FOREST SERVICE
In 1876 a Special Agent was appointed in the Department of Agriculture in order to
administer and conserve the national forests. In 1881 the Division of Forestry was
established. This was reorganized as the Bureau of Forestry in 1901 and finally as
the Forest Service in 1905. (1)
(1) The newe service also incorporated a small Forestry Division established
in 1891 within the General Land Office of the department of the Interior.
Special Agent
1876 - 1880 Franklin Benjamin Hough 1822 - 1885
Chiefs of the Division of Forestry
1881 - 1883 Franklin Benjamin Hough s.a.
1883 - 1886 Nathaniel Hillyer Egleston 1822 -
1886 - 1898 Bernhard Eduard Fernow 1851 - 1923
Foresters
(Heads of the Division of Forestry 1898 - 1901, of the Bureau of Forestry 1901 -
1905 and of the Forest Service 1905 - 1935.
1898 - 1910 Gifford Pinchot 1865 - 1946
1910 - 1920 Henry "Harry" Solon Graves 1871 - 1951
1920 - 1928 William Buckhout Greeley 1879 - 1955
1928 - 1933 Robert Young Stuart 1883 - 1933
1933 - 1935 Ferdinand Augustus Silcox 1882 - 1939
Chiefs of the Forest Service
1935 - 1939 Ferdinand Augustus Silcox s.a.
1939 - 1943 Earle Hart Clapp*, associate Chief since
1935 1877 - 1970
1943 - 1952 Lyle Ford Watts 1890 - 1962
WAR FOOD ADMINISTRATION
The War Food Administration (WFA) was created in 1943 as a semi-independent agency
within the Department of Agriculture.
It was entrusted with the coordination of the activities of the offices and bureaus
concerned with food production and food distribution.
War Food Administrator
(directly subordinated to the U.S. President)
1943 - 1945 John Marvin Jones 1882 - 1976
The WFA was abolished in 1945.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
CIVIL AERONAUTICS ADMINISTRATION
As the air traffic became more important after WWI the aviation industry urged
for standard regulations for safety and organization. As a result an Aeronautics
Branch was created in 1926 within the Department of Commerce to foster air commerce,
to issue and enforce air traffic rules, to license pilots, etc.
In 1938 the branch - which had in the meaanwhile be renamed (see below) - became a
separate independent agency, the Civil Aeronautics Authority. In 1940 responsibility
for civilian air traffic were however returned to the Department of Commerce and
divided between two agencies :
- the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), entrusted with airman and aircraft
certification, safety enforcement and airway development,
- the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), entrusted with accident investigation, safety
rulemaking and economic regulation of the airlines. (see below)
Heads of the Aeronautics Branch
1926 - 1933 The Assistant Secretaries of Commerce for AeronauticsDirector of Aeronautics
1933 - 1934 Eugene Luther Vidal 1895 - 1969
Directors of Air Commerce(1)
1934 - 1937 Eugene Luther Vidal s.a.
1937 - 1938 Fred Douwe Fagg Jr.
1938 Denis Mulligan 1900 - 1983
Chairmen and Adùministrator of the Civil Aeronautics Authority
Chairmen
1938 - 1939 Edward John Noble 1882 - 1958
1939 - 1940 Robert Henry Hinckley 1891 - 1988
Administrator
1938 - 1940 Clinton Monroe Hester 1895 - 1971
Administrators of Civil Aeronautics
1940 - 1942 Donald Hilary Connolly 1886 - 1969
1942 - 1944 Charles Ingram Stanton 1893 -
1944 - 1948 Theodore Paul Wright 1895 - 1970
(1) See here for the attempts made by this office to colonize Baker, Howland
and Jarvis.
CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD
The CAB was a semi independent agency, its chairman being directly subordinated to
the President. (S.a. for background)
Chairmen
1940 - 1942 ...
1942 - 1946 Lloyd Welch Pogue 1899 - 2003
COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY
A Survey of the Coast was created within the Department of the Treasury in 1816.
Its original task was the survey of the U.S. coast, but later its responsabilities
were largely extended to include the study of tides and currents, the compilation
of aeronautical charts, etc
The office - twice transferred to the Navy Department (1818 - 1832 and 1834 -1836)
- was renamed Coast Survey in 1836 and Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878. It was
transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903 and to the Department
of Commerce in 1913.
Superintendents of the Coast Survey
1867 - 1874 Benjamin Peirce 1809 - 1880
1874 - 1878 Carlile Pollock Patterson 1816 - 1881
Superintendents of the Coast and Geodetic Survey
1878 - 1881 Carlile Pollock Patterson s.a.
1881 - 1885 Julius Erasmus Hilgard 1825 - 1891
1885 - 1889 Frank Manly Thorn 1836 -
1889 - 1894 Thomas Corwin Mendenhall 1841 - 1924
1894 - 1897 BrigGen. William Ward Duffield 1824 - 1907
1897 - 1900 Henry Smith Pritchett 1857 - 1939
1900 - 1915 Otto Hilgard Tittmann 1850 - 1938
1915 - 1919 Col. Ernest Lester Jones 1876 - 1929
Directors of the Coast and Geodetic Survey
1919 - 1929 Col. Ernest Lester Jones s.a.
1929 - 1937 Capt. (1936 : RAdm.) Raymond Stanton Patton 1882 - 1937
1938 - 1950 RAdm. Leo Otis Colbert 1883 - 1968
PATENT OFFICE
A Superintendency - since 1836 Office - for Patents administering the issuance of
patents and trademarks was created within the Department of State in 1802.
It was transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1849 and to the Department
of Commerce in 1925.
Commissioners of Patents
1871 - 1874 BrigGen. Mortimer Dormer Leggett 1821 - 1896
1874 - 1875 John Marshall Thacher 1836 -
1875 - 1876 Rodolphus (sometimes Robert) Holland Duell 1824 - 1891
1877 - 1878 BrigGen. Ellis Spear 1834 - 1917
1878 - 1880 MajGen. Halbert Eleazer Paine 1826 - 1905
1880 - 1883 Edgar Martin Marble 1838 - 1908
1883 - 1885 Benjamin Butterworth 1837 - 1898
1885 - 1887 Martin Van Buren Montgomery 1840 - 1898
1887 - 1889 Benton Jay Hall 1835 - 1894
1889 - 1891 Charles Elliott Mitchell 1837 - 1911
1891 - 1892 William Edgar Simonds 1842 - 1907
1893 - 1897 John Sammis Seymour 1848 - 1931
1897 - 1898 Benjamin Butterworth (2x)
1898 - 1901 Charles Holland Duell 1850 - 1920
1901 - 1907 Frederick Innes Allen 1859 - 1938
1907 - 1913 Edward Bruce Moore 1851 - 1915
1913 - 1917 Thomas Ewing 1862 -
1917 - 1920 James T. Newton
1920 - 1921 Robert Frederick Whitehead
1921 Melvin H. Coulston 1877 -
1921 - 1933 Thomas E. Robertson
1933 - 1945 Conway Payton Coe 1897 - 1982
WEATHER BUREAU
Organized meteorological observation in the U.S. started in 1814 when the Surgeon
General instructed the local military surgeons to keep weather diaries.
In 1849 the Smithsonian Institution started organizing volunteer observation posts
and in 1870 the Army Signal Corps was formally entrusted with the collecting of
meteorological information.
In 1890 all these dispersed activities were regrouped and entrusted to a Weather
Bureau, part of the Department of Agriculture.
This bureau was transferred to the Department of Commerce in 1940.
Directors of the Weather Bureau
1891 - 1895 Mark Walrod Harrington 1848 - 1926
1895 - 1913 Willis Luther Moore 1856 - 1927
1913 - 1934 Charles Frederick Marvin 1858 - 1943
1934 - 1938 Willis Ray Gregg 1880 - 1938
1938 - 1963 Francis Wilton Reichelderfer 1895 - 1983
Back to UNITED STATES HOME
