The Biographical Dictionary of America/Bachman, John

BACHMAN, John, naturalist, was born in Dutchess county, N. Y., Feb. 4, 1790. At the age of twenty-three he was licensed by the Lutheran synod of New York, having been previously elected pastor of three congregations in his own neighborhood in Dutchess county. In 1815 he went to South Carolina for his health, and for about fifty years preached at the Lutheran church at Charleston. There he became associated with Audubon, and aided him in writing his books on ornithology. The three-volume work on quadrupeds was written almost wholly by him and illustrated by Audubon and his sons. His two eldest daughters married Audubon's sons. In 1835 Mr. Bachman received the degree of D. D., and in 1838 the University of Berlin conferred upon him the degree of Ph. D., and the South Carolina college at Columbia that of LL. D. Among his published works are: "Account of Experiments Made on the Habits of the Vultures Inhabiting Carolina" (1834); "Two Letters on Hybridity" (1850); "Defence of Luther and the Reformation" (1853); "Characteristics of Genera and Species, as Applicable to the Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race" (1854); "Notice of the Types of Mankind by Nott and Gliddon" (1854); "Catalogue of Phænogamous Plants and Ferns Growing in the Vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina;" "Examination of Professor Agassiz's Sketch of the Natural Province of the Animal World," and in conjunction with J. J. Audubon, "The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America" (3 vols., 1846-'53). He died in Charleston, S. C., Feb. 25, 1874.