William Ashbrook Kellerman (May 1, 1850

Ashville, Ohio Ashville is a village in Pickaway County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,097 at the 2010 census. Ashville is located five miles south of Columbus and six miles north of Circleville. History Long before the American settlement of Ohio ...

– March 8, 1908) was an American botanist, mycologist and photographer.

Biography

Kellerman was born in May 1850 in Ohio, the son of Daniel Kemberling Kellerman and Iva/Ivy Ashbrook Kellerman. His father a merchant and Farmer originally from Pennsylvania did well for himself and put his son in fine schools. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1874. After graduation, Kellerman was hired as Professor of Natural Sciences at the Wisconsin State Normal School, a position he held for five years. During this time, in 1876, he married Stella Victoria Dennis, also a botanist. In 1879, the Kellermans moved to Germany, where he attended the Universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

and Zurich, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1881. They returned to the U.S., and he was appointed Professor of Botany and Zoology at the State College (now University) of Kentucky in

Lexington Lexington may refer to: Places England * Laxton, Nottinghamshire, formerly Lexington Canada * Lexington, a district in Waterloo, Ontario United States * Lexington, Kentucky, the largest city with this name * Lexington, Massachusetts, the oldes ...

. In 1883, he joined the Department of Botany and Zoology at the Kansas State College of Agriculture (now

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public inst ...

) in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He also became state botanist and wrote a pamphlet on the flora of Kansas. In 1891 he became a professor of botany at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

. He studied the smuts (fungal diseases) of

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

and

oats The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human co ...

, and demonstrated that hot water is an effective

fungicide Fungicides are biocidal chemical compounds or biological organisms used to kill parasitic fungi or their spores. A fungistatic inhibits their growth. Fungi can cause serious damage in agriculture, resulting in critical losses of yield, quality ...

. With

Benjamin Matlack Everhart Benjamin Matlack Everhart (born 24 April 1818; died 22 September 1904) was a United States mycologist. Biography His father, William Everhart, the son of a Revolutionary soldier, was a merchant, and a member of congress in 1853-55. Benjamin was ...

and

Job Bicknell Ellis Job Bicknell Ellis (January 21, 1829 – December 30, 1905) was a pioneering North American mycologist known for his study of ascomycetes, especially the grouping of fungi called the Pyrenomycetes (known today as the Sordariomycetes). Born and r ...

, in 1885 he founded the ''Journal of Mycology'', now ''

Mycologia ''Mycologia'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes papers on all aspects of the fungi, including lichens. It first appeared as a bimonthly journal in January 1909, published by the New York Botanical Garden under the editorship of ...

''. In 1904 he began making annual botanical expeditions to

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

.Richard M. Lowden (1970
''WILLIAM ASHBROOK KELLERMAN'S BOTANICAL EXPEDITIONS TO GUATEMALA (1905–1908)''. Taxon, Vol. 19(1), 19-35.
/ref> It was there in 1907 that he contracted a fever, and he died after returning to the U.S.

Works

* ''Elements of Botany'' * ''Plant Analysis''
''Spring Flora of Ohio''
(1895) * ''Catalogue of Ohio Plants'', published by Ohio State, the fourth catalog it had issued (1899, a supplement was issued the following year) * ''Non-Indigenous Flora of Ohio'', prepared with the assistance of his wife (1900)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kellerman, William Ashbrook American botanists Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni Kansas State University faculty People from Ashville, Ohio 1850 births 1908 deaths American expatriates in Germany Ohio State University faculty