Amos Eaton was an American botanist, geologist, and educator who is considered the founder of the modern scientific prospectus in education, which was a radical departure from the American liberal arts tradition of classics, theology, lecture, and recitation. Eaton co-founded the Rensselaer School in 1824 with Stephen van Rensselaer III "in the application of science to the common purposes of life". His books in the eighteenth century were among the first published for which a systematic treatment of the United States was attempted, and in a language that all could read. His teaching laboratory for botany in the 1820s was the first of its kind in the country. Eaton's popular lectures and writings inspired numerous thinkers, in particular women, whom he encouraged to attend his public talks on experimental philosophy. Emma Willard would found the Troy Female Seminary, and Mary Mason Lyon, the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Eaton held the rank of senior professor at Rensselaer until his death in 1842.
Henry Cantwell Wallace was an American farmer, journalist, and political activist who served as the secretary of agriculture from 1921 to 1924 under Republican presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. He was the father of Henry A. Wallace, who would follow in his father's footsteps as secretary of agriculture and later became vice president under president Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was an editor of Wallaces' Farmer from 1916 to 1921.
George Lambert, 1st Viscount Lambert, PC was a long-serving British Member of Parliament (MP).
James Withycombe was an English-born American Republican politician who served as the 15th Governor of Oregon.
Thomas William Westropp Bennett was an Irish politician, magistrate and public figure in Irish agriculture.
Diedrich Willers Jr. was a Democratic politician from Varick, New York who served as Secretary of State of New York. Born to a working class German immigrant family, his political fortune was a notable example of the effect of civil service reform.
Rodney Newell Searle Sr. was a Minnesota farmer, insurance agent, and public servant. Born and raised in urban New Jersey, Searle moved to rural Minnesota in 1947 with his wife Jane and their two young children. With no prior experience in agriculture, they moved to a farm, and soon were raising crops and livestock. He also became heavily involved in community activities.
Sir Francis Fane, KB, of Fulbeck, in Lincolnshire, was a writer of stage plays and poems and a courtier in the Restoration court of Charles II of England.
Hugh W. Sheffey was a Virginia politician, lawyer and judge. He represented Augusta County in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly before and during the American Civil War, and served as the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1863 until 1865, when he was elected a judge. Removed from office during Congressional Reconstruction because he could not sign a required loyalty oath, Sheffey returned to his legal practice and became an adjunct professor at Washington & Lee University School of Law from 1875 to 1885.
Josiah Flint Willard was an American dairy farmer, naturalist and businessman living in Janesville, Wisconsin, who served one term as a Free Soiler member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. He was the father of suffragist Frances E. Willard.
Willard Cutting Flagg was an American politician.
George Crawford Murray was an American politician.
Myron Newton Morris was an American minister and politician.
Henry Wyllys Taylor was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist.
Joseph Dresser Wickham was an American minister.
Reverend Lucia Fidelia Woolley Gillette was among the first women ordained Universalist minister in the United States and the first woman ordained of any denomination in Canada.
Theodore Sedgwick Gold, commonly referred to by his initials as T. S. Gold, was an American farmer and schoolteacher who served as Secretary of the State of Connecticut Board of Agriculture (1866–1901) and trustee of the Connecticut Agricultural College from its founding in 1881 through 1901. He played a vital role in establishing the college and fostering agriculture in the state.
Mary Thompson Hill Willard was an American teacher and social reformer. Her daughter, Frances Willard, was the founder and president of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) as well as president of the National W.C.T.U.
Jean Brooks Greenleaf was an American woman suffragist. With her death in 1918, there passed the last of a small group of devoted suffragists who received their first inspiration from Susan B. and Mary Anthony. Greenleaf was the only one of the women who saw their goal come true in New York, the state where they had lived the greater share of their lives.
Lester Bradner Faulkner was an American farmer, lawyer, and politician from New York. He served as Chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee from 1878 to 1881.
