Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Proctor, John Robert

PROCTOR, John Robert, b. in Mason county, Ky., 16 March, 1844. He received his early education in Kentucky, and then entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he followed the scientific course, but left in 1864 before graduating in order to enter the Confederate service. At the close of the war he returned to his home farm in Kentucky, where he remained until 1873. He was then appointed as assistant on the geological survey of Kentucky, and remained as such until 1880, when he was made state geologist. During these years, by his persistent refusal to make political appointments, he gained the reputation of a civil service reformer, and in 1893 was appointed one of the U. S. civil service commissioners. Mr. Proctor was a member of the jury of awards on mines and mining at the World's Columbian exposition in Chicago in 1893, and has contributed, in addition to his official reports, numerous articles to the “Forum,” “Century,” and other magazines.