Ohio History Journal

DR. JOHN LOCKE, EARLY OHIO SCIENTIST (1792-1856)

by ADOLPH E. WALLER

Associate Professor and Curator of the Botanic Garden.

Ohio State University

The nineteenth century in the United States suddenly swung

into its expanding programs of research and education. No one

was prepared for the impact of the increasing realization of the

power over nature which man now possessed. The illusion of

the perfectibility of all men through knowledge stretched un-

dimmed. The inherent weaknesses of man and the snail's pace

of education were not yet perceived. Gigantic discovery was so

close at hand that no one troubled to consider disappointments as

more than temporary obstacles. A little proficiency in mathe-

matics, languages, and the law marked the educated man. Scien-

tific training was unknown. Science laboratories were just start-

ing and the skills and techniques they were to impart were born

on the spot.

The thesis that the medical colleges of the time were the

sources of our trained scholars in the natural sciences has been

stated in previous papers in this series. Three months at "Cam-

bridge College" prepared Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth for his degree

in medicine, after an apprenticeship with practicing physicians.

Many others were likewise briefly exposed to formalized study.

Dr. John Locke was more fortunate. His formal training lasted

about three years.

Philadelphia and Cincinnati were early in asserting leader-

ship in the quality of medical training offered. Many of the

students trained in medicine were not as interested in its practice

as in following the leads offered by their training in sciences. Our

outstanding botanists and geologists of the 1830's were thus

educated. Dr. Locke's story follows a similar pattern with the

difference that he added physics to his earlier inclinations toward

botany and geology. Perhaps it was from his keen observation of

346

DR. JOHN LOCKE              347

the applications of botany to both medicine and agriculture. John

Locke's father also contributed to his son's interest in the sciences.

Samuel Barron and Hannah Russel Locke, John's parents,

had lived at Lempster, New Hampshire, and Fryeburg, Maine,

before going to settle near Bethel, Maine, on the Androscoggin

River. John was then four years old. It was a choice location

for the skilled artisan, Samuel Locke. There was a large tract

of land to be purchased there. There was water power to operate

his own saw- and grist-mills. There he built a shop which made

him the outstanding millwright of the region. A number of

people settled nearby and were given work in the mills and shop.

The settlement came to be called Locke's Mills.

Here young John grew up and received his early schooling

which was supplemented by the varied assortment of books that

his father's library offered.  As the community prospered a

Methodist Meeting House and other establishments were added.

For all of his skill as a machine builder in a young country hungry

for machines the senior Locke found time to teach handicrafts,

mathematics, and some languages to his son. He was also able

to send him to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to attend an academy

where he obtained the usual classical courses of study. John

roamed the area collecting plants and hunting. It was a sad mo-

ment of realization for the father when young Locke decided he

was not longer content to stay in Bethel to do what his father

had successfully accomplished. John was eager to study medi-

cine and began at Bethel in 1815 and shortly afterward with

Dr. Twitchell at Keene. New Hampshire.   A  fragment of a

diary shows the determination of a rebellions young citizen forced

by his own decree away from his father's abundance:

July  15, 1815.                 Left Bethel, arrived           at  Keen, Aug.15

Oct. 20, left Keen  for    New  Haven    tarried  in northfield.

Oct. 25, Northfield to     West Springfield  Expenses                              $0.85

Oct. 27, Thence to Weathersfield          do                                             $0.72

Oct. 28, From Weathersfield to New Haven   "                                       $0.90

$2.47

DR. JOHN LOCKE         349

The journey was performed on horseback and it will be thought sur-

prising that no more expense was involved. Economy was the object as

I had, I thought, hardly money enough to bear my expenses at college.

I ate milk, with sometimes a piece of apple pie with it only twice a day.

Oct. 29 went to church in the chapel. Oct. 30 attended Professor Silliman's

lecture on chemistry.

A search made for a youthful portrait of John Locke has

not been successful. A portrait of him as a man about 50 years

of age shows a large, somewhat spare figure with a thin face and

prominent cheek bones. He is said to have had clear blue eyes of

an unusually sparkling quality. It is doubtful if the active stu-

dent at Yale could have maintained his Spartan diet for long. He

became Dr. Silliman's assistant. With that great man's recogni-

tion there was undoubtedly some means of subsistence provided.

Besides, there may have been money from home.

Conversations with Silliman offered mental pabulum   of a

stronger sort. John was fired to emulate his chief in travels in

Europe and other places. He began by a visit, in the summer of

1816, to Dr. Nathan Smith, the eminent founder of Dartmouth's

Medical School.

At Hanover he met also young Dr. Solon Smith who was

struggling toward an education and toward increasing knowledge

in a field of special interest to John. They had to become ac-

quainted first in order to feel free to exchange ideas which were,

perhaps, a little strange and not too welcome to some of their

elders and preceptors. They both wanted to know how to identify

plants. This was the common bond. Solon Smith owned a book

they would both try to study. It was Dr. Jacob Bigelow's Plants

of the Vicinity of Boston, a new book, the first edition having

been published in 1814. Presently it was to become the favorite

New England version of the artificial system for naming plants,

better known as the Linnean system. The system following nat-

ural orders and families was still regarded as revolutionary. It

was some years before the North American flora would be so

classified by Torrey or Gray. Jacob Bigelow's book was there-

fore well known and twice was revised and enlarged. The third

edition appeared in 1840, still demonstrating its usefulness to

350   OHIO ARCHNEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

amateur botanists. Dr. Bigelow's scientific reputation rested on

his lectures at Harvard and on his contributions to the United

States Pharmacopoeia. His Plants of Boston was known as the

most popular manual of its day.

What could not be accomplished by Solon Smith alone,

namely, rouse an interest among Dartmouth students in plant

studies, Locke and Smith together were able to do. Soon they

had a number of the students tramping the hills around Hanover

in search of specimens. To the delight of Dartmouth's medical

college faculty, particularly to Nathan Smith, these became regu-

larly organized field trips.

Back in New Haven the best parts of the next two years

were busy ones for Locke who continued to assist Dr. Silliman

in chemistry and at the same time continued his plant studies

with the help of Dr. Eli Ives. He lectured in Portland, Boston,

and Salem, and at Dartmouth and Yale. Probably with the en-

thusiastic backing of Dr. Nathan Smith he was offered a curator-

ship of the Cambridge Botanical Gardens by Dr. Jacob Bigelow.

It seems, however, he was able to remain there only a short time,

though not for lack of botanical qualifications. He was too out-

spoken on religious subjects for the peace of mind of some of the

members of the Cambridge group. It is recorded, however, that

he had been most pleasantly welcomed by Harvard's president,

John Thornton Kirkland, who found Locke sufficiently engaging

to pay him the compliment of offering to study botany with him.

Though not yet equipped with his medical degree he was

ready to combine medicine and botany on an expedition. The

United States Frigate Macedonian was to sail under special orders

to explore the Columbia River. It was to leave Boston Harbor

on September 20, 1818. What an opportunity for Locke, prob-

ably still smarting a little from having lost his curatorship! He

was warned that he would be badgered as a landlubber, a down-

east country boy, and a noncombatant. Perhaps most of all the

rugged seamen would resent the presence of a young intellectual.

If tempers really broke he would have to stand in an "affair of

honor" of large or small consequence.

DR. JOHN LOCKE                    350

When Locke appeared on board the Macedonian he was ac-

companied by a long mahogany box somewhat resembling a sur-

geon's amputating case. This he contrived to drop on the deck

in such an awkward manner that the lid flew open exposing a

beautiful and complete outfit of dueling pistols. He was invited

to join when pistol practice for the officers was announced. His

skill in hitting any spot selected upon the targets convinced the

crew that the surgeon's mate was a man who knew how to handle

small arms. He was no longer a stranger of uncertain position

on shipboard.

Sailing orders for the Macedonian brought her off the Caro-

lina coast in time to meet a West Indian hurricane of great vio-

lence. She was dismasted and so beaten by the waves as to be

almost destroyed. After the storm she limped slowly back to

Norfolk. Upon deliberation, the Navy abandoned the Columbia

River operation. Locke applied for his discharge and made his

way back to New Haven as quickly as he could. life on the sea

was a gamble. Others might take it if they chose. For him there

was other work.

He set in at once to complete his requirements for a medical

degree at Yale and in 1819 was graduated with the sixth class.

Dr. Eli Iyes taught Materia Medica and Botany, the usual ar-

rangement made in the medical curricula of that period. He had

a reputation for scholarship and had published a brief list of the

plants of New Haven as early as 1811. This was later extended

with the help of his students to more than a thousand plants. Also

at his own expense he had set out a botanical garden near the

college.¹ Locke must have spent a great deal of his time in study-

ing the collections and he resolved to prepare a manual for

students which would quickly familiarize the beginner with the

meanings of terms used in classification.

To prepare the illustrations for this, Locke learned the art

of engraving. His father's careful instructions in the use of

tools served him well, and his own skills and desires as a crafts-

1 Andrew D. Rodgers, "Noble Fellow" -- William Starling Sullivant (New York,

1940), 81,

146          EXPLANATION OF PLATES.

PLATE     15. A.

CLASSES--See Frontispiece.

This plate contains a figure of a flower in each of

the 24 Classes. With the exception of 1, 9, and 23,

they are either native or commonly cultivated.

Fig. 1. Monandria, 1 stamen; Mare's-tail, Hippuris

culgaris. Native of Britain.

This is an example also of the order Monogynia, having 1 pistil.

2. Diandria, 2 stamens; Speedwell, Veronica.

3. Triandria, 3 stamens; Common Timothy-

grass or Herds-grass, Phleum    Pratense,

much magnified.

a. The entire Floret, having three stamens and two

feathered styles projecting from the two compressed

glumes which enclose them at the base.

b. The Pistil shown separate, consisting of the germen

and two feathered styles.

This is an example also of the order Digynia, having 2 styles.

4. Tetrandria, 4 stamens; Cornel, Cornus pani-

culata, somewhat magnified.

5. Pentandria, 5 stamens; Common Elder, Sam-

bucus niger, magnified.

It is an exemple also of the order Tryginia, having three sessile

stigmas.

6. Hexandria, 6 stamens; Barberry, Berberis

culgaris.

7. Heptandria, 7 stamens; Chickweed winter-

green, Trientalis Europeus.

8. Octandria, 8 stamens; Dwarf tree primrose,

(E1nothera punnila.

9. Enneandria, 9 stamens; Flowering Rush,

Butomus umbellatus. Native of Britain.

This is also an example of the order Hexagynia, having 6 pistils.

10. Decandria, 10 stamens; Broad-leaved Lau-

rel or Lamb-kill, Kalmia latifolia.

11. Dodecandria, 12 to 19 stamens; Houseleek,

Sempervivum tectorum.

FACSIMILE OF EXPLANATORY PAGE FOR ILLUSTRATIONS

354   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

man enabled him to complete his task.     It was a teaching aid

not paralleled in the United States. The Linnean system     of

classification was illustrated with examples of North American

species. These would be readily obtainable for class use. The

descriptive writing of Jacob Bigelow's book was supplemented

by figures of the plants which beginners could not fail to grasp.

The dedication of Locke's Outlines of Botany was to "Jacob

Bigelow, Rumford Professor of Materia Medica, Harvard." In

his preface he separates elementary from practical work and

characterizes his work as showing the same difference that a dic-

tionary or grammar woull bear toward works of history or

poetry.  His raison d'ctre gives the following recommendation to

plant study: (1) medicine, the arts, and agriculture depend upon

it; (2) it is a rich source of pleasure; (3) it affords discipline

by means of which methodizing a subject and analyzing it may

be learned; (4) it offers spiritual inspiration.  "The study of

nature is the elder scripture written by the hand of the Creator."

Instructors of botany today will take heart in the following item

from his preface: "From what little experience I have had in

instructing I cannot recommend to teachers to oblige their pupils

to commit any of the following pages formally to memory, in do-

ing which they are by no means certain to get the ideas."

Published in Boston in 1819, this work must have come to

Dr. Bigelow's notice and won the approval of President Kirkland.

When Dr. Bigelow brought out his second edition of the Plants

of Boston (1824), he might well have used Locke's illustrations.

An excellent teaching, manual redounding to the credit of both

Locke and himself would have been the result.  By this time

Locke was in Ohio where other interests were crowding into his

busy life. Bigelow's second edition was too late for him. An

associate of Locke said of him that:

Scarcely four years had elapsed since he left the valley of the

Androscoggin a plain country boy, and yet, within that time he had

secured the favor of distinguished men, had received the appointment of

Assistant Surgeon in the Navy, had become a Doctor of Medicine, an

author of a popular scientific work, a teacher and lecturer in colleges, not

DR. JOHN LOCKE                 355

only to pupils but to professors. All this was accomplished without one

dollar of patronage or support except that created by his own exertions.²

He was not to find a remunerative medical practice however.

Things might have been different had he remained aboard ship

or had he read medicine under a physician.    Medical colleges

offered no instruction in dealing with patients, and the hard life

and meagre living of a country doctor offered little to attract him.

He accepted the position of assistant to Colonel Dunham who was

the proprietor and head of an academy for girls at Windsor,

Vermont. Here his gifts as a teacher could again shine forth.

When Colonel Dunham     developed the plan for establishing a

similar school in Lexington, Kentucky, Locke agreed to go there

for that purpose. He felt that New England was dominated by

religious intolerance and he preferred to live in another part of

the country.

A boyhood memory was a probable factor in this decision.

His father had built a Methodist Meeting House at Locke's Mills

giving both land and materials for construction.   By an old

Massachusetts law, which applied in Maine as part of Massachu-

setts, a tax for the support of the prevailing sect was levied on

members of other sects unless exempted by payments to the sup-

port of their own denomination. Locke, Senior, refused to qual-

ify under the exemption clause and also refused to pay the asses-

sed cash tax because of his donations. He regarded the law as

invasion of religious liberty. John witnessed the officers of the

law driving away cattle from his father's farm, having seized

them in lieu of tax money. This injustice so strongly impressed

itself upon John that he determined he would some day live in a

place where there was less upholding of the letter of religious

administration and greater tolerance for human rights.

Since Colonel Dunham's plans had altered, Locke came to

Kentucky alone and founded the    Lexington Academy in 1821.

Little is known about the Kentucky school. He may have made

some important acquaintances in Lexington. It probably served

2 M. B. Wright, An  Address on  the  life  and Character of the Late Professor

John, Locke (Cincinnati, n. d.), 14.

356    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

as a means of establishing Locke as an educator in that section

of the country.   It likewise was the means of bringing him      one

step nearer establishing his residence in Cincinnati which was to

become his permanent residence.

One authority wrote:

He began his work in Lexington, Ky., in 1821 and soon evinced his

superior talents as a teacher. In 1822 Locke had occasion to visit Cincinnati,

making the trip from Lexington on horseback. "As he emerged from the

woods of Kentucky, and rose over the hill south of Newport, the valley

surrounding the now Queen City opened to his admiring view. On approach-

ing the city the rattling of drays, the clink of hammers, the smoke of

factories, the rush of steamboats, the firing of signals of arrivals and

departures, acted upon his mind with all the force of enchantment. He fell

in love with the Queen City and decided to make his home here."  Ethan

Stone, that remarkable pioneer and philanthropist, took an interest in the

young stranger and aided him in establishing a non-sectarian school for

young ladies (Dr. Locke's School) which enjoyed a great reputation for

many years and was patronized by the best people. The school was located

on the east side of Walnut Street, between Third and Fourth Streets.³

Other friends soon included the ministers of several denom-

inations of churches in Cincinnati. Dr. Joshua L. Wilson and Dr.

Ruter, whose daughter became a pupil of Locke's school. There

was no concealment or evasion in respect to moral or religious

instruction in Locke's academy.  None was offered, teaching be-

ing construed as secular. Yet he was firm in making opportunities

to "impress on the minds of these pupils the great principles of

religion, the existence and attributes of Diety, the expedience

and necessity of cultivating social virtues.     Open your school

then that it may be patronized by all denominations," said Dr.

Ruter, "and great good will result."

In a History of Cincinnati and Hamilton Country is the fol-

lowing statement concerning Locke's school:

In 1823, Dr. John Locke, a man of science and of some progressive

views in education, organized in Cincinnati a private school for girls,

under the name of Locke's Female Academy. In this school, as in others

established about the same time in the Ohio Valley, some of the methods

of Pestalozzi were followed. It is interesting and suggestive to reflect

3 Otto  Juettner Daniel Drake and His  Followers (Cincinnati, 1909), 156.

DR. JOHN LOCKE                          357

that just at the time when the old Swiss reformer was nearing the close

of his life, dejected from  the apparent failure of his toils, enthusiastic

teachers on the banks of the Ohio river were putting his wise advice into

practice.4

A  family weekly magazine published at the time praised the

school thus: "It was truly gratifying to witness the rapid im-

provements of the pupils generally, in all the branches of science

taught in this institution, and more particularly in those of Natural

and Moral Philosophy and Botany."5 During the twelve years

of Locke's proprietorship somewhere near four hundred pupils

received an education in the school. Mentioned for high attain-

ment in the early days of the school were Amanda Drake, Mary

Longworth, Sarah and Jane Loring, Frances Wilson, Jane Keyes,

Eliza Longworth, Selima Morris, Charlotte and Mary Rogers,

Elizabeth Hamilton, and Julia Burnet.

Mrs. Trollope who usually displayed unlimited irritation in

her criticism  of Cincinnati and its inhabitants gave some space to

the school following her attendance at one of the commencements.

She described Dr. Locke as a

gentleman who appears to have liberal and enlarged opinions on the

subject of female education . . . [and] perceived, with some surprise, that

the higher branches of science were among the studies of the pretty crea-

tures I saw assembled there. ... 'A quarter's' mathematics, or 'two quar-

ters' political economy, moral philosophy, algebra and quadratic equations,

would seldom, I should think, enable the teacher and the scholar, by their

joint efforts, to lay in such a stock of these sciences as would stand the

wear and tear of half a score of children and one help.6

However, Mrs. Trollope's judgment has been             seriously

questioned.   liven her own son, Anthony, wrote of her that "no

observer was certainly ever less qualified to judge of the pros-

pects or even of the happiness of a young people."7

Contemporary writers in Cincinnati agreed that Mrs. Trol-

lope and her English friend, Miss Frances Wright, stirred a great

deal of discussion because of their unconventional attitudes.⁸ In

4 History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, Their Past and Present

(Cincinnati, 1894), 100.

5 Cincinnati Literary Gazette, July 31, 1824.

6 Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans (London, 1832), 114-5.

7 Anthony Trollope, Autobiography (New York, 1905), 156.

8 John P. Foote, The Schools of Cincinnati and Its Vicinity (Cincinnati, 1855),

64-5.

358   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

spite of bitter opposition they probably caused people to think

about some of the current problems of education and they may

have led the way to reform. Locke's school is noteworthy be-

cause it was turned definitely toward the concepts of modern

education. During its fourteen years, it would have established

Dr. Locke's reputation if he had never engaged in any other

occupation. He became famous for simple lucid exposition. His

method of asking questions designed to inculcate thinking habits

made the school known throughout the nation.

His methods were based on the principles of Pestalozzi.

During his brief association with educational methods while at

Windsor, Vermont, and his attempt to work alone while at Lex-

ington, he must have had an opportunity to try several methods.

There is also the possibility that he met Dr. Joseph Buchanan

while in Lexington, acquiring from this original, though some-

what frustrated genius, the firm conviction that mathematics and

science should become a part of a liberal education. If Locke's

school was not the first in the United States to try the Pestaloz-

zian method, it was certainty the first of such schools in the Ohio

Valley.  When Dr. Daniel Drake later turned to educational

problems he failed to acknowledge Locke's plan probably because

Locke had left his school and was a professor in the Ohio College

of Medicine, a rival of Drake's Cincinnati College.

Dr. Locke also began lectures in the Mechanics' Institute. He

is credited with being one of the early workers or founders of.

that valuable source of instruction. He began the lectures in his

own home and, when that became too crowded, gave them in a

building on Walnut Street occupied by a Baptist congregation.

Later, after Mrs. Trollope's financial debacle the Institute occu-

pied her bazaar.

In 1825, John Locke was married into one of Cincinnati's

distinguished families. Mary Morris, of Newark, New Jersey,

and niece of Nicholas Longworth, became his bride. In the course

of time six sons and four daughters were born.9 More and more

9 George M. Roe, Cincinnati: The Queen City of the West (Cincinnati, 1895),

360.

DR. JOHN LOCKE                     359

John Locke was devoting time to his own investigations in elec-

tricity and less to the preparatory school. He was ready in I835

to accept an appointment as Professor of Chemistry in the Medi-

cal College of Ohio. He also was becoming interested in geolog-

ical studies.

Probably his first interest in geological questions had come

from being asked to make chemical analyses of various minerals

submitted to him. The other possibility is that he had privately

begun some surveys of his own, the direct result of his student

days when he had served as assistant to Professor Silliman. His

lectures at the Mechanics' Institute would have promoted an at-

tempt to keep abreast of new publications. He may also have met

Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth at some of the medical meetings begin-

ning to be held at that time. Dr. Hildreth had been writing on

the geology of Ohio and publishing, among other places, in Silli-

man's Journal as the American Journal of Science and Arts was

popularly known. Dr. Hildreth had also served as chairman of

the governor's committee to report on the best method of obtaining

a complete geological survey of Ohio.10

Dr. Locke contributed to the Second Annual Report of the

Geological Survey, along with Charles Whittlesey, J. W. Foster,

Caleb Briggs, and Dr. J. P. Kirtland, with W. W. Mather as Chief

Geologist. Dr. Locke's report was the last one received as he

was lecturing and traveling in England during I837. His open-

ing sentence shows his eminently practical point of view and his

desire as an educator to reach his public. "As the geological re-

ports are intended, in part at least, for the distribution of useful

information among the people, it will be necessary to introduce

occasionally, though briefly as possible, such elementary explana-

tions as will enable them to understand the subject discussed."11

He was assigned the southwestern quarter of the State. He be-

gan with the chemical analysis of the limestones which had been

included in the first report of the committee as well. The lime-

stones were not fully classified as they are at present, of course,

10 Report of the Special Committee . . . on the Best Method of Obtaining a

Complete Geological Survey of the State of Ohio (Columbus, 1836), 15.

11 Ohio Geological Survey, Second Annual Report on the Geological Survey of

the State of Ohio (Columbus, 1838), 203.

360   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

and he simply states them by color as "blue limestone" or as "cliff

limestone."   The latter derived its name originally from       early

reports of surveys made in Scotland. It was the general name

for limestones forming cliffs. Locke wrote:

In accordance with this nomenclature a creek which falls into the

Ohio below Madison (Ia.) [Indiana] and makes in its course some magnifi-

cent leaps cover the cliff limestone has received the name of "Clifty Creek"

and the cascade that of "Clifty falls," the / being added agreeably to a

common provincialism of the west which makes a skiff, a "skift," a cliff, a

"clift," etc. Clifton, a town north of Xenia, is just at the commencement

of the same stone, and has borrowed its name from it.12

He surveyed and drew with great skill a diagrammatic section

of the valley and channel of the Ohio River at Cincinnati from

Keys Hill in Ohio to Botany Hill in Kentucky and records the

high water of the Ohio in I832, sixty-two feet above its low water

level of I838.13

Of the importance of studying the dip of geological forma-

tions he has this to say:

The strata are nearly horizontal, and having a slight and irregular

undulation, the dip is with difficulty ascertained, while one confines his

attention to the layers of the same formation, for example, to the blue

limestone about Cincinnati.  The inclinations resulting from  undulation,

are seldom more than one foot in 45; unless water be contiguous to mark

the level, the strata appear to the eye to be quite horizontal. I have exam-

ined the inclination of the strata of blue limestone about Cincinnati very

particularly with the leveling instrument, and have sometimes found a uni-

form and consistent dip for half a mile; in another locality the dip would

be in an opposite direction. The strata in the bed of the Ohio at its lowest

stage in Sept. 1838, showed, by comparison with the surface of the water,

that these local undulations were extremely irregular, presenting inclin-

ations which vary in all possible directions, in planes continued uniform

not generally more than one fourth of a mile. A single stratum cannot in

general be identified far enough to determine on the whole, whether it has,

independent of local undulations, an absolute dip. However, when we

examine the several formations, previously named, on a large scale, the

dip becomes very evident; and as one formation sinks gradually below

the surface, and another superior one presents itself, gives rise to those

important changes in the face and productions of the country, which we

should hardly attribute to a slope so moderate as one inch in a rod. By a

12 Ibid., 211.

13 Ibid., plate facing p. 211.

DR. JOHN LOCKE                         36I

correspondence held between Dr. Owen, the Geologist of Indiana and my-

self it has been ascertained that the strata slope downward each way from

a line not far from that between Ohio and Indiana pitching eastwardly

in Ohio and westwardly in Indiana in such a manner that the cliff lime-

stone, which shows itself not many miles east and west of Richmond, in

Indiana, descends and comes to the bed of the Ohio river, at the east side

of Adams Co., in Ohio, and at the falls of the Ohio, at Louisville.

It follows as a'consequence of this arrangement that the out-cropping

edges of the strata present themselves at the surface in the same order in

the two States, but proceeding in opposite directions. For example, on

ascending the Ohio eastwardly, we meet with blue limestone, cliff lime-

stone, slate, fine sandstone, conglomerate, and coal. On descending the

Ohio westwardly, we meet with the same things, in the same order, viz;

blue limestone, cliff limestone, slate, &c.14

This quotation is given in full as a splendid example of his

simple explanations and descriptions. Here Locke is the student

in the field beckoning the stay-at-home to venture out of doors

and try first hand an interpretation of nature. This is also the

first description of the great limestone arch, "the Cincinnati anti-

cline," as it came to be called in the textbooks. Locke had given

up his private school but he was still the educator addressing a

larger unseen audience as well as the special group for whom his

remarks Were prepared.

He was also eager to present the value of the study of geol-

ogy to the average citizen. On the map he prepared of Adams

County he placed a section connecting with Scioto County on the

east. He showed by this means that the coals of Scioto County,

because of their dip toward the east and their rise westward,

would be in the air I,160 feet above the level of western Adams

County. At a glance anyone would know that searching for coal

in Adams County would be useless. It is believed this is the first

time a geological report carried so much useful information in

such a simple, graphic way. Part of its purpose was to demon-

strate the practical side of the survey to the State legislative

assembly. However, it was not until thirty years later under

John S. Newberry that the work was resumed.

For some years, Dr. Locke had been investigating terrestrial

14 Ibid., 206.

362  OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

magnetism and the deviation from true north noted in the hand of

the compass. While he had been in England in 1837, Locke had

met some of the British investigators of this problem. He was

able to add data for comparison with the European published

results. He continued these investigations for a number of years

and soon was a recognized leader in this field. Possessed of an

inquiring mind and a passion for designing or improving pieces

of equipment he produced a "microscopic" compass and the

famous Locke level still used by civil engineers. Both of these

were employed first by him in his own survey work and then

offered for use to others.

Locke's connection with the Geological Survey produced a

number of results of permanent value to the State. It was

through his researches on the variation of the magnetic needle

that the corrections in the separate tracts of land in the survey of

the State of Ohio could be made. The Virginia Military Lands

were parceled out to the owners of claims without any regularity

or system. Locke helped to establish order in this confusion by

his knowledge of the behavior of the magnetic compass. He was

also able to locate iron deposits with a special instrument he devel-

oped, and made a journey into southeastern Ohio with other

members of the Survey for that purpose.  It was clear to the

members of the Geological Survey that much of the school land

originally appropriated to the State had been sold too quickly.

Without a geological appraisal the land had been sold on the basis

of its potential agricultural value only. The intelligent work of

men like Hildreth and Locke unfortunately could not prevail in

the moulding of public opinion. Instead of squandering most of

its land grant Ohio might have profited as was later possible in

some of the other states, notably Minnesota.

Locke was to have prepared detailed surveys of both Butler

and Adams counties. He completed Adams before the work was

abandoned. The survey of Adams County was thus appraised

years later by Evans and Stivers:

There has never been but one geological survey of Adams County,

and that was made by Prof. John Locke, Assistant State Geologist, in

Dr. JOHN LOCKE

1838. There is a more recent report but it does not at all cover the county.

Prof. Locke's report is so comprehensive and withal so plain that anyone

by reading it may acquire much valuable knowledge of the geological for-

mations of Adams County. It is however necessary to note some changes

in classification and nomenclature in accordance with present usage.15

On April 25, 1838, the disaster to the river steamer Moselle

occurred. It was the worst accident of its kind. The boilers had

exploded and the ship was burned. Since a number of lives were

lost, the citizens of Cincinnati called upon Dr. Locke to head a

committee of investigation. With his usual thoroughness Locke

examined the possible causes of the explosion.     He centered

blame upon the ship builders and owners, accusing them        of

neglect in taking precautions to guard the lives of crews and pas-

sengers.  His report was widely read.     The discussion of his

report became an important factor in establishing modern laws

to protect all who use steamboat navigation.

Dr. Locke may have accepted the chair of chemistry in the

Medical College of Ohio in 1835, though his actual teaching seems

to have begun in 1837. Locke went abroad between 1835 and

1837, for the purpose of purchasing new apparatus for the

courses he intended to teach. His connection with the college is

clearer after 1837, when the faculty was reorganized and the

rivalry with the Cincinnati College was declining.

He entered this period of teaching fully aware of the storms

that had centered around the medical faculties or one might also

say around the personality of Daniel Drake. By the time Locke

joined the faculty of the Medical College of Ohio, originally

founded by Drake, Drake had also founded two other medical

faculties in Cincinnati, the Medical Department of Miami Uni-

versity which lasted only a year and from which Drake resigned

when it was included in the Ohio College, and the Medical De-

partment of the Cincinnati College which lasted from 1831 until

1839. Meanwhile Drake had taught at Transylyania University

and at Jefferson College in Philadelphia. Drake's brilliant, tur-

15 Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers, A History of Adams County, Ohio

. . . (West Union, Ohio, 1900), 10.

364 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

bulent career, full of zeal and ambitions to be the foremost medi-

cal teacher in Cincinnati, touched the lives of all the prominent

medical, scientific, and public spirited citizens of the town. Locke

should have been forewarned by the frequent upsets in the medi-

cal faculties. This did not prove to be the fact.

When the political intrigues which had been fomented in the

Ohio College resulted in Locke's dismissal in 1849-50, he was

stunned. Although he was reinstated and served two more years

he no longer retained the enthusiasm for the college that carried

him through the creative years he had spent there. It was during

this period of about fourteen years that Locke proved to be one

of the most remarkable figures in the advancement of science in

his time. It is the aim of the following paragraphs to show this

phase of Locke's life.

locke had carried with him to England his observations of

the deviations of the magnetic compass and thus was able to make

comparisons with the results obtained in England. Col. Sabine,

of Woolwich, wrote to Locke, November 20, 1843: "Permit me

to express hope for early publication of your observations com-

paring Cincinnati, Toronto . . . on terrestrial magnetism. If

there should prove a difficulty causing a serious delay in the pub-

lication of your discoveries in the United States, I cannot doubt

that either the Royal Society or the British association would be

very proud to receive them and print them."¹⁶ There was sound

practicality in this request. The accuracy of surveying and navi-

gation were still too dependent upon the erratic compass.

He invented a thermoscopic galvanometer of great sensitivity

and demonstrated it to members of the British Association. Prob-

ably at this time he met Professor Wheatstone and Sir David

Brewster who were interested in his experiments on optics which

they were likewise investigating. G. M. Roe adds another factual

nugget:

In connection with this trip of Dr. Locke to Europe may be men-

tioned a circumstance illustrative of the uncertainties regarding municipal

action. The city of Cincinnati then used an incorrect linear measure and

requested Dr. Locke to secure a standard. He did so, having two made

16 Wright, Address on . . . John Locke.40.

DR. JOHN LOCKE    365

and compared with the English standard by William Simms, who made

the originals for the British Government. One of these is 413 millionth

of an inch too long, the other 150 millionth of an inch too short. (Stand-

ards can not be made exact but practically are so by having a known

error.) The city authorities failed to reimburse Dr. Locke, and the meas-

ures . . . still remain in the hands of his heirs. The measures are now of

great interest as the original English standards are under seal, and can only

be opened by an act of Parliament.17

The acquaintances he made abroad probably caused him to

think about the advantages of systematic gatherings of scientists.

He began to attend meetings of the newly organized Association

of American Geologists. He did not attend the founding meeting

held at the Franklin Institute in April 1840. He may have been

at that time with David Dale Owen on the Indiana Geological

Survey, the report of which was published that year. However,

W. W. Mather was present. Mather had known Locke for his

work on the Ohio survey and may have seen to it that Locke came

to the second meeting of the Association, and thus tied him in

with the group that included Edward Hitchcock, L. C. Beck,

Douglass Houghton, J. N. Nicollet, A. D. Bache, and others.

When the second meeting was held beginning April 5, 1841,

at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Locke was

appointed one of the committee to plan the conduct of business.

From the previous year a committee to discuss mineral manures

had been held over. Locke took part in that discussion. W. W.

Mather asked to postpone his paper on the "Drift" and Locke

read a paper on the "Geology of Some Parts of the U. S. West

of the Allegany Mountains." In this he offered some compari-

sons between the position and age of European formations and

those he had studied in Ohio and Indiana. This brought forth

some discussion and objections that were quite natural since "cliff

limestone" and "blue limestone," the currently employed terms,

were inadequate for comparative studies.

In a later session he described a new species of trilobite

found at Cincinnati and named by him Isotelus maximus. He

demonstrated by casts one specimen 93/4 inches long and frag-

17 Roc, Cincinnati, 360.

366 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

ments of another 19 1/2 inches long. The latter was the largest

trilobite known. In another paper he discussed the "diluvial

scratches" that he had observed in limestone. He called attention

to variations in the widths of the lines or grooves, up to 1/2 inch

broad. Some were "1/8 inch deep, scaled rough in the bottom as

if they had been ploughed by an iron chisel properly set and car-

ried forward with an irresistible force."  From  their exact

straightness and parallelism Locke drew the inference, now accep-

ted as factual, that the lines had been formed "by a body of im-

mense weight, moving with a momentum scarcely affected by the

resistance offered by the cutting of the grooves." He pointed out

that one set of grooves might be crossed at an angle by another,

but that the parallelism of each set remained.18

All of this data on striae must have set the geologists think-

ing that perhaps diluvial was not the way to describe these

scratches.  Not many of the members present had been West.

There was Nicollet who had explored in Missouri. He, Douglass

Houghton, Bela Hubbard, Mather, D. D. Owen, Locke, H. D.

Rogers, also of the Medical College of Ohio, and possibly some

others were opening up the explorations of the continent. The

great continental ice theory was not to be announced by Agassiz

for some years. The announcement of the parallel nature of the

grooves must have made that second session of the geologists

pretty much Locke's session.

At the second meeting, also held in Philadelphia, the presi-

dent, Rev. Professor Edward Hitchcock, referred to Locke's ob-

servations. There is not available a first hand report of all that

Locke had included in his paper. Hitchcock's address depends

in part on remarks that must have been made by Locke. Hitch-

cock brings out the point that the grooves even cross sharp ridges

without alteration of direction.  It was difficult after that ses-

sion to attribute all the facts about drift to a deluge. The stage

was being set during these meetings for the modern discussions

of glacial geology that were to follow in the next few years.

The place of leadership that Locke was filling in the early

18 American Journal of Science, XLI (1841), 158ff.

DR. JOHN LOCKE                    367

years of the Association of American Geologists continued dur-

ing the following meetings. At Boston in 1842, Dr. Samuel

Morton did not arrive on time and Locke was asked to take the

chair.  A constitution was adopted, the name being altered to

Association of American Geologists and Naturalists.  Its cos-

mopolitan aspect was attested by the presence of Charles Lyell.

As in the previous year, Locke presented papers on a diversity

of topics. His paper on "Ancient Earthworks in Ohio" led to

the formation of a committee to examine and report on the

western mounds.   Locke, J. N. Nicollet, John H. Blake, Dr.

George Engelman, of course Hildreth, Prof. Troost, and Dr. B.

B. Brown were named. A search for any work by this com-

mittee fails to turn up a report, however.

Locke also presented a paper on a new instrument he had in-

vented, a reflecting level and goniometer. He also described a

reflecting compass. His skill in designing instruments suited to

his problems was second only to his ingenuity in measuring and

observing facts others neglected. He was a teacher because he

was ready to deal with the situation at hand. He returned to

plant studies with a paper on a prostrate forest under the Ohio

diluvium. Not presented at the meeting was a published report

on observations made at Baltimore on the dipping compass. To

test his observations his friends, Major Graham, Nicollet, and

Bache, made similar use of his instruments. He also published

a drawing of the large trilobite, changing the name to Isotelus

megistor.19

Locke published a report on mineral lands ordered to be

surveyed by Congress in 1839. This had carried him to the lead

regions in Wisconsin and in Missouri. His observations on the

subject of terrestrial magnetism carried him to the north side of

Lake Superior.²⁰  He also became interested in transportation

problems at Sault Sainte Marie and was asked by the War De-

partment to prepare a report on the subject of a ship canal around

the rapids. He observed the granite boulders along the lake shores

10 Ibid., XLII (1842), 235, 366.

20 U. S. Congress, 26  Cong., 1 sess., Executive Document No. 239, pp. 53,

116-39.

368   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

with strong doubts as to their usefulness in canal construction.

He stated that the want of materials for such a work need

not be any impediment as the limestone of Drummond's Island

could be easily transported to the Sault. He made an observation

contrary to a recommendation which had been made to the War

Department with regard to the depth of the canal. He doubted

whether vessels drawing more than six feet of water could at all

times navigate St. Mary's River on account of two bars, one of

rock at the Nebish Rapids and the other of mud in Lake Huron.

Therefore it would hardly be necessary to make the proposed

canal twelve feet deep as had been suggested. Since Locke's time

more than a century of thoughtful experimentation has attempted

to adjust the ore and grain cargoes, the ships themselves, and the

docking facilities to the fundamental geological problems his alert

eyes reported in his "hasty" observations.

Then the Doctor, the almost forgotten person in the several

John Lockes of whom the reader must by this time be aware,

came forward to express himself.

There remains another consideration which although not immediately

connected with wealth is still important in furnishing that without which

wealth cannot be enjoyed. We venture to urge the opening of Lake

Superior to steam navigation in order to facilitate the access of thousands

of invalids to a region so picturesque, so novel, and so invigorating as can

scarcely be equalled on the globe.

He mentioned the weariness of life created by the "Mias-

mata of the Mississippi and the calm dry heat of a summer in the

Southwest."   He grew poetic in recommending an early escape

to the "pure water, the clear atmosphere, the temperate summer

climate, the rugged fir clad rocks, the piney glades carpeted

with reindeer licken and hung with the dangling usnea."

It was probably nostalgia for his own boyhood in Maine after

a succession of sultry summers in the Middle West that brought

the enraptured praise that follows:

The canal being opened the citizens of New York escaping from dust

and ennui and the resident of New Orleans fleeing from the pestilence of

the summer months may be speedily wafted to a meeting at Porter's Island,

at Isle Royale or at La Point and there enjoy most of the Boreau wonders

DR. JOHN LOCKE                         369

of which they have read in the voyages and travels of Ross, Franklin and

others and there in the day admire the delusive mirage of the distant shores

and in the night the portentous streamers of the aurora.

The fifth annual meeting of the Association of American

Geologists and Naturalists was held in        1844 at Washington.

Dr. Locke     served        as chairman, and               Dr. Douglass Hough-

ton as treasurer.              Dr. David D. Owen          who had    been  elected

secretary was not present. Locke read a paper on the connection

between geology and magnetism, since he had always made both

kinds of observations on his field trips. He noted that the great-

est magnetic force was to be found in the Lake Superior region.

Douglass Houghton read a paper on the importance of connecting

geological surveys with linear surveys of public lands.         The

Washington meeting, close to the seat of Congress, contained in

the papers of these two investigators a      symposium    which, if

noticed, would serve to call the attention of government officers to

the needs of research and exploration of our natural resources.

John Locke, the quiet teacher, was on the way to becoming          a

national figure.

In the paper he read at the meeting he remarked:

In the year 1838, I began to examine the elements of terrestrial

magnetism, including dip declination and intensity, both horizontal and

total, over various parts of the United States. Every year since I have

made journeys to extend this kind of research until now I have embraced

in a general way the region from Cambridge, Mass. westward to the ex-

treme of Iowa and. from the middle of Kentucky northward to the north

side of Lake Superior. It was but natural that I should note the geology

of the substratum at each station; and on reducing my observations and

putting them into tabular form I examined the properties of each group

extending over rocks of a similar kind and found so far as I had examined

some general indications of which classes of rocks might be distinguished

although concealed at considerable depths, the magnetical instruments in

this respect answering the general purpose of a mineral or divining rod.22

This may    have contained   a little over-extension    of his

enthusiasm--yet in the Lake Superior region compasses were al-

was showing crazy local deflections. What excitement was con-

22 American Association of Geolgists and Naturalists, Abstract of the Pro-

ceedings, V (1844), passim.

370  OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

cealed beneath the lofty cool words of Locke's paper! He was

talking to the men who knew better perhaps than any other group

in America the lack of knowledge of our mineral resources. They

were the custodians at that moment of enormous potential wealth

before which even Aladdin's lamp would have blinked out.

Present at the meeting were Douglass Houghton whose name

will always be associated with Michigan and Minnesota, Wm. B.

Rogers, H. D. Rogers, and A. D. Bache of the Coast Survey

Office. Capt. Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition

invited the company to visit the collections housed at the U. S.

Patent Office. An invitation was extended likewise from the U.

S. Naval Observatory. To a number of the men he met, Locke

was shortly to become indebted for attention they gave to other of

his inventions.

He had strung a telegraph line--the first one in Cincinnati

-- from the laboratory where he worked in the Ohio Medical

College to his home. He had trained two of his sons to help him

put together various instruments and pieces of scientific appara-

tus he continually was designing. Excerpts from Locke's report

seem the most appropriate for describing his greatest invention.

This instrument was the electro-chronograph.  "My attention

was first drawn practically to the subject of the combination of

clocks and electrical machinery for producing useful results in

1844 and '45."23 He had obtained a lathe and a set of tools from

the sculptor, Hiram Powers. Whenever he needed a new piece

of apparatus to demonstrate a principle he was able to design an

effective device. In consequence the lectures he offered attracted

a distinguished audience.  His assistants were Thomas K.

Beecher and his sons John Locke, Jr., and Joseph M. Locke.

He devised two types of electrotomes, one with a conducting

pendulum swinging through a mercury cup, the other a wheel

with pins or teeth to break the circuit of tripping a tilt hammer.

This second form avoided friction. It then occurred to him,

particularly after correspondence with Sears C. Walker of the

Coast Survey Office, that an improvement could be made on the

23 American Journal of Science, n. s., VIII (1849), 233.

DR. JOHN LOCKE                          371

observations of time signals and star signals made in the calcula-

tion of longitude.   Heretofore these had been made by ordinary

clock readings and manual contact with an electric circuit breaker

to send signals by telegraph to another station.     Due to an un-

certain loss of time the observations were not at the level of ac-

curacy desired.

Locke then thought of using the Morse register on which a

magnet marked traces on a paper ribbon.        By this means any

station connected with the observer could have an event recorded

at the split second the circuit-breaker key was moved.       "Almost

every astronomical observer has intiutively felt a desire to have

some kind of a chronograph with which to subdivide a second

and record fractionally the punctum of observation."

Sears C. Walker wrote:

Dr. John Locke of Cincinnati, has invented a very cheap and simple

instrument which can be attached to the same pivot along with the second

hand of any clock, and which will, when put in connection with the tele-

graphic circuit, make the clock beat at the same instant all along the line.

The hours, minutes and seconds, may be registered on the fillet of

paper, and by striking on the telegraphic key at the instant of any occur-

rence, the date of it is recorded on the same paper to the hundredth of a

second. This invention will be useful for many practical purposes. It

makes the current of time visible to the eye in a permanent record. It does

not change the rate of going of the most delicate clock. It will doubtless

be applied hereafter to many purposes for the advancement of science; such

as the determination of geographical longitude, in connection with transit

instruments, measurement of the velocity of sound; perhaps, if the circuit

be long enough, of lightning itself.²⁴

Lieutenant M. F. Maury, Superintendent of the National

Observatory, wrote in a letter to Hon. John Y. Mason, Secretary

of the Navy. this graphic account of the use of the electro-

chronograph:

Thus the astronomer in Boston observes the transit of a star as it

flits through the field of his instrument, and crosses the meridian of that

place. Instead of looking at a clock before him, and noting the time in the

usual way, he touches a key, and the clock here subdivides his seconds

to the minutest fraction, and records the time with unerring accuracy.

24 Ibid., 237-8.

372   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

The astronomer in Washington waits for the same star to cross his

meridian, and, as it does [the key for circuit breaking on] Dr. Locke's

magnetic clock is again touched; it divides the seconds and records the

time for him with equal precision. The difference between these two times

is the longitude of Boston from the meridan of Washington ....

And thus this problem, which has vexed astronomers and navigators,

and perplexed the world for ages, is reduced at once, by American ingenu-

ity, to a form and method the most simple and accurate. While the pro-

cess is so much simplified, the results are greatly refined. In one night

the longitude may be determined with far more accuracy by means of a

magnetic telegraph and clock, than it can by years of observation accord-

ing to any other method that has ever been tried.25

The Coast Survey had made an arrangement with the Tele-

graph Company in Cincinnati to have a line extend through Dr.

Locke's house. On November 17, 1848, this experiment of ob-

serving longitude with Locke's instruments was tried for the first

time and it was successful. The model instruments had been com-

pleted by the fourth of November. Dr. A. D. Bache communi-

cated a full report to Congress in December of that year and to

Dr. Locke a special Congressional award of ten thousand dollars

was the official recognition that the representation made on the

part of his colleagues in this advance into the realm of science

was approved.

This invention would be a happy, elevated note on which to

conclude the account of the work of Dr. John Locke. One must

not forget that his work in the fields of physics and astronomy

sprung from the lectures on chemistry he conducted in the Ohio

Medical College.   That was always an institution given to per-

sonality conflicts among the faculty members. Locke had be-

gun his work there during one of the frequent reorganizations of

the faculty personnel.  He was to leave it in the same manner.

The blow of being asked to resign was too much for him to bear,

even though he knew it was a political quarrel that forced his dis-

missal. He was shortly afterward reinstated, but the damage to

his spirit of loyalty had been too great to rekindle hi's old enthus-

iasm for the school. He remained two years after reinstatement

25 Ibid., 241.

DR. JOHN LOCKE                   373

but moved to Lebanon, Ohio, and there managed a preparatory

school. This was too weak a challenge to his broad grasp of the

world of science. But he had no further taste for original in-

vestigation if he and his labors were to be subject to political

vagaries.

At the meeting held in 1851  in Cincinnati of the American

Association for the Advancement of Science, a lineal descendant of

the old Association of Geologists and Naturalists. over which he

had presided, Locke was not present. His son, L. T. Locke of

Nashua, New Hampshire, is listed among members of the asso-

ciation, but his name is dramatically lacking.  His friend and

associate who had done much to praise the electro-chronograph, A.

D. Bache, served as president. O.D. Mitchell, the Director of

Astronomical Observatory of Cincinnati, delivered an address on

the longitude of Cincinnati, and Sears Walker gave a report, but

the only mention of the name of Locke is an acknowledgement of

a chronometer loaned by him.26 To Locke it was easier to sub-

divide seconds than it was to regain emotional composure and

balance.

He made one strong effort to return to his first interest in

the field of science--the plant world. He delivered at Lebanon

an address, "On the means of renovating worn out farms." After

discussing declining fertility in soils and the methods of com-

batting this, he recommends the establishment of libraries of

agricultural schools and an agricultural survey. It is interesting

to note that a paper by N. S. Townshend is contained in this same

volume.27 The brilliant genius of John Locke was dimmed.

He was not looking backward but was passing something of his

spirit to others who would look to the natural resources of Ohio

and their future development.

26 American Association for the Advancement of Science, Proceedings, V

(1851), passim.

27 Ohio  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  Ninth  Annual  Report  .  .  . 1854

(Columbus, 1855), 212-2.