DON CARLOS TAFT: GEOLOGY COMES TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Geology was part of the original curriculum at the Illinois Industrial University when it was first organized in 1867. John Wesley Powell, first appointed Professor of Zoology and Geology, was immediately granted leave from his Grand Canyon Expedition. Resigning a year later, before any geology courses were scheduled, Powell was replaced by Don Carlos Taft, a high school teacher and graduate of Amherst College and Union Theological Seminary.

Taft organized and taught the first geology courses at Illinois; lecturing and leading field trips. His failure to institute laboratory instruction was a reason cited for his forced retirement in 1882. Eccentricity and Regent Gregory's resignation also appear as important factors in Taft's departure. Effective as a teacher, Taft did no research.

As of 1906, twenty-two students amongst 409 graduating between 1872 and 1884, all presumably taking geology from Taft and/or mineralogy in the Chemistry Department, had, at one time in their careers, been employed in geologically related enterprises. Sixteen were involved in metal mining, one drilled oil wells, one taught high school natural science, one quarried and tested limestone for beet sugar refining, and one, Charles Wesley Rolfe, succeeded to Taft's professorship.