About the name of this journal . . . 



The Brothers Brimley: North Carolina Naturalists 



John E. Cooper 



North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, 

 P.O. Box 27647, Raleigh, North Carolina 27611 



During the middle years of the nineteenth century two sons were born 

 into a family of long time farmers living near Bedford in the midlands sec- 

 tion of England, northwest of London. One made his appearance at the 

 family home in the village of Willington, Bedfordshire, on March 7, 1861 ; 

 the other, a "seven months" baby, arrived unexpectedly at the home of 

 his maternal grandmother at Great Linford, Buckinghamshire, on 

 December 18, 1863. In their early youth, as the younger of them was to 

 write many years later, they "collected birds' eggs, caught small birds in 

 brick traps in the winter, went fishing, and meddled with living creatures 

 in general after the usual fashion of boys" and "had a reasonably good 

 working knowledge of the wild life around us." No one could then have 

 guessed, however, that these English farm lads would one day be 

 recognized as two of the most remarkable naturalists of their time in the 

 southeastern United States. 



Their first step in this direction was initiated by misfortune and guided 

 by chance. Agriculture in England had experienced a series of poor 

 seasons in the 1870s, and by the end of the decade farm prices were at an 

 all time low. The family faced the sad reality that its only hope for new 

 beginnings lay in emigration to a distant land and made tentative plans 

 for a move to Australia or Canada. But before their plans became final, 

 an essentially accidental meeting with an official of the newly-formed 

 North Carolina Department of Agriculture, Immigration and Statistics 

 convinced them that America would be their Land of Opportunity. 



Late on the night of December 31, 1880, Herbert Hutchinson Brimley, 

 nearly 20 years old, and Clement Samuel Brimley, barely 17, having 

 crossed the Atlantic by steamer to New York, arrived in Raleigh on the 

 heels of a blizzard. With them were their parents, Joseph and Harriet, 

 two sisters, and one of two living brothers. Their first stop was at a hotel 

 which, less than a year later, became the Agriculture Building, the very 

 place where they would ultimately labor for much of their lives. H.H. 

 Brimley 's remembrance of that time was written almost 50 years later: 



"My first impression of Raleigh was that it was without question 

 the damndest place I had ever seen. Expecting to jump directly into 



Brimleyana No. 1: 1-14. March 1979. 1 



