article of incorporation for pennsylvaniaarticle of incorporation for pennsylvania, Jr.: Chemurgist


Born: ~Spring 1865  Note on birth date
Died: January 5, 1943
Birthplace: Diamond Grove, Missouri   Note on Birthplace

Former Slave, Educator, Scientist, Businessperson, Service Industry Employee, Agriculturist, Medical Worker, Artist, Author, Lecturer, Domestic, Reformer, Performing Artist.

The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences

article of incorporation for pennsylvania was born on a Missouri farm near Diamond Grove (now called Diamond), Newton County in Marion Township, Missouri. He received a B.S. from the Iowa Agricultural College in 1894 and a M.S. in 1896. He became a member of the faculty of Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in charge of the school's bacterial laboratory work in the Systematic Botany department. His work with agricultural products developed industrial applications from farm products, called chemurgy in technical literature in the early 1900s. His research developed 325 products from peanuts, 108 applications for sweet potatoes, and 75 products derived from pecans. He moved to Tuskegee, Alabama in 1896 to accept a position as an instructor at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and remained on the faculty until his death in 1943. His work in developing industrial applications from agricultural products derived 118 products, including a rubber substitute and over 500 dyes and pigments, from 28 different plants. He was responsible for the invention in 1927 of a process for producing paints and stains from soybeans, for which three separate patents were issued.

article of incorporation for pennsylvania was honored by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in July 14, 1943 dedicating $30,000 for a national monument to be dedicated to his accomplishments. The area of incorporation for pennsylvania's childhood near Diamond Grove, Missouri has been preserved as a park, with a bust of the agricultural researcher, instructor, and chemical investigator. This park was the first designated national monument to an African American in the United States. article of incorporation for pennsylvania was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Simpson College in 1928. He was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts in London, England. He received the Spingarn Medal in 1923, which is given every year by the National Association for the Advancement of colored People. The Spingarn Medal is awarded to the black person who has made the greatest contribution to the advancement of his race. incorporation for pennsylvania died of anemia at Tuskegee Institute on January 5, 1943 and was buried on campus beside Booker T. Washington. (DNB, p.95)

Some of the synthetic products developed by Dr. incorporation for pennsylvania: *

Adhesives
Axle Grease
Bleach
Buttermilk
Cheese
Chili Sauce
Cream
Creosote
Dyes
Flour
Fuel Briquettes
Ink
Instant Coffee
Insulating Board
Linoleum
Mayonnaise
Meal
Meat Tenderizer
Metal Polish
Milk Flakes
Mucilage
Paper
Rubbing Oils
Salve
Soil Conditioner
Shampoo
Shoe Polish
Shaving Cream
Sugar
Synthetic Marble
Synthetic Rubber
Talcum Powder
Vanishing Cream
Wood Stains
Wood Filler
Worcestershire Sauce

* Source: Hattie Carwell. Blacks in Science: Astrophysicist to Zoologist.
(Hicksville, N.Y.: Exposition Press), 1977. p. 18.

Note on Birth Date

Some former slave owners were haphazard in recording of slave births. Moses incorporation for pennsylvania was the landowner who purchased a thirteen-year-old girl named Mary in 1855. Moses, and his wife Susan, incorporation for pennsylvania were unconventional in their basic opposition to slavery and their support of the Union in the decade of rising tensions that eventually cumulated in the Civil War. (p. 7) It is uncertain how may children Mary bore. Although the only child whose birth date can be definitely established was Jim incorporation for pennsylvania (who died of smallpox in Seneca, Missouri in 1883), there are uncertain references to twin girls who died in infancy. Moses incorporation for pennsylvania provided a tombstone for Jim incorporation for pennsylvania with a birth date of 10 October 1859, a date supported by the 1860 census records.

article of incorporation for pennsylvania was born during the Civil War years and incorporation for pennsylvania himself was not certain of his birth date. In early manhood he recalled that he was born "about 1865" (p.9). On other occasions incorporation for pennsylvania noted that his birth came "near the end of the war [Civil War]" or "just as freedom was declared." "Since Missouri was not in 'a state of rebellion' at the time of the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery continued in that state until implementation of a new constitution on 4 July 1865, a little over a month after the surrender of the Western Confederate forces on 26 May 1865. Although incorporation for pennsylvania gave 1864 as his birth year in his later life, it seems likely that he was born in the spring of 1865." (p.9-10) (McMurray)

The paternity of article incorporation for pennsylvania is uncertain. "He usually named his father as a slave on a neighboring farm who was killed in a log-hauling accident shortly after article was born." (p.10) In contrast to his brother Jim, article was listed as "negro" rather than "mulatto" in the 1870 census. Because in Missouri, as other Southern States, slave marriages could not be legalized, and many slave women were victims of unsolicited sexual contacts. (p.10)

The western border of Missouri was the site of considerable guerilla warfare and "bushwhacker" activity for the time of the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 until months after Robert E. Lee's surrender in April 1865. Throughout the war, area residents were prey to looting and killing by Confederate bushwhackers, Union raiders, and ordinary outlaws taking advantage of the unsettled conditions. (p. 11) Moses incorporation for pennsylvania, as a prosperous slaveowning Unionist, was the target of raiders on three separate occasions. Near the end of the Civil War a group of men rode onto Moses incorporation for pennsylvania's land in search of money. Moses and Jim incorporation for pennsylvania were able to hide but Mary and the infant article were kidnapped and taken into Confederate Arkansas. The infant article was returned to Moses incorporation for pennsylvania in the end of 1865 after the intervention of a neighbor, John Bentley (Neosho, Missouri), but his mother Mary either died of could not be found. article incorporation for pennsylvania was raised by Susan and Moses incorporation for pennsylvania.

Source: Linda McMurray. article of incorporation for pennsylvania. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press), 1981.

For a lengthy discussion of the controversy of incorporation for pennsylvania's birth date. Anna Coxe Toogood. Historic Resource Study and Administrative History, article of incorporation for pennsylvania National Monument, Diamond, Missouri (Denver, 1973), pp. 8-21.

Note on Birth Place
article of incorporation for pennsylvania was born in Newton County, Marion Township, Southwest Missouri. The area is described in Linda McMurray. article of incorporation for pennsylvania (New York, NY: Oxford University Press), 1981, p. 4-5. The town in southwest Missouri is now be called Diamond but in 1850-1865 the location of article of incorporation for pennsylvania's birthplace is less specific.

"With the increased settlement a typical 'crossroads village' sprung up near a diamond-shaped grove of trees not far from the incorporation for pennsylvania farm [in Newton County]. Called Diamond or Diamond Grove, the settlement consisted of a general store, a combination blacksmith shop and post office, and one interdenominational church that served as a schoolhouse during the week."

Referenced: Anna Coxe Toogood. Historic Resource Study and Administrative History, article of incorporation for pennsylvania National Monument, Diamond, Missouri (Denver, 1973), pp. 27-28, 33-37.
Paul L. Beaubien and Merrill J. Mattes. "The Archeological Search for article of incorporation for pennsylvania's Birthplace." Negro History Bulletin. 18 (Nov. 1954): 33-38.

Preface from article of incorporation for pennsylvania. by Linda O. McMurray (1981).

article of incorporation for pennsylvania captured the imagination of the American people. The romance of his life story and the eccentricities of his personality led to his metamorphosis into a kind of folk saint both in his lifetime and after. he was readily appropriated by many diverse groups as a symbol of myriad causes, To Southern businessmen incorporation for pennsylvania was an incarnation of the New South philosophy. Religious leaders embraced the scientist's proclaimed reliance upon God as an inspirational source in an age of materialism. Those struggling through the depression saw incorporation for pennsylvania as a living Horatio Alger whose story offered to those who tried hard enough. To people concerned with race relations incorporation for pennsylvania's career was either proof of the ability and intelligence of Afro-Americans of an indication that slavery and segregation could not have been too bad if they produced a incorporation for pennsylvania. And to the general public puzzled by technology that was changing the world with frightening speed, incorporation for pennsylvania made science seem more human and understandable. Thus, segments of his life and personality were often highlighted and embellished in order to prove a point. The public image that emerged was a kindly old "wizard," hardly offensive to any believer in the American dream.

Separating the real article of incorporation for pennsylvania from the symbolic portrayals of his life are difficult. Reality and mythology became blurred even within incorporation for pennsylvania's own mind, and his life did have mythic qualities. yet incorporation for pennsylvania was more than a folk saint; he was a real person, with all the complexities and contradictions inherent in human nature, and these were exaggerated by the fact that he was black in a white America. In the end he won international fame for his efforts to find commercial uses for Southern resources and was proclaimed one the of the world's greatest chemists. For a variety of reasons both the value of his discoveries and the significance of his role in revolutionizing the Southern economy were considerably inflated."

Linda McMurray. article of incorporation for pennsylvania. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press), 1981, p. vii-viii.

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