St. Louis Cultural History Project—Fall 2018
When the Earth Quakes:
James B. Macelwane, S.J. (1883-1956)
and the Institute of Technology
by John Waide, M.A.
In 1944, Saint Louis University established the Institute of Technology (IT) as a separate school within the University. This Institute of Technology offered its students a broad curriculum in engineering as well as the various earth and atmospheric sciences. Father James B. Macelwane, who was the force behind the Institute of Technology being organized, served as the Institute’s first dean, a position he held until his unexpected death in 1956.
Although the study of earth and atmospheric sciences at Saint Louis University was not located in a separate college until the creation of the Institute of Technology in 1944, the men of the Society of Jesus displayed serious interest in these disciplines as early as the 16th century. The first evidence of these same scientific interests among the Jesuits at Saint Louis University took place as early as 1835, less than ten years after the Jesuits assumed the operation of Saint Louis University. At that time, the Jesuit faculty of the University provided Mr. Joseph Nicollet, the French born geographer, astronomer, and mapmaker, with detailed meteorological observations as he conducted three explorations of the Upper Mississippi River between 1836 and 1839. The maps of the Mississippi River basin found in his Map of the Hydrographical Basin of the Mississippi River, published in 1843, are considered amazingly accurate. These maps covered a region more than half the size of Europe, and they are among the first maps anywhere to indicate the elevation of an area. They are also among the only sources for original Native American place names in that region of the country. And the contributions of Saint Louis University meteorological scientists were critical to the maps’ creation.
Another famous explorer, John C. Fremont, known as “The Pathfinder,” spent several days in 1838 with Jesuit scientists at the University in preparation for his work with Joseph Nicollet on his later expeditions and for the three western explorations Fremont would lead on his own between 1842 and 1845. Remember that in 1841 Fremont had married the young Jessie Benton, the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. Fremont and Jessie lived at various times in St. Louis during the 1850s and early 1860s.
Shortly before the beginning of the American Civil War, the U. S. government formally requested that Saint Louis University record their meteorological observations and submit them to the government. These observations were taken at the University’s College Hill
property overlooking the Mississippi River. College Hill
was located near the Bellefontaine Road (now North Broadway) approximately three miles north of the Ninth and Washington campus in downtown St. Louis. The University had purchased this property in 1836 from Meriwether Lewis Clark, the son of William Clark, the explorer of Lewis and Clark fame! The property was purchased with the intention of moving some, if not all, of the University to this location.
The first weather data recorded at the College Hill station occurred on January 1, 1860. Mr. Francis Stuntebeck, S. J., who was completing his Jesuit theology studies at the time, was initially put in charge of the weather station at College Hill. The station recorded maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, vapor pressure, precipitation, the amount and type of clouds, and the speed and direction of the wind. It should be noted that Mr. Stuntebeck would soon be ordained Father Stuntebeck. Father Stuntebeck became President of Saint Louis University in 1868.
Less than a year after the weather data began to be collected at the College Hill location, however, the University decided to move the station due to the area of St. Louis being slowly filled with various industrial establishments which hampered the collection of this data. The meteorological equipment was transferred to the original college building on the University’s Ninth and Washington campus. The University continued to collect this weather data for the government at the downtown campus until 1873 when the U. S. government opened its own weather station in St. Louis.
The meteorological station at the University would continue to collect some weather data, even though the information was no longer reported to the government. Although the station slowly declined in importance both at the downtown campus and after the University moved to its new Grand and Lindell campus in 1888, the interest among the Jesuit faculty and some students in earth and atmospheric sciences remained. Probably the most interesting Jesuit scientist at Saint Louis University during the last quarter of the 19th century was Father Charles M. Charroppin.
Charroppin was born on one of the Guadeloupe Islands in the French West Indies in 1840, and he entered the Society of Jesus in Florissant in 1863. He was ordained at St. John the Apostle Church in St. Louis in December, 1875. After his ordination, Father Charroppin taught mathematics, chemistry, and astronomy at Saint Louis University until 1890. After a short period as a missionary in Belize, Father Charroppin returned to St. Louis where he served in various capacities until he passed away in St. Charles, Missouri, on October 17, 1915.
It was as an astronomer, and as an astrophotographer, that Father Charroppin achieved world-wide acclaim. (Astrophotography is a type of photography that captures astronomical objects and celestial phenomena and sky views.) During his career, Charroppin corresponded with some of the leading astronomers of his day including researchers at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, the University of California at Berkeley and the Vatican Observatory.
Probably the most fascinating story about Father Charroppin and his astrophotography work occurred at the time of a total eclipse of the sun on January 1, 1889. Charroppin was gathered with other astronomers and scientific colleagues to witness, and photograph, a total eclipse of the sun. Father Charroppin was gathered in California’s Sacramento Valley with colleagues from numerous observatories around the country. They were setting up their telescopes and camera equipment to photograph the upcoming celestial marvel. Unfortunately for Father Charroppin and his colleagues the weather that day was rather bleak with a layer of clouds blocking out any view of the sun. The forecast for the remainder of the day was not promising either.
Father Charroppin, however, was not deterred. According to several contemporary newspaper accounts, Charroppin gathered together several groups of local school children who were there to observe the eclipse. He asked the children to help him pray for the clouds to clear. In an article published in a later issue of the Las Vegas Optic newspaper, Father Charroppin said: I thought of making an appeal to God for just two minutes’ clear sky at the moment of the total eclipse, which would occur at 12:15.
He told his disappointed scientist friends that We will have clear sky at the moment of totality – I will pray to the Blessed Virgin to intercede for us.
According to an account of Father Charroppin’s remarks shortly after the eclipse, Clouds on clouds swept over the sun, the darkness now became apparent; nature assumed an unearthly appearance; a greenish awe-inspiring light shone on the tips of the neighboring mountains…. Suddenly the clouds opened, the sun and moon appeared in a clear blue sky. A shout of joy and admiration burst forth from every pair of lungs. The last lingering ray of the sun disappeared; the corona burst forth in all its glory and majesty; four planets and many stars shone brightly. A perfect silence followed, disturbed only by our astronomical clock beating the half seconds.
In 1910, the University resumed its formal collection of weather data through its establishment of what was called The Geophysical Observatory.
This Observatory consisted of two units, the Meteorological Department and the Seismological Department. On January 1, the University’s meteorological unit began once again sharing the data it was collecting with the U. S. Weather Bureau.
Father John Bernard Goesse was named the Director of the Observatory while Jesuit Brother George E. Rueppel was his scientific assistant. Brother Rueppel’s contributions to both the Meteorology and Seismology Departments at Saint Louis University cannot be understated. Born in Germany in 1864, Rueppel would leave Europe as a young man for the United States. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1882, and although he was encouraged to pursue the priesthood, he remained a Jesuit brother his entire life. From 1895 to 1900, Brother Rueppel worked as an assistant to Father Frederick Odenbach at St. Ignatius College (John Carroll University) in Cleveland. Brother Rueppel helped Father Odenbach set up the meteorological station at St. Ignatius in 1895, and then in 1900, shortly before leaving St. Ignatius, Brother Rueppel assisted Father Odenbach in establishing a seismological observatory in Cleveland. A few years later, in 1909, Father Odenbach proposed a plan for a cooperative seismological program involving Jesuit schools throughout the U.S. and Canada. This network of seismology stations would first be known as the Jesuit Seismological Service and later as the Jesuits Seismological Association (JSA). More will be said later about the JSA during a discussion of Father Macelwane and seismology at Saint Louis University.
After leaving St. Ignatius and Cleveland, Brother Rueppel went to the Jesuit’s St. John’s College in Toledo, Ohio, where he established another meteorological station. In 1908, Brother Rueppel left St. John’s and Toledo for St. Louis. Almost immediately upon his arrival at Saint Louis University, Brother Rueppel began urging the University to re-establish its own meteorological observatory. The result of Brother Rueppel’s efforts was the creation of the Geophysical Observatory of Saint Louis University in 1910.
It was also in 1910, that a young Jesuit scholastic by the name of James Bernard Macelwane was attending Saint Louis Universtiy. Although neither Mr. Macelwane, Brother Rueppel, or anyone else here at Saint Louis University realized it at the time, this James Macelwane would build upon the efforts of Brother Rueppel and others here in St. Louis to help make Saint Louis University one of the premier centers for geophysical education and research in the United States.
James Bernard Macelwane was born September 28, 1883, in Ottawa County, Ohio, on the shore of Sandusky Bay off Lake Erie, about four miles southeast of Port Clinton, Ohio. He was the second oldest of nine children (five boys and four girls) born to Alexander and Catherine (Carr) Macelwane. Their first child, a girl, died in infancy, so James was the oldest of the children who grew up together.
He attended public elementary school in the Port Clinton area, but he was forced to quit school at the age of 15 to work in his father's farming and fishing business. Even during this period when he was not attending school, young Macelwane continued to read, study, and write. After two years of working for his father, the family decided that James should enter St. John's College in Toledo, Ohio. This he did in 1901. He completed three years of high school courses at St. John’s in two years, and then he was determined to seek admission into the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) to become a Catholic priest. Remember that at the same time as Macelwane was attending St. John’s in Toledo, Brother Rueppel was working and teaching there!
In August, 1903, Macelwane was admitted to the Jesuit’s St. Stanislaus Novitiate in Cleveland, Ohio. While he was completing his novitiate and juniorate studies in Cleveland, Macelwane was assigned to teach part-time at St. John’s in Toledo. Although he was originally scheduled to teach Latin at St. John’s, Macelwane ended up teaching mathematics! As his Jesuit training continued, he was sent for his philosophy studies to Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he received the A.B. degree in 1910 and the M.A. in 1911, both in philosophy. He also took courses in ancient and modern languages, literature and history, natural sciences and mathematics, philosophy, psychology, and theology. In 1912, he completed the Master of Science degree in physics at Saint Louis University. It was at this time that Macelwane first became interested in seismology. After completing his master’s degree, Macelwane continued his Jesuit studies in St. Louis.
Macelwane continued to express a strong liking for classical languages, and he looked forward to a career in teaching Latin and Greek. But his Jesuit superiors, noting his natural facility in the sciences, advised him to pursue further studies in physics, mathematics, and geology. They even sent him to a special geologic summer school operated by the Jesuits in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in both 1913 and 1915. As part of these summer school sessions, Macelwane made his first geologic field trips traveling all over the American West. At various times throughout his studies, Macelwane taught physics. He taught at Saint Louis University and at the Saint Louis University High School. He even taught physics one summer at Creighton University.
He was ordained to the priesthood in St. Louis in 1918. After ordination, he continued to teach physics, navigation, drawing, and descriptive geometry at Saint Louis University. Father Macelwane was placed in charge of the Jesuit scholastics for one summer session at Campion in Prairie de Chen, Wisconsin, and he was sent to Cleveland once again to complete his Jesuit tertianship.
In 1921, Father Macelwane enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley to continue studies in the sciences. His major field in graduate school at Berkeley was physics, with minors in geology and mathematics, but his dissertation was in the field of geophysics. He received his PhD from the University of California in 1923. Macelwane was asked by special request of the director of the Department of Geology at Berkeley to stay on at the University. This he did for two years as an assistant professor in geology, organizing the University's graduate program in geophysics.
Father Macelwane was called back to St. Louis from the University of California in 1925. Upon his return to Saint Louis University, Macelwane was named a Professor of Geophysics and the director of the Department of Geophysics. The University’s new Department became the first department of geophysics in the western hemisphere. The already existing Geophysical Observatory became part of the Department of Geophysics, with Father Macelwane becoming the Director of the Observatory and Brother Rueppel the Associate Director.
Father Macelwane understood the importance of a network of observation stations to the study of geophysics in general, and seismology and earthquakes. He also knew that with a network of stations gathering data, there needed to be a central research center which would collect the data from these various sites and make the data available to all scientists. Thus, one of Father Macelwane’s first projects was to re-vitalize the old Jesuit Seismological Service. He proposed his idea of a this “new” Jesuit Seismological Service and the network of observation stations to the American Jesuit provincials and to the presidents of the involved Jesuit colleges and universities. This organizational meeting was held in Chicago in 1925, and it was at this meeting that the Jesuit Seismological Association was created. Father Macelwane was elected president of the Association, and the central station and research center for the organization was located in St. Louis with member stations at other Jesuit schools around the United States. Macelwane would be elected as president of the JSA every year for the next 30 years!
Over the years, Father Macelwane expanded the scope of the geophysics program to include research and courses in seismology, earthquakes, industrial or blast vibrations, exploration geophysics, and meteorology. Beginning in 1928, Father Macelane directed a number of doctoral dissertations at Saint Louis University on geophysical subjects. But his academic service was not limited to his Department of Geophysics. He served as dean of Saint Louis University's Graduate School from 1927 to 1933 at a critical time in the history of the development of graduate education at the University. Father Macelwane served for many years as the chairman of the University Committee on Academic Rank and Tenure, and he was also a member of the University Board of Trustees.
During 1931 and 1932, Father Macelwane accepted the responsibility of being the chair of the Jesuit Inter-Province Commission on Higher Studies. At the request of the Jesuit Father General, this Commission studied in detail the higher educational work of the Society of Jesus in the United States. The report issued by the Commission, commonly called the Macelwane Report,
recommended the need for significant improvements not only in the graduate education of students at American Jesuit colleges and universities, but also in the training of Jesuits who would become members of the faculty at these schools.
In 1944, he established the Institute of Technology (IT) as a separate school within Saint Louis University. IT’s first home was in Rueppel Hall, a small building at 3621 Olive Street which had been a former mortuary! The Institute offered a broad course of studies in engineering as well as in the earth and atmospheric sciences. Father Macelwane was the Institute's first dean, a position he held until his death. In 1965 the Institute of Technology changed its name to the School of Engineering and Earth Sciences when it moved into a new home in Macelwane Hall in the new science complex of buildings on Saint Louis University’s new
campus east of Grand Boulevard. Unfortunately, due to declining enrollments and increasing costs, the School of Engineering closed in 1970, although the University’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences continues to offer both undergraduate and graduate degrees in these disciplines.
Even with all of Father Macelwane’s many responsibilities, he remained an active scholar. He authored two books, contributed chapters to several others, and wrote or presented more than 130 scientific papers. He was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and professional awards or certificates. Father Macelwane served on several advisory committees to the United States government, including the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation.
Father James Bernard Macelwane, S.J. died on February 15, 1956, of a liver infection after an illness of two months. Father Macelwane had not been feeling well, however, for nearly two years, yet he continued to read, write, research, and help others right up to the time of his death.