Theodore Erasmus Hilgard (7 July 1790, Marnheim – 14 February 1873,

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

) was a lawyer,

viticulturalist Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

and Latin farmer.

Europe

He grew up during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

in a family very sympathetic to the principles of the

French revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. He studied at the Universities of

(1807),

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

(1808-9) and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

(1810), and took a legal course in

Coblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman military post by Drusus around 8 B.C. Its na ...

(1811). During the time of the French rule, he practiced law in Trèves, and, on the restoration of the Rhine Province to Germany, settled in

Zweibrücken Zweibrücken (; french: Deux-Ponts, ; Palatinate German: ''Zweebrigge'', ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river. Name The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; olde ...

, where he held the appointment of associate justice of the court of appeals from 1821 till 1835. He was also a member of the provincial assembly from 1821 till 1826. He resigned as justice because of reactionary and bureaucratic policies instituted by the Bavarian government in the administration of justice in the Palatinate. In 1816, he married Margarethe Pauli.

United States

In 1835 he came to the United States, and settled in St. Clair County, Illinois. He purchased a farm near Belleville, and besides its general management gave much attention to viticulture, being the first to introduce it in Illinois. At first he tried to discover which of the Rhenish or French vines were best adapted to the climate, but soon found the indigenous Catawba grape most suitable, and he produced a wine that acquired a high local reputation. The town of West Belleville, which gradually surrounded his original homestead, was laid out on his property and under his direction. He profitably sold a large part of his land as house lots. Meanwhile, he gave special attention to the education of his children, whom he instructed personally in mathematics, languages and philosophy.-

Return to Germany

In 1851 he returned to Germany, having been invited by the Bavarian government to take part in recasting the law of mortgages of that country into a more modern form. Subsequently, he came back to the United States, but, finding his family dispersed, in 1854 he again returned to Germany with his new wife Maria Theveny. He passed the remainder of his life quietly in Heidelberg.

Works

While on his farm in the United States he revived an early taste for

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

, and devoted a portion of his leisure to making translations of ancient and modern poems into German, some of which were published and received with high commendation, notably

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...

'' and "The Fire-Worshipers" from

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...

's ''

Lalla Rookh ''Lalla Rookh'' is an Oriental romance by Irish poet Thomas Moore, published in 1817. The title is taken from the name of the heroine of the frame tale, the (fictional) daughter of the 17th-century Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The work consi ...

''. Besides numerous legal and historical articles and minor poems contributed to American and European periodicals, he published: * ''Twelve Paragraphs on Pauperism'' (Heidelberg, 1847) * ''Ten Paragraphs on Constitutional Monarchy, and Republics'' (1849) * ''My Recollections'', an autobiography (1858) * ''The Hundred Days, an Epic Poem'' (1859)

Family

Several of his children went on to noted careers: *

Julius Erasmus Hilgard Julius Erasmus Hilgard (January 7, 1825 – May 8, 1891) was a German- American engineer. Biography Julius Erasmus Hilgard was born at Zweibrücken, Rhineland-Palatinate on January 7, 1825. His father, Theodore Erasmus Hilgard, was for many yea ...

(January 7, 1825 – May 9, 1890) was an engineer. * Theodore Charles Hilgard (February 28, 1828 - March 5, 1875) was a physician. * Eugene Woldemar Hilgard (January 5, 1833 – January 8, 1916) was an expert on soils. He was a granduncle of United States journalist and financier

Henry Villard Henry Villard (April 10, 1835 – November 12, 1900) was an American journalist and financier who was an early president of the Northern Pacific Railway. Born and raised by Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard in the Rhenish Palatinate of the Kin ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hilgard, Theodore Erasmus 1790 births 1873 deaths German viticulturists 19th-century German judges Heidelberg University alumni University of Paris alumni Bavarian emigrants to the United States People from Donnersbergkreis