Hough

but when he was eight the order of the names
was reversed. He was prepared for college at
Lowville Academy and later at the Black River
Institute at Watertown, N. Y. In 1840 he en-
tered Union College with advanced standing,
graduating in 1843. After a year's teaching at
the Academy of Champion, N. Y., he became
principal of Gustavus Academy in Ohio, but in
1846 he decided upon a medical career and en-
tered Western Reserve Medical College, where
he received the degree of M.D. in 1848. He then
returned to New York state and practised medi-
cine in Somerville.

Hough was interested not only in scientific
studies, but also in historical research. He col-
lected local historical data and edited documents
of the Revolutionary and Indian Wars. In 1854
he was chosen to direct the New York state cen-
sus and carried on this work in Albany while
continuing his work as a practising physician.
In the early part of the Civil War he acted as
inspector of the United States Sanitary Com-
mission. In 1862 he enlisted as regimental sur-
geon of the 97th New York Volunteers, serving
until Mar. 10, 1863, during the Maryland and
Virginia campaigns. After the war he settled
in Lowville, N. Y. He superintended the New
York state census of 1865 and edited a New York
Convention Manual (2 vols., 1867) and an anno-
tated copy of the prevailing constitution for the
use of the convention assembled in 1867 to re-
vise the constitution of New York state. He was
then called upon to supervise the census of the
District of Columbia in 1867, and subsequently
he was selected as the superintendent of the
United States census of 1870. These census
studies revealed to him the rapid depletion of the
nation's forest resources, He recognized the
danger of the popular impression that the timber
of the United States was almost inexhaustible
and undertook to place before the public the need
of action to check the destructive agencies that
were operating to devastate the forests. At the
meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science in Portland, Me., in
1873, Hough presented a paper "On the Duty
of Governments in the Preservation of Forests."
It resulted in Hough's "being appointed with
George B. Emerson [#.z>.], to prepare a suitable
memorial to Congress. The report of this com-
mittee advocating the enactment of laws to en-
courage forestry was indorsed by President
Grant who transmitted the plan to Congress in
February 1874. Two years later Congress took
action and Hough was chosen to investigate the
consumption of timber and the preservation of
forests, receiving the appointment as forestry

Hough

agent in the Department of Agriculture on Aug.
30, 1876.

Hough's first report was completed in Decem-
ber 1877. In 1881 he received a new commission
carrying a larger appropriation from Congress.
His work included travel in Europe where he
studied the German system of forestry and of
forest education. During the next two years, he
issued his second and third official reports. This
investigation, covering the timber and forest
products of the whole period of our government,
aroused wide international interest and was
awarded a diploma of honor at the International
Geographical Congress in Venice a few years
later. When Nathaniel H. Egleston was appoint-
ed the chief of the division of forestry in 1883,
Hough remained as forestry agent to assist in the
preparation of the fourth volume of the official
forestry reports. In March 1885 he drafted a
bill for the New York state legislature which
created a comprehensive forestry commission
for the state. Some of his more important books
are: A Catalogue of Indigenous, Naturalized
and Filicoid Plants of Lewis County, N. Y.
(1846) ; History of St. Lawrence and Franklin
Counties, N. Y. (1853); History of Duryee's
Brigade in 1862 (1864); Washingtonianat or
Memorials of the Death of George Washington
(1865) ** American Biographical Notes (1875) I
and Elements of Forestry (1882), He has to his
credit seventy-eight publications, including gov-
ernment reports and bulletins on history, me-
teorology, climatology, education, law, and civil
records. In addition to these he edited numer-
ous colonial documents and translated Lucien
Baudens* Guerre de Crimee under the title: On
Military and Camp Hospitals (1862). He pub-
lished the first American Journal of Forestry in
October 1882, but he was forced to abandon this
project within about a year on account of lack of
subscribers. He was also interested in geology
and is said to have discovered the mineral known
as houghite. Although he was not a professional
forester, his contribution to the forestry move-
ment was outstanding, particularly in educating
public opinion toward a more conservative use
of forest resources. He was the first federal of-
ficial in forestry, and he efficiently prepared the
way for the work of his successors. On July 9,
1845, Hough married Maria S. Eggleston of
Champion, N. Y., who died on June 2, 1848,
leaving an infant daughter. On May 16, 1849,
he was married to Mariah E. Kilham of Turin,
N. Y. They had eight children, .

£T. H. Fearey, Union Coll. Alumni in the Civil War
(1915); B. E. Fernow, A Brief Hist, of Forestry
(1911); "Franldin B. Hough," Am, Forests and Forest
Life, July 1922; F. B, Hougfe, Hist, of Lewis County,

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