Herman Silas Pepoon (1860–1941), often known simply as H.S. Pepoon, was a prominent early botanist in the
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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region. His 1927 ''Annotated Flora of the Chicago Region'' remains a classic of Chicago botany.
Early life and education
Born in
Warren, Illinois
Warren is a village in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,323 at the 2020 census, down from 1,428 at the 2010 census.
Warren was named after Warren Burnett, the first male child born at the site.
History
Captain Ale ...
on January 21, 1860,
Pepoon was the son of George and Mary Pepoon, and nephew of Nebraska politician
Theodore Pepoon
Theodore Weld Pepoon (August 29, 1836 – 1910) was a Republican Nebraska politician and publisher, living and working in Pawnee County and nearby areas. He is principally remembered for his work on reforming Nebraska's agricultural laws a ...
. He received his BS from the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
in 1881, where his thesis was on "The flora of upper Michigan". He went on to study medicine and received an MD in 1883 from
Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago.
On April 25, 1883, he married Alma Marie Wilcox. She died in 1893, and he remarried seven years later to Helen Sophia Foberg.
Career
After receiving his MD, Pepoon initially practiced medicine, in Nebraska and in
Lewistown, Illinois
Lewistown is a city in Fulton County, Illinois, United States. It was named by its founder, Ossian M. Ross, after his oldest son, Lewis W. Ross. The population was 2,384 at the 2010 census, down from 2,522 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat ...
.
In 1892, however, he changed careers, choosing instead to teach at Chicago's
Lake View High School, where he became head instructor for botany and agriculture. Over the course of his time there, from 1892 to 1930, he taught more than 10,000 students. He was also instrumental in the creation of
Apple River Canyon State Park
Apple River Canyon State Park is an Illinois state park on in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, United States. The park was begun with land purchased by the state in 1932, as a result of a prolonged campaign led by botanist Herman Silas Pepoon; wi ...
.
Books
*''Studies of Plant Life'' (1900
*''Representative Plants'' (1912)
*''An Annotated Flora of the Chicago Region'' (1927
*''Essays on ecology 1904-1933'' (published 2011
See also
*
Henry Chandler Cowles
Henry Chandler Cowles (February 27, 1869 – September 12, 1939) was an American botanist and ecological pioneer (see History of ecology). A professor at the University of Chicago, he studied ecological succession in the Indiana Dunes of Northwes ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pepoon, Herman Silas
American botanists
People from Warren, Illinois
Schoolteachers from Illinois
1860 births
1941 deaths
University of Illinois alumni
People from Chicago
People from Lewistown, Illinois
Physicians from Nebraska