MEMORIAL OF P. H. MELL 43 



MEMORIAL OF PATRICK HUES MELL ^ 

 BY FRED H. H. CALHOUN 



Patrick Hues Mell, son of Patrick Hues and Lurene Howard (Cooper) 

 Mell, was born in Penfield, Georgia, May 24, 1850, and died in Freder- 

 icksburg, Virginia, October 12, 1918. 



His father, a Baptist preacher, was for many years a professor at 

 Mercer University, and during the last ten years of his life was Chancellor 

 of the University of Georgia. Thus Doctor Mell was raised in a college 

 atmosphere. Entering the University of Georgia in 1866, he completed 

 every course in that institution, graduating successively with the degree 

 of A. B. in 1871, C. E. in 1872, and M. E. in 1873, the mining course 

 being then offered for the first time. In 1880, he received his Ph. D. from 

 the same institution. 



Very early in life he showed an aptitude for the natural sciences. As 

 a boy he was fond of taking long excursions in the woods, and at an early 

 age had made himself familiar with the plants and minerals of the South. 



The first few months after his graduation, in 1873, Doctor Mell spent 

 as a consulting mining engineer. In 1874 the Georgia State Agricultural 

 Department was organized, this being one of the first in the South, and 

 Doctor Mell was made State Chemist. In this capacity he analyzed soils 

 and commercial fertilizers, which were then just being put on the market. 

 They were greatly adulterated, and the officials of this new department 

 had a difficult time between the necessity of exposing poor fertilizers and 

 the desire to popularize the new department among the people and poli- 

 ticians. 



In 1875 he married Miss Annie White, of Athens. She has always 

 been deeply interested in his work and has proved a sympathetic and 

 helpful companion during the many years of their life together. 



Under the confinement of the laboratory, Doctor Mell's health broke 

 down, and in 1877 he resigned as State Chemist to go into open-air life. 

 As a mining engineer he tramped and rode horseback from ISTorth Caro- 

 lina to Alabama. Those were stage-coach days and the mountains were 

 full of bandits; but though he always went unarmed he was never mo- 

 lested. During this period, as correspondent of the Engineerin(, an(^ 

 Mining Journal, he wrote, at the request of the editors, a series of articles 

 on the clays, gold, and corundum of the unknown South. In the sum- 

 mer of 1878 he attended a State Industrial Convention in Alabama, 

 where he carried a collection of specimens of Alabama minerals, with 



^ The author's abstract of this memorial was read before the Society December 27. 

 1918, by the Secretary, in the absence of the author. 



