Mrs. Alma C. (Otis) Damon, daughter of Mr. And Mrs Timothy Otis, was born in Windsor, Vt.,July 30,1841, and died in Hartland, Nov. 7, 1928, On Feb. 14 1865, she was married to William E.Damon, who for many years prior to his death in 1911, was identified with Tiffany and Co. of New York and maintained a summer residence at what has long been known as the Damon Farm in Hartland. … Mrs. Damon was a great lover of nature, and during her life in New York, she and her husband were identified with several societies offering opportunity for the study of trees, plants, flowers, and especially of marine life. Since her husband’s death, Mrs. Damon has spent a part of every summer at the farm where she could enjoy to better advantage the natural beauties which the country affords. Her funeral was held at her late home on Friday afternoon, at 2 0’clock, Rev. E.L.M. Barnes of Brownsville officiating.
Although Barnum had aquatic mammals and native freshwater fishes on exhibit in the American Museum in New York City, this was nothing new since The Boston Aquarial Gardens had such exhibits before the museum did. Damon convinced Barnum that what the museum needed was a collection of colorful saltwater fishes and so Barnum financed Damon’s famous( and hazardous) trip to Bermuda in 1863, the source of the shells in the Hartland Nature Club. He and Albert Bickmore who accompanied him (Bickmore at the time was a young student of Louis Agassiz and was later to become the primary founder of The American Museum of Natural History) were the first two to bring tropical marine fishes into this country. Those shells in the Hartland Nature Club are, therefore, of considerable historical interest and should not be viewed simply as shells from Bermuda. My research on Mr. Damon centers around his scientific endeavors and aquatic research. Mr. Damon was a much more learned and scientific individual than
most people realize. He was a member of the New York Microscopical Society, The Royal Microscopical Society of London, the New York Micrological Club, the Scientific Alliance of New York, the New York Naturalists Club, and the New York Zoological Society If it wasn’t for his impressive success as the credit manager for Tiffany’s in New York City, he undoubtedly would have become a well known figure in the scientific world. Mr. Damon was also very important in the establishment of the Boston Aquarial and Zoological Gardens, as well as persuading P.T.Barnum to add an aquarium department to the American Museum. Mr. Damon was also consulted when the Battery Park Aquarium was established in New York.
In 1861 the Boston Aquarial and Zoological Gardens secured a white beluga whale and brought it to Boston. It was kept alive for about one year and, although Barnum displayed several white whales, contrary to what has been written, the Boston whale was on exhibit before those in the American Museum in New York. The whale was placed under William Damon’s care while he was at the Gardens so he was the first one in this country to tend to a whale in captivity!!
The thought struck me that another member of the Damon family has another claim to fame. Damon gave the following account of early American aquarium activity in his “Ocean Wonders” book “In this country I believe the writer was one of the very first to be inoculated with the aquarial passion – a passion that has grown with time, and has a deeper hold today than even in the first period of magnificent visions.
So far as I have been able to ascertain, the pioneer inductor of the private aquarium in this country was Miss Elizabeth Emerson Damon, of Windsor, Vt.; and her first essays were made with the simple apparatus of a two-quart glass jar, with a few fish, some tadpoles and snails, and some Potamogeton (common pond weed): but so perfectly balanced was this young aquarium with animal and vegetable life, that I fell in love with it at first sight; and never since, among all the aquarial curiosities which I have possessed, and the thousands I have seen, has there been a collection nearer perfection than that contained in the poor old two quart jar.” Albert J. Klee, Ph.D.
The New York Sun of May 9 ( 1899) says “W.E. Damon read on Friday evening before the New York Microscopical society a paper on the seahorse, the wonderful little marine animal with a head and neck bearing a strong resemblance to those of a horse, while its tail is prehensile like that of a monkey. Mr. Damon exhibited a photograph of a seahorse which he had kept alive in his own aquarium for over a year. This seahorse was very tame, and would readily take food from its owner’s hand. The paper from which the above is taken contains a full and interesting synopsis of the lecture on this marine animal. No one in this section need be told who Wm. E. Damon is and our only regret is that our space will admit of no further quotation”.
Other Notes From our Files
Luther Damon lived on the farm that bounded on the Hartland Windsor town line. He was born Dec. 17, 1795 and died Nov. 28, 1872. Buried in the Old South Cemetery in Windsor Village. –Howland Atwood.
Letter March 26 1823 from James B. Sumner (brother of David of Hartland) Dalton, N.H. to Nathanial Page (Hartland) “We are in great want of good settlers. If you see Luther Damon tell him I had expected he would have been up here before this . We want a real Teamster”
Mr. Luther Damon had a beautiful farm on the opposite side of the town near Windsor. He made many trips to Boston with produce, and the garden kept by Mrs. Damon and her descendants is one of the loveliest of it’s kind. –Nancy Darling
On Jan 11, 1845 Mr. Leonard H. Hamilton of New York City wrote to Luther Damon, Esq. ” I was very glad to hear a good account of my stock I do not care how much they eat as long as they do not waste. “ –Nancy Darling
I hope you agree that these little peeps into lives lived so long ago serve to broaden and enrich our lives today. C.Y.M.
Reprinted from the December 2006 Hartland Historical Society Newsletter