21 Facts About Evan Pugh

Evan Pugh was the first president of the Pennsylvania State University, serving from 1859 until his death in 1864.

Evan Pugh was buried in Union Cemetery in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, along with his wife, Rebecca Valentine Pugh.

Evan Pugh was born to Lewis and Mary Pugh on February 29,1828 near Oxford in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Evan Pugh was the fourth of six children: Rebecca, who died soon after birth, Susan, Elizabeth, Enoch, and John.

Evan Pugh died in 1840, and his widow sent Evan and Elizabeth to live with their grandfather and three aunts on a neighboring farm.

Evan Pugh was tutored by his aunts in algebra, geometry, geography, history, Latin, and stenography.

Evan Pugh's family agreed and he enrolled at Whitestown Seminary, a manual labor school near Utica, New York.

Evan Pugh taught classes, including botany, analytical chemistry, geology and mineralogy, on the second floor of the blacksmith shop, and in his personal time conducted chemistry experiments and contributed to farm journals and county newspapers.

Evan Pugh "determined that he could participate in the field of education if he could advance his own studies," and German universities at the time were leaders in the development of chemistry, particularly in the agricultural fields.

Evan Pugh enrolled at the University of Leipzig and studied under Otto Erdmann with a concentration on the chemistry of plant nutrition in 1853.

Evan Pugh left to vacation in the Jura Mountains, hiking from Switzerland into France.

The report was widely lauded and Evan Pugh was elected a Fellow of the London Chemical Society after presenting the report to the Royal Society in early 1859.

Evan Pugh kept a travel journal and wrote detailed letters home to family and Chester County newspapers throughout his travels in Europe.

Evan Pugh wrote detailed journals of his experiments and class notes.

In February 1859, Trustee Judge Frederick Watts contacted Evan Pugh and offered him the position of president at the Farmers' High School, as well as a stipend for purchasing laboratory equipment to bring back from Europe.

Not long after, in 1862, Evan Pugh began a graduate program in agricultural chemistry and awarded the first Master of Scientific Agriculture only a year later.

Evan Pugh was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1862.

Rebecca and Evan Pugh met frequently to talk about books, German language, and current news, and by early 1863 the two were engaged.

Evan Pugh broke his arm and spent the summer and fall in local Philadelphia hospitals having treatments for improper setting of the limb.

Evan Pugh collapsed at his desk while penning a statement for Legislature and died a week later on April 29,1864.

Evan Pugh died in 1921 and left all of Evan's books, correspondence, and memorabilia to Penn State.