Reuben Haines III
Reuben Haines III (February 8, 1786 – October 19, 1831) was a Quaker farmer, brewer, abolitionist, scientist, ornithologist, meteorologist, firefighter, philanthropist, and educational reformer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[1][2] He was a founding member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society,[3] served as the corresponding secretary of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for 17 years (1814–1831), and made significant early contributions to the museum collection.
To escape the yellow fever epidemic that took the life of his grandparents and devastated Philadelphia in 1793, the Haines family relocated to their ancestral property in Germantown by 1794.
[4] This is presumably where Haines began his friendship with Thomas Say, the zoologist and explorer, who was his classmate, and where he was introduced to a wide array of scientific topics including astronomy and natural history.
[8] After his father's death, Haines entered into an apprenticeship in a dry goods store in Philadelphia, owned by his uncles Christopher Marshall and Abraham Garrigues, where he worked until 1809.
[4] In 1809, he decided that his "whole attention should be engrossed ... in the pursuit of knowledge [and] the society of genuine friends", and thereafter lived off his inherited wealth, which included real estate in Philadelphia and rural Pennsylvania, the Germantown Brewery, and interest-paying bonds and loans.
[16] Haines was one of three Academy members who nominated John James Audubon for membership in 1824; the others were Charles Alexandre Lesueur and Isaiah Lukens, the clockmaker.
[23] Haines studied ornithology under Benjamin Smith Barton and is the first known person to successfully breed Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) in captivity in Pennsylvania.
Between 1818–1828, numerous influential ornithologists visited Wyck to see the geese including George Ord, Thomas Nuttall, Charles Alexandre Lesueur and John James Audubon.
Professor Barton, Messrs. Zaccheus Collins, Reuben Haines, Correa de Serra, a few other devotees of science, and three or four families of Philadelphia and Germantown, were the only persons whom he visited.
A letter dated July 1, 1831, written by James Ronaldson and addressed to Haines, reads: "I am well acquainted with the deep interest each of you takes in, not only the promoting of emancipation of the Africans, but also, your anxiety that these people should advance in intellectual knowledge and social respectability.
[26] From 1821-1824, Haines enrolled his daughter Sarah in a school based on the educational philosophy of Johann Pestalozzi, operated by Madame Fretageot.
[8] Just prior to his death in 1831, Haines had hired Amos Bronson Alcott to teach at a new school in Germantown, and their two families shared a close bond of friendship.
[9] A handwritten eulogy that was presumably read at his funeral survives among the family papers:"When Reuben Haines joined [the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia], it was composed of a few members & was just struggling into existence.
He brought to it indeed no peculiar stores of scientific knowledge & yet, to no one, except its munificent President [William Maclure], is the Academy more indebted for its present prosperous condition, than to our lamented friend.
