DR. JOHN LOCKE, EARLY OHIO SCIENTIST
(1792-1856)
by ADOLPH E. WALLER
Associate Professor
and Curator of the Botanic Garden.
Ohio State University
The nineteenth century in the United
States suddenly swung
into its expanding programs of research
and education. No one
was prepared for the impact of the
increasing realization of the
power over nature which man now
possessed. The illusion of
the perfectibility of all men through
knowledge stretched un-
dimmed. The inherent weaknesses of man
and the snail's pace
of education were not yet perceived.
Gigantic discovery was so
close at hand that no one troubled to
consider disappointments as
more than temporary obstacles. A little
proficiency in mathe-
matics, languages, and the law marked
the educated man. Scien-
tific training was unknown. Science
laboratories were just start-
ing and the skills and techniques they
were to impart were born
on the spot.
The thesis that the medical colleges of
the time were the
sources of our trained scholars in the
natural sciences has been
stated in previous papers in this
series. Three months at "Cam-
bridge College" prepared Dr. Samuel
P. Hildreth for his degree
in medicine, after an apprenticeship
with practicing physicians.
Many others were likewise briefly
exposed to formalized study.
Dr. John Locke was more fortunate. His
formal training lasted
about three years.
Philadelphia and Cincinnati were early
in asserting leader-
ship in the quality of medical training
offered. Many of the
students trained in medicine were not as
interested in its practice
as in following the leads offered by
their training in sciences. Our
outstanding botanists and geologists of
the 1830's were thus
educated. Dr. Locke's story follows a
similar pattern with the
difference that he added physics to his
earlier inclinations toward
botany and geology. Perhaps it was from
his keen observation of
346
DR.
JOHN LOCKE 347
the
applications of botany to both medicine and agriculture. John
Locke's
father also contributed to his son's interest in the sciences.
Samuel
Barron and Hannah Russel Locke, John's parents,
had
lived at Lempster, New Hampshire, and Fryeburg, Maine,
before
going to settle near Bethel, Maine, on the Androscoggin
River.
John was then four years old. It was a choice location
for
the skilled artisan, Samuel Locke. There was a large tract
of
land to be purchased there. There was water power to operate
his
own saw- and grist-mills. There he built a shop which made
him
the outstanding millwright of the region. A number of
people
settled nearby and were given work in the mills and shop.
The
settlement came to be called Locke's Mills.
Here
young John grew up and received his early schooling
which
was supplemented by the varied assortment of books that
his
father's library offered. As the
community prospered a
Methodist
Meeting
House and other establishments were added.
For
all of his skill as a machine builder in a young country hungry
for
machines the senior Locke found time to teach handicrafts,
mathematics,
and some languages to his son. He was also able
to
send him to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to attend an academy
where
he obtained the usual classical courses of study. John
roamed
the area collecting plants and hunting. It was a sad mo-
ment
of realization for the father when young Locke decided he
was
not longer content to stay in Bethel to do what his father
had
successfully accomplished. John was eager to study medi-
cine
and began at Bethel in 1815 and shortly afterward with
Dr.
Twitchell at Keene. New Hampshire.
A fragment of a
diary
shows the determination of a rebellions young citizen forced
by
his own decree away from his father's abundance:
July 15, 1815. Left
Bethel,
arrived at Keen, Aug.15
Oct.
20, left Keen for New
Haven tarried in northfield.
Oct.
25, Northfield to West
Springfield Expenses $0.85
Oct.
27, Thence to Weathersfield do $0.72
Oct.
28, From Weathersfield to New Haven
" $0.90
$2.47
DR. JOHN LOCKE 349
The journey was performed on horseback
and it will be thought sur-
prising that no more expense was
involved. Economy was the object as
I had, I thought, hardly money enough to
bear my expenses at college.
I ate milk, with sometimes a piece of
apple pie with it only twice a day.
Oct. 29 went to church in the chapel.
Oct. 30 attended Professor Silliman's
lecture on chemistry.
A search made for a youthful portrait of
John Locke has
not been successful. A portrait of him
as a man about 50 years
of age shows a large, somewhat spare
figure with a thin face and
prominent cheek bones. He is said to
have had clear blue eyes of
an unusually sparkling quality. It is
doubtful if the active stu-
dent at Yale could have maintained his
Spartan diet for long. He
became Dr. Silliman's assistant. With
that great man's recogni-
tion there was undoubtedly some means of
subsistence provided.
Besides, there may have been money from
home.
Conversations with Silliman offered
mental pabulum of a
stronger sort. John was fired to emulate
his chief in travels in
Europe and other places. He began by a
visit, in the summer of
1816, to Dr. Nathan Smith, the eminent
founder of Dartmouth's
Medical School.
At Hanover he met also young Dr. Solon
Smith who was
struggling toward an education and
toward increasing knowledge
in a field of special interest to John.
They had to become ac-
quainted first in order to feel free to
exchange ideas which were,
perhaps, a little strange and not too
welcome to some of their
elders and preceptors. They both wanted
to know how to identify
plants. This was the common bond. Solon
Smith owned a book
they would both try to study. It was Dr.
Jacob Bigelow's Plants
of the Vicinity of Boston, a new book, the first edition having
been published in 1814. Presently it was
to become the favorite
New England version of the artificial
system for naming plants,
better known as the Linnean system. The
system following nat-
ural orders and families was still
regarded as revolutionary. It
was some years before the North American
flora would be so
classified by Torrey or Gray. Jacob
Bigelow's book was there-
fore well known and twice was revised
and enlarged. The third
edition appeared in 1840, still
demonstrating its usefulness to
350 OHIO ARCHNEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
amateur botanists. Dr. Bigelow's
scientific reputation rested on
his lectures at Harvard and on his
contributions to the United
States Pharmacopoeia. His Plants of
Boston was known as the
most popular manual of its day.
What could not be accomplished by Solon
Smith alone,
namely, rouse an interest among
Dartmouth students in plant
studies, Locke and Smith together were
able to do. Soon they
had a number of the students tramping
the hills around Hanover
in search of specimens. To the delight
of Dartmouth's medical
college faculty, particularly to Nathan
Smith, these became regu-
larly organized field trips.
Back in New Haven the best parts of the
next two years
were busy ones for Locke who continued
to assist Dr. Silliman
in chemistry and at the same time
continued his plant studies
with the help of Dr. Eli Ives. He
lectured in Portland, Boston,
and Salem, and at Dartmouth and Yale.
Probably with the en-
thusiastic backing of Dr. Nathan Smith
he was offered a curator-
ship of the Cambridge Botanical Gardens
by Dr. Jacob Bigelow.
It seems, however, he was able to remain
there only a short time,
though not for lack of botanical
qualifications. He was too out-
spoken on religious subjects for the
peace of mind of some of the
members of the Cambridge group. It is
recorded, however, that
he had been most pleasantly welcomed by
Harvard's president,
John Thornton Kirkland, who found Locke
sufficiently engaging
to pay him the compliment of offering to
study botany with him.
Though not yet equipped with his medical
degree he was
ready to combine medicine and botany on
an expedition. The
United States Frigate Macedonian was
to sail under special orders
to explore the Columbia River. It was to
leave Boston Harbor
on September 20, 1818. What an
opportunity for Locke, prob-
ably still smarting a little from having
lost his curatorship! He
was warned that he would be badgered as
a landlubber, a down-
east country boy, and a noncombatant.
Perhaps most of all the
rugged seamen would resent the presence
of a young intellectual.
If tempers really broke he would have to
stand in an "affair of
honor" of large or small
consequence.
DR. JOHN LOCKE 350
When Locke appeared on board the Macedonian
he was ac-
companied by a long mahogany box
somewhat resembling a sur-
geon's amputating case. This he
contrived to drop on the deck
in such an awkward manner that the lid flew
open exposing a
beautiful and complete outfit of dueling
pistols. He was invited
to join when pistol practice for the
officers was announced. His
skill in hitting any spot selected upon
the targets convinced the
crew that the surgeon's mate was a man
who knew how to handle
small arms. He was no longer a stranger
of uncertain position
on shipboard.
Sailing orders for the Macedonian brought
her off the Caro-
lina coast in time to meet a West Indian
hurricane of great vio-
lence. She was dismasted and so beaten
by the waves as to be
almost destroyed. After the storm she
limped slowly back to
Norfolk. Upon deliberation, the Navy
abandoned the Columbia
River operation. Locke applied for his
discharge and made his
way back to New Haven as quickly as he
could. life on the sea
was a gamble. Others might take it if
they chose. For him there
was other work.
He set in at once to complete his
requirements for a medical
degree at Yale and in 1819 was graduated
with the sixth class.
Dr. Eli Iyes taught Materia Medica and
Botany, the usual ar-
rangement made in the medical curricula
of that period. He had
a reputation for scholarship and had
published a brief list of the
plants of New Haven as early as 1811.
This was later extended
with the help of his students to more
than a thousand plants. Also
at his own expense he had set out a
botanical garden near the
college.1 Locke must have spent a great
deal of his time in study-
ing the collections and he resolved to
prepare a manual for
students which would quickly familiarize
the beginner with the
meanings of terms used in
classification.
To prepare the illustrations for this,
Locke learned the art
of engraving. His father's careful
instructions in the use of
tools served him well, and his own
skills and desires as a crafts-
1 Andrew D. Rodgers, "Noble
Fellow" -- William Starling Sullivant (New York,
1940), 81,
146 EXPLANATION OF
PLATES.
PLATE 15. A.
CLASSES--See
Frontispiece.
This plate contains a figure of a flower in each of
the 24
Classes. With the exception of 1, 9, and 23,
they are either native or commonly
cultivated.
Fig. 1. Monandria, 1 stamen;
Mare's-tail, Hippuris
culgaris. Native of Britain.
This is an example also of the order Monogynia, having 1 pistil.
2. Diandria, 2 stamens; Speedwell, Veronica.
3. Triandria, 3
stamens; Common Timothy-
grass or Herds-grass, Phleum Pratense,
much magnified.
a. The entire Floret, having three
stamens and two
feathered styles projecting from the two
compressed
glumes which enclose them at the base.
b. The Pistil shown separate, consisting of the germen
and two feathered styles.
This is an example also of the order Digynia,
having 2 styles.
4. Tetrandria, 4 stamens; Cornel, Cornus
pani-
culata, somewhat magnified.
5. Pentandria, 5 stamens; Common Elder,
Sam-
bucus niger, magnified.
It is an exemple also of the order Tryginia,
having three sessile
stigmas.
6. Hexandria, 6 stamens; Barberry, Berberis
culgaris.
7. Heptandria, 7 stamens; Chickweed
winter-
green, Trientalis Europeus.
8. Octandria, 8 stamens; Dwarf tree
primrose,
(E1nothera punnila.
9. Enneandria, 9 stamens; Flowering Rush,
Butomus umbellatus. Native of Britain.
This is also an example of the order Hexagynia,
having 6 pistils.
10. Decandria, 10 stamens; Broad-leaved
Lau-
rel or Lamb-kill, Kalmia latifolia.
11. Dodecandria, 12 to 19 stamens;
Houseleek,
Sempervivum tectorum.
FACSIMILE OF EXPLANATORY PAGE FOR
ILLUSTRATIONS
354 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
man enabled him to complete his
task. It was a teaching aid
not paralleled in the United States. The
Linnean system of
classification was illustrated with
examples of North American
species. These would be readily
obtainable for class use. The
descriptive writing of Jacob Bigelow's
book was supplemented
by figures
of the plants which beginners could not fail to grasp.
The dedication of Locke's Outlines of
Botany was to "Jacob
Bigelow, Rumford Professor of Materia
Medica, Harvard." In
his preface he separates elementary from
practical work and
characterizes his work as showing the
same difference that a dic-
tionary or grammar woull bear toward
works of history or
poetry.
His raison d'ctre gives the following recommendation to
plant study: (1) medicine, the arts, and
agriculture depend upon
it; (2)
it is a rich source of pleasure; (3) it
affords discipline
by means of which methodizing a subject
and analyzing it may
be learned; (4) it offers spiritual
inspiration. "The study of
nature is the elder scripture written by
the hand of the Creator."
Instructors of botany today will take
heart in the following item
from his preface: "From what little
experience I have had in
instructing I cannot recommend to
teachers to oblige their pupils
to commit any of the following pages
formally to memory, in do-
ing which they are by no means certain
to get the ideas."
Published in Boston in 1819, this work
must have come to
Dr. Bigelow's notice and won the
approval of President Kirkland.
When Dr. Bigelow brought out his second
edition of the Plants
of Boston (1824), he might well have used Locke's illustrations.
An excellent teaching, manual redounding to the credit of both
Locke and himself would have been the
result. By this time
Locke was in Ohio where other interests
were crowding into his
busy life. Bigelow's second edition was
too late for him. An
associate of Locke said of him that:
Scarcely four years had elapsed since he
left the valley of the
Androscoggin a plain country boy, and
yet, within that time he had
secured the favor of distinguished men,
had received the appointment of
Assistant Surgeon in the Navy, had
become a Doctor of Medicine, an
author of a popular scientific work, a
teacher and lecturer in colleges, not
DR. JOHN LOCKE 355
only to pupils but to professors. All
this was accomplished without one
dollar of patronage or support except
that created by his own exertions.2
He was not to find a remunerative
medical practice however.
Things might have been different had he
remained aboard ship
or had he read medicine under a
physician. Medical colleges
offered no instruction in dealing with
patients, and the hard life
and meagre living of a country doctor
offered little to attract him.
He accepted the position of assistant to
Colonel Dunham who was
the proprietor and head of an academy
for girls at Windsor,
Vermont. Here his gifts as a teacher
could again shine forth.
When Colonel Dunham developed the plan for establishing a
similar school in Lexington, Kentucky,
Locke agreed to go there
for that purpose. He felt that New
England was dominated by
religious intolerance and he preferred
to live in another part of
the country.
A boyhood memory was a probable factor
in this decision.
His father had built a Methodist Meeting
House at Locke's Mills
giving both land and materials for
construction. By an old
Massachusetts law, which applied in
Maine as part of Massachu-
setts, a tax for the support of the
prevailing sect was levied on
members of other sects unless exempted
by payments to the sup-
port of their own denomination. Locke,
Senior, refused to qual-
ify under the exemption clause and also
refused to pay the asses-
sed cash tax because of his donations.
He regarded the law as
invasion of religious liberty. John
witnessed the officers of the
law driving away cattle from his
father's farm, having seized
them in lieu of tax money. This
injustice so strongly impressed
itself upon John that he determined he
would some day live in a
place where there was less upholding of
the letter of religious
administration and greater tolerance for
human rights.
Since Colonel Dunham's plans had
altered, Locke came to
Kentucky alone and founded the Lexington Academy in 1821.
Little is known about the Kentucky
school. He may have made
some important acquaintances in
Lexington. It probably served
2 M. B. Wright, An Address
on the
life and Character
of the Late Professor
John, Locke (Cincinnati,
n. d.), 14.
356
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
as a means of establishing Locke as an
educator in that section
of the country. It likewise was the means of bringing
him one
step nearer establishing his residence
in Cincinnati which was to
become his permanent residence.
One authority wrote:
He began his work in Lexington, Ky., in
1821 and soon evinced his
superior talents as a teacher. In 1822
Locke had occasion to visit Cincinnati,
making the trip from Lexington on
horseback. "As he emerged from the
woods of Kentucky, and rose over the
hill south of Newport, the valley
surrounding the now Queen City opened to
his admiring view. On approach-
ing the city the rattling of drays, the
clink of hammers, the smoke of
factories, the rush of steamboats, the
firing of signals of arrivals and
departures, acted upon his mind with all
the force of enchantment. He fell
in love with the Queen City and decided
to make his home here." Ethan
Stone, that remarkable pioneer and
philanthropist, took an interest in the
young stranger and aided him in
establishing a non-sectarian school for
young ladies (Dr. Locke's School) which
enjoyed a great reputation for
many years and was patronized by the best
people. The school was located
on the east side of Walnut Street,
between Third and Fourth Streets.3
Other friends soon included the
ministers of several denom-
inations of churches in Cincinnati. Dr.
Joshua L. Wilson and Dr.
Ruter, whose daughter became a pupil of
Locke's school. There
was no concealment or evasion in respect
to moral or religious
instruction in Locke's academy. None was offered, teaching be-
ing construed as secular. Yet he was
firm in making opportunities
to "impress on the minds of these
pupils the great principles of
religion, the existence and attributes
of Diety, the expedience
and necessity of cultivating social
virtues. Open your school
then that it may be patronized by all
denominations," said Dr.
Ruter, "and great good will
result."
In a History of Cincinnati and
Hamilton Country is the fol-
lowing statement concerning Locke's
school:
In 1823, Dr. John Locke, a man of
science and of some progressive
views in education, organized in
Cincinnati a private school for girls,
under the name of Locke's Female
Academy. In this school, as in others
established about the same time in the
Ohio Valley, some of the methods
of Pestalozzi were followed. It is
interesting and suggestive to reflect
3 Otto Juettner Daniel Drake and His Followers (Cincinnati, 1909), 156.
DR. JOHN LOCKE 357
that just at the time when the old Swiss
reformer was nearing the close
of his life, dejected from the apparent failure of his toils,
enthusiastic
teachers on the banks of the Ohio river
were putting his wise advice into
practice.4
A
family weekly magazine published at the time praised the
school thus: "It was truly
gratifying to witness the rapid im-
provements of the pupils generally, in
all the branches of science
taught in this institution, and more
particularly in those of Natural
and Moral Philosophy and Botany."5
During the twelve years
of Locke's proprietorship somewhere near
four hundred pupils
received an education in the school.
Mentioned for high attain-
ment in the early days of the school
were Amanda Drake, Mary
Longworth, Sarah and Jane Loring,
Frances Wilson, Jane Keyes,
Eliza Longworth, Selima Morris,
Charlotte and Mary Rogers,
Elizabeth Hamilton, and Julia Burnet.
Mrs. Trollope who usually displayed
unlimited irritation in
her criticism of Cincinnati and its inhabitants gave some space to
the school following her attendance at
one of the commencements.
She described Dr. Locke as a
gentleman who appears to have liberal
and enlarged opinions on the
subject of female education . . . [and]
perceived, with some surprise, that
the higher branches of science were
among the studies of the pretty crea-
tures I saw assembled there. ... 'A
quarter's' mathematics, or 'two quar-
ters' political economy, moral
philosophy, algebra and quadratic equations,
would seldom, I should think, enable the
teacher and the scholar, by their
joint efforts, to lay in such a stock of
these sciences as would stand the
wear and tear of half a score of
children and one help.6
However, Mrs. Trollope's judgment has
been seriously
questioned. liven her own son, Anthony, wrote of her that "no
observer was certainly ever less
qualified to judge of the pros-
pects or even of the happiness of a
young people."7
Contemporary writers in Cincinnati
agreed that Mrs. Trol-
lope and her English friend, Miss
Frances Wright, stirred a great
deal of discussion because of their
unconventional attitudes.8 In
4 History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County,
Ohio, Their Past and Present
(Cincinnati, 1894), 100.
5 Cincinnati Literary Gazette, July 31, 1824.
6 Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners
of the Americans (London, 1832), 114-5.
7 Anthony Trollope, Autobiography (New
York, 1905), 156.
8 John P. Foote, The Schools of Cincinnati
and Its Vicinity (Cincinnati, 1855),
64-5.
358 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
spite of bitter opposition they probably
caused people to think
about some of the current problems of
education and they may
have led the way to reform. Locke's
school is noteworthy be-
cause it was turned definitely toward
the concepts of modern
education. During its fourteen years, it
would have established
Dr. Locke's reputation if he had never
engaged in any other
occupation. He became famous for simple
lucid exposition. His
method of asking questions designed to
inculcate thinking habits
made the school known throughout the
nation.
His methods were based on the principles
of Pestalozzi.
During his brief association with
educational methods while at
Windsor, Vermont, and his attempt to
work alone while at Lex-
ington, he must have had an opportunity
to try several methods.
There is also the possibility that he
met Dr. Joseph Buchanan
while in Lexington, acquiring from this
original, though some-
what frustrated genius, the firm
conviction that mathematics and
science should become a part of a
liberal education. If Locke's
school was not the first in the United
States to try the Pestaloz-
zian method, it was certainty the first
of such schools in the Ohio
Valley.
When Dr. Daniel Drake later turned to educational
problems he failed to acknowledge
Locke's plan probably because
Locke had left his school and was a
professor in the Ohio College
of Medicine, a rival of Drake's
Cincinnati College.
Dr. Locke also began lectures in the
Mechanics' Institute. He
is credited with being one of the early
workers or founders of.
that valuable source of instruction. He
began the lectures in his
own home and, when that became too
crowded, gave them in a
building on Walnut Street occupied by a
Baptist congregation.
Later, after Mrs. Trollope's financial
debacle the Institute occu-
pied her bazaar.
In 1825, John Locke was married into one
of Cincinnati's
distinguished families. Mary Morris, of
Newark, New Jersey,
and niece of Nicholas Longworth, became
his bride. In the course
of time six sons and four daughters were
born.9 More
and more
9 George M. Roe, Cincinnati:
The Queen City of the
West (Cincinnati, 1895),
360.
DR. JOHN LOCKE 359
John Locke was devoting time to his own
investigations in elec-
tricity and less to the preparatory
school. He was ready in I835
to accept an appointment as Professor of
Chemistry in the Medi-
cal College of Ohio. He also was
becoming interested in geolog-
ical studies.
Probably his first interest in
geological questions had come
from being asked to make chemical
analyses of various minerals
submitted to him. The other possibility
is that he had privately
begun some surveys of his own, the
direct result of his student
days when he had served as assistant to
Professor Silliman. His
lectures at the Mechanics' Institute
would have promoted an at-
tempt to keep abreast of new
publications. He may also have met
Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth at some of the
medical meetings begin-
ning to be held at that time. Dr.
Hildreth had been writing on
the geology of Ohio and publishing,
among other places, in Silli-
man's Journal as the American
Journal of Science and Arts was
popularly known. Dr. Hildreth had also
served as chairman of
the governor's committee to report on
the best method of obtaining
a complete geological survey of Ohio.10
Dr. Locke contributed to the Second
Annual Report of the
Geological Survey, along with Charles Whittlesey, J. W. Foster,
Caleb Briggs, and Dr. J. P. Kirtland,
with W. W. Mather as Chief
Geologist. Dr. Locke's report was the
last one received as he
was lecturing and traveling in England
during I837. His open-
ing sentence shows his eminently
practical point of view and his
desire as an educator to reach his
public. "As the geological re-
ports are intended, in part at least,
for the distribution of useful
information among the people, it will be
necessary to introduce
occasionally, though briefly as
possible, such elementary explana-
tions as will enable them to understand
the subject discussed."11
He was assigned the southwestern quarter
of the State. He be-
gan with the chemical analysis of the
limestones which had been
included in the first report of the
committee as well. The lime-
stones were not fully classified as they
are at present, of course,
10 Report of the Special Committee .
. . on the Best Method of Obtaining a
Complete Geological Survey of the
State of Ohio (Columbus, 1836), 15.
11 Ohio Geological Survey, Second
Annual Report on the Geological Survey of
the State of Ohio (Columbus,
1838), 203.
360
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and he simply states them by color as
"blue limestone" or as "cliff
limestone." The latter derived its name originally
from early
reports of surveys made in Scotland. It
was the general name
for limestones forming cliffs. Locke
wrote:
In accordance with this nomenclature a
creek which falls into the
Ohio below Madison (Ia.) [Indiana] and
makes in its course some magnifi-
cent leaps cover the cliff limestone has
received the name of "Clifty Creek"
and the cascade that of "Clifty
falls," the / being added agreeably to a
common provincialism of the west which
makes a skiff, a "skift," a cliff, a
"clift," etc. Clifton, a town north of Xenia, is just at the
commencement
of the same stone, and has borrowed its
name from it.12
He surveyed and drew with great skill a
diagrammatic section
of the valley and channel of the Ohio
River at Cincinnati from
Keys Hill in Ohio to Botany Hill in
Kentucky and records the
high water of the Ohio in I832, sixty-two feet
above its low water
level of I838.13
Of the importance of studying the dip of
geological forma-
tions he has this to say:
The strata are nearly horizontal, and
having a slight and irregular
undulation, the dip is with difficulty
ascertained, while one confines his
attention to the layers of the same
formation, for example, to the blue
limestone about Cincinnati. The inclinations resulting from undulation,
are seldom more than one foot in 45;
unless water be contiguous to mark
the level, the strata appear to the eye
to be quite horizontal. I have exam-
ined the inclination of the strata of
blue limestone about Cincinnati very
particularly with the leveling
instrument, and have sometimes found a uni-
form and consistent dip for half a mile;
in another locality the dip would
be in an opposite direction. The strata
in the bed of the Ohio at its lowest
stage in Sept. 1838, showed, by
comparison with the surface of the water,
that these local undulations were
extremely irregular, presenting inclin-
ations which vary in all possible
directions, in planes continued uniform
not generally more than one fourth of a
mile. A single stratum cannot in
general be identified far enough to
determine on the whole, whether it has,
independent of local undulations, an
absolute dip. However, when we
examine the several formations,
previously named, on a large scale, the
dip becomes very evident; and as one
formation sinks gradually below
the surface, and another superior one
presents itself, gives rise to those
important changes in the face and
productions of the country, which we
should hardly attribute to a slope so
moderate as one inch in a rod. By a
12 Ibid., 211.
13 Ibid., plate facing p. 211.
DR. JOHN LOCKE 36I
correspondence held between Dr. Owen,
the Geologist of Indiana and my-
self it has been ascertained that the
strata slope downward each way from
a line not far from that between Ohio
and Indiana pitching eastwardly
in Ohio and westwardly in Indiana in
such a manner that the cliff lime-
stone, which shows itself not many miles
east and west of Richmond, in
Indiana, descends and comes to the bed
of the Ohio river, at the east side
of Adams Co., in Ohio, and at the falls
of the Ohio, at Louisville.
It follows as a'consequence of this
arrangement that the out-cropping
edges of the strata present themselves
at the surface in the same order in
the two States, but proceeding in
opposite directions. For example, on
ascending the Ohio eastwardly, we meet with blue limestone, cliff
lime-
stone, slate, fine sandstone,
conglomerate, and coal. On descending the
Ohio westwardly, we meet with the same
things, in the same order, viz;
blue limestone, cliff limestone, slate,
&c.14
This quotation is given in full as a
splendid example of his
simple explanations and descriptions.
Here Locke is the student
in the field beckoning the stay-at-home
to venture out of doors
and try first hand an interpretation of
nature. This is also the
first description of the great limestone
arch, "the Cincinnati anti-
cline," as it came to be called in
the textbooks. Locke had given
up his
private school but he was still the educator addressing a
larger unseen audience as well as the
special group for whom his
remarks Were prepared.
He was also eager to present the value
of the study of geol-
ogy to the average citizen. On the map
he prepared of Adams
County he placed a section connecting
with Scioto County on the
east. He showed by this means that the
coals of Scioto County,
because of their dip toward the east and
their rise westward,
would be in the air I,160 feet above
the level of western Adams
County. At a glance anyone would know
that searching for coal
in Adams County would be useless. It is
believed this is the first
time a geological report carried so much
useful information in
such a simple, graphic way. Part of its
purpose was to demon-
strate the practical side of the survey
to the State legislative
assembly. However, it was not until
thirty years later under
John S. Newberry that the work was
resumed.
For some years, Dr. Locke had been
investigating terrestrial
14 Ibid., 206.
362
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
magnetism and the deviation from true
north noted in the hand of
the compass. While he had been in
England in 1837, Locke had
met some of the British investigators of
this problem. He was
able to add data for comparison with the
European published
results. He continued these
investigations for a number of years
and soon was a recognized leader in this
field. Possessed of an
inquiring mind and a passion for
designing or improving pieces
of equipment he produced a
"microscopic" compass and the
famous Locke level still used by civil
engineers. Both of these
were employed first by him in his own
survey work and then
offered for use to others.
Locke's connection with the Geological
Survey produced a
number of results of permanent value to
the State. It was
through his researches on the variation
of the magnetic needle
that the corrections in the separate
tracts of land in the survey of
the State of Ohio could be made. The
Virginia Military Lands
were parceled out to the owners of
claims without any regularity
or system. Locke helped to establish
order in this confusion by
his knowledge of the behavior of the
magnetic compass. He was
also able to locate iron deposits with a
special instrument he devel-
oped, and made a journey into
southeastern Ohio with other
members of the Survey for that
purpose. It was clear to the
members of the Geological Survey that
much of the school land
originally appropriated to the State had
been sold too quickly.
Without a geological appraisal the land
had been sold on the basis
of its potential agricultural value
only. The intelligent work of
men like Hildreth and Locke
unfortunately could not prevail in
the moulding of public opinion. Instead
of squandering most of
its land grant Ohio might have profited
as was later possible in
some of the other states, notably
Minnesota.
Locke was to have prepared detailed
surveys of both Butler
and Adams counties. He completed Adams
before the work was
abandoned. The survey of Adams County
was thus appraised
years later by Evans and Stivers:
There has never been but one geological
survey of Adams County,
and that was made by Prof. John Locke,
Assistant State Geologist, in
Dr. JOHN LOCKE
1838. There is a more recent report but
it does not at all cover the county.
Prof. Locke's report is so comprehensive
and withal so plain that anyone
by reading it may acquire much valuable
knowledge of the geological for-
mations of Adams County. It is however
necessary to note some changes
in classification and nomenclature in
accordance with present usage.15
On April 25, 1838, the disaster to the
river steamer Moselle
occurred. It was the worst accident of
its kind. The boilers had
exploded and the ship was burned. Since
a number of lives were
lost, the citizens of Cincinnati called
upon Dr. Locke to head a
committee of investigation. With his
usual thoroughness Locke
examined the possible causes of the
explosion. He centered
blame upon the ship builders and owners,
accusing them of
neglect in taking precautions to guard
the lives of crews and pas-
sengers. His report was widely read.
The discussion of his
report became an important factor in
establishing modern laws
to protect all who use steamboat
navigation.
Dr. Locke may have accepted the chair of
chemistry in the
Medical College of Ohio in 1835, though
his actual teaching seems
to have begun in 1837. Locke went abroad
between 1835 and
1837, for the purpose of purchasing new
apparatus for the
courses he intended to teach. His
connection with the college is
clearer after 1837, when the faculty was
reorganized and the
rivalry with the Cincinnati College was
declining.
He entered this period of teaching fully
aware of the storms
that had centered around the medical
faculties or one might also
say around the personality of Daniel
Drake. By the time Locke
joined the faculty of the Medical
College of Ohio, originally
founded by Drake, Drake had also founded
two other medical
faculties in Cincinnati, the Medical
Department of Miami Uni-
versity which lasted only a year and
from which Drake resigned
when it was included in the Ohio
College, and the Medical De-
partment of the Cincinnati College which
lasted from 1831 until
1839. Meanwhile Drake had taught at
Transylyania University
and at Jefferson College in
Philadelphia. Drake's brilliant, tur-
15 Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B.
Stivers, A History of Adams County, Ohio
. . . (West Union, Ohio, 1900), 10.
364 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
bulent career, full of zeal and
ambitions to be the foremost medi-
cal teacher in Cincinnati, touched the
lives of all the prominent
medical, scientific, and public spirited
citizens of the town. Locke
should have been forewarned by the
frequent upsets in the medi-
cal faculties. This did not prove to be
the fact.
When the political intrigues which had
been fomented in the
Ohio College resulted in Locke's
dismissal in 1849-50, he was
stunned. Although he was reinstated and
served two more years
he no longer retained the enthusiasm for
the college that carried
him through the creative years he had
spent there. It was during
this period of about fourteen years that
Locke proved to be one
of the most remarkable figures in the
advancement of science in
his time. It is the aim of the following
paragraphs to show this
phase of Locke's life.
locke had carried with him to England
his observations of
the deviations of the magnetic compass
and thus was able to make
comparisons with the results obtained in
England. Col. Sabine,
of Woolwich, wrote to Locke, November 20, 1843:
"Permit me
to express hope for early publication of
your observations com-
paring Cincinnati, Toronto . . . on
terrestrial magnetism. If
there should prove a difficulty causing
a serious delay in the pub-
lication of your discoveries in the
United States, I cannot doubt
that either the Royal Society or the
British association would be
very proud to receive them and print
them."16 There was sound
practicality in this request. The
accuracy of surveying and navi-
gation were still too dependent upon the
erratic compass.
He invented a thermoscopic galvanometer
of great sensitivity
and demonstrated it to members of the
British Association. Prob-
ably at this time he met Professor
Wheatstone and Sir David
Brewster who were interested in his
experiments on optics which
they were likewise investigating. G. M.
Roe adds another factual
nugget:
In connection with this trip of Dr.
Locke to Europe may be men-
tioned a circumstance illustrative of
the uncertainties regarding municipal
action. The city of Cincinnati then used
an incorrect linear measure and
requested Dr. Locke to secure a standard.
He did so, having two made
16 Wright, Address on . . .
John Locke.40.
DR. JOHN LOCKE 365
and compared with the English standard
by William Simms, who made
the originals for the British
Government. One of these is 413 millionth
of an inch too long, the other 150
millionth of an inch too short. (Stand-
ards can not be made exact but
practically are so by having a known
error.) The city authorities failed to
reimburse Dr. Locke, and the meas-
ures . . . still remain in the hands of
his heirs. The measures are now of
great interest as the original English standards
are under seal, and can only
be opened by an act of Parliament.17
The acquaintances he made abroad
probably caused him to
think about the advantages of systematic
gatherings of scientists.
He began to attend meetings of the newly
organized Association
of American Geologists. He did not
attend the founding meeting
held at the Franklin Institute in April
1840. He
may have been
at that time with David Dale Owen on the
Indiana Geological
Survey, the report of which was
published that year. However,
W. W. Mather was present. Mather had
known Locke for his
work on the Ohio survey and may have
seen to it that Locke came
to the second meeting of the
Association, and thus tied him in
with the group that included Edward
Hitchcock, L. C. Beck,
Douglass Houghton, J. N. Nicollet, A. D.
Bache, and others.
When the second meeting was held
beginning April 5, 1841,
at the Academy of Natural Sciences in
Philadelphia, Locke was
appointed one of the committee to plan
the conduct of business.
From the previous year a committee to
discuss mineral manures
had been held over. Locke took part in
that discussion. W. W.
Mather asked to postpone his paper on
the "Drift" and Locke
read a paper on the "Geology of
Some Parts of the U. S. West
of the Allegany Mountains." In this
he offered some compari-
sons between the position and age of
European formations and
those he had studied in Ohio and
Indiana. This brought forth
some discussion and objections that were
quite natural since "cliff
limestone" and "blue
limestone," the currently employed terms,
were inadequate for comparative studies.
In a later session he described a new
species of trilobite
found at Cincinnati and named by him Isotelus
maximus. He
demonstrated by casts one specimen 93/4 inches long and frag-
17 Roc, Cincinnati, 360.
366 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
ments of another 19 1/2 inches long. The
latter was the largest
trilobite known. In another paper he
discussed the "diluvial
scratches" that he had observed in
limestone. He called attention
to variations in the widths of the lines
or grooves, up to 1/2 inch
broad. Some were "1/8 inch deep,
scaled rough in the bottom as
if they had been ploughed by an iron
chisel properly set and car-
ried forward with an irresistible
force." From their exact
straightness and parallelism Locke drew
the inference, now accep-
ted as factual, that the lines had been
formed "by a body of im-
mense weight, moving with a momentum
scarcely affected by the
resistance offered by the cutting of the
grooves." He pointed out
that one set of grooves might be crossed
at an angle by another,
but that the parallelism of each set
remained.18
All of this data on striae must have set
the geologists think-
ing that perhaps diluvial was not the
way to describe these
scratches. Not many of the members present had been West.
There was Nicollet who had explored in
Missouri. He, Douglass
Houghton, Bela Hubbard, Mather, D. D.
Owen, Locke, H. D.
Rogers, also of the Medical College of
Ohio, and possibly some
others were opening up the explorations
of the continent. The
great continental ice theory was not to
be announced by Agassiz
for some years. The announcement of the
parallel nature of the
grooves must have made that second
session of the geologists
pretty much Locke's session.
At the second meeting, also held in
Philadelphia, the presi-
dent, Rev. Professor Edward Hitchcock,
referred to Locke's ob-
servations. There is not available a
first hand report of all that
Locke had included in his paper.
Hitchcock's address depends
in part on remarks that must have been
made by Locke. Hitch-
cock brings out the point that the
grooves even cross sharp ridges
without alteration of direction. It was difficult after that ses-
sion to attribute all the facts about
drift to a deluge. The stage
was being set during these meetings for
the modern discussions
of glacial geology that were to follow
in the next few years.
The place of leadership that Locke was
filling in the early
18 American Journal of Science, XLI
(1841), 158ff.
DR.
JOHN LOCKE
367
years of the Association of American
Geologists continued dur-
ing the following meetings. At Boston in
1842, Dr. Samuel
Morton did not arrive on time and Locke
was asked to take the
chair.
A constitution was adopted, the name being altered to
Association of American Geologists and
Naturalists. Its cos-
mopolitan aspect was attested by the
presence of Charles Lyell.
As in the previous year, Locke presented
papers on a diversity
of topics. His paper on "Ancient
Earthworks in Ohio" led to
the formation of a committee to examine
and report on the
western mounds. Locke, J. N. Nicollet, John H. Blake, Dr.
George Engelman, of course Hildreth,
Prof. Troost, and Dr. B.
B. Brown were named. A search for any
work by this com-
mittee fails to turn up a report,
however.
Locke also presented a paper on a new
instrument he had in-
vented, a reflecting level and
goniometer. He also described a
reflecting compass. His skill in
designing instruments suited to
his problems was second only to his
ingenuity in measuring and
observing facts others neglected. He was
a teacher because he
was ready to deal with the situation at
hand. He returned to
plant studies with a paper on a
prostrate forest under the Ohio
diluvium. Not presented at the meeting
was a published report
on observations made at Baltimore on the
dipping compass. To
test his observations his friends, Major
Graham, Nicollet, and
Bache, made similar use of his
instruments. He also published
a drawing of the large trilobite,
changing the name to Isotelus
megistor.19
Locke published a report on mineral
lands ordered to be
surveyed by Congress in 1839. This had
carried him to the lead
regions in Wisconsin and in Missouri.
His observations on the
subject of terrestrial magnetism carried
him to the north side of
Lake Superior.20 He also became interested in
transportation
problems at Sault Sainte Marie and was
asked by the War De-
partment to prepare a report on the
subject of a ship canal around
the rapids. He observed the granite
boulders along the lake shores
10 Ibid., XLII (1842),
235, 366.
20 U. S. Congress, 26
Cong., 1 sess., Executive Document No. 239, pp. 53,
116-39.
368 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
with strong doubts as to their
usefulness in canal construction.
He stated that the want of materials for such a work need
not be any impediment as the limestone
of Drummond's Island
could be easily transported to the
Sault. He made an observation
contrary to a recommendation which had
been made to the War
Department with regard to the depth of
the canal. He doubted
whether vessels drawing more than six
feet of water could at all
times navigate St. Mary's River on
account of two bars, one of
rock at the Nebish Rapids and the other
of mud in Lake Huron.
Therefore it would hardly be necessary
to make the proposed
canal twelve feet deep as had been
suggested. Since Locke's time
more than a century of thoughtful
experimentation has attempted
to adjust the ore and grain cargoes, the
ships themselves, and the
docking facilities to the fundamental
geological problems his alert
eyes reported in his "hasty"
observations.
Then the Doctor, the almost forgotten
person in the several
John Lockes of whom the reader must by
this time be aware,
came forward to express himself.
There remains another consideration
which although not immediately
connected with wealth is still important
in furnishing that without which
wealth cannot be enjoyed. We venture to
urge the opening of Lake
Superior to steam navigation in order to
facilitate the access of thousands
of invalids to a region so picturesque,
so novel, and so invigorating as can
scarcely be equalled on the globe.
He mentioned the weariness of life
created by the "Mias-
mata of the Mississippi and the calm dry
heat of a summer in the
Southwest." He grew poetic in recommending an early escape
to the "pure water, the clear
atmosphere, the temperate summer
climate, the rugged fir clad rocks, the
piney glades carpeted
with reindeer licken and hung with the
dangling usnea."
It was probably nostalgia for his own
boyhood in Maine after
a succession of sultry summers in the
Middle West that brought
the enraptured praise that follows:
The canal being opened the citizens of
New York escaping from dust
and ennui and the resident of New
Orleans fleeing from the pestilence of
the summer months may be speedily wafted
to a meeting at Porter's Island,
at Isle Royale or at La Point and there
enjoy most of the Boreau wonders
DR. JOHN
LOCKE 369
of which they
have read in the voyages and travels of Ross, Franklin and
others and
there in the day admire the delusive mirage of the distant shores
and in the
night the portentous streamers of the aurora.
The fifth
annual meeting of the Association of American
Geologists and
Naturalists was held in 1844 at
Washington.
Dr. Locke served as
chairman, and Dr. Douglass
Hough-
ton as
treasurer. Dr. David
D. Owen who had been
elected
secretary was
not present. Locke read a paper on the connection
between
geology and magnetism, since he had always made both
kinds of
observations on his field trips. He noted that the great-
est magnetic
force was to be found in the Lake Superior region.
Douglass
Houghton read a paper on the importance of connecting
geological
surveys with linear surveys of public lands. The
Washington
meeting, close to the seat of Congress, contained in
the papers of
these two investigators a
symposium which, if
noticed, would
serve to call the attention of government officers to
the needs of
research and exploration of our natural resources.
John Locke,
the quiet teacher, was on the way to becoming a
national
figure.
In the paper
he read at the meeting he remarked:
In the year
1838, I began to examine the elements of terrestrial
magnetism,
including dip declination and intensity, both horizontal and
total, over
various parts of the United States. Every year since I have
made journeys
to extend this kind of research until now I have embraced
in a general
way the region from Cambridge, Mass. westward to the ex-
treme of Iowa
and. from the middle of Kentucky northward to the north
side of Lake
Superior. It was but natural that I should note the geology
of the
substratum at each station; and on reducing my observations and
putting them
into tabular form I examined the properties of each group
extending over
rocks of a similar kind and found so far as I had examined
some general
indications of which classes of rocks might be distinguished
although
concealed at considerable depths, the magnetical instruments in
this respect
answering the general purpose of a mineral or divining rod.22
This may have contained a little over-extension
of his
enthusiasm--yet
in the Lake Superior region compasses were al-
was showing
crazy local deflections. What excitement was con-
22 American
Association of Geolgists and Naturalists, Abstract of the Pro-
ceedings, V
(1844), passim.
370 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
cealed beneath the lofty cool words of
Locke's paper! He was
talking to the men who knew better
perhaps than any other group
in America the lack of knowledge of our
mineral resources. They
were the custodians at that moment of
enormous potential wealth
before which even Aladdin's lamp would
have blinked out.
Present at the meeting were Douglass
Houghton whose name
will always be associated with Michigan
and Minnesota, Wm. B.
Rogers, H. D. Rogers, and A. D. Bache of
the Coast Survey
Office. Capt. Wilkes of the United
States Exploring Expedition
invited the company to visit the
collections housed at the U. S.
Patent Office. An invitation was
extended likewise from the U.
S. Naval Observatory. To a number of the
men he met, Locke
was shortly to become indebted for
attention they gave to other of
his inventions.
He had strung a telegraph line--the
first one in Cincinnati
-- from the laboratory where he worked
in the Ohio Medical
College to his home. He had trained two
of his sons to help him
put together various instruments and
pieces of scientific appara-
tus he continually was designing.
Excerpts from Locke's report
seem the most appropriate for describing
his greatest invention.
This instrument was the
electro-chronograph. "My attention
was first drawn practically to the
subject of the combination of
clocks and electrical machinery for
producing useful results in
1844 and '45."23 He had obtained
a lathe and a set of tools from
the sculptor, Hiram Powers. Whenever he
needed a new piece
of apparatus to demonstrate a principle
he was able to design an
effective device. In consequence the
lectures he offered attracted
a distinguished audience. His assistants were Thomas K.
Beecher and his sons John Locke, Jr.,
and Joseph M. Locke.
He devised two types of electrotomes,
one with a conducting
pendulum swinging through a mercury cup,
the other a wheel
with pins or teeth to break the circuit
of tripping a tilt hammer.
This second form avoided friction. It
then occurred to him,
particularly after correspondence with
Sears C. Walker of the
Coast Survey Office, that an improvement
could be made on the
23 American
Journal of Science, n. s., VIII (1849), 233.
DR. JOHN
LOCKE 371
observations of time signals and star
signals made in the calcula-
tion of longitude. Heretofore these had been made by ordinary
clock readings and manual contact with
an electric circuit breaker
to send signals by telegraph to another
station. Due to an un-
certain loss of time the observations
were not at the level of ac-
curacy desired.
Locke then thought of using the Morse
register on which a
magnet marked traces on a paper
ribbon. By this means any
station connected with the observer
could have an event recorded
at the split second the circuit-breaker
key was moved. "Almost
every astronomical observer has
intiutively felt a desire to have
some kind of a chronograph with which to
subdivide a second
and record fractionally the punctum of observation."
Sears C. Walker wrote:
Dr. John Locke of Cincinnati, has
invented a very cheap and simple
instrument which can be attached to the
same pivot along with the second
hand of any clock, and which will, when
put in connection with the tele-
graphic circuit, make the clock beat at
the same instant all along the line.
The hours, minutes and seconds, may be
registered on the fillet of
paper, and by striking on the
telegraphic key at the instant of any occur-
rence, the date of it is recorded on
the same paper to the hundredth of a
second. This invention will be useful for many practical
purposes. It
makes the current of time visible to the
eye in a permanent record. It does
not change the rate of going of the
most delicate clock. It will doubtless
be applied hereafter to many purposes
for the advancement of science; such
as the determination of geographical
longitude, in connection with transit
instruments, measurement of the velocity
of sound; perhaps, if the circuit
be long enough, of lightning itself.24
Lieutenant M. F. Maury, Superintendent
of the National
Observatory, wrote in a letter to Hon.
John Y. Mason, Secretary
of the Navy. this graphic account of the
use of the electro-
chronograph:
Thus the astronomer in Boston observes
the transit of a star as it
flits through the field of his
instrument, and crosses the meridian of that
place. Instead of looking at a clock
before him, and noting the time in the
usual way, he touches a key, and the
clock here subdivides his seconds
to the minutest fraction, and records
the time with unerring accuracy.
24 Ibid., 237-8.
372
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The astronomer in Washington waits for
the same star to cross his
meridian, and, as it does [the key for
circuit breaking on] Dr. Locke's
magnetic clock is again touched; it
divides the seconds and records the
time for him with equal precision. The
difference between these two times
is the longitude of Boston from the
meridan of Washington ....
And thus this problem, which has vexed
astronomers and navigators,
and perplexed the world for ages, is
reduced at once, by American ingenu-
ity, to a form and method the most
simple and accurate. While the pro-
cess is so much simplified, the results
are greatly refined. In one night
the longitude may be determined with far
more accuracy by means of a
magnetic telegraph and clock, than it
can by years of observation accord-
ing to any other method that has ever
been tried.25
The Coast Survey had made an arrangement
with the Tele-
graph Company in Cincinnati to have a
line extend through Dr.
Locke's house. On November 17, 1848,
this experiment of ob-
serving longitude with Locke's
instruments was tried for the first
time and it was successful. The model
instruments had been com-
pleted by the fourth of November. Dr. A.
D. Bache communi-
cated a full report to Congress in
December of that year and to
Dr. Locke a special Congressional award
of ten thousand dollars
was the official recognition that the
representation made on the
part of his colleagues in this advance
into the realm of science
was approved.
This invention would be a happy,
elevated note on which to
conclude the account of the work of Dr.
John Locke. One must
not forget that his work in the fields
of physics and astronomy
sprung from the lectures on chemistry he
conducted in the Ohio
Medical College. That was always an institution given to
per-
sonality conflicts among the faculty
members. Locke had be-
gun his work there during one of the
frequent reorganizations of
the faculty personnel. He was to leave it in the same manner.
The blow of being asked to resign was
too much for him to bear,
even though he knew it was a political
quarrel that forced his dis-
missal. He was shortly afterward
reinstated, but the damage to
his spirit of loyalty had been too great
to rekindle hi's old enthus-
iasm for the school. He remained two
years after reinstatement
25 Ibid., 241.
DR. JOHN LOCKE 373
but moved to Lebanon, Ohio, and there
managed a preparatory
school. This was too weak a challenge to
his broad grasp of the
world of science. But he had no further
taste for original in-
vestigation if he and his labors were to
be subject to political
vagaries.
At the meeting held in 1851 in Cincinnati of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science, a lineal descendant of
the old Association of Geologists and
Naturalists. over which he
had presided, Locke was not present. His
son, L. T. Locke of
Nashua, New Hampshire, is listed among
members of the asso-
ciation, but his name is dramatically
lacking. His friend and
associate who had done much to praise
the electro-chronograph, A.
D. Bache, served as president. O.D.
Mitchell, the Director of
Astronomical Observatory of Cincinnati,
delivered an address on
the longitude of Cincinnati, and Sears
Walker gave a report, but
the only mention of the name of Locke is
an acknowledgement of
a chronometer loaned by him.26 To
Locke it was easier to sub-
divide seconds than it was to regain
emotional composure and
balance.
He made one strong effort to return to
his first interest in
the field of science--the plant world.
He delivered at Lebanon
an address, "On the means of
renovating worn out farms." After
discussing declining fertility in soils
and the methods of com-
batting this, he recommends the
establishment of libraries of
agricultural schools and an agricultural
survey. It is interesting
to note that a paper by N. S. Townshend
is contained in this same
volume.27 The brilliant genius of John
Locke was dimmed.
He was not looking backward but was
passing something of his
spirit to others who would look to the
natural resources of Ohio
and their future development.
26 American Association for the Advancement
of Science, Proceedings, V
(1851), passim.
27 Ohio State Board of Agriculture, Ninth
Annual Report . . . 1854
(Columbus, 1855), 212-2.
DR. JOHN LOCKE, EARLY OHIO SCIENTIST
(1792-1856)
by ADOLPH E. WALLER
Associate Professor
and Curator of the Botanic Garden.
Ohio State University
The nineteenth century in the United
States suddenly swung
into its expanding programs of research
and education. No one
was prepared for the impact of the
increasing realization of the
power over nature which man now
possessed. The illusion of
the perfectibility of all men through
knowledge stretched un-
dimmed. The inherent weaknesses of man
and the snail's pace
of education were not yet perceived.
Gigantic discovery was so
close at hand that no one troubled to
consider disappointments as
more than temporary obstacles. A little
proficiency in mathe-
matics, languages, and the law marked
the educated man. Scien-
tific training was unknown. Science
laboratories were just start-
ing and the skills and techniques they
were to impart were born
on the spot.
The thesis that the medical colleges of
the time were the
sources of our trained scholars in the
natural sciences has been
stated in previous papers in this
series. Three months at "Cam-
bridge College" prepared Dr. Samuel
P. Hildreth for his degree
in medicine, after an apprenticeship
with practicing physicians.
Many others were likewise briefly
exposed to formalized study.
Dr. John Locke was more fortunate. His
formal training lasted
about three years.
Philadelphia and Cincinnati were early
in asserting leader-
ship in the quality of medical training
offered. Many of the
students trained in medicine were not as
interested in its practice
as in following the leads offered by
their training in sciences. Our
outstanding botanists and geologists of
the 1830's were thus
educated. Dr. Locke's story follows a
similar pattern with the
difference that he added physics to his
earlier inclinations toward
botany and geology. Perhaps it was from
his keen observation of
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