David Bates Douglass was born in Pompton, N.J., on March 21, 1790, the youngest son of Deacon Nathaniel Douglass and Sarah Bates of Newark. Raised in an iron-mining district, he developed an interest in the natural sciences and technology from very early in life, encouraged, perhaps, by his mother who provided his early education. As a teenager, Douglass developed into an avid and capable student under the tutelage of Rev. Samuel Whelpley, and was advanced enough to enter Yale as a sophomore with the class of 1813, where he hoped to prepare himself for a career in civil engineering. He soon became restless and frustrated, however, with Yale's hide bound curriculum and its limited course offerings in the natural sciences. Fortunately, the military afforded opportunities that the university did not. With the War of 1812 providing suitable training and employment for large numbers of engineers, Douglass secured a commission as second lieutenant of engineers, and reported for duty at West Point in October, 1813.

Douglass' distinguished service in the Niagara Campaign of 1814, at the Battle of Lundy's Lane, and at the siege of Fort Erie earned him a promotion to first lieutenant and a brevet captaincy in September, 1814. Douglass' personal courage while in command of an artillery battery at Fort Erie was singled out for commendation, and credited with helping to ensure victory for the American forces during the British assault in mid-August, 1814. After demobilization, the army was reluctant to lose such a promising young officer to civilian life, and as a result, on January 1, 1815, Douglass was offered the opportunity to become assistant professor of natural philosophy at the Military Academy, the only school at the time to offer formal training in engineering and therefore an outstanding opportunity for an aspiring young scientist. Throughout his career, Douglass aggressively sought out every chance to improve his professional standing, pursuing his interests both in the government service and as a private consultant, accepting seemingly any project that offered intellectual challenge, professional betterment, or financial reward. During his first few years at West Point, he organized the survey of defenses along the southern coast of New England (1815) and at the eastern end of Long Island Sound (1817), and he accompanied the commission to determine the Canadian boundary from Niagara to Detroit in 1819 as an astronomical surveyor. Inadvertently, surely, even his personal life fed his professional ambitions. In December, 1815, he married Ann Eliza Ellicott (1792-1873), daughter of Andrew Ellicott, one of America's leading surveyors and long-time Professor of Mathematics at West Point.

During these years, Douglass became active in every aspect of life at the Academy, from admissions to teaching and discipline. He was an important figure in generating enthusiasm among the cadets and faculty at the Academy for the study of natural history, and at the same time, he developed an extensive correspondence with scientists around the country, with museums, other universities and private individuals, forming a broad network that facilitated the exchange of ideas and specimens. It was largely through Douglass' efforts that the natural history collections at West Point were established, and in turn, he became an important source of specimens for scientists such as Benjamin Silliman, Parker Cleaveland, and John Torrey.

Among the many projects that occupied Douglass' time at West Point, he is perhaps best remembered as an engineer assigned to the Lewis Cass Expedition of 1820, which surveyed the northwestern regions of the Michigan Territory and reported on the economic potential of its natural resources. From first hearing of the expedition, Douglass relished the thought of accompanying Cass, and when his old friend, Col. William A. Trimble, recommended his appointment to Secretary of War Calhoun, he did not hesitate. Douglass played an important role in surveying and mapping and in collecting specimens, and after his return, he assumed the major responsibility of coordinating publication of the survey's results, working with Cass and Schoolcraft to obtain official permission to make the results public. Dividing the writing chores among Torrey (botany), Daniel H. Barnes (conchology), Schoolcraft (geology and mineralogy), Cass (Native Americans), and himself (geography), Douglass successfully saw the massive task to completion. At the same time, he arranged with Silliman, editor of America's most prestigious scientific journal, the American Journal of Science, to publish a series of miscellaneous articles resulting from the expedition, including Schoolcraft's important contribution on the copper deposits of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

The death of Andrew Ellicott in August, 1820, left the chair in mathematics at West Point vacant, and Douglass stepped in to fill the void. Three years later, however, he was transferred again, when a position even closer to his interests came open, the professorship of civil engineering. The move was timely. With the first fruits of success from the Erie Canal being felt by politicians and the public, engineering was beginning to garner more and more attention, and more and more money was becoming available for the development of a viable infrastructure for communications and transport. By 1823-24, Douglass' interests in internal improvements, and in canals in particular, was sharpening. Between sessions at West Point, partly out of financial necessity, he began to take on consulting work, and in 1825, DeWitt Clinton offered him the plum job of supervising construction of the difficult western section of the Erie Canal. From this beginning, Douglass rapidly became one of the nation's leading experts in canal engineering, consulting widely on projects in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and on the project to link the Ohio River with the Potomac. He was offered a position as chief engineer for the State of Georgia and the superintendence of internal improvements in Pennsylvania, but declined both.

After years of splitting his time between military service and work on public projects, the War Department accepted Douglass' resignation from the Corps of Engineers, effective March 1, 1831, allowing Douglass to accept a position as chief engineer on the Morris & Essex Canal in New Jersey. The potential lucre of private employment had finally convinced Douglass to leave the lower pay, but greater security of military life, and he removed to Brooklyn to begin life as a civilian. Within a year, he landed an appointment as professor of natural philosophy at New York University, but relinquished the chair in 1833 when he found that his instructional duties interfered with his engineering, and instead moved into the professorship of civil engineering and architecture, with the understanding that no duties would be required except those that he chose for himself. In actuality, Douglass lectured only one year, 1836-37, devoting most of his time to designing the University's new collegiate building in Washington Square.

Douglass' participation in several high profile engineering projects during the 1830s brought him considerable public acclaim. In 1833, he surveyed the railroad route from Brooklyn to Jamaica, N.Y., capitalizing on the growing national enthusiasm for rail travel, and he solved a long-standing public health problem for the residents of New York City with his design of the Croton Aqueduct (1833-36), which supplied pure drinking water to Manhattan for many years. Perhaps his greatest fame, however, was reserved for his design of Greenwood Cemetery (1838-39) in Brooklyn, one of the most fashionable and progressive cemeteries in the nation. The Greenwood ideal of the cemetery as a place of bucolic serenity, artfully laid out to mimic a natural landscape, dominated cemetery design for the remainder of the century and had an important influence on the larger culture. Douglass remained in charge of the development of Greenwood until 1841.

Despite his professional success, Douglass' personal finances remained shaky, and after the financial panic of 1837, his luck took a turn for the worse. In 1840, he wrote that his financial affairs were "greatly deranged," and that he felt himself "labouring under accumulated embarrassments" (1840 May or June). As a result, he once again sought out the security of a position with the government, hoping for a post on the Northeastern Boundary Survey, but this time was passed over. At bidding of Charles Petit McIlvaine, Douglass accepted the presidency of Kenyon College, beginning March, 1841, and was also named professor of intellectual and moral philosophy, logic, and rhetoric. His stay there was less than successful, however, and by February, 1844, with the college failing to prosper as McIlvaine wished, Douglass was dismissed.

Returning to engineering and consulting work, Douglass laid out the Albany Rural Cemetery in 1845-46 and the Protestant cemetery in Quebec, 1848, both in the style of Greenwood. In August, 1848, he moved to Geneva College (now Hobart) to become professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, but not long after moving, he suffered a fall and paralytic stroke that left him incapacitated, and that ultimately resulted in his death on October 21, 1849. Ann Douglass survived her husband along with four sons and four daughters. Two of the sons graduated from Kenyon College in 1837 and 1838, a third from Trinity College in 1846, and the youngest, Henry (ca.1825-1892), from West Point, 1852. The first and third sons became clergymen.

Scope and contents:

The David Bates Douglass Papers contain 554 letters, documents, and manuscripts relating to every aspect of Douglass' professional life between approximately 1814 and 1840, with some scattered personal correspondence. The collection consists mainly of incoming letters from scientific and military associates of Douglass, but also includes drafts and retained copies of some responses. While substantial, the correspondence is nevertheless clearly incomplete, lacking anything relating to Douglass' youth, to his family, or his life after leaving New York City in 1841, and there is little information on his personal life, with the exception of a small number of letters from the late 1830s and early 1840s. Douglass' interests in internal improvements, though, in natural history, in developing and fostering a system of academic scientific exchange, and in the Military Academy at West Point are very well documented and make the collection a resource of significant historical importance.

For most readers, the primary interest in the Douglass Papers lies in its relation to the development of the natural and applied sciences in America. Douglass and his associates were instrumental in the foundation and growth of several lyceums, and thus played a role in public scientific education, and they were particularly avid in promoting the field of mineralogy. Approximately 28 items in the collection stem from Douglass' participation in the Lewis Cass Expedition of 1820, with others bearing an indirect relation. Several letters from Cass written in 1820-21 include observations on Native Americans and on the natural history of the region, and there are valuable letters from Torrey, Barnes, Schoolcraft, Silliman, and others relating to the planning of the expedition, to the research carried out by its participants, and to the publication of results. Douglass' position as coordinator of publication for the results provides a unique perspective on the dissemination of scientific information in the early Republic, and along with the correspondence relating to lyceums and the exchange of specimens, helps to define the beginnings of a wide-spread network of scientific communication in the U.S. The collection offers less complete coverage of Douglass' other survey work, but includes a partial set of notes kept by him during his survey of the U.S.-Canadian boundary in Lake Erie (1819) and several letters pertaining to his survey and assessment of New England coastal defenses (1815-1817).

Coverage of Douglass' engineering work on canal systems in the 1820s and 1830s is selective, with only about 15 letters, but includes some interesting speculation on the possibility of linking the Ohio River with the Chesapeake, and three fine letters from the engineer, Alexander Catlin Twining, on construction of the Pennsylvania Canal (1828) and employment difficulties for canal engineers (1832). Perhaps the most interesting scientific letters, however, are two from Mrs. Mary Griffith (1772-1846), of New Brunswick, N.J., a woman who published extensively in both science and literature. Mrs. Griffith wrote to Douglass, apparently a family acquaintance, to ask his opinions on her theory on the origin of artesian waters, an important issue for hydrologists and geologists of the time. Douglass' reply, contained in a retained draft, was a respectful, but curt dismissal, in which he implied that her ideas were not sufficiently up to date nor properly expressed scientifically. Not dissuaded, three years later Griffith published a modified version of her theory anonymously as An essay on the art of boring the earth for a spontaneous flow of water... (Rutgers: New Brunswick, N.J., 1826). Her essay is the first separate publication of geological research carried out by an American woman.

Douglass was an officer in the Corps of Engineers for almost twenty years, yet despite this, there is only selective documentation of his military career. The most thorough coverage, over 75 items, relates to his duties at West Point, including interesting, but far from comprehensive coverage of his relations with the student body and other faculty members. These letters do offer some insight into the intellectual life at West Point between Douglass' arrival in 1813 and his resignation in 1831, particularly with respect to the development of scientific education. A very few items relate directly to the War of 1812. The collection includes a brief journal kept by Douglass while on a march from Albany to Buffalo, as well as a few receipts and minor documents. A small number of post-war letters, most notably one from Edmund P. Gaines, make reference to Douglass' heroics. On the other hand, Douglass' lengthy account of his participation the Niagara Campaign of 1814 is of considerable importance. This account was apparently composed in preparation for a series of lectures that Douglass was asked to deliver on the war, and is in the hand of one of his sons, apparently acting as secretary. Although the narrative can be repetitious and wandering, it is a balanced and informed account of the campaign, covering the several weeks from the Battle of Chippewa in July, 1814, through the retreat of the British following the attack on Fort Erie in August.

The remainder of the collection includes a small series of important letters with descriptions of military life in the northwestern territories. Of particular note are the four letters written by Lt. John Bliss from Fort Howard in 1822-1825, describing his difficult journey to Wisconsin and the rough edged life at the Fort. Bliss writes fluidly, displaying a fine sense of humor, and his close friendship with Douglass leads him to be very candid in his observations. While ambitious and a career military man, Bliss was not averse to criticizing military policy. Typical of his attitude and style is a letter sent from St. Louis in 1833, while bringing his wife and children to Fort Snelling. Bliss wrote that he anticipated getting involved in the war between the Sioux and Chippewa, but added that "until we have taken a part in the affairs, & used up some scores of our worthless fellow citizens in behalf of humanity we shall not be able to save the lives of half as many of those 'noble sons of the forest.' These things, however, are mere trifles compared to the noble purpose of humanizing these destroyers of buffaloe & muskrat & I hope my friends will not find me backward in this great work."

Lastly, the collection is highly selective in its representation of Douglass' professional work in New York City, 1821-1840. Several letters contain discussions of his financial difficulties, and a small, but interesting series relate to a dispute over the sale of a pew at Saint Ann's Church, 1840. A small number of items have an interest for postal historians, including an 1819 cancellation from the steamboat Walk-in-the-Water and others from Wisconsin Territory in the 1820s.

Related materials:

The Lewis Cass Papers include some additional information on the Cass Expedition of 1820, and include Cass' notes for articles on the Native Americans of the region intended for publication, and later notes for publications on Native Americans. Fifteen letters written by Douglass to Cass have been included in the Cass Papers in photocopy.

David Bates Douglass, "Reminiscences of the Campaign of 1814 on the Niagara Frontier," War of 1812 Collection, Clements Library.

References:

Stuart, Charles B. Lives and works of Civil and Military Engineers of America. (Van Nostrand : N.Y., 1871)

See also articles on Douglass in the Dictionary of American Biography and the Yale College biographies (Class of 1813).

Douglass, David Bates. American voyageur; the journal of David Bates Douglass (Marquette, Mich., 1969).

Douglass, David Bates. The Campaign of 1814, ed. by S. W. Jackman (Bala, n.d.)

Provenance:

The Douglass Papers are the result of a series of generous donations by Dr. S. W. Jackman in 1988 and 1991.

M-2418; M-2668
cat. 10/92 rsc

Subject index to the David Bates Douglass Papers

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