History of Chittenango, (Madison County) New York United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Chittenango, (Madison County) New York, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Peter Collier, chemist, was born in Chittenango, N.Y., Aug. 17, 1835; son of Jacob and Mary Elizabeth Collier. He fitted for college at Yates's polytechnic institute in his native town and was graduated at Yale in 1861. He then took a post-graduate course at Sheffield scientific school, Yale, and served as assistant to the professor of chemistry in the laboratory, 1862-66, receiving in 1866 his Ph.D. degree. He was professor of chemistry, mineralogy and metallurgy in the University of Vermont, 1867-77, and received the degree of M.D. from that institution in 1870. He was married Oct. 18, 1871, in Providence, R. I., to Caroline Frances, daughter of the Hon. Andrew Aldrich Angell of Scituate, R. I., and sister of Pres. James B. Angell of the University of Michigan. He was dean of the medical faculty, University of Vermont, 1871-74, filling at the same time the chair of general chemistry and toxicology in the medical department. He was secretary of the state board of agriculture, mining and manufactures, 1872-76. He was on the board of scientific commissioners to the international exposition at Vienna in 1873, and in 1877 resigned his chair at the University of Vermont to accept the appointment of chief chemist to the department of agriculture, Washington, D. C., making valuable investigations and suggestions as to the cultivation and use of sorghum in making sugar in the United States. He retired from the department in 1883, but continued to reside in Washington, occupied in preparing his investigations for publication, until the fall of 1887, when he was elected a director of the New York agricultural experiment station at Geneva, N.Y. Illness compelled his resignation from the position in October, 1895, and he removed to Ann Arbor, Mich. He invented an apparatus for obtaining the residue of sugar from the refuse of cane in the ordinary process of manufacture. He published Sorghum; Its Culture and Manufacture Economically Considered, and as a Source of Sugar, Syrup and Fodder (1884). He died in Ann Arbor, Mich., June 29, 1896.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Chittenango, (Madison County) New York

Biographies: