Charles Upham Shepard
American prof. of chemistry, Medical College of the State of South Carolina (1804-1886)
Charles Upham Shepard (born in Little Compton, Rhode Island, 29 June 1804; died in Charleston, South Carolina, 1 May 1886) was an American mineralogist.
Biography
He graduated from Amherst College in 1824, and spent a year in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying botany and mineralogy with Thomas Nuttall, and at the same time gave instructed on these topics in Boston. The study of mineralogy led to his preparation of papers on that subject which he sent to the American Journal of Science, and in this manner he became acquainted with Benjamin Silliman, the elder. He was invited in 1827 to become Silliman's assistant, and continued so until 1831. Meanwhile, for a year he was curator of Franklin Hall, an institution that was established by James Brewster in New Haven, Connecticut, for popular lectures on scientific subjects to mechanics.
In 1830 he was appointed lecturer on natural history at Yale University, and held that place until 1847. He was associated with Silliman in the scientific examination of the culture and manufacture of sugar that was undertaken by the latter at the special request of the secretary of the treasury; and the southern states, particularly Louisiana and Georgia, were assigned to him to report upon. From 1834 until 1861, he filled the chair of chemistry of the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston. He relinquished the position at the beginning of the Civil War, but in 1865, upon the urgent invitation of his former colleagues, he resumed his duties for a few years.
While in Charleston he discovered rich deposits of phosphate of lime in the immediate vicinity of that city.
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