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HORTICULTURISTS 



HORTICULTURISTS 



across the Continent to the Pacific mountain regions 

 and southward into Mexico. For twenty-six years, his 

 work was chiefly in the latter country, continued under 

 the patronage of the Mexican Government, the United 

 States National Museum and other scientific institu- 

 tions, and especially supported by Harvard University, 

 on the botanical staff of which he was in 1893 appointed 

 official collector by act of the Corporation. As a result 

 of it, he not only enriched the leading herbaria of the 

 world with extensive sets of choice specimens, espec- 

 ially of Mexican plants, but he amassed one of the 

 largest and unquestionably the best private collections 

 ever made. The Pringle Herbarium, of over 150,000 

 choice specimens, will remain his most fitting monu- 

 ment. During the last ten years of his fife, he was 

 Keeper of the Herbarium of the University of Vermont, 

 and the Pringle Herbarium remains the property of that 

 institution. L. r Jop,-es. 



Purdy, A. M., horticulturist and author, was born 

 in Macedon, Wayne County, New York, May 31, 183.5, 

 and died January 4, 1908. His father was a merchant 

 in Macedon, but the son preferred outdoor hfe and in 

 his boyhood was intensely interested in the raising of 

 fruits and flowers. He was educated in the common 

 school of Macedon Village, the Macedon-Center 

 Academy, and at the Nine Partners Boarding School 

 near Poughkeepsie, New York. In early manhood he 

 went to South Bend, Indiana, where he engaged in 

 growing fruits for about twelve years. Near the year 

 1865 he returned to New York state and purchased 

 a farm on the Canandaigua road three miles south of 

 Pahnyra, and again engaged in growing fruits and 

 nursery stock. On that farm over forty years of his 

 hfe were spent, with the exception of three years' resi- 

 dence in Rochester. Soon after moving to New York 

 State he began the publication of "The Fruit Record 

 and Cottage-Gardener" and continued to issue the 

 paper for over twenty-five years. He also pubhshed a 

 small book entitled, "The Fruit Instructor." They 

 were well received and many thousands sold. He also 

 pubhshed as premiums three or foiu- excellent fruit and 

 flower chromos. 



Mr. Purdy was a great worker, energetic, working 

 early and late, and was a frequent contributor to agri- 

 cultural and religious journals. He always took a great 

 interest in pohtics and public affairs, and gave of his 

 time and money for the advancement of the principles 

 he thought to be right. He was a member of the 

 Society of Friends (Quakers), and was recorded as one 

 of their ministers. Wm. W. Miner. 



Ragan, Reuben, pioneer nurseryman and pomologist, 

 was born in Louisa County, Virginia, on October 6, 

 1793, and died August 19, 1869. Left an orphan at an 

 early age, he was indentured by the Orphan's Court to 

 Ehsha Thomas, a Shaker, but the indenture was 

 soon revoked. He was then apprenticed to a tanner. 

 Through his early association with Edward Darnaby, 

 a nurseryman, Reuben became interested in horticul- 

 ture and determined to devote his hfe to this piu-suit. 

 He estabUshed a nursery in Indiana in 1820, from which 

 he disseminated many hardy varieties of fruit around 

 the state. Mr. Ragan was a charter member of the 

 Indiana Horticultural Society and a leader in the 

 pomological work of the state. For portrait and fuller 

 accounts, see "Report of Indiana State Horticultural 

 Society," 1870. 



Ragan, William Henry (Fig. 1895), nurseryman, hor- 

 ticulturist and pomologist, was born on March 29, 1836, 

 in Putnam County, Indiana. His father obtained land 

 from the government by entry in 1822, and was widely 

 known as a pioneer nurseryman, fruit-grower and horti- 

 cultural enthusiast. WilUam Henry Ragan grew to 

 young manhood amid the primitive conditions of pioneer 

 days, helping his father in the nursery work and enga- 



189S. W. H. Ragan. 



ging in the usual pursuits of the farm boy. His formal 

 education was all received at the local log school- 

 house of the district. About the year 1860, he engaged 

 in the nursery and fruit business on land he purchased 

 near FiUmore. From 1869 to 1871 he was in the fruit 

 business in Indianapolis, having formed a partnership 

 with John Wineberger of that city. In 1871 he moved 

 to Clayton, Indiana, 

 and continued in the 

 nursery business with 

 his cousin, W. A. 

 Ragan, as partner. In 

 1881 he became a 

 trustee of Purdue Uni- 

 versity. In 1883 he 

 was appointed super- 

 intendent of the ex- 

 perimental station at 

 the University and for 

 a few months later in 

 the same year acted as 

 superintendent of the 

 campus and weather 

 station. He left Pur- 

 due University in 1884 

 to accept the chair of 

 practical horticulture 

 and the position of su- 

 perintendent of parks 

 at DePauw University, 

 Greencastle, Indiana, 

 which was in that 

 year reorganized from the Indiana Asbury Academy. 

 He had disposed of his nursery business on leaving 

 Clayton and purchased property at Greencastle where 

 he hved until 1899, leaving to accept a position in the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington. He became 

 assistant pomologist and expert in pomological nomen- 

 clature in the Bureau of Plant Industry and won a 

 world-wide reputation, not only for his wonderful work 

 in nomenclature, but for his numerous other WTitten 

 contributions and for his personal services in the 

 advancement of horticulture. He continued his work 

 with the Bureau of Plant Industry until his death, 

 which occurred in Washington, D. C., August 6, 1909. 

 During his later years, WiUiam Henry Ragan was one 

 of the foremost and best-loved figures among the horti- 

 culturists of the country. He was one of the founders 

 of the Indiana Horticultm-a! Society and continued his 

 active membership until his death. He was secretary 

 of this organization from 1869 to 1882 with the excep- 

 tion of 1873, and again from 1891 to 1895 inclusive. 

 He became a trustee of Purdue University for the 

 second time in 1888 and served until 1892. He was 

 superintendent of the Division of Pomology at the Cot- 

 ton Centennial at New Orleans in 1884-5 and served as 

 secretary of the Committee on Awards in the Depart- 

 ment of Horticulture at the Columbian Exposition at 

 Chicago in 1893. He was secretary of the Mississippi 

 Valley Horticultural Society in 1883-4 and, when the 

 name of the organization was changed, continued the 

 same work for the American Horticultural Society 

 until 1888. From 1897 until his death he was chairman 

 of the Committee on Revision of Catalogue of Fruits 

 for the American Pomological Society. As a member of 

 the Indiana State Board of Agriculture from 1873 

 imtil 1882, and as president in 1880, he did much to 

 foster the cause of fruit-growing in his native state. 



C. G. WOODBCRV. 



Rand, Edward Sprague, lawyer and horticulturist, 

 lost his life in the accident that befell the steamship 

 "City of Columbus" in the early winter of 1884. Mr. 

 Rand was for many years vice-president of the Ma.ssa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society. His exhibits of new and 

 rare species of plants were of the best, and secured at 

 considerable expense of time and money, an outlay he 



