E. O. Wooton: New Mexico's Pioneer Botanist
2008; Elsevier BV; Volume: 30; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2111/1551-501x(2008)30[11
ISSN1551-501X
Autores Tópico(s)Plant Diversity and Evolution
ResumoWhen Hiram Hadley first opened the doors of the Las Cruces College in southern New Mexico in 1888, several explorers, scientific collectors, botanists, and naturalists had already criss-crossed the Territory. A youthful William Gambel collected plants in the vicinity of Santa Fe in 1841 and 1842; physician Frederick Adolphus Wislizenus made a rather extensive exploration of the region in 1846; August Fendler botanized the environs of Santa Fe in 1847; and Charles Wright walked across Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona as part of the 1851 survey of the United States Mexico Boundary, resulting in the discovery of more than 75 New Mexico plants that now bear his name. But when the town of Las Cruces, in the southernmost reaches of New Mexico Territory, won the appointment for the Agricultural College mandated by the Morrill Act of 1862, Hadley's little Las Cruces College was converted to the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and in January 1890, Elmer Ottis Wooton began his appointment as the Territory's first resident plant scientist (Fig. 1). Born 19 September 1865 in Kokomo, Indiana, Wooton (known to all as E. O.) grew up in a Quaker family in the Indianapolis area. His father, William S. Wooton, was a devoted minister and exceptional furniture maker, who became famous for his patented Cabinet Office Secretary, an elaborate wheeled desk with a myriad of cubby-holes, drawers, nooks, and crannies (John D. Rockefeller, Ulysses S. Grant, Joseph Pulitzer, and Queen Victoria each owned one). The son's first full-time job after graduating from Earlham College in 1889 was his engagement by the fledgling New Mexico College as Professor of Chemistry and Botany, with a corresponding appointment as the Experiment Station Chemist and Botanist, at $1,000 per annum.
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