Evan Pugh papers

Evan Pugh was born on February 29, 1828, in Chester County, Pennsylvania to a Welsh-Quaker farmer-blacksmith. When Pugh was 12 years old, his father, Lewis, was blinded and burned in an accident at the forge. He died in 1840, and his widow sent Evan and his sister, Elizabeth, to live with their grandfather and three aunts on a neighboring farm. Pugh was tutored by his aunts in algebra, geometry, geography, history and stenography. He served as a blacksmith's apprentice and later enrolled at Whitestown Seminary, a manual labor school near Utica, New York. After his mother remarried and his brother, Enoch, left for work in Ohio, Pugh decided to sell the family farm and used his inheritance to travel to Europe.

At Leipzig, where he studied chemistry, mineralogy, crystallography, and physical geography, he began a lifelong friendship with Samuel W. Johnson, who shared his interest in experimenting with scientific agricultural education in the United States after seeing it in successful operation in Europe. Pugh went on to Gottingen, earning his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1856; studied at Bunsen's Heidelberg laboratory and in France; and then began research at the Rothamsted Experiment Station of Sir John Lawes in England. His work on the assimilation of nitrogen by plants won him international recognition and membership in the London Chemical Society. Johnson had returned to an agricultural chemistry professorship at Yale and later became the leader in the establishment of American agricultural experiment stations. Through him the trustees of the Farmers' High School approached Pugh about the presidency, which he accepted in 1859.

While he was still in Europe, the trustees authorized him to purchase laboratory equipment; contributing $500 from his salary, he purchased $1,500 worth of chemistry equipment for the lab he designed and conducted in Old Main. He assumed his duties at Farmers' High School on October 26, 1859, at the age of 31. Facing tremendous challenges, he successfully opened the school positioning it to be designated the state's sole land grant university under the Morrill Act of 1862.

He married Rebecca Valentine, the daughter of a prestigious Bellefonte ironmaster, Abram S. Valentine, on February 4, 1864. Evan and Rebecca lived separately after marriage, he lived downtown State College, Pennsylvania (near the Farmer's High School) and she remained in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania until the President's residence, (University House) which he designed was constructed. Unfortunately, they never had the opportunity to live there. After only being married for just over two months Evan Pugh passed away on April 29, 1864 due to typhoid fever. Rebecca never remarried, and only visited the campus twice after his death.