OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY--PART 6
THE VAULTING IMAGINATION OF JOHN L.
RIDDELL*
By ADOLPH
E. WALLER
Whatever makes the past or future
predominate over the present exalts
us in the scale of thinking
beings.--Johnson.
The name of John Leonard Riddell is,
perhaps, best remem-
bered today for his Synopsis of the
Western Plants. In 1835,
when this was published, Cincinnati was
the western-most city of
great size, with around 35,000 inhabitants,
and with immediate,
perhaps daily, expansion in commerce and
culture. In 1830,
Cincinnati had less than 25,000 while
Columbus, the second in
size, had 3,400. The West, spelled with
a capital, meant almost
unlimited opportunities for hardy souls
from the Atlantic States,
who, crossing the mountains from
Virginia, New England and
Pennsylvania, all converged in the Ohio
Valley.
Riddell's Synopsis of the Western
Plants is the most im-
portant catalog of plants written by a
resident botanist west
of the Appalachians of that period. It
antedates by three years
the first volume of the Flora of
North America, on which Drs.
John Torrey and Asa Gray were laboring.
Dr. Daniel Drake, in
1815, in his Picture of Cincinnati devotes
a brief section to botany.
So it is probable that Drake himself,
during Riddell's connection
with the Cincinnati College, harried
Riddell into the publication
of his somewhat regional summary. In a
paragraph signed by
"The Editor" in the July,
1834, number of the Western Journal
of the Medical and Physical Sciences,
Drake introduces the article
"Particular Directions for
Collecting and Preserving Specimens
of Plants," by Riddell, as follows:
We hope he will append to his practical
directions a catalogue of
such plants of the State of Ohio
as may have fallen under his observation.
He is, we feel assured, a sound
practical botanist, who may, perhaps, do
for Ohio, sooner or later what Professor
Short is zealously laboring to
effect for Kentucky. By the way, why
does not the Professor bring out the
* Papers from the Department of
Botany, the Ohio State University, No. 485.
331
332
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Flora for which he must have on hand
such ample materials? Its publica-
tion would do more to promote the study
of Botany in the basin of the
greatest of Rivers than a thousand of
our paragraphs.
If it was Drake as an editor who kept
after Riddell to pre-
pare the flora, credit must also be
given to Dr. Samuel P.
Hildreth of Marietta. Riddell had
visited Hildreth before going
to Worthington, and Hildreth had
compared him to Robert Peter
of Lexington, and urged him to exchange
specimens with Charles
W. Short, John Eberle of Cincinnati, and
others. Riddell's intro-
duction to the Synopsis not only
remarks that it had been his
design for several years to publish a
Flora of the western states,
but contains a list of "the
scientific gentlemen residing in the
West to whom the student in botany can
refer with advantage."
He does not include Dr. Torrey as a
profitable correspondent
since he often was a whole year late in
answering letters. On
September 3, 1834, Torrey had, however,
answered a letter of
Riddell's written May 29, of the same
year.
It was, therefore, extremely interesting
to find that Riddell
had published the first of our now
numerous county floras in
Ohio. It antedates by a year the Synopsis
and since he was at
that time teaching at the Worthington
Medical College it was
Franklin County on which he published.
How had this modest
little flora escaped attention? The answer is that Sullivant's
catalog of the plants of Columbus and vicinity
published as a
book in February, 1840, was larger and
much more useful as
well as more available. No mention of
the work of Riddell is
made by Sullivant, probably because the
departure of Riddell was
followed by an increasingly unsavory
docket of rumors concern-
ing the Worthington Medical School. The
socially prominent
Sullivant would not notice anyone
connected with it. But for
two reasons Sullivant could not have
been unaware of the school's
existence even if he chose to ignore it.
His father, Lucas Sulli-
vant, had been a trustee of the
Worthington Academy, the fore-
runner of the college, and J. R. Paddock
who succeeded Riddell
in the teaching of botany in the
college, was mentioned in Sulli-
JOHN L. RIDDELL 333
vant's preface. He also was reputedly a
good friend of Sulli-
vant's.
Riddell's catalog1 follows
the nomenclature he had learned
from a brief course with that greatest
teacher of natural sciences,
Amos Eaton, who was courageous enough to
break away from
the Linnaean system of classification
and adopt Lindley's natural
system. Riddell adds a number of
abbreviations, fifteen in all, to
indicate the particular situations in
which he collected the speci-
mens. He later followed the same system
in the Synopsis of the
Western Plants and added other symbols. The Franklin County
list thus makes a more than respectable
account of some 750 items.
It furnishes also something of a clue to
the distribution of the
plants in the situations in which these
grow.
Apparently Riddell kept no specimens or
if he did it was
only to sell them when an opportunity
came. At that time he was
ready to sell anything negotiable. The
postage on letters was to
him an expensive item. In passing it
might he remarked that he
traveled farther than he knew south of
Franklin County or that
some plants he saw no longer exist in
the county. He mentions
Kalmia, the mountain laurel, and the red variety of flowering
dogwood. Both of these are to be seen in
Fairfield County at
the present time about fifty miles from
Worthington. A pre-
liminary alphabetical list which he
forwarded to Torrey, now in
the New York Botanical Garden bears
little relation to the
Franklin County flora.
It need not be implied that Sullivant's
failure to note Riddell's
catalog was an intentional rebuff since
the medical journal was
probably not available to him and he was
under no obligation to
credit some work he had never seen.
Paddock, although formerly
Riddell's colleague, was probably not in
correspondence with him
after Riddell had resigned to go to
Cincinnati. Sullivant probably
was familiar with the Synopsis of the
Flora of the Western
States.2 At least it could have
been obtained and Paddock's
1 "Catalogue of Plants Growing
Spontaneously in Franklin County, Central Ohio;
Excluding Grasses, Mosses, Lichens,
Fungi. etc.," by John L. Riddell, M.A., Lecturer
on Chemistry. Western Medical Gazette, II (July, 1834), 116-20, and ibid., August,
1834, pp. 154-9.
2 Published by E. Deming, Cincinnati,
1835,
334
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
name was included in the list of
"scientific gentlemen" in the
preface Riddell had given to his work.
The letter written by
Sullivant to Dr. Torrey3 in 1838,
however, does not list it among
the botanical books in his possession.
It is just barely possible
that Sullivant had not heard of Riddell.
Certainly, during his
entire time in Ohio there were things
happening to Riddell that
he would himself like to forget, but
which he confided only for
his own perusal, to a personal journal.
This journal which is now a part of the
rare book collection
of the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library of
Tulane University
consists of twenty-eight holograph
volumes. It is alternately
inscribed by Riddell as "Repository"4 or
"Personal Journal."
Never is it referred to simply as a
diary. It covers the portion
of his life from the time he left his
home in Preston, New York,
after a short period at the Oxford
Academy and a summer study-
ing science with Amos Eaton at the
Rensselaer School at Troy,
through to his establishment in New
Orleans and the death of his
first wife. As a diary it moves from the
impressions of an in-
tensely personal, highly emotional youth
groping through romance
and futile longings toward the firmer
foundation of a more ma-
tured and scientific outlook.
When finally the Journal ceases to serve
as a record of
Riddell's passing thoughts, diagrams of
apparatus or inventions,
mathematical solutions of problems
including the plan for a
journey to the moon, Riddell was
established as a physician, as
professor in the Medical College of
Louisiana, as scientific ad-
visor on problems of health, and as
melter and refiner in the
U. S. Branch Mint at New Orleans. By
this time he was also
a man of some wealth who gathered about
him the less successful
members of his family. Fragmentary and
crude as the journal
3 See A. D. Rodgers, Noble Fellow (New
York, 1940), 105.
4 Mrs. Corinne Miller Simons of the
Lloyd Library in Cincinnati; Miss Helen M.
Mills of the Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society Library, Columbus; Dr.
Garland Taylor of the Howard-Tilton
Library, Miss Mary Louise Marshall of the
Tulane Medical Library; and Mr. Walter
Levy, U. S. N. R., a senior medical student
at Tulane, have all helped guide me
toward this material. All are warmly thanked.
The last named is probably the only
person who has read all that the Journal com-
prises. It is worth more serious study
than the brief time at the writer's disposal
permitted. Dr. Rickett of the New York
Botanical Gardens has kindly furnished
photostatic copies of Riddell letters to
Dr. John Torrey.
JOHN L. RIDDELL 335
may be in certain ways, for it served
Riddell largely as a medium
for the development of his own
personality, it is, nevertheless, an
important scientific document in that it
presents one man's first-
hand record of the expanding field of
science during the early
nineteenth century. Since Riddell's
training was in botany and
medicine and since he practiced medicine
he remained all of the
time in touch with the people with whom
he worked.
Because it is impossible to give more
than a few brief ab-
stracts of the journal itself, and since
that does not cover certain
of the more important of his scientific
discoveries, more attention
must be given to the period of his
residence in Ohio for those
were the formative years, leading to the
accomplishments and
the lasting fame he obtained during his
later period in New
Orleans. Volume 1, entitled the
"Repository--Part First--Nat-
ural Science," deals with the
course pursued at Rensselaer School,
Troy, July 15, 1829, under the tutelage
of Eaton. His first sen-
tence, which might have been paraphrased
from Caesar's Com-
mentaries reads, "Natural Science
is divided into Natural History,
Natural Philosophy and
Chymistry." The first lecture is
an
analysis of a plant based on the
Linnaean system. In this, how-
ever, Amos Eaton was using the familiar
teaching device of set-
ting up a straw man, merely to knock it
down.
Riddell under Eaton learned and used all
his life the system
of Lindley which was just coming into
use. Twelve years before
in 1817, the members of Eaton's class at
Williams College had
grouped together and raised a small sum
of money to publish
what was the first really working Manual
for the study of North
American plants. Dr. L. C. Beck, later
of St. Louis, and a stu-
dent of Eaton's, said no other single
book was so important in
promoting an interest in botany. Eaton
was aware that he was
"the oldest teacher of popular
botany in America." His first
edition of the Manual of Botany was
followed the next year by
an Index to the Geology of the
Northern States. At Troy, Eaton
was the guiding spirit in the
establishment of a Lyceum of
Natural History and it was during this
period of Eaton's teaching
that modern geological surveys were
projected. Thus, by an
336
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
immense stroke of fortune, Riddell came
into contact with the
most distinguished teacher of science of
his day in America.
Eaton always had the reputation of
unselfishly giving credit
to those who worked with him and doing
what he could to advance
their interests. In the case of the
22-year-old Riddell one can see
how this system worked on the minds of
the impressed students,
and especially one whose expanding ego
was to grow as did that
of the brilliant young Riddell. For an
entry, dated August six-
teenth in the Repository, just a month
and a day after hearing
Eaton's first lecture of the course
Riddell notes: "A new theory
of the Earth, given first by John L. Riddell in a lecture to the
Rensselaer students." The oldest teacher of popular botany in
America was again demonstrating that
there are no great teachers,
only unsurpassable students.
Riddell had only about a year of
formalized schooling in all
his life. His parents, John Riddell and
Lephe Gates, were poor
but not illiterate and with them and his
Uncle Noyes he read
winter after winter until he went to the
Oxford Academy. His
family must have given him a taste for
good books, but he has
left little for the biographer to build
on in the way of plotting
out his education. The use of good
language came as naturally
as breathing. His father, of
Scotch-Irish forbears, was a small
farmer and ten children followed after
the birth of Riddell.
There were always too many to feed and
clothe to afford a for-
mlized education of any completeness.
But somehow John Rid-
dell was given a brief period of
education at the Rensselaer school
at Troy.
The most distinguished schoolmate of
Riddell at Troy was
Douglas Houghton whose father had been a
lawyer at Troy but
who moved to Fredonia when Douglas was a
boy. Douglas,
however, after completing the work
offered at the Fredonia
Academy, had returned to the Rensselaer
School and graduated
in 1829. He remained as an assistant to
Dr. Eaton in chemistry
and was also engaged in the study of
medicine, and was licensed
to practice by the Chautauqua County
Medical Society in 1830.
Dr. Eaton sent him to Detroit to give a
course of lectures on
JOHN L. RIDDELL 337
chemistry. What Houghton did in Michigan
after he met Henry
Rowe Schoolcraft and joined in exploring
the copper region of
Lake Superior and the headwaters of the
Mississippi is not a
part of this story. The main point is
that contact at Troy with
Eaton and with the youthful Douglas
Houghton5 helped set the
pattern of Riddell's life. Riddell says hardly anything about
Houghton in the Journal but always
regards him favorably and
likewise refers to him in the Synopsis
of Western Plants.
In 1830, J. L. Riddell launched on a
career of his own as
an itinerant lecturer on
"Chemistry, etc." At this he
barely made
a living. His good looks, wit, charm,
ready expression, ability
to demonstrate chemical experiments, may
have made up in large
measure for any lack of knowledge. He
was sufficiently im-
pressed by a lecture "written by
Waterhouse in 1811" on the
concentric arrangement of the parts of a
tree trunk to make note
of it. This may have been used in his
own lectures. He was at
this time groping for a way of life. An
entry dated Ogdensburg,
N. Y., August 12, 1830, expresses his
situation and his hopes:
I propose this fall after completing the
present quarter to adopt one
of the following courses:--(1) to devote
my whole time to the High School
in this place for $600 a year, (2) to
remain here merely as a lecturer at the
same time pursue the study of medicine
under Dr. Shuman--Salary $(?),
(3) to make an arrangement with the
patrons for the apparatus belonging to
the school and become an itinerant
lecturer, (4) totally disconnect myself with
the High School, find some advantageous
place either in Canada or United
States and establish a school of my own,
(5) get a set of medical textbooks
and return to my fathers and pursue the
study of medicine, (6) I propose
to get the loan of the apparatus
belonging to the school and give a course
publick [sic] lectures. If I give
the lectures in this place, Ogdensburgh,
pay for the use of the apparatus by
allowing some of the High School
scholars to attend.
All of this seems to indicate the
varying and unstrung state
of his mind the result probably of the
shoestring existence he
led.
The first item offers the only
secure living and he might
even have sent home some money, a desire
he expresses in other
entries in the Journal. The fifth is
clearly impossible since he
has no money and cannot add to the
family burdens at home. It
5 Facts about Douglas Houghton can be
seen in an article by Howard Kelly in
Cyclopaedia of American Medical
Biography, II, 14.
338
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
stands on the page in such a position as
to suggest it is the last
possible thing he can think of to do for
he adds, "If health
permits and nothing interferes I think I
shall adopt one of these
courses." He is thus beginning to
converse with himself in his
diary and the next several volumes
contain both the repository,
i.e., the lectures or scientific notations and the
experiments that
occur to him and the purely subjective
items, his lust-tempting
longings, his poetry, his loneliness,
his original scientific reflections,
his assurance in his own unbounded good
health and appetites. It
is an omnium gatherum full of
zests and confused emotions. It
can best be described, perhaps, by
Bernard Shaw's famous quip.
"Youth is such a wonderful thing it
is a pity to waste it on the
young." At least that is true for
the early part of it.
He has just read Cervantes and is at
once Don Quixote. He
is pained to note in his diary that he
has not recorded any of his
"quixotic adventures" for the
whole space of days from Monday
to Thursday. In other words, he is bored
except when he can
be at the center of things. Since that
occurs only in his imagina-
tion he gives it full play. He
reminisces over his boyhood, his
talks with his companions, one
particularly Randolph Williams
with whom he plays and who is always on
the same side with him
in his fights. He is lame and so the
fights consist of skillful stone
throwing. It is with this boy that he
discovers newly acquired
passions and an endless fund of
conversation. They hike for the
sake of these talks. He reads Byron, and
Ossian impresses him,
and he reads Shakespeare. He fancies
himself Don Juan, how-
ever, without any apparent consciousness
that others may also
have built similar imaginings. He
travels to Kingston and Brook-
ville in "Upper Canada."
On the hotel "name book" at
Kingston he sees the autograph
of Le Conte and spends several days
shyly waiting to introduce
himself. It is the Le Conte who in 1810
prepared and published
a Catalogue of the Plants on the
Island of New York, a friend
of Dr. Torrey, whose name became known
to Riddell, doubtless,
through Amos Eaton. Le Conte, when he
finally meets him, tells
Riddell that the only plant of the
region hitherto unknown to
JOHN L. RIDDELL 339
him that he has seen is a species of Phascolus,
a member of the
bean family. Riddell records that
"Le Conte appears to be a
stiff churchman as he reads loud."
At one point while still in Ogdensburg
he inscribes, "This
day recommenced the study of
medicine," but when he first began
or how he continues is left unrecorded
until after he reaches
Worthington. He tries hard to develop an
eccentric manner, an
air of "hauteur," and
probably dazzles and bewilders such au-
diences as he is able to collect by the
use of a strange high-pow-
ered vocabulary. It is here that the
reader of the Journal begins
to note certain attitudes or strivings
in his personal records.
He has become an actor. Every notation
is for effect. He is
thinking of someone standing behind and
peering over his shoulder
as he writes. On no other grounds can
one account for the fol-
lowing entry: "In consigning more
of my papers to destruction
I found various scraps and documents
which I wish to preserve
and shall insert them here, not
considering them a part of my
journal." If he saved the best, that destroyed was of trifling
value.
In the spring of 1832, he is at
Pittsburgh lecturing on chem-
istry. No notations explain how he
arrived there, but he lectures
before a young ladies boarding school.
Perhaps the most im-
portant acquaintance he makes is with
Dr. Robert Peter, who is
a friend of Dr. Samuel Hildreth. It is
probable that Peter urged
Riddell to visit Marietta and to meet
Dr. Hildreth. After two
years, with some undescribed gaps, the
life of an itinerant lec-
turer may have begun to pall, but not
his interest in the young
ladies for he records them all by name.
He is still without
a medical degree and he sees the need of
the degree more plainly
than the means of obtaining one. A new
name to be encountered
more often later is introduced at this
time. "I yesterday received
a letter from my friend Dr. Bennet on
the subject of medical
colleges." How long he had known
Bennet or where he had first
met him is an unsolved problem. He
leaves Pittsburgh on the
steamboat Nile, and selects a
boarding house in Wheeling on
May 1.
340
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In Wheeling, Dr. Bennet promises him a
professorship at
Western Reserve. He also meets Dr. T.
Townsend. He delivers
several lectures but much of his time is
engaged in romantic
longings and he goes so far as to record
turning the key on the
chambermaid who comes to straighten his
room in the boarding
house. Her companion maid noting her
absence gives an alarm
and Riddell is obliged to leave the
boarding house. His de-
parture causes him some trouble and the
story of its cause is
enlarged to his discredit and even
reaches the ears of Dr. Hildreth
in Marietta.
It is with an almost audible sigh of
repose that the June
25, 1832, entry at Marietta reads:
"My journal has not been
neglected from want of incidents, but
rather there have been too
many novel occurrences which have
engaged my attention." Life
at Marietta brings a little of the sense
of decorum that is New
England back to the straying young John
Leonard Riddell. He
boards at Mrs. Robins for $1.50 per
week. This includes candles.
Nothing short of awe is contained in the
remark, "and I suppose
she does washing." He adds,
"we live upon the Holy Scriptures,
family prayers and very plain food. Her son is a graduate of
the college of Athens." Here in
Marietta is a family living much
more at peace within themselves than he
in his rovings had
ever been. He admires it, with
limitations, for he finds
a Mr. Hall a pious young man of a high
forehead and black hair, a Mr.
Archbold, pious also. I should not be
popular among them if I remain,
because they cannot sympathize with my
unregenerated state. I become
more and more of a hypocrite the longer
I live, when several years younger
I had spurned the idea of redeeming
mankind so I hide my real sentiments
by silence.
When he first meets Dr. Hildreth is not
recorded, but he
writes: "I have been collecting
shells in this vicinity and Dr.
Hildreth is so kind as to name them. I
must insert a catalogue of
them." He then lists the names of
the shells, but makes no further
remarks about Hildreth6 who is the dean
of the physicians of
the Ohio Valley at this time after a
quarter century of prac-
tice in Marietta. He is evidently
impressed with the energetic
6 For a recent account of Dr. Hildreth
see the Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly, LIII (1944), 313-38.
JOHN
L. RIDDELL 341
young Riddell and calls on him. Hildreth
has been given credit
for the longest continuous weather
records of the period and
for his interest in geology, in botany
and in the Mound Builders.
Young Riddell takes advice from him on
two scores. He col-
lects plants and advertises them for
sale and he begins to write
about them in the paper. For example,
the following advertise-
ment appeared in the Marietta Friend,
July 12, 1832.
WILD PLANTS
I would respectfully give notice to
those who may feel interested that
I shall be engaged the remaining part of
the summer in making botanical
investigations in this county. Specimens
of all the native plants, flowers
and forest trees will be collected and
preserved so that physicians and
others wishing for a suite as a
reference to the spontaneous productions
growing in this region of the country
can possess the same by paying one
of the
following prices:--$4.50 for 100 different species, $1.00 being allowed
for paper and $3.50 for specimens
including the trouble of collecting, pre-
serving, labelling and arranging, $6.50
for 150 species, $8.75 for 200
species, $10.75 for 250 species.
J. L. Riddell, A.B.R.S.
On July 6 there was an article in the
Marietta Republican
on
"The Spontaneous Vegetable Productions of Washington
County." This pompous title sounds
like a favorite of Dr. Hil-
dreth. The article contained in addition
to some of the names
of plants an announcement of prices and
it is signed by Riddell,
as above.
Dr. Hildreth also offered the eminently
practical suggestion
that Riddell spend the winter in
Cincinnati, study medicine and
lecture on chemistry and botany in one
of the colleges. After
his stay in Worthington. that is exactly
what Riddell did. He
was not, however, able to go to
Cincinnati immediately, probably
because of the Wheeling escapade. The
Journal tells it all:
I wish to get employment as a
naturalist. Must write to Rafinesque,
to Le Conte and to U. U. Eaton,7 also
to Poulson. Jane the daughter of Mrs.
Robins is an innocent good girl. She is 17 or so, eyes as bright and
expressive as one could wish. Dr.
Hildreth called on me this morning.
I have written by Brooks to Rev. Mr.
Wheat and to Dr. Townsend in-
forming of the effect of Swearengen's
report. Brooks disgusts me. He
7 Not to be confused with Amos Eaton. U.
U. Eaton was the editor of the
Democratic Free Press in Detroit
in which the announcements of Douglas Houghton's
explorations and the Schoolcraft Expedition appeared.
342
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
pretends to be my friend but I have
little doubt he has been the means of
injuring me here. He is so pious, so
elect and all that: so conceited too
but he is very destitute of the rules of
politeness and ignorant of genteel
society. Now he supposes I have been
unfortunate, he attempts to give
me his friendship as a favor, but I have
tried to instruct him lately that
I did not wish to receive it as much.
In August, he wrote to President Thomas
Vaughn Morrow
of the Ohio Reformed Medical College at
Worthington. He also
heard from Dr. Hildreth that Robert
Peter had been invited to de-
liver a course of lectures on chemistry
at Lexington. "I do not
envy Peter, but I regret that fortune
does not favor me." Dr.
Hildreth stopped in Wheeling to
investigate the Ohio Valley
coals8 and possibly with the express
purpose of finding out just
what had happened to Riddell while he
was there. This is the
occasion of the following humanly
understandable entry: "Old
Hildreth is in town from Wheeling
overflowing with his sublime
discoveries. He lectures or rather bores
everyone." It would be
interesting to know if Riddell ever
found out how Hildreth's paper
on the coal deposits of the Ohio Valley
had been received in
England.
If Dr. Hildreth tried to get Riddell an
opening in Cincin-
nati he was not successful. Riddell
received an answer from
Dr. T. V. Morrow that stated he
"might probably lecture there"
and on the strength of that he prepared
to go to Worthington.
Dr. Hildreth's attitude remained,
apparently, one of caution to-
ward an impetuous, attractive young
male. The entry in the
Journal: "I am considerably
intimate at Dr. Hildreth's office
with the Doctor and his two sons. They
have not introduced
me to the female part of the family,
perhaps the report from
Wheeling has prevented them. Mrs.
Hildreth however introduced
herself today and showed me a
crape-myrtle in her garden."
Had Riddell not been so laden with his
own blunders, he might
have enjoyed reflecting that Rhoda Cook
Hildreth was descended
from New England sea captains and that
crape-myrtle is a native
of India. He might have speculated how
such a tropical plant
may have reached Marietta.
8 See the Hildreth paper, loc. cit.
JOHN L. RIDDELL 343
The Ohio Reformed Medical College, or as
it also was called,
the Medical Department of Worthington
College, had received its
charter in 1829 but did not
begin instruction until December,
1830. Dr. John Steele had come from New
York to make ar-
rangements for opening the college and
he was its first president.
Dr. Ichabod Gibson Jones, born in Maine,
educated in Boston
and New York, came also in 1830. He was
a disciple of Wooster
Beach and deeply interested in the
reform movement. Shortly
after his arrival Dr. John Steele
resigned and Dr. Thomas
Vaughn Morrow was brought in as
president, and remained until
the school went out of existence, when
Morrow founded the
Reformed Medical School of Cincinnati,
the predecessor of the
Eclectic Medical Institute.
The college represented a dream of
educational progress in
the town of Worthington, founded by
James Kilbourne in 1803.
Kilbourne, of Connecticut birth, had
first married Mary Fitch,
the daughter of John Fitch of
Philadelphia, inventor of steam
navigation. In 1808, the log cabin
school which had first been
built was moved to provide a site for
the Worthington Academy.
In 1817, Philander Chase having settled
in Worthington became
president of the Worthington Academy and
subsequently organ-
ized and obtained from the legislature a
charter for Worthington
College. Chase, however, was consecrated
bishop at Philadelphia
in 1819. As the "first miter of the
West," he had little time for
the Worthington College, instead forming
the plan for a theo-
logical school, he obtained funds while
visiting England from
Lord Gambier, Lord Kenyon and others and
purchased 8,000
acres of land in Knox County founding
Kenyon and Gambier
Theological Seminary in 1826.
James Kilbourne having received a
circular sent out by
Wooster Beach, the founder of the
Eclectic School of Medicine,
who advertised the advantages to the
West of such a school,
offered the charter of the Worthington
College, properly amended,
for the purposes of a medical school.
The trustees of Worthing-
ton College included some of the most
respected citizens: Philan-
der Chase, James Kilbourne, Thomas S.
Webb, Chester Griswold,
344
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Recompense Stanberry, Chauncey Baker,
Stephen Maynard, Ezra
Griswold, Benjamin Gardiner, Orris
Parrish, Lucas Sullivant and
Leonard Cowles. The faculty before
Riddell's arrival consisted
of T. V. Morrow, Ichabod Jones and J. R.
Paddock who had
taught Latin in the academy and
continued to do so in the college.
In the autumn of 1832 when Riddell
arrived there were fif-
teen to twenty students. The college
building was two storied
and of brick painted red. It was
ornamented by a cupola which
protected the bell. That bell was saved
when the building was
torn down to make place for a high
school and it is now in the
high school building. The Journal of
Riddell carries an entry
dated Marietta, Sunday, August 26, 1832, in which he
records:
"I have received an answer from
Morrow of the O.R.M.C.
and from what he says I might probably
lecture there. The term
commences the first Monday in October.
The lectures at Cin-
cinnati commence the first Monday in
November. I have com-
menced writing my botanical report and
it pleases me."
There were really thus but two men at
that time in the
Worthington College with medical
degrees, Jones and Morrow.
Rensselaer had added an A.M. to the A.B.
when Riddell had
applied through Amos Eaton for it. But
Riddell needed a med-
ical degree and he took notes on the
lectures by Morrow on
obstetrics and by Jones on materia
medica. He assembled and
prepared his apparatus and reagents for
his chemistry course.
He also had time for collecting and
drying plants and preparing
the herbaria he was so eager to sell or
to exchange with others.
In tramping around in the ravines cut
through the shale banks
by the numerous little streams which are
tributary to the Olen-
tangy River he remarked on the
concretions those almost spher-
ical masses which vary in size from a
tennis ball to a bushel
basket. He wrote an article in the paper
about them. He also
wrote about a shower of meteors which
occurred during that
autumn.
All of the members of the school faculty
were young. Mor-
row was 28 and Jones and Riddell born in
the same year were
five years younger. They were ready to
fight for reform. Rid-
JOHN L. RIDDELL 345
dell, however, not having a medical
degree was outside of their
circle and he was, as usual, bored. He
was also a little troubled
by the grave robberies which the anatomy
students were obliged
to practice. An entry of December 8,
1833, reads: "The students
went after a subject last night and
failed because they could not
find the grave."
His father had died earlier in the year
and he was depressed
by the thought that his mother and her
large family were strug-
gling and he was unable to help them. As
with other imaginative
people when depressed he became
inactive. The following illus-
trates the point:
6 Evening. A dark dreary night. The
students are about to go off and
rob a negro's grave. I hope they may
succeed. Tebbs and others say they
saw a Jack-o-Lantern last night. It
appeared two rods from them. The
light was pale and lambent. I give no
attention to botany now. Should I
be spared another season, of course, I
shall either remain here or try my
fortune somewhere else. Should I remain
here and have leisure. I will
engage myself in writing my intended
treatise on botany. I do not mean
the Western Flora.
What he apparently had in mind was a
taxonomic work. He
also wanted to improve himself in Latin
and in Greek and go to
a professorship in Cincinnati or in
Louisville.
There were two interests, however, that
developed during
part of 1833 and the spring of 1834
before he left for Cincinnati.
John Cook Bennet who had kept in touch
with Riddell since he
had become acquainted with him in
Pittsburgh, or even earlier.
offered a degree of L.L.D. to Riddell
and a professorship with
popular courses on botany and chemistry
besides. In a prospectus
the college was called the "Medical
College of Indiana" and also
the "University of Indiana at
New Albany." Bennet also
adver-
tised that he had a charter from the
legislature. This, however,
was for the Christian College at New
Albany, and as soon as the
charter was challenged the New Albany
newspapers carried the
following notice: "Ordinance No. 4.
'Be it ordained by the
Christian College that the Christian
College is the name of the
Corporation or Trustees of the
University located at New Albany.
Indiana only and not of the University
itself.'" The degree was
346
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
spurious, Bennet, an imposter, who
called himself at various
times President, Doctor, Chancellor or
Bishop, claimed also a
$200,000 insurance company operated by
the college. Bennet
never visited Worthington but always
arranged to have Riddell
come to Columbus to meet him. As soon as
he was convinced
that the whole affair was fraudulent and
the college non-existant
he became even more perplexed about
medical colleges and their
ways and resolved to leave Worthington.
His attitude even to
Jones and Morrow became distant as
though they had helped to
expose him to injury. Except for this he
would probably have
obtained a degree at Worthington and
remained there.
His other interest was romantic. He fell
in love with Mary
Catherine Burr. At the wedding of
Ichabod Jones to Cynthia
Kilbourne, who was the daughter of James
Kilbourne and Cynthia
Goodale, James' second wife, Catherine
had been bridesmaid and
Riddell had danced with her and was
pointed out as a likely suitor.
He had called on her and they met at
church where her brother,
Rev. George Burr, sometimes conducted
the services before he
left Worthington for Kenyon College.
Catherine's window was
visible from the room where Riddell
slept and when she was
prepared to meet Riddell she sometimes
placed a lighted candle
in the window. Or did Riddell just
imagine that? At least he
called on her father and mother. He met
Mary Catherine at
tea. By judicious inquiry around the
town about the Burr family
he learned that she owned some property.
He then hesitated to
tell her of his own poverty:
So at length I told her that my father
had died and left his family in
embarrassed circumstances; that I was
the oldest and had young brothers
and interesting little sisters, that I
must be their protector; that I could
not consent to entail embarrassment on
her for I had heard she had a
thousand dollars or so left her by an uncle.
The candle had gone out but from our
position I discovered her face
was bathed in tears. She owned my
feelings were correct, said that we
could remain as we were until I had
discharged my duty to my mother's
family, that I had known little of her
feelings if I had supposed that such
a disclosure would lessen her affection.
Her uncle left her a farm of 300
acres situated some sixty miles north of
this place. She was exceedingly
glad I had choosen to confide these
matters to her and at my request
JOHN L. RIDDELL 347
assured me she would inform no one, not
even her mother. I shall see her
again a week from Monday.
In a collection of memorabilia of John
Riddell's donated to
the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library along
with the personal
Journal, is a lock of blond hair labeled
in Riddell's unmistakable
handwriting, "Lock of hair from
Mary Catherine Burr, now Mrs.
Ufford." How this romance died down one can only guess.
Riddell left Worthington to attend
medical lectures in Cincinnati.
No mention in the Journal is made that
any correspondence
ensued.
During the spring, he resumed his plant
collections and he
exchanged notes with Dr. Hildreth, with
Dr. Short and prepared
a package of plants to send to Dr.
Drake. The idea of a medical
degree for the time being had been
banished and the coolness
between himself and his colleagues was
troubling him. He had
an A.M. but it was clear that there was
no future in Worthington
for him without an M.D. degree. He must
have collected or
made some good chemical apparatus9 as
Rev. Creighton of
Lithopolis avers, and students liked his
lectures. It was, how-
ever, time for him to make a change. He
talked with Morrow
and suggested that as Mr. Paddock could
give lectures in botany
he would not be needed during the
summer. He was told that
Jones and Morrow had thought of that.
This was tantamount
to accepting his resignation. In a
letter dated March 5, 1834, to
Col. George Boyd of Marietta he mentions
that Mrs. Burr, Mary
Catherine's mother, had died and continues:
"Inform Dr. Hil-
dreth if you please that I have procured
an antique skull from a
mound in Columbus and I shall be happy
to forward this to him
if he wishes. It is rather in fragments.
. . . In the month of April
I shall undoubtedly take leave of
Worthington, whether that leave
will be temporary or final I cannot
say."
His stay in Worthington had benefited
him as a collector and
naturalist even if he had not been given
a medical degree. He
was able to list some 700 plants in the Catalogue
of Franklin
9 See
Harvey W. Felter, History of the Eclectic Medical Institute (Cincinnati,
1902), 12. Also Jonathan Forman,
"The Worthington Medical College," Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, L (1941), 373-9.
348
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
County,10 when he wrote it at Cincinnati in the next few months.
He also had made some contributions to
geology. With Dr. Hil-
dreth, he shared the honor of being one
of our earliest archaeolo-
gists. Central Ohio had added to
Riddell's mental stature in a
number of ways. Though he did not
indulge in medical con-
troversy, he must have learned about the
Reformed School and
how it differed from the allopaths and
the homeopaths. It was
this didactic spirit in medicine that
kept his interest in science
alert. He decided to accept Hildreth's
advice and go to Cincinnati.
It is interesting to record that his
journey to Cincinnati was
by water from Columbus, a method so completely fallen into
disuse, that its existence as well as
its present possibilities are
forgotten. In Cincinnati, he knew no one, was even some time
in getting letters to the men he wanted
to meet. He was earning
little money. The wrangles among the
members of the medical
profession in Cincinnati in the 1830's
were almost interminable.
Daniel Drake11 who had been a brilliant
success in Phila-
delphia returned from Jefferson College
and he thought to destroy
the tottering Ohio College and build
anew. Drake was accom-
panied on his return by John F. Eberle,
whose Pennsylvania
Dutch accent was as remarkable as his
talent, by John Staughton
and Thomas D. Mitchell and by John F.
Henry whose home
originally had been Kentucky. But he
failed to arrange things
as he wanted at the college and retired
to private practice. These
were the years in which Drake organized
the Teachers College
and at its annual meeting, in 1834,
discussed the importance of
the home in the child's
environment. Modern educators would
do well to examine some of the
principles and problems that are
so ably discussed by Daniel Drake.l2
When Riddell finally did succeed in
calling on Drake he "in-
advertently" dropped a letter of
praise from Dr. Hildreth in a
10 See footnote 1.
11 See Otto Juettner, Daniel Drake
and His Followers (Cincinnati, 1909), esp.
chap. V. Also E. R. Horine, Daniel
Drake and His Contributions to Education, in
Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, XXXIV (1940), 303. Also Mary
Louise Marshall. "The Versatile Genius of Daniel
Drake," Bulletin of the Medical
Library Association, XXXI (October, 1943), 291-318.
12 Daniel Drake, "Discourse on the
Philosophy of Family, School and College
Discipline," Transactions, 4th Annual Meeting
of the Western Library Institute and
College of Professional Teachers,
Cincinnati, Oct., 1834 (Cincinnati,
1835).
JOHN
L. RIDDELL 349
place sufficiently conspicuous for Drake
to be certain to find it.
One must be charitable toward this ruse
as Drake's nod could
find a place for Riddell and the
neighboring entries indicate that
he lacked money for food. Drake
suggested that Riddell give
some lectures and that he write an
account of the plants of
Franklin County. Drake had himself, at
the Celebration of the
Natives of Ohio, offered as a toast his
"Tribute to the Buckeye
Tree" which helped establish this
tree as the official symbol of
Ohio, "the buckeye of the West that
possesses the power to
permanently unite the hemlock of the
North and the palmetto of
the
South in the same national arbor." Riddell would have
gained much had he become more
intimately acquainted with
Drake. As it was, he became a member of the most brilliant
medical faculty that had ever been
assembled in the West. When
the trustees of Cincinnati College
announced the names of the
faculty of the Medical Department the
following names were on
the roster: Joseph N. McDowell, anatomy;
Samuel D. Gross,
pathology; Horatio B. Jameson, soon
succeeded by Willard Par-
ker, surgery; Landon C. Rives,
obstetrics; James B. Rogers.
chemistry; John P. Harrison, materia
medica; Daniel Drake,
practice; John L. Riddell, adjunct in
chemistry and lecturer on
botany.13 The Journal bears no record that Drake offered close
companionship to Riddell.
It is noteworthy that Dr. Rogers with
whom Riddell shared
the chair in chemistry at the Cincinnati
College became subse-
quently one of the great geologists of
this country. All of the
others remained actively engaged in
medical teaching and prac-
tice, some of them continuing in
Cincinnati.14
13 See Juettner, Drake, for
location of building, its size, appearance, etc., with
illustrations of building and faculty
members.
14 It is necessary for the present
record to indicate that the Repository and the
Personal Journal of Riddell are not
consecutively numbered and it is possible that
certain ones are lacking in the
collection in the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library.
This is not surprising as they were
presented more than three quarters of a century
after Riddell's death. Just how
confusing this is may be inferred from the following
memorandum made while examining the
volumes:
No. 5--contains notes from Marietta.
No. 6--was written in Cincinnati
1834-1836.
No. 7--Personal Journal commenced at
Worthington, Dec. 20, 1832, and
goes from Cincinnati to New Orleans,
1836-1837.
A second No. 7--contains minutes of
lectures delivered in the winter
of 1834-1835 at Cincinnati.
No. 8--is a personal journal made at
Worthington, begun May 29, 1833.
No. 9--is a continuation of events of
1833.
No. 10--begins with the date, Dec. 20,
1833.
No. 11--begins with March, 1834 in
Worthington.
No. 12--begins with July 17, 1834 in
Cincinnati.
Attempting to read the above nine
volumes is not unlike fitting picture puzzle
pieces into their appropriate places.
350 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The name of most frequent occurrence in
the part of Rid-
dell's Journal relating to Cincinnati is
that of John Locke,15 who
at the time of Riddell's arrival
conducted a school for young
ladies located on the east side of
Walnut Street between Third
and Fourth streets. He also lectured at
the Mechanic's Institute.
Locke was a New Englander, born in 1792.
While a medical
student in 1816 he met Nathan Smith the
founder of the Dart-
mouth Medical School, who encouraged
him, offering a chance
to lecture on botany at Dartmouth and
other places. He con-
ducted both indoor and field classes
with such good effect that
Dr. Jacob Bigelow of Boston, noted for
the Florula Bostonensis
and his great work on materia medica,
heard of him and offered
him a position as curator of the
Cambridge Botanic Garden.
Locke, it seems, was too outspoken in
his religious views and
fell into disfavor in Boston. He
embarked for the West Indies
to study tropical plants as Navy
Surgeon's mate, but the first
hurricane he encountered frightened him
into applying for his
resignation. He returned to New Haven
and obtained his medical
degree, after which he came to teach at
Transylvania. He must
have known Rafinesque who at that date
had not quarreled with
President Holley sufficiently to resign.
Locke rode horseback from
Lexington to Cincinnati and fell in love
with the place on sight
from the hills, overlooking the Ohio
River. He was later to
design the Locke level, an improved
galvanometer, and the mag-
netic clock or electro-chronograph.
Although fifteen years older
than Riddell the two quickly became
friends and talked over
Riddell's plan for a synopsis of western
plants. As Riddell ad-
miringly records in his personal Journal
"we are kindred gen-
iuses." It would be fair to state that Amos Eaton, Douglas
Houghton, Samuel Hildreth, Daniel Drake
and John Locke are
the five intellects who most profoundly
shaped the career of John
Riddell, even though he was to part from
Locke in bitter enmity.
Locke's school was not far from the
Cincinnati College, and
Riddell made many visits to Locke's
home. They went on
collecting trips together and Riddell
met Mrs. Locke. The col-
15 See Juettner, Drake, 155.
JOHN L. RIDDELL 351
lecting and correspondence was more
intense than any Riddell
had previously attempted. He had
completed his work on Frank-
lin County shortly after his arrival in
Cincinnati. The Synopsis
of Western Plants was completed in 1835 and followed a year
later by the supplement of the Ohio
Plants. He meanwhile at-
tended the lectures in Cincinnati
College as well as demonstrating
Roger's lectures in chemistry and
lecturing in botany. Sometime
between 1835 and March 16, 1836, the
date of imprint of the
Supplementary Catalog of Ohio Plants he had dropped the A.M.
for an M.D. degree. He had also improved
his method of record-
ing his plant collections and cites
localities and collector's names
after many items in the list. He
describes as new an Aronia, a
Habenaria, a Helianthus, a Linum, two species of Stachys.
He de-
scribes, without attempting to name, a
different looking wild rose.
He adds the pink moccasin, omitted from
the Synopsis.
There is nothing in this attitude toward
the work of naming
the plants to which Sullivant can take
exception and it hardly
seems possible that Riddell's work could
not have come to Sulli-
vant's notice. Should one infer he chose
to ignore it? The
Worthington College, however, had
probably been too democratic
for Sullivant, and Riddell not
sufficiently prominent in the group
to measure up to Sullivant levels.
Besides Sullivant did not
really commence his major work in the
Bryophytes until after
Leo Lesquereux arrived in America. The
catalog of plants in
the vicinity of Columbus published by
Sullivant in 1840 deserved
more careful attention than to be tossed
off with no reference to
his predecessor's work.
The field work that Hildreth was eager
to start in geology
was also the basis of cementing friendly
relations between Riddell
and Locke in Cincinnati. In the message
to the 35th General
Assembly, Governor Robert Lucas had
spoken warmly of the
development of natural resources of
Ohio. He did not mention
Dr. Samuel Hildreth but it is more than
likely that Robert Lucas
was aware of Hildreth's plans for a
geological survey. We have
no evidence of it but Riddell probably
spent the summer of 1835
in the field on both botanical and
geological investigations and
352
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
part of the time in the company of Locke
and Increase A. Lapham.
We do know how he spent the summer after
he had obtained his
medical degree.
A student at Dr. Locke's school was Mary
Schrager, also
known sometimes as Mary Bone. She was an
orphan from Baton
Rouge and her Louisiana guardian, Mr.
Holland, had put her in
the provisional care of Nicholas
Longworth. Mary had seen Rid-
dell and thought him irresistible. She
would walk up and down
the street in front of the college in
the hope of obtaining just a
glimpse of him. At night, when all the
young ladies were sup-
posed to be safely in the school
buildings, Mary would walk out
to the corner and wait for John Riddell.
She may have had a
little more liberty than some of the
other girls as her guardian
in Ohio, Nicholas Longworth, was the
uncle of Mrs. Locke. The
flirtation between Mary and Riddell
continued through the autumn
of 1835 and into the spring of 1836.
As they became better acquainted Mary
would walk as far
as John's boarding house with him. John
could pass by the school
grounds close to his boarding house. On
one occasion he threw
a note over the fence to a group of
girls who were there and
"thought" Mary picked it up.
Mrs. Locke, however, intercepted
it and passed it on to Nicholas
Longworth, telling John Riddell
she had done so. She thought that John's
actions were open to
serious question. The personal Journal
seems to indicate they
were, too. He writes that Mary came
"in disguise" to his rooms.
She seems to have visited him more than
once and he writes that
they will probably not remain continent
if her visits continue. At
the same time he is writing this in the
Journal, he dispatches a
note to Nicholas Longworth to indicate
that Mrs. Locke has pre-
sumed too much in connection with the
note he wrote Mary.
Nothing had happened to excite an
outburst from Mrs. Locke.
Apparently his colleagues with the
exception of John Locke, who
was at the time not in the city, all
knew about the note and the
visits he had received from Mary. One
advised Riddell to go to
Kentucky and be married. Riddell waits
petulantly for a few
days for a reply from "the old
goat" Nicholas Longworth.
JOHN L. RIDDELL 353
It is at this point that complete
frankness in the personal
Journal seems too much for Riddell. What
he had recorded of
his innocence, however, is followed by
his marrying Mary in
Kentucky. As he is all ready to start on
a tour of duty for
Hildreth's geological survey, he buys a
horse and buggy and
takes Mary across the State of Ohio with
him.
We know how indebted Hildreth was to
Riddell and that he
used the report just as Riddell prepared
it. But the report was
not turned in to Dr. Hildreth first.
Corroboratory evidence of
this is officially available in the
following letter:16
To the General assembly from Governor
Joseph Vance: Gentlemen:
Some days since I received a
communication from John L. Riddell, M.D.
enclosing a part of a geological report
made in pursuance of a resolution of
the last general assembly. I have
subsequently received the remainder of
his report which with a copy of his
letter I herewith transmit for your
consideration.--Joseph Vance.
When Riddell and Mary came back to
Cincinnati at the end
of summer, Dr. and Mrs. Wood and Dr. and
Mrs. Rives refused
to receive them. This was a severe blow
as they had been appar-
ently friendly all through the episode
which had upset Mrs. Locke.
But Riddell had, in the spring, received
a letter from William
Byrd Powell who had been teaching
chemistry in the Medical
College of Louisiana at New Orleans. He
wrote to Powell and
also to Mary's former guardian, Holland,
and set out to locate
Mary's property in Baton Rouge. Mary
remained in Louisiana
and apparently never returned to Ohio.
She was shy and prob-
ably a little over-awed by the events in
Cincinnati as well as by
her husband's brilliant career. But she was a devoted wife to
Riddell and bore him a son, Sanford.
Through his management
of Mary's property his financial
troubles were over and he was
established as a solvent citizen.
In Cincinnati, there is not a great deal
on record about
Riddell. The librarian of the Lloyd Library has a collection
of Riddell plants17 in an excellent
state of preservation. By cor-
16 Report No. 60 to the General
Assembly. Dated Executive Office Columbus.
Mar. 9, 1937.
17 See John Uri Lloyd, and John Thomas Lloyd, "A Librarian's
Story," In Journal
of the American Pharmaceutical Association, XX (Sept., 1931), 918-21.
354 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
respondence it has been established that
there were later collec-
tions made of plants in Texas and in
other places. But Riddell
herbaria, citing dates and places of
collection, are virtually non-
existant. When he published he did not
retain the collections to
verify his lists. They were the
specimens he sold and which are
scattered without record of the
purchasers.
In Baton Rouge, Riddell arranged to
manage Mary's prop-
erty. He established that her father's
name was Knock. He
does not record exactly what the
property was worth or how it
was to be administered. But his records
show that presently he
is established in a home of his own in
New Orleans. The Medical
College of Louisiana was at one time
located at University Place.
Where the building stood there is at
present a parking lot adjacent
to the Roosevelt Hotel. The Riddells
lived in a house on Canal
Street about two blocks away.
Riddell apparently was able to complete
his several business
engagements quite rapidly. In 1836, he
was appointed to the
position which had been held by William
Byrd Powell, Professor
of Chemistry in the Medical College of
Louisiana, which in
Riddell's obituary in the American
Journal of Science18 is indi-
cated as his second appointment to a
college position. All men-
tion of Worthington is omitted. In
somewhat similar fashion the
Dictionary of American Biography19 does not go back
of 1835.
Absorbed in a new life of matrimony, of
financial competence,
of teaching chemistry, of medical
practice in New Orleans there
is not much mention further of Mary, nor
is it certain just when
he visited Cincinnati and Ohio to
complete the work with the
Geological Survey. After Dr. Hildredth's
original report, W. W.
Mather was appointed principle
geologist, but all the members of
the preliminary committee were retained
including Hildreth, Rid-
dell, Lapham and Locke. Others were
added.20 When Hildreth
resigned, with Riddell so far away,
Lapham about to leave the
State and Locke on an educational tour
in England, the plans for
a geological survey of the State of Ohio
were ruined.
18 Silliman's
American Journal of Science and Arts, 2nd Series, XLI (1866), 141.
19 An
excellent account of the later part of Riddell's life is to be found in the
Dictionary of American Biography, XI, 589.
20 See
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, LIII (1944), 313-38.
JOHN L. RIDDELL 355
Riddell explored Texas in 1838. The
account of this is given
in the Journal and is worth a separate
monograph. When he re-
turned he was appointed melter and
refiner at the New Orleans
branch of the United States Mint.21 He at once came into dispute
with some of the subordinate employees
of the mint and he ac-
cused one of them of stealing silver and
discharged him. He
devised a more accurate system of
accounting for both gold and
silver bullion. The discharged employee
accused Riddell of as-
saulting him and as Riddell admitted
this, he was sentenced to
jail. The judge, however, did not oblige
Riddell to remain in
jail since the operation of the mint
would have been suspended.
Eventually the case came to the
attention of President Tyler who
made Riddell's appointment a personal
one. Although this trouble
seems to have made some enemies for
Riddell, the manner of his
appointment heightened the opinion of
him among his New Or-
leans friends. He obtained a position
for his brother, George,
at the mint and brought his mother and
sister to live in New
Orleans.
Mary became ill about that time and died
of tuberculosis.
He writes of it briefly and grieved for
her as a loving wife and
mother. She had borne two sons, John,
who died in infancy, and
Sanford. He was glad to have his mother
and sister with him.
More and more, however, his personal
Journal takes on the char-
acter of the Repository. It records only the more important
events of his life and as such it ceases
to interest him and pres-
ently it becomes more like a scrap book
with clippings of letters
he had written to the papers and with
the usual omissions that
an imperfectly kept scrap book show.
At this time, he was wealthy enough to
pay around eight
hundred dollars for a negro slave whom
he describes as a cook.
He also mentions a girl who had recently
arrived from Holland
as a nurse for his son, Sanford. When
later his mother com-
plains to him that he is showing too
great familiarity in his man-
ner toward the girl and insists on his
dismissing her, he tells his
21 The
history of coinage is a fascinating study in itself. In United States money
no dollars were minted between 1806 and
1836. Spanish dollars collected in New
Orleans were cut with a cold chisel into "six
bits" and "eight
bits." The establish
ment of a branch mint in New Orleans helped relieve the
scarcity of coins.
356
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
mother that he is reluctant to let her
go as she has no other way
of earning a living. He does, however,
dismiss her on the "osten-
sible ground that she cannot talk
English" to his son.
About 1845 to 1850 he is married to Miss
Angelica Brown.
Three daughters were borne of this
marriage, Lephe, named for
Riddell's mother, Mary, named for his
first wife, and Susan.
Although he retained his professorship
with ever increasing
popularity until his death and his
position of melter and refiner
at the mint until 1849 and presumably
increased his medical prac-
tice he, nevertheless, found time for
additional duties. In 1844,
the governor of Louisiana through
legislative authority appointed
Riddell a member of a commission to plan
to protect New Orleans
against Mississippi River floods.
Riddell also began to study the
water of the river microscopically. It
may have produced some
ribbing and some merriment on the part
of the other members
of the commission but Riddell was beyond
the days when he had
to try to seem mysterious and develop
the "hauteur" he wished
to use at Ogdensburg. In 1836, he
embraced the ideas learned
from Hildreth and Daniel Drake. "I
believe Drake is right when
he claims fever is caused by
animalculae." Also in 1836, while
still in Cincinnati, Riddell published
his paper on Miasm and
Contagion, regarded as the earliest contribution of its kind
ascrib-
ing fevers to a presumed organism. Now
he found differences
at different seasons in the populations
of microorganisms in the
Mississippi waters. The life cycle of
yellow fever was not known
during Riddell's lifetime.
He was still working at the mint but he
also found time to
study characteristics of the blood. He
likewise examined micro-
scopically "le vomite
negro" as the yellow fever was called. He
himself contracted yellow fever and
recovered to do some of his
finest medical work during the famous
epidemic of yellow fever
in 1853 when he again was appointed to a
special committee of
investigation. So many were the
activities in which Riddell en-
gaged that until a complete bibliography
is published one call
never be sure that certain ones have not
been overlooked.
It was undoubtedly due to his
microscopic work that he be-
JOHN L. RIDDELL 357 came interested in improving the instrument. About 1850 he devised a form of microscope that utilized prisms to divide the light and pass it through two tubes each fitted with its own ocular (see Fig. 1). Riddell had been active in organizing the New |
|
Orleans Academy of Science and he demonstrated the principles employed in his microscope before the Physico-Medical Society, October 2, 1852. He continued his improvements on the models of instruments and was called on for several New Orleans demon- strations. In July, 1853, he exhibited his invention at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, |
358
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
It was not adopted to serious
investigation, but Riddell's work
paved the way toward improved modern
instruments and embodied
some new combinations of principles.22
His catalog of the Flora of Louisiana
which he began in
1842 was ten years in being compiled,
and as was customary with
Riddell included the work of a number of
collaborators, in
this case, principally that of W. M.
Carpenter and Josiah Hale.
Although he states in the New Orleans
Medical and Surgical
Journal for May, 1852, that the manuscript was sent to the
Smithsonian Institution, it seems to
have been lost. As to speci-
mens, Dr. William Penfound of Tulane
University lists only six
sheets of Riddell specimens. This offers
another bit of evidence
concerning the feverish impatience of
Riddell. When he had
recorded an item he was through with it,
seemingly giving no
thought to any possible use that another
might make of the same
item.
During his period of conducting the
operations of the mint
he invented an improved method for
casting gold and silver for
coins.
He also published his famous monograph of the silver
dollar,23 which again serves
as a means of showing how eager Rid-
dell was to make a record of all facts
coming to his attention.
The work at the mint kept him constantly
in the public eye and
when he resigned in 1849, after eleven
years of service, he was
probably one of the best known citizens
of New Orleans. At
present he is still well known to
numismatists, even though mod-
ern collectors know nothing about his
other labors and pursuits.
Shortly before the outbreak of the War
Between the States,
Riddell was made postmaster of New
Orleans. When the Con-
federacy was formed, a new appointment
was made but the ap-
pointee died before he could assume
office. A second appointee
refused to serve and Riddell was thus
unique in having been
22 For Riddell's microscopes see New
Orleans Monthly Medical Register, Oct.,
1852, Apr., 1853; New Orleans Medical
and Surgical Journal, Nov., 1853, May.
1854; American Journal of Science, Jan.,
1853; Quarterly Journal of Microscopical
Science, Apr., 1853, Jan., 1854, Proceedings of the American
Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, VII, 1856; Samuel Holmes, "The Isophotal Binocular
Micro-
scope," English Mechanic and
World of Science, July, 1880; Jabez Hogg, The Micro-
scope (London, 1871). 122.
23 John Leonard Riddell, A Monograph
of the Silver Dollar, Good and Bad
(New Orleans, 1845).
JOHN L. RIDDELL 359 appointed before the Confederacy and continuing in office all through the war period. It is thus that his name appears on the stamps issued during the war in the New Orleans postoffice. |
|
The accompanying cut (Fig. 2), enlarged, from a stamp in the writer's possession, shows the name of J. L. Riddell above and below on the face of the stamp. Stamp issues serve to com- memorate in an additional way the name of this versatile man. He had been so poor in his student days that the price of postage on letters to his mother was a barrier to a dutiful son's letters home. It may well be true that he thought of his own embar- rassment in finding postage money when he saw his name for the first time on a two-cent stamp and realized the changes that thirty years in his life had brought. Perhaps without foundation is the legend that just after the outbreak of the war, he secreted a number of United States stamps by plastering them into the wall of a building in the old French Quarter of New Orleans near the site of the postoffice at that time. He, always fond of recording facts, sent the serial numbers of the sheets to the Postmaster General at Washington. This act was regarded as treasonable to the Confederacy by some of his New Orleans contemporaries. If this was done, the stamps |
360
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
have probably been destroyed by
demolition and rebuilding in the
older parts of the city.
One final claim to fame rises from the
fact that Thomas
Nuttall who collected the plants of the
Missouri River region
named a composite commemoratively Riddellia
tagetina. Asa
Gray added a species to the genus. It
was, however, displaced
in favor of an earlier named genus, Psilostrophe
D. C. Perhaps
locally better remembered, since a long
correspondence in the
newspapers ensued about it, is Riddell's
interest in aerial navi-
gation. Several of the personal Journal
volumes indicate a re-
curring interest in this field. For Riddell it took the form in
public print of a fictitious account of
his hero, Orrin Lindsay,
who successfully designed an airship and
circumnavigated the
moon. It is interesting to examine the
sketches made by Riddell
and to see how a streamlined model,
probably entirely original
with him, developed in his imaginative
mind.24
Just as there are a number of
uncertainties about his life so
there is more than one account of his
death. The obituaries say
that his death was not unexpected, as
for some time his mind
had given way. A different version was
given by Mr. Levy, who
is a medical student in New Orleans and
who is interested in the
Riddell biographical material: At the
close of the war Riddell
made an address in which he indicated
that the Confederate point
of view had not been sound. He was
stopped by protests and
boos from the audience. He finally
descended from the rostrum
indicating that he would prepare an
explanation for the newspaper
and so left the hall. At the newspaper
office where he went to
write his explanation he suffered a
cerebral hemorrhage and died
the following day without having
regained consciousness. This
rapid exit seems more in keeping with
his activities, not all of
which can be adequately comprehended,
even when his accom-
plishments as lecturer, teacher,
botanist, operator of a mint, in-
ventor of microscopes, medical
practitioner and postmaster are
recited.
24 John Leonard
Riddell, ed., Orrin Lindsay's
Plan of Aerial Navigation with
a
Narrative of His Explorations in the Higher Regions of
the Atmosphere and His
Wonderful Voyage around the Moon
(New Orleans, 1847).
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY--PART 6
THE VAULTING IMAGINATION OF JOHN L.
RIDDELL*
By ADOLPH
E. WALLER
Whatever makes the past or future
predominate over the present exalts
us in the scale of thinking
beings.--Johnson.
The name of John Leonard Riddell is,
perhaps, best remem-
bered today for his Synopsis of the
Western Plants. In 1835,
when this was published, Cincinnati was
the western-most city of
great size, with around 35,000 inhabitants,
and with immediate,
perhaps daily, expansion in commerce and
culture. In 1830,
Cincinnati had less than 25,000 while
Columbus, the second in
size, had 3,400. The West, spelled with
a capital, meant almost
unlimited opportunities for hardy souls
from the Atlantic States,
who, crossing the mountains from
Virginia, New England and
Pennsylvania, all converged in the Ohio
Valley.
Riddell's Synopsis of the Western
Plants is the most im-
portant catalog of plants written by a
resident botanist west
of the Appalachians of that period. It
antedates by three years
the first volume of the Flora of
North America, on which Drs.
John Torrey and Asa Gray were laboring.
Dr. Daniel Drake, in
1815, in his Picture of Cincinnati devotes
a brief section to botany.
So it is probable that Drake himself,
during Riddell's connection
with the Cincinnati College, harried
Riddell into the publication
of his somewhat regional summary. In a
paragraph signed by
"The Editor" in the July,
1834, number of the Western Journal
of the Medical and Physical Sciences,
Drake introduces the article
"Particular Directions for
Collecting and Preserving Specimens
of Plants," by Riddell, as follows:
We hope he will append to his practical
directions a catalogue of
such plants of the State of Ohio
as may have fallen under his observation.
He is, we feel assured, a sound
practical botanist, who may, perhaps, do
for Ohio, sooner or later what Professor
Short is zealously laboring to
effect for Kentucky. By the way, why
does not the Professor bring out the
* Papers from the Department of
Botany, the Ohio State University, No. 485.
331