Houghton

he lived in St. Louis, where except during the
years from 1900 to 1906, when he served a term
as judge of the circuit court, he enjoyed a lucra-
tive law practice.

Always proclaiming himself faithful to the
doctrine of state rights, Hough, after the war, by
common sense and judicial temperament reduced
the doctrine to a theory reminiscent of sectional
loyalty instead of a practical program of political
action. In 1881, during his judgeship on the su-
preme court, he concurred in a decision holding
that state courts must respect as valid a judgment
of a federal court against a municipality on its
bonds, declining to dissent with one of his col-
leagues whose rhetorical dissenting opinion is an
echo of ancient Missouri hostility toward federal
power (State ex reL Wilson vs. Rainey, 74 Mo.,
229). In 1861 Hough married Nina Massey, a
Missourian of Virginia ancestry, who with their
five children survived him.

[Wm. Hyde and H. L. Conard, Encyc. of the Hist, of
St. Louis (1899), vol. II; 267 Mo. Reports, xxxii-
xxxvii; Who's Who in America, 1914-15 J St. Louis
Republic, Oct. 29, 1915; newspaper clippings relating
to Hough in the Mo. Hist. Soc. Lib.] T. W.

HOUGHTON, DOUGLASS (Sept. 21, 1809-
Oct 13, 1845), geologist, the fourth child of
Jacob and Mary Lydia (Douglas) Houghton,
was born in Troy, N. Y. He was a descendant
of John Houghton who came to America from
England before 1650 and finally settled at Lan-
caster, Mass. Jacob Houghton moved from Troy
to Fredonia in 1812 and there established him-
self as a lawyer, soon becoming one of the coun-
ty judges. When he was born, Douglass was un-
dersized and feeble, but he increased in health
and strength as he grew to boyhood. His early
training was gained at the then newly established
Fredonia Academy where his record was that of
a good student, high-spirited, and well meaning.
He was early recommended as a candidate for
the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, N.
Y., from which he graduated as a bachelor of
arts in 1829, a few months later receiving through
the influence of Amos Eaton [g.v.] an appoint-
ment as assistant professor in chemistry and
natural history. In 1830 when Eaton was asked
by Gov. Lewis Cass [gw.] and members of the
Michigan legislature to recommend to them a
person to deliver a course of lectures on chemis-
try, botany, and geology at Detroit, he promptly
named Houghton, somewhat to their astonish-
ment, owing to his youth and still more youthful
appearance. His success as a lecturer was im-
mediate and in 1831 he was given an appoint-
ment as surgeon and botanist to an expedition
under Henry R. Schoolcraft [#.#.], organized
for the purpose of discovering the sources of

Houghton

the Mississippi. Before entering Rensselaer In-
stitute, when but seventeen years of age, Hough-
ton had studied medicine under a local physician
and in the spring of 1831 he had qualified as a
practitioner. After his return from the explor-
ing expedition he practised for five years (1832-
37) as physician and surgeon in Detroit It is
stated that he was also an adept in dentistry.
Throughout this time, however, he carried on
studies in the natural sciences, and in 1838 he
was appointed professor of geology and min-
eralogy in the University of Michigan. This po-
sition he held until his death. In 1842 and in
1843 he was elected mayor of Detroit.

In 1837 he matured a plan for a geological
survey of Michigan, which was favorably re-
ceived by the legislature. An organization was
formed with Houghton at its head, but its life
was short owing to failure of appropriations in
1841. Houghton then conceived the idea of a
thorough geological, mineralogical, topographi-
cal, and magnetic survey of the wild lands of the
United States, contemporaneously and conjointly
with the linear survey of the public domain al-
ready projected by the government. In advocacy
of this plan he went to Washington where he
finally convinced Congress of its feasibility,
though not until he had given his personal guar-
antee to carry it out at the cost estimated. Field
work was begun in 1844. What might have been
accomplished must remain conjectural owing to
his death by drowning the year following, when
he and four others, in an open boat, were over-
taken by a storm on Lake Superior.

Houghton was of slender build, quite boyish in
appearance, and a trifle lame owing to a severe
hip trouble which he suffered in boyhood. Be-
cause of burns occasioned by the accidental ex-
plosion of gunpowder in one of his youthful ex-
periments his ears, nose, and mouth were slightly
scarred. He was a man of unusual power of per-
ception, and of independent thought. His social
and conversational powers were also exceptional
and he had more than common capacity for
friendship; "the little doctor" and "the boy geolo-
gist of Michigan" were terms applied to him.
His local popularity is further shown by the fre-
quent recurrence of his name as applied to lake
and township. He was an honorary member of
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-
phia and the Antiquarian Society of Copenhagen,
and a member of the Literary and Historical So-
ciety of Quebec, the Boston Society of Natural
History, and other societies of local importance.
In 1833 he had married Harriet Stevens of Fre-
donia, by whom he had two children, both girls.

IBela Hubbard, "A Memoir of Dr. Douglass Hough-

254