His interest in botany began at a young age and grew to include categorization and sustainable practices.

He discovered 25 new species, 48 plants are named after him and his herbarium includes 78,000 specimens, still preserved at IU Bloomington.

Charles C. Deam was born on August 30, 1865,[1] on his family farm near Bluffton in Wells County, Indiana.

[2] Deam's other interests included the natural world, something his father showed him through farm produce, garden plants, and herbal remedies.

He received a herbal remedy of milk and old field balsams or cudweed to gradually nurse him back to good health.

Deam possessed a restless mind, great energy, and a tendency to assert order in his world.

[2] In 1888, Deam began maintaining a store in Marion where he worked upwards of 110 hours a week.

His hard work led to a better job in Kokomo, but Deam considered it a step backward in his career.

It was the norm for druggists in this period to make their own cures, thus birthing Deam's Nerve and Bone Liniment.

Their journal, Proceedings, featured Deam's first botany article, and soon he began to do an annual report on “Plants Rare or New in Indiana”.

[4] By 1897, Deam obtained a botanical library and began working with other botanists, like Stanley and John Merle Coulter who wrote Forest Trees of Indiana in 1891.

But when the forests were removed, the streams became muddy and sediment was deposited on the shores and on the gravely and rocky bars which made suitable habitat for this species.

He continued to collect plants by walking, but soon used a horse and carriage, bicycle, motorcycle, and  in 1915, a Ford Model-T touring car.

He customized the car with an ash frame to sleep two and added a canvas tarp to block the rain, naming it the Weed Wagon.

[4] During their often day-long adventures, Deam and his assistant (at one time Ralph Wilcox) cruised rural roads looking for new plants.

On the newsprint they noted the plant's name, the habitat and gave each sample a serial number, later recording it in a specimen log.

Deam's Shrubs of Indiana (1924) included numerous pictures from specimens at his herbarium and identification keys.

[5] His third book, Grasses of Indiana (1929), garnered attraction due to its ink drawings, his ability to translate scientific knowledge to the average reader, and folklore on certain plants, like Kentucky Bluegrass.

[6] Weatherwax spoke of Deam's published efforts as:"...of critical significance to plant taxonomy and ecology in Indiana and the entire Midwest.

Great natural areas of the native vegetation were yielding to axe, plow, fire, and drainage; and a host of migrant species were coming in by way of railroads, highways, and agricultural practices.

It intended to give farmers who agreed to protect forests on their land from fire and grazing a tax break.