De 



1958 



Mills: From 1858 to 1958 



91 



not largely clue to his fortunate escape from 

 an untenable situation. 



Forbes set out to disprove this conten- 

 tion, and carried the duties, however with 

 more help than his predecessors had, from 

 1882 to 1917, a span of 35 years. 



Let us now look at the four men who 

 carried the title and responsibility of Illi- 

 nois State Entomologist. 



Benjamin Dann Walsh 



Although the resolutions passed by the 

 State Horticultural Society and the State 

 Agricultural Society in 1866 mentioned 

 specifically Benjamin D. Walsh as a 

 potential State Entomologist, Walsh did 

 not obtain this title without some compli- 

 cations. An act providing for this officer 

 was passed by the legislature and was 

 approved on March 9, 1867 (Illinois 

 General Assembly 1867:35-6). No ap- 

 pointment was made at that time. How- 

 ever, a special session was called on June 

 1 1 of the same year, and at that time the 

 name of Walsh was presented for the Sen- 

 ate's approval. The session was called for 

 specific purposes, of which the approval of 

 an appointee as State Entomologist was 

 not a part. Therefore, the Senate decided 

 that constitutionally it could not act on 

 this matter. 



Walsh acted as State Entomologist, 

 without legal status, and with an assign- 

 ment of $500 by the Horticultural So- 

 ciety, until the legislature passed an act 

 "for the relief of the state entomologist," 

 March 25, 1869 (Illinois General Assem- 

 bly 1869:53-4). This act legalized what 

 Walsh had been doing for nearly 2 years. 

 It is interesting to note that AValsh's first 

 annual report was made to the Horticul- 

 tural Society and not to the Governor, 

 and was signed by Walsh ( 1 868^* : 3 ) as 

 Acting State Entomologist. 



Walsh was a most interesting person. 

 He was born in Frome, Worcestershire, 

 England, September 21, 1808 (Weiss 

 1936:234). He was well educated, and, 

 about 1830, received a Master of Arts 

 degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 where he was a classmate of Charles Dar- 

 win. He was married in England, and in 

 1838 he came to America. His wife had 

 relatives in Henry County, Illinois, and 

 he purchased a 300-acre farm in that part 

 of the state. He operated the farm until 



1851, when he moved to Rock Island and 

 entered the lumber business. 



He was not a politician, but in 1858, 

 when he suspected that the city was being 

 cheated by the city council, he placed his 

 name in contention for alderman. His 

 purpose was to get at the city's books. 

 This action did not endear him to some 

 elements of the city, and his life was 

 threatened. Undaunted, he went ahead 

 with a successful campaign, exposed the 

 frauds, and resigned. 



Although he had made a small collec- 

 tion of insects in England, he publicly had 

 shown no deep interest in entomology 

 until January, 1860, when he lectured for 

 2 hours to the State Horticultural Society. 

 Thereafter he contributed regularly to the 

 Prairie Farmer and other agricultural 

 journals. Further, in the proceedings of 

 scholarly societies, he published several 

 excellent scientific papers on insects. He 

 collaborated with E. T. Cresson, A. R. 

 Grote, and J. W. McAllister in the pub- 

 lication of a monthly called the Practical 

 Entomologist, which lasted for only 2 

 years, until September, 1867. In Septem- 

 ber of the following year, Walsh and C. 

 V. Riley started the American Entomolo- 

 gist. 



On November 12, 1869, as Walsh was 

 walking down a railroad track, busily 

 engrossed in reading a letter, a train ap- 

 proached. When he saw the train, he was 

 too late to clear himself completely, and 

 his left foot was badly injured. The foot 

 was amputated, and to console his wife he 

 said, "Why, don't you see what an ad- 

 vantage a cork foot will be to me when I 

 am hunting bugs in the woods : I can 

 make an excellent pin-cushion of it, and if 

 perchance I lose the cork from one of my 

 bottles, I shall simply have to cut another 

 one out of my foot" (Riley 1869-70:65). 



He published an article exonerating the 

 engineer from all blame in the accident. 



He appeared to be recovering well from 

 the accident when suddenly he began to 

 decline, apparently from some internal 

 injury. He passed away on the 18th of 

 November, 1869. 



William Le Baron 



In 1870 Governor John M. Palmer 

 requested William Le Baron to take over 

 the position left vacant by the unfortunate 



