Eugene Allen Smith

Eugene Allen Smith (born October 27, 1841 in Washington Ferry , Autauga County , Alabama , † September 7, 1927 in Tuscaloosa , Alabama) was an American geologist.

Eugene Allen Smith

Smith was the son of a doctor and attended school in Prattville and Philadelphia. He graduated from the University of Alabama with a bachelor's degree in 1862 and then volunteered in the Southern Army in the Civil War . He became a lieutenant and taught tactics at the University of Alabama during the war (where he saw it burned down by Union forces - after the war he was successful in getting Alabama compensation for this in the form of land from the US government ). He also looked for natural resources in the state. From 1865 he studied in Berlin, Göttingen and Heidelberg and received his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1868. He then taught chemistry at the University of Mississippi while serving as Assistant Geologist on the Mississippi Geological Survey. In 1871 he became a professor of mineralogy and agricultural chemistry at the University of Alabama. He helped rebuild the university, was active in setting up the sports program (especially football and baseball) and played the violin in the university orchestra. In 1873 he became a state geologist for Alabama. The Alabama Geological Survey was interrupted in 1858 by the death of his predecessor Michael Tuomey. Its main task was the search for mineral resources (cement, kaolin, coal, iron, graphite, raw material for fertilizer) and hydropower. He was often successful in this and made contacts with local industry. During his travels he also corrected the map of Alabama and published a new map in Berney's Handbook of Alabama in 1892.

In 1913 he was President of the Geological Society of America .

He had been married to Jane Garland, daughter of the President of the University of Alabama during the war, since 1872, and had five children. The Smith Hall of the University of Alabama, which houses the Natural History Museum, is named after him. He was significantly involved in its founding in 1910 and collected animals, plants, fossils, rocks and Indian artefacts for the museum.

As a botanist, he published a list of plants in Alabama with Charles Mohr.

Web links

• Encyclopedia of Alabama