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Benjamin Franklin Mudge
Benjamin Franklin Mudge (August 11, 1817 – November 21, 1879) was an American lawyer, geologist and teacher. Briefly the mayor of Lynn, Massachusetts, he later moved to Kansas where he was appointed the first State Geologist. He led the first geological survey of the state in 1864, and published the first book on the geology of Kansas. He lectured extensively, and was department chair at the Kansas State Agricultural College (KSAC, now Kansas State University).
He also avidly collected fossils, and was one of the first to systematically explore the Permian and Mesozoic biota in the geologic formations of Kansas and the American West, including the Niobrara Chalk, the Morrison Formation, and the Dakota Sandstone. While not formally trained in paleontology, he kept extensive and accurate field notes and sent most of his fossils East to be described by some of the most noted paleontologists of his time, including the rivals Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope.
His discoveries included at least 80 new species of extinct animals and plants, and are found in the collections of some of the most prestigious U.S. institutions of natural history, including the Smithsonian and Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. One of his most notable finds is the holotype of the first recognized "bird with teeth", Ichthyornis. While working for Marsh, he also discovered the type species of the sauropod dinosaur Diplodocus, and the theropod dinosaur Allosaurus, with his protégé Samuel Wendell Williston.
Mudge was born in Orrington, Maine to James and Ruth Mudge on August 11, 1817, and moved with his family to Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1818. He helped support three older brothers enrolled in the Methodist Episcopal Conference by working as a shoemaker for 6 years, before attending Wesleyan University. Unlike his brothers who all became clergy, Benjamin studied science and the classics before graduating in 1840. He acquired his Master of Arts several years later from the same institution, and passed the bar and began practicing as a lawyer in 1842. On September 16, 1842, he married Mary E. Beckford; he continued his practice, and was elected mayor of Lynn in 1852 on a temperance platform.
In 1859 he moved to Cloverport, Kentucky, where he briefly worked as a chemist at Breckinridge Coal and Oil Company, a local oil refinery.
With the start of the American Civil War in 1861, Mudge moved to Quindaro (now part of Kansas City) where he took a job teaching public school in Kansas City. In Quindaro, Mudge and his family operated a waystation of the Underground Railroad, aiding slaves fleeing from Missouri,
He lectured around the state, and in 1864 delivered a series on "Scientific and Economical Geology" to the legislature in Topeka while the bill to establish the first state geological survey was being debated in the House. The Topeka Tribune wrote:
The lectures of Hon. B. F. Mudge are exciting considerable interest, among the members of the legislature, and the people of Topeka. He has spoken three times in Representative Hall, to large audiences whose close attention attests how deeply they are interested in his lectures
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Benjamin Franklin Mudge
Benjamin Franklin Mudge (August 11, 1817 – November 21, 1879) was an American lawyer, geologist and teacher. Briefly the mayor of Lynn, Massachusetts, he later moved to Kansas where he was appointed the first State Geologist. He led the first geological survey of the state in 1864, and published the first book on the geology of Kansas. He lectured extensively, and was department chair at the Kansas State Agricultural College (KSAC, now Kansas State University).
He also avidly collected fossils, and was one of the first to systematically explore the Permian and Mesozoic biota in the geologic formations of Kansas and the American West, including the Niobrara Chalk, the Morrison Formation, and the Dakota Sandstone. While not formally trained in paleontology, he kept extensive and accurate field notes and sent most of his fossils East to be described by some of the most noted paleontologists of his time, including the rivals Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope.
His discoveries included at least 80 new species of extinct animals and plants, and are found in the collections of some of the most prestigious U.S. institutions of natural history, including the Smithsonian and Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. One of his most notable finds is the holotype of the first recognized "bird with teeth", Ichthyornis. While working for Marsh, he also discovered the type species of the sauropod dinosaur Diplodocus, and the theropod dinosaur Allosaurus, with his protégé Samuel Wendell Williston.
Mudge was born in Orrington, Maine to James and Ruth Mudge on August 11, 1817, and moved with his family to Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1818. He helped support three older brothers enrolled in the Methodist Episcopal Conference by working as a shoemaker for 6 years, before attending Wesleyan University. Unlike his brothers who all became clergy, Benjamin studied science and the classics before graduating in 1840. He acquired his Master of Arts several years later from the same institution, and passed the bar and began practicing as a lawyer in 1842. On September 16, 1842, he married Mary E. Beckford; he continued his practice, and was elected mayor of Lynn in 1852 on a temperance platform.
In 1859 he moved to Cloverport, Kentucky, where he briefly worked as a chemist at Breckinridge Coal and Oil Company, a local oil refinery.
With the start of the American Civil War in 1861, Mudge moved to Quindaro (now part of Kansas City) where he took a job teaching public school in Kansas City. In Quindaro, Mudge and his family operated a waystation of the Underground Railroad, aiding slaves fleeing from Missouri,
He lectured around the state, and in 1864 delivered a series on "Scientific and Economical Geology" to the legislature in Topeka while the bill to establish the first state geological survey was being debated in the House. The Topeka Tribune wrote:
The lectures of Hon. B. F. Mudge are exciting considerable interest, among the members of the legislature, and the people of Topeka. He has spoken three times in Representative Hall, to large audiences whose close attention attests how deeply they are interested in his lectures
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