The University of North Carolina Herbarium
has catalogued about one hundred plant specimens collected by S. M.
Tracy. Most are from the Deep South
(Mississippi, Alabama and Florida), but we also have a significant number
from California. A large number of NCU’s specimens are from the area around
Biloxi and Ocean Springs, Mississippi where Tracy lived in retirement. As NCU’s collection continues to be
catalogued without doubt many more specimens collected by S.M. Tracy will be
found.
According to the Harvard Herbarium database
of botanists, other herbaria that hold S.M. Tracy specimens include: TAES, F, MO, MSC, NY, A, BM, BPI, CM, CU,
CUP, E, F, GH, IA, LSU, MICH, MIN, MISSA, NEB, NYS, PENN, PH, PUR, US and VT.
Samuel Mills Tracy
Photograph from TAES
website
Samuel Mills Tracy was born to Emeline Newton (1814-1900) and Samuel F. Tracy(1808-1889) in Hartford, Windsor County,
Vermont. When he was 16 his family
moved to Bloomington, Illinois, then in 1864 to Platteville, Wisconsin.1 He
served in the 41st Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers during the
American Civil War.5 He
earned a B.S. in 1868 and an M.S. in 1876 from the Michigan Agricultural
College.4 In 1877 he was
Professor of Botany at the University of Missouri, and in 1886 published Flora of Missouri. 1
In 1887 Tracy was appointed the first
director of the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station in Starkville,
Oktibbeha County. “In 1890, three new
experiment stations were established in the towns of Lake (in Scott County),
Holly Springs (in Marshall County) , and in Ocean
Springs (in Jackson County). These
stations were under the supervision of Dr. J.B. Bailey, F.J. Fairley, and
F.S. Earle, respectively. These three
stations ran experiments from 1890 to 1895, after which experimental work
ceased,” according to Ryan P. Semmes, Asst. Archivist at Mississippi State
University.6 Tracy retired
as the Experiment Station director in 1897.
Today the Mississippi Agricultural & Forestry Experiment Station (MAFES) in Starkville is
associated with Mississippi State University and has facilities at 4 research
centers and 16 branch locations across the State.
After retiring, Tracy and family moved to
southern Mississippi. The federal
census of 1900 lists Samuel (profession “Botanist”), wife Martha (b. January
1846), son Edward (b. August 1875; profession “U. States Navy”) and daughters
Alice E. (b. July 1879; profession “School teacher”) and Elinor
L. (b. January 1882; profession “at school”) living in Ocean Springs, Jackson
County, Mississippi.
Tracy donated his library and herbarium to
the Agricultural College of Texas, which is now known at Texas A & M
University. The Tracy Herbarium (TAES)
at Texas A&M is named in his honor.1
S.M. Tracy died at age 73 and is buried in
Hickory Grove Cemetery in Laurel, Jones County, Mississippi. His wife, Martha Terry Tracy (1846-1904) is
buried in next to him. 2, 3
Drosera
tracyi Macfarlane is named in honor of
Samuel Mills Tracy
Photo by John Borom
PUBLICATIONS
(incomplete list):
Tracy, S.M. 1910. New farm crops for the South. Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, Vol. 35, No. 1, The New South (Jan., 1910), pp.
52-59. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1011489
---.
1893. Descriptions of new
species of Puccinia
and Uromyces. J. Mycology 7(3): 281.
Stable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3752452
---.
1906. Relation of museums to
experts. Science, New Series 23
(580): 232. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1632010
Ellis, J.B. and S.M. Tracy. 1891.
New species of Uredineae. J. Mycology 7(1): 43. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3752748
Tracy, S.M.
1886. Catalogue of the phaenogamous and vascular cryptogamous
plants of Missouri. Jefferson City: Tribune Printing Co.
Nealley, George C., J. Poole, S. M. Tracy, and George Vasey. 1888. Report of an investigation of the grasses
of the arid districts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Utah, in
1887. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
Tracy, S.M. and B.T. Galloway. 1888.
Notes on western Uredineae. J. Mycology 4(7): 61-62.
Stable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3752924
·
Tracy, S.M. and
B.T. Galloway. 1888. New western Uredineae. J. Mycology 4(2/3): 20-21.
Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3752831
Tracy, S.M. and B.T. Galloway. 1888. Notes on western Erysipheae
and Peronosporeae.
J. Mycology 4 (4/5):
33-36. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3753023
Ellis, J.B. and S.M. Tracy. 1890. A few new
fungi. J. Mycology 6(2): 76-77.
Stable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3752437
Tracy, S.M. and F.S. Earle. 1896.
New species of fungi from Mississippi.
Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 23 (5):
205-211. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2478175
Tracy, S.M. and F.S. Earle. 1895.
New species of parasitic fungi.
Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 22(4):
174-179. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2477854
Tracy, S.M. and F.S. Earle. 1901.
Some new fungi. Bull. Torrey
Bot. Club 28(3): 184-188. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2477949
Tracy, S.M. and F.S. Earle. 1899.
New fungi from Mississippi.
Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 26(9):
493-495. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2478018
Bergen, Joseph Y. and S. M. Tracy. 1899.
Bergen’s elements of botany; key and flora. Southern United States ed. Boston, Ginn
& Co.
Tracy, S.M. and B.T. Galloway. 1888. Uncinula polychaeta B. & C. Bot. Gazette 13(2): 29-32.
Stable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2993590
Lloyd, Francis E. and S.M. Tracy 1901. The insular flora of Mississippi and
Louisiana. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club
28(2): 61-101. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2477884
Tracy, S.M. 1903. Cassava.
United States Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin 167. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
Tracy, S.M. and H.S. Coe. 1918.
Velvet Beans. United States Department of Agriculture, Farmers’
Bulletin 962. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/ORC00000235/PDF
SOURCES:
1.
http://botany.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/taes/tracy/TRACY.htm
2.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=TR&GSfn=s&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=27&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=80584548&df=all&
3.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=80584780
4.
Personal
communication, Jennie Russell, Michigan State University Archives, Alumni
Catalogue.
5.
Civil War
Pension Index: General Index to
Pension Files, 1861-1934. Date of
filing: May 3, 1909. Application #1383172, Certificate #1155892,
filed in Mississippi.
6.
Personal
communication, Ryan P. Semmes, Mississippi State University based on
information found in “The Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Stations: An Historical Sketch,” by John Wendel Bailey, Mississippi Agricultural Experiment
Station Bulletin, No. 216, March 1923.
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