Henry Bradford Nason: Foxboro Native, Forgotten Story
Henry
Bradford Nason was born on June 22, 1831 in Foxborough, Massachusetts, the son
of Elias and Susanna (Keith) Nason. His father, Elias Nason was born at
Walpole, Massachusetts Dec. 24, 1768; died at Easthampton, Massachusetts on
Oct. 2, 1853. Elias is remembered in Foxboro as one of the pioneer manufacturers
of straw hats and in 1812 built one of the earliest cotton mills located at
Cocasset Pond on Water Street. He served his town as Justice of the Peace and
as Representative in the Massachusetts General Court. The family resided at 85
South Street.
In 1841, at
the age of ten, Henry and family moved to North Bridgewater (now Brockton),
Massachusetts, the native town of his mother who had died the previous year. By
1844 Nason was attending Adelphian Academy in North Bridgewater and in 1847 he
entered Williams Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts. After graduating in
1851 he entered Amherst and upon graduation four years later, he sailed to
Gottingen, Germany. There he received his Ph.D. in 1857, from Georgia Augusta
University, a student of Friedrich Woehler. While there Nason studied
Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology and attending lectures in Physics and Botany.
Nason
returned to Troy and married Frances Kellogg Townshend, daughter of the
Honorable Martin Ingham Townshend, ex-Congressman, also of Troy, on September
7, 1864. They had two children Henry Townshend and Louise Kellogg (who died in
infancy). Professor Nason began teaching at Raymond Collegiate Institute in
Cornell, New York in 1857 and the following year was appointed professor of
natural history. After holding simultaneous appointments at Beloit. College
(Wisconsin) and RPI (1858-1866) he was appointed full professor at RPI and
thereafter devoted his fulltime energies to teaching chemistry, mineralogy, and
later geology until his retirement in 1894. He received three honorary degrees,
an A.M. from Amherst, in 1864; an M.D. from Union University of New York in
1880, and an L.L.D. from Beloit College in 1880.
Nason became
President of the American Chemical Society in 1890 and was also a member of
other professional organizations such as the London Chemical Society, to which
he was elected a fellow. While primarily a chemist, Nason was also interested
in geology, and mineralogy. He took students on local geological field trips
and travelled extensively in the United States and Europe for research
purposes.
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