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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 25 |
Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: April 1987 Volume 25 Number 2, Pages 59–66 Who was George Froff? He should be better known and remembered! He was the supervisor of the sanitary work at Johnstown after the disastrous Johnstown Flood in 1889. He was for three years a public school teacher, and for twenty-two years a university professor. He was an advocate of co-education and the opportunity for women to attend colleges and universities on an equal basis with men. He was a member of the Pennsylvania State Board of Health for thirteen years, and of the State Board of Agriculture for ten. He was the author of several textbooks and of numerous pamphlets, leaflets and charts on hygiene, sanitation, first aid, and mineralogy. He was a brigade surgeon during the Spanish-American War, and after the war was the director of the vaccination program in Puerto Rico and superintendent of public instruction there for two years. And he was a popular lecturer on various topics, ranging from "Healthful Homes for Farmers" to "Life in the Tropics" and "Manifest Destiny". George G. Groff was born in Tredyffrin Township, near Valley Forge, on April 5, 1851, the son of John and Susan Beaver Groff. His early years were spent working on the family farm, and as a pupil in the local public schools and in academies in Phoenixville and Norristown. When he was eighteen, he also taught in public schools, including the old Eagle School in Tredyffrin, before attending the new State Normal School in West Chester. At the Normal School he was the lone male member of the first graduating class in 1874, the class consisting of himself and nine women. When the Alumni Association was formed the following year, he was elected its first president. After graduation from West Chester, he studied at the Long Island College Hospital, receiving his degree as Doctor of Medicine in 1877. That summer George Maris, the principal of the Normal School, organized a special summer school for teachers; its faculty of "top-flight specialists" included George Groff for mineralogy. In the fall he joined the regular faculty of the Normal School as professor of natural sciences. While at West Chester, he began the preparation and publication of his popular charts and pamphlets for use as "teaching accesories" by teachers and students, a fore-runner of today's "visual aids". His first two were a chart of all the "Common Minerals, Ores and Rocks of Chester County", prepared for use in the schools of the county "so that anyone may easily determine the name of the species", and "Groffs Plant Analysis", a book of plant descriptions "with a synopsis of the terms most frequently used in the description of plants; and a schedule of work to be performed in the botany laboratory; also a list of subjects available for theses". ("Groffs Plant Analysis" went through at least seven editions. ) In 1879 he was appointed to the faculty of Lewisburg University (renamed Bucknell University in 1886) as Professor of Organic Sciences. Professor Groff was described as an enthusiastic and forceful teacher, and one who inspired his students to diligent work. "Since Professor Groff has occupied the Chair of Natural Sciences," it was noted in the University Mirror in April 1882, "the studies in that department have received great impetus in our college. The doctor is a most enthusiastic worker, and forces the conviction upon all who come in contact with him that he considers all studies of great importance, but studies in natural science particularly so. He seems to be impressed with the idea that there is more in these studies that will touch and influence the life than in the average study; yet he underrates no study, but recommends every student to take as thorough and complete a course as is possible, often depreciating the growing tendency to drop off language studies and shorten the course. Yet his department is undoubtedly growing in favor as well as in its ability to satisfy the wants of the scientific study. Under his administration a new chemical laboratory has been fitted up and is now in daily use among the students; a new recitation hall has been provided for the natural history classes; through his influence its walls have been hung with valuable maps and charts and microscopes provided for students' use; the museum has been rearranged and many new specimens are being continually added to its attractions. ... [W]e rejoice that Lewisburg University possesses so enthusiastic and wide-awake an instructor as Dr. Groff. ..." He was also credited with being "the originator of the system of lectures for class instruction which has become so popular in his classes". At the same time, he also stressed a practical "hands-on" approach in his classes. In the notice of a summer school course in mineralogy he conducted in West Chester in July 1878, for example, it was pointed out that the "lectures will be illustrated by an abundance of specimens, which will be placed before the students" and that "several excursions for minerals will be made into the adjacent country to well-known localities, and at least thirty characteristic specimens can be guaranteed to each student". "In natural science," it was further pointed out, "it is only by seeing that we really understand and learn the matter under consideration." (The cost of the one-week summer course, incidentally, was $2.50!) His maxims were "Guess at nothing; investigate and know; write down only what you see and not what you think." A year after his appointment as Professor of Organic Sciences at Lewisburg University, George Groff and Margaret Palmer Marshall, the daughter of William P. and Frances Lloyd Andrews Marshall, were married. Although Groff was a member of the Baptist Church -- he was described as holding" liberal views in all theological matters" -- their marriage was in accord with the principles of the Society of Friends. It took place at the home of the bride, in West Goshen township, in May 1880. The Groffs eventually had five children: William Marshall, John Charles, Margaret Beaver, James Andrew, and Frances Lloyd Groff. Over the years, Dr. Groff was also a popular and highly regarded participant in a number of teachers' institutes, helping teachers become better teachers. In the Lewisburg Chronicle in January 1884 it was reported, "Our excellent townsman, Dr. Groff, is winning golden opinions among the educators of the State. In nearly all neighboring teachers' institutes he is ticketed as a standard instructor, and is highly spoken of at all points." Similarly, the Bellefonte Daily News, after the Centre County Institute, noted, "The earnestness and enthusiasm of Dr. Groff, coupled with his clear presentation of the subject stamp him a model instructor; while his scholarly manner and gentlemanly deportment win for him [a] host of friends." His participation in these institutes was not limited to Pennsylvania. In July of 1885 he served as principal of a four-week State Teachers' Institute held at Franklin, North Carolina. The session was described as "more satisfactory in the way of practical work than any that preceded it". (Unfortunately, Groff had to leave at the end of the third week because of the death of his father.)' His interest in helping teachers teach better is also reflected in the many charts and other "teaching accessories" he continued to prepare and publish for science teachers. Among them were a chart on "American Geology", published in 1881; "The Chemical Note-Book", a book of 200 pages "designed for use in classes where chemistry is taught by lectures, and also as a commonplace book for the systematic recording of chemical facts under head of each element" for the use of teachers and students (1884); "Chemical Show Cards", a set of 20 cards, each with ten different elements in bottles, "mounted in neat walnut box with doors" (1885);
"Quiz Questions on Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene", for students and teachers (1886); "Mineral Analysis", intended for use "in laboratories where determinative mineralogy is taught", with "a full syllabus of terms for physical and chemical description of minerals" (1889); "Herbarium and Plant Analysis" (1891); and charts of "Fifty Common Minerals, Ores, and Rocks" and "The Common Minerals and Ores of the States of Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and Maryland" (1892). He was also the author of several textbooks, including one on animal physiology. From the time he arrived on the Lewisburg campus, Dr. Groff was also an advocate of co-education--to the extent that the Rev. David Jayne Hill, the president of the university from 1879 to 1888, described him as "the real father of co-education" there. While, as Lewis Edwin Theiss pointed, out in his Centennial History of Bucknell University, from its beginning "the founders of the institution had insisted that girls as well as boys should have advanced schooling ... there was then no thought of giving them exactly the same training or having them recite together. That would have been too much for these early fathers." The movement for co-education had been growing, he noted, but the coming of Dr. Groff "gave it great impetus". In September 1884 he and Professor Albert Waffle presented a resolution that "young ladies ... be admitted to College standing in full in connection with the classes in which they would properly belong and that they be allowed all the class privileges of College students". In the following January the resolution was unaminously approved by the faculty, and in June 1885 the University graduated a woman for the first time. Notwithstanding his primary interest in the development of the science department, Dr. Groff was also a constant friend of the University's Library. In discussions of funds for the purchase of books, he repeatedly maintained that the amount should be no less than $25,000. Although his arguments did not prevail, by the mid-1880s considerable progress had been made in expanding the size of the library's collections, their cataloguing, and the times at which the library was open and its collections available to the faculty and students. At the end of the decade there were some 9,000 bound volumes in the library, as well as a great number of unbound pamphlets and brochures. Dr. Groff also developed the plans for the interior of the University's first chemical laboratory, presented to the University by its principal benefactor, William Bucknell, in 1889. (The exterior of the building was designed by his colleague Professor William C. Bartol, who had been trained as an architect and builder before he entered college.) (Dr. Groff was somewhat less enthusiastic about other parts of the University's programs, however. In January 1894 he described the recently adopted program of intercollegiate football as "barbarous and rough" and as a "travesty of athleticism".) Dr. Groff was one of three members of the faculty who went to Germany for advanced study during the 1880s, attending the University of Leipsicin 1886. He was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Judson College in North Carolina in 1887. He later also received an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from Franklin and Marshall in 1898 and an honorary Doctor of Science Degree from Susquehanna in 1902. When President Hill resigned in June 1888 to become president of the University of Rochester, Dr. Groff was named acting president of Bucknell. He held the position for the following academic year. One observer wrote that as acting president "he advertised the University more in three months than had been previously done in 40 years". Noting the increase in enrollment that had taken place while Dr. Groff held the position, the Lewisburg Journal in February 1889 commented, "It is but just for us to say that for its progress and its success, there is no doubt that Dr. Groff, the acting president, is mainly responsible; and his active efforts and energy are noticeable in every department. The doctor is a practical man, a worker himself, and has a great desire to make the institution known for the thorough education of the graduates it sends forth, as well as for the numbers. So far as we have an opportunity to judge, we believe that the powers at the head of the institution could make no wiser selection than just Dr. Groff as its permanent President, and we join with many of our citizens in hoping they will." Their choice, however, was the Rev. John Howard Harris, who served as president of the University for three decades, from 1889 to 1919. It was while he was the acting president that "the lovely elms and other trees" were planted by Dr. Groff along Loomis Street and University Avenue in front of the President's House. In his centennial history Theiss also noted that other "unusual and lovely trees on the present campus were planted by Dr. Groff about his house, now the Zeigler Infirmary", and also that there was an orchard on his property "that many college boys of an earlier generation will remember with gratitude". When the Pennsylvania State Board of Health was established in 1885, Dr.Groff, known for his zeal for cleanliness and sanitation, was selected as one of its members. As early as in 1879 and 1880 he had written and published a series of seventeen "Sanitary Charts" dealing with the prevention of scarlet fever, small pox, cholera, measles, diphtheria, and other contagious diseases, health maxims, rules for general sanitation, and other topics. In 1881 he had also published a 92-page "A Manual of Accidents and Emergencies, or How to Avoid Accidents and What to Do when They Occur; with Notes on the Preservation of Health", which the West Chester Daily Local News described as "worthy of a very large circulation", with the comment that "the author is to be thanked for writing it". Upon becoming a member of the State Board, Dr. Groff was directed to revise a number of these circulars, for distribution throughout the state. Originally his name appeared as the author, but most of them, together with additional leaflets and circulars he wrote, were issued anonymously. Issued in the thousands, they were highly regarded and later described as "the best issued by any state in the Union" and as "extremely useful publications". In 1897 a number of them were bound together and issued as one volume by Dr. Groff. He also wrote numerous artfcles for the Annual Report of the State Board of Health and for other publications, and was a frequent lecturer on the subject of health. He was a member of the Board of Health and editor of its publications for more than thirteen years, until 1899, and served for several years as its president. When the State Medical Council was formed in 1893, Dr. Groff also became a member of that body for one year. He was also a member of the State Board of Agriculture for ten years, and the author of a number of pamphlets and leaflets issued by it, as well as articles for its annual reports too. They included several on bee-keeping, starting an apiary, the instincts of the honey bee, and on honey-producing plants, and also articles on dairy sanitation, farm and village hygiene, the germ theory of diseases, and other subjects. Other public service by Dr. Groff in Lewisburg included terms as a school director and as coroner. For three years, from 1884 to 1886, he was the assistant surgeon of the Pennsylvania National Guard, and in 1893 he was one of Pennsylvania's four representatives to the Pan-American Medical Conference held in Washington. In addition, he was a member of the Sons of the Revolution, the Pennsylvania German Society, and of the Welsh Society of Philadelphia. Even with all these activities, however, he also kept in touch with what was going on in his native Chester County and Tredyffrin township. In the Local in April 1884, for example, in a letter to the Editor, he commented on articles that had appeared in the paper on old burial grounds in the county and gave additional information about the graveyard at the old Eagle School. He retained a feeling for "the old neighborhood" and was a frequent visitor in the area, especially at the annual reunions at the schools where he had been a pupil or taught in his early days. On several occasions he was a speaker at the Howellville School reunions. After the dam across the Conemaugh River above Johnstown gave way on May 31, 1889, causing the great Johnstown Flood, Dr. Groff was given the responsibility for the organization of the sanitation work in the aftermath of the disaster. His immediate concern, of course, was the prevention of an epidemic. While he originally estimated, in a special report to the Local, that the "loss will reach from 7,000 to 10,000" persons, the actual loss was kept to between 2,200 and 2,300. Under his direction, all debris and piles of rubbish were burned as soon as possible, and 200 men were immediately put to work searching for and burying the many dead animals in the area. A school building "which stood like a rock in the midst of the rushing waters" was cleaned out and used as a morgue, and as soon as the victims of the flood were identified they were buried, though in many cases the coffins were put "only three feet underground, as there was not time to dig the graves deeper". A variety of disinfectants, including bromine, copperas, corrosive sublimate, and quicklime, were rushed to the scene. By June 10 Dr. Groff was able to report, "No epidemic of any kind prevails, nor is it expected that any will arise. The whole region has been divided into convenient districts and each placed under a competent sanitarian. The State Board of Health is prepared to meet all emergencies as they arise. The air is wholesome and the water generally pure. If the good people of the devastated area go on as they have nobly done for the past week in their efforts to clean up the wreckage, good health will certainly be maintained." Dr. Groff's career at Bucknell was again interrupted less than a decade later, this time for more than two years, by the Spanish - American War. When war with Spain was declared in April 1898, Groff offered his services both to Pennsylvania Governor Daniel Hastings and to President William McKinley. Not long afterwards he was made a brigade surgeon and commissioned a major by the President. After a brief stay at Camp Alger he was sent to Puerto Rico. At the end of the war he was named a commissioner on the National Relief Commission for the island. He served as the Director of Vaccination, supervising the successful vaccination in a three-months period of 790,000 persons, with a virus produced locally and without a fatality. He served as secretary and treasurer of the Superior Board of Health of Puerto Rice; of the Insane Asylum of Puerto Rico; and of the Leper Hospital; as well as a member and president of the Insular Board of Education, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Acting Commissioner of Education for Puerto Rico, responsible for planning and establishing a system of public schools on the island. And he also found time to serve as secretary and treasurer of the Colonial Christian Association! On his return to Bucknell, after "a two-year's residence on our tropical possessions", he became a popular lecturer on the social and economic conditions of the tropics. His lecture subjects included "The White Man's Conquest of the Tropics", "Manifest Destiny, Southward", "Tropical Colonization", "The Child Races and their Future", "Life in the Tropics", "Educational Problems in our new Islands", and "Problems in Tropical Development". He was described in the Pottstown Daily Ledger as a "gifted speaker" who "highly delighted and instructed his audience". Former governor James Beaver commented that his lectures provided "just such instruction the people needed". Dr. Groff continued to teach at the University until his sudden death on February 18, 1910, at the age of 58. At the memorial service held for him in Lewisburg, his long-time colleague Professor William Bartol observed, "He had that fidelity to his work which is used not simply to secure a desired end, but which is an element of conscience, and which, indeed, belonged to every part of him. He loved the truth ..." And in the University's Orange and Blue it was recalled, "To the student in the class room, he was a teacher, kind, patient, forceful, inspiring. ... To the student on the street he was a friend, cordial, compassionable, enthusiastic, dignified."
A chart from Dr. Groff's series of "Sanitary Charts" |
