Prominent Men I Have Met

I

Prominent Men I Have Met

By

L. H. PAMMEL, B. Agr., M.S. Ph. D., D. Sc.

Head Botany Department
Iowa State College

AMES, IOWA
1926

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019 with funding from
Wellcome Library

https://archive.org/details/b30625415

PREFACE

In writing this series of articles on “Prominent Men I Have
Met” for the Ames Daily Tribune , I had in mind short biographi¬
cal sketches of men who have had an influence on the world in a
scientific, political, professional, and religious life. The lives of
men and women influence us in many ways. I may say in a large
way. This contact helps to guide us in our chosen field of work.

I know that the sketches I read of eminent men had an influence
on my life work. I was always interested in them. I want es¬
pecially to add here that the personal contact with such men as
Dr. William Trelease of the University of Wisconsin, who started
me along botanical lines, had a great influence on my botanical
career. He was a man with a large vision, a wonderfully fine
teacher and an investigator of high order. The same may be said
of Dr. E. A. Birge in zoology, who had an equally fine perspective
and was a great teacher. In chemistry and geology Dr. C. R. Van
H ise and Roland D. Irving, and John Bascom the psychologist,
also great teachers ; Frederick B. Power, the phytochemist, a fine
teacher and research man ; Dr. H. P. Arntsby, well known for his
contributions to agricultural chemistry ; W. A. Henry, the director
of the station, a fine teacher who exerted a large influence on ag¬
ricultural work of this country, helped me in many ways. All of
these men influenced my future work.

The contact at Madison was followed later by the acquaintance
with such men as Dr. W. G. Farlow, a wonderfully able teacher
and an investigator, a man with a broad training in general
botany. My slight contact with such men as Dr. Asa Gray, the
greatest of American botanists of his generation, and another
great Harvard botanist, Dr. Sereno Watson; Dr. Wm. H. Brewer;
of Yale, President Charles W. Eliot, Dr. E. L. Mark, and Wm. M.

4

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

Davis and Dr. N. S. Shaler, all of Harvard, and others helped to
shape my career as a botanist. What I have to say in these
sketches are in part reminiscences of these men and others I have
met.

In this number I have given sketches of Alfred Russell Wal¬
lace, J. L. Budd, S. A. Knapp, Asa Gray, Millikan Stalker, and
James Wilson.

ALFRED RUSSELL WALLACE

During the latter part of April, 1887, while I was connect¬
ed with the Shaw School of Botany, Washington University,
St. Louis, I had the great pleasure of meeting one of the most
distinguished English scientists, Alfred Russell Wallace, who
was filling lecture engagements in this country on the subject
of evolution and zoological subjects. The circumstances of
meeting him have always been of interest to me.

I was alone in the botanical laboratory at 1724 Washington
avenue. About nine o’clock in the morning a tall and distin¬
guished looking gentleman with a long flowing beard came to
the door of the laboratory and asked if he might see Dr. Wm.
Trelease, who was Englemann Professor of Botany of Washing¬
ton University. I told him he was not in, but that he might find
him at the Missouri Botanical Garden, commonly called Shaw’s
Garden. I gave him directions how to reach the garden. I was
quite surprised the next morning to learn from Dr. Trelease
that I had directed this distinguished scientist.

It so happens Dr. Trelease was not at the garden. Mr.
Wallace looked over the garden and returned to the LaClede
hotel. Dr. Trelease at once went down to have a talk with Mr.
Wallace. Mr. Wallace had come from the university of Indiana
where he had gone to visit with Dr. John C. Branner, the
geologist, who had spent some time in Brazil. What impressed
me most was the modesty of the man. He did not even give me
his name when he called at the laboratory. He had a kindly
face.

From St. Louis, Mr. Wallace went to Sioux City via Kansas
City. In his two-volume work “My Life, a Record of Events
and Opinions,” he mentions stopping at Council Bluffs and
Missouri Valley. The Sioux City Natural History society spon¬
sored three lectures on “ Colors of Animals,” “Mimicry” and
“Oceanic Islands.” He was much interested in the animals of
“Mr. Talbot’s zoological farm” and the pretty flowers painted
by Miss Bandusia Wakefield, whose list of plants subsequently
was a basis for one of my papers. Mr. Wallace describes the
loess and other features of the region. He tells us nothing in
his autobiography, about his interest in spirtualism. Undoubt¬
edly those of kindred thought in Sioux City were to some ex¬
tent responsible for his going to Sioux City. One chapter in his
autobiography is given to mesmerism and spiritualism, and in

6

PROMINENT MEN 1 HAVE MET

another chapter he discusses “Spiritualistic experiences in Eng¬
land and America.”

What impresses me most in the reading of Mr. Wallace's
autobiography and especially in his trip to the United States, is
the accurate account of plant life. The plant life must have
been new to him. Think of giving an account of such common
prairie plants as the horse mint (Monarda fistulosa), and the
beautiful service berry (Amelanchier canadensis), and our
sweet william of the wood (Phlox divaricata), and the pretty
false indigo of Kansas (Baptisia australis), to say nothing of
the description of the fine alpine flora of the Rockies described
by him, and later the Sequoias and other California plants.

Some years later when I came to Ames I had an opportun¬
ity to open a correspondence with him and I prize highly a let¬
ter he wrote to me at the age of 90 years. This interesting let¬
ter hangs in my office. He was a man still interested in the
growing of flowers, especially orchids. He wrote me under date
of Nov. 20th, 1911, as follows :

Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset.

“Prof. L. H. Pammel.

Dear Sir :

Thanks for your kind letter of April, last. Since receiving
it I have been suffering from eczema and somt other diseases,
which has made me unable to cope with my ever growing cor¬
respondence. I am afraid I have mislaid the paper on the Bog
Flora of Iowa. I amuse myself with growing plants, especially
shrubs, Alpine and Bog plants. Perhaps you could get for me
Primulas from the Rock Mts. of P. Parryi, P. Rusbyi, or P.
suffrutescens. To grow such plants is now one of my chief
pleasures.

Yours very truly,

Alfred R. Wallace.

For those who may chance to read this series “Prominent
Men I Huve Met,” I should like to invite your attention to his re¬
markable autobiography. He tells us about his birth at Mon¬
mouthshire on the 8th day of January, 1823. He became a land
surveyor and architect, moving to South Wales in 1840. He be¬
gan to take an interest in botany. In 1847, he visited Paris, be¬
came an English master in the Collegiate school, Leicester, where
he met H. W. Bates the naturalist, and through whose influence
he became a collector of beetles, and with whom in 1848, he made
an expedition to the Amazon. He wrote a wonderful book.
“Travels on the Amazon and the Rio Negro.” He took a walk
ing tour in Switzerland; published a remarkable book on the
palm trees of the Amazon. Between 1854 and 1862 he visited

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

7

the Maylay Archipelago, publishing in 1869 “The Maylay
Archipelago,” which has passed through ten editions.

It was one of my delights as a college student to have read
this wonderful book of travel. The account of the bamboo,
one of the most wonderful and most beautiful productions of
the tropics, and one of nature’s most valuable gifts to uncivil¬
ized man, left an indelible impression on me ; to say nothing of
the superb description of plant and animal life of this wonder¬
ful region. It was while Wallace was in Borneo that he wrote
a paper on “The Law Which Has Regulated the Introduction
of New Species,” published in 1855. Every species, he says, has
come into existence, coincident both in time and space with a
pre-existing closely allied species. While sick with ague at
Ternate in the Moluccas, he wrote an essay on “The Survival of
the Fittest,” which was dispatched to Charles Darwin.

The Darwin paper on the origin of species and the Wallace
paper were read by Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker at a meeting of
the Linnaean Society of London, July 1, 1858. The two Wal¬
lace essays written at Sarawak and Ternate with other essays
are contributions to the theory of natural selection. These
are remarkable essays, and I realize there are many who deny
the theory of evolution. These essays had a remarkable influ¬
ence on a clear and good understanding on evolutionary sub¬
jects. No doubt his belief in spiritualism somewhat modified
his later views on evolution. Wallace believed in the theory of
Weissman on hereditary transmission.

Wallace did not have the training of a zoologist but his uni¬
versity course wTas largely in the field. It was the practical
contact with the animal and plant life everywhere that gave to
him that training which made him rank among the great men
of science. The paper on the distribution of animals is a re¬
markable one. Nothing has ever been published that quite
equals “The Geographical Distribution of Animals.” This
book of 1000 pages in two volumes appeared in 1876. It was
called to our attention as students in zoology in the eighties. I
sometimes wonder how many of our undergraduate students to¬
day are familiar ivith the “Maylay Archipelago.” Take that
entertaining book “Island Life,” ‘on the phenomenon and
cause of insular floras including a revision and an attempted
solution on the problem of geological climates,” which ran
Nirough several editions. This work is quite as interesting to
the layman as it is to the specialist.

The layman will find the work “Natural Selection and
Tropical Nature, Essays on Descriptive and Theoretical Biol¬
ogy,” of much interest, especially those topics that have to do
with the geographical distribution of plants, variation in ani¬
mal and plant forms, colors of animals, etc. Another remark¬
able book is “Darwinism, an Exposition of the Theory of Natu-

8

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

ral Selection with Some of its Applications/7 published in 1901,
when he was 75 years old. In the preface to this work he said :
“Darwin wrote for a generation which had not accepted evolu¬
tion and which poured contempt on those who upheld the de¬
rivation of species by any natural law of descent. He did his
work so well that “descent with modification/7 is now uni¬
versally accepted as the order of nature in the organic world;
and the rising generation of naturalists can hardly realize the
novelty of this idea, or that their fathers considered it a scien¬
tific heresy to be condemned rather than seriously discussed. 77

The objections now made to Darwin’s theory apply solely
to the particular means by which the change of species has been
brought about, not to the fact of that change. The objectors
seek to minimize the agency of natural selection and to subord¬
inate it to the laws of variation, of use and disuse, of intelli¬
gence, and of heredity. Wallace intimately studied the varia¬
tion of animals and plants in a state of nature. There is much
of interest in this volume for the layman as well as the spe¬
cialist.

Wallace was interested in the every day life as he found
it. He was a believer in land nationalization and published a
book by that title, and republished it a few years before his
death, in 1912, which was dedicated to the working men of
England. He thought this plan would stop poverty. In it he
gives his reason for landlordism. It is a curious fact that Wal¬
lace did not know of Henry George’s Progress and Poverty
when his own book was first published. Another remarkable
book, is The Wonderful Century, 1899, Scientific and Social
Studies.

Wallace lived in an age that produced great pioneer men
of science, and of these some of the greatest the world has pro¬
duced. It was the century of exploration, of such men as
Charles Darwin, Alphonse and A. P. DeCandolle, Louis Agassiz,
Alexander von Humboldt, Stephanius Endlicher, Robert Brown,
Asa Gray ,who have left an indelible impression on the science
of the age.

J. L. BUDD

One of the first men I met in Ames after my arrival in Feb¬
ruary, 1889, was Prof. J. L. Bndd, who had long held a promi¬
nent place in the. faculty of I. S. C. and was well known through¬
out the country as one of the leading horticulturists. So well
was he thought of that Charles Downing, the. pomologist, willed
his letters and correspondence to him. These are now a part of
the I. S. C. collection.

Prof. Budd early became identified with the horticultural
interests of Iowa, settling at Shellsburg, Iowa, in 1862-, where
he operated a nursery until coming to Ames. Plis college train¬
ing in Union college and normal training in one of the normal
schools of New York, fitted him. for the task as a ready writer,
and one who was capable of presenting horticultural matters
in a forceful way before the then recently organized State Hor¬
ticultural society. When the secretary of the society, a Mr.
Adams of Waukon, resigned, J. L. Budd naturally was elected.
He held this position for many years and ably edited the reports
of this society. He threw himself at once in everything that was
of interest to Iowa horticulture. Tree planting was the slogan
of the pioneers of Iowa. The early settlers coming from the
east looked over the great prairies of Iowa and saw only a lit¬
tle fringe of trees along the borders of streams. These pioneers
longed for the trees which were a part of their home surround¬
ings in the east. The honorable J. Sterling Morton of Nebraska,
conceived the idea of an Arbor day so that the prairies of that
state might be dotted with trees, and so Arbor day of Nebraska
was launched on the 10th day of April, 1872. A year later, 1873,
the Iowa State Horticultural society started the movement in
Iowa and it was largely through the efforts of Judge Whiting of
Monona county, J. L. Budd of Shellsburg, and a few others
that such fine work was done. In 1873, Prof. Budd, Judge
Whiting and others issued a tree planting circular to be used on
this Arbor day, April 20, 1873. For several years this society
gave premiums for tree planting and assisted in this worthy
movement, in other ways. It was while Prof. Budd was active
in the early deliberation of this society that the suggestion was
made by him that the college should grow these forest trees and
send them to the farmers of the state to use for wind breaks and
tree planting. During his professorship at I. S. C. he lectured
on forestry and helped the forestry movement.

When the chair of horticulture at Ames became vacant it
was only natural that the trustees should turn to the most

10

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

prominent man in the State Horticultural society for this place.
A writer said of him in this connection: 4 ‘It was not merely a
financial project with him but the love of his life to plant, to
study, to bring to perfection the fruit of the tree and the vine
and it was but natural that when the trustees of the Iowa Agri¬
cultural college cast about for a head for the department of
horticulture that they should select one whose ripe scholarship
and deep love of his work entitled him to pre-eminence in the
profession. This position was held by him from 1877 to 1899
when he retired with honors, having the title of professor emeri¬
tus bestowed upon him.”

Horticulture was still new and untried in the prairie states.
There was little exact knowledge of the adaptation of plants to
the prairie environment. Most of the plants used in the prairies
of Iowa were then commonly cultivated in the east. What was
true of ornamental plants was equally true of fruit trees. Dr.
N. E. Hansen, one of his outstanding students, has well said:
“Professor Budd was truly a Columbus on the uncharted sea of
western horticulture. His crew' rebellious at times, he stead¬
fastly pursued his course undisturbed by popular clamor, at
peace in the serene consciousness that he was right. As a re¬
sult he discovered rock bound continents of truth upon which
are now building temples defying the tooth of time. Some of
these innovations in horticultural practice jarred at first upon
the case-hardened sensibilities of commercial interests, but they
have now become generally accepted by all true lovers of the
gentle art and science of horticulture.” And Prof. A. T. Erwin,
a colleague and another outstanding horticulturist of Iowa, and
friend said: “In many respects his work was peculiarly that of
a pioneer leader. He accepted the chair of horticulture at the
Iowa State college at a day when the word horticulture was
little more than a name — it was not a science. The old world
text books were worthless for the new conditions of America
and American books had not yet been written. The fundamental
principles governing our conditions had not been worked out as
yet. In addition to this it fell to his lot to take up the leader¬
ship in one of the most difficult horticultural sections of the
United States.”

Prof. Budd was, at all times, a loyal friend of Iowa State
college and did everything he could through the press and by
personal conversation with others to promote the interests of
the college. He helped to cement the rebellious insurgents of
the state to Iowa State college. He distributed through the col¬
lege nursery thousands of new plants to persons in the state for
trial purposes and though there may have been, here and there,
those who criticized this distribution, the state has been richer
for the material scattered to every part of the state. As I go
over the state now I can see the influence of material sent out
by Prof. Budd. Such trees as the May day tree, the Russian

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

11

oleaster, the lilacs, caraganas, or Siberian pea trees, the Colo¬
rado blue spruce, the Douglas fir, white fir, the laurel willow of
Europe, are but a few of the illustrations of the types he sent
out to be used for ornamenting our homes and make the state
more beautiful.

Prof. Budd was genial and was always glad to make and
discuss problems not only from a professional standpoint but
topics of general interest. He was unusually well informed. To
all he always gave the right hand of good fellowship.

His was an active life. He knew no rest — always active in
mind and body. He was superintendent of his work, teacher,
correspondent and writer. He looked after his outdoor work
and then took up his large correspondence ; then go to his office
and write his contributions for the press. Prof. Budd was a
frequent contributor to the agricultural press ; his versatile and
easy style made what he said most interesting. The old weekly
Des Moines Register published hundreds of articles from his
pen. Many horticultural subjects were taken up. Such sub¬
jects as hardy plants, trees for shelter belts and forest planta¬
tions. The subjects discussed were invariably well put together,
and convincing arguments presented why the advice should be
followed. Through the columns of the Register Prof. Budd
came to have a large influence on the horticulture of Iowa. I
may add that the weekly Register was largely taken into farm
homes because of the splendid articles by Prof. Budd and
Father Clarkson. These columns contained much on the Rus¬
sian apple, which he defended. While Prof. Budd made his
trip to Russia to get first hand information about the plants of
their country, he wrote for the weekly Register a most inter¬
esting series of letters on the countries visited by him, a fine
literary contribution. Dr. Hansen has remarked on this great
work as follows: “Professor Budd was a wonderfully prolific
writer, never hesitating for a thought or word, and always with
a lesson to impart. He did this extra work as a labor of love,
considering it as a means to reach the vast public outside the
walls of his class room. So, week by week, for a generation past,
he added line upon line and precept upon precept in the Week¬
ly Iowa Register until his circle of loyal friends grew so large
that the work became too great for his declining strength. The
present writer has tried for many years to make as complete a
collection as possible of his writings, mindful of the fact that
he was careless in keeping copies for himself. The spirit of
optimism, of altruism, of public spirit, of unselfishness, of broth¬
erly love, pervades and illumines all writings. He esteemed
one man as good as another, and had a cordial greeting and
word of cheer for everyone. He kept his force of helpers as
many years as possible, rewarding loyalty with friendship shown
in many ways.” Few men equaled him in rapidity of writing,
and yet he seldom made many corrections in his manuscript.

12

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

Prof. Budd, after his return from Europe, became very en¬
thusiastic about the Russian apples, perhaps sometimes a little
over-enthusiastic, but there is no question in my mind that the
Russian contribution to the apples and fruits of this country
has been large and valuable. When I came to Ames in 1889,
there was still considerable discussion. There were two ani¬
mated horticultural camps, one Russian and one anti-Russian,
but considerable of the earlier somewhat animated disputes had
very much subsided. The horticultural and agricultural press
took part in these discussions and an agricultural paper of Chi¬
cago, I think either the Prairie Farmer or the Orange Judd
Farmer, published a cartoon depicting the czar of Russia and
Uncle Sam with Uncle Sam looking down on Russia. In other
words, the argument was in favor of the American type of
apple. This was the outcome of a lengthy discussion of the sub¬
ject in this agricultural paper. Time has only proved that our
fruits, as Prof. Budd, before he died, realized, would come from
the hybrids of our American stock and the European types.
Prof. Budd was not so conservative but what he could see the
changing conditions of the time and he was quick to take up
the things of importance in connection with horticulture and
plant breeding, and I recall that he was one of the strongest
advocates of plant breeding in the later years of his life as
shown by the encouragement he gave to this work at Iowa State
college and in connection with his papers before the State Hor¬
ticultural society.

Prof. Budd was a popular instructor; few men have
equalled him in the happy faculty of creating an enthusiasm for
his subject. One of his students once told me that “when we
started in Freshman horticulture all decided to go into the hor¬
ticultural business.” Many a young man has received his in¬
spiration from Prof. Budd ; several of the most prominent hor¬
ticulturists owe their inspiration and guidance to their early
training under his tutelage. His influence on the horticulture in
this country was great. Dr. L. H. Bailey, who ranks as one of
the great horticulturists of the country, in an address, I heard
him deliver at Ames, spoke of the inspiration he received from
Prof. Budd. Prof. Erwin has given this so well, I will quote
from him: In this address L. H. Bailey “remarked that his first
love for this subject was directly due to Professor Budd. It
was the interest and enthusiasm of this man more than that of
any other one person which caused him to take up horticulture
as his life’s work. In checking over the list of horticultural
workers at the various state experiment stations it is surprising
to note what a large number of them have received their early
training under Professor Budd. His students are widely rep¬
resented, both in the professional and industrial fields of hor¬
ticulture.” He had the one great essential to make a success as
a teacher — enthusiasm, and coupled with it, implicit faith in

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

13

what he said. He talked freely and easily to his students, gen¬
erally without notes or notes written on scraps of paper.

I recall a very interesting incident that occurred during one
of his courses in general horticulture. Prof. Budd had read
and frequently mentioned Prof. Marsh’s “Man and Nature,” a
classic book, and in a general course in horticulture discussed all
kinds of problems, one of these was drainage and at this par¬
ticular time he discussed the drainage of the systems of the
Mississippi valley and the arctic regions and in a general way
said to his class that a part of Iowa was drained into the Arctic
ocean. Of course, this was incorrect, because the drainage, so
far as Iowa is concerned, is either to the Missouri or the Missis¬
sippi river but he was not so far out of the way. As a matter
of fact if you take a map of Minnesota and Dakota you will
find that the dividing drainage basin for the Red river of the
North is within 200 miles from the Iowa line, but some of the
students were very much perturbed at the inaccuracy of the
statement. Prof. Budd dealt in generalities. He had the big
things in mind so this little slip might better have been over-
looked by the students. They commented sarcastically on this
statement.

tie was well read from a scientific standpoint. Though per¬
haps, not always quite up to date, he did consult many of the
early scientific treatises concerning botany and horticulture.
When it came to discriminating between plants he showed un¬
usual power of picking out differences. In other wTords this
faculty had much to do with success in life in a business way.
He was an astute obesrver of men and things. His published
notes in the Weekly Register show that he had at his command
a great fund of general information.

To many a student he gave a helping hand wdien they
needed financial aid. Many a student has expressed deep
gratitude to him for his kind assistance.

To Prof. Budd we owe, in part, some of the beautiful trees
that grace the college campus. I recall the grove that surrounds
the campanile, the birches and oleasters in front of Margaret
hall. Throughout the state of Iowa and the northwest in gen¬
eral the fine blooming Rosa rugosa, the Russian oleaster, the
fragrant lilacs and honeysuckles are a reminder of one of Iowa’s
great men, the father of Iowa horticulture. At one time Prof.
Budd had one of the leading collections of woody plants in
this country on the campus, now only a memory for some. First
the old nursery near the campanile, mostly native American
plants, then the nursery where Margaret hall is located, the
white birches and oleasters are reminders. Then let us recall
the little nursery, started back of the present green house
where there are a few remnants of the old trees left such as
the white poplar now badly diseased. Norway maple, and back
near the veterinary buildings only a few of the very fine things

14

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

are left such as the yellow wood, the black ash, the red oak, the
blue ash, the Russian oak, European elm, quaking asp, large
tooth aspen and a number of other plants. A little earlier than
this planting Prof. Bucld started a nursery which later devel¬
oped into his arboretum. This is where the physics and science
buildings are located. This arboretum contained many inter¬
esting American, Russian and Asiatic plants, not many of
which are left. There are several species of pear from Asia
and Europe, black birch, and a service berry. Prof. Budd had an
interesting lot of Asiatic barberry, one of the largest cultivated
collections in this country. This interesting collection of plants
had to make way for the building operations of the campus.
Prof. Budd felt sorry that these plants had to be removed. It
seems to me that somewhere on this college campus we should
start a collection of plants that Prof. Budd cultivated on the
campus, and the offspring of which was distributed to the peo¬
ple of Iowa. It would be a reminder of the great work that
Prof. Budd did for the state of Iowa.

Prof. Budd was born in Peekskill, N. Y., in 1835, attended
Union college, Schenectady, three years, and the state normal
school of New York two years. He came west and located at
Rockford, Ill., where he was principal of Rockford academy
for two years and then settled at Shellsburg, Iowa in 1862, was
elected professor of horticulture, May, 1877, and president pro
tern of the college, December, 1884. He died December 20,
1904, at Phoenix, Arizona.

SEAMAN ASAPIEL KNAPP

It is fitting that I should include in this series of short
sketches an account of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp who won for him¬
self an enduring place in the educational and agricultural fields
of this country. Lester S. Ivins and A. E. Winship in “Fifty
Famous Farmers” say: "‘No American has had a greater agri¬
cultural influence over wide territory and over so many years
than had Seaman A. Knapp. 0. B. Martin in “The Demonstra¬
tion Work” quoting from an address made by Dr. Knapp in
1906 before the Ninth Conference for Education in the South at
Lexington, Kentucky: “We then learned the philosophy and
power of agricultural demonstration.” Mr. Martin says: “It is
good that this man, who was literally the first demonstrator of
the great movement as now constituted throughout the country,
should have realized that he was furnishing object lessons not
solely for the benefit of himself and family, but also for his
neighbors. Thousands have followed in his footsteps and have
been actuated and inspired by the same motive. It is almost
superfluous to say that the bankers and business men did not
have to indemnify him for failure. ”

Mr. Wallace Buttriek, secretary of the General Education
Board, in an article on Seaman A. Knapp’s work as an agricul¬
tural statesman in Review of Reviews, quotes F. C. Gates as
saying: “There is abundant knowledge of the science of agri¬
culture ; if these people could have that knowledge in some
practical form there would be no limit to the output of southern
agriculture.”

It was during the study of southern economic conditions
and education that Mr. Gates and Mr. Ogden found Dr. Knapp.
Later the General Education Board made a small contribu¬
tion for this extension work in the state of Mississippi. This
was in 1906. From this little beginning there developed won¬
derful work in connection with the boys’ corn crops clubs, can¬
ning and poultry clubs which has been of tremendous import¬
ance not only in the south but in the country as a whole. Walter
H. Page, our ambassador to Great Britain, was greatly inter¬
ested in the development of the south economically and educa¬
tionally. Mr. Page’s work in behalf of this better educational
system is interestingly brought out by Burton J. Hendrick in
“The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page.” Mr. Page often
regretted that the south did not have the comprehensive system
of education that the north and west had. He soon found that

16

PROMINENT MEN 1 HAVE MET

in order to bring about the educational system that agriculture
would have to be taken into consideration. Dr. Buttrick set to
work to devise a plan but found little that could be done until
his attention was drawn to Dr. Knapp in the words of Burton
J. Hendrick: “A quaint and bucolic Ben Franklin — who was
rather obscurely working in the cotton lands of Louisiana, mak¬
ing warfare on the boll weevil in a way of his own.”

Yet he had evolved a plan for retaining country life and
making American farms more fruitful. It was Dr. Knapp ’s con¬
tention the only way to improve agricultural conditions was not
to talk but to select a farmer, persuade him to work his fields
according to the best methods which can be prescribed for him.
It was further interestingly related by Mr. Hendrick that Mr.
Burton brought Dr. Knapp and presented him to Page. This
was precisely the kind of man that appealed to Page’s sympa¬
thies. Mr. Page regarded Dr. Knapp as one of the greatest men
of the time. Page pleaded his cause with great eloquence before
the Education Board. At the funeral service in Washington
he said that Dr. Knapp would outrank the statesmen and poli¬
ticians that received the world’s plaudits because Dr. Knapp
had devoted his life to a really great purpose; his inspiration
had been a love of the common people ; his faith, his sympathy
had all been expended in an effort to brighten the life of the
neglected masses.

Dr. Knapp not only had a great mind but he was a man of
great vision and he could eloquently plead for the right thing.
At the Mississippi A. & M. College he said: “For once in the
history of civilization let us have a common people thoroughly
trained within the lines of their duties, full of science of how
to get a living, refined, courageous, and loyal to government and
to God.”

It was evident from his addresses that he was a lover of the
great “out-of-doors,” and in order to develop a virile manhood
and womanhood it would be necessary to bring this contact
with country life. Not only did he want to develop the eco¬
nomic side of agriculture but he wanted to see a fine and full
rounded life and that, he thought, could only be developed
through the heart, mind, and body. It was in the city he felt
that the dense population was a menace to this kind of develop¬
ment. In an address delivered at the Mississippi A. & M. Col¬
lege in 1884, he said: “Each square mile of dense city popula¬
tion should occupy in the future one hundred square miles of
territory. ’ ’ In other words it was this rural contact that would
make for a better civilization.

What led up to his great constructive work is an interesting
story. He had a good, strong background. His father was a
physician and a man of fine culture, his mother also was a wo¬
man of generous impulses and was broadly educated. It was

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

17

in the little village of Schroon near Lakke Champlain in Essex
county. New York state, where he received his early training.
This village had the finest kind of traditions. He was horn on
December 16, 1833, and died in Washington, April 1, 1911. His
early education was at the Troy Conference Academy, located
at Poultney, Vt., and finished at Union College, Schenectady,
New York, receiving the degree in A. B. in 1856, under the presi¬
dency of Eliphalet Nott. He received a classical education. An
interesting story is related therewith. On one occasion, Dr.
Knapp was with three distinguished educators, college presi¬
dents. These men noticed he was wearing a Phi Beta Kappa key.
One of the educators said, “I notice that you are wearing the key
of a classical honor society. How did you get it?” Dr. Knapp
promptly responded, “I got it by the same hard work you did to
get your key.” Quite a number of institutions conferred the
Doctor of Laws and the Doctor of Science degrees on him.
From Iowa State College, he received the Doctor of Science de¬
gree in 1909. After graduation from Union College he was pro¬
fessor and associate president of the Fort Edwards Collegiate
Institute, later becoming connected with the Ripley Female Col¬
lege, formerly Troy Conference Academy at Poultney, Rutland
county, Vermont.

In 1866 he moved to Big Grove Township, Benton County,
not far from Vinton, Iowa. He became superintendent of the
State College for the Blind at Vinton in 1869, resigning in 1876,
returning to the farm. During his residence at Vinton he was in
constant demand as a lecturer on agricultural topics. He became
a breeder of Berkshire hogs and Shorthorn cattle, and thus be¬
came a charter member of Iowa Improved Stock Breeders’ as¬
sociation. Dr. Knapp had so impressed his services on the agri¬
culture of Iowa that in the fall of 1879 he was elected professor
of agriculture and came to Ames in February, 1880. He served
in the capacity of professor of agriculture until 1883, when he
was elected president, serving until December, 1884. Dr. Knapp
was elected dean of agriculture, serving until 1886, when he
accepted a position with the Agricultural Development company
of Louisiana. He was busy with his pen and was a frequent
contributor to the Western Stock Journal and Farmer of Cedar
Rapids. It was in this way that he became acquainted with
James Wilson. They became life long friends.

It was my pleasure to have met Dr. Knapp a great many
times. He was a man of pleasing and compelling personality,
an outstanding figure in every way. When in his presence you
felt that you were talking to an extraordinary man. St. Clair
McKelway, editor of the Brooklyn Eagle after hearing one of
his addresses said: “That man is a combination of Socrates,
Horace Greeley, and Gladstone.”

At fifty-three years of age we see Dr. Knapp starting out

18

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

on a new enterprise in Louisiana to improve farm conditions.
The boll weevil was the opportunity to open the door of great
possibilities to educate the planters to follow a better system of
agriculture. He was seventy years old when the boll weevil
appeared. Most people say old but he was young and vigorous.
Some of his real life work was done at this time. Dr. Knapp
for seven years had charge of this extension work in the south.
In 1905 an appropriation of $40,000 by the United States gov¬
ernment was made to carry on this extension work. Today it is
more than $15,000,000 and an untold amount of good is accomp¬
lished.

Dr. Ivnapp at Iowa State College was not only a fine and
worthy companion, but an able member of the faculty, always
initiating some things worthy of note. We note now the experi¬
ments with grasses, fie was trying to see if orchard grass, and
tall meadow oats might not prove of some value for Iowa agri¬
culture. The idea of making the agricultural colleges great
agencies in agricultural research was an idea that he fostered.
The wisdom of national legislation for experiment station work
is now generally recognized. Much credit is of course given to
the Hatch Act which was introduced in the house of representa¬
tives by Congressman Hatch of Missouri. Dr. S. A. Knapp is
responsible for drafting the original Hatch Act. This was
drafted by him in 1882 and it became a law in 1887. As finally
passed only a few minor changes were made from the original
draft of Dr. Knapp.

I cannot, of course, speak much about his ability as a
teacher. But those who had him in classes mention his precision
and clearness in presenting a topic. Many able men were
turned out, some of them are conspicuous in agricultural work.
I may mention in this connection the late Prof. S. A. Beach, late
assistant secretary of agriculture, W. M. Hays, Dr. C. P. Cur¬
tiss, Dean of Agriculture at Iowa State College, G. W. Curtiss
at one time professor of agriculture at Texas A. & M. College
E. S. Richman, O. W. Rich, Clias. A. Keffer, Dr. N. E. Hansen,
Brookings, South Dakota, Dr. Myron H. Reynolds. Prof. Hays
has said of him:

“ James AVilson gave larger official service than any other
Iowan. Henry Wallace, Sr., preacher, agriculturist and religi¬
ous agricultural editor, was Iowa’s greatest private citizen.
And Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, founder of America’s system of
county farm bureaus, merited the tribute given in Walter Hines
Page’s address at his funeral: “He was the greatest educator
among us’.”

At the dedication of the Knapp memorial group of oaks on
the campus, another of his students, Dr. C. P. Curtiss, said :

“This institution is blessed today, and in the generations to
come, by the love and veneration of its founders for trees, and

PROMINENT MEN 1 HAVE MET

19

by the love for trees which these men imparted to their stu¬
dents. One of these early students has rendered a signal serv¬
ice to this institution in the planting, which he has generously
donated and for which he has provided skillful direction. A
higher or more appropriate service could hardly be rendered by
any alumnus to his alma mater.

“When he gave up his work here, he entered upon a work
that gave him, in a way, a broader field. He rendered a service
to the people of the southern states that made him an emanci¬
pator for a better agriculture and for better citizenship. The
people of the south have erected a monument to his memory,
but the greatest monument that he has, or that any man can
have, is the place he holds in the hearts of a grateful people. ”

Much has been said about the influence of Dr. Knapp in
the class room and the farm but we must also recognize the in¬
fluence of another person on the campus, Mrs. Maria Knapp.
Those who knew her realize that she must have had a wonderful
influence on the life of the man who did so much for the cause
of agriculture and education in this country. Dr. E. W. Stanton
has said: “Gracious, tactful, tender, she instinctively knew
the right word to use, the right advice to offer, and always, the
particular way in which the strength needed could be given.
Mrs. Knapp was not only a woman of culture but she used her
intellectual attainments in a way to command the respect and
honor of all her associates.”

In one of his addresses delivered in 1883 when a professor
of agriculture, he said: “Nothing upon the crust of the earth,
or in the depth of the sea, or in boundless space is exempt from
the scrutiny of the scientists. He has cultivated the organs of
sense to the uttermost and then added to them. To the eye he
has added lenses and tubes until he can look at his atom or
survey a star. He has multiplied the sound receiving capacity
of his ear and has drawn his tongue into a copper wire until
he can converse indefinite miles. He has lengthened his fingers
to pick up shells on the bottom of the ocean. We owe to science,
also, a debt of gratitude for teaching men to tell the truth. It
scrutinizes, and sifts, and refines till it arrives at the fundamen¬
tal facts of truths. This is a kind of personal training necessary
for men of business.

“The great need of the many is a more scientific and prac¬
tical knowledge of the common things of life ; to the masses the
philosophy of the cottage is more important than that of the
palace, and the result of the battle between force and matter
of deeper moment than one hundred Waterloos. The great
captains of the future must marshal the hosts of industry upon
the farm and in the workshop.”

And again in an address in 1884 delivered at Ames, he
says: “The whistle of the plow-boy, the tumult of trade, the

20

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

rumblings of engines, the music of the water wheel, the din of
hammers, the rattle of looms, rise in a grand chorus of industry
all over the land. These are the living evidences of the power
of faith and hope.

“The broad statesman, the profound scholar, the zealous
reformer, the men who organize liberty and found republics,
who plan moral revolutions and lead the forces, have positive
convictions. They believe in mankind, in the great future, in
the enduring character of God. It does not require any great
strength of intellect to destroy or to doubt.”

Dr. Knapp said: “The farm must be made a place of beauty
so attractive that every passing stranger inquires: ‘Who lives
in that lovely home?’ The home is of minor consideration, the
gorgeous setting of trees and shrubbery holds the eye.”

Dr. Knapp had a large influence in shaping agricultural
teaching and experimental work at Ames. When I came here
in 1889 my attention was frequently called to the grass plots
located not far from where the present creamery stands. I re¬
ferred to the Hatch act which had its inspiration here.

He was a close student in matters pertaining to agriculture.
Some of the early experiments conducted on the campus of
Iowa State College had to do with grasses and these were re¬
ported in 1882. As professor of agriculture at Iowa State Col¬
lege he became interested in the treatment of fence posts

Dr. Knapp resigned the professorship of Agriculture at
Iowa Agricultural College to go to Louisiana in 1886 — he was
then fifty-three years of age. He devoted his attention to im¬
proving the conditions of Louisiana. He brought northern pro¬
gressive farm settlers to live among the inhabitants to give
them instruction in how to manage farms and make money.
He studied farm conditions and from it came the idea of co¬
operative extension work.

It was my pleasure in November, 1892, to have been one of
a party of agriculturists and scientists to attend the sixth an¬
nual convention of American Agricultural Colleges and Experi¬
ment Stations held at New Orleans. The delegates from the
north and west chartered several Pullman coaches in Chicago.
The Illinois Central railroad was anxious that we should have
the best of service and therefore Captain J. F. Merry of Man¬
chester, Iowa, special passenger agent of the Illinois Central,
was on the train to make things pleasant for us. I had many
interesting chats with Mr. Merry who spoke about the agricul¬
tural development of the south and laid stress on the fact that
Dr. Seaman A. Knapp of Louisiana was doing a great work for
the south, and it would be through his initiative that the south
Avould be born anew. His words were prophetic. It was through
the organization of boys’ clubs, and farmers’ clubs, and wo-

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

21

men’s and girls’ clubs, that the system of agriculture became
changed.

Dr. Knapp, as manager of the problems of the Agricultural
Development Company of Louisiana, had a tremendous respons¬
ibility. The scattered farmers of this region were not success¬
ful as agriculturists. It was one vast cattle range in a country
not really adapted to the raising of cattle. Dr. Knapp made a
study of the agricultural problems and decided that rice grow¬
ing had greater possibilities in that and the neighboring state
of Texas, and so Dr. Knapp really became an authority on the
subject of rice. He did much for the rice country of Louisiana
and his wide experience led him in the year of 1910 to prepare
a paper on rice culture, issued by the United States Department
of Agriculture as Farmers’ Bulletin number 417. When Secretary
Wilson in 1898, wanted a man to study the rice problem in our
recent possessions Porto Rico and the Philippines, he called on
Dr. Knapp to make a study of the agriculture of tropical re¬
gions including Japan and China and to give special attention
to rice culture. The result was that Dr. Knapp brought back
with him a wealth of information on the subject. Dr. Knapp
not only understood the commercial aspect but he was familiar
with the scientific and botanical aspects of the question. His
associates felt that he was the one man capable of looking after
the interests in America and therefore elected him president of
the Rice Growers’ Association in America.

Many years ago the writer of this note was called to investi¬
gate a cotton disease, the cotton root, in Texas. It seemed to me
that the only remedy would be in rotation of crops. Cotton was
the staple crop. Merchants, bankers, and laborers all adjusted
their business to the cotton crop. It was a one crop country.
Along in 1902 the boll weevil appeared. It was a Mexican in¬
sect. Ordinary methods of insect control were of no avail. The
insect was spreading over the state. A panic followed. The
boll weevil was a blessing in disguise. The entomologists found
the remedy to be diversified crops. But it needed a leader, and
that leader was Dr. Seaman A. Knapp who gave directions for
the use of better seed, more space for the cotton plant to grow,
more and cleaner cultivation, and above all to alternate with
corn and other crops in order to combat the weevil.

It is interesting now to look back and see that his study of
the cotton boll weevil began to bear fruit when Secretary James
Wilson and the Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, Dr. B.
T. Galloway, made a request to have an appropriation of $500,-
000 set aside to meet the ravages of the boll weevil. Half of
this sum was appropriated and half of the $250,000 went to the
Bureau of Entomology and half to the Bureau of Plant Industry.

To work out the problem of how to combat this great evil,

22

PROMINENT MEN 1 HAVE MET

there was organized the farmers’ cooperative demonstration
work with Dr. Knapp in charge. Later when the success of
this work was demonstrated, it was not difficult to get approp¬
riations for this work.

Dr. Knapp’s experience in organizing this work on south¬
ern farms led him in 1910 to publish a Farmers’ Bulletin num¬
ber 422, issued by the United States Department of Agriculture
in which he gave his rich experience in contact with southern
agriculture. Speaking of the boll weevil, he estimated that it
was annually invading new territory six miles long and in suf¬
ficient numbers to cover each stock for a mile in width. “A
cotton crop can be produced in spite of the boll weevil and the
sooner the farmers realize it the better. The demonstration of
the effectiveness of these methods is one of the objects of the
farmers’ cooperative demonstration work.”

Dr. Knapp made a general study of how best to deliver the
knowledge of agricultural science to present farmers. In the
course of that study we learned of Dr. Knapp and his success in
helping present farmers. Dr. Knapp came to Washington for a
conference. The question was asked: “Why cannot your
method, so successful in boll weevil states, be introduced in all
the states of the south?” The answer was: “Federal money
cannot be used except to fight an interstate evil, like the boll
weevil, for example.”

After conference with Secretary Wilson and Dr. Knapp, the
General Education Board made a small contribution for the
extension of this work into the state of Mississippi. This was
in 1906. In 1907 the work was extended to Alabama and to
Virginia; the latter state presenting conditions radically differ¬
ent from those existing in the cotton-growing sections. So suc¬
cessful was this work of demonstration farms that in the fol¬
lowing year the General Education Board supplied funds for
the extension of the work to all the southern states.

At the fourteenth annual conference for education in the
south held at Jacksonville, Florida, on April 19, 1911, Dr. J. H.
Dillard said: “In pausing thus to pay our tribute of respect to
his private life, exalted character and public service, we mingle
without mourning the triumph of the victor. No note of failure
or defeat attaches to our expression concerning him. It is true
that death has claimed him, but the lessons that he taught and
the victories over the forces of nature won by his intelligence
and imparted by his patriotic humanity to his fellow craftsmen
of the farm, will not only remain but will grow in the power of
great achievement even after the name of their author shall
have faded out of human memory. Dr. S. C. Mitchell called
him two years ago the Benjamin Franklin of American Agri¬
culture.

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

23

“In earlier life his service was given to the north and north¬
west, blit since 1902 his entire time has been given to the farm
demonstration work of the southern states.

“This great life has gone out with only a slight recognition
in the newspaper press, so strangely are the real values of life
misinterpreted. The nation is poorer for the loss of Dr. Knapp,
but the plain people, hundreds of thousands of them, are richer
materially, mentally, spiritually, because of his missionary work
on and for the land. May other hands grasp the torch that he
has dropped and carry his unfinished work forward with ever
growing light and power and with ever increasing blessing to
the people he so nobly served!’’

DR. ASA GRAY

Dr. Robinson states “that the career of Dr. Asa Gray is one of
great beauty; indeed, it has the dramatic quality which comes from
humble origin, far seeing ambition, persistent effort, large accom-
lishment and wide recognition. He was born in 1810 at Sauquoit,
Oneida County, New Yo'rk, of Ensligh and Scotch Irish ancestors.
His father was a tanner and a farmer.”

Dr. Gray in his boyhood days was occupied in duties connected
with the tannery and the farm. He entered a country medical school
at the age of 16 and became interested in botany, using the work,
The Manual of Botany, of Amo's Eaton. At 17 he assisted a country
doctor. He graduated from medical course at the age of 2 0. Dr.
Robinson tells us that he wrote The Elements of Botany at the age
of 2 5 and conducted a course in botany at Hamilton college. “At 28
he was appointed to the professorship of botany at the University
of Michigan, and in 18 42 was chosen to fill the newly created pro¬
fessorship of natural history at Harvard/’

In this country the great exploring age, though it began earlier
in the century, continued at intervals up to the sixties. Many of the
great expeditions were made after the forties and many of the plants
collected on these expeditions naturally went to Dr. Asa Gray, who
named many of the new species, and there were hundreds of them. It
was a gigantic undertaking but Dr. Gray did his work well. He had
the respect and esteem of all the great botanists of Europe for his
profound research in botany.

On May 21, 1925, in the City of New York, Dr. Robinson gave
an address at the unveiling of the bust of the great American botan¬
ist, Dr. Asa Gray, in the Hall of Fame. It was very appropriate in¬
deed that the present curator of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard
university should have made the address. In the brief time allotted
to him it was hardly possible to review at length the great services
that Dr. Gray performed to botany and science in this country. He
surely ranks among the great scientists this country has produced
and his name will find a place with such men as Alexander Agassiz,
Benjamin Silliman, Spencer F. Baird, Joseph Henry, and men of
that- type; yet I presume in the eyes of the reading public Agassiz is
placed first. While there is no doubt that Agassiz made many im¬
portant contributions, none have a more permanent and abiding
place in our literature than the work of Dr. Asa Gray.

My interest in Dr. Gray began while a student at the University
of Wisconsin. My instructor in botany, Dr. Wm. Trelease, had been
a student of Dr. Gray and consequently gave to his special students

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

25

at the University of Wisconsin an insight into the character of the
man, his methods of work, and his greatness as a botanist. When
therefore, in the fall of 18 8 5, Dr. W. G. Parlow invited me to become
his private assistant, I had an opportunity to make the acquaintance
of Dr. Asa Gray. Dr. Parlow, the great scholar and student of lower
forms of plant life in this country, had been a »arm and intimate
friend, and student, of Dr. Gray.

He said, “You must, of course, meet Dr. Gr<*v,” which I did at
my earliest opportunity. This was soon after m? arrival in Cam¬
bridge toward the latter part of December, 18 85 I arrived at the
herbarium at 8 in the morning. The door was open and I walked in,
looked over the literature and marvelled at the great library of
botanical works. Along about 9 o’clock in the morning Dr. Gray
came down and introduced himself to me. I told him I had come
to work with Dr. Parlow. “Yes, yes,” he said. “I know about it.”
He said that Dr. Trelease had written him about me and also that
Dr. Parlow spo'ke to him concerning my work in the cryptogramic
herbarium. Then Dr. Gray went on to tell me that he saw my first
published paper in the Torrey Botanical Club on “Seed Coats of
Some Leguminosae.” He said he was interested in it.

I had never met so distinguished a man before and naturally
the little remark by Dr. Gray encouraged me. I frequently saw him
later when I went to the library. He was always willing to help the
young men interested in botany and was able to talk most iluminat-
ingly on a variety of subjects related to botany. As an illustration of
the helpfulness of Dr. Gray to young men the recently published
note by Prof. H. W. Wiley, formerly chemist of the U. S. Department
of Agriculture, in Science of September 4, 1925, will be of interest.

Dr. Asa Gray came to Dubuque, Iowa, to deliver his address as
retiring president of the A. A. A. S. in August, 1 872. The title of
this address was “Sequoia and its History.” Dr. Gray had a peculiar
interest in the American lotus which was so abundant at McGregor,
Iowa. Quite a number of scientists accompanied Dr. Gray to Me
Gregor to see the American lotus. Among these I may mention Dr.
T. H. MacBride. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, mentioning the trip to Me
Gregor, says:

“During this meeting we had an excursion up the river. A
large party of scientific men was walking along the bank, among
them Asa Gray. We came across a pool of still water connected
with the river, in which there were some beautiful water lilies,
very large. Professor Gray pointed to a mass of flowers which
were particularly beautiful, growing near the edge, but too far
from shore to be reached, and expressed a desire to possess them.

I, at that time, was not afraid of getting wet, so I plunged into
the pool, plucked the lilies and presented them to him. He ex¬
pressed to me his very great joy in having them.

“I think that this meeting with Asa Gray was the deciding
factor in my going to Harvard the next year for a special course
in chemistry. Professor Gray belonged to that group of great
men mentioned by Professor Robinson, composed of Longfellow,
Norton, Agassiz, James Russell Lowell and Oliver Wendell

26

PROMINENT MEN 1 HAVE MET

Ho'lmes. It was my good fortune within a year or two of my
meeting with Asa Gray to meet all these worthies. I greatly
appreciate the tribute paid to Asa Gray by Professor Robinson.”

In my address to students in systematic botany, I have made
this reference to Dr. Gray’s work and in the general intorduction to
this course I said:

“A course in taxonomic botany would not be complete
without some reference to the men and women who have en
riched this phase of botanical work. Many of the present day
tendencies in scientific work is to deal only with the present; the
future, these students say, will take care of itself, and what
does it matter? The average student, and for that matter many a
teacher, only considers the present state of science. They care
little for the past. I think it is a mistake. The present age is
indebted to the past for many of its discoveries and achieve¬
ments. Therefore, let us take a little time to consider these
men, whether they lived in France, England, Germany, Sweden,
or any other country, we are indebted to them.

“It is worth while to refer to such men as Linnaeus, Ben-
tham and Hooker, Endlicher, DeCandolle, Braun, Ray, Morri¬
son, Caesalpliuius, John Torrey Asa Gray, Watson, Brewer,
Michaux, Nuttall, Pnrsh, etc.

“Dr. Gray accomplished great things in botany, I need
only mention his North American Flora with Torrey, Synoptical
Flora, never completed because too many new plants were com¬
ing in. Many monographs had to be prepared before the Synop¬
tical Flora could be completed. Gray’s textbooks in botany had
a wonderful influence on the botany of North America. I wish
I could give you details of his many contributions. You should
not go through college without reading some of his popular dis¬
courses gathered together in Life and Letters, and a collection
of Essays on Evolution. Then let me refer you to a beautiful
tribute in an address by Dr. B. L. Robinson of Gray Herbarium,
a worthy successor to Gray and Watson, in Science of July 17,

19 2 5. This address will give you a bird’s-eye view of the dis¬
tinguished botanist, Asa Gray.”

Dr. Gray had a wonderful influence on the science o'f this coun¬
try and the public at large. He was respected everywhere for his
opinions. It was largely through his transcendent qualities as a
Christian that the theory of evolution was generally accepted in this
country. Every student of natural history should scan the remark¬
able series of essays and reviews pertaining to Darwin, published in
1876.

In this work he says that “two hypotheses divide the scientfiic
warld very unequally on the origin of the existing diversity of
plants and animals which surround us; one, that all kinds originate
supernaturally and directly as such, and have continued unchanged
in the order of nature; the other, that the present kinds appeared in
some sort of geological connection with other and earlier kinds,
that they became what they now are in the course of time and in the
order o'f nature.”

In his address at Dubuque on the subject, “Sequoia and its

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

27

History,” the relation of East North American to Northeast Asian
tertiary vegetation traced out the connection between the plants of
that geological period and the present distribution. This was based
of course, largely on the valuable geological work of several Euro¬
pean and American geologists.

It was possible now also for him to correctly interpret the
distribution of present day plants in Eastern North America, Japan
and China, from the collections made by Commodore Perry’s expedi¬
tion to Japan; the Williams and Morrow collection and the collection
of Charles Wright of Commodore Rogers’ expedition. This made it
possible for Dr. Gray to interpret the geological history of the plants
of eastern North America and eastern Asia. The work Darwiniana
referred to above contains philosophical essays on evolution insec¬
tivorous plants, climbing plants duration and origination of racial
species, and essays of geographical distribution of plants.

Dr. Asa Gray was a very consistent and faithful member of the
Congregational church at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I fre¬
quently saw him in his pew. He was invited to address the students
of Yale college, and delivered two fine lectures on natural science
and religion. He was glad to avail himself of this privilege, and
makes this statement:

“While listening weekly — I hope with edification — to the
sermons which it is my privilege and duty to hear, it has
now and then occurred to me that it might be well if an occa¬
sional discourse could be addressed from the pews to the pulpit.
But, until your invitation reached me, I had no idea that I
should ever be called upon to put this passing thought into prac¬
tice. I am sufficiently convinced already that the members of
a profession know their own calling better than any one else
can know it; and in respect to the debatable land which lies
along the borders of theology and natural science, and which
has been harried by many a raid from both sides, I am not con¬
fident that I can be helpful in composing strifes or in the fixing
of boundaries; nor that you will agree with me that some o'f
the encounters were inevitable, and some of the alarm ground¬
less. Indeed upon much that I may have to say, I expect rather
the charitable judgment than the full assent of those whose ap¬
probation I could most wish to* win.”

“Among the questions which disquieted pious souls in my
younger days, but which have ceased to disquiet any of us, are
those respecting the age and gradual development of the earth
and of the solar system, which came in with geology and mo'd-
ern astronomy. I remember the time when it was a mooted
question whether geology and orthodox Christianity were com¬
patible; and I suppose that then, in these quarters, the balance
inclined to the affirmative, it was owing quite as much to’ Pro¬
fessor Silliman’s transparent Christian character as to his scien¬
tific ability.”

.#•••••

Then he adds in another connection, speaking of the Old Tes¬
tament, “for its fundamental note is the declaration of one God,
maker of heaven and earth, and of all things, visible and invisible —
a declaratin which, if physical science is unable to establish, it is

28

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

equally unable to overthrow.” He concludes his address by saying:
“We students of natural science and of theology have a very similar
task. Nature is a complex of which the human race, through investi¬
gation, is learning more and more the meaning and the uses. The
Scriptures are a complex, an accumulation of a long series of records,
which are to be well understood only by investigation. It cannot be
that in all these years we have learned nothing new of their mean¬
ing and uses to us, and have nothing still to learn. Nor can it be
that we are not free to use what we learn in one line of study to
limit correct, or remodel the ideas which we obtain from another.”

DR. MILLIKAN STALKER

The pioneers of every country have always been very substantial
men and women. They have contributed to the foundations of state
and nation, and every nation owes to these plain men and women a
substantial gratitude. Iowa State college, on June 6th, 1917, desir¬
ing to remember some of the pioneers in Iowa educational work, dedi¬
cated memorial groups o*f trees to these men. A group of hard
maples on the south side of the campus is the site of the proposed
memorial' building and near it is the group of trees commemorating
Dr. Millikan Stalker, one of the pioneers in veterinary education in
this country. At these exercises General James Rush Lincoln paid
the following tribute to Dr. Stalker:

“Perhaps a man’s character and work, when his life has closed,
may be best judged by the answer to the question, “Is he missed?”
No one who knew Dr. Stalker has other than pleasant memories of
the man, and reminiscences of delightful experience with an always
agreeable companion; and again they hear his voice in pleasing con¬
versation, which was always interesting and instructive and ever en¬
livened by sparkling wit. As a social companion he was unrivaled.
Being a great traveler he would command the attention of any group
in which he might be thrown, and give experiences and observations,
oftentimes unique, and always interesting and full of instruction.

“He was a pioneer in his profession in Iowa, and had high ideals
towards which he worked. He believed thoroughly that the veterin¬
ary profession was destined to be looked upon as one of the most
useful to man, as a profession whose work was to bless the whole
human family.

“Today no one but recognizes the vast importance of this profes¬
sion and among its early scientists and laborers, the splendid per¬
sonality of this leader will continue to exert an influence for greater
achievements. He saw his profession grow from a weak and lowly
place in the scale of educational endeavors to its present proud place
as a profession among the most beneficient to man.”

Dr. Stalker was one of the most remarkable men ever connected
with the Iowa State college; he was a brilliant student, a superb lec¬
turer, a charming conversationalist, and an exemplary citizen. These
characteristics, in brief, were some of the remarkable traits of this
pioneer of veterinary education in the United States.

Dr. Stalker came of Quaker ancestors who lived in North Caro¬
lina. His father and mother, at an early stage in their married life,
left the Carolinas and came to Plainfield, Indiana, where Millikan
was born on the 6t'h day of August, 1841. Not long afterward, the
Stalker family moved to Richland, Iowa, where his youth and young
manhood were spent. There were no idle moments in this frontier
life on a farm. He was diligent and faithful; he attended district

30

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

schools and academies in Oskaloosa and Springdale in this state and
was also a teacher in the district school.

At the age of 2 8, he was graduated in 18 73 with the second
class from the general course which corresponded with the present
general science course. His tastes were literary and he had intended
to study law but his plans were changed because of a vacancy occur¬
ring in the college faculty through the election of Prof. I. P. Roberts
to the chair of agriculture in Cornell university. Because of his ma¬
turity and experience on the farm, Dr. Stalker was offered the posi¬
tion thus left vacant and creditably filled the chair of agriculture
here, giving all of the instruction and acting as farm superintendent
as well. From November, 1873 to November 1876, he also acted as
secretary of the board of trustees. In 1876 Dr. Welch recommended
that instruction in veterinary science be added to the curriculum.
There were then few teachers of adequate experience on that subject
anywhere in this country. There were several brilliant exceptions to
this rule among whom we may mention Dr. Law of Cornell univers¬
ity, a Scotchman who came here through the influence of President
White, and Dr. Liautard o-f France, who later became connected with
the New York College of Veterinary Surgeons, while the teaching
force of the veterinary school in Toronto was made up almost en¬
tirely of men from abroad.

Dr. Stalker attended the veterinary schools of New York and
Toronto, receiving his degree from the latter. He was made pro¬
fessor of agricultural and veterinary science at Iowa Agricultural
College in 1876, his work to begin in 1877. Thus there was organ¬
ized the first school of veterinary science in the west, when in 18 78,
this department was separated from that of agriculture. A two
years’ course covering the entire school year was insisted upon from
the first, and later, at the suggestion of Dr. Stalker, the course was
lengthened to three years. There were few students at first but the
attendance increased steadily.

Prof. L. B. Schmidt in an historical sketch of Iowa State col¬
lege, says:

Considerable veterinary work was included in the agricultural
course and in 1877, the records show that a department of veterinary
science was recognized. On May 23, 1879, authority was granted for
the addition of one year of veterinary work to that already offered
and the granting o'f degrees and diplomas to those who completed
such course. Thus the official establishment of a veterinary school
was accomplished May 23, 1879. On November 12, 1879, $4,000 was
appropriated for the building of a veterinary hospital. The first
class to graduate from a state institution in America graduated from
the Iowa State College in 18 80. During the first 10 years 43 men
were graduated as veterinarians. During the next 10 years (18 90 to
1900) 58 veterinarians were graduated.”

During the early days of the veterinary work in the ccrllege the
classes were small and the work was divided between Dr. D. S. Fair-
child and Dr. Stalker and sciences taught by various men in the de¬
partments of the college. The real veterinary work of the college

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

31

including the clinics fell to the lot of Dr. Stalker. When the work in¬
creased a house surgeon and an assistant professorship followed.
Other men were later added to the staff. During the early days of the
veterinary course, students from the course in general science were
permitted to elect some of the veterinary studies.

A large number of the science students availed themselves of
the opportunity to listen to the lectures of Dr. Stalker. It is probably
not saying too much when I make the statement that no one has ever
given instruction in the difficult subject of anatomy who was better
able to secure the undivided attention of students than Dr. Stalker,
and that no student could learn his anatomy more easily than he
could under the wonderful and charming personality of this prince
of lecturers. He had such a unique way of presenting the subject
that the subject remained with his students. Many have told me this.

The writer heard Dr. Stalker give several of his lectures, one on
his trip to Alaska and in this he told many stories and incidents of
the trip. These were so interwoven with the scenery and other mat¬
ters that they were highly polished pieces of literary work. Dr.
Stalker was at his best as an entertainer. I have never heard a man
who could equal him as a conversationalist. I remember well his
first trip to the Lake Mohonk conference in New York. The beauties
of the scenery were described to me, and he marvelled at how the
people were made comfortable while the peace conference was in
session.

At one time he delivered a lecture on the camel which was in¬
deed a rare treat to those who heard it. After giving an account of
the anatomy of the camel, he proceeded to tell in his own unique
way, the use of the camel as a beast O'f burden in the countries of the
old world.

It was my pleasure to have known Dr. Stalker intimately and
personally from the very day I arrived on the campus. In fact
the first year of my stay, Dr. Stalker took his meals at our home and
I was able to thus become acquainted more intimately than I would
otherwise have done, especially with his charming manners. A
friend of mine in a neighboring state, on whom Dr. Stalker hap¬
pened to call, invited him in to dinner. A stranger to be sure,, but
the friend afterwards told me that Dr. Stalker entertained for two
hours in his own inimitable way.

Dr. Stalker left little in the way of published papers, except as
they appeared in the reports of the state veterinary surgeon. The
reports that he made are commendable for the terse English and the
breadth of vision. A number of substantial contributions to science
were made in these reports.

It is, moreover, pleasing to note that Dr. Stalker gave to the
veterinary profession a number of very strong men like Dr. Reynolds
of Minnesota, W. B. Niles of our city, Dr. Faville of Washignton,
Dr. S. B. Nelson, Dr. Norton of Arizona, Dr. Stewart of Kansas City,
Dr. Carey of Alabama, and others who have impressed their strong

32

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

individuality upon their work and that these men have an endearing
and fond recollection of their beloved instructor. Some of the work
these men have done has had a large value for the veterinary pro¬
fession.

Dr. Stalker was responsible for the first veterinary practice act
in Iowa. He had a strong personal following in the legislature. His
advice was much sought. During the winter he made his home at
the Savery hotel, so that he might be in close touch with the legisla¬
ture. The state of Iowa owes Dr. Stalker a debt of gratitude for his
work in connection with the suppression of contagious diseases in
the state.

Iowa was one o'f the first states in the union to take advanced
ground on the suppression of contagious diseases among domestic
animals. It was largely through his efforts that the law creating the
office of state veterinary surgeon was passed in 1884. This law gave
the veterinary surgeon general powers to enforce regulations in re¬
gard to contagious diseases of domestic animals “within or that may
be in transit through the state.” It placed this work in the hands of
a graduate of some regular and established veterinary college. It
provided, moreover, that the rules and regulations should meet with
the approval of the state board of health, the governor and the execu¬
tive council. Subsequently, Dr. Stalker succeeded in having the law
amended to strengthen its provisions. He served faithfully as state
veterinarian from the 2 8th of April, 18 8 4, until 189 5, when a change
was made by Governor Shaw.

We can hardly realize how great a task it was to organize the
work of the state veterinarian during the early days in Iowa. There
were hostilities to overcome among the farmers, stock shippers and
transportation companies. The public needed instruction upon the
subject of contagious diseases of animals and no one could give this
information in a better or more lucid way than Dr. Stalker. The
state was organized into districts and assistant veterinarians were
appointed most of whom had been under his tutelage. The veterin¬
ary profession throughout the state had confidence in his ripe and
sound judgment on all problems connected with the health and dis¬
eases of animals. The veterinary profession, the farmers and this
college in particular should dedicate a monument to his untiring
work in behalf of the great live stock industry of the state. Beyond
his own profession, he saw that some of the contagious diseases of
animals were communicable to man and in his first report as state
veterinarian, in 1885, this significant statement was made: “The fact
that the milk of tubercular cows is charged with the poison germs
should cause it to be rejected in every instance as an article o'f
food. As tuberculosis in man and in the bovine species is identi¬
cal, the conclusion is inevitable that a similar experiment o'n man
could be followed by a similar result. The fact that consumption
prevails to an alarming extent in this country, and that this same
disease is frequently seen in cows that contribute to the milk and

PROMINENT MEN 1 HAVE MET

33

beef supply of our people renders the subject worthy of the most
careful investigation by sanitarians.” He recognized that such con¬
tagious diseases as glanders and anthrax could he communicated to
man and that care should be used in disposing of and isolating such
cases in lower animals. Admirable quarantine regulations were put
forth in the rules and regulations issued by the state board of health.

His suggestion that the state veterinarian should be a member
of the state board of health was a wise provision of the law creating
the office of state veterinarian. This law has of course been changed
and we now have a board of animal health.

JAMES WILSON

My acquaintance with Honorable James Wilson began when he
was elected professor of agriculture and director of the Iowa Agricul¬
tural Experiment station in 18 91. I kept in close touch with his work
during the rest o’f his life and marvelled at the amount of work he
accomplished as an executive and the influence he exterted on Ameri¬
can agriculture.

Soon after his election and when he was inducted into his office
as professor of agriculture and director of the station, I was invited
to sit down and chat with him. The office was on the second floor in
the somthwest corner of the old agricultural building. He went over
the problem of agriculture and its relation to Iowa. He had a great
vision of what the agricultural college should do for the farms of
Iowa. He handed me a cigar and said: “We have another point of
friendly contact.”

In 18 91, with the coming of William M. Beardshear as presi¬
dent and James Wilson as professor of agriculture and director of
the experiment station, a new era dawned for agriculture and for the
entire institution, an era of rapid expansion and remarkable develop¬
ment, of increasing influence and power.

Prof. James Wilson, as I will speak of him in this connection,
was a great man in the class room and as a public speaker. I at¬
tended his lectures as a visitor. He was precise, and intensely in¬
teresting. He brought to the class room the practical experience
he had gained on the farm, combined with the theoretical knowledge

from reading the best and latest on the subject. He was terse and
could express himself well. For many years he had been a contribu¬
tor to agricultural journals, notably the Iowa Homestead, and he was
syndicating a series of weekly letters published by a Mr. Taylor of
Traer, Iowa. These I know were widely read throughout Iowa.

There had been much criticism on the part of many agricultur¬
ists in the state that Iowa State college was not doing its right func¬
tion to agriculture of Iowa, and that more attention should be given
to agricultural instruction at the college. Such men as Henry Wal¬
lace, John Cownie and others were criticising the lack of agricultural
work at Iowa State college, and thus it came about that Hon. James
Wilson of Traer was chosen to put new life and vigor in the agricul¬
tural work at Ames and when James Wilson was elected, two other
associates were also elected — D. A. Kent who has long since passed
to his reward, and C. F. Curtiss, both graduates of Iowa State col¬
lege. The latter has for more than a third of a century, given his
best to the agriculture of Iowa and added many honors to the col-

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

35

lege. Prof. Wilson told me these men elected would give strength
and stability to the agriculture work of Iowa State college.

Prof. James Wilson writes me as follows:

“My father served six years as director of the experiment sta¬
tion and professor of agriculture in the Iowa State college. When he
came there, there was one student taking agriculture. This I believe
was in 13 91. This student's name was James H. Shepperd, who has
since been connected with the North Dakota Agricultural college at
Fargo. In those days everything seemed to be popular on the Ames
campus except agriculture. A few of the old hard headed farmers
met at the State Stock Breeders’ association meeting and passed reso¬
lutions to have agriculture at Ames as provided in the original act
creating the institution.”

It is always interesting to follow the career of a man. There is

an unsigned editorial article in Volume 42 of the Experiment Station
Record (1925), concerning Honorable James Wilson, presumably

written by Dr. E. W. Allen, which sums up admirably some of the
characteristics of our friend and colleague:

“A great man is a product o*f opportunity, but not wholly of
circumstance. He waits not for opportunity to come to him but
himself helps to make it, and a part of his genius is his ability to see
an opening and to broaden it so that he may have the chance to carry
forward his aims and purposes.

“This was characteristic of James Wilson, late secretary of agri¬
culture. He believed in agriculture as an enlightened occupation, and
in the force of science to advance it to the standing and the efficient
position it must ultimately occupy in the nation’s life. He worked in
a period when changes were beginning to come rapidly, and he took
advantage of this to broaden the opportunity for accomplishing the
things he believed in and to build up an enlightened public sentiment
in support of it. He made agriculture recognized as it had not been
before. He gave it a larger place in the public mind and in con¬
structive legislation; and perhaps greatest of all, he developed a
broad public consciousness of the need for aid to the farming indus¬
try and confidence in technical investigation to render such aid.”

His interest in everything pertaining to farm life is admirably
shown in an article on James Wilson by L. S. Ivins and A. E. Winship,
“Fifty Famous Farmers.” Rufus Stanley tells the following story
when he went to call on the secretary with a party of Boy’s club
champions, the Omega club of Elmira, New York. The secretary asked
Mr. Stanley, ‘What is the object of this Omega club?’ “Mr. Stanley
replied, ‘To give city boys the advantages of country boys.” With a
twinkle in his eye, the secretary said, ‘Do you think that country
boys have more advantages than city boys?’ Mr. Stanley’s face

beamed with a noncommittal smile, and the secretary turned to Dr.
Galloway, his assistant, and said, ‘Please see that these boys have

the use of our carriage while here; we can walk!’ Thus the car¬
riage provided by the congress of the United States for the uses of
the secretary was placed at the disposal of the club champions, and,
as they rode about the beautiful streets of Washington, there was
gratitude in their hearts to the distinguished man whom the people

of the nation learned to know so well.”

Secretary James Wilson served longer than any other secretary

36

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

— from 1897 to 1913. Beginning with the McKinley administration
serving through the Roosevelt administration. It was unprecedented.

The United States department of agriculture was put on a sound
basis. I recall calling on Prof. James Wilson in the same old office
in agricultural hall, when the papers talked about making him sec¬
retary of agriculture. I received a letter one morning from F. Lam-
son-Scribner who was connected with the U. S. department of agri¬
culture as agrostologist asking me to send his greeting to the Prof.
Wilson who was to be the new secretary of agriculture in the McKin¬
ley administration. “Yes,” he said, “I have been offered the place
by my old friend, Wm. McKinley, with whom I served in congress and
for whom I have the highest admiration. It is a duty for me to ac¬
cept.” I then tendered him my congratulations.

James Wilson, o*r “Tama Jim” Wilson, was a success because
che farmers believed in him. I had many conversations with south¬
ern people who swore by Secretary Wilson because of what he had
done for the south. When it came to an appropriation, the demo¬
crats were quite willing always to grant it because Secretary Wilson
had a wonderful grasp on the agricultural and scientific problems
affecting agriculture.

It was during this administration that the various phases of
agricultural work were laid down. The personnel greatly increased
as well as the appropriation. The policies were mapped out by him.
One of the most important steps taken while he was secretary was
to give to forestry a larger aspect. Gifford Pinchot was the forester.
The national forests were still in the department of the interior. It
was to study some of the problems of grazing in these forests that I

was asked to investigate grazing conditions in the Utah forests.
During the following winter Theodore Roosevelt, greatly interested
in this problem, called a forest congress to meet in Washington.
Some of these sessions were presided over by Major John F. Lacey.
I was pleased to have received an invitation to dine at the home of
the secretary, presided over by the charming and talented daughter,
Miss Flora Wilson. Other guests on this occasion were Dr. N. E.
Hansen, Brookings, South Dakota, the well known Seth Bullock of
South Dakota, an old friend of Theodore Roosevelt. I changed com¬
pletely my opinion o’f Seth Bullock. I thought he was one of the
rough and ready men, but he was a mild mannered man, and a most
delightful entertainer. Cornelius Bliss of New York had been in¬
vited but could not come. Mr. Wilson was a generous host, and to
have been a guest at his home was the occasion for an enjoyable
time. It was always a pleasure to have him as a guest, as we did
quite frequently , because o-f the little nice things he would do for
the children, his charming manner, and genuine and wholesome indi¬
viduality.

Secretary Wilson was interested in many big problems, some of

them directly concerning the college and station work, like the
Adams act, agricultural extension, cooperative work of stations. Some

of the important things accomplished are the Act for the Suppression

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

37

of Contagious, Infectious and Communicable Diseases of Live Stock;
the Food and Drugs Act; the Meat Inspection Law; the Insecticide
and Fungicide Act; the Plant Quarantine Act; the Forest Conserva¬
tion Act; Predatory Bird and Animal Act, and the Farmers’ Cooper¬
ative Demonstration Act, which has revolutionized the agriculture
of the south and which was the beginning of our great system of co*
operative extension work in agriculture and home economics.

He was greatly interested in exploration and sent Dr. N. E.
Hansen to Russia and Siberia to bring back valuable plants. The
growing of figs and dates in California was not successful and so he
sent an explorer to the regions of the old world to get the right kind
of insect to pollinate the fig and the right kind of date for Arizona.

Tama Jim Wilson was elected to the Iowa state legislature in
1867 and served in the 12th, 13th and 14th. He was speaker of the
house of the fourteenth general assembly. At the close of the ses¬
sion the house presented him with an office chair, a gold headed
cane, and a speaker’s gavel. In addition to his service in the legis¬
lature he was railroad commissioner of Iowa. To get an idea of his
constructive work one should read his first report and through the
final and last report as secretary o'f agriculture, as it is the natural
reflection of one of the most notable figures in American agriculture.
As he there wrote, the department during sixteen years “has prog¬
ressed from the kindergarten through the primary, middle, and up¬
per grades of development until now it has a thousand tongues that
speak with authority. Its teachings, its discoveries, and its im¬
provements are permeating the national agricultural life. The
forces that are at work must cause ever increasing results.”

He was elected to congress in 1872 and served in the 43rd and
44th congress. It was in congress he received the name of “Tama
Jim” to distinguish him from another James Wilson, U. S. senator
from Iowa.

The following unpublished facts are of interest in his service on
the agricultural committee of the house. They are given to me by
Prof. James Wilson:

“For several years he was railroad commissioner of Iowa. While
a member of congress there was nothing beneath him in the line of
duty to his constituents. There was an out-break of pluro-pneu-
monia among the purebred herds of the state and he, as a member
of congress, introduced a bill to stamp out this disease. He went to
Chicago and bought two buckets, in one he put the diseased lung
and in the other he put the healthy lung. He paraded with these two
buckets in the halls of congress to show his fellow workers what
might happen if something was not done. He had no trouble in
having his bill passed.

“At another time he rode from Chicago to some eastern point
with a load of cattle on the stock train to see how these cattle ‘acted
in transit. The question was up at that time as to whether it was
not cruelty to animals to haul them without rest, feed and water.
He had legislation passed regulating this and it is still in force to¬
day.”

I am indebted to Prof. James Wilson for the following facts. On

38

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE MET

December 3rd, 1883, James Wilson presented credentials as the mem¬
ber elect from the Iowa district in which he lived.

“The house was democratic at this time. Mr. Wilson had a con¬
test, having defeated his opponent, Ben Frederick of Marshalltown

by thirty-two votes. McKinley also had a contest in the same house.
This is where Mr. Wilsom became intimately acquainted with Mc¬
Kinley. They both had contestants’ seats in the democratic house
and met frequently and consoled each other. McKinley’s contest

was decided against him but Mr. Wilson held out until one hour
before adjournment of the full two years. At this time he gained
recognition from the speaker by standing up on his desk and making
the statement that if this congress, before adjournment, would con¬
sider the bill then before congress for placing General Grant on the
retired list, he would willing give up his seat to his opponent, Ben
Frederick of Marshalltown. This was done. Of course, Mr. Wilson
had drawn his pay for the two years since he had the thirty-two votes
to the good from the fifth district of Iowa and by passing this bill
Ben Frederick also drew his pay for the entire two years. This was
brought about by a cleverly arranged filibuster.”

Previous to this time he had been the whip of the house and
understood well the handling of men. The present Senator Cum¬
mins was his attorney and it required some money to pay for legal
advise, etc., in this contest. The contest broke Ben Frederick finan¬
cially and physically and had it not been for the Iowa land it would
also have broken Jim Wilson.

An appreciative note in volume I. was sent to James Wilson
by a son of General Grant, namely Frederick. He sent a copy of the
Grant Memoirs to him.

James Wilson was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, August 16, 1835,

and died August 28, 19 20, in Traer. A few months earlier the writer,
passing through Traer, called on the former secretary. He was not

the same in body but intellectually he was alert. He had not forgot¬
ten his old friends in the department of agriculture or his friends at
Ames. He spoke kindly of them. His was a remarkable life, a full
life, a life of great achievement. His life illustrates what a poor
boy may do. The following story is of interest: He came from Scot¬
land in a sail boat and worked in Connecticut peddling milk. Shortly
afterwards he moved to Iowa with the rest of the family, there being
fourteen children and he being the oldest, and settled on a farm in
northern Tama county. He worked by the month in a saw mill and
a flour mill for the purpose of getting some money to keep the big
family alive. He became popular in the locality because he was
always a student. He knew more about things in general than the
average Scotch boy and, therefore, became a leader. He was the
county superintendent of schools, held township offices and at the
outbreak of the war it was either he or his brother, Peter, should
enlist and the other one should stay at home. Since he had always
taken the lead in everything else Peter convinced him that it was his
turn, so Peter went to war; but it was agreed that upon his return

PROMINENT MEN 1 HAVE MET

39

everything should be divided half and half. During the absence of
Peter, Janies Wilson accumulated considerable land and on Peter’s
return everything was divided half and half as agreed upon. These
original farms adjoin each other today and they are owned by Peter’s
widow and James Wilson’s oldest son. Dr. Wilson in early life
learned that in order to make a success of anything it was necessary

to advertise. Even when he was in congress and' all through his
political life the newspaper correspondents had access to him. As

secretary of agriculture he was compelled to receive callers only at
stated times although reluctant to' do this.

W. M. Hays who was his assistant secretary of agriculture has
truly depicted the greatness of the man. Let me quote from him:

“The nearness of his worth to first rank among the men of his
time is not realized. Historians have the task of finding his rank
among the men and women who were his contemporaries. When
properly set forth, his achievements will be given rank which will
surprise his friends.

“As John Marshall led in putting the supreme court of the
United States forward as the type for national supreme courts of
constitutional forms of republican governments, so James Wilson
led in placing the full power of democracy behind research and edu¬
cation m agriculture.

“James Wilson has no rival in leadership in laying the founda¬
tion upon which recent legislation favorable to agriculture is built.

“After serving sixteen years, three years longer than any other
cabinet member. Secretary Wilson was honored by the employees
of his department, who gave him a marble bust of himself. In re¬
sponding to the speech of presentation, with raised index finger, he
recognized the likeness by saying: ‘It is I.’ ‘Your eloquent speaker
has been so good as to give to me the credit for causing the depart¬
ment to grow from its small beginnings sixteen years ago to its
present greater place in our government. I would change that state¬
ment. These brilliant men round about us have done the work o*f
creating a great department. Their faith, and genius, and industry
are the cause of this growth, and of the now recognized service of
the department to the farmers and to all the people of this great
republic, an dto the world. But I do claim that I chose the men.’

“Iowa had, as a pioneer agrarian triumvirate (the men referred
to by Hays, were Henry Wallace and Seaman Knapp), three truly
great men, who, in a lifetime of cooperation, led in building up agri¬
culture and the country life of their state, of the nation, and of the
world, as no other three associated men of any state.”