Zadock Thompson - A Stan Klos Website
THOMPSON, Zadock, naturalist, born in
Bridgewater, Vermont, 23 May, 1796; died in Burlington, Vermont, 19 January,
1856. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1823, and became a tutor
there in 1825. In addition to his teaching, he edited in 1828 the "Iris and
Burlington Literary Gazette," and in 1832 "The Green Mountain Repository." He
issued an almanac as early as 1819, and subsequently made the astronomical
calculations for the "Vermont Registers," also for thirty-four years those of
"Walton's Registers."
He removed in 1833 to Hatley, Canada, and then to
Sherbrooke, where he taught, and, after studying theology, was in 1835 made a
deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He returned to Burlington, Vermont,
in 1837, and was given a chair in the Vermont Episcopal Seminary. Subsequently
in 1845-'8 he held the office of state geologist of Vermont and gathered in
Burlington a collection of more than 3.000 specimens of the productions of the
state, which on his death became the property of the university.
In 1849 Thompson correctly identified the fossilized
bones of a 10,000 year-old whale from the prehistoric Champlain Sea. The bones
had been uncovered by Irish workers building the Burlington-Rutland section of
the Vermont Railway some sixty feet above the level of the present Lake
Champlain near Charlotte. He visited the site and reclaimed more of the
skeleton. He and his whale skeleton were mentioned in 2005 on a Maine PBS
“Quest” program on archaeology in New England.
In 1851 he was called to the professorship of chemistry
and natural history in the University of Vermont, and in 1853 he was directed to
make a survey of the state, including its physical geography, geology,
mineralogy, botany, and general zoology, upon which he was engaged at the time
of his death. He was sent as a commissioner from Vermont to the World's fair in
London in 1851, and exhibited a collection of American woods, classified
according to their useful properties, for which he received a bronze medal. In
June, 1850, he delivered the annual address before the Boston society of natural
history on the "Geology of Vermont."
Besides several text-books, Professor Thompson published
"Gazetteer of the State of Vermont" (Montpelier, 1824); "History of the State of
Vermont to 1832" (Burlington, 1833); "History of Vermont, Natural, Civil, and
Statistical" (1841-'53); "Guide to Lake George, Lake Champlain, Montreal, and
Quebec" (1845) ; and the "Geography and Geology of Vermont" (1848).
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia by John Looby, Copyright © 2001
StanKlos.comTM
THOMPSON, Zadoe, naturalist, born in Bridgewater, Vermont, 2.'-} May, 1796; died in Burlington, Vermont, 19 January, 1856. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1823, and became a tutor there in 1825. In addition to his teaching, he edited in 1828 the "Iris and Burlington Literary Gazette," and in 1832 "The Green Mountain Repository." He issued an almanac as early as 1819, and subsequently made the astronomical calculations for the "Vermont Registers," also for thirty-four years those of " Walton's Registers." He removed in 1833 to Hatley, Canada, and then to Sherbrooke, where he taught, and, after studying theology, was in 1835 made a deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church. He returned to Burlington, Vermont, in 1837, and was given a chair in the Vermont Episcopal seminary. Subsequently in 1845-'8 he held the office of state geologist of Vermont and gathered in Burlington a collection of more than 3.000 specimens of the productions of the state, which on his death became the property of the university. In 1851 he was called to the professorship of chemistry and natural history in the University of Vermont, and in 1853 he was directed to make a survey of the state, including its physical geography, geology, mineralogy, botany, and general zoology, upon which he was engaged at the time of his death. He was sent as a commissioner from Vermont to the World's fair in London in 1851, and exhibited a collection of American woods, classified according to their useful properties, for which he received a bronze medal. In June, 1850, he delivered the annual address before the Boston society of natural history on the " Geology of Vermont." Besides several text-books, Professor Thompson published "Gazetteer of the State of Vermont" (Montpelier, 1824); " History of the State of Vermont to 1832" (Burlington, 1833); "History of Vermont, Natural, Civil, and Statistical "(1841-'53) ; " Guide to Lake George, Lake Champlain, Montreal, and Quebec" (1845) ; and the "Geography and Geology of Vermont" (1848).
