John Wesley Powell

In March 1862 he married Emma Dean. On September 8, 1871 their only daughter Mary Dean Powell was born at the Salt Lake City.

On September 23, 1902 John Wesley Powell died at their family vacation cottage in Haven, Maine. He was buried at the ‘Arlington National Cemetery’ in its officers section with full military honours.

John Wesley Powell was born to Joseph Powell and Mary Powell on March 24, 1834 in a farm in Mount Morris, New York, in the U.S.

His father had migrated to the U.S. in 1830 from Shrewsbury, England, and was by profession a farmer, a tailor and an ambulant preacher. His mother was a missionary.

Powell’s family moved to Jackson, Ohio, in 1838 where he met naturalist George Crookham who aroused his interest in literature, science and history.

In 1846, his family again shifted to South Grove, Wisconsin. During his father’s absence (who used to visit places for preaching), Powell looked after the family farm.

In 1851, his family moved to Boone County, Illinois, and the next year he started teaching in a school.

On May 8, 1861, Powell enlisted in the twentieth Illinois Infantry at Hennepin during the outbreak of the American Civil War. He became a sergeant-major and thereafter a second lieutenant.

He was the captain of the artillery company which he recruited at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It became ‘Battery ‘’F’’’ of ‘2nd Illinois Light Artillery’.

On April 6, 1862, he lost part of his right arm at the ‘Battle of Shiloh’ as it was shattered by a minie ball when he was giving order to fire.

In February 1863, after a brief leave he returned to service and eventually became a major. He was present during many military operations including siege of Vicksburg, Atlanta campaign and battle of Nashville. After the war ended he became a brevet lieutenant colonel.

After leaving the army in 1865 he worked at the ‘Illinois Wesleyan University’ in Bloomington as a professor of natural sciences. He became a lecturer at the ‘Illinois State Normal University’ in 1866.

As an expert of land conservation, he believed that potential use of resources was one of the ways a society can progress. In 1889, he conducted the Irrigation Survey of the West. It was a systematic appraisal of water and land resources which was later followed in the United States as a base for all irrigation legislation.

The first Museum of Anthropology of the ‘Illinois State University’, considered the finest of all at that time in North America was created by John Wesley Powell.

His two Colorado River expeditions conducted in 1869 and 1871 brought out significant information apart from first reliable maps of the river.