2o: 



THE FORESTER. 



August, 



DR. CHARLES MOHR. 



By Geo. B. Sudworth. 



IT is with the profoundest sympathy for 

 the bereaved family that the death of 

 Dr. Charles Mohr is announced. 

 After a comparatively short illness, he 

 passed away at his home at Asheville, 

 N. C, on July 17, 1901, in his 77th year. 



Dr. Mohr leaves a most devoted family, 

 consisting of his wife and grown sons and 

 daughters. He has been a resident of 

 Mobile, Ala., since about 1S50, from which 

 place he moved to Asheville, N. C, about a 

 year previous to his death. Failing health 

 induced him to make the change, and for 

 a time with considerable benefit. 



He was born at Esslingen, Wiirtem- 

 burg, Germany, on December 24, 1S24. 

 Dr. Mohr was a chemist and pharmacist 

 by profession, having been educated in 

 German v. He came to America in 1848, 

 and in 1S49 journeyed to California on 

 foot, performing the travel in 107 days. 

 In iS^o he took up his residence in Mo- 

 bile, Alabama, there engaging in the drug 

 business as a manufacturing chemist until 

 about 1SS9. Subsequently he resigned 

 his interest in this business to his eldest son, 

 and thereafter devoted his entire time to bo- 

 tanical research and forest investigations. 



In 1890 Dr. Mohr was appointed to the 

 position of Expert and Agent in the Di- 

 vision of Forestry, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, the position which he held at 

 the time of his death. 



His long residence in the South resulted 

 in the most exhaustive knowledge of the 

 plant life of the region. The crowning 

 achievement of his life is the recently com- 

 pleted work, entitled: "Plant Life of 

 Alabama," published by the Division of 

 Botany U. S. Department of Agriculture. 

 He had scarcely finished revising the proof 

 sheets of this work when he was stricken 

 down. He never saw the work completed. 

 His devotion to this work was touching 

 his last regret being that he could not 

 have seen the completed volume. 



His broad knowledge of southern plant 

 life and familiarity with the southern ter- 

 ritory led to his appointment in 1SS0 as a 

 Special Agent of the Census Bureau. In 



this capacity he completed a survey of the 

 forest resources of the Southern States, a 

 work of far-reaching economic and scien- 

 tific importance. The results of this in- 

 vestigation were embodied in Volume IX. 

 of the Tenth Census, published in 1SS4. 



In addition to numerous contributions 

 to botanical and forest journals, Dr. Mohr 

 is the author of a comprehensive mono- 

 graph entitled : "Timber Pines of the 

 Southern United States," published as 

 Bulletin No. 13 of the Division of For- 

 estry in 1S97, a valuable contribution to 

 forest literature. Recently he had com- 

 pleted similar monographs of the Red 

 Cedar, White Cedar, Bald Cypress, to- 

 gether with monographic studies of ten of 

 the commercial oaks of the Eastern and 

 Southern States. The pi"oof sheets of his 

 work on Red Cedar had only recently 

 passed through his hands. 



Dr. Mohr was one of the pioneer advo- 

 cates of forest preservation and conserva- 

 tive forest management in the United 

 States. In this movement he became one 

 of the charter members who organized 

 the American Forestry Congress in 1SS2, 

 from which grew the present American 

 Forestry Association. Dr. Mohr was 

 elected Vice-President of the American 

 Forestry Association in 1S90 for the State 

 of Alabama, and served in this capacity 

 till 1900, when he moved to North Caro- 

 lina. His interest in forest matters was 

 marked by earnest and untiring zeal. 



The loss of so able a scientist is deeply 

 felt by all who knew him. His studious 

 life is an example of the most assiduous 

 application to his profession and to botan- 

 ical science. His energy was untiring 

 and his zeal unabated even to the last. 

 As a man he at once impressed those with 

 whom he came in contact with his cordial 

 frankness, and at the same time with 

 modest dignity and reserve. His private 

 life was one of loving devotion to his 

 family. He was a rare friend, and those 

 who have had the good fortune to enjoy 

 his friendship will ever remember him 

 with the highest esteem and affection. 



