Franklin Benjamin Hough ("huff" ; July 20, 1822 – June 11, 1885) was a scientist, historian and the first chief of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
Division of Forestry, the predecessor of the
United States Forest Service. He was among the first to call attention to the depletion of forests in the U.S. and is sometimes called the "father of American
forestry".
Biography
Franklin Benjamin Hough was born in
Martinsburg, New York
Martinsburg is a town in Lewis County, New York, United States. The population was 1,433 at the 2010 census. The town is named after its founding father, General Walter Martin.
Martinsburg is in the west-central part of the county, south of Lo ...
on July 20, 1822 to Dr. Horatio Gates Hough and Martha Pitcher Hough. Martha was a descendant of Andrew Pitcher and Margaret Russell, early settlers of Milton, MA in 1634. Horatio, a physician from
Meriden, Connecticut, was the first medical doctor to settle in
Lewis County, in the west of the
Adirondack Mountains. Horatio Hough died in 1830 when Benjamin was eight years old, at which point he began to go by his middle name, Franklin; he was also a scientist and author:
As a young man, Franklin showed an interest in
mineralogy and long hikes. He graduated with a degree from
Union College in
Schenectady in 1843, and in 1846 he was married to Maria Eggleston of
Champion, New York, and a daughter was born, Lola. He also published the first of his major scientific writings, ''A Catalogue of Indigenous, Naturalized, and Filicord Plants of Lewis Counties, New York''. In 1848, he received an M.D. from
Western Reserve College. The same year, Maria died. In 1857, he had a son,
Romeyn Beck Hough, who would also go on to pursue a career in botany and medicine. He was elected as a member to the
American Philosophical Society in 1882.
Medical career
Hough set up a medical practice in
Somerville in
St. Lawrence County, New York
St. Lawrence County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 108,505.
The county seat is Canton.
The county is named for the Saint Lawrence River, which in turn was named for the Christian saint La ...
. He devoted his spare time to
natural history, and it was during this period that he discovered a mineral that would bear his name,
houghite, a local variety of
hydrotalcite. In 1849, he married Mariah Kilham, who in 1850 bore him a second daughter, Mary Ellen. Seven additional children were born to the couple between 1854 and 1872.
In 1852, Hough stepped down from the practice of medicine to concentrate on research and literary pursuits. He lived in
Brownville and
Albany and published ''A History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, New York'' (1853) and ''A History of Jefferson County in the State of New York'' (1854). He wrote prolifically, keeping three or more different manuscripts in progress at the same time in different rooms of his house. Explaining his work habits, he said, "I seek repose in labor."
In 1854, Hough was appointed as superintendent of the 1855
New York State census, the first complete census of the state. He returned to Lewis County in 1860 to settle in
Lowville, New York. The same year, he published ''A history of Lewis County, in the state of New York''. In 1862, he started a periodical, ''The American Journal of Forestry''. Due to a lack of subscribers, he retired it after only a year.
In 1861, with the advent of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, Hough worked as an inspector for the
United States Sanitary Commission. In 1862, he enlisted as a surgeon in the
97th New York Volunteer Infantry. The same year, he translated French military surgeon
Lucien Baudens' account of medical conditions during the
Crimean War, publishing it as ''On Military and Camp Hospitals''. He published an account of his war experiences in ''History of Duryee's Brigade'' (1864). Brigadier General
Abram Duryée
Abram Duryée (; April 29, 1815 – September 27, 1890) was a Union Army general during the American Civil War, the commander of one of the most famous Zouave regiments, the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry. After the war he was New York Ci ...
had commanded the 97th,
104th and
105th New York Infantry Regiments and the
107th Pennsylvania Infantry.
Father of American forestry
Ten years after supervising the 1855 New York State census, Hough returned to the job of overseeing the 1865 state census. Reviewing the returns, he noted with alarm a declining trend in the availability of timber. Finding additional evidence in the federal census of 1870, which he also supervised, he presented a paper entitled ''On the Duty of Governments in the Preservation of Forests'' to the 1873 meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...
.
Hough argued that
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
countries had harmed the environment by excessive harvests of trees, and that a similar problem faced the United States. He proposed regulation of the use of forests and the establishment of forestry schools. As a result of Hough's presentation, the Association formed a committee to educate Congress and state legislatures on the dangers of
deforestation, and to recommend legislation to avoid i
Hough was appointed to chair the committee. In 1876, as a result of the Association's lobbying, Congress created the office of Special Agent in the
U.S. Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...
to assess the state of the forests and lumber in the United States. USDA Commissioner
Frederick Watts appointed Hough to fill the new position.
Hough traveled widely to compile his official 1877 ''Report on Forestry''. Congress ordered the publication of 25,000 copies of the 650-page volume. In 1881, the Division of Forestry was created within the Department of Agriculture, with Hough as its first chief. In 1883, Secretary of Agriculture
George B. Loring replaced Hough, whom he dislike
with
Nathaniel Egleston. Hough resumed his previous role as special agent.
Hough died in Lowville on June 11, 1885. His home, the
Franklin B. Hough House, was declared a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1963.
Major works
* ''A Catalogue of Indigenous, Naturalized, and Filicord Plants of Lewis Counties, New York'' (1846)
* ''A History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, New York'' (1853)
* ''A History of Jefferson County in the State of New York from the Earliest Period to the Present Time'' (1854)
* ''A Narrative of the causes which led to Philip's Indian War of 1675 and 1676. With other documents concerning this event; prepared from the originals with an introduction and notes'' (1858), see
John Easton
John Easton (1624–1705) was a political leader in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, devoting decades to public service before eventually becoming governor of the colony. Born in Hampshire, England, he sailed to New England ...
, of Rhode Island
* ''A History of Lewis County in the State of New York from the Beginning of its Settlement to the Present Time'' (1860)
* ''On Military and Camp Hospitals'' (translation, 1862)
* ''History of Duryee's Brigade'' (1864)
* ''Washingtoniana: Or, Memorials of the Death of George Washington'' (1865)
* ''American Biographical Notes'' (1875)
* ''Elements of Forestry'' (1882)
See also
*
United States Chief Foresters
Notes
References
*
Finding Aid to Franklin Benjamin Hough Papers, 1840-1885at the
New York State Library, accessed May 11, 2016.
*
* "Franklin Benjamin Hough." (1936) ''Dictionary of American Biography'', Charles Scribner's Sons.
* "Hough, Franklin B(enjamin)" (2005) ''Encyclopedia of New York State''. Ed. Peter R. Eisenstadt and Laura-Eve Moss. Syracuse University Press, p734.
*
*
External links
Franklin B. Hough(
Forest History Society
The Forest History Society is an American non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of forest and conservation history."Forest History Society." Echo Project. Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. http://echo.gmu. ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hough, Franklin B.
1822 births
1885 deaths
People from Martinsburg, New York
American conservationists
United States Forest Service officials
History of forestry in the United States
United States Sanitary Commission people
People of New York (state) in the American Civil War
Union Army surgeons
Union College (New York) alumni
American foresters
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine alumni
Activists from New York (state)
Scientists from New York (state)