Josiah Meigs
Encyclopedia
Josiah Meigs was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 academic, journalist and government official.

History

Meigs was the 13th and last child of Jonathan Meigs and Elizabeth Hamlin Meigs. His older brother was Return J. Meigs, Sr.
Return J. Meigs, Sr.
Return Jonathan Meigs [born December 17 or December 28 , 1740; died January 28, 1823] was a colonel who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, was one of the founding settlers of the Northwest Territory in what is now the state of Ohio, and later served as a federal...

, whose son (Josiah's nephew) was Return J. Meigs, Jr.
Return J. Meigs, Jr.
Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr. was a Democratic-Republican politician from Ohio. He served as the fourth Governor of Ohio, fifth United States Postmaster General, and as a U.S. Senator.-Biography:...

, who served as a United States Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 and Governor of Ohio.

After graduating from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in 1778 with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A) degree, Meigs studied law and was (from 1781 to 1784) a Yale tutor in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, natural philosophy
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...

 and astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

. Yale class of 1778 included Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman and senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...

, Joel Barlow
Joel Barlow
Joel Barlow was an American poet, diplomat and politician. In his own time, Barlow was well-known for the epic Vision of Columbus. Modern readers may be more familiar with "The Hasty Pudding"...

, Oliver Wolcott, Uriah Tracy
Uriah Tracy
Uriah Tracy was an American politician from Connecticut who served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate....

, Zephaniah Swift
Zephaniah Swift
Zephaniah Swift was an American jurist, author, and politician from Windham, Connecticut. He was born in Wareham, Massachusetts and moved with his parents to Lebanon, Connecticut. He completed preparatory studies and graduated from Yale College in 1778...

, Ashur Miller, and Noah Smith. He was admitted to the bar in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

, in 1783, and served as New Haven city clerk from 1784 to 1789. During this period he established and published The New Haven Gazette (later known as The New Haven Gazette and the Connecticut Magazine) and in 1788 published the first American Medical Journal.

Career

In 1789 Meigs left New Haven for St. George, Bermuda, where he practiced law and was involved in defending the owners of U.S. vessels that had been captured by British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

 privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

s. In 1794 he returned to the United States and took the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Yale. As a Republican, he was in conflict with the Federalists who ran Yale. He taught there until 1801 when he was chosen as the president of the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...

 (UGA) in Athens
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...

. His salary at Georgia was fixed at fifteen hundred dollars, and he was given four hundred dollars in moving expenses for his family.

At Georgia, Meigs implemented the university's first physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 curriculum in 1801. He resigned as president on August 9, 1810, after clashing with the Board of Trustees for the University; however, he continued on in the position of Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Chemistry for one more year. John Brown was elected by the Board of Trustees as the new president.

After his academic career at UGA, Meigs was appointed Surveyor General
Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory
The Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory was a United States government official responsible for surveying land in the Northwest Territory in the United States late in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The position was created in the Land Act of 1796 to survey lands ceded by...

 by President James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...

 in 1812, residing in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

. He then accepted an appointment as Commissioner of the United States General Land Office
General Land Office
The General Land Office was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department of the Treasury...

 in Washington, D.C., in 1814. During his tenure at the U.S. Land Office, he instituted the nation's first system of daily meteorological observations at the land offices throughout the country.

Societies

During the 1820s, Meigs was a member of the prestigious society, Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences
Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences
The Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences was a literary and science institution in Washington, D.C., founded by Dr. Edward Cutbush , a naval surgeon...

, who counted among their members former presidents Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

 and John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

 and many prominent men of the day, including well-known representatives of the military, government service, medical and other professions.

Meigs was also at one point, the president of the Columbian Institute. He was also one of the original corporators and trustees of Columbian College (now George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...

), and professor of experimental philosophy there.

Personal

In 1782, Meigs married Clara Benjamin. Their son Henry Meigs
Henry Meigs
Henry Meigs was a U.S. Representative from New York.Born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Josiah Meigs and Clara Meigs, Meigs attended the common schools.He was graduated from Yale College in 1799....

 served in the U.S. Congress. Another son, Charles Delucena Meigs
Charles Delucena Meigs
Dr. Charles Delucena Meigs was an influential American obstetrician of the nineteenth century who is remembered for his opposition to obstetrical anesthesia and to the idea that physicians' hands could transmit disease to their patients.-Biography:Meigs was born February 19, 1792, in St...

, became a prominent obstetrician. Their daughter Clara married John Forsyth
John Forsyth (politician)
John Forsyth, Sr. was a 19th-century American politician from Georgia.Forsyth was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. His father Robert Forsyth was the first U.S. Marshal to be killed in the line of duty in 1794. He was an attorney who graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1799...

, U.S. Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

 and Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....

.

Meigs died on September 4, 1822 and was originally buried in Holmead's Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The cemetery was disbanded and the graves removed, so he was reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...

 in 1878 in the lot of his grandson, Major General Montgomery C. Meigs
Montgomery C. Meigs
Montgomery Cunningham Meigs was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, construction engineer for a number of facilities in Washington, D.C., and Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War....

.

Legacy

He is remembered at the University of Georgia in the name of the university's highest teaching honor. The university annually recognizes up to five faculty members with the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorship. Also, Meigs Hall, at the northwest corner of the university campus
Campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...

, is named in his honor as is Meigs Street in Athens, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...

.

Sources


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK