Levi Stockbridge (March 13, 1820 – May 2, 1904) was a farmer and scientist from
Hadley, Massachusetts
Hadley (, ) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,325 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area around the Hampshire and Mountain Farms Ma ...
. He was instrumental in the early history of the Massachusetts Agricultural College now known as the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
.
Biography
Stockbridge held the following positions with the college:
*Farm Superintendent: 1867-1869
*Professor: 1867-1879
*Acting President: 1876
*
Fifth President: 1880-1882
He held patents for pioneering experiments in: fertilizer development, nutrient leaching and soil mulching. In 1876 he published ''Experiments in Feeding Plants''. Stockbridge served three terms in the Massachusetts State Legislature, 12 years on the state board of agriculture and for 32 years was a state cattle commissioner. In 1880 he ran for Congress on the
Labor-Greenback Party ticket and lost.
The
Boltwood-Stockbridge House in Amherst, Massachusetts, is probably the first house built in Amherst and is certainly the oldest remaining and was originally built as the home of Samuel Boltwood. Eventually the Boltwood house and the farm surrounding the house became part of the Mass Agricultural College.
Henry Flagg French
Henry Flagg French (August 14, 1813 – November 29, 1885) was an American agriculturalist, inventor, lawyer, judge, postmaster, writer, assistant secretary of the treasury, and the first president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (no ...
, first president of MAC, resided there until he resigned in 1867, after which Stockbridge made the house his residence and office. Stockbridge Hall, built in 1915 to house the Department of Agriculture, and the
Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst also bear his name.
The town of
Stockbridge, Georgia
Stockbridge is a city in Henry County, Georgia, Henry County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census the population was 25,637, up from 9,853 in 2000.
Stockbridge is part of the Atlanta metr ...
, is also named after him.
Bowker, William Henry – Levi Stockbridge and the Stockbridge principle of plant feeding, 1911 – BEIC 7794577.jpg, William Henry Bowker, ''Levi Stockbridge and the Stockbridge principle of plant feeding'', 1911
Selected works
Investigations on Rainfall, Percolation and Evaporation of Water(1879)
References
*Cleary, Vince. ''Who Was Levi Stockbridge?'' UMass, Amherst: The Magazine for Alumni & Friends. Winter 2007
Further reading
*
External links
*
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Educators from Massachusetts
American soil scientists
1820 births
1904 deaths
Leaders of the University of Massachusetts Amherst
1872 United States presidential electors
American agriculturalists
People from Hadley, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Georgia
Academics from Massachusetts
19th-century American educators