German-born chemist, agriculturalist and geologist in North America. Eugene Hilgard worked at universities in Mississippi and California where he was interested in the ways in which geology affected soil structure and composition and its bearings on agriculture. He also collected plant specimens in both Europe and North America. Born in Zweibrücken, Bavaria, he was the youngest of nine children and in 1835 his father (a Chief of Justice in the Court of Appeals) made the decision to move the entire family to North America because of his liberal tendencies. They settled in Belleville, Illinois, a town with a growing German community, and Eugene was schooled at home by his father and older sisters. As a child he explored the woods and prairies of the region with one of his brothers, collecting plants and insects when not hunting, gardening or working on the farm.
During the early 1840s malaria became prevalent in the region and several of his family members did not survive the disease. Eugene Hilgard became very ill too and eventually moved to Washington (DC). Here his health improved, but he would continue to suffer bouts of serious illness for many years. In the northeast he continued to collect plants and met many important scientific figures, but soon moved on to Philadelphia to study and practise chemistry. From there Hilgard was inspired to return to Europe where he studied chemistry and metallurgy in Heidelberg, Zurich and Freiberg and in 1953 received a PhD for his research into parts of a flame. At this time he became ill again, perhaps with tuberculosis, and was deemed too weak for the study of chemistry (he regularly breathed in all manner of unpleasant gasses) and it was decided that the pursuit of an outdoor vocation would suit him better. Hilgard spent the following few years recovering in southern Spain, where he collected plant specimens and met his future wife.
Returning to America in 1855 Hilgard gained employment as an assistant to the State Geologist of Mississippi, and later became director of the Geological Survey, based in the city of Oxford. He would remain in that state until 1873 (save for a return trip to Europe in 1860 during which he married Señorita Bello in Madrid) and during this period he had three children. Through the Civil War most of his survey activities ceased, but he continued the chemical analysis of soils, waters and minerals. In 1866, however, Hilgard was named Chair of Chemistry at the University of Mississippi and only later returned to the role of State Geologist in a voluntary capacity. Despite the lack of funding for geographical pursuits, he managed to publish a number of papers covering many aspects of geology and agriculture, both in Mississippi and in Louisiana and Alabama, such as "On the tertiary formations of Mississippi and Alabama" (1867) and "The geological history of the gulf of Mexico" (1971).
After two years teaching natural sciences at the University of Michigan, Hilgard moved to California in 1874 to become the Chair of Agriculture at Berkeley. After struggling for many years with a lack of resources, funding and popularity, he eventually succeeded in gaining recognition in his chosen field. In 1880 he was awarded national funding to carry out a census on cotton-growing states, a project he managed efficiently with a great number of assistants and which produced many side reports relating to the geography of California. Slowly Hilgard came to know the geology and soils of this state and their bearing on its agriculture, making particular advances in the field of arid plants and alkaline soils.
In the summers between 1879 and 1883 he also received funding from the Northern Pacific Railroad to undertake botanical and agricultural exploration in Oregon, Washington and Montana. Unfortunately the material collected on this Transcontinental Survey was destroyed in a fire and the findings never published. Hilgard retired in 1905 and in honour of his contributions was awarded a Doctor of Laws degree from the Universities of Columbia, Michigan and Mississippi, as well as many other medals from institutions in Europe. He published over 200 papers during his lifetime, covering many aspects of chemistry, soils, climate, agriculture, geology and geography.
Sources:
F. Slate, 1919, " Eugene Woldemar Hilgard", National Academy of Sciences: Biographical Memoirs 9: 95-155.
