The students of the Radical University: William Shrewsbury

William H. Shrewsbury (b. 1858)
South Carolina.  Mulatto.
Occupation: butcher, hack stable.
Father's occupation: butcher.

William Shrewsbury was born to George Shrewsbury and an unknown mother.  William's parents were free persons of color, and he was raised in Charleston.  William's father George was a butcher. George had reportedly grown up poor, but by the time William was born, George numbered among the 15 wealthiest free blacks in Charleston.  In 1860, he owned 12 slaves and possessed real estate worth $5000 (roughly the equivalent of $150,000 in 2020).

The father George played a role in Charleston city politics.  He was appointed commissioner of the City Alms House under the Democratic mayor John Wagener (1871-72), unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1872, and was elected city alderman on the slate of the Republican mayoral candidate George Cunningham (1873-74).  George was well-regarded by the whites of South Carolina.  One newspaper described him as someone who "belonged to a colored class in Charleston who have long been equally distinguished by their high order of respectability, and their perfect devotion to their native State and City....  Their relations to their white fellow-citizens were of the kindest long before the war, and were not only not disturbed, but indeed, confirmed and strengthened by that struggle."

The son William left South Carolina in Fall 1872 to attend Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, entering as a second year student.  The academy was originally founded by the  Methodist Episcopal Church for the purpose of educating clergy.  Future UofSC professor E. B. Otheman had graduated from the academy in the 1840s, and his father Edward Otheman sat on the Board of Trustees during the 1870s.

By the time William entered, Wesleyan Academy offered a general education program (similar to a modern high school) and was nondenominational, although the school remained closely affiliated with Methodism.  Enrollment typically stood at around 500 students.

Wesleyan Academy records list future U of SC student I. N. Cardozo as also attending 1872-73.  However, it is unclear if Cardozo actually attended as he is also recorded as being an Oberlin student at this time.  William attended Wesleyan until Fall 1874, when he left to return to South Carolina and attend the University of South Carolina.

William registered at the University of South Carolina on October 5, 1874.  William's father George died the year after William entered school, on March 7, 1875.   William had left the university by January 1876.

After leaving the university, William returned to Wesleyan Academy, reentering in the 1876-77 academic year.  Wesleyan records are incomplete, so it is unclear when he left and whether he received a degree.

By 1879, William had returned to Charleston and was working as a "dealer in wood." The next year he was working as a butcher, his father's trade, but starting around 1883, he began running a hack stable, offering carriages and wagons for hire.  William last appears in the historical record in the 1884 Charleston City Directory.

Sources
1). Powers, Bernard E.  Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885.  University of Arkansas Press.  1994.

2). 1860; Census Place: Charleston Ward 8, Charleston, South Carolina; Page: 492

3). 1870; Census Place: Charleston Ward 6, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1487; Page: 544A

4). Charleston, South Carolina, Marriage Records South Carolina Department of Archives and History, April 2, 1879, Columbia, South Carolina.

5). 1880; Census Place: Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll: 1222; Page: 355D

6). Charleston, South Carolina, City Directory, 1884

7). Charleston, South Carolina, City Directory, 1883

8). "George Shrewsbury."  The free citizen, March 13, 1875, p. 4.

9). Annual catalogue of the Wesleyan Academy; Wilbraham, Mass., 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876.

The students of the Radical University: E. R. Roberts

Eden Rainey Roberts
From Our Baptist Ministers and Schools

Eden Rainey Roberts (b. January 5, 1856, d. April 29, 1934)
South Carolina.  Born free.  Black/Mulatto.
Occupation: clergyman, teacher.
Father's occupation: barber, minister.
Mother's occupation: dress maker.

Eden R. Roberts was born in Charleston to free persons of color Benjamin L. and Catherine E. Roberts.  His maternal grandparents were Joseph and Mary DeReef, prominent free persons of color in Charleston.  The DeReef family had achieved considerable wealth through real estate and the lumber businesses.  In 1860, Joseph owned 18 slaves and possessed $40,000 in real estate.  He was also an early member of the Brown Fellowship Society, an exclusive benevolence society in Charleston for free persons of color.

Eden's family moved to Anderson, South Carolina in 1857 and stayed there until 1861.  In Anderson, Benjamin worked as a barber, and Catherine as a dress-maker.  They had accumulated significant wealth by 1860: they possessed $500 in real estate and owned 2 slaves (both woman, a young adult and a child).

The family left South Carolina for the Bahamas at the beginning of the Civil War.  On January 1, 1863, they landed at Nassau and stayed there for the duration of the war.  Eden attended a government school during this time.

The family returned to Charleston in 1867.  Eden continued his education at the Shaw Memorial School.  This was a school for African Americans founded 1865 by the New England Aid Society, a Northern missionary society.  Eden excelled as a student.  He took first prize in the Easter examination in 1869, earning him the praise of Mortimer A. Warren, the principal of the Avery Normal Institute.

In 1871, Eden moved to Greenville and attended the Allen School.  In Greenville, he learned shoe-making and worked in the trade for 3 years (until 1874).  He then left the trade to work as a country school teacher, teaching school in Newberry and Laurens County.

The next year (in 1875) he was admitted to the University of South Carolina.  He entered as a freshman college student following the modern studies track.  However, he left the university after only 1 year, reportedly after realizing the university in its present form would likely be closed within a few years.  He returned to teaching in Newberry in Fall of 1876.

On November 14, 1876, Eden provided testimony to the U.S. Senate.  A Senate subcommittee collected testimony to assess whether citizens in South Carolina had been denied the right to vote in the 1875 and 1876 elections.  Eden spoke about his experience in the Longstores precinct.  On Election Day, the district managers of election hadn't properly organized and in particular had not appointed clerks, so Eden and some others acted clerks.  In that capacity, Eden explained, he witnessed a group of armed white men take possession of the polling station, firing their guns overhead to intimidate African American voters.

The testimony that Eden provided illustrated how limited access to education constrained the political rights of African Americans.  Eden was one of three African Americans from the precinct to testify, and he was the only one capable of signing his name.

Starting in 1877, Eden became increasingly involved with the Baptist church.  In Fall of that year, he attended a series of meeting at Beaver Dam Baptist Church, and at one of them he joined the Baptist church.  Later that year he became involved with the Mt. Morian Baptist church in Camden.  The church licensed him to preach in 1879.

The next year (1880) Eden moved to Kingstree and opened a business making harnesses and shoes.  Two years later (in 1882) he was ordained as a minister by the Mt. Morian church.  He then began working as a missionary in Williamsburg County, successfully organizing what is now Siloam Baptist Church.

Most of Eden's time as a minister (thirty-five years in total) was spent in Florence County. In 1884, he established a pastorate at Trinity Baptist church in Florence, and later he established pastorates at Mt. Carmel Baptist church in Timmonsville, Mt Pisgah Baptist church in Mars Bluff, and Mt. Rona church at Effingham.  He also helped run the Baptist Herald newspaper with help from his former classmate J. J. Durham, among others.

Eden was also active in local politics.  He served a 4 year term on the Florence Board of Alderman.  In his public speeches, Eden appears to have advocated a moderate position the emphasized compromise, if not facilitation, with the white-controlled government.  For example, at a Baptist State Convention held in December 1896  (one year after the state constitution was revised to disenfranchise African American voters), one newspaper reported Eden delivering a speech in which he said that

it was the desire of the common-sensed negro to remain among the white people of the South, to whose influence the negro owed much already and on whose help and friendly guidance his future good so largely depended.  To the suggestion of the News and Courier [newspaper], the [sic] the negroes migrate in a body to Africa, he would reply in the language of the scripture, "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." The negro, he said, did not want to leave and as they were here with us, he besought for them our continued interest and help to make them better fitted to live among us.

While being involved in religion and politics in Florence, Eden also continued his education by taking correspondence courses through Chautauqua University (in Plainfield, New Jersey).  He was awarded a degree from the university in 1887.

In 1911, he started working in Benedict College in Columbia. He worked in the ministerial department from 1911 to 1919.  Benedict awarded him a D.D. degree in 1919.

Eden resigned from Benedict in 1919 to become school principal of Voorhees Normal and Industrial School (now Voorhees College) in Denmark. He served as principal until 1922.

Eden died in Florence on April 29, 1934.  He is buried in the Baptist Cemetery in Florence County.

Sources
1).  Pegues, Albert Witherspoon.  Our Baptist Ministers and Schools.  Willey & Co., Springfield, Mass.  1892.

2). Caldwell, A. B.  History of the American Negro: South Carolina Edition.  A. B. Caldwell Publishing Co., Atlanta, Ga.  1919.

3). Eighth Census of the United States 1860; Series Number: M653; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29

4). 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls

5). 1900; Census Place: Florence, Florence, South Carolina; Page: 14;

6). 1910; Census Place: Florence Ward 2, Florence, South Carolina; Roll: T624_1457; Page: 41A

7). 1930; Census Place: Florence, Florence, South Carolina; Page: 23B

8). Florence, South Carolina, City Directory, 1913

9). Columbia, South Carolina, City Directory, 1916

10). South Carolina Department of Archives and History; Columbia, South Carolina; South Carolina Death Records; Year Range: 1925-1949; Death County or Certificate Range: Florence

11). The Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate of the United States for the Second Session of the Forty-Fourth Congress.  Washington, Government Printing Office.  1877.  p. 182.

12). "The Colored Editors," May 26, 1891.  The Laurens Advertiser.  p. 4.

13). "Baptist Convention,"  December 16, 1896.  The Abbeville Press and Banner.  p. 11.

A European Jew in the Jim Crow South: Philander Smith in the 1950s

This blogpost continues the blogposts "Intro to Simon Grünzweig," "Lincoln in the 1940s," "Grünzweig at Lincoln," and "Grünzweig gets his PhD."

Philander Smith Campus
Philander Smith Yearbook, 1950

Simon Grünzweig appears to have started a job search toward the end of 1951, as he was finishing his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh.  He was helped in his job search by the International Rescue Committee, which made inquiries on his behalf. By December, the president of Philander Smith College, M. LaFayette Harris, was expressing interest in hiring Grünzweig.

President Harris solicited an evaluation of Grünzweig from Lincoln University, his previous employer.  At Lincoln, President Bond, despite his earlier frustrations with Grünzweig as a teacher, gave a positive evaluation. He wrote that he found Grünzweig and his wife to be "very lovable people," thought Grünzweig would fit in at Philander, and stated that he would "think well of re-employing" Grünzweig if there was an opening at Lincoln.  The last statement was disingenuous as about a year earlier Bond had said that Grünzweig was not a very good teacher and had no future at Lincoln.

In his evaluation, Bond acknowledged that Grünzweig had initially had language difficulties, but stated that he rapidly overcame them.  Bond's evaluation seems to have convinced Philander Smith College to hire Grünzweig: in July 1952, the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society announced that Grünzweig had been appointed to a professorship at Philander Smith. A month later Grünzweig received his PhD, and by Fall, he was teaching at the college.

Philander Smith College President Harris
Philander Smith Yearbook

Like Lincoln University, Philander Smith College was (and still is) a private Historically Black College (or HBCU).  However, in many respects, Lincoln and Philander were very different.  Philander Smith College was located in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Unlike Pennsylvania, Arkansas is a former Confederate state that, during the 1950s, enforced racial separation through state law.  Little Rock was not a major industrial city like Pittsburgh (where Grünzweig had most recently been living), but it was also not the small village he'd been living in while teaching at Lincoln.  Little Rock is the state capital and a regional cultural and economic center.  In 1950, the greater metropolitan area was home to about 200,000 people (making it roughly one-third the size of Pittsburgh).  Of those 200,000 residents, roughly one-quarter were Black.

In comparison with Lincoln, the student body at Philander was larger and more regional.  In Fall 1949, 1,209 students attended Philander, more than twice as many students as were attending Lincoln.  Essentially all of Philander's students were from within the state, many from improvised rural areas.  Lincoln drew students from all of the U.S. with about half of the student body coming from out-of-state.

Perhaps the biggest difference in terms of campus atmosphere was the presence of woman.  Roughly half of the Philander's student body was female, many of whom women were older schoolteachers who were trying to receive B.A. degrees while working.  Lincoln, on the other hand, was not only all-male, but because of the university's physical isolation, the only women a typical student would encounter would be the wives and daughters of Lincoln's all-male faculty.

Philander's offerings included more vocational training than Lincoln.  Lincoln maintained a small seminary (enrolling about 20 students in a typical year), but the core of its educational mission was training Black leaders through a traditional liberal arts education.  Philander, by contrast, offered a liberal arts education, but students could also study subjects like home economics, physical education, secretarial studies, and social work.  Additionally, the college ran Division of Teacher Education (similar to a School of Education) and offered special programs in cosmetology and engineering.

Garland D. Kyle
From University of Minnesota website "A Campus Divided"

Math instruction at Philander was in transition before Grünzweig arrived.  The college had employed a math PhD, Garland Dean Kyle.  Professor Kyle was a Black man who had received a PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1948 for his dissertation "Contributions to the theory of multivariate statistical analysis: with some special applications to studies of differential abilities in college mathematics."  Kyle had started teaching at Philander in 1947, the year before he completed his PhD. With Kyle on faculty, Philander was able to offer a level of math education unavailable at most HBCUs.  Many HBCUs only employed a few PhDs across all fields, and recruiting in physical sciences like math was especially challenging as fewer than 60 Blacks been awarded PhDs in the physical sciences by 1943.

Kyle left Philander in 1949 (several years before Grünzweig arrived) to teach at Arkansas AM&N College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff).  His departure created a gap in the math teaching. In the years before Grünzweig arrived, the math classes were taught by four instructors: Ernest Cuby Briggs, Jr, Frederick Griffin, Charles Daniel Henry, and Maurice Glenn Mynatt.  All four had appointments as professors of math and physics (Mynatt was an assistant professor; the others were associate professors, and Henry also had an appointment in the Department of Physical Education), but only Griffin had advanced training in math.

Frederick Griffin
Philander Smith Yearbook

Griffin had been working as an associate professor in math and physics at Philander since 1948.  He had come to the college a few years after receiving his M.S. degree from the University of Michigan.

Ernest Cuby Briggs, Jr.
Philander Smith Yearbook, 1951

Briggs was trained as a physicist: he had received an M.S. degree from New York University and a B.S. from Virginia State College.  He been hired at Philander in 1949, the year before he completed his masters degree.

Charles Daniel Henry
Philander Smith Yearbook, 1951

Henry and Mynatt had limited training in quantitative subjects.  Mynett had received an M.A. in education from Northwestern University in 1948.  Henry primarily taught physical education and had received a 1948 M.A.in physical education from the University of Iowa and was working on his Ph.D.  Both Henry and Mynatt had arrived at Philander in 1948, the year they received their degrees.

Maurice Glenn Mynatt
Philander Smith Yearbook

An inspection of their photos shows that all the math faculty were Black, but this did not reflect general diversity of the college faculty.  Philander had long had an integrated faculty, and in fact, Grünzweig was not the first Jewish refugee to teach at the college.  Three Jewish refugees had been hired in 1950: Louis Hugo Frank and Georg and Wilma (or Wilhelmina) Iggers.  A fourth, Reinhart S. Ross, was hired the next year.

Louis Hugo Frank
Philander Smith Yearbook, 1951

Professor Frank was a Chemistry Professor and was about 20 years older than Grünzweig.  Frank had a rather unusual academic history.  He had moved to Japan in 1913 after receiving his PhD from Berlin University.  He remained in Japan until 1949 and thus largely escaped the anti-Semitic violence experienced by most European Jews as the Japanese government did not adopt any official policy against Jews despite being allied with Nazi Germany.  However, Frank did experience the harshness of life in wartime Japan during the 1940s and, after the war, his presence as a foreigner was viewed negatively by his coworkers.  In 1949, he was made to resign.  His position at Philander Smith was his first after leaving Japan.

Georg and Wilma Iggers and Reinhart Ross were considerable younger than Grünzweig and Frank.  They had all left Europe as teenagers and been educated in the U.S.

Reinhart S. Ross

Reinhart S. Ross was originally from Hamburg, Germany, but he had immigrated to the U.S. in 1940.  He had studied music at the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), and he was awarded a PhD for his dissertation "Symphony for voices, choir, and orchestra" in 1951.  He arrived at Philander the next year, in 1952.

Georg Iggers
Philander Yearbook, 1954

Georg was from Germany, while Wilma was Czechoslovakia.  They had met at the University of Chicago while studying as PhD students.  They were hired by Philander in 1950, as they were completed their PhDs.  Georg graduated in 1951 with the history dissertation "The social philosophy of the Saint-Simonians," and Wilma graduated a year later with the German Studies dissertation "Karl Kraus, a Viennese critic of the twentieth century"

The Iggers' experiences at Philander are representative of those of the professors featured in the documentary From Swastika to Jim Crow.   Both Georg and Wilma were politically active and involved with desegregation and the civil rights movement.  You can watch them talk about their experiences here and here.

I will talk about what Grünzweig did while at Philander in the next blogpost.

Wilma Iggers
Philander Yearbook, 1954

The students of the Radical University: Lester D. Puckett

Lester Durant Puckett (b. August 27, 1855, d. October 12, 1908)
South Carolina.  White.  
Occupation: lawyer, teacher.

Lester D. Puckett was born in Walhalla, South Carolina to Mary Francis Crawford Puckett and an unknown father.

Puckett spent most of his life living with his mother.  During Reconstruction, they lived in upstate South Carolina.  In 1860, they were living in Spartanburg, but by 1870 they had moved to Centerville (in Anderson County).  They had returned to Walhalla by 1874.

Puckett registered at the University of South Carolina on April 1, 1874, entering as a college student following the modern studies track.  This was an unusual decision.  Puckett was one of the first white students to enroll after African American students were admitted.  The admission of the first African American student in October, 1873 led to a massive exodus of students, with only the children of faculty remaining.  (Those children were Edward and Charles Babbitt and Charles W., Francis A., and Olin F. Cummings.)

Puckett did not complete a degree and left the university around 1875. After leaving the university, Puckett moved to Gainesville, Georgia with his mother.  He lived in the city for the rest of his life.

In Gainesville, Puckett worked as a teacher for some years, but most of his working life was spent as a lawyer.  Perhaps the most high profile case legal that he was involved with was a 1898 case involving the murder of a woman.  The accused, a young white man, was unable to employ legal counsel, so Puckett, and others, were appointed to represent him.  The accused was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Puckett was active in politics.  He was a member of the Democratic Party and often held an executive position in the county party.  One of his more noteworthy acts as party member was introducing a resolution in 1902 expressing appreciation for former South Carolina Governor Wade Hampton.  Hampton had recently died, and Pickett introduced the resolution as a way to acknowledge Hampton's civic, political, and military accomplishments and express sympathy for the people of South Carolina.  The resolution states, for example, that

Resolved further, That the people of South Carolina, and throughout the Sunny South, owe him [Hampton] a debt of gratitude for the redemption of that State from radical rule in the dark days of 1876, when surrounded by glittering bayonets and shining swords of the United States soldiers he stood in the center of the raging storm like a stone wall and defied the enemies of civil and political freedom, and by his wise counsel and patriotic words saved his State to democracy and his people and restores her to peace, order and prosperity.

The resolution was adopted by a rising vote.

Pickett both received political appointments and was elected to office.  The district court appointed him Referee in Bankruptcy in November, 1898.  This position was a newly created quasi-judicial position that was responsible for assisting with matters related to bankruptcy.  For example, the Referee could adjudicate bankruptcy petitions and depose witnesses in bankruptcy proceedings.  Puckett was reappointed in 1900, but he resigned before completing his second term, in April, 1901.

In November, 1899, Puckett was elected alderman (for the 3rd Ward) to fill the unexpired term of an alderman who had just resigned. After the election, he was made mayor pro tem.  He was again elected as alderman in December 1900 and served from 1901-02.

The year after his term as alderman ended (in 1903),  Puckett ran for city mayor.  In a newspaper article he wrote about his candidacy, saying that he was, "in favor of a 'business administration' and a wise and judicious expenditure of people's money, which is wrung from them by the exacting hands of taxation." At the time, the election was effectively determined by the white primary, and Puckett lost the primary by a significant margin (168 votes to 446).  This loss marked the end to his political career.

Puckett started having health problems in 1901, and these problems became especially severe on January 3, 1903.  An illness reported as "locomotor ataxia" left him bed-ridden for almost five year, until his death on October 14, 1908.  He is buried in the Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville.

Sources
1). 1860; Census Place: Spartanburg, Spartanburg, South Carolina; Page: 306

2). 1880; Census Place: Gainesville, Hall, Georgia; Roll: 150; Page: 3B

3). 1900; Census Place: Gainesville Ward 3, Hall, Georgia; Page: 10

4). "Col. L. D. Pudkett dies [sic]," October 14, 1908.  Gainesville News.  Page 2.

5). "Mr. Webb is Chairman." September 17, 1898.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 1.

6). "Mr. Puckett Appointed."  November 19, 1898.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 4.

7). "From the Third Ward."  November 11, 1899.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 4.

8). "To the Voters of Gainesville."  December 9, 1899.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 8.

9). "Mitchell Elected."  December 16, 1899.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 1.

10). "Mayor Mitchell takes Oath of Office."  January 6, 1900.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 1.

11). "Referees Re-Appointed."  November 22, 1900.  The Jackson Economist.  p. 2.

12). March 16, 1901.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 7.

13). "Referee Puckett has Resigned." April 20, 1901.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 3.

14). "Col. Puckett Announces." October 28, 1903.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 2.

15). "For Mayor." November 4, 1903.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 2.

16). 1870; Census Place: Centerville, Anderson, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1482; Page: 469B

17). "Shoemake Bound Over." November 26, 1898.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 1.

18). "Dave Shoemake Escaped." June 3, 1899.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 9.

19). "Thompson Nominated." December 9, 1903.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 1.

20). "Primary August 7th." April 19, 1902.  The Georgia Cracker.  p. 1.

A European Jew in the Jim Crow South: Grünzweig gets his PhD

Simon Grünzweig at Lincoln University

The Lion Yearbook, 1949

This blogpost continues the blogposts "Intro to Simon Grünzweig," "Lincoln in the 1940s," and "Grünzweig at Lincoln."

Grünzweig planned to start earning his PhD in the summer of 1949, shortly before moving to Lincoln.  However, he found himself busier than expected and was only able to start work later, probably the next summer.  In the summer of 1952, one year after he left Lincoln, he received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh.

By contemporary standards, completing a PhD in 2 years, especially while also teaching 5 classes per semester, is remarkably short. (Today, a typical teaching load for an assistant professor would be between 1 and 4 classes.)  While an impressive accomplishment, this was less unusual in the 1950s.  Grünzweig's education in Europe (7 years at the University of Vienna) compared well with a master's degree from a U.S. university. Receiving a PhD a few years after completing a master's degree was not unusual.  For example, at The Ohio State University, many such students graduated within 2 years and most spent less than 6 years.  By contrast, today (in 2020), the average PhD student at Ohio State spends 6 years in graduate school.

James S. Taylor
From The Owl Yearbook, 1951

At the University of Pittsburgh, Grünzweig's PhD advisor was James S. Taylor.  Professor Taylor had graduated from Berkeley in 1918.  There he had been advised by Mellen Woodman Haskell and wrote a dissertation on "A set of five postulates for Boolean algebras in terms of the operations 'exception'."  It seems that he never published his dissertation, but he further developed these ideas in two publications: "Complete Existential Theory of Bernstein's Set of Four Postulates for Boolean Algebras" in Annals of Mathematics and "Sheffer's set of five postulates for Boolean algebras in terms of the operation 'rejection' made completely independent" in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society.

Both papers build on earlier work of Sheffer on axiomatizing Boolean algebras. Sheffer had observed that a Boolean algebra can be defined as a set with a NOR operation that satisfies 5 axioms.  Taylor's second paper shows how to modify these axioms so that they are completely independent (meaning there are no non-trivial logical implications among the axioms and their negations).  His first paper studies a different set of axioms that had been proposed by Bernstein.

The two papers on Boolean algebras are the only ones that appear on the database MathSciNet, but MathSciNet is an incomplete record for U.S. mathematicians in the early 20th century.  In particular, it misses some of Taylor's publications.

Grünzweig's PhD work is based on one of Taylor's publications that does not show up on MathSciNet: the paper "A Four-Space Representation of Complex Plane Analytics." The paper was published in the Journal of Mathematics and Physics in 1923, while Taylor was working MIT. The paper studies the standard 2-dimensional complex vector space.  This vector space can also be considered as a 4-dimensional real vector space, and Taylor studies the interplay between the real and complex geometry.

Every complex vector subspace of complex dimension 1 is a real vector subspace of real dimension 2, and Taylor defines real vector subspaces that arise in this manner as "regular" subspaces.  His paper focuses on describing which real rigid motions send complex vector subspaces to complex vector subspaces.  Many rigid motions fail to preserve complex vector subspaces, and Taylor shows that the rigid motions preserving complex subspaces are those that are complex linear or anti-linear.

Grünzweig's dissertation, titled "Affine and non-affine projective transformations in four-space which leave invariant the family of surfaces representing regular functions of a complex variable" extends Taylor's work.  The dissertation was unpublished, and I haven't gotten a copy of it.  However, thanks to Pittsburgh's University Archivist Zach Brodt, I was able to get a copy of a 6-page abstract which was published in a university bulletin.

Grünzweig's dissertation generalizes Taylor's result.  He proves that the analogue of Taylor's results on real rigid motions holds for real affine transformation, and he proves a similar result for real projective transformations.  The results are proven by detailed explicit computations, and as a by-product of his computations, he obtains information about how an affine transformation can act on complex subspaces.

The "regular functions" referenced in the dissertation title are holomorphic functions, and they are connected to the work as follows.  A holomorphic function of 1 variable can be studied geometrically by studying its graph in the complex plane.  The graph is naturally a Riemann surface (in fact, is biholomoprhic to the complex line).  A real affine transformation maps the graph into another real surface, but that real surface could fail to have complex structure, i.e. could fail to be a Riemann surface.  However, a basic result is that a real transformation which sends complex vector subspaces to complex vector subspaces must also send Riemann surfaces to Riemann surfaces.  Grünzweig's results thus provide a description of the real affine transformation which act on Riemann surfaces.

As far as I can tell, Grünzweig did not publish his dissertation, and he does not have seemed to have continued this line of research.

As Grünzweig was finishing up his dissertation, he began to look for further academic employment. Although the Second World War had ended seven years ago, the International Rescue Committee was still helping war refugees, and it sent out inquiries on Grünzweig's behalf.  The next blogpost will discuss what response they got, and where Grünzweig moved to next. 

Simon Grünzweig
The Lion Yearbook, 1951

The Professors of the Radical University: William Main

William Main
Photo from Ancestory.com

William Main
Photo from Ancestory.com

William Main, Jr. (b. February 10, 1845; d. October 18, 1918)
Pennsylvania.  White.
Education: University of Pennsylvania (A.B., A.M.), Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania (B.M.E.).
Occupation: chemist, druggist, lawyer, teacher.

William Main, Jr. was born in 1845 in Silver Lake, Pennsylvania to Ann Rose and William Main.  His material grandfather Robert H. Rose was one of the early developers of Susquehanna County, purchasing much of the land that made up the area. The father William, Sr. had received training in engraving in Italy from Raffaello Morghen.  He worked both as an engraver and as a civil engineer.  However, by 1850, he had moved to Pennsylvania and was running a family farm.

William studied at private schools in Philadelphia until around the age of 14 (in 1859), when he began his college education at the University of Pennsylvania.   The Civil War broke while he was a student (in 1861), but this only caused serious disruption to William's studies a few years later, shortly before graduation.  William was set to graduate in July 1863, but in mid-June, Pennsylvania came under threat from Confederate forces led by Robert E. Lee.

William enlisted in the Union army on June 19, 1863 "for the emergency" created by Lee's invasion of the state.  William served in Miller's Independent Battery, Light Artillery (part of the Pennsylvania Militia Artillery) as a 2nd corporal.  The unit was raised by E. Spencer Miller, a professor at Penn's law school.  William's unit was mustered out in late July, shortly after Confederate forces left the state following their defeat at Gettysburg.

Around the time his unit was mustered out, William, Jr. was awarded an A.B. degree by Penn.  He then continued his studies at the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania. He entered the college in Fall 1864, and graduated the next year with a Bachelor in Mines degree.  In 1866, he received an A.M. degree from Penn, although the degree was largely honorary.  (At the time, Penn awarded an A.M. degree to A.B. recipients three years after they graduated.)

William spent the late 1860s engaged in mining and metallurgical work in Colorado and around Lake Superior.  He had returned to Pennsylvania by 1870.  The census lists him as living in Philadelphia and working as a lawyer.

In 1871, he married Fannie A. Fillebrown, the daughter of the Union officer James S. Fillebrown. Fillebrown first moved to South Carolina when his army unit was sent to South Carolina to perform Reconstruction duties. He remained in the state after leaving military service and was joined by his family. Fillebrown's son Horatio L. would later enroll at USC while William was faculty.

In early October 1873, William moved to South Carolina to hold the professorship in chemistry, pharmacy, mineralogy, and geology at the University of South Carolina.  He was elected to the professorship at a time of major transition for the university.  Starting in the summer, the Radical Republicans in the state legislature sought to transform the university, especially to make it open to African Americans.  Starting with the July 8 dismissal of the Professor J. L. Reynolds, the Board of Trustees began replacing faculty.

On October 3, 1873, R. W. Barnwell, the Professor of History, was dismissed and T. N. Roberts, a recent hire, was given his position.  This left Roberts' professorship open, and William was elected to fill it.

William's arrival in South Carolina was well-received by The Daily Phoenix newspaper.  It reported that William's had "credentials which prima facie testify to fitness and skill, and entitle Professor Main to proper consideration and respect.:  His appointment appears to be a good one, and we trust that he may have success in the position to which he has been called."  This endorsement is striking as The Daily Phoenix was generally highly critical the changes taking place at the university.  For example, the day before reporting on William's appointment, the newspaper described the changes at the university as a deeply regretted blight.

William worked at the university until it was closed at the end of Spring 1877.   Of William, his former student C. C. Scott later wrote, that he was "competent and thorough, allowed no shirking and was a martinet in discipline."

Accounts about what William did after the university closed are conflicting.  Scott says that he moved to Wisconsin, and Penn alumni records state that he was working in the mining industry from 1877-83.  However, a 1879 article in Scientific American lists him as living in Piermont, New York.

The Scientific American article describes a recent invention by William.  He had proposed an attachment for a lathe so that the lathe could be used as a milling machine.

By 1880, William had moved to Brooklyn, New York and was working as a druggist.  He either maintained a second home in Piermont or later returned to that town as his is listed as living there by 1912.

William continued to work on inventions in New York.  In 1912, he received a patent for a settling cone.  This was a mining device to aid in the processing (or classifying) of ore.

William died in 1918.  He is buried in Rockland Cemetery in Sparkle, New York.

William Main and unidentified child
From Ancestory.com

Sketch of Main's settling-cone
From Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office

Sketch of Main's milling attachment
From Scientific American

Sources
1).  Stauffer, David McNeely.  American Engravers: Upon Cooper and Steel. Part I.  Burt Franklin, New York (1907).  pp. 169-170.

2). "State University."  The Abbeville press and banner, October 8, 1873, p. 3.

3). "The South Carolina University."  The daily phoenix, October 8, 1873, p. 3.

4). "The Recent Changes in the State University."  The daily phoenix, October 7, 1873, p. 2.

5). 1850; Census Place: Silver Lake, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania; Roll: 829; Page: 111A

6). 1870; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 9 District 26, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: M593_1394

7). 1880; Census Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York; Roll: 841; Page: 518C

8). 1900; Census Place: Brooklyn Ward 23, Kings, New York; Page: 11

9). Pennsylvania (State). Civil War Muster Rolls and Related Records, 1861–1866. Records of the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs, Record Group 19, Series 19.11

10). Historical Record of the Polytechnic College of the State of Pennsylvania, 1st Edition, 1853 to 1890.  Philadelphia (1890?).

11). Maxwell, W. J.  General Alumni Catalogue of University of Pennsylvania, 1917.

12). Maxwell, W. J.  General Alumni Catalogue of University of Pennsylvania, 1922.

13). University of Pennsylvania.  Biographical catalogue of the matriculates of the college together with lists of the members of the college faculty and the trustees, officers and recipients of honorary degrees, 1749-1893. Philadelphia (1894).

13). "New Milling Attachment for Lathes."  Scientific American.  July 5, 1979  p. 38.

14). Main, William.  Settling Cone.  U. S. Patent 1,065,542.  March 1, 1912.

15). "Main, Willam." Universities and Their Sons: University of Pennsylvania, Its History, Influence, Equipment and Characteristics with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Founders, Benefactors, Officers and Alumni. Boston, R Herndon Company. (1902). pp. 626–627.

The Professors of the Radical University: Edward Brenton Otheman

Edward Brenton Otheman (b. October 11, 1835; d. August 23, 1888)
Massachusetts.  White.
Education: Wesleyan University (M.A.), Andover Theological Seminary (no degree).
Occupation: minister, teacher.

Edward B. Otheman was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts (near Boston) in 1835 to Emarancy Thompson and Edward Otheman. The father Edward was a Methodist pastor.

Otheman began his education in the college preparatory program at Wilbraham Academy, a Massachusetts school affiliated with the Methodist Church.  His family has a close relationship with the academy.  His father had studied there and then served on the Board of Trustees for more than thirty years (from 1848 to 1880) with a decade of service as the board president.

In 1850, after attending Wilbraham Acedemy, Otheman enrolled as a student at Wesleyan University.  He graduated from the university with honors four years later (in 1854).

After graduation Otheman taught at the Amenia Seminary (in New York state) for six years. He then taught at Wilbraham Academy. While teaching, he continued his studies by attending the Andover Theological Seminary during the 1858-59 academic year.

In 1860, Otheman began to work as a Methodist minster.  He joined the New York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was stationed in the New York City, at Hillside and Riverside, West Harlem, and St. Paul's Church.

Around 1860, Otheman began to experience ill health. On account of this, he was stationed outside of New York City, in Whitlockville (now Katonah in Westchester County). Health problems would trouble him for the remainder of his life and limit his activities within the Methodist church.

In 1867, Otheman left the U.S. to travel and study in Europe.  He stayed there for a year, and when he returned, he was stationed as a minister in Lenox, Massachusetts.  That year he also worked at Wesleyan University as an instructor in Greek and Modern Languages, replacing a professor (Van Benschoten) who had fallen sick.

In 1870, Otheman returned to working as a minister in New York State.  He was stationed in White Plains for a few years and then moved to Rhinebeck, where he served from 1871-73.  Around 1873, he contributed several entries to The Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature.  During this time, his health problems became severe enough that, in 1874, he was temporarily relieved of church duties (superannuated).

By Fall 1874. Otheman had moved to the South.  There he experienced hostility because of his political beliefs. Otheman lived for a time in Atlanta, Georgia, staying in hotel Kimball House.  While staying there, he spoke freely with other guests about his political views. While his political views clashed with those of many guests, initially this did not provoke major controversy. However, this changed after the election of 1874. A committee, claiming to act on behalf of the hotel's guests, told Otheman that he needed to leave as men with his political beliefs were unwelcome in the area. Otheman was further told to send a warning message to Gilbert Haven, a Methodist bishop and abolitionist who had recently moved to Atlanta. They told Otheman to inform Haven that he was risking personal violence by staying in Atlanta. The landlord of the hotel asked Otheman to obey the committee, saying that otherwise he would lose all his customers. This incident was reported by several northern newspapers. Newspapers emphasized that Otheman was a quiet, peaceable scholar and pointed to his treatment as evidence of unreasonable behavior of southerners.

In January 1875, Otheman was elected Professor Modern Languages and Literature at the University of South Carolina.  He was elected to replace Dr. Vampill, who had resigned the professorship.

Otheman's time working at the University of South Carolina is surprisingly omitted from all existing accounts of his life.  Some accounts, such as a 1888 obituary, state that Otheman worked at Claflin University around this time, but this is likely an error due to UofSC being confused with Claflin.

Otheman's former student C. C. Scott wrote that he was "a good scholar, and a competent teacher."  Scott says that Otheman resigned and was replaced by E. Von Fingerlin.  Otheman likely resigned around Spring 1877 since financial records indicate that Von Fingerlin was working during the last few quarters.

By 1879, Otheman had returned to New England and was working as a minister in Chelsea, Massachusetts.  After 2 years (in 1881), he moved to New York City and worked as an assistant in the Mission Rooms of the Methodist Episcopal Church. During this period, he published several articles in the Methodist Quarterly Review.  From 1879-80, he published a series of articles on the French Reformed Church.  The next year (in 1881), he published the article "Baird's 'Rise of the Huguenots'."

Otheman's life was tragically cut short in 1888.  While in Scollay Square in Boston, he was injured by a runaway horse.  He died of his injuries later that day. He was buried in Woodlawn cemetery. 

In an obituary, the Methodist Church described Otheman as 

a man of rare purity and sweetness of life and character. Naturally retiring in his habits, he became more so on account of his disease, and yet he continued to do his work with a faithfulness and persistency that make his life seem heroic. His literary taste and ability were marked and had he possessed good health he would have achieved great success as a scholar and writer. He was an excellent preacher, a very faithful pastor, and did much to build up the material interests of the churches he served. He was consecrated to his duty as a minister, and he did his work in the most thorough and painstaking style.

Publications

1) "The French Reformed Church, Its Synold of 1872 and Subsequent Events [First Article]." Methodist Quarterly Review. Vol. LXI–Fourth Series. October, 1879. pp. 660–684.

2) "The French Reformed Church, Its Synold of 1872 and Subsequent Events [Second Article]." Methodist Quarterly Review. Vol. LXII–Fourth Series. July, 1880. pp. 455–486.

3) "Baird's 'Rise of the Hugenots'." Methodist Quarterly Review. Vol. LXIII–Fourth Series. January, 1881. pp. 103–128.

Sources
1).  The Worthington Advance [Minnesota], January 22, 1875, p. 2.

2) The Daily Evening Express [Lancaster, PA], February 13, 1875. p. 3.

3) Harrisburg Telegraph [Harrisburg, PA], January 12, 1865. p. 2.

2). Green, Edwin Luther.  A History of the University of South Carolina.  Columbia, SC.  State Company, 1916.

3). General Catalogue of the Theological Seminary, Andover, Massachusetts, 1808-1908.  Thomas Todd, Printer, Boston, Mass  p. 309.

4). Hazen, Henry A.  Andover Theological Seminary.  Necrology, 1888-9.  Number 9.  Beacon Press, Boston, MA (1889).

5). Obituary Record of Alumni of the Wesleyan University for the Academic Years ending July, 1836 and July, 1864.  Published by Wesleyan University.

6). The Daily Phoenix, January 31, 1875, p. 2.

7). 1850; Census Place: Chelsea, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: 339; Page: 419A

8). Alumni Record of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., Third Edition, 1881-03.  Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, Hartford, Conn. (1883).

9) "Edward B. Otheman" in Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church: Spring Conferences of 1889. New York: Hunt & Eaton, Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe (1889). p. 107