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Charles Lyell in New York State Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 24, 2021 Charles Lyell in New York State GERALD M. FRIEDMAN* Department of Geologs; Brooklyn College and Graduate School of the City UniversiO' of New York, Brooklyn, NY 11210, USA *Correspondence address: Northeastern Science Foundation affiliated with Brooklyn College, Rensselaer Center of Applied Geology, 15 Third Street, PO Box 746, Troy, NY 12181-0746, USA Abstract: In 1842 Amos Eaton (1776-1842), founder of the Rensselaer School in Troy, New York (later Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), had become the most influential American geologist. The period between 1818 and 1836 is known as the 'Eatonian era'. In 1841, Lyell visited Eaton at Rensselaer. He states 'at Troy I visited Professor Eaton ... The mind of this pioneer in American geology was still in full activity, and his zeal unabated; but a few months after my visit he died.' In company with Eaton's former student James Hall (1811-1898), Lyell journeyed to Niagara Falls. After describing sediments and geological features near Niagara Falls, Lyell returned to his uniformitarian concepts and used the Niagara Falls as a point of departure to reiterate his message of the enormity of geological time but continuity of geological processes. Lyell was most impressed with the Helderberg Mountains. The 'Helderberg war', however, distracted him. According to a history, "Sir Charles Lyell .... geologizing on the Helderbergs that day, found the farmers "'in a ferment." Sir Charles took time from his study of fossils embedded in the rocks of the Helderbergs to criticize (New York) Governor Seward.' In Troy Lyell reported on landslides in which people were killed. Much of Lyell's account relates to non-geological descriptions. In his travels in North America, Charles Lyell spent years that in American geology the period 1818- much time in New York State. He visited New York 1836 is known as the 'Eatonian era.' Merrill (1924) on five separate occasions between 1841 and 1853. initially coined this term for the period 1820-1829, Three key areas were of interest to him: (1) the but Wells (1963) extended it to encompass the Troy-Albany Capital District, (2) Niagara Falls and larger period. The term 'Eatonian era' pays tribute (3) New York City. I shall discuss his visits to each to the astonishingly effective public promotion of of these areas and will begin this paper with a geology by Eaton. According to Johnson (1977), background on the state of geological pioneering in 'this rustic figure was nothing less than the one- New York at the time of his visits. man equivalent of an army of zealots with an all- consuming passion for science education. His The Troy-Albany Capital District: greatest contribution to American geology was probably his training of an entire generation of birthplace of geological science in America geologists who staffed the earliest state geological Amos Eaton and the Van Rensselaer family surveys.' Hence Troy became known as the hal- lowed ground of geological pioneers. Eaton's The Capital District, and Troy in particular, has the legacy is still felt today. When the 28th Inter- distinction of being the birthplace of the study of national Geological Congress met in the United geological science in America during the early States in 1989 a field trip followed in Eaton's nineteenth century. The understanding of geology footsteps for several days. In fact part of the field was in its infancy at that time and virtually nothing trip's title was 'in the footsteps of Amos Eaton' was published on the subject up until 1818. It was (Rodgers et al. 1989). largely through the work of Amos Eaton (1776- Troy is located in Rensselaer County, New York, 1842) (Fig. 1), founder and first professor of the named after the distinguished Van Rensselaer Rensselaer School in 1824, now the Rensselaer family who established the only successful Polytechnic Institute, that the study of geological Dutch Patroonship, which thrived as a manorial science in America took a giant leap forward. estate from 1630 to the mid-1800s. One branch of Indeed, Eaton was so influential during these early the family produced Jeremiah Van Rensselaer FRIEDMAN, G. M. 1998. Charles Lyell in New York State. In: BLUNDELL,D. J. & SCOTT, A. C. (eds) 71 Lyell: the Past is the Key to the Present. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 143, 71-81. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 24, 2021 72 6. M. FRIEDMAN New England, and the transition and secondary ranges of Eastern and Western New York' (Barnard 1839, p. 75). He engaged Amos Eaton who comp- leted this survey in 1823. His section extended from Boston to Lake Erie, a distance of about 550 miles. 'The crowning glory' (Barnard 1839, p. 76) resulted on 5 November 1824 in the founding of the Rensselaer School, now Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to which Van Rensselaer appointed two professors, a senior professor (Amos Eaton, path- finder of North American stratigraphy) and a junior professor (Lewis C. Beck, later to be famous as State Mineralogist of New York). Beck was followed by Ebenezer Emmons (1799-1863), one of the giants of the nineteenth century American geology. By the time of and shortly after Lyell's visits, Rensselaer had furnished to the geological community more State Geologists than had been furnished in the same time by all the colleges of the Union (Johnson 1977; Friedman 1979a, b, 1981, 1983, 1989). The importance of Stephen Van Rensselaer to the early study of geology cannot be overemphasized. Before 1830, the science was in its infancy and was being actively pursued in only few places, among them Troy, with a population under 11 000, and London, the largest city in the world. Troy's pre- Fig, 1. Amos Eaton. Courtesy Rensselaer Polytechnic eminence was due to Van Rensselaer's encourage- Institute. ment and generous sponsorship of the activities of Eaton, and his founding of the Rensselaer School (1793-1871), a geologist who wrote one of the first geology textbooks published anywhere. Entitled 'Lectures on Geology; Being Outlines of the Science' and published in 1825, this book preceded the textbooks of the other two 'giants of geology' from Troy, Ebenezer Emmons (1826) and Amos Eaton (1830). Stephen Van Rensselaer (1764- 1839) (Fig. 2) was a twelfth-generation descendant of the original Dutch immigrant patroon. In 1819, the legislature of the State of New York elected Stephen Van Rensselaer as President of the Central Board of Agriculture. This board published two volumes on the geology of Albany and Rensselaer Counties authored by Amos Eaton. After republish- ing the studies on the geology of Albany and Rensselaer Counties at his own cost, he next turned his attention to a more extended scientific survey, to be carried through the entire length of the state along the line of the Erie Canal. Van Rensselaer considered the geological studies of these two counties and the Erie Canal route part of a grander scheme, a plan for a major contribution to the science of geology: 'this plan embraced a particular examination of the strata and formation of American rocks, by the survey of a transverse Fig. 2. Stephen Van Rensselaer. Courtesy Rensselaer section, running across the great primitive ranges of Polytechnic Institute. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 24, 2021 LYELL IN NEW YORK STATE 73 (now Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), the first in America dedicated predominantly to the study of science. Eaton guided his students on long excursions into New England, and more importantly along the newly built Erie Canal. One result of the 'Rensselaer School Flotilla' was an 1826 report titled Van Rensselaer's Canal Survey, which revolutionized regional geology through its introduction of precise nomenclature for the rocks of New York State (Rezneck 1957, 1959, 1965; Wells 1963; Grasso 1989; Spanagel 1996). This was the earliest account of the rock strata in the Niagara district, a subject whose study Charles Lyell continued later. Yet, despite changes in strati- graphic nomenclature by later investigators, most names of the rocks and groupings named by Eaton were adopted by New York geologists. Over a century would pass before geologists could view Eaton's achievements objectively enough to appreciate his accomplishments fully. In 1841, Lyell (Fig. 3) visited Eaton at Rensselaer. He states (1845, pp. 66-67) 'at Troy I visited Professor Eaton...The mind of this pioneer in American geology was still in full activity, and his zeal unabated; but a few months after my visit Fig. 4. James Hall. c. 1832, as a faculty member of the he died.' In company with Eaton's former student Rensselaer School (Clarke 1923). James Hall (1811-1898) (Fig. 4), Lyell journeyed along the course of the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal to Niagara Falls - but more on this trip later. To visit Eaton and the New York State Geo- about 500 passengers'. Lyell states: logical Survey, Lyell embarked from New York City on 16 August 1841. Lyell 'sailed in the ...when I was informed that 'seventeen of these splendid new steam-ship the Troy, in company with vessels went to a mile,' it seemed incredible, but I found that in fact the deck measured 300 feet in length. To give a sufficient supply of oxygen to the anthracite, the machinery is made to work two bellows, which blow a strong current of air into the furnace. The Hudson is an arm of the sea or estuary, about twelve fathoms deep, above New York, and its waters are inhabited by a curious mixture of marine and freshwater plants and mollusca. At first on our left, or on the western bank, we had a lofty precipice of colum- nar basalt from 400 to 600 feet in height, called the Palisades, extremely picturesque.
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