William P. Trowbridge

General William P. Trowbridge
William P. Trowbridge
Born	(1825-05-25)May 25, 1825 Troy, MI
Died	August 12, 1892(1892-08-12) (aged 67) New Haven, CT
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Rank	Major General
Commands held	Connecticut State Militia
Spouse(s)	Lucy Parkman
Website	www.ct.gov/mil

William Petit Trowbridge, born in Troy, Michigan on May 25, 1825, was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and taught as a professor at several universities through his lifetime. He had a brief military career after graduating from West Point and later served as Adjutant General for the State of Connecticut from 1873 to 1876.^[1]

Early life and family

William P. Trowbridge was born in Troy, Michigan on May 25, 1825. His parents were Stephan Van Rennselaer Trowbridge (1794-1859) and Elizabeth Conkling (1797-1828). Stephan fought in the War of 1812 and William’s grandfather took part in the Battle of Lexington as a brevet Captain in the Continental Army. William had 11 siblings, six of which his father had with his mother before her death and five more after his father remarried.^[2]

Military career

William was appointed as a cadet to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated at the head of his class in 1848, serving in the last year of his cadetship as acting assistant professor of chemistry. Soon after graduation, he was ordered back to West Point as an assistant in the astronomical observatory, where he prepared himself for duty at the U.S. Coast Survey. He was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant on December 18, 1854 in the Corps of Engineers.^[3]

Civilian and academic career

William resigned his commission in the U.S. Army on December 1, 1856 to accept a professorship of mathematics at the University of Michigan. He later returned to the Coast Survey as a civilian, where he was employed on Gulf Stream observations and in magnetic work at Key West, Florida. During the Civil War he was in charge of the engineer agency in New York City and oversaw the construction of the fort at Willets Point as well as repairs to New York Harbor.^[1]

After the war, he was Vice-President of the Novelty Iron Works in New York City until 1871 when he returned to academia as the professor of dynamic engineering in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College. While at Yale, he served the State of Connecticut as Adjutant General from 1873 to 1876, Commissioner of the building of the Connecticut State Capitol and as Commissioner for establishing harbor lines at New Haven. In 1877 he accepted a position as the professor of engineering at the School of Mines at Columbia College, where he remained until his death in 1892. While serving at Columbia College, Professor Trowbridge took charge of the Tenth Census of the department of power and machinery employed in manufactures.^[1]

He was associate editor with Johnson’s Universal Cyclopedia and author of “Heat and Heat-Engines” (1874) as well as numerous contributions to the Academy of Sciences of New York. The degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by the Rochester University in 1856 and by Yale in 1870. He was awarded a Ph.D. by Princeton College in 1880 and an LL.D. by Trinity College in 1883 and by the University of Michigan in 1887. He was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was elected a member of the National Academy in 1872.^[1]

Personal life

William married Miss Lucy Parkman in Savannah, Georgia on April 21, 1857 and together they had five sons and three daughters; Catherine Helsey (1858), Lucy Parkman (1859), William Petit (1861), Samuel Breck Parkman (1862), Nannie Bernie (1864), Percival Elliot (1867), Julian Percival (1869) and Charles Christopher (1870). William died on August 12, 1892 in New Haven, Connecticut.^[2]

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