History of Hanoverton, (Columbiana County) Ohio United States of America

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Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, physicist, was born near Hanoverton, Columbiana county, Ohio, Oct. 4, 1841; son of Stephen and Mary (Thomas) Mendenhall; grandson of James Mendenhall, and a descendant of Benjamin Mendenhall, who came to Philadelphia, Pa., from the village of Mildenhall, Wiltshire, England, about 1684. He taught mathematics and physics in the high school at Columbus, Ohio, 1868-73; and was professor of physics and mechanics in the Ohio State university, 1873-78, from which institution he received the degree of Ph.D. in 1878. He was professor of experimental physics in the Imperial University of Japan at Tokio, 1878-81, and there established a physical laboratory and a meteorological observatory, the latter being merged into the general meteorological system, organized by the Japanese government. He was again profosser of physics in the Ohio State university, 1881-83; organized and directed the Ohio State weather bureau in 1883-84, and invented a system of weather signals from railroad trains. He was professor in the U.S. signal corps at Washington, D.C., where he organized and equipped a physical laboratory in connection with the office of the chief signal officer and carried on systematic observations of atmospheric electricity. He also gathered data in relation to earthquakes, in which phenomena he became interested while in Japan, and after the earthquake in Charleston, S.C., in August, 1886, visited the city and made a report with a co-seismic chart of the disturbed area. He was president of the Rose Polytechnic institute at Terre Haute, Ind., 1886-89; superintendent of the U.S. coast and geodetic survey, 1889-94, and president of the Worcester Polytechnic institute, Mass., 1894-1901. He resigned and in July, 1901, was succeeded by Edmund Arthur Engler. He lectured throughout the United States, and while in Japan established the first public lecture hall in that country. He was chairman of the U.S. board of geographic names from 1890; a member of the first Bering Sea commission in 1891; of the U.S. and Great Britain boundary line survey commission, 1892-94, and of the U.S. Lighthouse board, 1882-94. He was vice-president of the physical section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1882, and president of the association in 1888; president of the American Meteorological society, 1898; chairman of the Massachusetts highway commission, 1896-1900, and was one of the founders of the Seismological society of Tokio in 1879. He was made a member of the National Academy of Science, 1887; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1890; the American Antiquarian society, 1895; the Massachusetts Historical society, 1896, and the American Philosophical society in 1900. He received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Michigan in 1887 and that of D.Sc. from the Rose Polytechnic institute in 1895. He received the Cullum medal from the American Geographical society in 1901 for his researches in the Alaska boundary commission. He contributed to scientific periodicals and is the author of monographs, reports and A Century of Electricity (1887).

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

History of Hanoverton, (Columbiana County) Ohio

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