John Macoun
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
.
Early life
Macoun was born in MagheralinMagheralin
Magheralin is a village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the main Moira to Lurgan road, beside the River Lagan. It had a population of 1,144 people in the 2001 Census. It is within the Craigavon Borough Council area....
, County Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
in 1831, the third child of James Macoun and Anne Jane Nevin. In 1850 the worsening economic situation in Ireland led his family to emigrate
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
to Canada, where he settled in Seymour Township
Seymour Township, Ontario
Seymour, Ontario is a geographic township and former municipality located in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada. It is currently part of the Municipality of Trent Hills....
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
and began farming. Unsatisfied as a farmer, he became a school teacher in 1856. It was during this time that he developed a nearly obsessive interest in botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
. Although his formal education was slight, his knowledge and dedication to field work became sufficiently advanced that he gained the notice and respect of several professional botanists. By 1860 he was teaching school in Belleville, and had established correspondence with botanists such as Asa Gray
Asa Gray
-References:*Asa Gray. Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936.*Asa Gray. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.*Asa Gray. Plant Sciences. 4 vols. Macmillan Reference USA, 2001....
, Sir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
William Jackson Hooker
William Jackson Hooker
Sir William Jackson Hooker, FRS was an English systematic botanist and organiser. He held the post of Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University, and was the first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He enjoyed the friendship and support of Sir Joseph Banks for his exploring,...
, George Lawson
George Lawson (botanist)
George Lawson was a Scottish-Canadian botanist who is considered the "father of Canadian botany".Born in Scotland, in 1858, he was appointed the Professor of Chemistry and Natural History at Queen's University...
, and Louis-Ovide Brunet
Louis-Ovide Brunet
Louis-Ovide Brunet was a French-Canadian botanist and Roman Catholic priest, and is considered one of the founding fathers of Canadian botany....
. This allowed him in 1868 to secure a faculty position as a Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Botany and Geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
at St. Alberts College in Belleville. His marriage on 1 January 1862 to Ellen Terrill of Brighton, Ontario
Brighton, Ontario
Brighton is a town in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Toronto and west of Kingston. It is intersected by both Highway 401 and the former Highway 2. It is on the West end of the Bay of Quinte on the entrance of the Murray Canal....
was to lead to two sons and three daughters.
Western explorations
In 1872 Macoun had a chance meeting with Sanford Fleming, then chief engineerEngineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
for the proposed Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
. Fleming recruited Macoun to participate in his expedition to the Pacific of 1872, and between 1872 and 1881, Macoun participated in five separate surveying
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
expeditions in the Northwest. Aside from determining the best route for the railway, a major purpose of these expeditions was to determine the agricultural potential of various regions of the west. Since Macoun's travels corresponded to a time of unusually high rainfall, he concluded that large regions of the Northwest were ideally suited to agriculture. Unfortunately, this mistakenly included the normally arid plains of southern Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
and Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
in the region now known as Palliser's Triangle
Palliser's Triangle
Palliser's Triangle, or the Palliser Triangle, is a largely semi-arid steppe region in the Prairie Provinces of Western Canada that was determined to be unsuitable for agriculture because of its unfavourable climate. The soil in this area is dark brown or black in color and is very nutrient-rich....
, which was to become a dustbowl during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of the 1930's. In concert with the political consideration of forestalling northwards American expansion, Macoun's assessment contributed much to the final southern routing of the CPR across the prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
s.
Later career
Macoun's reports from west attracted the notice of Alfred Richard Cecil SelwynAlfred Richard Cecil Selwyn
Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn, CMG, LL.D, FRS, FGS was a British geologist, director of the Geological Survey of Victoria from 1852–1869, director of Geological Survey of Canada 1869–1894 and President of the Royal Society of Canada 1895-1896.-Early life:Selwyn was born in Kilmington, Somerset,...
, director of the Geological Survey of Canada, and in 1879, the Government of Canada
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...
took the unusual step of officially appointing him "Explorer of the Northwest territories". In 1881, after the mission of the CGS had been expanded to include natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, he moved his family to Ottawa and joined the CGS as "Dominion botanist". He remained with the CGS for 31 years and became an Assistant Director in 1887. In 1882 he became one of the charter members of the Royal Society of Canada
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
. Every summer was dedicated to fieldwork, and for the remainder of his life Macoun was a prolific collector and cataloguer of Canadian flora and fauna, even after suffering a debilitating stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
in 1912. To this day, over 100,000 samples from his collection of plants are housed in the National Herbarium
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
in Ottawa.
Macoun died 18 July 1920 in Sidney, British Columbia
Sidney, British Columbia
Sidney is a town located at the northern end of the Saanich Peninsula, on Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of the 13 Greater Victoria municipalities. It has a population of approximately 11,300. Sidney is located just east of Victoria International Airport,...
, and is interred in Beechwood Cemetery
Beechwood Cemetery
Beechwood Cemetery is the National Cemetery of Canada. Because it is located in Ottawa, Ontario, the nation's capital, it is the burial site for a number of statesmen as well as a large number of mayors of the city. A woodland cemetery founded in 1873, it is 160 acres and is the largest cemetery...
in Ottawa. Macoun marsh
Macoun marsh
The John Macoun Marsh is a small wetland located on the property of the Beechwood Cemetery, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Under the supervision of teacher Michael Léveillé, the students of St. Laurent Academy, a private school situated across the street from the marsh, have adopted the marsh as a...
, on the cemetery's property, is named for him.
The standard botanical author abbreviation Macoun is applied to species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
he described.
Further reading
- W. A. Waiser (1989). The Field Naturalist: John Macoun, the Geological Survey, and Natural Science, University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
- Anderson, R. M.Rudolph Martin AndersonRudolph Martin Anderson was a Canadian zoologist and explorer.He was born in Decorah, Iowa in 1876, the son of John E.A. Anderson. He received a Ph.D...
(1921). John Macoun, 1831-1920. OCLC 84264491