charles enrolled in the medical school at the University of Michigan, but he stayed for only a year and returned to Hubbardston (Beal 1910, McWhood 2016, Perry 2007, Rodgers 1952, Wight 1910).

There, either before or after he attended the University of Michigan, Charles became acquainted with Catherine Trask Holbrook. Ms. Holbrook was one of ten children in the family headed by James T. and Electa B. Holbrook who had moved from Oakham, Massachusetts to Hubbardston in about 1855. James Holbrook initially ran a general store in Hubbardston, but eventually was involved in several other business interests (Ancestry.com 2023 a&b, Bryant 2017, Schenck 1881).

Evidently Charles Wheeler's career in business began when he entered into a partnership with his cousin, Henry Wheeler, and it seems they eventually took on a member of his Kate's family as an associate. The new partnership had to have been in cooperation with someone other than Kate's father, because he died in 1864. At any rate, "Wheeler & Holbrook", a drugs, medicines, books, and stationery store came into being (Bryant 2017, Cusack 1968, Rodgers 1952,). In total, Charles spent 22 years as a drugstore/bookstore merchant, as well as serving as town assessor and trustee several times (Beal 1910, McWhood 2016, Perry 2007, Schenck 1881). According to Rodgers (1952. See p. 10.) Charles Wheeler "was a born teacher and a man who rapidly and effectively got hold of young people for their improvement. Next to the church and perhaps more so than the church, the drug store in that village was the intellectual center."

It seems that a career in retail was for Wheeler just a means to an end, as it provided sufficient income for a comfortable living and it allowed him to pursue his real joy in life, the study of the local flora. In the words of Liberty Hyde Bailey, "plants and the fields were clearly his first love" (Beal 1910, Perry 2007, Wight 1910). Charles was known to take pride in sharing his botanical discoveries with other members of the community and one particularly important "student" of his was Erwin F. Smith, who arrived in Hubbardston in 1870 (Chung 2017). Smith and Wheeler remained friends and plant collecting partners for many years (Rodgers 1952), a long-term collaboration that resulted in two publications dealing with Michigan's flora (Wheeler & Smith 1881a&b). Over time Wheeler amassed a personal herbarium of over 7000 specimens, which eventually became part of the collection at Michigan State University (Beal 1910).

In 1889 Mr. Wheeler accepted a botany position at Michigan Agricultural College (present-day Michigan State University) and two years later he earned his B.S. degree from the school. Charles published infrequently, but in 1892 he and William J. Beal collaborated on a Michigan Flora (Beal & Wheeler 1892) that superseded the earlier work Wheeler had completed with Erwin Smith. Later, two papers resulted from a field trip he took to Michigan State College's satellite research facility in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. One paper was a summary of the geology and botany of the area (Wheeler 1901b) and the second focused on a dwarf mistletoe that he found was parasitizing black spruce (Wheeler 1901a). Wheeler remained in East Lansing until 1902 and during his tenure on campus he worked with Gilbert H. Hicks and William J. Beal to develop the campus botanical garden and expand the herbarium (Beal 1910, Beers 1900, Wight 1910). He left Michigan Agricultural College to take a position with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington, D.C. (Beal 1910, Perry 2007, Wight 1910).

In Washington, Wheeler continued with herbarium work and plant identification. He also was in charge of the department's Economic Gardens, became an active member of the Washington Biologists' Field Club, and in 1907 was awarded an honorary doctorate from Michigan Agricultural College (Beal 1910, Perry 2007, Wight 1910). Mr. Wheeler died at George Washington Hospital in Washington, D.C. on March 5th, 1910 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery (Beal 1910, McWhood 2016, Perry 2007). He was survived by his spouse and two daughters, Mary and Clara (Ancestry.com 2023b).

Twenty-one Carex specimens collected by C.F. Wheeler in 1890 from Michigan are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Hundreds of other Wheeler collections may be viewed via the SEINet and iDigBio specimen databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023a. Catherine Trask Holbrook. Wells-Wooter7gen Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2023b. Charles Fay Wheeler. Bailey Robinson Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Beal, William J. 1904. Michigan Flora: A list of the fern and seed plants growing without cultivation. State Ag. College of Michigan. Robert Smith Printing Co. Lansing, Michigan. 89 pp.

Beal, W. J. 1910. Charles Fay Wheeler. Rpt. Michigan Acad. Sci. 12:14-15.

Beal, William J. & Charles F. Wheeler. 1892. Michigan Flora. Prepared for the Thirtieth Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. R. Smith & Company, printers. 180 pp.

Beers, J.H. 1900. Educators of Michigan. J.H. Beers & Co. Chicago, Illinois. pp.84-85 of 510.

Bryant, Don. 2017. James Trask Holbrook. Wells Wooster Genealogy & History.

Chung, King-Thom. 2017. Erwin Frank Smith (1854-1927): Father of Bacterial/Mycotic Plant Pathology. WebLog. University of Memphis. Memphis, Tennessee.

Cusack, Helen A. 1968. Hubbardston, Yesterday And Today - 1968. WebLog.

Krick, Robert K. 2007. Civil War weather in Virginia. University of Alabama Press. Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 192 pp.

McWhood, Lynn. 2016. Wheeler, Charles Fay, (1842-1910). Papers on genus Carex, 1897-1906. Archives. Gray Herbarium. Harvard University Herbaria. Harvard College. Cambridge Massachusetts.

MSU Archives. 2017. Charles Fay Wheeler. MSU Archives and Historical Collections. Michigan State University. East Lansing, Michigan.

Perry, M.C. 2007. Charles Fay Wheeler. Washington Biologists' Field Club. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. Laurel, Maryland.

Rodgers, Andrew Denny. 1952. Erwin Frink Smith: a story of North American plant pathology. Amer. Philosophical Soc. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 675 pp.

Schenck, John S. 1881. History of Ionia and Montcalm counties, Michigan. D.W. Ensign & Co. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 272-275 of 503.

Wheeler, Albert Gallatin. 1914. The genealogical and encyclopedic history of the Wheeler family in America. American College of Genealogy. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 174 of 594.

Wheeler, Charles. F. 1901a. The dwarf mistletoe in Michigan. Bull. 186. First Rpt. Upper Peninsula Expt. Station. Michigan State Ag. College. East Lansing, Michigan. pp. 178-183.

Wheeler, Charles. F. 1901b. The geology and botany of the Upper Peninsula Experiment Station. Bull. 186. First Rpt. Upper Peninsula Expt. Station. Michigan State Ag. College. East Lansing, Michigan. pp. 169-178.

Wheeler, Charles. F. & Erwin F. Smith. 1881a. Catalogue of the phaenogamous and vascular cryptogamous plants of Michigan, Indigenous, Naturalized, and Adventive. W.S. George & Co. Lansing, Michigan. 105 pp.

Wheeler, Charles. F. & Erwin F. Smith. 1881b. Michigan Flora. Science 2:380-382.

Wight, W.F. 1910. Charles Fay Wheeler. Science 32:72-75.

Whitaker, George (1878 - 1947)

George Hale Whitaker, a son of Lottie and Byron Whitaker, was born on Valentine's Day in 1878. His only sibling was a half-sister, Edna (Scott 2016). Though a June 1894 Davenport Public School "certificate of admission to enter high school" for George H. Whitaker exists (Putnam Museum & Science Center 2017), there is no record of his graduation from Davenport High School (Labath 2012).

In the late 1890s the family began spending winters in California (Cook 1897, Davenport Democrat 1900), but sometime during the first decade of the 20th century they changed their habits and began wintering in St. Petersburg, Florida (Cram 1920, Leysen 1923). How often George accompanied his parents on those trips is unknown. As an adult George was an active member of the Davenport Elks Lodge (Harrison 1947), but little else about his personal history was published in the local newspapers.

George H. Whitaker remained a bachelor during his entire life and was preceded in death by his parents and his sister (Scott 2016). He died May 4, 1947 and was buried in Davenport's Oakdale Cemetery (Gertz 2007, Scott 2016). George's estate was valued at about $70,000 (approximately $1,000,000 in today's dollars) and, since he had no living heirs, his real estate holdings were auctioned off at a public sale (Harrison 1949), but not until two years after his death. How is George Whitaker connected to this assemblage of plant collectors?

Edward Decker (1891), Edwin Farber (1892), Naomi Melville (1891), Emma Peck (1887), Inez Rabell (1888), John Randall (1886), Anna Richter (1890), and Edith Ross (1886) were Davenport High School graduates (Labath 2012), whose herbarium specimens are preserved at the Putnam Museum. Evidently during the 1880s and 1890s, when George Whitaker may have attended high school, at least some Davenport High School seniors completed science projects that involved assembling a personal herbarium. George Whitaker's specimens seem to be of that ilk, yet the only record of his connection to Davenport High School is the certificate mentioned above. For the period 1887 through 1899 only three Whitakers graduated from Davenport High School and all three were women.

The bound herbarium assembled by George Whitaker holds thirty plant specimens. All were collected in the spring of 1895 in the Davenport, Iowa area and they are housed in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Cook S.D. (ed.) 1897. Personals. Davenport Daily Republican. p. 6. column 1. November 20, 1897.

Cram, Ralph W. (ed.) 1920. Davenporters among tourists in St. Petersburg. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. P. 9. column 8. December 6, 1920.

Davenport Democrat. 1900. In summer land. Davenport Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 7. column 5. March 16, 1900.

Gertz, Bill. 2007. Oakdale Cemetery records. Scott County Iowa Genealogy. Celtic Cousins.

Harrison, Hugh. (ed.) 1947. Memorial for deceased Elks to be Sunday. Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 8. column 3. December 5, 1947.

Harrison, Hugh. (ed.) 1949. Referee's sale. Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 34. column 7. June 15, 1949.

Labath, Cathy (coordinator). 2012. Scott County: Iowa School Records . IAGenWeb Project. Davenport High School Class Listings.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1923. Many Davenport people spending winter in south. Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 20. column 4. January 23, 1923.

Putnam Museum & Science Center. 2017. Archive Inventory: Archival Boxes, Misc. Documents, Scrapbooks and Ledgers. Inventory General Documents. Box 1. GD-128. Location: LIB-ARCH-R3-CAB1-Shelf 6. Folder 1. Putnam Museum & Science Center. Davenport, Iowa.

Scott, DM. 2016. George Hale Whitaker. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

White, Theodore Greeley (1872 - 1901)

Theodore Greeley White (photo here), son of Joseph T. and Caroline White (née Greeley), was born August 6, 1872 in Danbury, Connecticut and completed his secondary education at Columbia Grammar School (Ancestry.com 2023, Anonymous 1901, Greeley 1905, Kemp 1902, Pine 1901). White showed an interest in science as a youth and he was an active member of his New York high school chapter of the Agassiz Association (White 1894a). He continued his education at Columbia School of Mines in New York, where he focused on botany, geology, and paleontology. White earned his Ph.B. in 1894, which included a study of the geology of Essex and Willsboro townships (Mayer 1898, White 1894b) and he completed his M.S. from the same school in 1895 (Kemp 1902, Pine 1901). He received his doctorate from Columbia in 1899 (Kemp 1902, van Amringe & Pine 1900) and published his Ph.D. work on the stratigraphy and fossils of the geological formations near Trenton, New York (Museum of Comparative Zoology 2017, White 1895b).

Theodore White's employment record began in the physics department at Columbia University, where between 1896 and 1900 his efforts focused on the field of optics (Anonymous 1901, Kemp 1902, Pine 1901). Outside the physics department, the diversity of Dr. White's membership alliances (e.g. Agassiz Association, Geological Society of America, New York Academy of Sciences, Torrey Botanical Club) reflected his professional interest (Anonymous 1901) in subjects botanical (e.g. White 1893, 1894c, 1895a, 1897a&b, 1899b) and geological (e.g. van & White 1895, White 1894b, 1895b, 1896, 1899a&c). Outside of science, Dr. White became interested in the social and political well-being of New York City.

As early as 1897 Theodore became active in New York City's Vigilance League (New York Times 1897 a&b). After 1900 White became particularly interested in the health and welfare of young people. In 1901 he was instrumental in the founding of Gordon House (127 West 17th Street, Manhattan Island, New York City), which was established to promote athletic, educational, and social activities for young men and boys. Ironically his well-intended and nurturing involvement in Gordon House led to his early demise. On a summer swimming field trip to Midland Beach with boys and friends from Gordon House, White was over-chilled by the exposure to the water and lost consciousness. He was pulled to shore, revived, and returned to his home the next day. Unfortunately he became ill, the illness developed into pneumonia from which he was unable to recover, and Theodore perished on July 7th, 1901, just a month shy of his 29th birthday (Kemp 1902, Montgomery 1905, New York Tribune 1901 a&b, Pine 1901, Taylor 1902, Williamson 1905, Woods & Kennedy 1911). Dr. White stipulated in his will that a $100,000 endowment be established to support Gordon House activities (Devine 1902).

White enjoyed studying the geology (Mayer 1898)and flora of on Maine's Mt. Desert Island. He published a brief piece on the mosses of the island (White 1893), another short work on the orchids of Mt. Desert Island (White 1895a), and he was often listed as the collector of record for many taxa in Rand & Redfield's "Flora of Mount Desert Island, Maine" (Rand & Redfield 1894).

Dr. White is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by four angiosperm specimens he collected from Seal Harbor, Hancock County, Maine (Mt. Desert Island) in July and August of 1891. A number of additional collections made by T.G. White (especially from Mt. Desert Island, Maine) are available for review via the SEINet and iDigBio specimen databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Theodore Greeley White. Morris-Lyons 4-9-12 Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1901. Theodore Greely (sic) White (obituary). The New York Times. New York City, New York. p. 7. column 6. July 8, 1901.

Devine, Edward T. (ed.) 1902. [Note regarding endowment established by the Last Will and Testament of Theodore G. White. Charities. February 15, 1902. 8(7):166.

Greeley, George Hiram. 1905. Genealogy of the Greely-Greeley Family. Frank Wood, printer. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 252 of 910.

Kemp, J. F. 1902. Theodore G. White (obituary). Annals New York Acad. Sci. 14:148-149.

Mayer, R.E. 1898. Members of the Alumni Association of the School of Mines. School of Mines Quarterly. 19:91.

Montgomery, Caroline Williams. 1905. Bibliography of college, social, university and church settlements. The Blakely Press. Chicago, Illinois. p. 75 of 145.

Museum of Comparative Zoology. 2017. "Golden Era" of Trenton Falls Paleontologic and Stratigraphic Research (1843 to 1899). Dept. Invertebrate Paleontology. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

New York Times. 1897a. Vigilance League for Low. The New York Times. New York City, New York. p. 2. column 1. September 14, 1897.

New York Times. 1897b. City Vigilance League meeting. The New York Times. New York City, New York. p. 12. column 1. November 10, 1897.

New York Tribune. 1901a. A teacher's narrow escape. The New York Times. New York City, New York. p. 2. column 4. July 1, 1901.

New York Tribune. 1901b. Dr. Theodore G. White dies. The New York Times. New York City, New York. p. 2. column 2. July 8, 1901.

Pine, John B. 1901. Theodore G. White. Columbia Univ. Quarterly 4:50-52.

Rand, Edward L. & John H. Redfield. 1894. Flora of Mount Desert Island, Maine. University Press. John Wilson & Son. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 286 pp.

Taylor, Graham. (ed.) 1902. From Lincoln House, Boston to Gordon House, New York. The Commons. 6(68):7.

van Amringe, J.H. & John B. Pine. (committee) 1900. Officers and graduates of Columbia University. Columbia University in the City of New York. pp. 470, 496, 508 of 760.

van Ingen, Gilbert & Theodore G. White. 1895. An account of the summer's work in geology on Lake Champlain. Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 15:19-23.

White, Theodore G. 1893. Mosses of Mt. Desert Island, Maine. The Asa Gray Bulletin. 1:2-3.

White, Theodore G. (cor. sec.) 1894a. Selected reports from chapters: No. 949. New York City. Student's chapter. Agassiz Association. The Observer 5:205-207.

White, Theodore G. 1894b. The geology of Essex and Willsboro townships, Essex County, N.Y. Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 13:214-231.

White, Theodore G. 1894c. A preliminary revision of the genus Lathyrus in North and Central America. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 21:444-458.

White, Theodore G. 1895a. Notes on the Orchidaceae of Mt. Desert Island, Maine. The Asa Gray Bull. 3:44-46.

White, Theodore G. 1895b. The fauna of the Upper Ordovician Strata at Trenton Falls, Oneida County, N.Y. Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 15:71-96.

White, Theodore G. 1896. The original Trenton Rocks. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 2:430-432.

White, Theodore G. 1897a. Mechanical elevation of the roots of trees. The Asa Gray Bulletin 5:2-4.

White, Theodore G. 1897b. The common names of wild flowers. The Asa Gray Bulletin 5:36-37.

White, Theodore G. 1899a. A contribution to the petrography of the Boston Basin. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. History 28:117-156.

White, Theodore G. 1899b. On the supposed smothering of evergreens by Usnea. The Plant World, 2:169-170.

White, Theodore G. 1899c. Upper Ordovician faunas in Lake Champlain Valley. Bull. Geol. Soc. America 10:452-462.

Williamson, Caroline. (ed.) 1905. Bibliography of college, social university and church settlements. Blakely Press. Chicago, Illinois. p. 75 of 147.

Woods, Robert A. & Albert J. Kennedy. (eds.) 1911. Handbook of settlements. Russell Sage Foundation. Wm. F. Fell Co. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 321 of 326.

Whitehead, Rose (1874 - 1973)

Rose Alice Whitehead (photo here), the eldest child of Frank and Margaret A. Whitehead, was born in August 1874 in Mississippi. According to the Nebraska Census of 1885 and a California newspaper article, she had at least four younger brothers: William, Frank, Benjamin, and Arthur. We know the family moved to Nebraska prior to June 1880, because Frank was listed as being a farmer in the Shell Creek Precinct of Boone County, Nebraska in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census (Ancestry.com 2022, Fresno Republican Publishing Co. 1893). Rose was a member of the Albion High School graduating class of 1892 (Ladd 1892 & 1902) and she was a member of the Methodist Church's Epworth League (Lough 1962). Frank Whitehead moved his family to Madera, California in December 1892 (Fresno Republican Publishing Co. 1892, Turner & Co. 1892).

William H. Howard and Robert M. Wilson, real estate promoters from San Francisco, bought 23,000 acres of land in Madera County, California and established the Howard and Wilson Colony Company (Madera Tribune n.d.). They split the purchased land into 5-acre parcels and offered them for sale as fruit orchard and vineyard properties (San Francisco Call 1891). According to the third edition of their promotional brochure, "... we offer to sell twenty acres of rich land (worth $2500 now, and increasing rapidly), for only $500 down, with 6 per cent, interest on the balance at the end of each year (Howard & Wilson Colony Company 1891)." It was to one of those properties that the Whitehead family moved (Fresno Republican Publishing Co. 1892), but no information about the success of their farming enterprise has been uncovered.

Rose was affiliated with the local Lodge of the Good Templars, at least tangentially, as she performed a musical solo before the group and attended other meetings (Fresno Republican Publishing Co. 1896 & 1897). Evidently Rose entered the teaching field for a period of time in Madera County and, at least in 1895, she oversaw the education of twelve students in what must have been a one-room school for $420.00 per year (de Young 1895).

Rose married Milton E. Harrington in Madera on March 24, 1897 (Ancestry.com 2022, Family Search 2018). In 1900 they lived in Fresno County and by 1910 the Harringtons had moved to Santa Clara County, California, where they were raising four daughters and a son (Ancestry.com 2022, U.S. Census 1910). They remained in Santa Clara County until Milton's death in 1942 (Sentinel-News 1942). Rose was reported as being a citizen of Santa Rosa, California and as being deceased in 1938 (Maxwell 1930, Tisthammer 1938), but those reports were erroneous. Rose A. Harrington survived until April of 1973, just four months short of her 99th birthday, in San Jose, California (Ancestry.com 2022, Sather 2022).

The Albion High School class of 1892 consisted of nine students. Five of those nine, Myrtle Price, Chas. B. Riley, Helen Riley, Etta Roberts, Fannie Roberts, and Rose Whitehead are represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Seven dicot specimens collected by those students somehow found their way to Rebecca Merritt Austin in California and they (the plants, not the students) then made their way to Davenport, Iowa as part of a small bound herbarium assembled by Ms. Austin. Rose Whitehead was the collector of record for a single sheet of Lithospermum hirtum. A definitive link between Ms. Whitehead, Ms. Austin, and botany has yet to be discovered.

The Whitehead family reported in Family Search (2022) seems to be a blend of two families. It has commonalities with the information gleaned from Ancestry.com and other sources included here, but seems to be in need of some genealogical housecleaning. The paragraphs above are what I believe to be a fair biographical sketch of Rose Whitehead's life.

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Rose Alice Whitehead. Withrow Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

De Young, M.H. (proprietor) 1895. Madera County. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California. p. 5. column 7. August 19, 1895.

Family Search. 2018. California, County Marriages, 1850-1952.

Family Search. 2022. Rose Alice Whitehead.

Fresno Republican Publishing Co. 1892. News from Madera - Thirty colonists arrive from the east. The Daily Republican. Fresno, California. p. 4. column 2. December 21, 1892.

Fresno Republican Publishing Co. 1893. A boy killer. The Fresno Weekly Republican. Fresno, California. p. 6. column 6. March 24, 1893.

Fresno Republican Publishing Co. 1896. The I.O.G.T. Lodge The Fresno Weekly Republican. Fresno, California. p. 4. column 3. March 8, 1896.

Fresno Republican Publishing Co. 1897. Oleander items The Fresno Weekly Republican. Fresno, California. p. 3. column 5. February 23, 1897.

Howard & Wilson Colony Company. 1891. The Howard & Wilson Colony Company. Madera, Fresno County, California. Bancroft Company Press. San Francisco, California. 32 pp.

Ladd, A.W. 1892. Commencement. Albion Weekly News. Page 3. Column 4. May 20, 1892.

Ladd, A.W. 1902. Albion High School Alumni. Albion Weekly News. Page 8. Column 4. July 25, 1902.

Lough, Jack. (ed.) 1962. It was only yesterday - 1892. Albion News. Page 6. Column 1. February 23, 1962.

Madera Tribune. n.d. The richness of Howard School’s history. The Madera Tribune. Madera, California.

Maxwell, Kathryn. (ed.) 1930. Class of 1892 widely scattered. The Albion Argus. Albion, Nebraska. p. 6. column 3. February 20, 1930.

San Francisco Call. 1891. Colonization of California. The Morning Call. San Francisco, California. p. 2. column 3. March 22, 1891.

Sather, Scott. 2022. Rose A. Harrington. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Sentinel-News. 1942. Died - Harrington. Sentinel-News. Santa Clara, California. p. 7. column 1. July 12, 1942.

Tisthammer, Betty Ann. (ed.) 1938. Who's Who among A.H.S. alumni. Albion Weekly News. Albion, Nebraska. p. 9. column 1. November 17, 1938.

Turner, M.K. & Co. 1892. Society notices. The Columbus Journal. Columbus, Nebraska. p. 3. column 3. December 14, 1892.

U.S. Census. 1910. Santa Clara Township, Santa Clara County, California. Department of Commerce and Labor. Bureau of Census. Washington, D.C.

Wilkinson, Henry John (1859 - 1934)

Henry J. Wilkinson was born in Ogleforth, Yorkshire, England (December 1859) to Henry and Mary Wilkinson. Henry John had three older siblings, Robert, Ralph, and Frances (Ancestry.com 2023, England Census 1871). Henry Sr. made a living as a "boot and shoe maker" with help, at least for a time, from his elder son, Robert (England Census 1871). According to the census of 1911, Henry Jr. and his wife, Anne, were married in about 1885 (England Census 1911), but no additional family history information has been located.

Though apparently not an academically trained botanist, beginning in 1892 Henry Wilkinson served as the fourth herbarium curator of Yorkshire Philosophical Society (Desmond 1994, Wilkinson 1907a&b, Yorkshire Herald 1892) and wrote two papers about the collection. One publication (Wilkinson 1907a) was a historical narrative about the Yorkshire Philosophical Society Herbarium and the individuals who contributed plants to it. The second article (Wilkinson 1907b) was an inventory of the 1574 British plant species housed in the herbarium. It included a record of the specimens, where they had been collected, the year of collection, the location, and the collector. Mr. Wilkinson published only a few botanical articles, but his collections and knowledge of the flora of Yorkshire were cited in a number of works.

For example, Henry published a brief addendum to the Flora of Strensall (Wilkinson 1886) and he authored the section on seed and spore producing plants for the botanical section of "A Handbook to York and District" (Wilkinson 1906). Wilkinson wrote an botanical snippet about the flat-leaved bladderwort (Wilkinson 1918) and his insights regarding the well-being of Andromeda polifolia populations were quoted by Flintoff (1929). Henry's herbarium was utilized to evaluate the fluctuations in rare plant populations in North Yorkshire, U.K. (Gulliver 1990) and his work was acknowledged several times in "The Naturalist" (Sheppard & Woodhead 1918).

Mr. Wilkinson began contributing to the York and District Field Naturalists' Society as early as the summer of 1884, when he displayed several rare plants at the group's meetings (York Herald 1884a&b). Henry was also an active member of the York Florists' Society (Desmond 1994) and he even tried his hand at flower arrangement, by displaying a "one hand bouquet" at a Society show (Yorkshire Herald 1896). He became part of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union starting in 1893 (e.g. see Roebuck 1900 & Sheppard 1908) and Henry occasionally taught youth-oriented natural history classes (York Herald 1885 & 1889).

His complete work history is yet to be tallied, but for 20 years Henry Wilkinson was the director of Terry's Confectionery Works in York, England (Desmond 1994, England Census 1911). Henry was not only a confectioner, but a cricketer, as evidenced by his re-election as a vice-president of Terry's Employee's Cricket Club in 1899 (Yorkshire Herald 1899). Presumably Henry found his way to the pitch, but no mention of his abilities on the cricket field has surfaced. Regarding the candy factory itself, the story began in the 1760s, the business survived in various forms for over 200 years, and a brief history is provided by York's Chocolate Story (2023 a&b).

Seven herbarium specimens collected by H.J. Wilkinson or H.J. Wilkinson and H. Fisher are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. All seven specimens were collected in England during the 1880s. Another handful of specimens (nine) may be viewed via the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland specimen database. As an aside, H. Fisher was likely Harry Fisher. Mr. Fisher lived most of his life in Nottinghamshire (Ancestry.com 2021) and he contributed extensively to Sheffield Botanical Gardens in Sheffield, England. During their lives both men were well-known botanists who lived and worked in the same region of England, so it's reasonable for them to have gone on botanical forays together.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. Harry Fisher. Drabble and Lyon Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2022. Henry John Wilkinson. Hopper Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Desmond, Ray. 1994. Dictionary of British & Irish Botanists & Horticulturists. Taylor & Francis, LTD. The Natural History Museum. London. p. 740 of 831.

England Census. 1871. Census of England and Wales. St. John Delpike Parish. City of York. England.

England Census. 1911. Census of England and Wales. St. Helen's Square. City of York. England.

Flintoff, R.J. 1929. The status of Andromeda polifolia in North Yorkshire. Bot. Soc. & Exchange Club of the British Isles. Rpt. for 1929. 9:173-176.

Gulliver, R.L. 1990. The rare plants of the Howardian Hills, North Yorkshire, 1794-1988. Watsonia 18:69-80.

Roebuck, W. Denison. (ed.) 1900. 23rd - 28th annual reports (1897-1902). Trans. Yorkshire Naturalists' Union.

Sheppard, T. (ed.) 1908. 44th-47th annual reports (1905-1908). Trans. Yorkshire Naturalists' Union.

Sheppard, T. & T.W. Woodhead. (eds.) 1918. Notes and comments. The Naturalist. pp. 55-56, 115-116, 160.

Wilkinson, H.J. 1886. Flora of Strensall and District. The Naturalist. p. 173.

Wilkinson, Henry J. 1906. Phanerogamic flora and vascular cryptogams. in A handbook to York and District. Auden, George A. (ed.). John Sampson, Publ. York, England. pp. 275-293 of 365.

Wilkinson, Henry J. 1907a. Historical account of the herbarium of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society and the contributors thereto. York, England. 27 pp.

Wilkinson, Henry J. 1907b. Catalogue of British plants in the herbarium of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. York, England. 314 pp.

Wilkinson, Henry J. 1918. Utricularia intermedia, etc., near York. The Naturalist. No. 736. p. 160.

York Herald. 1884a. York and District Field Naturalists' Society. The York Herald. York, England. p. 3. column 2. June 13, 1884.

York Herald. 1884b. York and District Field Naturalists' Society. The York Herald. York, England. p. 12. column 2. August 16, 1884.

York Herald. 1885. Priory-Street Wesleyan Young Men's Class. The York Herald. York, England. p. 6. column 3. May 20, 1885.

York Herald. 1889. Natural History teaching. The York Herald. York, England. p. 3. column 2. March 29, 1889.

York's Chocolate Story. 2023a. A fully guided tour of York's chocolate history. King's Square, York. United Kingdom.

York's Chocolate Story. 2023b. The history of confectionery in York. King's Square, York. United Kingdom.

Yorkshire Herald. 1892. Yorkshire Philosophical Society. The Yorkshire Herald and The York Herald. York, England. p. 3. columns 5-7. February 3, 1892.

Yorkshire Herald. 1896. York Florists' Show. The Yorkshire Herald and The York Herald. York, England. p. 3. column 4. May 21, 1896.

Yorkshire Herald. 1899. Terry's Employees C.C. The Yorkshire Herald and The York Herald. York, England. p. 6. columns 5 & 6. September 26, 1899.

Willis, Oliver Rivington (1815 - 1902)

Oliver Rivington Willis was born in April of 1815 in Roslyn on Long Island, New York. Oliver, a son of Daniel and Elizabeth Willis, had two siblings, Deborah and William (Ancestry.com 2023, Brush 2017). He attended school at the Erasmus Hall Academy (a campus now home to five separate high schools in Brooklyn, New York's Flatbush neighborhood (Inside Schools 2017)) and completed his education at the College of New Jersey (present-day Princeton University (College of New Jersey 1869, Member#47194125 2012, New York Times 1902)) where he earned his master's degree in 1849 and received an honorary Ph.D. in 1868 (Chatfield 1868, College of New Jersey 1869, Steiger 1878).

In 1840 Willis established a free public school along Prospect Street in Princeton, New Jersey. He continued in that position for two years and then moved to Hightstown, New Jersey (Woodward & Hageman 1883). In Hightstown he opened a school for boys, but moved the school in 1848 to Freehold, New Jersey (future hometown of Bruce Springsteen) where he built and maintained the Freehold Institute, with Samuel C. Hicks (Connolly 1848, Ellis 1885, Willis 1848).

When the Freehold Institute first opened its doors, 24 male students were on the roster and the school's mission was to produce students who were "... fitted for commercial, scientific, or other pursuits in life, or will be prepared to enter any class in college (Willis 1848)". In the early 1860s, when Oliver left the school, the attendance had blossomed to over 100 and he was serving as principal, as well as being one of seven staff members (Ellis 1885, Yard 1854c). One of the other instructors was Paul A. Chadbourne who went on to become president of the University of Wisconsin, Williams College, and the University of Massachusetts (DBpedia 2023). It's interesting that, though the Freehold Institute was a school for young men, Willis and his associates also promoted the Freehold Young Ladies' Seminary run by Amos & Ruth Richardson (Richardson & Richardson 1848, Yard 1860 a&b).

In addition to his classroom responsibilities Mr. Willis was one of the organizers of the Monmouth County Teachers' Association (Yard 1855a) and he was active in the New Jersey Teachers' Association (Yard 1855b). He advised members of the Monmouth County Agricultural Society on soil chemistry and helped organize the Society's county fair (Yard 1854b, 1856, 1859b). Oliver and his wife, Amelia, even parlayed their knowledge and skills into occasional awards at the Monmouth County Fair (Yard 1854a, 1855c, 1859a, 1861a). In 1856 he described the financial benefits of the gas lighting that had been installed in the Freehold Institute (Willis 1856), which directly led citizens to consider adding gas lighting to the entirety of Freehold. Discussions ensued, facilities were visited, stocks were sold, loans were made, the Freehold Gas Works went into operation, and gas lighting came to Freehold in April 1858 (Yard 1858 a&c). The education partnership between Samuel Hicks and Oliver Willis lasted only until 1849 (Connolly 1849), but Mr. Willis retained his position in Freehold, New Jersey until the latter part of 1862, when he resigned and moved his family to New York.

They settled in White Plains, New York, about 70 miles northeast of Freehold, where it appears that Oliver accepted a position at a boarding school for boys named the White Plains Institute (Yard 1862). At some time in 1862 friends of Mr. Willis purchased the property upon which the Hamilton Military Institute was located. The facility was renovated, enlarged, and renamed the Alexander Institute (Yard 1863a) and in 1863 Oliver accepted the principalship there (Scharf 1886, Yard 1863b). The institute was affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and described as a "classical, commercial, and military boarding school" (Gorton 1877, Scharf 1886). The region surrounding the school was advertised as "proverbially healthful ... free from chills and fever, and all kindred diseases". The school had a capacity of 30 boarding students, who were "prepared for business or fitted for college" in buildings that "are commodious and well arranged" (Steiger 1878). Costs were $360 for the academic year, which included "board, tuition, washing, fuel and light, stationery, and use of books" (Yard 1864). The Alexander Institute continued in operation until about 1893, when it became a forty-bed home, called Presbyterian Rest for Convalescents, founded by Rachel Lenox Kennedy (Gebhardt & Pandich 2021, New York Times 1893).

Outside of academia Oliver was involved in a diverse array of civic activities. He seemed to have a particular interest in comets and shared his knowledge about them with the community (Willis 1861a, Yard 1858b). He publicly commented on the citizen's duty to support the government during the Civil War (Willis 1861b), shared his knowledge of economic botany with the community (Yard 1861b), and made recommendations on the proper method to transplant trees (Willis 1861c). In 1871 he was one of the founders of the White Plains Lyceum and in 1875 Oliver was elected as a vice-president of the group, but the extent of his involvement in the association, which continued to exist until 1895, is unknown (Ashley 1875, French 1895, Tibbits 1881). Oliver was active in the Westchester Historical Society by 1881 and continued his involvement with that society for at least ten years (New York Times 1881, Smyth 1891). He was also a weather observer for the United States Army Signal Corps (Horton 1891).

Amelia Kesley Walters accepted Oliver Willis' marriage proposal and the two were wed May 6, 1844 in Great Neck, New York. It's unknown how the two met, but Amelia spent all of her pre-wedding life on Long Island within a few miles of Oliver's birthplace, so perhaps they had known each other for some time. Regardless, at the time of their wedding Oliver was teaching at Hightstown, New Jersey and the couple remained at that location until 1848. Amelia and Oliver had six children, two of whom, Elizabeth and Ianthe, were born likely born in Hightstown and the other four siblings, were probably born in Freehold. Amelia performed some duties at the above-mentioned Alexander Institute, but other than her involvement in the county fair discussed earlier, no additional information about Amelia's activities has been discovered (Ancestry.com 2023, Connolly 1850, New York Times 1909). It appears that around the turn of the century failing health forced Oliver, and perhaps Amelia, to take up residence with two of their daughters in White Plains. Oliver survived until April 27, 1902 and his wife remained a resident of White Plains until her death in 1909 (Ancestry.com 2023, Rehill 1902).

Though O.R. Willis spent much of his life gainfully employed as an educator, his scholarly works all dealt with botany. He authored a number of short botanical notes in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club (e.g. Willis 1873, 1878, 1881b, 1886) and three more lengthy floras/textbooks (Ockerbloom 2016; Willis 1877, 1881?, 1894; Wood 1889). He corresponded with other botanists like John Torrey (Fraser 2000), George Engelmann (Willis 1881a), and George W. Clinton (Eckel & Harby 2011). Oliver's activities are fairly well documented via newspaper articles, etc. through the early 1890s, but it seems that once his affiliation with the Alexander Institute was terminated, Oliver drifted out of the public eye. Regrettably, the last ten or so years of his life have been poorly chronicled.

One sheet of Caltha palustris and a specimen of Lysimachia ciliata collected by Willis in White Plains, New York are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. At least some of Willis' collections from New Jersey went to the Bates College herbarium in Lewiston, Maine and they were eventually transferred to the Pringle Herbarium at the University of Vermont (Day 1901, GRBio 2015), but none of those appear in the Pringle Herbarium database as yet. A couple of herbarium specimens bearing Willis' name are present at the New York Botanical Garden herbarium and an additional handful may be viewed via the iDigBio database.

.......

Ancestry.com. 2023. Oliver Rivington Willis Ph.D. T.L. Haff III Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Ashley, B.F. (ed.) 1875. No article title. The Port Chester Journal and Westchester County Advertiser. Port Chester, New York. p. 2. column 4. December 23, 1875.

Brush. 2017. Oliver Rivington Willis. Long Island Surnames. Long Island Genealogy.

Chatfield, Charles C. (ed.) 1868. College News: New Jersey College. The College Courant 3:54.

College of New Jersey. 1869. Catalogus eorum qui munera et officia gesserunt quique alicujus gradus laurea donati sunt, in Collegio Neo-Caesariensi, Princetoniae in Republica NeoCaesariensi. Typis McCalla et Stavely. Philadelphiae, Pennsylvania. p. 83 of 140.

Connolly, Bernard. 1848. Freehold Institute. Monmouth Democrat, and Farmer's and Workingmen's Advocate. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 2. column 3. March 9, 1848.

Connolly, Bernard. 1849. Notice of dissolution. Monmouth Democrat, and Farmer's and Workingmen's Advocate. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 4. April 19, 1849.

Connolly, Bernard. 1850. Correspondence of the Newark Eagle: Freehold, Monmouth Co., Dec. 1849. Monmouth Democrat, and Farmer's and Workingmen's Advocate. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 2. columns 4-5. January 10, 1850.

Day, Mary A. 1901. The herbaria of New England. Rhodora 3:67-71.

DBpedia. 2023. Paul A. Chadbourne. Institut für Angewandte Informatik e.V. Goerdelerring 9, 04109 Leipzig. Germany.

Eckel, P.M. & Nick Harby. 2011. Correspondence of John Hussey and G. W. Clinton. Part 1. Res. Botanica. Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis, Missouri.

Ellis, Franklin. 1885. History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. R.T. Peck &. Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 439 & 440 of 902.

Fraser, Susan (archivist) 2000. John Torrey Papers. Archives. The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, New York.

French, Alvah P. (ed.) 1895. White Plain Lyceum to pass into history. Mount Vernon Daily Argus. Mount Vernon, New York. p. 1. column 5. July 6, 1895.

Gebhardt, Aaron & Susanne Pandich. 2021. Presbyterian Rest for Convalescents. Westchester County Historical Society. Clio: Your guide to history. May 27, 2021.

Gorton, David A. 1877. School Notes. The National Quarterly Review. 35:206.

GRBio. 2015. Biorepository: Bates College. Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories.

Horton, E.J. (ed.) 1891. Weather report for February. The Eastern State Journal. White Plains, New York. p. 3. column 1. March 14, 1891.

Inside Schools. 2017. Erasmus Hall Educational Campus. Center for New York City Affairs. New York City, New York.

Member#47194125. 2012. Dr. Oliver R. Willis. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

New York Times. 1881. Westchester County: The Westchester County Historical Society. The New York Times. New York City, New York. p. 7. column 5. October 31, 1881.

New York Times. 1893. Opening of the Presbyterian Rest. The New York Times. New York City, New York. June 4, 1893.

New York Times. 1902. Dr. Oliver R. Willis: obituary. The New York Times. New York City, New York. p. 9. column 5. April 29, 1902.

New York Times. 1909. Mrs. Amelia K. Willis: obituary. The New York Times. New York City, New York. p. 9. column 4. February 3, 1909.

Ockerbloom, John Mark (ed.) 2016. Online books by Oliver Rivington Willis. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rehill, John T. (ed.) 1902. O.R. Willis dead. The White Plains Argus. White Plains, New York. p. 3. column 4. April 29, 1902.

Richardson, A & R.F. Richardson. 1848. Freehold Young Ladies' Seminary. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 4. March 30, 1848.

Scharf, J. Thomas. 1886. History of Westchester County, New York. L.E. Preston & Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 738 of 893.

Smyth, Clifford. (ed.) 1891. Westchester County Historical Society. The Yonkers Daily Herald. Yonkers, New York. p. 1. column 3. October 29, 1881.

Steiger, Ernst. 1878. Steiger's Educational Directory for 1878. E. Steiger. New York. p. 62 of 326.

Tibbits, Chas. H. 1881. The White Plains Lyceum. Eastern State Journal. White Plains, New York. p. 2. column 3. December 23, 1881.

Willis, O. R. 1848. Freehold Institute: A preparatory school for boys, at Freehold, Monmouth Co., N.J. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 5. March 30, 1848.

Willis, O. R. 1856. Gas. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 2. column 3. July 3, 1856.

Willis, O. R. 1861a. Comets. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 1. column 3. August 8, 1861.

Willis, O. R. 1861b. Editorial: Freehold Institute. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 1. September 5, 1861.

Willis, O. R. 1861c. Transplanting of trees. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 2. column 5. November 7, 1861.

Willis, O. R. 1873. Mistletoe. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, 4:12.

Willis, O.R. 1877. Catalogus plantarum in Nova Caesarea repertarum (Catalogue of plants growing without cultivation in the state of New Jersey). A.S. Barnes & Company. Chicago, Illinois. 88 pp.

Willis, O.R. 1878. Growth of exogens. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 6:209-211.

Willis, O.R. 1881a. Correspondence : Willis, O.R. and Engelmann, George. Missouri Digital Heritage.

Willis, O. R. 1881b. Note on Ilex opaca, Ait. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, 8:128-128.

Willis, O.R. 1881? Report of the flora of Westchester County. Roper & Burdge. New York. pp. 771-826.

Willis, O.R. 1886. Erica and Calluna on Nantucket. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 13:246-247.

Willis, O.R. 1894. A practical flora for schools and colleges. American Book Company. New York. 349 pp.

Wood, Alphonso. 1889. The new American botanist and florist: including lessons in the structure, life, and growth of plants. Revised and edited by Oliver R. Willis. A.S. Barnes & Co. New York City, New York.

Woodward, Major E.M. & John F. Hageman. 1883. History of Burlington and Mercer Counties, New Jersey, with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men. Everts & Peck. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 620 of 887.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1854a. Agricultural fair! Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 6. September 28, 1854.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1854b. Agricultural meeting. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. columns 2&4. July 13, 1854.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1854c. Freehold Institute. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 3. September 28, 1854.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1855a. Teachers' Association. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 1. July 12, 1855.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1855b. Teachers' Institute. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 3. August 2, 1855.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1855c. Second annual fair of the Monmouth Co. Ag. Society. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 1. columns 2-6. October 4, 1855.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1856. Lecture on agricultural chemistry. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 2. column 3. January 17, 1856.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1858a. The introduction of gas in Freehold. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 2. column 1. April 29, 1858.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1858b. Monmouth County Teachers' Association. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 2. column 3. November 11, 1858.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1858c. More about the Freehold Gas Works. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 2. column 4. May 6, 1858.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1859a. List of premiums. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 1. columns 1-5. October 6, 1859.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1859b. Monmouth County Agricultural Society. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 1. columns 1-5. July 28, 1859.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1860a. Freehold Institute. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 3. August 9, 1860.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1860b. Freehold Young Ladies' Seminar. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 3. August 16, 1860.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1861a. List of premiums. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 4. columns 1-3. September 26, 1861.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1861b. The news. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 2. column 3. April 4, 1861.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1862. White Plains Institute! Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 4. column 2. November 13, 1862.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1863a. Alexander Institute. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 4. column 2. April 16, 1863.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1863b. Alexander Institute. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 6. August 13, 1863.

Yard, James S. (publisher) 1864. Alexander Institute. Monmouth Democrat. Freehold, New Jersey. p. 3. column 5. August 25, 1864.

Wilson, Frances (1850 - 1926)

Frances Wilson (christened Mary Frances Wilson) was born to John I. & Mary A. Wilson in October 1850 in Enfield, Connecticut. She was the oldest child in the family and had three siblings: Elizabeth, Joseph, and Henry (Ancestry.com 2023, usajoe 2014 & 2015). According to the respective censuses, all six members of the family were alive in 1850 and 1860 (residing in Haddam, Connecticut), but the Federal Census of 1870 (identified residence: South Glastonbury, Connecticut) does not list Elizabeth as a family member. Frances moved from one place to another several times during the rest of her life, but her interest in natural science has helped map her address changes in the eastern United States.

Because of her involvement with the Agassiz Association, Frances' name often appeared in The Observer (vols. 3 & 4) and the Asa Gray Bulletin. According to the June 1892 listings in "The Observer", Ms. Wilson was living in South Glastonbury, Connecticut; by October 1892 she had moved to Springfield, Massachusetts; in January 1893 Frances was living in Providence, Rhode Island, (perhaps to study botany under William Whitman Bailey at Brown University) and her June 1893 address shows that she had returned to South Glastonbury. According to various volumes of the "Asa Gray Bulletin", from the first quarter of 1894 through May 1896, her noted address was Rocky Hill, Connecticut. The U.S. Federal Census of 1900 shows only Frances living with her father John Wilson in Gastonbury, Connecticut (Ancestry.com 2023). The reason(s) for her many address changes is (are) unknown, but her apparent off and on living arrangement with family members continued until she was nearly 50 years of age.

How they became acquainted is yet to be discovered, but Samuel John Starmer and Frances Wilson were married April 22, 1901 (Hartford Courant 1909, usajoe 2013). Samuel was a Civil War veteran who, along with future explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell, was a casualty of the Battle of Shiloh (Hartford Courant 1909). There are no indications in Ancestry.com (2023) that Sam and Frances had any children, however, the 1910 U.S. Federal Census (Ancestry.com 2023) shows that Frances (actually listed as: Mary F.W. Starmer on Manchester Road, Glastonbury Township) was the mother of one, then deceased, child — perhaps that notation was just a clerical error or maybe Frances' marriage in 1901 was her second. Regardless, Samuel perished March 24, 1909 and Frances survived until August 25, 1926 (Connecticut Vital Records 2023, Hartford Courant 1909).

Beginning in the evening of September 10, 1904 the Starmers experienced and withstood an interesting and tragic series of events centered around their East Glastonbury farm. John C. Whipple, one of the Starmers' neighbors, was visiting the Starmer family and helped Samuel roust a cow out of a cornfield. Mr. Whipple, who was known to have been a frequently inebriated and abusive spouse and parent, had been quaffing intoxicating spirits and asked Starmer to pay him for helping with the cow retrieval. When Starmer refused to pay, an aggravated Whipple pulled a pistol out of his pocket and shot Samuel in the right knee. Apparently Whipple's ill will towards Mr. Starmer had developed earlier, because Samuel was considering the purchase of land that had been part of Whipple's deceased wife's estate — an action with which J.C. Whipple took considerable umbrage.

Well, after the shooting Whipple ran off, Dr. H.B. Rising was summoned to treat Samuel's wound, and Deputy Sheriff Sheffield was called into service. A small posse and the deputy were searching for Whipple, when he leapt from his place of concealment, drew his revolver, fired a few rounds at his pursuers, and made good his escape. Local politicians offered a $100 reward for Whipple's capture and about three weeks after Whipple shot Starmer, State Policeman Louks, with eleven constables, went to Whipple's home in search of the fugitive. Whipple was nowhere to be found, so Louks and one other man staked out the empty house and waited. About 8:30 that evening Whipple crept out of the woods, spotted the two men hiding near his house, drew his revolver as before, and fired off a couple of rounds. One of the bullets caught Officer Louks in the thigh and Whipple, once again, eluded capture.

The shooting of a law enforcement agent brought on a full-fledged manhunt. Many officers were added to the dragnet, local citizens were on high alert, and they prepared to protect themselves in case Whipple appeared. The event even attracted a fair number of gawkers and curiosity seekers. The Evans family, relatives of Whipple's deceased wife, took the Whipple's two surviving daughters into their home and for a few days all was quiet.

On October 7th fugitive J.C. Whipple, thinking the Evans' home was vacant, sneaked into their residence in search of food. The house was indeed empty, except for the presence of the youngest Whipple child, and while J.C. was stealing food, he said to his daughter, "Don't tell anyone that I've been here". When Mrs. Evans returned, the little girl spilled the beans and said that her father was hiding in the Evans' barn. The Evans' hired hand and his son tiptoed to the barn, peered within, spied Whipple lying on some hay, and quickly retreated to alert the Evanses. A call went out to the neighbors for help, but after a short time the report of a gunshot emanated from within the barn. Shortly thereafter, Whipple emerged and the local farmers brought their guns to bear, but an obviously unstable Whipple approached and one side of his head was covered in blood. Whipple appeared to be unarmed, so the neighbors fired no shots, and the wounded man walked to the Evans' house. Mrs. Evans tended to the injured man and J.C. Whipple was transported to the hospital in Hartford, where he soon died from the self-inflicted gunshot (Hartford Courant 1904a-d). Life for the Starmers after the "Whipple Episode" was likely more mundane. They remained together on the farm, until Samuel died in a farm wagon mishap in March 1909 and Frances sold the farm at auction a year later (Hartford Courant 1910 a&b). Regardless, most of Frances' botanical activities occurred earlier.

Several herbarium records in the Harvard University Herbarium database, like this goldenrod that was collected in 1891, list Mary Frances Starmer as the collector. A number of labels, like that of the goldenrod, bear the header "Ex. Herb. Frances Wilson Starmer", but it's important to recall that "Frances Wilson" was living with her father in 1900 and she did not become "Frances Wilson Starmer" until 1901. Therefore, specimens collected prior to 1901 should be attributed to "Frances Wilson" and "Mary Frances Starmer" should be the collector of record for any of her post-marriage — 1901 or later — specimens. Is this a really big deal? Probably not, because the collector is the same person, but a bit of clarification is in order.

As was indicated above, Ms. Wilson was an active member of the Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Association and she was mentioned several times in The Observer (Bigelow 1892). Frances published a number of short papers in The Asa Gray Bulletin on grasses, hickories, violets and other things botanical (e.g. Starmer 1907, Wilson 1893a&b, 1894, 1895, 1896a-c, 1897a&b). Ms. Starmer stepped outside the world of natural science and published works include a poem (Starmer 1906), a home renovation piece (Starmer 1909), and a Christmas story (Starmer 1910). However, it's her botanical activities that are of importance here and an article from "The Hartford Courant" encapsulated her efforts and the personal herbarium she assembled.

"One of the largest private herbariums in the state is about to leave this town, the collector, Mrs. F.W. Starmer, having decided to accept a recent offer for its purchase. This collection of plants has long been favorably known to the botanical world: Mrs. Starmer has been for many years engaged in getting it together. Besides the plants of Connecticut, there are thousands of specimens received in exchange from botanical collectors the world over. There are collections of plants from the South, and the Middle West, from the Pacific slope and from Alaska, some of the most beautiful flowers coming from that frigid region. There are many Alpine plants, and an interesting collection of sedges and grasses from far-off Tasmania. ... The herbarium is rich in the grasses, Mrs. Starmer having made the study of these her specialty. All the trees are represented, by specimen branches in both the blossom and seed; oaks, hickories, maples, birches, etc., in all varieties and from many sections. Many of the herbaceous plants are represented in series, one specimen showing the root and early growth, another displaying the flowering plant, and a third the plant in seed. ... (Hartford Courant 1910a)."

Frances Wilson (Connecticut & Massachusetts), H.H. Keyes (New York), Mathilde Schlegel (New York), Constance G. DuBois (Connecticut), Edith A. Ross (Iowa), John M. Holzinger (Minnesota), John Higgins (Illinois), Charles A. Davis (Michigan), Charles F. Wheeler (Michigan), William S. Moffatt (Illinois), and Emma A. Shumway (Washington) were all members of the Agassiz Society and all have plant specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium. It is likely they became acquainted via correspondence through the Agassiz Society and those acquaintanceships led to plant specimen exchanges with Edith Ross in Davenport, Iowa. Edith's personal herbarium was donated to the Putnam Museum in 1931 and it's likely that's how Ms. Wilson and other members of the Agassiz Association came to be represented in the Putnam Herbarium in Davenport, Iowa.

As mentioned above, the bulk of Ms. Wilson's personal herbarium was sold to the Connecticut Botanical Society, but most of it is now located at Yale University. Additionally, in 1981 Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut) donated its herbarium to the New York Botanical Garden and within the donation were specimens collected by Frances Wilson (Grimes & Keller 1982). Over 170 of Ms. Wilson's specimens were part of the Edith A. Ross collection that was donated to the Putnam Museum herbarium (all appear to have been collected prior to 1900). Ms. Wilson-Starmer appears to have been an active collector from the early 1880s through 1905, primarily in Hartford and Middlesex Counties of central Connecticut (see iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases).

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Mary Frances Wilson. Michael Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Bigelow, Edward Fuller (ed.). 1892. Reports and notes. Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of Agassiz Association. The Observer. 3:192, 222, 224, 320.

Connecticut Vital Records. 2023. Connecticut Death Records Index. in Connecticut State Library. Hartford, Connecticut.

Grimes, James W. & Sue Keller. 1982. The herbarium of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. Brittonia 34:368-375.

Hartford Courant. 1904a. Glastonbury farmer shot. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 6. column 4. September 13, 1904.

Hartford Courant. 1904b. Shoots state officer Louks in thigh. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 1. columns 1-2. October 1, 1904.

Hartford Courant. 1904c. Man hunt in Glastonbury. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 1. column 1. and p. 9.columns 5&6. October 3, 1904.

Hartford Courant. 1904d. Whipple betrayed. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 4. columns 5-6. October 8, 1904.

Hartford Courant. 1909. Killed by overturning of wagon. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 18. column 4. March 25, 1909.

Hartford Courant. 1910a. Mrs. Starmer sells fine herbarium. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 14. column 1. January 18, 1910.

Hartford Courant. 1910b. Auction: Saturday, April 30 at 2 p.m. Farm of 100 acres. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 18. column 7. April 30, 1910.

Starmer, Frances Wilson. 1906. The pink umbrella. Sunset Magazine. 16:414.

Starmer, Frances Wilson. 1907. The Linnea borealis. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 16. column 4. July 24, 1907

Starmer, Frances Wilson. 1909. Renovating an old house at small cost. The House Beautiful. 26:117-118.

Starmer, Frances Wilson. 1910. Christmas at Castle Cranky. The Independent. 69:1387-1394.

usajoe. 2013. Samuel Jefferson Starmer. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

usajoe. 2014. John Isaac Wilson. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

usajoe. 2015. Mary Frances Wilson Starmer. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Wilson, Frances. 1893a. Grasses of Hartford County. The Observer. 4:183-185, 280-282, 317-319.

Wilson, Frances. 1893b. Notes on Carya tomentosa. The Asa Gray Bulletin. 1:1-2.

Wilson, Frances. 1894. A midwinter flora. The Asa Gray Bulletin. 2:25-26.

Wilson, Frances. 1895. Variations in Viola. The Asa Gray Bulletin. 3:13-14.

Wilson, Frances. 1896a. Asplenium ebeneum. The Asa Gray Bulletin. 4:11.

Wilson, Frances. 1896b. Desmodium and Lespedeza. The Asa Gray Bulletin. 4:28-30.

Wilson, Frances. 1896c. Fern Freaks. The Asa Gray Bulletin. 4:36.

Wilson, Frances. 1897a. Dicksonia pilosiuscula. The Asa Gray Bulletin. 5:7-9.

Wilson, Frances. 1897b. Our native orchids. The Asa Gray Bulletin. 5:54-57.

Winterbottom, James Edward (1803 - 1854)

James Edward Winterbottom was born April 7, 1803 to John and Ann Winterbottom. It's interesting, though admittedly not particularly germane to this biography, that of Dr. John and Ann Winterbottom's nine children (four sons and five daughters) only their eldest child, John Frederick Winterbottom, married. It's also curious that only one of the Winterbottom's daughters, Georgiana, reached that era's median life expectancy, yet all of their sons, save Nathaniel, exceeded that era's median life expectancy (Ancestry.com 2023, Hooker 1854b). Those facts, though thought-provoking, divert us from the main subject of this narrative.

James E. Winterbottom's early schooling was via private education, first in Twyford, Berkshire County, England and then to a greater extent under the direction of Reverend Edward Graves Meyrick, the vicar of Ramsbury, Wiltshire County, England (Foster 1888, Hooker 1854b). It seems that James wanted to enter the British military, but his parents felt that following in his father's footsteps would be more appropriate. So, he entered St. John's College in Oxford, England in May 1821, with the ultimate goal of studying medicine. There in 1825, Winterbottom earned his B.A. and joined an exploratory group that botanized Scotland's Breadalbane Mountains (in the general vicinity of Loch Tay). James completed his M.A. (ca. 1828) and then studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. He completed his medical education in July 1833, but never practiced medicine (Bennett 1855, Hall 1833, Hooker 1854a&b).

Evidently the Winterbottoms were a family of financial means, because James spent his first few post-medical degree years touring parts of Europe. That travel allowed him to indulge in not only his study of natural history, but also architecture, engraving, painting, and sculpture. Though his travels are well documented, his means of gainful employment and/or outside financing are yet to be uncovered. Be that as it may, Mr. Winterbottom spent much of the first ten years after earning his medical degree visiting Naples, Rome, Switzerland, Ireland, Scotland, and various localities in the England (Bennett 1855).

In January 1846 he left England to begin an excursion to northern India, but since he arrived too late to venture into the Himalaya region (probably due to monsoonal rains), he instead traveled to Java and China (Bennett 1855, Hooker 1854b). By the 20th of June Winterbottom had arrived in Batavia, Java (present-day Jakarta) and he toured that Indonesian island for four or five weeks. He left the island August 4, 1846 and sailed via steamship to Singapore and proceeded along the China coast as far as Shanghai. The timing of his return itinerary is unknown, but James retraced his steps, traveled south back to Singapore and then northwest to Calcutta, India (present-day Kolkata) to begin his journey through the northern section of the Indian subcontinent (Hooker 1854b).

James' overland venture took him from Calcutta to Benares (present-day Varanasi) to Agra to Delhi and on to Lahore in what is now part of Pakistan. He ventured north from Lahore into Kashmir, where he was a guest of Maharaja Gulab Singh Jamwal. Winterbottom traveled as far north as Gilgit and then returned south to Lahore (Hooker 1854b).

Exactly where and when is unclear, but sometime after his return to Lahore, Winterbottom met and worked with Captain Richard Strachey of the Bengal Engineers. Between 1846 and 1849 the Strachey/Winterbottom team explored and made extensive plant collections within India's Kumaon Province and in adjacent parts of Garhwal and Tibet. That set of collections, which came to be known as the Strachey and Winterbottom herbarium, originated from an area (not including that in Tibet) with a footprint of approximately 11,500 square miles and elevations that ranged from 1000 feet to 15,000 feet above sea level on the Tibetan Plateau (B 1908). The resulting "Catalogue of the plants of Kumaon and of the adjacent portions Garhwal and Tibet" was published, but not until much later (Hemsley 1902, Strachey 1906).

Strachey and Winterbottom surveyed the Tibetan region around Lakes Manasarowar and Rakas-tal in 1848. Sir Richard Strachey's detailed account of that journey was published belatedly in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London (Strachey 1900). Additional information about the efforts of Strachey and Winterbottom is present in the "Flora of Tibet or High Asia" published in the Journal of the Linnean Society (Hemsley 1902) and their plant collections were referenced extensively in the multi-volume "Flora of British India" (Hooker 1875-1897). Following their explorations in northern India, Winterbottom left the country in April 1849 and arrived in Suez, Egypt April 19th. He toured the pyramids at some of Egypt's necropolises and then sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar (May 23, 1849) en route to England. He remained in his home country until 1854 (Hooker 1854b).

James settled in England and Ireland from 1850 through 1853, a period during which he and Strachey organized, annotated, and distributed sets of the plants they had collected in India (Hooker 1854b, Kew 1900). In January 1854 he sailed from Southampton and arrived in Alexandria, Egypt on January 20th, with the apparent goal of exploring Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia). He traveled as far south as Aboo Simbel along the Nile River in southern Egypt. But then a lack of wind to propel his boat and the excessive heat, forced him and his crew to reverse course, and return to Cairo. He made his way back to Alexandria, where he boarded a steamship that carried him to Beyrout (modern-day Beirut) and then he ventured inland to Damascus, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, and other points of historical importance. James returned to Beyrout and booked passage aboard another steamship that took him to Smyrna, Greece, with the intention of continuing on to Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Tragically he fell prey to an intestinal infection (likely cholera) that cursed him with severe diarrhea. He was put ashore for medical treatment in Rhodes, Greece, but was unable to recover and he perished July 4, 1854 (Bennett 1855, Francis 1854, Hooker 1854b, Kew 1900, Pollitzer et al. 1959).

According to Sir William J. Hooker (1854a), Dr. Winterbottom was an ambitious botanist/explorer who maintained a strong under-the-radar comportment, an attitude that is well illustrated in the naming of a new Tibetan plant species. Stracheya tibetica, originally designated a monotypic genus and named after Sir Richard Strachey, is a legume now known as Hedysarum tibeticum (photos here). It was collected in Tibet's Guge Valley (B 1908) — the same valley that is home to Lake Manasarowar and Lake Rakas-tal. Though George Bentham named the plant to honor Strachey (Bentham 1853), its actual discoverer was J.E. Winterbottom who "positively declined to allow his name to be perpetuated in such a way" (Strachey 1900, p. 244). Another interesting plant collected by Strachey and Winterbottom is the Himalayan endemic Circaeaster agrestis (B 1908). Their collection of that member of the buttercup family was cited in the original description of the species (Maximowicz 1881) and it, like Stracheya tibetica, is the only member of its genus (Stevens 2016).

Regarding the plant collections Winterbottom made during his last excursion, Hooker (1854a) wrote "We have, however, been kindly informed by the family, that they have received, from Beyrout, his collection of plants, made during his recent tours in Upper Egypt and Nubia, and in Palestine and Syria, which he had left there to be forwarded direct." Even though Winterbottom allegedly collected plant specimens from those locations (in addition to Hooker 1854a, see also p. 125 of Hemsley 1902), voucher specimens from his 1854 foray into Africa and the Mediterranean Region are at present available from neither the iDigBio, nor the Kew Herbarium databases.

In total, the Strachey/Winterbottom herbarium contained over 2000 species and was distributed in sets during 1852 and 1853 to various herbaria around the world (B. 1908). Strachey's (1906) publication was a revised catalogue of that herbarium and just over 450 specimens from the Strachey/Winterbottom herbarium, present at the Royal Botanical Gardens, may be reviewed via the Kew specimen database. A similarly sized collection may be viewed at the iDigBio plant database. Strachey and Winterbottom are represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Hemiphragma heterophyllum Wall. (in the Plantaginaceae) collected by them in Kumaon, India.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. James Edward Winterbottom. John Bird Monk Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

B. [sic] 1908. Sir Richard Strachey's contributions to Indian botany. The Spectator. London. Volume 100. p. 293. February 22, 1908.

Bennett, John J. 1855. Obituary notices. Anniversary meeting of the Linnean Society on Thursday, May 24, 1855. Proc. Linnean Soc. London. pp. 37-39 of 46.

Foster, Joseph. 1888. Alumni Oxoniensis. Parker & Company. Oxford, England. p. 949 of 1240.

Francis, J. 1854. Our weekly gossip - Obituary. The Athenaeum Jrnl. No. 1398. p. 995.

Hall, Henry. 1833. No title - Medical school graduation announcement. Jackson's Oxford Journal. Oxford, England. p. 3. column 2. July 13, 1833.

Hemsley, W. Botting. 1902. The flora of Tibet or High Asia. Jrnl. Linnean Soc. 35:124-265.

Hooker, William Jackson (ed.) 1854a. James Edward Winterbottom, esq. Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany. 6:307-308.

Hooker, William Jackson (ed.) 1854b. James Edward Winterbottom, esq. Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany. 6:345-349.

Hooker, John D. 1875-1897. Flora of British India. L. Reeve & Company. London, England. Volumes 1-7.

Kew. 1900. James Winterbottom's Himalayan and Tibetan herbarium. Bull. Misc. Information. Royal Botanic Gardens. No. 157/168. pp. 19-20.

Pollitzer, Robert, Satya Swaroop, & William Burrows. 1959. Cholera. World Health Organization. Monograph Series No. 43. Geneva, Switzerland. 1019 pp. Additional link here.

Strachey, Richard. 1900. Narrative of a journey to the Lakes Rakas-Tal and Manasarowar, in western Tibet, under-taken in September, 1848. The Geographical Journal 15:150-170. Continued pp. 243-264. Continued pp. 394-415.

Strachey, Richard. 1906. Catalogue of the plants of Kumaon and of the adjacent portions Garhwal and Tibet. Lovell Reed and Company. London. 269 pp.

Wolf, Sister Mary Gabriel 'Anna' (1908 - 2010)

Anna Wolf, a daughter of Martin and Karolina Wolf, was born February 4, 1908 in Vibank, Saskatchewan. She had four brothers and five sisters. In 1913 the family homesteaded about 40 miles northwest of Fort Benton, Montana, where four of her siblings were born (Ancestry.com 2024, Overholser 1957).

Sister Mary Gabriel enrolled in summer classes at Eastern Montana Normal School as early as 1929 and she graduated from there in June 1931 (Billings Gazette 1929 & 1931). She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from College of Great Falls in August 1952 with a major in elementary education (Doherty & Berg pers. comm., Lathrop 1978). Sister Mary Gabriel continued her education during the summer terms of 1967 through 1971, when she enrolled in classes at the University of Montana. She did not complete a degree program from that institution (Thorpe pers. comm.).

Starting in 1949 Sister Mary Gabriel was principal at St. Philomena Catholic School in Sidney, Montana, where she also taught fourth and fifth grade students at the school (Hurly 1950). Sister stayed at St. Philomena through 1952 and then she moved on to teach 5th and 6th grades at St. Leo Grade School in Lewiston, Montana in the fall of 1953 (Byerly 1953, Gerharz 1954, Hurly 1950). She also taught at St. Agnes School in Red Lodge, Montana and perhaps other places (Welch 1958).

In retirement Sister Mary Agnes was part of the Foster-Grandparent Program at several schools in Great Falls and she was a volunteer librarian at St. Joseph School (Lathrop 1978, Moseman 1990 & 2010). In 1990 she moved to Davenport, Iowa and resided at the Humility of Mary Center, where she continued with volunteer and craft work (Curtis 2010).

Eighteen plants in the Putnam Museum herbarium were collected by Sister Mary Agnes Wolf. All of them date to June 1929, when she was a student at Eastern Montana Normal School. The plants, save one, were collected in Montana (e.g. Siberian Peashrub - Caragana arborescens) and they were originally part of the herbarium at Marycrest College, but became part of the Putnam Museum herbarium when Marycrest's doors closed in 2002.

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Ancestry.com. 2024. Anna (Sr. Mary Gabriel) Wolf. Marsha Lynne Liston Family Tree.

Billings Gazette. 1929. Students come from all over Montana to Normal. The Billings Gazette. Billings, Montana. p. 5. columns 1-2. July 9, 1929.

Billings Gazette. 1931. Normal school has 43 candidates for graduation. The Billings Gazette. Billings, Montana. p. 3. column 1. June 7, 1931.

Byerly, Kenneth R. (publisher) 1953. St. Leo's schools open Sept. 8; Enrollment high. Lewiston Daily News. Lewiston, Montana. p. 1. column 6. September 3, 1953.

Curtis, Sister Micheline. 2010. Sister M. Gabriel Wolf. Congregation of the Humility of Mary. Davenport, Iowa.

Doherty, Beth & Lindsay Berg. 2024. pers. comm. Office of Registrar & Library. University of Providence. Great Falls, Montana.

Gerharz, Rev. Joseph H. (ed.) 1954. Sidney Parish and missions. Eastern Montana Catholic Register. pp. 92-93. December 3, 1954.

Hurly, C.R. (ed.) 1950. St. Philomena School dedicated by bishop. The Sidney Herald. Sidney, Montana. p. 1. column 1. October 12, 1950.

Lathrop, Robert. (ed.) 1978. Two sisters to celebrate 50 years in Holy Order. Great Falls Tribune. Great Falls, Montana. p. 11. columns 1&2. May 21, 1978.

Moseman, Gary (ed.) 1990. Retirement tea. Great Falls Tribune. Great Falls, Montana. p. 31. column 2. April 26, 1990.

Moseman, Gary. (ed.) 2010. Longtime teacher Sister Wolf dies at 102. Section m. p. 2. column 6. December 22, 2010.

Overholser, Joel R. (manager) 1957. Martin Wolfs mark 60th anniversary. The River Press. Fort Benton, Montana. p. 1. column 6. January 16, 1957.

Thorpe, Jesse. 2024. pers. comm. Univ. of Montana. Office of the registrar. Missoula, Montana.

Welch, Owen. (ed.) 1958. St. Agnes School opens Tuesday. The Carbon County News. Red Lodge, Montana. p. 1. column 2. August 28, 1958.

Worthington, James Cheston (1853 - 1896)

James C. Worthington (photo here: see p. 16) was born in Maryland on January 19, 1853 to Hattersly and Mary Catherine Worthington (Ancestry.com 2023). He graduated from West Point, was commissioned as an Assistant Surgeon with the rank of Lieutenant on June 26, 1875 (Pilcher 1897), and was first stationed at Fort McHenry, Maryland. He was ordered to the Department of Arizona in July 1876 and served at Fort Whipple (located today in Prescott, Arizona) from September 1876 through September 1877 (Collins 2009).

When Lieutenant Worthington arrived at Fort Whipple, Civil War veteran General August Kautz was in command (Butler 1876, Collins 2007). Worthington replaced Dr. Henry Lippencott (Butler 1876) at the Army post and served as an assistant to Dr. James McKee. Six months after Worthington's arrival, Henry B. Murray, a mining equipment merchant, and his wife, Dr. Frances Mary Murray, moved to Prescott. Though her advertised credentials were impeccable, Dr. Murray did not seek to establish a medical practice (Beach 1877b, Collins 2009). At the time neither Dr. Murray nor Dr. Worthington could have known that the former's arrival would contribute to the latter's departure from Fort Whipple.

In the Prescott region, hostilities with local tribes at the time were in large part, though not entirely, a thing of the past. So, Dr. Worthington spent most of his time tending to pregnant women, treating cases of dysentery, and battlling outbreaks of smallpox and scarlet fever, both at the fort and within the civilian population (Beach 1877 a&c, Collins 2009).

Worthington's interactions at Fort Whipple began amicably enough, but the social and professional environments surrounding him eventually became inharmonious. General Kautz and his wife, Fannie, arrived at Fort Whipple in 1874 (Bates 2000, Thayer 2020). Almost immediately "... Fannie set about making herself the queen bee of the Fort’s glittering social life. She threw "hops" (dance parties) and soirées musicales, and she directed and acted in numerous plays (Collins 2007)." Worthington took German language lessons from the outgoing Fanny, attended her social gatherings, and she recruited him to act in some of the Fort Whipple Dramatic Association's performances at the Fort Whipple Theatre (Beach & Marion 1877, Collins 2009). Though social engagements were relatively easy to navigate, affairs of the heart were more problematic.

At the time of Worthington's residence there were ten single adults at Fort Whipple — seven men and three women. James, and at least three other men, was smitten with the flirtatious Carrie Wilkins (photo here: see p. 17). It seems that Ms. Wilkins "... enjoyed and capriciously encouraged or discouraged the advances of Mr. Thomas, Dr. Worthington, Lieutenant Kingsbury, and Captain Porter (Collins 2007)." In spite of being told in no uncertain terms that Carrie was a tease and had "eyes for another", Worthington's ardor for romance continued untethered and as his advances were rebuffed, his frustration level heightened. Though he escorted her to a soirée in Prescott, where he met the aforementioned Dr. Murray, the infatuated suitor's love interests were dashed, when in August 1877 he learned that Carrie had accepted Captain Porter's marriage proposal (Collins 2009). So, one difficult situation was resolved, only to be replaced with a professional predicament involving Dr. Murray.

Dr. Worthington's initial interactions with Dr. Frances Murray were a mixed bag. Though he harbored a patronizing sentiment towards her or any woman practicing medicine, James was publicly courteous and polite and successfully treated her for a case of jaundice. Regrettably, his sense of collegiality dissolved, when he considered himself to have been professionally disparaged. The wives of two officers, Alice Martin and Clara Thomas, sought care from Dr. Frances Murray following problematic pregnancies and miscarriages. Their actions bruised Dr. Worthington's professional pride, because he had treated the women during their pregnancies and neither Mrs. Thomas nor Mrs. Martin had consulted him prior to seeking Dr. Murray's counsel. He considered those transgressions intolerable violations of professional decency and he refused to treat, not only the two women, but any other member of their families (Collins 2007 & 2009).

Colonel Martin (spouse of Alice Martin) called for the impertinent Worthington to be transferred away from Fort Whipple, but Worthington was unwilling to yield. The coup de grâce came, when Worthington dropped the Thomas couple from the invitation list for a dance he had arranged. The whole situation had simply gone from bad to worse and Dr. James C. Worthington's transfer to Camp Grant, Arizona Territory became final on September 29, 1877. He was happy with the change in assignment and probably few of those who remained at Fort Whipple were displeased (Collins 2009, Wasson 1877).

Worthington remained at Camp Grant (about 20 miles north of present-day Willcox) until January 1880, when the Army assigned him to duty northeast of Phoenix as post surgeon at Fort McDowell (Warren et al. 1880, Hodge 1877, Walker & Hyde 1984). It has been reported that Worthington spent some time at Fort Mohave and Fort Huachuca in Arizona, but the actual timing and duration of his residence there is unclear (Dean 1997, Walker & Hyde 1984). In June 1880 he was elevated to the rank of Captain (Pilcher 1897) and later that year Dr. Worthington returned to Maryland (Collins 2009, Dean 1997).

Somewhere along the line, after he was transferred out of Arizona Territory, Dr. Worthington met Miss Mary Jane (Minnie) Osborne. Mary Jane was a distant relative of Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States (Hetzel 1902). In January 1881 Ms. Osborne and Dr. Worthington were married in Louisville, Kentucky; Mary gave birth to two daughters, Hallie and Mary (Ancestry.com 2023, Collins 2009, Dover 2008, Hetzel 1902, Keith 1893, Whitesides 2012). In years subsequent Worthington served at various other U.S. military posts, ultimately achieving the rank of Major Surgeon in August 1893 (Church & Church 1896, Dean 1997, Gould 1891, Pilcher 1897). Major Worthington was transferred from duty at Fort Thomas, Kentucky to Vancouver Barracks, Washington in September 1895 (Review Publishing Co. 1895). Towards the end of September, Worthington was granted a three-month medical leave of absence (Maryland Medical Journal 1895a&b, Porter 1896, Shattuck 1895). It seems Dr. Worthington's affliction, reported as "rheumatism", persisted through 1895, until his death August 12, 1896 (Baldwin 1896, Church & Church 1896, Dover 2008, Smith 1896).

One specimen of Oenothera albicaulis Nutt. collected by Dr. J.C. Worthington (U.S. Army) in the parade ground of Camp Grant (Arizona) in 1878 was donated to Charles W. Irish and is now present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Eight of Charles W. Irish's collections were from Camp Grant in 1878 and a number of others were from Mt. Graham, which lies just a few miles to the northeast of Camp Grant's location. It seems likely that Worthington collected the plant and gave it to Irish, when C.W. Irish visited Camp Grant as part of his railroad survey during that time period. Other collections by Worthington are recorded in neither the iDigBio, nor SEINet specimen databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. James Cheston Worthington. Harrison Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Baldwin, William B. (ed.) 1896. Well-known in Army circles. Akron Beacon and Republican. Akron, Ohio. p. 3. column 2. August 12, 1896.

Bates, Al. 2000. The Days of Empire at Fort Whipple. Sharlot Hall Museum. Prescott, Arizona.

Beach, Chas. W. (ed.) 1877a. Local Intelligence: Thursday & Friday. Arizona Weekly Miner. Prescott, Arizona. p. 3. columns 2& 3. March 9, 1877.

Beach, Chas. W. (ed.) 1877b. Local Intelligence: Tuesday. Arizona Weekly Miner. Prescott, Arizona. p. 3. column 1. March 16, 1877.

Beach, Chas. W. (ed.) 1877c. Local Intelligence: Thursday & Friday. Arizona Weekly Miner. Prescott, Arizona. p. 3. columns 2 & 3. March 16, 1877.

Beach, C.W. & J.H. Marion. (publishers) 1877d. The Theatre at Fort Whipple. Arizona Weekly Miner. Prescott, Arizona. p. 2. column 4. January 12, 1877.

Butler, T.J. (ed.) 1876. Local intelligence. Arizona Weekly Miner. Prescott, Arizona. p. 3. column 2. September 15, 1876.

Church, W.C. & F.P. Church. (proprietors) 1896. Personals. Army and Navy Journal. 33:900.

Collins, Thomas P. 2007. Stage-Struck Settlers in the Sun-Kissed Land: The Amateur Theatre in Territorial Prescott, 1868-1903. Wheatmark. Tucson, Arizona. 132 pp.

Collins, Thomas P. 2009. J.C. Worthington: Fort Whipple's Lovelorn Doctor. Territorial Times. 2(2):16-23.

Dean, Riva. 1997. Worthington, James Cheston. Papers 1879-1880. Arizona Historical Soc. Tucson, Arizona.

Dover, Michael. 2008. Maj. James Cheston Worthington. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Gould, Geo. M. (ed.) 1891. News Items. The Medical News. 59:444.

Hetzel, Susan Riviere. (Historian General) 1902. Lineage Book. Nat. Soc. Daughters Amer. Revolution. Vol 15. 14001-15000. Harrisburg Publ. Co. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. p. 327 of 423.

Hodge, Hiram C. 1877. Arizona as it is; or, The coming country. Hurd & Houghton. New York City, New York. p. 219 of 273.

Keith, Charles P. 1893. The ancestry of Benjamin Harrison, president of the United States of America 1889-1893. J.B. Lippincott Co. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. see p. iv of "Addenda to ancestry of Benj. Harrison, p. 16.

Maryland Medical Journal. 1895a. Official list of changes in the stations and duties of medical officers: United States Army. Maryland Medical Journal. September 14, 1895. p. 411.

Maryland Medical Journal. 1895b. Public Service: United States Army. Maryland Medical Journal. October 5, 1895. p. 465.

Pilcher, James E. (ed.) 1897. Report of the Committee on Necrology. Proc. Seventh Annual Mtg. Assoc. Military Surgeons of the United States. p. 66 of 718.

Porter, William Henry. (ed.) 1896. Editors' Notes: Army Items. American Medico-Surgical Bulletin. 10:146.

Review Publishing Co. 1895. Army changes. The Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. p. 8. column 2. September 17, 1895.

Shattuck, George B. (ed.) 1895. Official list of changes in the stations and duties of the officers serving in the medical department, U.S. Army. Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. 133:308.

Smith, Harry M. (ed.) 1896. Major James C. Worthington dies in Louisville of rheumatism. Daily Greencastle Banner Times. Greencastle, Indiana. p. 1. column 4. August 12, 1896.

Thayer, Bill. 2020. August V. Kautz. Fort Wiki. Closed Wiki about historic forts, camps and other installations in the U.S and Canada.

Walker, Henry P. & John M. Hyde. 1984. An Indian Scare on the Colorado River in 1880: The Letters of Lieutenant John M. Hyde. Arizona and the West 26:153-166.

Warren, J. Collins, A.L. Mason, G.B. Shattuck, Hamilton Osgood, & Frank Woodbury. (eds.) 1880. Official list of changes of stations and duties of officers of the Medical Department U.S. Army, From January 17, 1880 to January 23, 1880. Boston Med. & Surgical Jrnl. 102:120.

Wasson, John. (proprietor) 1877. Items from the Prescott Enterprise. The Arizona Citizen. Tucson, Arizona. p. 4. column 3. September 29, 1877.

Whitesides, Todd. 2012. Minnie Osborne Worthington. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Wright, E. M. (1871 - 19XX)

The lives of Edward M. Wright and his brother, Muriel, sons of Jacob C. and Cynthia F. Wright, were, at least in part, centered in Eureka, Illinois (Davis 1901; Low 1901a&b, 1902, 1913; Robinson 1900b). Ed was born in 1871 and his brother was eight years his junior. The U.S. Federal Censuses of 1880 list the two boys as "Edwin" and "Merrill/Merle", yet in newspaper articles they are called Ed or Edward and Muriel (Ancestry.com 2023a). Nothing has been uncovered about E.M. Wright's education other than he was a student at Eureka College during the 1901-1903 period (Chapman pers. comm.).

LeBaron (1878) listed eight people with the surname "Wright" as taxpayers in Olio Township, Woodford County, Illinois, with J.C. Wright being listed as a carpenter. E.M. Wright was not mentioned among the Wrights of Woodford County, perhaps because he had not yet been conceived. As early as August 1897 the Wrights began running a boarding house in Eureka, which they formally named the Woodford House in the spring of 1898 (Hyer 1897 & 1898). A brief article on the Woodward County Republican's society page (Low 1906), stated that Edwin M. Wright and Miss Nellie E. Gunn were married May 31st in Anna, Illinois. But the 1910 Federal Census (Ancestry.com 2023b) listed Edwin M. Wright's occupation as that of carpenter, which doesn't mesh with the rest of E.M. Wright's career. So, the 1906 marriage of Edwin and Nellie appears to not involve the E.M. Wright upon whom this biography focuses. Regrettably, nothing else about the early personal life of E.M. Wright has been uncovered to date.

Mr. Wright was a life member of the Illinois State Horticultural Society (from about 1901 through 1923 (Brock 1923, Bryant 1903)) and a member of the Southern Illinois Horticultural Society (Lloyd 1908 & 1912). From at least 1902 through 1906, he worked for the Illinois State Entomologist as a nursery/horticultural inspector (Davis 1902a, Forbes 1900b & 1907, Lloyd 1912 & 1913). Starting in 1909 Edward accepted a position teaching biology, chemistry, and zoology at Ewing College. He remained on the staff there at least through 1911 (Low 1909 & 1911, Prince 1961) and likely until 1913, when he became the superintendent of schools at Norris City, Illinois (Low 1913). The length of his tenure at Norris City is unknown.

Wright listed his profession as "Prof. of Natural Science" in Albion (1913) and Cobden (1916) in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society of Southern Illinois (Augustine 1913 & 1916). He was listed as an instructor for a one-week agriculture course offered at the Southern College Institute (Albion, Illinois) in 1914 (Gregory 1914). Based upon the information published in the aforementioned Horticultural Transactions, Mr. Wright spent all of his life in central and southern Illinois, calling Eureka, Anna, Albion, Cobden, and Carbondale his home at various times. Edward did not spend much of his career as a plant collector, but his efforts were acknowledged in one report on the trees of Illinois.

Miller & Tehon (1929-1930) mentioned E.M. Wright as follows, "The Scarlet Oak. Quercus coccinea Muenchhausen, is known to occur rarely in southern Illinois. A specimen has been collected at Karnak, Pulaski County, by Professor William Trelease, and another at Cobden, Union County, by E.M. Wright". Wright was also named as an attendee of the June 1903 meeting of the Kankakee Valley Horticultural Society held in Manteno, Illinois, where he spoke about an affliction plaguing apple trees (Baldwin 1904). But, Mr. Wright's interests extended outside the realm of plant science.

The Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History (today's Illinois Natural History Survey) studied Illinois' fish population from 1898 through 1901. E.M. Wright was involved with the project's fieldwork and during at least part of the process he was affiliated with Eureka College (Chapin 1900, Forbes 1900a, Robinson 1900a, Wright 1901). Forbes (1900a) expressed appreciation for "Mr. E.M. Wright, of Eureka College, who collected fishes for us in Woodford County, besides giving us much gratuitous service during the summer and fall of 1900." During the summer of 1901 Mr. Wright participated in a fossil collecting excursion through northern Illinois for the University of Illinois Museum (Low 1901a). Wright's interest in natural science even took him beyond the confines of the United States.

In 1902 snippets from "The Weekly Pantagraph" revealed that "E.M. Wright returned Saturday evening from an absence of several months in Central America. He has been there in the interest of the biological department of Eureka College and several other leading institutions of learning. He reports that he was able to secure quite an assortment of zoological specimens (Davis 1902c&d)." Wright reportedly was involved in managing a Costa Rican "banana farm" during part of his time in Central America (Davis 1902b, Low 1902). Oddly, though E.M. Wright seems to have been employed by Eureka College for extended periods, he was not mentioned in "A history of Eureka College with biographical sketches and reminiscences" (Dickinson 1894), perhaps because his involvement with the college began after the book's publication.

Fourteen pteridophyte specimens collected by Wright near Cobden, Illinois in 1916 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. A few fish specimens (and one fungus) collected by E. M. Wright near Eureka, Illinois are recorded in the iDigBio database and other "E.M. Wright" fish specimens may be examined via the Illinois Natural History Survey database.

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Ancestry.com. 2023a. Edwin Wright. Burton-Gooch Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com. 2023b. 1910 U.S. Federal Census. Cobden village. Union County, Illinois. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Augustine, A.M. (secretary). 1913. List of members. Trans. Hort. Soc. Southern Illinois. 46:12.

Augustine, A.M. (secretary). 1916. List of members. Trans. Hort. Soc. Southern Illinois. 50:16.

Baldwin, F.A. (sec'y) 1904. Summer Meeting: Kankakee Horticultural Society. Minutes Kankakee Hort. Soc. in Trans. Illinois State Hort. Soc. 37:637.

Brock, W.S. (secretary). 1923. List of members. Trans. Hort. Soc. Southern Illinois 56:20.

Bryant, L.R. 1903. Life Members. Trans. Illinois State Hort. Soc. 36:5.

Chapin, E.B. (ed.) 1900. The University. The Champaign Daily News. p. 4. column 1. September 25, 1900.

Chapman, Cassandra. pers. comm. 2023. Archives. Eureka College. Eureka, Illinois.

Davis, W.O. (proprietor) 1901. Eureka. The Weekly Pantagraph. Bloomington, Illinois. p. 6. column 6. September 23, 1901.

Davis, W.O. (proprietor) 1902a. Around home. The Weekly Pantagraph. Bloomington, Illinois. p. 7. column 1. October 31, 1902.

Davis, W.O. (proprietor) 1902b. Eureka. The Weekly Pantagraph. Bloomington, Illinois. p. 11. column 2. May 16, 1902.

Davis, W.O. (proprietor) 1902c. Eureka. The Weekly Pantagraph. Bloomington, Illinois. p. 11. column 5. August 29, 1902.

Davis, W.O. (proprietor) 1902d. Off to Central America. The Weekly Pantagraph. Bloomington, Illinois. p. 5. column 5. February 21, 1902.

Dickinson, Elmira J. (chairman) 1894. A history of Eureka College with biographical sketches and reminiscences. Christian Publ. Co. St. Louis, Missouri. 359 pp.

Forbes, S.A. 1900a. Study of Illinois fishes. Biennial report of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History p. 6.

Forbes, S.A. 1900b. Financial statement of the state entomologist on account of nursery inspection and insecticide work. Report of the Illinois State Entomologist concerning operations under the Horticultural Inspection Act. pp. 19, 20, 21, & 25.

Forbes, S.A. 1907. Financial statement of the state entomologist on account of nursery inspection and insecticide work. Executive report of the Illinois State Entomologist. January 1, 1905 - October 31, 1906. pp. 19, 20, 21, & 25.

Gregory, Clifford B. 1914. Illinois short courses. The Prairie Farmer 86:11.

Hyer, M.T. (ed.) 1897. Newspaper advertisement Woodford County Republican. Eureka, Illinois. p. 8. column 3. August 20, 1897.

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LeBaron, William. (publisher). 1878. The past and present of Woodford County, Illinois . Wm. LeBaron Jr. & Co. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 609 & 610 of 670.

Lloyd, W.B. (secretary). 1908. List of members. Trans. Hort. Soc. Southern Illinois 42:334.

Lloyd, W.B. (secretary). 1912. List of members. Trans. Hort. Soc. Southern Illinois 45:330.

Lloyd, W.B. (secretary). 1913. List of members. Trans. Hort. Soc. Southern Illinois 46:12.

Low, P.E. (ed.) 1901a. Additional local. Woodford County Republican. p. 8. column 1. May 30, 1901.

Low, P.E. (ed.) 1901b. Local and personal. Woodford County Republican. p. 1. column 5. July 4, 1901.

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Low, P.E. (ed.) 1909. Additional local. Woodford County Republican. p. 4. column 1. September 30, 1909.

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Low, P.E. (ed.) 1913. Jacob C. Wright dead. Woodford County Republican. p. 1. column 4. May 1, 1913.

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Prince, A.E. 1961. History of Ewing College. Herald Printing Company. Collinsville, Illinois. p. 143 of 155.

Robinson, N.H. (publisher). 1900a. Locals and Personals. Woodford County Republican. Eureka, Illinois. p. 1. column 7. August 16, 1900.

Robinson, N.H. (publisher). 1900b. Locals and Personals. Woodford County Republican. Eureka, Illinois. p. 1. column 4. December 13, 1900.

Wright, E.M. 1901. The fishes of Illinois. The Daily Pantagraph. Bloomington, Illinois. p. 2. column 1. July 27, 1901.

Wright, M. Judith (1868 - 1944)

Mary Judith Wright, along with five sisters and three brothers, was a child of Samuel P. and Mary W. Wright. She was born June 29, 1868 in Clarksville, Tennessee, the fifth child in the family. By 1873 the Wright family had moved to Texas and the Federal Census of 1880 shows both parents as being employed as teachers (Ancestry.com 2023, Anderson 1945). Rev. Samuel P. Wright (photo graph here), a devout follower of the Methodist Episcopal Church, preached the gospel in various Waco-area communities during much of his life. He was named the president of the Church's nonsectarian Waco Female College in 1878 (Downs 1878), as position he retained until September 1883 (Waco Examiner 1883). Samuel's wife, Mary (photograph here), served as the college's "matron" (Downs 1878).

During Rev. Wright's tenure the institution was located next to the Methodist Church north of Second Street, between Jackson and Webster (see map here). By 1883 the school included a kindergarten, primary grades, and a high school in addition to the college (Standifer 1995, Wikipedia 2023). Nothing that documents Mary Judith Wright's education at Waco Female College has been located. However, Mattie Wright (photograph here), Mary Judith's elder sister by two years and the "first consecrated deaconess of the Methodist Episcopal Church South", graduated from the school (Mitchell n.d., Wikipedia 2023). Given their parents' involvement with the institution, it's reasonable to think that Mary Judith, like her sister, may have not only attended the school, but graduated from it. Additional details of Mary Judith's early life remain undiscovered.

Mary Judith Wright and Henry R. Barcus were married November 8, 1893 in Georgetown, Texas. They lived in Waco through 1900, while Henry ran a livestock feed store and their first two children, Henry and Judith, were born. We know the family had moved to California by the spring of 1902, because their third child, Nelson, was born May 24, 1902 in Santa Ana, California. Judith and Henry's youngest child, Mary Frances, was born July 26, 1904 in the same city (Ancestry.com 2023). In addition to the Barcus family, several of Mary Judith's relatives moved away from the Waco, Texas environs and settled in the Los Angeles area (Richardson 1944, 1948).

Obviously, by virtue of the presence of her biography here among the life stories of other plant collectors, M. Judith Wright, too, was a contributor to the Putnam Museum herbarium. It's reasonable for a reader to ask questions like: What training did she have? What was her motivation? What's the nature of her botanical family tree? The extent of Ms. Wright's education has been hypothesized above and the scope of her known plant collections is described below, but answers to those questions have eluded me. It can be stated with certainty that Ms. Wright at times collaborated botanically with another woman from Waco, Sarah Trimble.

Ms. Trimble was involved in various civic groups, like the Women's Christian Temperance Union and Loyal Temperance Union in the Waco area. She, a daughter of Ann S. Trimble and Judge J.H. Trimble, lived in Waco until sometime in 1913. Following the death of her mother, Sarah moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi, where she had relatives. In March 1914 she accepted the position of librarian at Clarksdale's Carnegie Library (Robinson 1907a&b, 1913, 1914) and she resided in Mississippi until her death in 1938 at the age of 79 (Henry 1938).

In his paper on the rediscovery of Nymphaea elegans (Tropical Royal-Blue Water-Lily) in Texas, Sterns acknowledged collections of the plant made near Waco by M. Judith Wright and Sarah Trimble as follows. "It is an act of justice to name the two ladies, both enthusiastic observers of the flora of their region, who were thus instrumental in the re-discovery of N. elegans. They are Miss Sarah A. Trimble and Miss M. Judith Wright, the latter now of Lorena, Texas" (Sterns 1888a). Interestingly, the discovery made by Ms. Trimble and Ms. Wright was published in the "Popular Science" segment of several newspapers (e.g. George 1888, Goodridge 1888, Harvey 1888, Magee 1888).

Sterns (1888b) quoted Miss Sarah A. Trimble (of Waco, Texas) in his publication on Smilax as follows, "a trustworthy Texan correspondent writes: It is commonly known as 'bramble' or 'stretchberry', the latter name from the thin, rubber-like covering over the seed, which is often used by children to put with chewing-gum, making the gum stretch like rubber."

Seven specimens collected in 1887 by Ms. Wright from Texas, three specifically from Lorena, are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. About 18 of Ms. Wright's plant specimens, including one of the aforementioned Nymphaea elegans, are listed in the iDigBio and SEINet databases.

.......

Ancestry.com. 2023. Mary Judith Wright. Jen Barcus/Abshere Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Anderson, W.P. 1945. Anderson-Overton: A continuation of Anderson family records. Charitable Relief Association. Cincinnati, Ohio. p. 127 of 376.

Downs, J.W. (ed.) 1878. Education - Colleges and schools - Waco Female College. Waco Daily Examiner. Waco, Texas. p. 1. column 6. September 1, 1878.

George, W.A. (ed.) 1888. Popular science. Wilcox Progress. Camden, Alabama. p. 4. column 3. August 15, 1888.

Goodridge, B.A. (ed.) 1888. Popular science. The Pine Knot. Southern Pines, North Carolina. p. 7. column 1. July 28, 1888.

Harvey, John G. (ed.) 1888. Popular science. Alabama Beacon. Greensboro, Alabama. p. 2. column 7. July 31, 1888.

Henry, R.H. (ed.) 1938. Aged woman passes here. Daily Clarion-Ledger. Jackson, Mississippi. p. 7. column 5. November 26, 1938.

Magee, Chas. R. (ed.) 1888. Popular science. The Pensacolian. Pensacola, Florida. p. 6. column 7. June 16, 1888.

Mitchell. n.d. Photograph of Mattie Wright. The Portal to Texas History. From the private collection of T. B. Willis. University of North Texas Libraries. Denton, Texas.

Richardson, A.T. (ed.) 1944. Mary Judith Barcus. Progress-Bulletin. Pomona, California. p. 13. column 4. November 28, 1944.

Richardson, A.T. (ed.) 1948. Miss Mattie Wright. Progress-Bulletin. Pomona, California. p. 23. column 5. January 8, 1948.

Robinson, George. (ed.) 1907a. L.T.L. Waco Times-Herald. Waco, Texas. p. 2. column 7. January 3, 1907.

Robinson, George. (ed.) 1907b. Pavement paragraphs. Waco Times-Herald. Waco, Texas. p. 8. column 5. January 5, 1907.

Robinson, George. (president) 1913. Death of Mrs. Trimble. Waco Times-Herald. Waco, Texas. p. 10. column 4. April 20, 1913.

Robinson, George. (president) 1914. Waco woman librarian Clarksdale, Miss. Waco Times-Herald. Waco, Texas. p. 4. column 4. March 26, 1914.

Standifer, Mary M. 1995. Waco Female College. Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Austin, Texas.

Sterns, E.E. 1888a. Rediscovery of Nymphaea elegans Hook. at a new station. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 15:13-15.

Sterns, E.E. 1888b. Some peculiarities in the seed of Smilax Tourn. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 15:162-164.

Waco Examiner. 1883. Waco Female College. Waco Daily Examiner. Waco, Texas. p. 4. column 2. September 11, 1883.

Wikipedia. 2023. Waco Female College. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation.