Many historical accounts of the 1874 Black Hills Expedition mention that A. B. Donaldson was the expedition’s botanist, yet he had no background in that field. Donaldson was a professor of rhetoric and English literature who had also been admitted to the bar. So how did an English professor and part-time lawyer end up as a botanist in a western expedition?
Like many stories, there were more than a few twists in Donaldson’s path.
Early Life
Aris Berkley Donaldson was born on a farm in Muskingum County, Ohio on February 20, 1831. He was the second youngest of Nancy Saffer and Thomas D. Donaldson’s twelve children and Aris’ oldest siblings were already in their early twenties at the time of his birth. Thomas Donaldson died when Aris was four, so Aris and his mother relied heavily on his older siblings through his childhood and teens. After Thomas’ death, Nancy moved to Wood County, Ohio for two years to live with her son Hiram, before she and her youngest children returned to the family homestead in Springfield. It was an example of the strong family ties that would characterize Donaldson’s life.
In the 1850 U.S. Census, Aris (age 19) was living with his thirty-six-year-old sister, Jane Elizabeth and her husband, Franklin Bisant, on their Springfield Ohio farm between Dayton and Columbus. Despite the age gap, the relationship between the three was so close that when Franklin’s father died in 1862, Aris was a co-executor of the elder Bisant’s estate.
Aris’ other siblings also relied on their older brothers and sisters. In 1843, two of his brothers, Robert Safford Donaldson (age 15) and Richard Franklin Donaldson (age22), moved to Miami County, Indiana to apprentice as carpenters with their thirty-five-year-old brother William Henry Donaldson. Later, Aris’ youngest brother, James H. Donaldson, joined Robert in Indiana. The two younger brothers met their spouses in Indiana and in 1855 they were two of thirteen families who moved from Indiana to a few miles west of Farmington, MN, blazing a path that Aris and Susan would later follow. Those displaced Indiana families formed the ‘Hoosier Settlement’ that helped found Eureka Township, MN.
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Aris Berkley Donaldson in 1893 Gopher (courtesy of University of Minnesota Archives).
1894 List of Ohio Wesleyan Alumni with entries for Aris Donaldson and Susan Watkins
College and Marriage
While the 1850 census lists Aris’ occupation as farmer, Donaldson wanted to teach. He attended Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, graduating with honors in 1855 eventually earning both his A.B and A.M. While at Wesleyan, he met Susan Lucy Watkins, daughter of Welsh-born Dr. Joseph Howells Watkins and English-born Henrietta Beesley Powell. Susan was born in Coshocton, Ohio, the third oldest of thirteen children. Watkins was in the class after Donaldson’s and graduated from Wesleyan in 1856 M.L.A. The two married on November 28, 1857, in Portage, Ohio where Susan’s parents had relocated.
After their wedding, Aris and Susan moved to Springfield, Ohio, close to Aris’ mother and some of his siblings, where Donaldson taught school. The couple’s first child, Frederick Hamilton Donaldson, was born in 1859 and in the 1860 U.S. Census, Susan’s ten-year-old sister, Ida Watkins, was also living with them, paralleling the way Aris’ siblings had helped raise him. The Donaldsons first daughter, Ida, named after Susan’s sister, was born later that year (October 4). She was followed a year later by Emma, born on October 16, 1861.
The 1860 U.S. Census further confirmed the Donaldson family’s close ties despite any distances. In that census, Aris’ mother, Nancy Donaldson, was living in Hopewell, Ohio with her 35-year-old widowed daughter, Frances Amanda Kelley, and two grandchildren, Donaldson’s namesake Aris Berkley Kelley, age 7, and John Kelley, age 6. The same census shows that Frances’ thirteen-year-old son, Frank, was then living with Nancy’s youngest son, James H. Donaldson in Dakota County, Minnesota.
A Nation and Family Divided
However, the Civil War would interrupt the couples’ lives as it did nearly every family of the time. Nancy and Thomas Donaldson had both come from Virginia families and their first nine children had been born in Loudoun and Fairfax Counties, Virginia before they moved to Ohio in 1826. Consequently, the Civil War divided the Donaldson family. While the three youngest Donaldson brothers and eight of their nephews all served in the Union forces, their Virginia cousins fought on the rebel side.
Col. Robert Safford Donaldson and Company C, 4th Infantry Muster Roll
In Minnesota, Robert Safford Donaldson enlisted on October 7, 1861, having raised a military unit, Company C of the Minnesota 4th Volunteer Infantry. He captained that unit, seconded by his brother, Lieutenant James H. Donaldson. They initially served out of Fort Ripley but in early 1862, shortly before the outbreak of the U.S.-Dakota War, the unit was sent south to take part in the summer through fall siege of Corinth, Mississippi. They later served in Grant’s Vicksburg campaign during the summer of 1863.
That campaign was the last time the brothers served together. James, by then a Captain, was relieved of duty because of his health, while Robert left the 4th Minnesota to accept a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel to lead the 50th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry. The 50th played a key role in the successful Union assault of Fort Blakeley, Alabama, the last major battle of the Civil War. That battle ended just hours after Grant accepted Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on the afternoon of April 9, 1965. However, Robert missed that historic engagement, having been promoted to colonel and transferred to the 64th Colored Infantry a month earlier.
Back in Springfield, Ohio, Aris registered for the draft on July 1, 1863, and joined the Navy, serving as a Masters Mate in the Mississippi River Squadron until the 26th of October 1865. He was in the Red River Campaign, when low water levels nearly led to the fleet’s loss.
A Killing and the Law
After mustering out, Donaldson returned to Ohio but moved his family to Zanesville, where he served as principal of the Zanesville public schools. On March 2, 1868, the Donaldsons’ fourth child arrived, Joseph Watkins Donaldson. At the time, Aris was also studying law under Probate Judge Chandler W. Carroll, and the Zanesville Daily Signal published the notice of Donaldson’s admission to the bar on March 7, 1869. The impetus for Donaldson’s legal interest apparently began with the August 14, 1867, murder of Thomas Donaldson, who was killed by his father, Hiram Donaldson, Aris’ second oldest brother.
Aris Donaldson article on Hiram trial in November 29, 1867 Perrysburg Journal
Newspaper accounts sensationalized the death, presenting lurid but diametrically opposing stories. Half accused Hiram of unimaginable savagery and a history of abuse of his wife and children, along with threats to neighbors. Other newspapers championed Hiram as a saint-like figure, cruelly used by an avaricious wife and disloyal sons who were attempting to plunder his home after they had abandoned him. In the latter accounts, Hiram only accidentally caused the death of his son, when his wife’s brothers and his blacksmith son attacked him and beat him with whips and bars.
The case was a milestone in Aris’ life. Although he would later gain recognition for his reporting from the Black Hills, Aris’ first published journal article was his defense of Hiram. In the trial, Hiram was acquitted but Aris’ faith in his older brother was dealt a blow when Hiram was subsequently rearrested for threatening the lives of his neighbors. Despite Aris’ defense of his brother, there may have been a reason why Aris’ mother only stayed with Hiram for two years after her husband’s death before taking her younger children back to their old homestead.
Full text of Aris' article and dueling articles on Thomas Donaldson killing can be read here.
Mni Sóta Makoce – land where the water reflects the sky.
However, Donaldson’s budding legal career was soon put on hold when he moved his family from Zanesville to Dakota County, Minnesota to live closer to his youngest brothers. Aris took a teaching position at the newly reopened University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. In 1861, the university had closed when most of its students left to serve in the war. When the university’s preparatory department re-opened on the 7th of October 1867, it consisted of four instructors, an assistant, and fifty students. When the university fully reopened, its staff consisted of eight faculty, with Aris Berkley Donaldson as its inaugural professor of rhetoric and English literature.
But how did a relatively unknown Zanesville school principal manage to snag a university position? Even though Minnesota State University was a new unproven institution, Donaldson’s professorship was still a significant jump in his career and status.
Well, besides his own abilities, Aris' hand held a hidden ace. Returning war hero and well-known Farmington citizen, Colonel Robert Safford Donaldson, had been chosen to be one of the new university’s seven regents, and Robert was well aware of his younger brother’s need for a position and desire to move to Minnesota. The first official mention of Aris at Minnesota was a disbursement recorded in the first Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota for the year 1868. On December 8, thirty-six dollars was paid to Prof. A. B. Donaldson for having attended three meetings, apparently his interview for the professorship. For the 1869 fiscal year, Donaldson was paid $200 a month for the spring months and $150 a month for the fall. He and his family lived close to campus, at the corner of 3rd Street SE (now University Ave.) and 13th Avenue S.
At the same time Aris moved his family to Minnesota, his widowed sister Amanda Frances Donaldson Kelley and her youngest children made the same move. Frances, as she was usually known, married a widower with children, Moses Morrison, on May 1, 1869, and the two blended their families together in Glencoe. These moves consolidated all of Nancy Saffer Donaldson’s youngest children in the state and Nancy, now in her 70’s, joined them.
At the University of Minnesota
It is uncertain how rewarding Donaldson found his time teaching in the fledging university as he opened his 1870 report to the regents bemoaning the students’ deficiency in English studies and proposing admission standards be raised. After laying out his teaching philosophy, Donaldson closed his report by requesting that much of his assignment be transferred to other departments or faculty because of his high workload. The regents were undoubtedly aware of that workload as Donaldson had filed weekly reports throughout the year. His 1871 report ran over eight hundred words and listed his workload in detail (including 442 examinations and 270 student public rhetorical exercises) but still conveyed a sense of optimism about his goals and praised the help other faculty had provided, including Miss Helen Sutherland, the first woman to teach at the university.
Old Main, the only building of the University of Minnesota in 1869 (courtesy of University of Minnesota Archives)
However, conditions seem to have deteriorated by the time of his 1872 report, after his brother’s term as regent ended. The 1872 report was less than two hundred words and simply consisted of his teaching duties. His 1873 report was nearly as short and ended on the note that since the Regents and faculty were revising the course of study, ‘Pending action in this matter, nothing further is submitted.’
Full text of Donaldson’s reports from 1870 to 1873 can be read here.
Despite any frustrations he may have encountered, Donaldson obviously still considered the University of Minnesota appointment as one of his most significant accomplishments. Even after leaving the university, he always insisted on the title of Professor and highlighted his past appointment in any biography he gave.
During his last two years at the university, Donaldson forged one important friendship. Three years after Donaldson joined the University of Minnesota, Newton Horace Winchell arrived to conduct the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota and became the university’s professor of geology and mineralogy, later extending his repertoire to include zoology and botany. It was Winchell who directly led to Donaldson’s participation in the 1874 Black Hills Expedition.