Troy - Birthplace of American Geology?

By Don Rittner

Before 1830, there were two important centers for the study of the science of geology. London, the largest city in the world, at that time, and Troy, New York, with a population with a little more than 10,000. In fact, before 1818, there was little published at all about American geology.

While Troy is better known as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, among the scientific community the city is known as the birthplace of the study of geological science in America.

Two people are given credit for this honor: Stephen Van Rensselear (1764 1839) and Amos Eaton (1776-1842).

Stephen Van Rensselaer, descendant of the original Dutch Patroon, graduated from Harvard in 1782. In 1819, the New York legislature hired him to preside as president of the Central Board of Agriculture. Under the auspices of the board, two volumes were published (at his own expense) on the geology of Albany and Rennselaer counties and were authored by Amos Eaton, a Columbia County native, and originally trained as a lawyer. According to historians of geology, it was the first attempt in America to collect and arrange geological facts for the betterment of agriculture.

Amos Eaton had earlier conducted a geological survey in Massachusetts which is the first recorded instance of the American use of a field trip as a tool of study that would later become the accepted way to train in public schools and colleges up to this day. Also, In 1818, Eaton published a textbook with a time and rock classification and a local field guide, which may be one of the first in the country.

But Eaton’s glory really began when he teamed up with Van Rensselaer.

Van Rensselear supported Eaton’s geological study of the land adjoining the newly formed Erie Canal during the period 1823-24. This survey revolutionized geology and other sciences though its introduction of new and precise nomenclature for the rocks of the state according to Dr. Gerald M. Friedman, from the City University of New York, and the author of several papers on the history of American geology.

In 1824, Eaton asked Van Rensselaer for $300 to start the Rensselaer School (now RPI), which he eagerly did and financially supported until 1829. By 1830, Eaton, founder and first professor of the school, had published a textbook and geologic map of the entire state but also was making an enormous impact by becoming the mentor of several students that later would contribute huge amounts to the geologic knowledge of the country.

In fact, the geological profession calls the period 1818-1836 as the "Eatonian Era," in honor of the success of Eaton’s promotion of geology during that time. By 1860, seven graduates of Eaton were in charge of geological surveys throughout the country, a feat unmatched by any university to this day.

Many of Eaton’s students went on to their own fame: James Hall, Ebenezer Emmons Sr., James Eights, Lewis Beck, and Joseph Henry, to name a few.

Joseph Henry, one of the students on Eaton’s flotilla down the Erie Canal, later founded the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress.

James Eights, an Albany doctor and naturalist, became the first American naturalist to explore the Antarctic (and locally kept a daily diary on the natural history of Albany's famed Pine Bush).

James Hall was known as the father of the geosyncline, a geological concept that lasted 100 years (and not even mentioned in textbooks now). Hall was appointed New York State’s first State Geologist in 1836.

Lewis C. Beck, from Schenecatdy and M.D. from Albany Medical College, was appointed the first junior professor at RPI under Emmons. In 1829, he became New York’s State Mineralogist. That year his brother T. Romeyn Beck, and Governor William L. Marcy (another Troy native), appointed Beck to survey the State’s mineral resources. By 1842, he had travelled over 8000 miles and published one of the classics of the State’s Geological Survey.

Ebenezer Emmons Sr. became junior professor at Rensselaer in 1830 and stayed there for ten years. He became the State Geologist for the northern New York State district in 1836. Emmons is the person who named the Adirondacks (1838) and Taconic Mountains (1844). He later became the state geologist for North Carolina, and throughout his career published several classic geology texts in 1826, 1842, 1854, and 1860.

Emmons had a well publicized downfall with James Hall and others over Emmon’s Taconic System classification, and was blackballed from New York State. He sued Hall for slander and libel but lost the case. He did get his revenge though. After he died in 1863, his body was returned to the area and was buried in Albany Rural Cemetery, just a few feet from Hall. I’ve been told he was buried facing Hall!

Amos Eaton, who some call the Father of American Geology, died in 1842 and is buried in Oakwood Cemetary.

Got History? Contact Don at drittner@aol.com or 251 River St., Troy. His new book on Lansingbugh will be hitting the bookstores this week.