Joseph Trimble Rothrock was the youngest of three known children of Abraham Rothrock (1806–1894) and Phebe Brinton Trimble (1810–1894), who married 11 May 1837 at McVeytown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Joseph Rothrock was a physician, botanist and forester. He enlisted in the Civil War and was Captain of Company E, 20th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Calvary. After returning from the Civil War Joseph married Martha Ellen May on 30 May 1869 at McVeytown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Joseph and Martha were the parents of five known children, namely:
1. Addison May Rothrock (1870–1940)
2. Henry Abraham Rothrock (1872–1957)
3. Howard Gray Rothrock (1874–1877)
4. Elizabeth May Rothrock (1877–1964)
5. Martha May Rothrock (1882–1883)
Enclosed below is a biography of Dr. Rothrock.
BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH T. ROTHROCK
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
Dr. Joseph Trimble Rothrock
(1839 1922)
As a life long labor of love Dr. J. T. (Joseph Trimbel) Rothrock educated, cajoled, led, and managed the establishment of forestry understanding and the state's role in forestry. He became known as "the father of Pennsylvania forestry," and was at various times (sometimes simultaneously) explorer, surgeon, botanist, professor, and Michaux Forestry Lecturer; Pennsylvania Forestry Association president, vice president and spokesman; editor of Forest Leaves; member of the Pennsylvania Forest Commission; and the Pennsylvania forest commissioner and administrator of tuberculosis sanitariums. Rothrock was energetic, persuasive, involved, and a lover of forests since childhood. Yet he never professed to be a forester. His credentials were those of an informed scientist, botanist and medical doctor.
Rothrock was born April 9, 1839, in McVeytown, Pennsylvania. He died, at age eighty three, on June 2, 1922, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Numerous memorials recall his contributions to improving the state's environment. His name is carved in the gray stone of the formed education building in Harrisburg with other eminent Pennsylvanians. A plaque on a boulder at McVeytown commemorates his place of birth. An inscription honors his achievements in a corridor of the State Capitol. A state forest is named for him.
Like many Pennsylvanians, Rothrock's grandfather was a farmer and a German immigrant, coming from the Palatinate, to Berks County, Pennsylvania. He raised a son who became a doctor, who raised a son who became a doctor, and the father of Pennsylvania forestry. In a 1915 speech, Rothrock recalled conditions from the time of his youth (about 1855). "Sixty years ago I walked from Clearfield to St. Marys; thence to Smethport 60 miles; most of the way through glorious white pine and hemlock forests. Now these forests are gone." He went on to describe contemporary forest conditions that concerned him: "6,400 square miles; more than 4 million acres of the State are desolated, cut and unprotected from fire." He referred to similar destruction in China and worried that "unless we reforest, Pennsylvania highlands will wash to the oceans."
In 1862 Rothrock earned a bachelor of science degree in botany from Harvard, where he was deeply influenced by the renowned Harvard botanist Asa Gray. He enlisted in the Union Army from Harvard in July 1, 1863, and saw action at Antietam and Fredericksburg, where he was seriously wounded. By the end of the Civil Was he was a captain in the 20th Pennsylvania Cavalry. His service ended June 6, 1864.
In 1867 Rothrock received his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught botany, and then was a surgeon, helping to found the Wilkes Barre Hospital. In 1865 and again in 1873 he took part in exploratory expeditions to British Columbia and various wild regions of the western United States, serving as botanist and surgeon. From 1867 to 1869 he was professor of botany, human anatomy and physiology at the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania (now Penn State). In 1880 he studied at the University of Strassburg in Germany, specializing in botany. He visited European managed forests while there.
He was described as "small in stature, energetic, enthused." He had been ill as a child, spending much time outdoors and walking to recover. He worked one summer as an axman for the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, cutting wood for the rail lines, reveling in being outside and working hard. Rothrock described himself as "an Episcopalian and politically a Republican, when my conscience will endure it." He almost drowned as a child, almost died from wounds at Fredericksburg, and often said that because of these events he felt his life had been given back to him twice and that he consequently owed a debt to life. He repaid that debt many times over.
Rothrock was closely linked to the Pennsylvania Forestry Association throughout his career. He served it in many positions, but is also served as support and pulpit for him. As general secretary of the association, writing in the December 1892 Forest Leaves, he called on the association "to incite the interest of people throughout the state on forestry to preserve, protect and propagate forest." He pushed for a series of lectures funded by PFA to call attention to forest conditions, to show people that much of the state's forested lands were becoming areas of desolation. "Don't let forest land area fall below 15 percent of the state's surface," he said, "save land with trees, for the air we breathe, to protect watersheds, and for future timber. Stop wasting and burning ripe trees."
He became the state's first commissioner of forestry in 1895 and set in motion the purchase of lands for State Forestry Reservations, the training of foresters for state service, the establishment of forest tree nurseries for reforestation, and the formation of a system of facilities and people to detect and extinguish forest fires. In 1902 while forest commissioner, he used his medical training to set up the first informal tuberculosis camp in Mont Alto State forest for the fresh air cure of tuberculosis patients. Rothrock resigned as commissioner in 1904, but served as a commission member and in many other active forestry roles for the rest of his life. In 1914, at eighty, he resigned from the State Forestry Commission because of ill health. He had laid the foundation of Pennsylvania state forestry and built it well.
Source: The Legacy of Penn's Woods A History of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry by Lester A. DeCoster. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. 1995
Links to Joseph's parents, wife, all of his five known children and both of his two known siblings are included below.
Dr. Joseph Rothrock was a physician, botanist and forester. He enlisted in the Civil War and was Captain of Company E, 20th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Calvary. After returning from the Civil War Joseph married Martha Ellen May on 30 May 1869 at McVeytown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Joseph and Martha were the parents of five known children, namely:
1. Addison May Rothrock (1870–1940)
2. Henry Abraham Rothrock (1872–1957)
3. Howard Gray Rothrock (1874–1877)
4. Elizabeth May Rothrock (1877–1964)
5. Martha May Rothrock (1882–1883)
Enclosed below is a biography of Dr. Rothrock.
BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH T. ROTHROCK
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
Dr. Joseph Trimble Rothrock
(1839 1922)
As a life long labor of love Dr. J. T. (Joseph Trimbel) Rothrock educated, cajoled, led, and managed the establishment of forestry understanding and the state's role in forestry. He became known as "the father of Pennsylvania forestry," and was at various times (sometimes simultaneously) explorer, surgeon, botanist, professor, and Michaux Forestry Lecturer; Pennsylvania Forestry Association president, vice president and spokesman; editor of Forest Leaves; member of the Pennsylvania Forest Commission; and the Pennsylvania forest commissioner and administrator of tuberculosis sanitariums. Rothrock was energetic, persuasive, involved, and a lover of forests since childhood. Yet he never professed to be a forester. His credentials were those of an informed scientist, botanist and medical doctor.
Rothrock was born April 9, 1839, in McVeytown, Pennsylvania. He died, at age eighty three, on June 2, 1922, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Numerous memorials recall his contributions to improving the state's environment. His name is carved in the gray stone of the formed education building in Harrisburg with other eminent Pennsylvanians. A plaque on a boulder at McVeytown commemorates his place of birth. An inscription honors his achievements in a corridor of the State Capitol. A state forest is named for him.
Like many Pennsylvanians, Rothrock's grandfather was a farmer and a German immigrant, coming from the Palatinate, to Berks County, Pennsylvania. He raised a son who became a doctor, who raised a son who became a doctor, and the father of Pennsylvania forestry. In a 1915 speech, Rothrock recalled conditions from the time of his youth (about 1855). "Sixty years ago I walked from Clearfield to St. Marys; thence to Smethport 60 miles; most of the way through glorious white pine and hemlock forests. Now these forests are gone." He went on to describe contemporary forest conditions that concerned him: "6,400 square miles; more than 4 million acres of the State are desolated, cut and unprotected from fire." He referred to similar destruction in China and worried that "unless we reforest, Pennsylvania highlands will wash to the oceans."
In 1862 Rothrock earned a bachelor of science degree in botany from Harvard, where he was deeply influenced by the renowned Harvard botanist Asa Gray. He enlisted in the Union Army from Harvard in July 1, 1863, and saw action at Antietam and Fredericksburg, where he was seriously wounded. By the end of the Civil Was he was a captain in the 20th Pennsylvania Cavalry. His service ended June 6, 1864.
In 1867 Rothrock received his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught botany, and then was a surgeon, helping to found the Wilkes Barre Hospital. In 1865 and again in 1873 he took part in exploratory expeditions to British Columbia and various wild regions of the western United States, serving as botanist and surgeon. From 1867 to 1869 he was professor of botany, human anatomy and physiology at the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania (now Penn State). In 1880 he studied at the University of Strassburg in Germany, specializing in botany. He visited European managed forests while there.
He was described as "small in stature, energetic, enthused." He had been ill as a child, spending much time outdoors and walking to recover. He worked one summer as an axman for the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, cutting wood for the rail lines, reveling in being outside and working hard. Rothrock described himself as "an Episcopalian and politically a Republican, when my conscience will endure it." He almost drowned as a child, almost died from wounds at Fredericksburg, and often said that because of these events he felt his life had been given back to him twice and that he consequently owed a debt to life. He repaid that debt many times over.
Rothrock was closely linked to the Pennsylvania Forestry Association throughout his career. He served it in many positions, but is also served as support and pulpit for him. As general secretary of the association, writing in the December 1892 Forest Leaves, he called on the association "to incite the interest of people throughout the state on forestry to preserve, protect and propagate forest." He pushed for a series of lectures funded by PFA to call attention to forest conditions, to show people that much of the state's forested lands were becoming areas of desolation. "Don't let forest land area fall below 15 percent of the state's surface," he said, "save land with trees, for the air we breathe, to protect watersheds, and for future timber. Stop wasting and burning ripe trees."
He became the state's first commissioner of forestry in 1895 and set in motion the purchase of lands for State Forestry Reservations, the training of foresters for state service, the establishment of forest tree nurseries for reforestation, and the formation of a system of facilities and people to detect and extinguish forest fires. In 1902 while forest commissioner, he used his medical training to set up the first informal tuberculosis camp in Mont Alto State forest for the fresh air cure of tuberculosis patients. Rothrock resigned as commissioner in 1904, but served as a commission member and in many other active forestry roles for the rest of his life. In 1914, at eighty, he resigned from the State Forestry Commission because of ill health. He had laid the foundation of Pennsylvania state forestry and built it well.
Source: The Legacy of Penn's Woods A History of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry by Lester A. DeCoster. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. 1995
Links to Joseph's parents, wife, all of his five known children and both of his two known siblings are included below.
Joseph Trimble Rothrock was the youngest of three known children of Abraham Rothrock (1806–1894) and Phebe Brinton Trimble (1810–1894), who married 11 May 1837 at McVeytown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Joseph Rothrock was a physician, botanist and forester. He enlisted in the Civil War and was Captain of Company E, 20th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Calvary. After returning from the Civil War Joseph married Martha Ellen May on 30 May 1869 at McVeytown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Joseph and Martha were the parents of five known children, namely:
1. Addison May Rothrock (1870–1940)
2. Henry Abraham Rothrock (1872–1957)
3. Howard Gray Rothrock (1874–1877)
4. Elizabeth May Rothrock (1877–1964)
5. Martha May Rothrock (1882–1883)
Enclosed below is a biography of Dr. Rothrock.
BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH T. ROTHROCK
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
Dr. Joseph Trimble Rothrock
(1839 1922)
As a life long labor of love Dr. J. T. (Joseph Trimbel) Rothrock educated, cajoled, led, and managed the establishment of forestry understanding and the state's role in forestry. He became known as "the father of Pennsylvania forestry," and was at various times (sometimes simultaneously) explorer, surgeon, botanist, professor, and Michaux Forestry Lecturer; Pennsylvania Forestry Association president, vice president and spokesman; editor of Forest Leaves; member of the Pennsylvania Forest Commission; and the Pennsylvania forest commissioner and administrator of tuberculosis sanitariums. Rothrock was energetic, persuasive, involved, and a lover of forests since childhood. Yet he never professed to be a forester. His credentials were those of an informed scientist, botanist and medical doctor.
Rothrock was born April 9, 1839, in McVeytown, Pennsylvania. He died, at age eighty three, on June 2, 1922, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Numerous memorials recall his contributions to improving the state's environment. His name is carved in the gray stone of the formed education building in Harrisburg with other eminent Pennsylvanians. A plaque on a boulder at McVeytown commemorates his place of birth. An inscription honors his achievements in a corridor of the State Capitol. A state forest is named for him.
Like many Pennsylvanians, Rothrock's grandfather was a farmer and a German immigrant, coming from the Palatinate, to Berks County, Pennsylvania. He raised a son who became a doctor, who raised a son who became a doctor, and the father of Pennsylvania forestry. In a 1915 speech, Rothrock recalled conditions from the time of his youth (about 1855). "Sixty years ago I walked from Clearfield to St. Marys; thence to Smethport 60 miles; most of the way through glorious white pine and hemlock forests. Now these forests are gone." He went on to describe contemporary forest conditions that concerned him: "6,400 square miles; more than 4 million acres of the State are desolated, cut and unprotected from fire." He referred to similar destruction in China and worried that "unless we reforest, Pennsylvania highlands will wash to the oceans."
In 1862 Rothrock earned a bachelor of science degree in botany from Harvard, where he was deeply influenced by the renowned Harvard botanist Asa Gray. He enlisted in the Union Army from Harvard in July 1, 1863, and saw action at Antietam and Fredericksburg, where he was seriously wounded. By the end of the Civil Was he was a captain in the 20th Pennsylvania Cavalry. His service ended June 6, 1864.
In 1867 Rothrock received his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught botany, and then was a surgeon, helping to found the Wilkes Barre Hospital. In 1865 and again in 1873 he took part in exploratory expeditions to British Columbia and various wild regions of the western United States, serving as botanist and surgeon. From 1867 to 1869 he was professor of botany, human anatomy and physiology at the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania (now Penn State). In 1880 he studied at the University of Strassburg in Germany, specializing in botany. He visited European managed forests while there.
He was described as "small in stature, energetic, enthused." He had been ill as a child, spending much time outdoors and walking to recover. He worked one summer as an axman for the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, cutting wood for the rail lines, reveling in being outside and working hard. Rothrock described himself as "an Episcopalian and politically a Republican, when my conscience will endure it." He almost drowned as a child, almost died from wounds at Fredericksburg, and often said that because of these events he felt his life had been given back to him twice and that he consequently owed a debt to life. He repaid that debt many times over.
Rothrock was closely linked to the Pennsylvania Forestry Association throughout his career. He served it in many positions, but is also served as support and pulpit for him. As general secretary of the association, writing in the December 1892 Forest Leaves, he called on the association "to incite the interest of people throughout the state on forestry to preserve, protect and propagate forest." He pushed for a series of lectures funded by PFA to call attention to forest conditions, to show people that much of the state's forested lands were becoming areas of desolation. "Don't let forest land area fall below 15 percent of the state's surface," he said, "save land with trees, for the air we breathe, to protect watersheds, and for future timber. Stop wasting and burning ripe trees."
He became the state's first commissioner of forestry in 1895 and set in motion the purchase of lands for State Forestry Reservations, the training of foresters for state service, the establishment of forest tree nurseries for reforestation, and the formation of a system of facilities and people to detect and extinguish forest fires. In 1902 while forest commissioner, he used his medical training to set up the first informal tuberculosis camp in Mont Alto State forest for the fresh air cure of tuberculosis patients. Rothrock resigned as commissioner in 1904, but served as a commission member and in many other active forestry roles for the rest of his life. In 1914, at eighty, he resigned from the State Forestry Commission because of ill health. He had laid the foundation of Pennsylvania state forestry and built it well.
Source: The Legacy of Penn's Woods A History of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry by Lester A. DeCoster. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. 1995
Links to Joseph's parents, wife, all of his five known children and both of his two known siblings are included below.
Dr. Joseph Rothrock was a physician, botanist and forester. He enlisted in the Civil War and was Captain of Company E, 20th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Calvary. After returning from the Civil War Joseph married Martha Ellen May on 30 May 1869 at McVeytown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Joseph and Martha were the parents of five known children, namely:
1. Addison May Rothrock (1870–1940)
2. Henry Abraham Rothrock (1872–1957)
3. Howard Gray Rothrock (1874–1877)
4. Elizabeth May Rothrock (1877–1964)
5. Martha May Rothrock (1882–1883)
Enclosed below is a biography of Dr. Rothrock.
BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH T. ROTHROCK
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
Dr. Joseph Trimble Rothrock
(1839 1922)
As a life long labor of love Dr. J. T. (Joseph Trimbel) Rothrock educated, cajoled, led, and managed the establishment of forestry understanding and the state's role in forestry. He became known as "the father of Pennsylvania forestry," and was at various times (sometimes simultaneously) explorer, surgeon, botanist, professor, and Michaux Forestry Lecturer; Pennsylvania Forestry Association president, vice president and spokesman; editor of Forest Leaves; member of the Pennsylvania Forest Commission; and the Pennsylvania forest commissioner and administrator of tuberculosis sanitariums. Rothrock was energetic, persuasive, involved, and a lover of forests since childhood. Yet he never professed to be a forester. His credentials were those of an informed scientist, botanist and medical doctor.
Rothrock was born April 9, 1839, in McVeytown, Pennsylvania. He died, at age eighty three, on June 2, 1922, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Numerous memorials recall his contributions to improving the state's environment. His name is carved in the gray stone of the formed education building in Harrisburg with other eminent Pennsylvanians. A plaque on a boulder at McVeytown commemorates his place of birth. An inscription honors his achievements in a corridor of the State Capitol. A state forest is named for him.
Like many Pennsylvanians, Rothrock's grandfather was a farmer and a German immigrant, coming from the Palatinate, to Berks County, Pennsylvania. He raised a son who became a doctor, who raised a son who became a doctor, and the father of Pennsylvania forestry. In a 1915 speech, Rothrock recalled conditions from the time of his youth (about 1855). "Sixty years ago I walked from Clearfield to St. Marys; thence to Smethport 60 miles; most of the way through glorious white pine and hemlock forests. Now these forests are gone." He went on to describe contemporary forest conditions that concerned him: "6,400 square miles; more than 4 million acres of the State are desolated, cut and unprotected from fire." He referred to similar destruction in China and worried that "unless we reforest, Pennsylvania highlands will wash to the oceans."
In 1862 Rothrock earned a bachelor of science degree in botany from Harvard, where he was deeply influenced by the renowned Harvard botanist Asa Gray. He enlisted in the Union Army from Harvard in July 1, 1863, and saw action at Antietam and Fredericksburg, where he was seriously wounded. By the end of the Civil Was he was a captain in the 20th Pennsylvania Cavalry. His service ended June 6, 1864.
In 1867 Rothrock received his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught botany, and then was a surgeon, helping to found the Wilkes Barre Hospital. In 1865 and again in 1873 he took part in exploratory expeditions to British Columbia and various wild regions of the western United States, serving as botanist and surgeon. From 1867 to 1869 he was professor of botany, human anatomy and physiology at the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania (now Penn State). In 1880 he studied at the University of Strassburg in Germany, specializing in botany. He visited European managed forests while there.
He was described as "small in stature, energetic, enthused." He had been ill as a child, spending much time outdoors and walking to recover. He worked one summer as an axman for the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, cutting wood for the rail lines, reveling in being outside and working hard. Rothrock described himself as "an Episcopalian and politically a Republican, when my conscience will endure it." He almost drowned as a child, almost died from wounds at Fredericksburg, and often said that because of these events he felt his life had been given back to him twice and that he consequently owed a debt to life. He repaid that debt many times over.
Rothrock was closely linked to the Pennsylvania Forestry Association throughout his career. He served it in many positions, but is also served as support and pulpit for him. As general secretary of the association, writing in the December 1892 Forest Leaves, he called on the association "to incite the interest of people throughout the state on forestry to preserve, protect and propagate forest." He pushed for a series of lectures funded by PFA to call attention to forest conditions, to show people that much of the state's forested lands were becoming areas of desolation. "Don't let forest land area fall below 15 percent of the state's surface," he said, "save land with trees, for the air we breathe, to protect watersheds, and for future timber. Stop wasting and burning ripe trees."
He became the state's first commissioner of forestry in 1895 and set in motion the purchase of lands for State Forestry Reservations, the training of foresters for state service, the establishment of forest tree nurseries for reforestation, and the formation of a system of facilities and people to detect and extinguish forest fires. In 1902 while forest commissioner, he used his medical training to set up the first informal tuberculosis camp in Mont Alto State forest for the fresh air cure of tuberculosis patients. Rothrock resigned as commissioner in 1904, but served as a commission member and in many other active forestry roles for the rest of his life. In 1914, at eighty, he resigned from the State Forestry Commission because of ill health. He had laid the foundation of Pennsylvania state forestry and built it well.
Source: The Legacy of Penn's Woods A History of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry by Lester A. DeCoster. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. 1995
Links to Joseph's parents, wife, all of his five known children and both of his two known siblings are included below.
