Franklin Hough

Franklin B. Hough (July 20, 1822 – June 11, 1885) was a scientist, historian and the first chief of the United States Division of Forestry, the predecessor of the United States Forest Service. He was among the first to call attention to the depletion of forests in the U.S. and is sometimes called the "father of American forestry".

Franklin Benjamin Hough (pronounced "huff") was born in Martinsburg, New York on July 20, 1822 to Horatio Gates Hough and Martha Pitcher Hough. Horatio, a physician from Meriden, Connecticut, was the first medical doctor to settle in Lewis County, in the west of the Adirondack Mountains. Horatio Hough died in 1830 when Benjamin was eight years old, at which point he began to go by his middle name, Franklin.

As a young man, Franklin showed an interest in mineralogy and long hikes. He graduated with a degree from Union College in Schenectady in 1843, and in 1846 he was married to Maria Eggleston of Champion, New York, and a daughter was born, Lola. He also published the first of his major scientific writings, A Catalogue of Indigenous, Naturalized, and Filicord Plants of Lewis Counties, New York. In 1848, he received an M.D. from Western Reserve College. The same year, Maria died. In 1857, he had a son, Romeyn Beck Hough, who would also go on to pursue a career in botany and medicine.

Hough set up a medical practice in Somerville in St. Lawrence County, New York. He devoted his spare time to natural history, and it was during this period that he discovered a mineral that would bear his name, houghite, a local variety of hydrotalcite. In 1849, he married Mariah Kilham, who in 1850 bore him a second daughter, Mary Ellen. Seven additional children were born to the couple between 1854 and 1872.

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