HILDRETH, Samuel Prescott, physician, b. in Methuen, Mass., 30 Sept., 1783; d. in Marietta, Ohio, 24 July, 1863. He was descended from Richard Hildreth, of Cambridge, England. He labored on a farm, and after receiving an academic education studied medicine with Dr. Kittridge of Andover, and received his medical degree in 1805. He began to practise in New Hampshire, but removed to Ohio in 1806, and settled at Belpre. In 1808 he went to Marietta, where he practised with success, also serving in the legislature in 1810-'11. In 1837 he was a member of the geological survey. He presented his valuable scientific library and collections in natural history and conchology to Marietta college. For nearly forty years he contributed to “Silliman's Journal” on meteorology, geology, and paleontology. His publications are “History of the Diseases and Climate of Southeastern Ohio,” printed in 1837 by the Cleveland medical society, of which he was president; “Pioneer History” (Cincinnati, 1848); “Lives of the Early Settlers of Ohio” (1852); “Contributions to the Early History of the North-West” (1864); and “Results of Meteorological Observations made at Marietta in 1826-'59,” reduced and discussed by Charles A. Schott (in “Smithsonian Institution Contributions to Knowledge,” 1870).
HILGARD, Theodore Erasmus, lawyer, b. in
Mannheim, Germany, 7 July, 1790; d. in Heidelberg,
Germany, 14 Feb., 1873. He studied at the
Universities of Heidelberg and Paris, and took a legal
course in Coblentz. During the time of the French
rule he followed his profession in Trèves, and, on
the restoration of the Rhenish provinces to
Germany, settled in Zweibrücken, where he held the
appointment of associate justice of the court of
appeals from 1821 till 1835. He was also a member
of the provincial assembly from 1821 till 1826.
In 1835 he came to the United States, and settled
in St. Clair county, Ill. He purchased a farm near
Belleville, and besides its general management gave
much attention to viticulture, being the first to
introduce it in Illinois. At first he tried to
discover which of the Rhenish or French vines were
best adapted to the climate, but soon found the
indigenous Catawba grape most suitable, and he
produced a wine that acquired a high local reputation.
The town of West Belleville, which has gradually
surrounded the original homestead, was laid
out on his property and under his direction. Meanwhile
he gave special attention to the education of
his children, whom he instructed personally in
languages and philosophy. In 1851 he returned to
Germany, having been invited by the Bavarian
government to take part in recasting the law of
mortgages of that country into a more modern
form. Subsequently he came back to the United
States, but, finding his family dispersed, he again
returned to Germany, and passed the remainder of
his life quietly in Heidelberg. While on his farm
in the United States he revived an early taste for
poetry, and devoted a portion of his leisure to
making translations of ancient and modern poems
into German, some of which were published and
received with high commendation, notably Ovid's
“Metamorphoses,” and “The Fire-Worshipers”
from Moore's “Lalla Rookh.” Besides numerous
legal and historical articles and minor poems
contributed to American and European periodicals,
he published “Twelve Paragraphs on Pauperism”
(Heidelberg, 1847); “Ten Paragraphs on
Constitutional Monarchy, and Republics” (1849); “My
Recollections,” an autobiography (1858); and “The
Hundred Days, an Epic Poem” (1859). — His son,
Julius Erasmus, scientist, b. in Zweibrücken,
Bavaria,
7 Jan., 1825; d. in Washington, D. C., 8 May,
1891, with his father he settled in Belleville, Ill.,
where he obtained his education under the guidance
of the elder Hilgard. In 1843 he removed to
Philadelphia, began the study of civil engineering,
and in 1845 was invited by Alexander D. Bache to
become one of his assistants on the coast survey.
He soon became recognized among the leading
spirits in the work, and rose to the office of assistant
in charge of the bureau in Washington. This
place he held until the death of the superintendent
in 1881, when he was appointed to fill the vacancy.
Mr. Hilgard also had charge of the construction
and verification of the standards of weights and
measures, and was for some time engaged in
preparing metric standards of great precision for
distribution to the several states. In this connection
he was appointed a delegate to the International
metric commission which met in Paris in 1872, and
a member of the executive committee of the
international bureau of weights and measures. At the
time of its organization, Mr. Hilgard was invited
to become director of this bureau, but declined. In
1885, on the advent of a new administration, Mr.
Hilgard, after spending two thirds of his life in
the service of the government, was suspended, and
then permitted to resign. Prof. Alexander Agassiz,
who declined to succeed him, in commenting on
the behavior of the committee of investigation,
says: “Their dictum upon the late superintendent
(Mr. Hilgard), at least as far as his professional
career is concerned, is answered by his position
as an investigator in the scientific world.” Prof.
Hilgard's scientific work was chiefly in connection
with his practical labors, consisting of
researches and the discussion of results in geodesy
and terrestrial physics, and in perfecting methods
and instrumental means connected with the same.
In 1872 he executed a telegraphic determination
of the longitude between Paris and Greenwich,
which supersedes the value previously admitted,
correcting it by nearly half a second of time. The
magnetic survey of the United States, prosecuted
at the expense of the Bache fund, arising from a
bequest of Supt. Bache to the National academy
of sciences, was placed by the academy under the
direction of Supt. Hilgard, and he also rendered
great service to scientists throughout the United
States by lending to them valuable instruments
for original research. He was one of the
original members of the National academy of sciences,
and for some years its home secretary. In 1874
he was elected president of the American
association for the advancement of science, and he
was also an honorary member of other scientific
bodies. His publications include papers, lectures,
and addresses, which have appeared principally in
the annual reports of the coast survey. His lecture
on “Tides and Tidal Action in Harbors,”
delivered before the American institute, New York,
is remarkable for its lucid and terse exposition of
principles without the aid of mathematical symbols.
— Another son, Theodore Charles, physician,
b. in Zweibrücken, Germany, 28 Feb., 1828; d. in
New York city, 5 March, 1875, came to the United
States with his father, when he was seven years old,
and received his education from the members of
his family. He early developed a fondness for the
study of nature, and made collections of western
flora for the distinguished botanist, Dr. George
Engelmann. Subsequently he studied medicine at
the Universities of Heidelberg, Zurich, Vienna, and
Berlin, and, on his return to the United States,
began the practice of his profession in St. Louis. In
1854 he published “Experimental Observations on
