Stephen Farnum Peckham was an American scientist and chemist.
Background
Stephen Farnum Peckham was born on March 26, 1839 in Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. He was a son of Charles and Hannah Lapham (Farnum) Peckham, and a descendant of John Peckham, who had come to Rhode Island as early as 1638, and spent his early years on his father's farm.
Education
Stephen Farnum Peckham prepared for college at the Friends' (now Moses Brown) School, Providence, and after two years as a clerk in a drug store, entered Brown University in 1859, taking a special course in chemistry.
Career
In 1861, in association with Nathaniel P. Hill and others, Stephen Farnum Peckham began to manufacture illuminating oils from petroleum in a plant at Providence planned and constructed largely by himself. The project did not prove immediately remunerative, however, and was abandoned shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War. Together with many others, Peckham enlisted in the army (August 15, 1862), serving first as a hospital steward of the 7th Rhode Island Regiment and subsequently as chief of the chemical department of the United States laboratory at Philadelphia. He remained in the army until the close of the war, being honorably discharged May 26, 1865.
In 1865 - 1866, as an expert for the California Petroleum Company, Stephen Farnum Peckham spent most of his time studying the occurrence of petroleum in the southern part of that state. This work naturally led him into geology, and during the next year or so he made a geological survey of parts of California with special reference to petroleum and allied materials. He made several reports, including one on the oil interests of Southern California and subsequently an elaborate one on the technological examination of bitumen (prepared in 1867 and published in California Geological Survey, Geology, vol. II, 1882), a subject which interested him for many years. For a number of years, beginning in 1867, he taught chemistry in various institutions: Brown University (1867 - 1868), Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania (1868 - 69), State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, Orono, Maine (1869 - 1871), Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio (1871 - 1872), and the University of Minnesota (1872 - 1880).
While teaching in the last-named place, Stephen Farnun Peckham was also chemist of the state geological survey and of the board of health. He had been state assayer of Maine (1869 - 1871), of Minnesota (1873 - 1880), and in 1887 was state assayer of Rhode Island. From 1880 to 1885 he was a special agent of the United States census office and prepared many articles on chemistry, including a Report on the Production, Technology, and Uses of Petroleum and its Products (1885), with a bibliography. For the next five years or so he was engaged in various business, scientific, and literary occupations, including the preparation of a long article on petroleum for the Encyclopædia Britannica (9th ed. , 1875 - 1886).
Stephen Farnun Peckham went to California again in 1893 to serve for a year as chemist of the Union Oil Company. His interest in bitumen led him to visit Trinidad to examine the famous pitch lake. Upon his return he served for four years as an expert on petroleum and asphaltum at Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1898 he entered the service of New York City as chemist, first to the commissioners of accounts and subsequently to the finance department. He held the latter position until January 1911, when ill health compelled him to resign. His scientific work ceased at this time. In addition to nearly one hundred reports, including those mentioned above, and articles in technical journals, non-technical magazines, and encyclop'dias, he wrote Elementary Treatise on Chemistry (1876), Asphalt Paving; Report of the Commissioners of Accounts of the City of New York (1904); and Solid Bitumens (1909). He was interested in New England history, was the chief author of a Peckham Genealogy (n. d. ) and from 1912 to 1915 was associate editor of the Journal of American History. His extended services and fundamental contributions to the petroleum and allied industries were recognized by his election to membership in many scientific societies.
Stephen Farnum Peckham died on July 11, 1918.
Achievements
Connections
On June 13, 1865, Stephen Farnum Peckham married Mary Chace Peck. She died on March 20, 1892. On August 1, 1902, he married Harriet C. Waite Van Buren, a physician. There were two sons and two daughters by the former marriage.