Isaac Newton (agriculturalist)

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This article is about the American agriculturalist. For the English scientist and mathematician, see Isaac Newton.

Isaac Newton
United States Commissioner of Agriculture
In office
July 1, 1862 – June 19, 1867
PresidentAbraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Preceded byPosition initiated
Succeeded byHorace Capron
Personal details
BornMarch 31, 1800
DiedJune 19, 1867(1867-06-19) (aged 67)

Isaac Newton (March 31, 1800 – June 19, 1867) was an agriculturalist who became the first

United States commissioner of agriculture
.

Life and career

Newton was born in

Quaker family of English descent. His father died when he was still a baby, and Newton grew up on his paternal grandfather's farm. He attended local schools but did not go to college. At the age of 21, he married Dorothy Birdsall and became the manager of a pair of adjacent farms in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. His entrepreneurial spirit led him to also open an ice cream and confectionery store in Philadelphia as a source of extra income.[1]

Around 1854, Newton bought 1000 acres of farmland in Virginia, which he hired overseers to run when his wife refused to live there. A series of disasters (among them the outbreak of the

United States Patent Office.[2]

The following year, when

U.S. Weather Service under USDA.[4] He even set up an experimental farm on what is now the National Mall quite near the Capitol—in fact, right where today's USDA headquarters stand.[4]

Newton arranged for the USDA to issue monthly and annual agricultural reports. These were very popular with farmers and circulated widely. However, they also represented a potential threat to established agricultural journals, so it is not surprising that many of the editors of these journals repeatedly called for Newton to step down. Newton did not help his own cause by vigorously abusing his most vocal critics and by indulging in nepotism. For example, he appointed a son to take charge of his experimental farm, and he twice appointed a nephew to be chief clerk of the USDA.[1] (His paternal granddaughter, Amanda Newton, also worked for the USDA, but she was hired many years after his death.) Despite everything, he retained President Lincoln's support up to the president's death.

In July 1866, Newton suffered a heat stroke while visiting his experimental farm, and he never fully recovered. He died a little less than a year later, on June 19, 1867.[1][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "The Story of U.S. Agricultural Estimates: Miscellaneous Publication no. 1088". Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture. April 1969. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  2. ^ "Lincoln's Agricultural Legacy | National Agricultural Library". www.nal.usda.gov. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  3. ^ Poore, Ben. Perley, Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis, Vol.2, pp.124-125 (1886).
  4. ^ a b "Isaac Newton". National Agricultural Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on April 24, 2015. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  5. ^ "Isaac Newton, the first commissioner of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, dies in office. | House Divided". hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu. Retrieved September 27, 2019.

External links

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