Denison Olmsted

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 8 dated events in the chronology →

1. by 1818 The Puckett house stands on East Franklin Street across from Hooper's John Puckett, a former postmaster, bought the lot at 501 East Franklin Street from John Craig in 1817, and by early 1818 his widow lived in a two-story Federal house there; Denison Olmsted bought it from her about 1820 and remodeled it. Before the Civil War it was the home of mathematics professor James Phillips, whose family held Ben and Dilsey Craig in slavery; the Craigs lived in a brick kitchen in the back yard. People: James Phillips, Denison Olmsted, Dilsey Craig Place: 501 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Jane Puckett, John CraigSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 15 · Also: Battle, History of the University, vol. 1, pp. 271, 299-300
2. 1818 Trustees add a professorship of rhetoric and logic Counting on money from Tennessee land warrants, the board created a chair of rhetoric and logic and an adjunct chair of moral philosophy over one dissenting vote. Shepard K. Kollock took the rhetoric chair in the fall of 1819, and critics complained that the faculty was filling with Presbyterian ministers. People: Joseph Caldwell, Denison Olmsted Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Shepard Kosciusko Kollock, Shepard K. KollockSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 253
3. Fall 1819 Denison Olmsted begins teaching chemistry at Chapel Hill Appointed in November 1817 to the university's new professorship of chemistry, Olmsted spent a year studying with Benjamin Silliman at Yale and began teaching at Chapel Hill in the fall of 1819. He stayed until the end of 1825, when Elisha Mitchell succeeded him. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Elisha MitchellSearch the index · NCpedia: Olmsted, Denison
4. 1820 Professor Denison Olmsted buys the Widow Puckett house on East Franklin Street In 1820 Denison Olmsted bought the two-story Federal house and lot at 501 East Franklin Street from the Puckett family. From 1826 it was home to the family of mathematics professor James Phillips. People: James Phillips Place: 501 East Franklin Street, Chapel HillSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 37 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, September 23, 1991, p. 5
5. 1823 Professor Denison Olmsted is hired to make the state's geological survey The Board of Agriculture, created in 1822, was allowed in 1823 to employ someone to survey the state's geology and minerals at $250 a year. It chose Olmsted, whose published report Battle thought probably the first of any state, and Elisha Mitchell later carried on the work. People: Elisha Mitchell Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 289
6. 1824 Trustees send Caldwell to Europe to buy books and scientific instruments Acting on Caldwell's February 1824 plea that the university could not go forward without books and apparatus, the trustees set aside $6,000, half for each, and accepted his offer to buy them abroad at his own expense. He wrote from London on August 31, 1824, after visiting booksellers and instrument makers and touring Scotland. People: Joseph Caldwell, Denison Olmsted Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 291
7. 1825 Trustees take over Denison Olmsted's house for the professors of chemistry When Olmsted resigned in December 1825 to teach at Yale, the trustees bought at cost the house he had purchased from Mrs. Puckett for $1,300 and repaired. The lot was set apart for the professors of chemistry, and the house was later the home of James Phillips and then of President Venable. People: James Phillips Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 299
8. December 1825 to 1826 Elisha Mitchell moves from mathematics to the chair of chemistry, mineralogy and geology When Denison Olmsted resigned in December 1825 to teach at Yale, Mitchell moved from mathematics and natural philosophy to Olmsted's chair of chemistry, mineralogy and geology, and James Phillips took over mathematics. The memoir says the new post widened Mitchell's field trips across the state. People: Elisha Mitchell, Denison Olmsted, James Phillips Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · A Memoir of the Rev. Elisha Mitchell (1858), scan p. 14 · Also: Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I