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PROPERTY OF MUSEUM Of P,r?iEOiliTOLOGY THE UNiVERSlTY OF MiCHiGAii Aiii\j ARBOR, iCHiGA;q 4GiQ4 Museum of PAPERS ON PALEONTOLOGY No. 4 That Remarkable Man CARL LUDWIG RQMINGEW State Geologist Copyright @ 1973 by Jean D. Wright That Remarkable Man CARL LUDWIG ROMINGER State Geologist Jean Davies Wright 1820- 1854: BIRTH IN SCHNAITHEIM, WUERTTEMBERG, GERMANY - - EARLY YEARS -- UNIVERSITY OF TUEBINGEN -- HONORS AND AWARDS -- THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 -- ARRIVAL IN AMERICA -- FIRST MEDICAL PRACTICE Precisely half an hour before midnight on New Year's Eve, 1820, a son was born to the schoolmaster of Schnaitheim in Wuerttemberg, Herr Ludwig Friedrich Rominger, and his wife Johanna. Already the parents of three little girls, they were pleased that this child was a boy. They would have been amazed had they known he would some day be famous in far-off America as the "State Geologist of Michigan. ?? The name would have been unfamiliar for the new Territory of Michigan was largely uninhabited except for the Indians. Carl Ludwig Rominger could not have chosen a birthplace that differed more from that wilderness than Schnaitheim. There was a story-book quality about the place. Encircled by hills, it had grown up on the Brenz River oppo- site the old four-towered castle. Beyond its buildings in every direction stretched the thick dark woods of the Swabian Alb. In the early 1820's Schnaitheim had less than 1200 inhabitants living in per- haps 200 small houses. Its Protestant church and rectory were, as now, situ- ated on a slight elevatior, at the north end of the village, Its schoolhouse con- veniently near the center (see figures 1-3). 3 4 PAPERS ON PALEONTOLOGY : No. 4 The schoolmaster and his family lived on the second floor of this ''Hohen Schule" to the left of the staircase leading up from the entrance hall, and it was here that Carl was born on December 31st, 1820. Two large classrooms were on the right side of the building, one above the other. Each classroom had two sections. During the summer months one section met in the morning from six to eight, the other from eight to ten, but in the chill days of winter the hours were eight to eleven and noon to two olclock. This schedule was arranged so the pupils might be free for their chores. The older ones looked after the cattle, driving them up the hillsides to patches of meadow where free grazing was permitted; often in the warm months these children were away from home for days at a time. Whereas Herr RomingerTssalary as schoolmaster was meager, it was ade- quate because of frequent gifts from the parents of his pupils. These people were skilled in various trades and crafts. Some ran the flour mill, some were weavers, and others had small farms. Many worked in the pottery, for the clay from nearby pits produced excellent crockery. There were quarries nearby, too, where Carl as a child must have found his first fossils. Excitement and glamor came to the whole countryside when the hunting castle was occupied. Built sometime between 1600 and 1700, its four corner towers added later, it was the seat of the Ducal forestry of the Duchy of Wuert- temberg. Here upon occasion came the Dukes including the King with their friends, to hunt in the great forests surrounding Schnaitheim and Heidenheim two miles to the south -- today a city of which Schnaitheim is a suburb. Young Carl lived in this quaint old village until 1825 when Herr Rominger moved his family, increased by an infant daughter, to Waiblingen, not far from Stuttgart, where he had been engaged as Dean of the girlst school. Two years later, when Carl was little more than six, his mother died. The schoolmaster found it hard to care alone for his five children and the following January he married again. By the end of that year, 1828, his youngest girl had died and his new wife had presented him with a new daughter. We know no more about this family until the spring of 1839. Then Carl, aged eighteen, was apprenticed to the pharmacist of Herrenberg, Friedrich Unckel, with whom he worked until the next October. A few weeks later, on November 9th) he matriculated at the University of Tuebingen as a medical student, commencing a lifelong practice of detailed notetaking. He had not been there long before he fell under the spell of a geologist. Professor Friedrich August Quenstedt (see figure 7) was then thirty years of age and had been a member of the faculty for two years; his interest in the rock structure of the Jura Mountains was inspiring. During the next few years Carl Rominger managed to attend Quens tedtls lectures on mineralogy, crystal- lography, and other phases of geology, and often went with him up in the mountains, which were not far distant. Jean Davies Wright : CARL LUDWIG ROMINGER 5 One such excursion -- an important one to them both -- is mentioned in a biographical sketch of Rominger published years later in Germany; translated, it follows: With Professor Quenstedt he took field trips in the Swabian Jura (Swabian Albs) and each time returned home laden with unusual things he had found. Both were enthusiasts. Once they were tramping together in the mountains and saw at the same time a rare specimen. Rominger, younger and quicker than his teacher, reached it first and went home jubilant with his prize. He was very proud of it, yet he soon presented it to his beloved teacher. This friendship between the professor and his pupil remained a warm one until the former's death in 1889. The fascination for geological matters, however, did not prevent Carl Rominger from attaining his original goal -- that of becoming a doctor of medicine. In 1842, then twenty-two years old, he received the medical faculty's academic prize for successful investigation of a difficult scientific problem he had undertaken during 1841-1842. On May 15th, 1843, he passed the first State medical examination in medicine and surgery, and two days later the oral examination for a medical doctor's degree. These exams out of the way, he was able to attend Quenstedtts lectures on geography. He had been engaged as assistant in the Chemistry laboratory in February, 1843, for which he was paid 150 florins a year by the State, and he now belonged to the Guild of Mineralogists, Geologists and Paleontologists of which Quenstedt was a member. Meanwhile he was spending considerable time at the Mayer home in Tuebing- en. Carl Friedrich Hartmann Mayer, who had been Superior Court Judge in Waiblingen, had moved in 1842 to Tuebingen where he was again on the bench. Since he was a poet of distinction as well as a judge, his house was a gathering place for interesting and talented people. More than that, he had seven interesting, talented children. One of these, Friedericke -- known intimately as Rickele -- had known Carl Rominger in their Waiblingen school days. She was six years younger than he, and charming, and she provided him with a goal greater even than medicine or geology. He still had the dissertation for his doctor's degree to submit. Its subject, strangely, had no connection with the field of medicine but, as its title shows, discussed the rrComparisonof the Swiss Jura with the Wuerttemberg Alb. " In 1845 Carl Rominger received the Academic Prize given by the Faculty of Philosophy for another paper dealing with the prehistoric coast of the Sea of Lias in the area near Tuebingen. The next year, on the 23rd of January, 1846, he was presented with his diploma as Doctor of Medicine; his dissertation was published soon afterwards in Stuttgart -- a slim volume of just sixteen pages. 6 PAPERS ON PALEONTOLOGY : NO. 4 FIG. 1 -- Schnaitheim, as it appeared on February 12th, 1907. This photograph and the others of the village were sent by Mr. Eugen Straessle, to whom we are further in- debted for his extensive research into the early history of the place. This view to the north shows that few new houses had been added by this date. The church, here provided with a spire, had previously been surmounted by a dome and was much lower. The sign on the schoolhouse reads "Gasthaus, Metzgerei, u. Weinhandlung zur Hohen Schule -- Johann Stahringer" -- the hotel, butcher shop, and wine store of Herr Stahringer. By this time the young doctor had travelled over much of Germany, Switzer - land, Bohemia, and the Tyrol, studying geology and collectingfossils. He hoped now to take a two-year journey through France and England to see in place the geologic structures and formations he had read about. Upon the recommendation of the medical faculty, in January, 1846, he was granted 500 florins for one year by the Ministry of the Interior, with the promise of a smaller amount for a second year upon receipt of a report on his work as well as his official request. There had been much political agitation throughout Germany in the 1840's and by 1847 groups of young Democrats had formed in many of the universities. Jean Davies Wright : CARL LUDWIG ROMINGER 7 Knpe FIG. 2 -- Schnaitheim, as it appeared on February 12th, 1907. This is the view looking east along Kapellstrasse (Chapel Street). Many of the old houses had a second story added to them by this time. The old "Hohe SchuleTfbuilding is at the left. Mr. Straessle comments in his letter (translated from German): ''The second little building is a small brew-house belonging to the Hohen Schule. At the corner of the house stands the 'Laternenputzert (lamp-lighter).

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