Bennett, John Cook (03 August 1804–05 August 1867), physician, religious leader, and entrepreneur, was born in Fair Haven, Bristol County, Massachusetts, the son of John Bennett, a shipowner, and Abigail Cook. At his father’s death in 1817, he moved with his mother to Ohio to stay with relatives. In 1825, after a three-year apprenticeship with a physician and an oral examination by an Ohio medical society, Bennett received his M.D. and a license to practice. That year he married Mary Barker; they had three children. There is no evidence supporting his claim to have attended Ohio University or McGill College in Montreal; he did, however, become a Freemason in 1826....
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Bennett, John Cook (1804-1867), physician, religious leader, and entrepreneur
Michael Quinn
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Cobb, Cully Alton (1884-1975), agricultural educator, editor, and publisher
Sandra S. Vance
Cobb, Cully Alton (25 February 1884–07 May 1975), agricultural educator, editor, and publisher, was born in a log cabin on the farm of his paternal grandfather near Prospect, Tennessee, the son of Napoleon Bonaparte Cobb, a farmer and rural minister, and Mary Agnes Woodward. Cobb attended public school in Giles County, Tennessee, and Decatur, Alabama. He entered Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Mississippi State University) in 1904 and graduated in 1908 with a bachelor of science degree in agriculture. From 1908 to 1910 he served as principal of Chickasaw County Agricultural High School at Buena Vista, Mississippi. The first of fifty such institutions established in the state between 1908 and 1920, the school afforded rural youths a college-preparatory education as well as practical training in farming. In 1910 he married Ora May “Byrdie” Ball, with whom he had two children....
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Dabney, Charles William (1855-1945), educator, college president, and agrichemist
Kevin Grace
Dabney, Charles William (19 June 1855–15 June 1945), educator, college president, and agrichemist, was born in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia, the son of Robert Louis Dabney, a Presbyterian theologian, and Margaretta Lavinia Morrison. His mother and father were both from prominent southern families, and his father served as chaplain to ...
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Fitch, Asa (1809-1879), entomologist, agriculturist, and historian
Jeffrey K. Barnes
Fitch, Asa (24 February 1809–08 April 1879), entomologist, agriculturist, and historian, was born in Salem (Washington County), New York, the son of Asa Fitch, a physician and judge, and Abigail Martin. Fitch spent his childhood on the family farm, where he developed a fascination with natural history and a deep sense of religious conviction. He received a liberal education at academies in Salem, New York, and Bennington, Vermont, from 1822 to 1824, and in 1826 he entered the Rensselaer School (now Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), a new school for scientific education in Troy, New York. There he learned the importance of experimenting and learning by doing, and he became convinced that economic and social enrichment would result from the application of science to the common purposes of life. In 1826 he accompanied students and faculty on a scientific tour of the recently opened Erie Canal. Under the instruction of ...
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Garnett, James Mercer (1770-1843), congressman, agricultural reformer, and educator
Sara B. Bearss
Garnett, James Mercer (08 June 1770–23 April 1843), congressman, agricultural reformer, and educator, was born at “Mount Pleasant” plantation, near present-day Loretto in Essex County, Virginia, the son of planters Muscoe Garnett and Grace Fenton Mercer. He was privately educated, and in 1793 married his first cousin, Mary Eleanor Dick Mercer. The couple had four daughters and four sons....
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Knapp, Seaman Asahel (1833-1911), college president and advocate for the improvement of southern agriculture
James M. Clifton
Knapp, Seaman Asahel (10 December 1833–01 April 1911), college president and advocate for the improvement of southern agriculture, was born in Schroon Lake, Essex County, New York, the son of Bradford Knapp, a physician, and Rhonda Seaman. Following preparatory work at Troy Conference Academy, Poultney, Vermont, he enrolled at Union College, Schenectady, New York, in 1852 and graduated with honors in 1856. Three weeks later he married Maria Elizabeth Hotchkiss of Hampton, New York; the couple had five children. Knapp taught initially at Fort Edward Institute, Fort Edward, New York, where he soon became a junior partner in the administration of the institute. Then in 1863 he purchased half-interest in his alma mater, the Troy Conference Academy, known subsequently as Ripley Female College. In 1864 Knapp joined with eight other men to incorporate a business school specifically for young men, named Poultney Normal Institute....
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Pugh, Evan (1828-1864), educator and scientist
Jim Weeks
Pugh, Evan (29 February 1828–29 April 1864), educator and scientist, was born in East Nottingham Township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of Lewis Pugh and Mary Hutton, farmers. Both parents, who were Quakers, traced their American ancestry to the Pughs who numbered among the early Welsh Friends emigrating to Pennsylvania. Apprenticed to a blacksmith at age sixteen, Pugh enrolled three years later in a manual labor academy at Whitestown, New York. Farm work along with studying scientific literature sparked his interest in applying science to agriculture....
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Stockbridge, Levi (1820-1904), educator and agricultural leader
Edward L. Lach, Jr.
Stockbridge, Levi (13 March 1820–02 May 1904), educator and agricultural leader, was born in Hadley, Massachusetts, the son of Deacon Jason Stockbridge, a farmer and state legislator, and Abigail Montague. After attending local schools he entered Hopkins Academy. Upon graduation he began farming and spent his winters teaching in district schools. Determined to bring scientifically based improvements into agriculture, Stockbridge studied all the available literature in the embryonic discipline of scientific farming and also trained himself in forensics at the local lyceum. He married Syrena Lamson on 20 January 1841; they had three children. Following his first wife's death in 1850, he married Joanna Smith on 4 November 1853. This marriage also produced three children....
