FRANKLIN COUNTY OHIO - BIO: LESQUEREUX, Prof. Leo (published 1880) *************************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. *************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by LeaAnn Rich leaann1@bellsouth.net February 11, 1999 *************************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio By Henry Howe LL. D. PROF. LEO LESQUEREUX, paleo botanist, was born in 1806, in Fleurier, canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland. His ancestors were Huguenots, fugitives from France after the Edict of Nantes. He was destined for the church, but at nineteen years of age, when he entered the Academy of Neuchatel, he met Arnold Guyot, and together they became much interested in natural science, toward which Lesquereux's taste and disposition had always inclined. Completing his course in the academy of Neuchatel, he went to Eisenach, and taught the French language while perfecting himself in the German language, preparatory to entering the University of Berlin. In 1829 he returned to Switzerland as principal of the college of La Chaux-de-Fonds, canton of Neuchatel but, becoming deaf, he gave up this position, and for twelve years supported himself by engraving watch cases and manufacturing watch springs; in the meanwhile, however, he continued his studies and researches in natural science, devoting his attention particularly to mosses and fossil botany. In 1832 he married Baroness Sophia Von Wolffskeel, daughter of Gen. Von Wolffskeel, of Eisenach, Saxe-Weimer. His researches on peat formations led to his being commissioned in 1845 by the Prussian Government to make explorations on the peat bogs of Europe. In 1848, he removed to the United States, first locating at Cambridge, Mass., and later at Columbus, Ohio, where he now resides. Appleton's Biographical Cyclopedia, says of his career in the United States: "He became associated with William S. Sullivant in the study of American bryology. Together they published "Musci Americana Exsiccati" (1856; 2d ed., 1865), and subsequently he assisted Mr. Sullivant in the examination of the mosses that had been collected by Capt. Charles Wilkes on the South Pacific exploring expedition and by Lieut. Amiel W. Whipple on the Pacific railroad exploration, and finally in his 'Icones Muscorum' (Cambridge, 1864). His own most valuable researches beginning in 1850, were studies of the coal formations of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, and Arkansas, on which he contributed memoirs to the reports of the State surveys. His investigations on the coal flora of Pennsylvania are of special value. He prepared a 'Catalogue of the Fossil Plants which have been Named or Described from the Coal Measures of North America' for the reports of Henry D. Rogers in 1858, and in 1884 furnished 'The Coal Flora' (3 vols of text, with an atlas) for the second geological survey of Pennsylvania, which is regarded as the most important work on carboniferous plants that has thus far appeared in the United States. Since 1868 parts of the material in fossil botany have been referred to him by the various national surveys in the field, and he has contributed to their reports the results of his investigations. He is a member of more than twenty scientific societies in the United States and Europe, and in 1864 was the first member that was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The titles of his publications are more than fifty in number, and include twelve important volumes on the natural history of the United States, besides which he has published 'Letters Written on Germany' (Neuchatel, 1846) and 'Letters Written on America; (1847-55). He has also published with Thomas P. James, 'Manual of the Mosses of North America' (Boston 1884). A few years since a leading New York journal made the statement that it was somewhat remarkable that a city like Columbus should be the home of three such eminent scientists as Prof. Leo Lesquereux, William S. Sullivant, and Dr. T.G. Wormley. ==== OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List ====