Lyman Child Wooster

History of Geology
James S. Aber

Born: 1849, place unknown.
Died: 1947, Emporia, Kansas.

Table of Contents
Abstract Introduction
Move to Kansas Geologic contributions
Other contributions Related websites

Abstract

L.C. Wooster was a naturalist and science educator whose career at Kansas Normal School, later Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University), spanned four decades. Little is known of his early life. During the period 1876-79, he was one of six assistants working for the Wisconsin Geological Survey under T.C. Chamberlin. In 1881 or 1882, he again worked for Chamberlin (then with the U.S. Geological Survey) and was in charge of mapping the terminal moraine in Michigan. Shortly afterward, Wooster moved to Kansas, where he was superintendent of the Eureka (Greenwood County) public schools for five years (1883-88).

Wooster was appointed in 1898 Professor of Biology and Geology at the Kansas Normal School, Emporia, where he remained for the rest of his life. His primary interest was collecting fossils, which he pursued throughout the United States. He conducted local field studies, concentrating mainly on glaciation in northeastern Kansas and ancient drainage in east-central Kansas. He published many scientific articles and wrote books for use in his biology and geology classes. Wooster joined the Kansas Academy of Science in 1897 and became a life-long supporter of the Academy. Twice, in 1905 and 1928-29, he was elected President of the Academy. He is remembered today in place names on the ESU campus--Wooster Lake, Wooster Drive.

Introduction and connection with Chamberlin

Wooster was typical of late 19th/early 20th century scientists. He was a naturalist, which meant he worked with biology, fossils, and geology. He was also a science educator, a teacher of teachers. Wooster spent most of his career at Kansas Normal School (now Emporia State University). He had a long life and remained active well into his 80s. Little is known of his early life. He received a Ph.D. degree from Milton College. In 1876-79 he worked for the Wisconsin Geological Survey, at which time he was in his late 20s. He was one of six assistants under T.C. Chamberlin. Wooster was involved in a state geologic mapping project, from which Chamberlin began to develop his ideas about continental glaciation.

In 1881 Chamberlin went to the U.S. Geological Survey as chief of the Pleistocene division. His main task was mapping of glacial moraines from the Atlantic to the Dakotas. Wooster was one of Chamberlin's principal coworkers during the first two field seasons. At this time, Wooster was a professor (where is uncertain) in charge of mapping Michigan. He worked summers of 1881 and '82 tracing moraines across Michigan. He furnished much information to Chamberlin that was published by the U.S. Geological Survey. Michigan has outstanding glacial geology, and Wooster developed a lifelong interest in the subject.

Wooster's move to Kansas

Wooster moved to Kansas in late 1882 or early '83 for unknown reasons. From 1883 to 1888 he was superintendent of Eureka public schools in Greenwood County. He developed a 12-year education plan emphasizing language and natural science. During this time, he discovered two granite boulders nearby. The larger boulder weighed approximately 400 pounds and was located 13 miles ENE of Eureka. The boulder has five planed sides and bears glacial markings. This is presumably the boulder now set in the Wooster monument at Emporia State University.

Wooster memorial on the campus of Emporia State University. A large granite boulder is embedded in the base of the monument (see next image).
Inscription from the Wooster momument. The erratic granite boulder was found far south of the limit of glaciation in Kansas; however, a plausible explanation for its geological origin is not known.

In 1897, Wooster joined the faculty at Kansas Normal School, which was the largest institution of higher education in Kansas at that time. The term "normal school" was widely used in the 19th century to describe colleges for the education of public school teachers. The Kansas Normal School later became Kansas State Teachers College (in 1923) and eventually Emporia State University (in 1977). Wooster became chair of the Department of Biology and Geology. He was responsible for training elementary and secondary teachers in the natural sciences, and he remained chair of the department until 1928. His career in Emporia lasted more than 40 years; thus, he had great influence on a generation of teachers. He wrote two books intended mainly for teaching purposes.

Sketch map of Kansas geology. Taken from Wooster (1928).
Click on the image above to see a larger version.

Wooster's geological contributions

By his own admission, fossil collecting was Wooster's greatest love:

Your speaker's [Wooster's] own craze for collecting has led him to load his cabinets with fossils; he is very proud of the fact that he has collected fossil invertebrates and vertebrates from Massachusetts to California, and in every rock group from the Potsdam sandstone [basal Cambrian, NY] to the Tertiary--in all 700 or 800 species of fossils and 200 or 300 species of rocks and minerals. (Kansas Academy of Science 1905)

Photograph presumably shows Wooster holding one of his prize fossils. The fossil is a giant eurypterid (scorpion-like invertebrate) that Wooster collected from near Buffalo, NY. The age of the picture is unknown, but it probably dates from early 1900s. The house in the background was Wooster's home at 1017 Union Street in Emporia, KS.
Photograph depicts some of Wooster's fossil collection during his time in Eureka, KS. This picture probably dates from the late 1800s.

Wooster's geological field work in Kansas fell in two areas.

Later Wooster (1934) developed a more elaborate hypothesis of glacial flooding. He proposed that the ice sheet in northeastern Kansas had blocked the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers and forced water to back up and spill across central Kansas into the headwaters of the Cottonwood drainage basin. He interpreted chert gravels as deposits of these floods, and granite boulders and other (quartzite) erratics were transported by these floods from glacial sources. This was Wooster's best attempt to explain erratic granite boulders near Eureka, but glacial flooding, as he proposed it, was completely impossible. Nonetheless, he made a remarkably good estimate for the age of glaciation in Kansas at half a million years ago. Current best dates are between 600,000 and 700,000 years old (Aber 1991).

Other contributions of Wooster

Wooster joined the Kansas Academy of Science in 1897, in which he remained an active member and published frequently. He served as vice-president in 1898, 1901 and 1904, and he was president in 1905. He became a life member in 1914. Again in 1926-29 he served as vice-president and then president.

Wooster became professor emeritus (retired) from Kansas State Teachers College in 1935, and he still remained active through the late 1930s. He was then living at 1017 Union Street in Emporia. He died in Emporia in 1947 having lived nearly 100 years. He is remembered today in several place names on the ESU campus--Wooster Lake, Wooster Drive.

Main entrance to Emporia State University with Plumb Hall visible in the background. The "sunken garden" (flag poles) occupies the site of the first building on campus. Photo date 4/99; © J.S. Aber
Stone emblem from the crest of Plumb Hall. "KNS" logo refers to Kansas Normal School, the origin of Emporia State University. Photo date 4/99; © J.S. Aber

Related websites

References


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GO 521 © J.S. Aber (2007).