THE BREADTH OF VISION OF DR. JOHN STRONG
NEWBERRY
By A. E. WALLER, Ph. D.1
Attention has been directed to the
interesting circumstance
that many of our leaders in the natural
sciences whose schooling
ended before 1850 held degrees in
medicine. When it is asked how
this happens to be the case, the facts
seem to show that only the
colleges of medicine offered an approach
in training and teaching
to modern laboratory study. Thus Asa
Gray, John Torrey, George
Engelmann, to mention the most
distinguished botanists, and some
lesser lights such as Charles Parry,
Jacob Bigelow, John M. Bige-
low, Charles W. Short and others all
were the holders of medical
degrees. With the exception of Jacob
Bigelow, whose contribution
to the materia medica of the day is
unparalleled, none of these
men made great contributions to
medicine.
The subject of this paper is a
geologist, one of the founders
of paleontology for the United States,
Dr. John Strong Newberry.
His work in botany is mainly in
paleobotany, but he was one of the
throng of explorers of the Western
States whose botanical col-
lections made possible the quick
organization of the flora of North
America under the guiding genius of
Torrey and Gray. Those
interested in Ohioana remember him as a
director of the Ohio
Geological Survey and as the author of
the first catalog of the
plants of the state of Ohio.
Since Newberry was a medical college
graduate who practiced
medicine but gave it up for scientific
studies, it becomes a matter
of philosophical and historical concern
to examine his education
and background. Obviously, since he was
not primarily interested
in the practice of medicine and as he
came from a family of suffi-
cient wealth and was free to choose
whatever he liked in the way
of a career, what he did with his
education is of great interest.
1 Papers from the Department of Botany, The Ohio State University, No. 465.
324
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 325
He became a leader of his time, not in
government, though he
possessed a number of important contacts
to make such a life
possible also. Nor did he turn away from
medicine to law or to
a rectorship in the footsteps of so many
who were given the clas-
sical education of the period.
Quite away from beaten paths, he appears
as one of the first
to rise high in practical
humanitarianism. He found new appli-
cations to human welfare of the natural
sciences he followed. He
remained a professor and by his
researches and teachings trained
young men to go along with him in the
pathways he was exploring.
Before his death the laboratory methods
of study were widely in
use. He may have carefully examined,
during his career, the
strong and weak points of medical
college training as he had ex-
perienced it and thrown his influence
directly toward laboratory
training in the natural sciences. An
address he made before the
American Association for the Advancement
of Science indicates
how seriously he thought along these
lines.
Looking back to the successful medical
practice he built in
the pyramiding population of the
Cleveland of the 1850's, it is
interesting to see how ready he was to
cut short his private prac-
tice to respond to the calls of
usefulness in wider fields. The very
absence of specialization in his
training stands out as an advantage
to him. Without going into detail here
as to the content of his
college work, one only needs to ask
whether a brilliant young phy-
sician of today's schools could turn so
easily to botany or to
geology after several years of active
medical practice.
To express as fully as possible what the
spirit of the bio-
logical sciences entailed at this time
one might call this period
the Golden Age of Nomenclature.
Twenty-five years later the
various fields of the sciences were to
be separated. At the mid-
century, however, many of the
conspicuous plants and animals
were still to be described. This was
also essentially true in geol-
ogy. The rock formations had not been
named. At the same
time comparative studies were beginning
to add to the excitement.
There were minor synthesizing influences
at work, but the major
principles to proceed from the work of
Darwin, Mendel, Faraday,
326
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Lyell, Pasteur and Agassiz were not yet
announced or at least
their antecedents were not yet a part of
the college courses of a
young contemporary of John S. Newberry.
The healing of the
sick was only groping its way from
superstitions, some of which
were as old as the Asclepiads, to the
newer knowledge based on
experimentation. Yet medicine was at
this moment much in ad-
vance of agriculture. The new enabling
legislation which was to
establish colleges of agriculture and
experimental stations was not
yet dreamed of.
So it was that the medical colleges of
the nineteenth century
offered the only schools in which
biological principles were studied.
The advances made in the twentieth
century in biology owe much
to this torch of knowledge passed on by
the medical colleges, even
humble ones. It is beside the point to
say that there were bad
schools as well as good. For these early
schools offered one thing
difficult to obtain in the highly
specialized university centers of
training today. Education was viewed
through a wide-angle lens
to be as all-inclusive as possible. Dr.
Newberry offers a record
worthy of attention.
A soldier in the Revolutionary War was General
Roger New-
berry, the paternal grandfather of John.
The Newberry family
was already an old one in America,
Thomas having landed in
Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1634, and
the forebears of General
Roger having moved later to Connecticut.
The General was in-
terested in the Western Reserve of the
Connecticut Land Com-
pany, although there is no record that
he ever saw his holdings.
His son, Henry, however, was an attorney
who inherited the land
from the General and decided to move to
Ohio. Thus it hap-
pened that, though John Newberry always
thought of himself as
an Ohio man, he was really born in
Windsor, Connecticut. He
was two years old before his father
moved the family in 1824.
Henry Newberry, taking title to his part
of the estate of Gen-
eral Roger, founded the town of Cuyahoga
Falls. While by train-
ing and profession a lawyer, Henry also
had an eye for power
development. There is no doubt about his
interest in the possi-
bilities of water power from the falls
of the Cuyahoga River.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY 1835-58 327
With all the instincts of the
industrialist he wanted to bring mills
and turning wheels to a nearly untamed
wilderness. Northern
Ohio still was practically that, for it
had not been opened to set-
tlement as early as the Ohio River
counties. Cincinnati was the
center of culture. The potentialities of
Cleveland were not to
be realized for some time to come.
Henry Newberry chose Cuyahoga Falls for
his residence and
the place to stake out his future. At
Tallmadge, not far away,
he owned land containing deposits of
coal. It is to the credit of
Henry Newberry, father of John, the
geologist, that he was the
first to appreciate the possibilities of
operating the Tallmadge land
as a coal mining enterprise. Later, when
John's reputation as a
geologist had been made, he recorded in
the Lisbon Railway Re-
port2 a tribute to his
father's foresight in developing coal mines
as an important step in building
industrial Cleveland.
Of the youthful Johnny, one of a family
of nine children, it
is reported that he "helped"
his father in inspecting the mining
properties at Tallmadge. At the age of
eleven he displayed an
overpowering curiosity in the plant
fossils exposed in the slates
and shales composing the roofs of the
mine galleries. Most mature
persons are not without a stir of the
imagination on entering a
clark -cave. The effect was even greater
on the sensitive young
Johnny. He peered down dark passages
lighted by torch or candle.
He saw strange leaves or branches
pressed into solid stone and
themselves feeling like stones. The
desire to learn the story of
those buried plants became for Johnny a
life-long quest. His first
scientific effort was on fossils. His
last paper a year before his
death was on the flora of a coal field
in Montana.
The man, John Strong Newberry, was fond
of recalling the
effect of the visits so frequently made
to the Tallmadge mines.
The Science Museum at Cleveland became
years afterwards the
depository for some of his favorite
specimens. Likewise, the
Columbia School of Mines and the
Smithsonian, after their
establishment, received some of these
specimens. One hopes that
some geologist today noting some J. S.
N. specimens from Tall-
2 First Annual Report of the President of the New Lisbon Railway Co.,
presented
at the Annual Meeting, January 2d,
1865 (Cleveland, 1865).
328 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
madge would pause a moment to recall the
little boy who grew
up into the famous Dr. Newberry.
When young John was passing out of his
teens and becom-
ing a mature young man, Henry Newberry,
as an enterprising
coal operator received a notable visitor
who may have further
heightened John's interest in geology.
James Hall was thirty
years of age at the time of his visit to
Henry Newberry. He had
already been connected with New York
Geological Survey for
five years. In 1841, to extend his
knowledge of the limestones
and their ranges, Hall made a journey to
the Mississippi River.
On his return eastward, he stopped with
the Newberrys of Cuya-
hoga Falls. Young John, already familiar
with the Tallmadge
mines, was more than ever eager to visit
them and show them to
the distinguished James Hall.
Unfortunately there is no written
record of the conversation that took
place between the nineteen-
year-old host and the thirty-year-old
guest. It may have been
warm and witty or serious and heavy. It
probably was both as
the visit may have lasted several days.
This visit, however,
was the beginning of a fine friendship
of many years. It was both
personal and professional in import as
both were later to become
Presidents of the American Association
for the Advancement of
Science, Hall in 1857 and Newberry in
1867. Hall became the
most prolific writer of the period in
geology. Newberry became
internationally famous--the first
American to receive the Murchi-
son Medal. Newberry's work, however, was
not confined to
geology. He left a significant record in
whatever field he touched.
The visit of James Hall may have been
the turning point in
John Newberry's life and may have fixed
his resolve to devote
himself to scholarly pursuits. Henry
Newberry was able to bring
every comfort and opportunity to his
nine children and John was
sent to Western Reserve College, which
was then still located at
Hudson, where it had been incorporated
two years after Henry
Newberry had moved to Cuyahoga Falls. It
was the oldest and
best school of the district and there
John was sent. The avowed
purpose of the college was to
"educate pious young men as
pastors for her [Ohio's] destitute
churches," "to preserve the
present literary and religious character
of the state and redeem
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 329
it from future decline" and
"to train competent young men to
fill the cabinet and for the bench and
bar."3 These were high
aims and many young men developed along
the lines indicated.
John Newberry was to show that there
were still other aims to be
discovered. The college, never a large
one before its removal
to Cleveland, was not without influence
in educating the young men
and later the young women of the State.
Already talented as a
keen observer and with a scientific
bent, John Newberry profited
by his literary studies. He was ready to
enter the Cleveland
Medical College in 1846 and he obtained
his degree in 1848.
A strong ingredient in his medical
college training was the
contact with Dr. Jared P. Kirtland.4
As a boy Dr. Kirtland had
developed a consuming interest in the
living world, and his grand-
father, Dr. Jared Potter of Wallingford,
Connecticut, had taken
the boy's training in hand, and taught
him all he knew of birds
and insects and plants, so that "at
the age of twelve Kirtland was
already familiar with budding and
grafting." At twenty he was
one of the first students to enter the
newly opened Yale Medical
School, from which he was graduated in 1815. At Yale, Kirtland
studied botany under the famous Dr. Ives
and mineralogy and
zoology under Professor Silliman. In his
contact with Dr. Ives,
Kirtland antedated by a few years
another young man who was
later to make notable contributions to
Ohio botany, William S.
Sullivant. By 1830, Dr. Kirtland
was not only one of the best
known and best liked physicians, but he
had served in the Ohio
Legislative Assembly as the
representative of Trumbull County
and organized the first effort to have
made a State Geological Sur-
vey. In this he took part in 1827 and found
himself in an em-
barrassing position. The State Treasury
was without funds. He
paid the assistants out of his own
pocket and took for his reward
the geological specimens which were
later the nucleus of the col-
lections in the Cleveland Museum. For a
while Dr. Kirtland
lived in Cincinnati as professor in the
Ohio Medical College. He
was asked to return to the Western
Reserve in 1841 to the
3 Harriet Taylor Upton, et al.,
History of the Western Reserve (Chicago, 1940),
340.
4 George M. Curtis, "Jared Potter Kirtland, M.D.," Ohio State Medical Journal
(Columbus), XXXVII (1941), 10.
330
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Willoughby College of Medicine, by Dr.
John Delemater. In 1844,
Dr. Kirtland wrote to his friend, Dr.
Samuel P. Hildreth of Mari-
etta: "You doubtless have learned
we are busily engaged in
building up a medical institution at
Cleveland. Our efforts are
thus far successful as we now number 67
students in our class
and our course of instruction has been
very satisfactory. We hope
to have our school . . . as the Medical
Department of W. R.
College by an act of the legislature
this season."5
In 1845, the year before John entered
Medical College,
Cleveland was a city of 9,573 people and
was already called the
"Forest City." There were those who said of it that it
would
continue "to be a delightful place
of rus-urban residence"6 but
any great industrial or commercial
future seemed unlikely. Such
men as the Newberry family, Dr. Kirtland
and others, by de-
veloping industries and increasing
cultural opportunities, built up
the community in spite of the doubters.
The Cleveland Medical College was headed
by Dr. John Dele-
mater as the professor of general
pathology, midwifery and
diseases of women and children; Dr.
Kirtland was professor of
physical diagnosis and the theory and
practice of physic. There
were five others on the faculty. Wednesdays were given to
"Medical and Surgical
Cliniques." The announcement also car-
ried this alluring statement, "As
surgical operations are performed
gratuitously in the presence of the class, it is believed that there
are
few Medical Institutions in the country
where the principles of
surgery are more fully taught with their
application to successful
practice than in this." Nine years
after its establishment it had
enrolled more than a thousand students
and was well launched.
As to John Newberry, he was much
impressed by Dr. Kirt-
land, who taught him ornithology and
added to his interest in
geology, as well as taught him botany
and materia medica. John,
however, was not handicapped or obliged
to confine his studies to
the local scene. After obtaining his
degree he went for the next
two years to study abroad.
5 Ibid.
6 J. S. Newberry in Knight
and Parsons Business
Directory, of the City of
Cleveland (Cleveland, 1853), 31.
OHIO MEDICAL, HISTORY, 1835-58 331
Most of this study period was spent in
Paris. Besides at-
tending medical lectures he also
attended geological courses. He
visited Italy and made his first
contribution to scientific literature
in the description of a quarry
containing fossil fish at Monte
Bolca, Italy. This was published in 1851
in The Family Visitor.
He returned to Cleveland and opened up
his medical practice.
He is reported as having been
successful. He practiced medicine
from 1851 to 1855. His residence is
given in Knight and Parsons
Directory for 1853 as being at the
"Cor of Superior and Euclid."7
and his office in Kelly's Block at 64
Superior Street. There are
58 physicians-surgeons listed in this
directory in an article entitled
"Cleveland past, present, and
future." This article is quite likely
accurate, since it was written by Dr.
Newberry himself. It de-
serves to be read by collectors of
Western Reserve and Pioneer
Ohio history.
In 1845, public-spirited citizens of
Cleveland voted a municipal
loan of $200,000 for the construction of a railroad to connect Cleve-
land with Columbus and Cincinnati. The
first train entered Cleve-
land traveling all the way from
Cincinnati in 1851. Previously the
only connections had been by canal but
that traffic, as well as the
Lake traffic, was ice bound during the
entire winter. As New-
berry described it "with the first
hard frost the business of the city
went into a state of hybernation, lying dormant
and dead until
resuscitated by the genial warmth of
returning spring."8 He also
said,
The effect of the construction of these
various railroad lines, all con-
verging to Cleveland as a centre, upon
her business and general prosperity
has been magical. The commercial
transactions of every month, are far
greater than formerly, and now we have
twelve such months in every year.
We have no longer an annual hybernation,
but reckon time by the same
almanac which serves as a guide to other
civilized communities. Nor is it
longer necessary, that the existence of
a Clevelander should be extended
thirty-three per cent beyond the common
term in order that he should
have his share of life.9
Clearly John Newberry saw the prosperity
of his community
and took pride in sharing it. He could
write precisely and with a
7 Ibid., 215.
8 Ibid., 31.
9 Ibid., 32.
332
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
light touch. He lived near Dr. John
Delemater and perhaps con-
tinued to see Dr. Kirtland whose
residence was not in Cleveland.
He had married and gave all indication
of permanent location in
Cleveland.
He began to publish scientific articles
and four papers of his
on fossil plants appeared in 1853 in the
short-lived but thoroughly
excellent Annals of Science. This
ambitious publication is de-
scribed as a semi-monthly magazine
devoted to science and the
arts. Its editor was H. L. Smith, a
physician and professor of
general and physiological chemistry in
the Western College of
Homeopathic Medicine. The city of
Cleveland was flourishing
at this time, with two medical colleges
and a university just becom-
ing established. John Newberry apparently maintained friend-
ships in both medical colleges and was
active and happy in civic
affairs. The Annals of Science ran
from November, 1852, to May,
1854. In August, 1843, the seventh
annual meeting of the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement of
Science was held in Cleve-
land and the Annals published a
full account of the program with
abstracts of many of the articles.
Culturally, as well as commer-
cially, Cleveland was growing.
The Cleveland Academy of Natural
Sciences was founded in
1845 by Dr. Kirtland. It was one of his
particular delights. In
1853, J. P. Kirtland was
president, as he probably had been con-
tinuously, and John S. Newberry, former
student and now a
mature man and colleague in the field of
medicine, was recording
secretary. There was one other interesting activity in which
Newberry participated at this time. The
Young Men's Christian
Association was started that same year.
In February of the fol-
lowing year when the constitution and
by-laws were adopted he
was made the first president.10 Truly,
his position in the city was
established. He was a recognized
scientist, a physician to be re-
spected and a prosperous family man.
Here his life changed.
In May, 1855, he was appointed
assistant surgeon and geol-
ogist on the Williamson and Abbott
Expedition. This expedition
was authorized to explore the country
from San Francisco to the
10 Samuel
P. Orth, A History of Cleveland
(Chicago, 1910), I, 406.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 333
Columbia River. The reports on the
botany, geology and zoology
of Northern California are in the sixth
volume of the Reports of
Explorations and Surveys to ascertain
the most practical and eco-
nomical route for a Railroad
from the Mississippi River to the
Pacific Ocean, made in 1853-6 (Washington, 1857). His work
on the trees of Northern California was
illustrated and was done
in collaboration with Torrey and Gray.
Thus, in one year, John
Newberry was working with the foremost
botanists of the country.
He worked in Washington while completing
his reports, though
his family remained in Cleveland. In
1857, he was given a similar
appointment on the Lieut. Joseph C. Ives
Expedition for the
exploration and navigation of the
Colorado River. A boat from
San Francisco sailing around Lower
California, up to the mouth
of the Colorado River, carried a smaller
steamer suitable for ex-
ploring the river. While waiting near Yuma for the dismantled
small boat to be fitted for its
exploring work, John Newberry
became ill and almost left the
party. He recovered, however,
sufficiently to continue. With his recovery his accustomed zest
for living returned, as is evidenced in
the following excerpt from
a letter written aboard the steamer Explorer,
February 10,1858,
on the Colorado River, by Newberry to
his friend, F. V. Hayden:
I should be very happy to be one of your
pleasant circle at the Smith-
sonian this winter . . . I am doomed to
pass the entire winter and spring
doing the hardest kind of field duty
with few of its pleasures or rewards.
Day after day we slowly crawl along up
the muddy Colorado--, confined
to a little tucked up, over-loaded,
over-crowded steamer with no retreat
from the cold, heat, wind or drifting
sand, and nothing but the monotony
of an absolute desert to, feast our eyes
upon, with nothing but bacon and
beans and rice and bread and sand--or
rather Sand and Bacon, etc. to eat,
sleeping on shore with a sand drift,
eyes, nose, mouth, ears, clothes and bed
filled with sand--with almost everyone
discontented and cross. I some-
times almost envy you who are
reposing in your "otium cum dig." studying
abundant material, eating comforting
food, sleeping on good beds, washing
clean and dressing neatly every day, and
having a good time generally.
I only hope you appreciate your
advantages with sometimes pity on poor
wretches who are not so fortunate.
After several paragraphs in more serious
vein about the ex-
pedition he ends the letter: "Give
my love to all who love me.
Ah, who does in all W. Be a good boy, don't get tight. And
334 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
when you read this think of me as one of
your best friends. P. S.
I am sorry this sheet is disfigured by
this caricature of a Mohave
belle, but paper is very scarce and I
must use up every scrap."11
Following the Ives Expedition, Newberry
also accompanied
Capt. John N. Macomb on the expedition
over parts of northern
Arizona and Utah. This led to covering
portions of the land sur-
vey of the Ives Expedition. The Report
of the Macomb Expedi-
tion was not published until 1876, but
it is interesting to see how
the return journey became later almost
the exact route of the
Santa Fe across Arizona and New Mexico
to Garden, Kansas.
After the summer survey work on the
Macomb Expedition in 1859
was completed Newberry came back to
Washington to join the
Smithsonian staff. With the outbreak of
the Civil War he entered
the United States Army, but was elected
a member of the United
States Sanitary Commission, June 14,
1861. The first sanitary in-
spection of troops was made by him at
Cairo, Illinois, in connection
with the Reverend Henry Bellows and Dr.
William H. Mussey.
By September of 1861, however, his
status again was to undergo a
change. He was called to serve as
secretary of the Western Divi-
sion of the U. S. Sanitary Commission.
So he resigned from the
Army and established headquarters at
Louisville, Kentucky.
The story of the Sanitary Commission is
best told by Dr. New-
berry himself.12
The outbreak of the rebellion found me
at Washington, D. C. in
the service of the War Department with
which I had been connected for
the five years previous as Acting
Assistant Surgeon and Geologist. On
the 14th of June, I was elected a member
of the United States Sanitary
Commission, and immediately took part in
the meeting then being held at
Washington. . . . It is not, perhaps,
generally known that Cairo had been
seized on the 24th of April by a detachment
of men brought down rapidly
and secretly by the Illinois Central
Railroad Company, just in time to
anticipate a plan formed for its seizure
by the rebels. The transaction was
an interesting and an important one and
saved us a point which in
strategic value was second to no other
one along our frontier.
Having prepared the way by
correspondence in the latter part of
October I went to Columbus, Cincinnati,
and Louisville, where by the
11 George P. Merrill, The First
One-Hundred Years of American Geology (New
Haven, 1924), 684.
12 John S. Newberry, The Sanitary
Commission in the Valley of the Mississippi
(Cleveland, 1671).
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 335
assistance of my friends, Dr. S. M.
Smith, Hon. George Hoadly, Dr. Mussey,
Dr. T. S. Bell, and Mr. Heywood,
meetings of the Associate Members of
the Sanitary Commission were held and
Branch Commissions organized . . .
Thus in these few words he tells of the
part he took in what
was the greatest attempt in saving lives
and caring for soldier
casualties the world had ever seen. A
long letter, dated Louisville,
October 24, 1862, to Fred. Law.
Olmstead, who was the general
secretary of the U. S. Sanitary
Commission concludes with the
following:
By the addition to the medical corps of
a body of trained assistants,
whose duty it shall be to gather up and remove
the wounded from the
battlefield and perform for them the
first necessary offices of relief; and
entrusting to that department
independent means of transportation and
subsistence for the sick, much will be
done to economize life, prevent suf-
fering and improve the health of the
army.13
This statement could be taken from a current message con-
cerning the aims and objectives of our
M. R. T. C. John New-
berry expressed the spirit of today's
activities in this field. Only
the means of carrying out the work has
improved.
A second far-reaching idea is one on
scurvy to be found in
the Sanitary Reporter, for May
15, 1863, as an extract from the
official report of F. N. Hamilton,
Medical Inspector, U. S. Army.
"There were no fresh vegetables
furnished to the troops except
what were obtained from the Sanitary Commission."14 "On the
same day Dr. Newberry replied by
telegram to me: 'Large ship-
ments are being made daily. Yesterday I
telegraphed Cincinnati,
Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh and
have reply that shipments
will be made at once from there.'"
I found that the Sanitary Commission had
already furnished them
with the vegetables they had called for
and which were needed for the
sick so that in the hospitals none were
dying of scurvy; on the contrary
in every instance I found them
recovering rapidly. I would respectfully
suggest that for the season of the year
when neither fresh potatoes nor
onions can be furnished to our armies,
they should be supplied with pickled
onions and cabbage; also potatoes cut in
slices and packed in molasses,
as is the practise with sailors; the
potatoes to be eaten raw.
A third action of great importance grew
out of the first two.
How could hospital supplies for the army
be procured; how could
13 Ibid., 67.
14 Ibid.,
82.
336
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the quantities of fresh foods be kept
flowing to the stations as
rapidly as required? The most important
measure was the Sani-
tary Fair. The Great Western Sanitary
Fair, as the one held in
Cincinnati was called, has been made the
subject of a book by the
Rev. Dr. Henry W. Bellows who was the
president of the U. S.
Sanitary Commission.15 The following
description of the Chicago
Sanitary Fair in which seventy-two
thousand dollars was ?? the net
proceeds is interesting. "The
contributions to the Fair to be sold
for the benefit of our sick and wounded
soldiers were large, were
munificent; but it was this tone of
deep-seated earnestness which
was largest." The Chicago Fair was
followed by the Cincinnati
Fair which opened Christmas Day. It
produced the surprising
result of raising a fund of two hundred
and thirty-five thousand
dollars. The second Chicago Fair, held
May 30, 1865, the closing
year of the war, realized more than two
hundred thousand dollars.
To sum up briefly, John Newberry,
between September, 1861,
and July, 1866, expended more than eight
hundred thousand
dollars and distributed supplies worth
more than five millions. He
also established a hospital directory at
Louisville in which there
were recorded the names of eight hundred
and fifty thousand
soldiers who had been given direct help
by the Sanitary Commis-
sion and more than one million more who,
on being released, were
through soldiers' homes temporarily fed
or sheltered as they were
furloughed, and for whom no other
adequate provision had been
made. Probably no one up to that time
had been so great an
apostle of humanitarianism. The Sanitary Commission was a
charity "twice blessed" as the
editors of the Sanitary Reporter
noted.
There were two other items to be
mentioned. At the base
hospitals in Murfreesboro, Chattanooga,
Nashville, Louisville, New
Albany and other points, vegetable
gardens were established, not
only to provide food, but for
"convalescent soldiers and those unfit
for regular duty in the field," who
"can do the work, finding
healthful and stimulating exercise in
place of the depressive in-
fluences of convalescent camps."
Finally, in Cleveland, Dr. New-
15 The Great Western Sanitary
Fair (Cincinnati,
1864).
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 337
berry established an employment agency
to help find jobs for the
men going back to civilian life.
When the British army in 1854-1856 had
fought in the Crimea
the death rate mounted from "129 per
thousand to the fantastic
figure of 1,174 per thousand per
year." At this rate the entire
army would have disappeared within a few
months. No wars of
history ever equaled this. In our war
between the states the death
rate dropped from 65 to 44 per thousand
under the ministrations
of the Sanitary Commission. Newberry
planned along lines to
avert disaster and to save the lives of
the men at war.
In the autumn of 1866, at the age of 44
years, with much
practical experience behind him in field
work, in correspondence
with official and semi-official report
making and administration,
with some teaching contacts in
Washington, at Columbia College,
and in research for the Smithsonian and
with four years of private
medical practice, John Newberry was to
embark on his principal
career and to continue in it for the
rest of his life, more than a
quarter of a century. The Columbia
School of Mines was in-
augurated in 1866 and to it John S.
Newberry was called to fill
the multiple post of professor of
geology and botany and paleon-
tology.
The strongest pillar of science in New
York at that time was
doubtless Dr. Torrey. Though Torrey's
real love in the sciences
was botany and he played the major role
in founding the U. S.
National Herbarium and the New York
Botanical Garden Her-
barium and shared countless specimens
with his former student
and great friend, Asa Gray, in the
establishment of the Gray Her-
barium of Harvard, Torrey was,
nevertheless, professor of chem-
istry at Princeton and Columbia. Thus it
was that John S. New-
berry not only was the one to be
responsible for botanical teaching
at Columbia, but also, since Newberry's
interest was mainly in
fossil botany, he was contributing a new
note to the classical botany
of Torrey and Gray. It is also of
interest to see the broad bases
on which the plant sciences lie.
Conventionally expected in liberal
arts colleges and colleges of
agriculture, the plant sciences are
studied as fundamental to medicine,
pharmacy, horticulture, fores-
try, and as applied to fuels--in the
mining schools. The Columbia
338
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
School of Mines is the oldest of its
type in the United States, and
the work of Newberry was that of a
pioneer. He left wonder-
fully complete museum material, by his
own admission, the best
that had ever been assembled. It
contained in Newberry's time
over one hundred thousand specimens and
he made use of the col-
lections as needed in illustrating his
lectures in paleontology and
economic geology. Other specimens he had
collected went to the
Smithsonian and to the Cleveland Museum.
Although perma-
nently situated at Columbia, in 1869,
John Newberry was ap-
pointed Director of the second Ohio
Geological Survey. Unable to
leave New York except for short
intervals he chose a number of
assistants to work in the field. His
principal assistant was Edward
Orton, professor of natural sciences at
Antioch College.
By a curious coincidence, Dr. Orton was
descended from an-
other line of early settlers at Windsor,
Connecticut. His own
boyhood was mostly in Ripley, the
westernmost town in New
York. He entered Hamilton College in
1845 as a sophomore and
was graduated at the age of nineteen in
1848. Teaching the fol-
lowing year at Erie, Pennsylvania, he
entered Lane Theological
Seminary in Cincinnati for the 1849-50
period, but was obliged to
leave because of trouble with his
eyesight. He lived an outdoor
life on a farm and on a coast-wise
steamer, and in 1851 became a
teacher in the Delaware Literary
Institute, Franklin, New York.
The following year he went to Lawrence
Scientific School at Har-
vard where he studied chemistry and
botany. In 1853, he was
again teaching at the Delaware
Institute. He went to the Andover
Theological Seminary and was ordained
without graduating at
Delhi in 1856. He then accepted the
position of professor of
natural sciences at the State Normal
School at Albany. Here,
however, his religious views changed and
he was accused of heresy.
For the best account of this change of
opinion and the position
taken by Dr. Orton, the Memorial Address
by Dr. Washington
Gladden16 should be consulted. Orton was
then principal of a
boys' academy at Chester from which he
was called to Antioch
16 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
(Columbus) VIII (1900),
409-32.
OHIO MEDICAL
HISTORY, 1835-58 339
College in 1865. He
was professor of natural sciences here until
1872, when he became
the president of Antioch.
Meanwhile, in 1869,
Orton accepted the offer of Newberry to
become an assistant
on the Ohio Geological Survey. E. B. An-
drews and John H.
Klippart were likewise principal assistants.
T. G. Wormley was
added as chemist in 1870 as well as some local
assistants. Some of
the most eminent geologists, including E. D.
Cope, O. C. Marsh, F.
B. Meek, R. P. Whitfield, James Hall and
others all
participated at various times. One who was not called
and who entered into
a bitter controversy with Newberry was
Colonel Charles
Whittlesey.17 Some of the
results of the com-
bined studies
established anew the sequence of events in the late
Tertiary when the
ocean reached to Louisville and a subtropical
climate embraced the
lake region, while Greenland was as mild as
the Ohio Valley
today. This was followed by a gradual uplift in
pre-glacial times and
a period of glaciation with the ice sheet ex-
tending to
Cincinnati. A post-glacial period of subsidence and
warmer climate
followed this. For the present another epoch of
elevation is in
progress. All of this was exciting to the geologists,
but Newberry made a
grave tactical error. He was not talking in
common terms or of
common ideas. He was publishing the results
of the
paleontological findings first. The bickerings with Whittle-
sey were echoed at
least in the private letters by another and per-
haps the most
distinguished scientist of the group, Leo Lesquereux.
Newberry himself
would have been unable to say why Les-
quereux regarded him
in contumelious fashion, even if he had
been aware of it. It
is true they had had an interminable con-
troversy--the famous
Larramie question which Lesquereux kept
open long past
anyone's interest in the matter. A mere disagree-
ment over problems of
scientific interpretation, would not, how-
ever, have been
enough to rouse the bitter personal antipathy that
Lesquereux expressed. It is not known that Newberry
wrote
directly to
Lesquereux. To his friend, J.
Peter Lesley, State
Geologist of
Pennsylvania, Lesquereux completely unburdened
himself in many
letters spread over a period of approximately
17 Merrill, First
Hundred Years of American Geology, 451.
340
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
twenty years.18 They had met
probably for the first time when
Newberry was practicing medicine in
Cleveland and Lesquereux
had lived about three years in Columbus.
A letter to Lesley dated
January 9, 1852, contains the following:
"I have now a good deal
of visits destined to my collection of
fossil plants. Yesterday Dr.
Newberry from Cleveland was here."
It is too bad Lesquereux
did not describe this first
meeting. Though neither of them
knew it at the time, it was the contact
between the two persons
who were destined later to be recognized
as the co-founders of
paleobotany for North America. They may
have been disap-
pointed in each other from the start.
Newberry was tall, sure of
himself, with sharp, perhaps critical
eyes. He may not have
known that Sophie, Lesquereux's wife,
was the daughter of Baron
von Wolfskell. Glancing at the humble
surroundings in the little
house at Fourth and Mound Streets, in
Columbus, Newberry may
have been more abashed by their poverty
than alert to their intel-
lectual aristocracy or Sophie's ancient
lineage. If Newberry spoke
in English she would have to act as
intermediary and translate to
German or French, so that her deaf
husband would lip read. If
Newberry spoke French, he may, in spite
of his two years abroad,
have done so haltingly, thus adding
embarrassment to his some-
what aloof manner of separating himself
from his hosts. What-
ever the situation, no other word
concerning Newberry appears
in the Lesley correspondence until
April, 1860, and then Les-
quereux was appalled that Newberry
should have the arrogance
to challenge Heer, the great European
paleontologist who was
Lesquereux's ideal. Yes, it was Newberry
who gave Lesquereux
the feeling he was being disdainfully
treated. No one else in
America seemed to have had this effect
on him.
Lesquereux was elected to membership in
the new (at that
time) National Academy of Sciences,
being the first person so
honored. Newberry, however, was one of
the corporate members.
Lesquereux did not know this or he would
never have written to
18 For extracts from
the Lesquereux letters, grateful acknowledgement is made
to my friend, Andrew Denney Rodgers III.
For sketch of Lesquereux see Merrill,
First Hundred Years of American Geology, 363. Also George Sarton, "Second
Preface to vol. 34," Isis (Cambridge,
Mass.), XXXIV (1942), who offers an excellent
recent interpretation.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 341
Lesley in April, 1863, "I am
sincerely obliged to yourself and
your friends who pleaded for my
admittance. But Newberry's
claim cannot be put aside, especially at
Washington. He is a born
American, a rich man and is sustained by
great political influence."
These were, of course, the things
Lesquereux could never attain.
A furious envy engulfed him.
On January 21, 1865, his letter to
Lesley disparages New-
berry's accomplishments. "I wrote you
about Newberry's opinion
on the old beds of rivers. I see that it
is old or rather that the
same remarks have been made a long time
ago. Dana mentions
the same thing in his Manual."
A sharper note, as bitter as it was
possible for Lesquereux to
write, came from his pen, February 11 of
the same year. "I am
trying to get from our Legislature an
appropriation for a survey
of our coal fields (no general survey).
But I do not think that the
appropriation will be granted and should
it be, it is very probable
that Newberry would get it and not L. I
live here quite unknown
and without friends except Sullivant who
has no influence."
We must not forget that Lesquereux was
rendered totally
deaf from an operation he had submitted
to in an attempt to im-
prove his hearing. He never heard any
English spoken, and while
he learned to write English, he was
always dependent upon his
wife whenever he carried on conversation
in that language. He
was more independent in French, his
native tongue, and German,
as he had learned lip reading for those
languages while, he still
retained some ability to hear. So
devoted was his beloved Sophie,
that he probably never realized the
difficulties others had in con-
versing with him. He did not see
anything incongruous in con-
sidering himself able to conduct field
surveys, and so thought of
himself as a candidate for such a
position and was impatient when
Newberry's claims were recognized ahead
of his own. Therefore,
whenever Newberry might be censured he
was ready to express his
animadversions. On April 7, 1872, he
wrote to Lesley,
Just as soon as I was ready (with a
report) Hayden sent me a new
batch of the same (specimens from the
tertiary and cretaceous) those
got from Newberry who had had them for
years and never found time
for an examination. Perhaps you heard of
the manner in which the
342 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Geological Survey of Ohio has been
conducted. Since its beginning it
was a failure. It was a money enterprise
neither the director nor the
assistants had any plan or any other
purpose, but to get as much money
out of the State for doing nothing at
all. Newberry could not leave New
York and could not give any direction
for work to be done. Of course,
he had not had any control over his
so-called assistants who each of them
are directors over their own district.
Then there were a number of dis-
contented so-called geologists like the
famous Whittlesley, who at once
took part against the survey because
they could not get any slice of the
cake. Hence recriminations, accusations,
hard words, our local papers are
full of letters of these gentlemen of
recriminations of one of these members
against another. I was providentially
spared every kind of connection with
the Survey and I have not taken any part
in those disreputable quarrels
not even by a single word.
The legislature became interested in the
bickering, not be-
cause they were able to offer any
solution to problems of geology
or because they could end the
disputes. On the contrary, they
saw or pretended to see a failure of the
survey itself and suggested
that the whole work be forfeited and
that no money be paid.
Newberry's mistakes lay not along the
lines of geology, but in his
inability to unbend and meet people on
their own level rather than
trying to raise them to his. The
legislature complained that the
reports on the paleontology told nothing
of the natural wealth of
the Ohio lands, or as one legislator is
said to have expressed it "all
this money spent to turn up one damned
salamander that's been
dead a million years."
Newberry resigned in 1872 and
Orton took his place. In
spite of the chiding and clamor which
seemed to impugn Newberry,
his record shows nine published volumes
on Ohio, six on the
geology, two on paleontology, one on
zoology. These were illus-
trated by many maps. Further, a system
of county reports was
begun. All of these volumes continued to
be published after his
resignation, the last appearing in 1883.
Newberry had turned out to be the
Geological Survey's whip-
ping-boy, and the one person who
understood that best was Ed-
ward Orton. His work was largely
economic in character. He cor-
rected the stratigraphy of the coal
measures in the 1884 volume,
the first one published under his own
name. This, by some of the
geologists, is regarded as his
masterpiece, while others hold that the
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 343
1888 publication on petroleum and
natural gas in Ohio exceeded it
in significance. Since that is a matter
pertinent only to geologists
it has no immediate significance here.
There is one important fea-
ture of Newberry's resignation that
remains to be discussed. It is
the effect on Orton's outlook. He was
made the president of
Antioch College, as was previously
mentioned in 1872. In 1873
he was called to the first presidency of
the Ohio Agricultural and
Mechanical College. He accepted the
position and continued to
head the Geological Survey as soon as
Newberry's resignation had
been accepted. As college president, he
directed his effort with
the legislature to altering the nature
of the new institution. The
inspiration for this came from the most
broadly educated man with
whom Orton had become acquainted, John
Newberry. The caution
with which he approached the
legislature, always wary of too much
education, was gleaned from the mishap
to Newberry's survey.
Newberry had tried to separate the
fundamental geology from the
practical applications and discovered
that those interested in "re-
sults" only, could not wait until
the basic studies were ready.
Orton, as college administrator, had the
advantage of the colleges,
with their practical implications,
having been founded first. Know-
ing the impossibility of practical
application without something to
apply, he successfully tackled the
legislature until the college had
become a university. Thus the shadow of
Newberry looms large
across the achievements in learning made
by Ohio State Univer-
sity. Orton, as is well known, having
gained his ends and seen the
university established, resigned the
presidency in 1881 to go on in
geology. In this, too, he followed John
Newberry.
It has been noted that Newberry was an
incorporator of the
National Academy of Sciences and
president in 1867 of the Amer-
ican Association for the Advancement of
Science. There were two
New York organizations to which he also
added luster. Each of
these organizations has been chronicled
by the foremost botanical
bibliographer, John Hendley Barnhart.
The Torrey Botanical So-
ciety owed its origin to Dr. Torrey's
many-sided scientific en-
deavors. Originally it had been known to
its friends and members
as "the Club." Not until about
the time of Torrey's death did it
344
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
have formal organization. The first
president was Dr. George
Thurber, who was followed, after about
seven years, by Dr. New-
berry. From 1880 to 1890 "Newberry
was the president of the
club for ten prosperous years."19
In addition to the Bulletin, the
Memoirs were inaugurated during his presidency and plans for
the New York Botanical Garden were
projected. Newberry was
also president of the New York Academy
of Sciences.20 During
his term of office the name of the
organization was changed from
the old Lyceum. It also became somewhat
ambulatory in its place
of meeting until safely lodged with
Newberry and N. L. Britton21
in the college library building of
Columbia College. Dr. Britton,
later to become the Director of the New
York Botanical Garden,
presented a communication paving the way
for a Scientific Alli-
ance which in turn led to the more
expanded New York Academy
of Sciences as incorporated in 1907 with its
close relation to the
American Museum of Natural History. In
all of this Dr. New-
berry's advice and counsel had been
sought and he had offered
the guiding voice initiating these
actions. As in Orton's case, it
appears that Dr. Britton owed much to
his association with New-
berry. When, in 1867, Newberry had been
called to the presidency
of the A. A. A. S. his address22 bore
the title "Modern Scientific
Investigation: Its Method and
Tendencies." Here he was review-
ing the rapid changes in viewpoint in
the twenty years since he
had been a medical student. The same
principles by which he had
progressed were now valuable as the
guiding aims for the closest
associates he ever had, Orton and
Britton. Both Ohio State Uni-
versity and the New York Botanical
Garden benefited.
Another interesting contribution to the
natural science of Ohio
was mentioned at the beginning of this
paper, namely the first
State catalog of plants of Ohio. The
full story of recording the
plant life of Ohio is too long for
discussion here. Newberry's
paper was first presented at the Ohio
State Medical Society con-
vention in Cincinnati in 1854. Two years
previously, at the June,
19 J. H. Barnhart, Reprinted from the Memoirs
of the Torrey Botany Club, XVII,
12-21.
20 Id., reprinted
from the Scientific Monthly (New York), Nov., 1917.
21 N. L. Britton, "Sketch of John
S. Newberry with Portrait," Torrey Bulletin,
XX (1893), No. 3, p. 89.
22 Reprinted in the 9th number of the American
Naturalist.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 345
1852, meeting, where Dr. Kirtland had
presided in the absence of
Dr. Boerstler of Lancaster, Dr. Robert
Thompson of Columbus
had read an address on the subject of
medical literature and had
referred to Drake and his "Botanicals"
and to the study of the flora
made by Sullivant23 and
Bigelow.24 At this meeting Dr. New-
berry was made a member of a committee
on medical literature,
presumably to investigate medicinal
plants. In 1859-1860 the Cata-
logue of the Flowering Plants and
Ferns of Ohio, by J. S. New-
berry was published. He states in the
introduction,
The following catalogue was presented
and ordered to be published
at the meeting in Cincinnati in 1854,
but by a miscarriage in the mail was not
included in the proceedings of that
meeting. That report embraced a brief
exposition of the generalities of the
geographical botany of Ohio . . . also
from a point of view more strictly
medical, a notice of some of the remedial
agents included in our flora.
These remarks flatly contradict the
later statement by John
Klippart, who, as editor, included an
introduction to the second
catalog published in 1878.25 In this Klippart implied that he, not
Newberry, had prepared the material of
the first catalog. As the
second catalog was published after
Newberry had shown his in-
ability to appease the legislature on
the manner of conducting the
Geological Survey in which Klippart was
an assistant, the attack
seems merely to be a bit of personal
malevolence. It is a peculiar
irony that Newberry, who had given so
much to Ohio, should have
been attacked enviously by Ohio
citizens.
Two other honors came to him before the
close of his noble
career. The last, the presidency of the
International Geologists
Association in 1891, reached him after
he was too ill to preside.
In 1888, he was presented the Murchison
Medal by the Geological
Society of London. He was the first
American to be chosen for
this coveted award. The words of the
citation furnish a fitting
close for this paper: "He is a geologist keen of eye, stout
of
23 Flora of Franklin County.
24 Florula Lancastriensis.
25 H. C. Beardslee, "Catalogue of
the Plants of Ohio," Ohio Agricultural Report,
1877 (Columbus, 1878), 335-63.
346 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
limb, with a due sense of the value of
detail, but with a breadth
of vision that keeps detail in due
subordination."26
26 Additional source material, not
included in the footnote references previously
given are:
(1) James Furman Kemp, "In Memoriam
John Strong Newberry. Two Portraits
on Steel and a Bibliography Chiefly
Prepared by Dr. Newberry in 1889," Columbia
School of Mines Quarterly, I, No. 6.
(2) Sketch of Newberry in A History
of Columbia University (New York,
1904).
(3) A catalog of the most important
scientific writings of Newberry is in the
Surgeon General's Catalog at Washington, D. C.
THE BREADTH OF VISION OF DR. JOHN STRONG
NEWBERRY
By A. E. WALLER, Ph. D.1
Attention has been directed to the
interesting circumstance
that many of our leaders in the natural
sciences whose schooling
ended before 1850 held degrees in
medicine. When it is asked how
this happens to be the case, the facts
seem to show that only the
colleges of medicine offered an approach
in training and teaching
to modern laboratory study. Thus Asa
Gray, John Torrey, George
Engelmann, to mention the most
distinguished botanists, and some
lesser lights such as Charles Parry,
Jacob Bigelow, John M. Bige-
low, Charles W. Short and others all
were the holders of medical
degrees. With the exception of Jacob
Bigelow, whose contribution
to the materia medica of the day is
unparalleled, none of these
men made great contributions to
medicine.
The subject of this paper is a
geologist, one of the founders
of paleontology for the United States,
Dr. John Strong Newberry.
His work in botany is mainly in
paleobotany, but he was one of the
throng of explorers of the Western
States whose botanical col-
lections made possible the quick
organization of the flora of North
America under the guiding genius of
Torrey and Gray. Those
interested in Ohioana remember him as a
director of the Ohio
Geological Survey and as the author of
the first catalog of the
plants of the state of Ohio.
Since Newberry was a medical college
graduate who practiced
medicine but gave it up for scientific
studies, it becomes a matter
of philosophical and historical concern
to examine his education
and background. Obviously, since he was
not primarily interested
in the practice of medicine and as he
came from a family of suffi-
cient wealth and was free to choose
whatever he liked in the way
of a career, what he did with his
education is of great interest.
1 Papers from the Department of Botany, The Ohio State University, No. 465.
324