Friday, July 6, 2012

More on Mac

Okay:
we know in the summer of 1915 he was in North Fenton with John and Ada on the farm.  He was 18 then.

He graduated from high school in 1914, so presumably he had just finished his freshman year at the U of Minnesota.

That would make him a junior the spring of 1917 (assuming he was doing the usual 4 year course).  Did he complete his year  before enlisting in the Army?  How did he qualify as an officer with only 3 years of college or did he finish in 3+ years and graduate before enlisting?

Assume he's demobilized in the winter of 1918/19, so returns to college in the fall of 1919.  If he has 1 year to complete that would mean he graduates in 1920. 

Presumably he spends the 1920's doing graduate work, researching, and possibly teaching.

He's doing research in 1923--don't know if he got a masters before his doctorate. He resigned as an assistant in biochemistry at the U of MN in 1923, perhaps at the end of the school year?He gets his doctorate from University of Missouri in the mid 20's. He's listed as a member of Sigma Xi (dad also was) the chemistry honorary society at U of Nebraska 1928/2.

In the spring of 1929 he resigns from U of Nebraska to take a post at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee.  That's where the family is when Marjorie is born.

On Lincoln Memorial University, from a recent history: " Located near Cumberland Gap in the rugged hills of East Tennessee, Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) was founded in 1897 to help disadvantaged Appalachian youth and reward the descendents of Union loyalists in the region. Its founder was former Union General Oliver Otis Howard, a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, who made it his mission to sustain an institution of higher learning in the mountain South that would honor the memory of the Civil War president."

Marjorie doesn't think he would have been a good teacher, because he lacked patience, and that may have been a factor in his leaving the University after only one year.  But it appears from the history there was a lot of unrest and dissent among the faculty during his year.  In the history he's a co-author of a letter cited in a footnote written in April 1930 when things were coming to a boil.

So, we don't know why he decided to leave after a year--the uproar in the university, dissatisfaction with teaching, better pay in USDA, better research opportunities, a metropolitan area, the opinion of his wife? Whatever the reason he takes a job with USDA/Agricultural Research Service  at Beltsville, MD.  He stays for 12 or 13 years and then goes to Massachusetts with Webster Feed, where he worked until retirement

Note: I did a previous post on his research articles, but Googling "H.M.Harshaw" now shows more articles, all or almost all on nutrition of various farm animals, during the 1920's and 30's.

If I"m understanding this and this correctly he knew German well enough to translate an article, or at least enough to abstract them

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