John Scherer Hougham (28 May 1821 – 31 March 1894), was Purdue University’s first appointed professor, first (unofficial) acting President (March 11, 1874 – June 11, 1874) after Purdue's first President Richard Dale Owen resigned on March 1, 1874, and later an official acting President (November 6, 1875 – April 30, 1876) between the administrations of

Abraham C. Shortridge Abraham Crum Shortridge (October 22, 1833 – October 8, 1919) was an American educator who was superintendent (education), superintendent of the Indianapolis Public Schools and the second president of Purdue University. Early life Shortridge ...

and Emerson E. White. Hougham first graduated from Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1846, where he was a member of

Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, as of 2022 it consists of 144 active chapters in the Unite ...

fraternity, and later after his death, the location of the John S. Hougham Manuscript Collection. He then rose to Professor of

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

Natural Philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior throu ...

at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana (1848 – 1867). During this time he was also a well regarded maker of scientific instruments for educational and professional use in medicine, chemistry, astronomy, and other related fields (e.g.,

solar compass Burt's solar compass or astronomical compass is a surveying instrument that makes use of the Sun's direction instead of magnetism. William Austin Burt invented his solar compass in 1835. The solar compass works on the principle that the directio ...

). "Hougham Street" in Franklin, IN, adjacent to the Franklin College campus, was named to honor one of the city's most illustrious residents. After those appointments, he was Chairman of Philosophy and Agriculture at

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

(1868 – 1872). He then took an appointment as Professor of

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and Industrial Mechanics, and Chairman of Agricultural Chemistry at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

(1872 – 1876),A History of Physics at Purdue
Retrieved September 26, 2007. serving in those early years of Purdue’s history as an academic "handyman" — and for a time acting President during parts of 1874, '75, and '76 — to John Purdue and the founding Trustees, visiting other universities around the country in search of new ideas and faculty to bring back to his native Indiana. Around 1876, he returned to Kansas State where he spent the remaining years of his academic career.

Notes

Additional Sources

Presidents of Purdue University (Acting included)
etrieved October 28, 2022br>Presidents of Purdue University (Acting omitted)
etrieved October 28, 2022br>Rittenhouse Journal index
Elgin, Richard L. 1993. "John S. Hougham and the Early History of the Solar Compass." ''Rittenhouse: The Journal of the American Scientific Instrument Enterprise'' 7(28):117-121. etrieved October 28, 2022br>Davis, Michael J. 2012. "John S. Hougham's Solar Compass." ''Hoosier Surveyor'' 38(4):16-17.
etrieved October 28, 2022This article describes one of Hougham's solar compasses owned by the Johnson County Museum in Franklin, Indiana.
The Hougham/Huffam Family Tree
"John Scherer Hougham - Developer of the solar compass" by RICHARD L ELGIN, PHD, LS, PE, ELGIN SURVEYING & ENGINEERING, NC. etrieved August 18, 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hougham, John S. Presidents of Purdue University 1821 births 1894 deaths American scientific instrument makers Wabash College alumni Kansas State University faculty Franklin College (Indiana) faculty