Increase Lapham

Increase Lapham at the Wisconsin Historical Society: "A self-educated engineer and naturalist, Increase Lapham was Wisconsin's first scientist and one of its foremost citizens. He wrote the first book published in Wisconsin, made the first accurate maps of the state, investigated Wisconsin's effigy mounds, native trees and grasses, climatic patterns and geology, and helped found many of the schools, colleges and other cultural institutions that still enrich the state today. Increase Allen Lapham was born in Palmyra, New York, on March 7, 1811. The fifth of 13 children, his Quaker parents could not afford to have their children attend school so Lapham, the son of a canal contractor, became a laborer on canal construction crews. He got his first job at age 13, cutting stone for lock gates at Lockport, New York. Even without formal education, Lapham demonstrated an early talent for topographical sketching. When he was 14, Lapham began supplementing his dollar-a-day income by drawing and selling plans of the lock to townspeople. He became so proficient that in 1828, when only 17, he drafted virtually all of the plans for the canal at Shippingsport, Kentucky. . . . ."
Wisconsin Historical Society Digital Collection : article from 1917

site:www.wisconsinhistory.org lapham - Google Search

Lapham Peak Unit of the Southern Kettle Moraine State Forest, Hwy. C
In 1870, on top of Lapham Peak, then known as Government Hill, the United States Army Signal Corps established one of its original National Weather Service signal stations. Weather data was received here from Pikes Peak, Colorado, and relayed to the United States Weather Bureau headquarters in Chicago.
Lapham Peak, the highest point in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, USA, is named for Increase Allen Lapham (1811-1875), Wisconsin's premier 19th-century naturalist, archeologist and scholar. From this peak, Lapham recorded many weather observations for his pioneering work in meteorology, which included publishing isothermal maps of Wisconsin and working with the Smithsonian Institution as a weather observer for the Great Lakes region. continues - Lapham Peak (Historic Marker Erected 1995)