Ohio History Journal

ROBERT WHITE McFARLAND. FRANK S. BROOKS, COLUMBUS. If all the men who have been so fortunate as to have come under the benign influence of Professor McFarland were each to

pay the tribute of laying one stone in his honor, no towering modern structure would overlook the pile. Such would be a fitting memorial; for, while indulgent toward many duller minds, patiently helping to mould the characters of boys and men, much of his incessant work has been among the stars. Reluctantly I comply with the request to present a brief sketch of his busy life; not from unwil- lingness, but from a sincere feel- ing of inability to do justice to a polymathist so eminent. In an article brief as this must be, due measure cannot be given to a man so broad, a life so untiringly de-

voted to scientific inquiry and to the temporal and eternal wel- fare of others. Astronomer and mathematician, an undisputed authority in scientific investigation, he has nevertheless ever been modest in his bearing, and at all times ready to guide and help the young. No student ever found him impatient or tyrannical. A prominent trait, for which many a man is better, has distinguished his career as instructor; a judicious confidence, amply sustained by common sense, that developed in his pupils Honor and self-respect. Rarely was this trust abused. When abused, the case was hopeless. (170)

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Robert White McFarland.               171

 

Not lacking in the dignity required by his position, he is

blessed with a rich and kindly sense of humor. Many a time the

work of the class-room has been brightened by its illuminative

ray. To Professor McFarland's happy sense one graduate at least

of Miami University probably owes his diploma from that insti-

tution. Of that grave and reverend Faculty at that bygone day

all others were fairly rigid with hard and solemn dignity, a veneer

easily cracked.

Many a good and piquant story might be told of "Prof.

Mac's" affable and kindly ways; of his forbearance under pro-

vocation; of his courage, as soldier and man-and he had the

rugged physical ability to back it - but I must forbear, and turn

to more essential lines.

Doctor R. W. McFarland is of Scottish descent; the family

leaving the clan site on the west side of Loch Lomond, Scotland,

about the year 1690, and living in County Tyrone, North Ireland,

about fifty or sixty years. About 1745, the great-grandfather,

Robert, came to America, settling in Pennsylvania. Not liking the

style of land tenure there, he moved to Rockbridge county, Vir-

ginia; bought a tract of land on Cedar creek, close to the Natural

Bridge, and lived there until his death, at the age of ninety-three,

in 1796. Robert's son, William, the grandfather of R. W. Mc-

Farland, lived in the same vicinity.

Robert McFarland, the father of Robert W., was born there in

1782. Just one hundred years ago, December 27, 1804, he was

married to Deborah Gray. His death occurred in 1863.

In 1796 the family located about two miles from the village

of Lexington, Ky. Our Robert's grandfather, on his mother's

side, in the same summer was killed and scalped by the Indians;

the last white victim slain by them in that vicinity. In the course

of two or three years the family moved again; settling five or

six miles from Cynthiana, Ky.

In 1807, with several other families, the McFarlands moved

to near Urbana, Ohio, under the leadership of the celebrated

Simon Kenton. Here had come, shortly before, William, Simon

Kenton's oldest brother, and others of that family; opening up

several farms about three miles west of that village. A large

proportion of these tracts is still owned by their descendants.

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172       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Subsequent to the death in 1814 of the elder McFarland's

first wife, the present McFarland's father married a daughter of

Philip, oldest son of William Kenton. Of the Kenton half-sisters

to our R. W. McFarland, the issue of this marriage, one is now

living, at the age of eighty-five.

After the death, in 1821, of the Kenton wife, Robert Mc-

Farland was married the third time; this time to Eunice, daugh-

ter of Charles Dorsey, of Baltimore, Md.

Of these parents our R. W. McFarland was born near Ur-

bana in 1825. He attended the district school in the county. At

the age of fourteen he received a document that shaped his life

work - his first certificate to teach; and, two months later, be-

gan in Miami county, Ohio, his career of fifty nearly consecu-

tive years as instructor. His second quarter was taught in the

summer of 1840 in Palestine (now Tawawa), a village in Shelby

county. He was then in his fifteenth year. By March, 1843, he

had taught eight terms.

Upon the solicitation of an itinerant Methodist, he then went

to Westerville, Ohio; which proved a habitation with a name and

one building; a two-story frame, "The Blendon Young Men's

Seminary." Years afterward this became Otterbein University.

While at Westerville, in June, 1843, McFarland and four

others availed themselves of a five days' vacation; and, just to

see a COLLEGE, walked over to Granville, twenty-five miles away.

Spurred by the sight, and the privilege of hearing a Latin reci-

tation, McFarland and his roommate, Stillings, tramping back

with the others, formed the resolution to go to college. Six weeks

of the intense study of those days were put into Andrews's Latin

Lessons. Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Grammar, and

Logic had been carefully studied.

So, in July, 1843, the two left Westerville, and returned to

their homes; not by the rapid transit of modern days. On Sep-

tember 4, 1843, a brother's farm wagon carried our young aspi-

rant and his modest trunk from near Urbana twenty-two miles

to the Stillings place, near Marysville. From there another simi-

lar conveyance brought the boys twenty-eight miles to Columbus.

On the 6th the adventurers embarked on a canal packet boat, and

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Robert White McFarland.               173

 

reached the old town of Chillicothe at daybreak of the 7th. Ports-

mouth was reached on the morning of the 8th. The sternwheel

steamboat, boarded here in the afternoon, reached Augusta, Ky.,

about midnight. Five days of travel; one hundred miles! To-

day we execrate a change of cars in a thousand miles!

At this time McFarland was eighteen; Stillings twenty. The

latter had studied Greek and Latin six months; McFarland Latin

a few weeks, and Greek not at all. But McFarland was a born

mathematician, familiar at thirteen with Surveying, and at this

time well up in Algebra, Geometry, etc.

Stillings fitted in partly with the Freshmen. But there was no

class down to McFarland's apparent level; so he was put in the

Caesar class with the other. The master of the school quickly saw

the burning earnestness of the new recruits, and asked the Faculty

to allow them to enter the Freshman class. Proud of recognition,

still working like beavers, the two sturdy Ohioans put in daily

six solid hours on Greek; and in six weeks were allowed to read

with the Sophomores as well; McFarland's absolute knowledge of

mathematics standing him in good stead. At the close of the

year at Augusta they were passed to full Junior standing.

After teaching at Westerville, near Urbana, Ohio, in the fall

and winter of 1844, McFarland went to Delaware, Ohio, in the

spring of 1845, at the opening of the second term of the college

at that place. A public exhibition at the close of the term gave

McFarland opportunity to deliver the first public address of this,

The Ohio Wesleyan University. Mindful of her sons, this insti-

tution has since conferred upon him the titles, A. B., 1847; A. M.,

1850; LL. D., 1881.

Making his own way, alternating teaching with college

study, McFarland graduated August 4, 1847. After teaching a

select school near Delaware for six months, he held an important

position in Greenfield Seminary, Highland county; remained

there from 1848 to 1851.

At Greenfield, March 19, 1851, he was married to Mary Ann,

second daughter of the late Judge Hugh Smart of that place; old

time Associate County Judge-an office abolished by the New

Constitution about 1851. Truly esteemed in all circles refined by

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174       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

the charm of her presence Mrs. McFarland and two daughters,

Elizabeth Eunice and Frances Smart (Mrs. Llewellyn Bonham),

still grace the Professor's home life.

Judge Smart, having a nephew about to embark in business

at Chillicothe, induced young McFarland to join in the undertak-

ing. The great fire of April 1, 1852, burned out the establish-

ment. After having charge of one of the three buildings of the

new Union schools at that place for some time after September,

1853, McFarland for the following three years occupied the posi-

tion of Professor of Mathematics in Madison College, in Guern-

sey county, Ohio.

Elected in July, 1856, to the chair of Mathematics and Astron-

omy in Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, his work there was espe-

cially successful, until the closing of that institution, in 1873.

At once, indeed in the same week, he was elected to a similar

position in the Ohio State University at Columbus. Here he re-

mained for twelve years in charge of Mathematics, Astronomy,

and Civil Engineering; having most of the time an assistant in

each department.  (In recognition of his work and worth, the

catalogue of O. S. U. bears his name: "Robert White McFar-

land, Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering.")

This position of the highest consideration, and entirely satis-

factory, was reluctantly relinquished, under urgent and persist-

ent solicitation, for the presidency of Miami University; to which

he was elected in 1885. After about three years, seeing the Uni-

versity again well under way, McFarland presented his resigna-

tion as President to resume, as agreed, his former chair of Math-

ematics and Astronomy. But owing to differences in doctrine and

discipline, of which compulsory or optional attendance at prayers

formed a part, by those then in authority a reorganization was

effected, under which McFarland was omitted. This, however,

without discredit - to McFarland. No man to-day believes that

any of those destroyed long ago by the rabidly good people of

Puritanic Salem were guilty of sorcerous error.

Later, for nearly eleven years, McFarland was Surveyor,

Mining Engineer and Manager of Real Estate, at the mines in

Hocking Valley of the Sunday Creek Coal Company. Concerning

his services here, or rather, part of them, the former manager says:

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Robert White McFarland.               175

 

"To be accorded the privilege of sending you a word regard-

ing our good and honored friend, Professor McFarland, is almost

as delightful as the rare man himself.

"The Profesor came to the Sunday Creek Coal Company first

in the capacity of mining engineer; afterwards taking charge of

the company's real estate (about 16,000 acres), also its 500 houses.

"Up to the time of his coming, the deeds to the several tracts

of land had not been examined with regard to their accuracy of

description, etc. He found that about forty were defective, in one

way or another; indicating that the old time cabalistic 'E. & 0.

E.,' formerly placed at the bottom of statements and documents,

really meant 'Errors and Omissions expected.' But his usual and

correct methods soon triumphed, and in about a year and a half

every tangle had been unraveled and every discrepency reconciled.

"I mention this because it illustrates the Professor's uncom-

promising standard of exactness and precision. These errors,

which had been passed over by attorneys as being trivial, were to

him utterly abhorrent; in one instance a certain piece of land was

in reality situated six miles from the location given in the deed.

"Of his services during the entire ten or eleven years it will

suffice to say, in general terms, that they were in exact conso-

nance with his own lofty ideals of an upright and righteous com-

mercial and moral life. Language offers but a poor and halt

means of bearing witness to the high esteem in which, by his every

action, he enshrined himself in the hearts of all who were for-

tunate enough to be associated with him.  J. F. STONE."

 

In 1862 the government called for three months' men, for

positions then occupied by trained soldiers, to allow the latter to

go to the front. The boys in college (Miami) formed a company,

of which McFarland was made captain. This company organized

in May, 1862, and served about four months, in West Virginia,

between Clarksburg and Parkersburg.

In the spring of 1863 Governor Tod wrote to the captains of

the disbanded regiment (86th 0. V. I.) to reorganize if possible.

McFarland secured thirty-eight of his old company. All others,

officers and men, were new recruits. Colonel Burns, of the old

86th not intending to again go out; the lieutenant colonel being

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176      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

then in Libby Prison; and there being no other captain at once

available, Captain McFarland, of Company A, was appointed

lieutenant colonel.

This second 86th, mustered in about the middle of July, 1863,

at once started in pursuit of John Morgan, then on his celebrated

raid; and, after his capture in Eastern Ohio, escorted the 585

Confederate prisoners to Camp Chase, near Columbus. In the

escorting detachment McFarland had four companies of the 86th.

The second 86th proceeded with Burnside to East Tennessee,

The capture, September 9, 1863, of Cumberland Gap by "Mac's"

Brigade - to use soldier and student parlance - in which about

2,500 Confederates yielded to 800 on the Union side, the latter

short of rations and insufficiently equipped, but under Colonel

DeCourcy making such skillful display of force as to give the

impression of overwhelming numbers, is ably and accurately de-

scribed by Lieut. Col. McFarland, in a pamphlet published in 1898.

The 86th was finally mustered out in February, 1864.

As an officer his relations with his men were marked by the

most unfailing solicitude. Their privations and exposure he gen-

erously shared; as, for instance, in the rain and mud of the

trenches. On the march out of the Gap, the care of the regiment

devolved upon McFarland. Seventy weary miles of this march

were humanely plodded by the Lieutenant Colonel; his horse be-

ing resigned to one after another of the tired boys in the ranks,

as with faltering step they reached the limit of endurance.

McFarland's busy pen (the time-honored quill, in the making

of which he was an expert while his sight was good) has produced

a vast number of historical and scientific and semi-scientific arti-

cles. Most of these essays have been for special occasions; and

when printed usually suffered the fate of the Sibylline leaves of

the Virgil story; carried away by the winds, they are not now to

be found. A few are attainable in the valuable volumes of the

Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society; such as (Vol.

I) "Ancient Earthworks, Oxford;" (Vol. VIII) "Forts Laramie

and Pickawillany;" (Vol. X) (a) "Notes, Geographical," (b)

"Historical Notes," (c) "The Chillicothes;" (Vol. XIII) (a)

"Simon Kenton," (b) "Ludlow's Line."

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Robert White McFarland.               177

For more than fifty years his essays on astronomical subjects

have found place in various periodicals, chiefly "Popular Astron-

omy." They are notable for clearness and accuracy. His edition

of Virgil (1849), six books of the Aeneid and three Eclogues, for

many years was a valued text book in colleges and schools. He

aided in a revision of Robinson's text books, and also a revision of

Loomis's Algebra.

One of McFarland's widest known and most esteemed labors

was during the four years of 1876-1880; averaging four hours

per day, six days in the week, for the entire period, when he was

engaged in the computation of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit,

and longitude of its perihelion.

Croll had used the form of the earth's orbit, in his theory of

the Ice Age. The late Dr. Orton asked McFarland if Croll's

astronomical work could be relied on; if so, the presence of boul-

ders over Ohio and other states could be fully explained. Croll

had computed the form of the orbit at intervals of 50,000 years,

over a period of 3,000,000 years. Meanwhile Newcomb, the As-

tronomer, had said that Croll's work could not be trusted; but

that Stockwell's could.

McFarland computed the form, by both Stockwell's and Le-

Verrier's methods, for over 4,500,000 years; and at the short inter-

vals of 10,000 years; and showed that the two were in substan-

tial agreement for the entire time. When the two curves were

platted they were very much alike--no difference for 70,000

years.

To us on the back seats McFarland thus shows that the Ice

Age repeats itself after about 1,500,000 years. We can forgive

him and not worry!

In the Smithsonian Report, (1889), in a translation by W. S.

Dallas, F. L. S., of the work of A. Blytt (Sweden) "On the

Movements of the Earth's Crust," appears in this connection the

following:

"The curve of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit has been

calculated from LeVerrier's formulae by J. Croll ("Climate and

Time") for a period of 4,000,000 of years; 3,000,000 of years

backward, and 1,000,000 forward from the present time.

Vol. XIV -12.

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178       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

"The curve is also calculated according to the same formulae

by McFarland. (Am. Jour. Sci. 1880-3, Vol. XX, pp. 105- 111.)

His calculation extends from 3,250,000 years backward to 1,250,-

000 years forward in time.

"He has calculated with shorter intervals than Croll, (Croll

50,000 McFarland 10,000) which, however, has had no particular

influence in altering the curves. McFarland has in the same

place calculated the curve for the same period of time from new

formulae of Stockwell's.

"The two curves taken in the gross, show a uniform course

throughout their length, but as regards the first half LeVerrier's

curve is thrown somewhat backward. Stockwell's formulae are

considered to be more accurate than LeVerrier's.

"Both curves are given by McFarland. If we compare these

two together it appears -

"(1) The curves coincide with only a small essential differ-

ence from the present day until 1,000,000 years back.

(2)

(3) A very remarkable consequence proceeds from these

calculations. The curve repeats itself after the lapse of 1,400,000

years when it is calculated according to Stockwell's formulae.

In the period of 4,500,000 years for which McFarland has calcu-

lated it, it repeats itself in this way with remarkable regularity a

little more than three times, etc."

James Croll (of H. M. Geol. Surv. Scotland) in his "Climate

and Cosmology," (1885) -his and LeVerrier's conclusions hav-

ing been questioned by Newcomb,- acknowledges the results of

McFarland's justifying computations, and says: "I may here

mention that Professor McFarland, of the Ohio State University,

Columbus, a few years ago undertook the task of recomputing

every one of the hundred and fifty periods given in my tables;

and he states that, except in one instance, he did not find an error

to the amount of .001. * * *

"In this laborious undertaking, Professor McFarland com-

puted by means of both formulae the eccentricity of the earth's

orbit and the longitude of the perihelion for no fewer than 485

separate epochs. See Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. XX, p. 105, 1880."485

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Robert White McFarland.             179 Some critical reviews now under preparation under McFar- land's tireless hands are to appear in the February or March num- ber of "The Open Court" of Chicago, and in the February num- ber of "Popular Astronomy." Though now eighty years of age, while dimmed are the keen and kindly eyes that so long read the most illimitable of Nature's books, and have flashed in appreci- ative merriment or truly penetrated the inner soul of youth, to-day our revered instructor is still cheerfully and intently busy; still contributing to the knowledge of mankind.

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