The
Mace Brown Museum of Natural History is located at the College of
Charleston, 202 Calhoun Street, 2nd Floor, Charleston, South Carolina
29424.
Learn more at their blog: http://blogs.cofc.edu/macebrownmuseum/
The
Mace Brown Museum of Natural History is located at the College of
Charleston, 202 Calhoun Street, 2nd Floor, Charleston, South Carolina
29424.
Learn more at their blog: http://blogs.cofc.edu/macebrownmuseum/
The
Mace Brown Museum of Natural History is located at the College of
Charleston, 202 Calhoun Street, 2nd Floor, Charleston, South Carolina
29424.
Learn more at their blog: http://blogs.cofc.edu/macebrownmuseum/
The
Mace Brown Museum of Natural History is located at the College of
Charleston, 202 Calhoun Street, 2nd Floor, Charleston, South Carolina
29424.
Learn more at their blog: http://blogs.cofc.edu/macebrownmuseum/
The
Mace Brown Museum of Natural History is located at the College of
Charleston, 202 Calhoun Street, 2nd Floor, Charleston, South Carolina
29424.
Learn more at their blog: http://blogs.cofc.edu/macebrownmuseum/
The
Mace Brown Museum of Natural History is located at the College of
Charleston, 202 Calhoun Street, 2nd Floor, Charleston, South Carolina
29424.
Learn more at their blog: http://blogs.cofc.edu/macebrownmuseum/
The
Mace Brown Museum of Natural History is located at the College of
Charleston, 202 Calhoun Street, 2nd Floor, Charleston, South Carolina
29424.
Learn more at their blog: http://blogs.cofc.edu/macebrownmuseum/
He writes on page 107, "S. A. CASSEDAY was born in Louisville, Ky., and died at the same place, in September, 1860. He is remembered for his valuable publications upon the Crinoidea."
It is unclear the exact date of Samuel Addison Casseday's birth. His mother was Eliza McFarland Casseda (1800-1849) of Philadelphia. A birth date recorded in his brother-in-law's Bible lists November 13, 1831. His youngest sister in 1922 described their childhood environment growing up in one of her published books:
The Casseday home was notable in its day. In 1844 father bought an elevated plateau right in the heart of Louisville, Kentucky. There were eight children of us and he built a big sunny house, providing winter romp-rooms for his four little girls and a completely furnished carpenter shop for his four growing boys. This wise provision kept his girls and boys at home and also supplied companionship with the boys and girls of his friends... We were a big, happy, cultured family, bookish and artistic. I think we were modest withal, of our very fortunate circumstances did not strike us as exceptional at all or a matter to be vain of, but only as a happy matter of course. Father and mother, both, early taught us the Golden Rule as a rule for life.
A winter picture of the Casseday Family House, where they lived from 1844-1865 in Louisville
The Louisville newspapers listed geology talks that were given in the city around the mid-1800s. The first of these appeared in the The Louisville Daily Courier on Monday, June 4, 1849 stating the monthly meeting of the Academy of Natural Science at 8 o'clock will have a lecture on geology by S.A. Casseday, Esq.
He traveled to Europe to expand his geological studies from 1853 to 1854.
In 1854, he published in German Abdruck a. d . Zeitschr . d . deutschen geologischen Gesellschaft Jahrg .237 where he described the crinoid genus Batocrinus and two species B. icosidactylus (shown at the top of this posting) and B. irregularis (shown below). S. A. Miller translated this into English in the Eighteenth Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana of September 1892. It was entitled " DESCRIPTION OF A NEW GENUS OF CRINOIDS FROM THE MOUNTAIN LIMESTONE OF NORTH AMERICA , BY MR. CASSEDAY, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY. "
We are glad to hear that an effort is being made, with every prospect of success, to reorganize the Louisville Natural History Society. Two winters ago it had a brief, but highly useful existence, and the memory of the instructive and pleasant lectures, delivered under the auspices, is yet cherished by those who were so fortunate as to be hearers... There are others, younger in years, but scarcely less proficient than their seniors, whose ambition in so unusual a province of study should be stimulated by popular approbation. Among these is Mr. S. A. Casseday, a young gentleman whose natural inclinations and talents have been furthered by the greatest possible advantages in the scientific schools of Germany. In him the Natural History Society has an enthusiastic, yet unassuming member, whose labors the older members highly appreciate.
In 1857, The Palaeontological Report of S.S. Lyon, E.T. Cox, and Leo. Lesquereux as Prepared for the Geological Report of Kentucky and Published in Vol. 3 was published. On page 495, it is written "For valuable hints and assistance our thanks are due to Dr. D.D. Owen; also, to Samuel Casseday, for the use of his cabinet of Crinoidea and Olivanites."
The Louisville Daily Courier on Monday, November 8, 1858 that the Academy of Natural Science appointed Mr. S.A. Casseday chair and Prof. Wm. Hailmain as secretary. They listed the objectives of the group:
1. The formation of a library pertaining to natural sciences.2. The cultivation of natural sciences by its members.3. The diffusion of a taste for natural science in the community, by means of public lectures.
A case of fossils and minerals, from the cabinet of Dr. Knapp, presents a fruitful field for thought. Corals from the ancient coral reef of the falls, now many thousands of years old; minerals elaborated in the recondite laboratories of the globe; and huge stalactites, formed by the slow dripping of water form the roof of some cavern; combine to carry the feelings back into a former existence, dreamed of only by geologists... Some fine calumets, made from the redstone quarries of the Northwest, belonging to the same gentleman, remind us of the quint description of this peculiar stone in Longfellows' Hiwatha. A case of birds, animals, etc. for the cabinet of S.A. Casseday, Esq., complete this portion of the exhibition.
The Louisville Daily Courier Wednesday November 17, 1858 edition page 1 published a notice by the The Academy of Science in Louisville, Kentucky.
We regret that the initiate meeting of this institution, which promises to prove so valuable in directing the literary tastes of our city, should have been marked by the production of a paper that is likely to cause suspicion to rest upon the Academy. We refer to the essay of Mr. S.A. Casseday. He argued with great ingenuity, much plausibility, and show of learning worthy of a better cause, that the Mosaic account of the creation did not coincide with that deduced by geologists. It would be an easy task, but one that we do not covet, to disprove the assumption of Mr. Casseday. There is, and there can be, no real discrepancy between the ible and geology. The impress of the Divine hand is upon both. Each sustain the other. We have high admiration of Mr. Casseday's talent, and regret that he has seen fit to expend this time and researches in so questionable a manner. Mr. Dembitz reads the next paper before the Society. The following officers were chosen Monday night: President, S. A. Casseday; Vice President, T. E. Jenkins; Secretary, W. N. Hailman; Treasurer, G. Dembitz; Librarian, C. G. Knapp.
Since the eventful day upon which Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark set sail from the midst of "our falls" upon the adventurous expedition which proved so fruitful of honor to his arms, the falls about the Ohio have proven a historic object. That they were converted into a higher, and holier, and deeper interest has not been generally known. Last evening, Prof. Yandell delivered, in the University Hall, an elaborate discourse upon the geological formation of the falls. He demonstrated conclusively that the action of ages had changed the formation of the rocks. Think of it! We might have had a cascade of water that would have equaled the famed Niagara. Prof. Yandell demonstrated the positions of his lecture of a fine display of corals and other geological specimens. Together with Mr. S. A. Casseday, he has the finest collection of Devonian rocks in the world. They are all a truthful witness of the great I AM.
The American Journal of Science in 1860 published an article entitled "Description of Nine new species of Crinoidea from the Subcarboniferous Rocks of Indiana and Kentucky" by Sidney Smith Lyon (1808-1872) and S.A. Casseday. They named Pterotocrinus depressus, Pterotocrinus pyradmidalis, Pterotocrinus rugosus, Zeacrinus ovalis, Cyathocrinus dekadactylus, Cyathocrinus hexadactylus, Actinocrinus indiaanensis, Actinocrinus coreyi, and Onychocrinus exculptus.
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| The Falls of the Ohio as it looked in the early 1900s. Image colorized. |
The term Falls appears hardly justifiable to the people of to-day. There seem now not even to be the rough and roaring eddies which danced in the sunlight before the eyes of the writer when, as a little girl, her geologist brother used to take her over the Falls at low water, his hammer in his hand and a bag for rare specimens of corals and shells slung over his shoulder.
Wonderful and beautiful and curious were the fossils he collected from that old Devonian sea, which once so teemed with life. From all over the civilized world men of science used to come to Kentucky and to Louisville to study the fossil remains on the Ohio Falls. Even that great man, Alexander von Humboldt, wrote autograph letters on the subject to that same brother, one of which still remains in the family. Even now at lowest water, when the Kentucky chute is dry or very nearly so, one can see an ancient coral reef made of fine-textured "coral sand" about twenty feet in thickness and filed with fossilized corals exquisitely preserved. Louisville children should visit the Falls and see conditions there for themselves.
His oldest brother Benjamin Casseday (1825-1878) became a journalist and later wrote the 1852 book, History of Louisville.
His brother Alexander C. Casseday (1836-1862) enlisted in the Confederate army and attained the rank of major. He was captured in Cumberland, Kentucky and later died in a prisoner of war camp in Columbus, Ohio on March 21, 1862.
His oldest sister Mary W. Casseday (1839-1874) married a Presbyterian Reverend William Thomas McElroy (1829-1910). After his death, Reverend McElroy's papers ended up in the Filson Historical Society along with S.A. Casseday's geological diary from his trip to Europe and letters during that time.
It turns out the most famous person in the family would be his sister Jennie H. Casseday (1840-1893) who was in a horrific horse carriage accident when she was 21 years old. After the accident, she was bedridden the rest of her living days. In 1878 she created the Jennie Casseday Flower Mission to distribute flowers and scripture texts to the poor and sick of the community. The mission also distributed flowers to those in prisons. This movement gained popularity and by 1882 was spread across the United States with the help of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She also helped organize the Louisville chapter of the Order of the King's Daughters.
While the Find-A-Grave web site record for Samuel Addison does not list a birth or death date or a picture of his gravestone when I started writing this. So I visited Cave Hill Cemetery and took some pictures in section B, lot 75 where the Casseday family is buried. Reverend McElroy's Bible lists S.A. Casseday death date as September 13, 1860. The gravestone degraded after 160 years and is hard to read. It looked to me that the death year was 1860 and the day was 13 while I could not make out the month.
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| This is a picture of the Casseday family plot at Cave Hill Cemetery. The arrow points to S.A. Casseday grave. The large stone with a sphere at the top of it is where his sister Jennie Casseday is buried. It was paid for by donations from the school children of Louisville. |
On October 15, 1860, The Louisville Daily Courier published this on page 3:
Kentucky Museum - We are gratified to learn that Samuel Casseday, Esq., has deposited in this promising institution the cabinet of his lamented son, Samuel A. Casseday. The collection is of rare value, comprising more than two thousand paleontological specimens, selected and arranged with scientific care, many of them discovered and described for the first time by the collector. Surely no more fitting monument could be elevated by the afflicted father to his departed son, and generations will bless the diligent collector and faithful scholar for the benefits and pleasures afforded them by the result of his patient toil and research in the field of science.
I am not sure what became of the Kentucky Museum that probably the holotype specimens of Batocrinus crinoid fossils went to. The Smithsonian and Harvard collection databases show this genus in their collections and some are from Indiana. The Harvard collection shows 7 specimens of Batocrinus irregularis from Spergen Hill, Indiana (type locality) that were collected by George H.(K) Green(e), catalog number IPCR-27. It could be possible that New Albany, Indiana fossil dealer Greene obtained the Kentucky Museum's collection and later sold it to Harvard.
In 1868 F. B. Meek & A.H. Worthen in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia article "Notes on some points in the Structure and Habitats of the Palaezoic Crinoidea" named a new species of crinoid Batocrinus cassedayanus in which they wrote "The specific name is given in honor of Mr. S. A. Casseday, deceased, the author of the genus Batocrinus."
Here is a picture taken in 2009 at Coopers Lane Quarry in Clark County Indiana USA. It appears to be an Elaecrinus verneuili (Römer [aka Roemer], 1851) blastoid fossil embedded in limestone floor of the quarry. Stem segments of crinoids and blastoids are fossilized around it along with a Fenestella bryozoan netting fossil. All of this would be broken up by the quarry later but got an image of it before that happened. This layer might be the Jeffersonville Limestone and dates back to the Devonian Period.
Panoramic view of the quarry at the time.
Rogers "Rog" Clark Ballard was born on November 6, 1858 to Frances "Fanny" Ann Thruston (1826-1896) and Andrew Jackson Ballard (1815-1885) in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was born into a wealthy and prestigious family; his great-grandmother was George Rogers Clark (1752-1818) sister. Rogers began his early education at Hopkins Grammer of New Haven, Connecticut and then Williston Seminary of East Hampton, Massachusetts. After his freshman year of college, in the summer of 1877 he helped his father with mining interests in Colorado thus missing the start of his sophomore term.
He graduated in 1880 from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University with a degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. To round out his education, late in life the University of Louisville conferred a Master of Arts degree upon him in 1937 and the University of Kentucky awarded him a degree of Doctor of Laws in 1942.
After graduating Yale, he started as a clerk for the Monon Railroad office in Louisville and worked his way up to Assistant Ticket Auditor. Later, he became a metallurgist for the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) on July 1, 1882. At the age of 25, on October 27, 1884, the Fayette County Court appended his mother's maiden name Thruston to his last name. His mother, the last of the Thrustons, wanted her family name to live on but as it turned out, he never married or had any children. He would sign paperwork with his initials RCBT or R.C. Ballard Thruston.
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| Appears to be a Bellerophon meekianus gastropod fossil found by George Rogers Ballard Thruston in 1883 in a coal seam at Elkhorn Creek, Pike County, Kentucky. |
He helped survey and photograph ("kodak") Pike, Letcher, Harlan, and Bell counties till he left the KGS in 1887. RCBT took employment with the Kentucky Union Land Company where he was buying land in Harlan and Bell counties as well as Wise and Lee counties in Virginia for coal and iron mining. By 1890, he was promoted to Superintendent of the Land Department where he worked on acquiring land for timber and coal in Estill, Powell, Lee, Breathitt, Perry and Letcher counties. In the 1880s, he and his brothers acquired acreage through the Interstate Investment Company in the Big Stone Gap section of Virginia for coal production. RCBT managed the Big Stone Gap Iron Company from 1895 to 1899.
As a side note, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by John Fox, Jr. (1862-1919) was published in 1908. It became one of the best selling books in the United States in 1908 and 1909. The story takes place in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia and Kentucky. Its main character is geologist John Hale who the author in part based on Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston. The story was adapted into a 1912 Broadway production, a 1916 Cecil B. DeMille film, a 1923 film and a 1936 film starring Fred MacMurray (1908-1991), Sylvia Sidney (1910-1999), and Henry Fonda (1905-1982). The author John Fox, Jr. was a friend to RCBT in 1890 where his family lived at Big Stone Gap, Virginia.
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| A colorized image from John Fox Jr. 1908 book The Trail of the Lonesome Pine showing the main characters mountain girl June Tolliver and geologist-engineer Jack Hale. It is thought heroine is based off a Keokee, Virginia girl Elizabeth Morris and the character Jack is partially based off of Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston who was a surveying geologist in the Big Stone Gap, Virginia area. |
In 1919, at the age of 61, Thruston retired with the intent to spending the rest of life studying history and traveling.
On November 18, 1921 he helped dedicate the Sunshine Ballard Cabin to Berea College. It was in honor of one of his relatives. The cabin allowed the school to expand its Fireside Industries department which taught weaving, basketry, homespun and hand work.
In 1922, he traveled to Naples, Florida, while there he found a number of gastropod shells (fossils?) known as Theodoxus reclivatus (Say, 1822) [modern name is Vitta usnea (Röding, 1798)].
In 1925, he participated in a history pageant in Lexington, Kentucky and dressed as his ancestor George Rogers Clark. He would spend the rest of his life promoting a monument be created to honor George Rogers Clark.
In 1930, he unveiled a monument to George Rogers Clark in Springfield, Illinois.
Today, the biggest impact Mr. Thruston left upon the Louisville area were his contributions to The Filson Historical Society (FHS). In 1919, he offered $50,000 to help the society obtain a fireproof room to store its collections. When the founder of the society, Reuben T. Durrett died in 1913, his family sold his historic collection the University of Chicago. RCBT went to Chicago to retrieve items that really belonged to the society and returned them to Louisville. He was president of the society from 1923 to 1946. In 1923, he helped the society purchase a new home and in 1929 covered half the cost of moving into it.
He purchased F. W. Leach's research work The Genealogies of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence and donated to the FHS. His photo collection of over 20,000 images from 1880-1942 was also donated to the FHS collection. He contributed the following to the FHS History Quarterly
1926 The Signing of the Declaration of Independence
1928 Letter by Edward Harris 1797
1935 Some Recent Findings Regarding the Ancestry of General George Rogers Clark
1937 Reprint of The Filson Club Program of June 25 1937 The Lincoln Pilgrimage
1941 After the Death of George Rogers Clark
He died at 2:15 a.m. at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky on December 30, 1946. His funeral was held at Christ Church Cathedral followed by his burial at Cave Hill Cemetery. His remains are buried next to his parents in section G, lot 24, grave 12 at the cemetery.
RCBT left a very explicit 9 page will.
Here is part of it, "As to the disposition of my remains after death. I am the holder of lots 24 and 25 in Section G, in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky. There are buried the remains of my maternal grand-parents and their children, my parents, a brother, my sister and certain law kin. The space next to the grave of my father has been set aside for my remains. There I have erected a headstone with an inscription complete except as to the dates of my death; that date I direct my executor to
have suitably inscribed thereon.
My desire is that my body be cremated; that my ashes be placed in a simple glass, metal or pottery container and buried on the site above named. I also desire that all unnecessary forms and ceremonies be dispensed with and that the disposition of my remains after my death be accomplished simply, quickly and inexpensively."
As described above, his financial and research material contributions to the Filson Historical Society are probably his most lasting mark on the Louisville area. In 1947, the Society devoted an entire issue of the History Quarterly to his memory.
Besides the fossils I have documented earlier, he also left specimens to the old museum that was part of the Louisville Free Public Library which was later transferred to what is now the Kentucky Science Center. They are de-accessioning that collection so Thruston's items might now go to the Filson Historical Society or Frazier History Museum. The Speed Art Museum has some of his paintings including one called the View of Jerusalem from 1867.
He and his brothers donated a number of pieces of land to become parks: Ballard Square, Churchill Park and George Rogers Clark Park. In addition, they deeded the original home of George Rogers Clark on Poplar Level Road to the City of Louisville.
These pictures are of what appears to be a Syringothyrus texta (Hall, 1857) brachiopod fossil. On the hinge line and where the shells come together shows imprints of a Conularia fossil. It was found in the Carwood Formation of Floyd County, Indiana, USA. The fossil dates to the Mississippian Period. Thanks to Kenny for the images.
These pictures are of what appears to be a Bucanopsis (Ulrich and Scofield, 1897) gastropod fossil. It was found in the Carwood Formation of Floyd County, Indiana, USA. The fossil dates to the Mississippian Period. Thanks to Kenny for the images.
These pictures are of what appears to be a Prolecanites americanis (Miller and Garner, 1953) ammonite fossil. It was found in the Carwood Formation of Floyd County, Indiana, USA. The fossil dates to the Mississippian Period. Note the black suture lines seen in the image.
Thanks to Kenny for the images.
Most of the specimens of chain corals I have seen, one cannot see the little square shapes in between the chain shapes. It is possible they are there but after hundreds of millions of years they blended together obscuring the four sided shape.
This fossil is found in the Louisville Limestone of Jefferson County Kentucky USA. It dates to the Middle Silurian Period.
