Reuben Haines III

Reuben Haines III (February 8, 1786 – October 19, 1831) was a Quaker scientist and social reformer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Haines was a founder and first president of the Philadelphia Hose Company, the first organization in the United States devoted to fighting fires by pumping water through a leather hose.[1][2] The first meeting of the company was held at his home (No. 4 Bank St., Philadelphia) on December 15, 1803.[2] Haines served as the corresponding secretary of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for 17 years (1814–1831),[3] and was the first life-member of the American Institute of Instruction, where he also served as vice president.[4]

Haines was a supporter of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States, and the education of African American youth. A letter in the Wyck collection 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."[5][3]

Early Life and Family

Haines was the son of Caspar Wistar Haines (1762–1801) and Hannah (Marshall) Haines (1765–1828). He was the great-grandson of Caspar Wistar (1696–1752), the glass maker, and grand-son of Reuben Haines (1727–1793), the brewer.[3] Timothy Matlack was his uncle.[3] Haines was the heir of a family homestead in Germantown that had been passed down since 1692 on his father’s side, now known as the Wyck House. It was founded by his ancestor, Hans Milan, an early settler of Germantown, who immigrated to the Pennsylvania colony from Holland or lower Rhineland.[3]

Haines and his wife Jane had six children:[3][5]

  • Elizabeth Bowne Haines
  • John Smith Haines
  • Hannah Haines
  • Robert Bowne Haines
  • Margaret "Meta" Haines
  • Jane Reuben Haines

Education

Haines and his lifelong friend, Thomas Say, the zoologist and explorer, were classmates in 1799 at Westtown School, a private Quaker boarding school in Chester County, Pennsylvania.[3] Haines attended the University of Pennsylvania from c.1807–1810, where he took classes from Benjamin Smith Barton (ornithology and botany), Thomas Cooper (chemistry), and Benjamin Rush (medicine).[3]

Scientific Activities

Haines was elected to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia on November 16, 1813, and became corresponding secretary in 1814, after the previous secretary, Camillus M. Mann, neglected his duties.[1] In this role, and through his contacts in the Quaker community, Haines engaged with a large network of scientists in North America and abroad. In New York, his contacts included Samuel L. Mitchill and DeWitt Clinton, who soon organized a similar society called the New York Lyceum of Natural History, now known as the New York Academy of Sciences.[6]

Although Haines did not publish his own work, he participated in peer review with other Academy members. He was on the committee that gave a favorable review to Thomas Nuttall's description of the golden selenia (Selenia aurea) and clasping jewelflower (Streptanthus maculatus), type species of the genus Streptanthus.[7][8]

Haines discovered one of the two syntypes of the Queen snake (Regina septemvittata), on the second floor of his home (Wyck House), which was described by Say in 1825.[9]

Haines collected the type specimen of Catostomus vittatus, an American fish described by Charles Alexandre Lesueur in 1817.[10] Lesueur wrote: "This remarkable little species was found in Wissahickon creek, near Philadelphia, by Reuben Haines".[10]

He was the owner of the holotype of Baculites ovatus, described by Say in 1820[11] and later illustrated by Samuel G. Morton.[12] It was lost for more than 180 years until it was rediscovered at the Wyck House in 2017.[13]

Haines was the first person to successfully breed the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) in captivity in Philadelphia, with a flock he kept at Wyck from 1818–1828.[1] 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.[1] Audubon was rejected on suspicion of scientific misconduct.[14][1] Five letters from Audubon to Haines are extant.[15]

Death

Haines died unexpectedly on the evening of October 19, 1831, evidently from an overdose of laudanum.[16][1] He was buried in a family plot at the cemetery of the Germantown Friends' Meeting House, at the corner of Germantown Ave. and Coulter St., Philadelphia.[5]

References
  1. Halley, Matthew R. (2018). "Lost Tales of American Ornithology: Reuben Haines and the Canada Geese of Wyck (1818–1828)" (PDF). Cassinia. 76: 52–63.
  2. Philadelphia Hose Company (1854). Historical Sketches of the Formation and Founders of the Philadelphia Hose Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Hose Company.
  3. Mss.Ms.Coll.52. "Wyck Association Collection". American Philosophical Society Library.
  4. Thayer, G. F. (1832). "Death of Reuben Haines". Journal of Education. 1: 47.
  5. Claussen, W. Edmunds (1970). Wyck: The Story of an Historic House. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Mary T. Haines.
  6. "Science in the Early Republic 1817–1844". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 584 (1): 9–55. 1990. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1990.tb12195.x. ISSN 1749-6632.
  7. Nuttall, Thomas (1825). "Description of two new genera of the natural order Cruciferae". Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 5: 132–135.
  8. Archives of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, coll. 292. Publications committee papers. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  9. Say, Thomas (1825). "Description of three new species of Coluber, inhabiting the United States". Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 4: 237–241.
  10. Le Sueur, C. A. (1817). "A new genus of Fishes, of the order Abdominales, proposed, under the name of Catostomus; and the characters of this genus, with those of its species, indicated. Part 2". Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 1(6): 102–111.
  11. Say, Thomas (1820). "Observations on some species of Zoophytes, Shells, &c. principally fossil (part 2)". American Journal of Arts and Sciences. 2: 34–45.
  12. Morton, Samuel G. (1828). "Description of the fossil shells which characterize the Atlantic Secondary Formation of New Jersey and Delaware; including four new species". Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 6: 72–90.
  13. Halley, Matthew R. (May 2019). "Rediscovery of the holotype of the extinct cephalopod Baculites ovatus Say, 1820 after nearly two centuries". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 167 (1): 1–9. doi:10.1635/053.167.0101. ISSN 0097-3157.
  14. Halley, Matthew R. (June 2020). "Audubon's Bird of Washington: unravelling the fraud that launched The birds of America". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club. 140 (2): 110–141. doi:10.25226/bboc.v140i2.2020.a3. ISSN 0007-1595.
  15. Halley, Matthew R. (2016). "The Heart of Audubon: Five unpublished letters (1825–1830) reveal the ornithologist's dream and how he (almost) achieved it". Commonplace: the journal of early American life. 16.
  16. Stroud, Patricia Tyson (1992). Thomas Say: New World Naturalist. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812231038.
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