James Espy and Margaret Pollard

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Husband James Espy ¹

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           Born: 9 May 1786 - Westmoreland Co, PA 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 24 Jan 1860 - ? Cincinnati, OH 2
         Buried:  - Harrisburg Cemetery, Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA

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         Father: James Espy (Abt 1727-1787) 3 4
         Mother: 

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       Marriage: 

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Wife Margaret Pollard ²

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           Born: 28 Sep 1795 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 30 May 1850 2
         Buried:  - Harrisburg Cemetery, Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA

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Children

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• They had no children.

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General Notes: Husband - James Espy

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His father removed to the State of Kentucky when James was in his fourth year. His thirst for knowledge was from his childhood insatiable, and his means being limited, he began, while yet in his teens, teaching during a portion of each year, to pay for the instruction received in the Transylvania University, Lexington, where he graduated at the age of twenty-one. The following year he was invited to Cumberland, Maryland, to take charge of a classical academy at that place, then newly endowed by the Legislature. His zeal for instructing the young was such that he soon made it a well-known institution, to which students came from every part of the country. In the meantime he studied law, went to Bedford, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar there, subsequently going to Xenia, Ohio, whither his father had previously removed, where he practiced law four years. His profession did not seem to accord with the literary and scientific tendencies of his mind, and he accepted, in 1817, a call to the classical department of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, and that city became his home for twenty years. During this period he published several pamphlets reviewing and rejecting the theories of storms and currents which prevailed, and these attracted the attention of the scientists of America. Professor Espy, having formed his own theory, brought it practically to the test of many storms. In 1841 he published his great work, "The Philosophy of Storms." Prior to its publication in this form, the new theory had caused a sensation in the principal cities of England and France, and Professor Espy was invited to visit Europe and compare his results with those which had been reached by Redfield, Forbes, Pouillet, Fournet, and others. He accordingly visited Europe, and in September, 1840, the British Association appointed a day to entertain the professor's statement which was made in the presence of Professor Forbes, Mr. Redfield, Sir John Herschel, Sir David Brewster, and other eminent naturalists. The discussion which followed was one of the most interesting ever reported in the journals of the association. In the Academy of Sciences at Paris, the interest was equally great, and a committee, consisting of Arago and Pouillet, was appointed to report upon Espy's observations and theory. They were satisfied of the importance of the theory at once, and so reported. It was in the debate which took place in the Academy at this time that Arago said, "France has its Cuvier, England its Newton, America its Espy." On his return from this satisfactory visit, Professor Espy was appointed corresponding member of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1843 he was employed by the War Department, in the Washington Observatory, to prosecute his investigations and collate the reports from the different observers throughout the country. Several quarto volumes of this matter were published by the department. The remainder of his life was spent at the National capital, although his vacation days were enjoyed at Harrisburg, amid the society of endeared friends. On the 17th of January, 1860, while on a visit to Cincinnati, Professor Espy was stricken with paralysis, from which he died on the 24th of the same month. His remains rest in the Espy burial lot in the Harrisburg cemetery.

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General Notes: Wife - Margaret Pollard

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from Cumberland, MD

1 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 216.

2 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 217.

3 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Company, Publishers, 1896), Pg 1002.

4 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 214.