American botanist responsible for producing a popular standard flora of Indiana. Charles Deam (Charlie) was born and raised on a farm just outside of Bluffton, Indiana, where he worked at several jobs before becoming a clerk in a Bluffton drug store in 1891. This was a career he decided to pursue and spent the rest of his life running his own pharmacy, very successfully and somewhat unorthodoxly. Deam lived out his life in Bluffon and began to collect plants when ill health led him to start taking long walks in the countryside. The pharmacy supplied him with the funding he needed to practise botany in his spare time and he travelled in a converted Model-T Ford, visiting every township in the state to collect plants for his Flora of Indiana. The so called "weed wagon" was decked out with sleeping space for two as well as room for his equipment and Deam also visited all of the major herbaria in the eastern USA to amass data for his flora. After publishing a book on the trees of Indiana (1912), he continued on to produce works on its shrubs (1924) and grasses (1929) before his flora of the state was published in 1940. It was highly regarded and remained a standard text for many years, due to his meticulous work in its creation.
Deam did attend DePauw University for several years, but never graduated because of financial reasons. Although initially an amateur, he eventually spent 20 years as state forester (1909-1928), save for a four year period when he was unable to work in that capacity due to a falling out with the state governor. Married to Stella Mullin in 1893 he had two children, although only one (a daughter) survived to adulthood. Dean's wife often accompanied him in the field and together they amassed a herbarium, as well as creating an arboretum in Bluffton in 1921 which by 1950 contained some 500 species. Deam also travelled further afield, taking two trips to Mexico (1896 and 1900) and to Guatemala (1904 and 1909).
Sources:
D. DenUyl, 1953, "Charles C. Dean", Indiana Academy of Sciences, 63: 232-239
D. DenUyl, 1954, "Charles Clemon Deam", Castanea, 19(4): 109-121
D. Isely, 1994, One hundred and one botanists: 293-295.
