NAHUM JAMES GIDDINGS Bio
Monongalia Co. WV

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume II
pg.151

NAHUM JAMES GIDDINGS, PH.D. is plant pathologist at the Experiment Station
and professor of plant pathology in West Virginia University. While a young
man he has earned high rank among the scientists whose work is an invaluable
auxiliary to the entire domain of agriculture. He has been acting Dean,
College of Agriculture, West Virginia University, 1921-22, and acting
Director, West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, September, 1921,
to February, 1922.

Doctor Giddings was born at Ira, Vermont, November 13, 1883, son of Silas
and Birdie E, (Green) Giddings. He comes of a sturdy line of New England
ancestors, chiefly devoted to the practice of agriculture. The Giddings
name was transplanted to America from France. Originating in France, on
coming to America they settled in Connecticut, later in Massachusetts and
in Vermont, and one branch went into Ohio, from which was descended the
distinguished ante-bellum statesman Joshua Giddings. The grandparents of
Doctor Giddings were Carlton and Nancy (Powell) Giddings, both natives of
Vermont. Silas Giddings was born at Ira, Vermont, October 31, 1838, was a
Green Mountain State farmer, a member of the Grange and the Congregational
Church. He died in 1914. His wife, Birdie E. Green, was born at Rutland,
Vermont, in 1851, and died in 1898. Her father, Nahum J. Green, was a native
of the same state, and this branch of the Green family came to America prior
to the Revolution. Nahum Green was an engineer, employed for some years in
test drilling in the Vermont marble fields and also had some considerable
experience in the coal districts of West Virginia.

Nahum J. Giddings when two years of age went with his parents from Ira to
Castleton, Vermont, where he was reared and received his early education.
He attended district and graded schools, graduated from the Vermont State
Normal School in 1902, and in the same year entered the University of Vermont,
where he received his Bachelor f Science degree in 1906. Remaining at the
university as assistant botanist, he continued his post graduate studies
and earned his Master of Science degree in 1909. In February, 1909, Doctor
Giddings came to Morgantown to accept the post of bacteriologist at West
Virginia University. He was appointed plant pathologist in 1912. He spent
a year in residence at the University of Wisconsin during 1916-17, and in
1918 that university awarded him the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Doctor
Giddings has held the chair of professor of plant pathology in the
university since 1919.

He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
vice president of the American Phytopathological Society, the Botanical
Society of America, and is a Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. He belongs to
the First Methodist Episcopal Church and to the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows. June 15, 1907, Professor Giddings married Amy H. Hathaway. She
was born at Clintonville, New York, daughter of Thomas E. and Mysie Hathaway,
who now reside at Norfolk, Virginia. Doctor and Mrs. Giddings have one son,
Sylvester Nahum, born November 2, 1909.