BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ABOUT H. ELMER BIERLY

(1866-1943)

 

Contents:

Acknowledgement

1. Prior to joining the faculty at Florida State College.

2. After 1898.

3. Obituary notices 1943.

 

 

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Acknowledgement:

 

Biographical information about Harry Elmer Bierly (pronounced "Beer-lee") was compiled from various sources.

We wish to thank Mr. Alvie L. Davidson of Lakeland, Florida whose initial detective work on our behalf resulted in us becoming connected with relatives of H.E. Bierly in Pennsylvania, as well genealogists in the Centre County, PA, area where this branch of the Bierly family originated. We are especially indebted to: David and Suzanne (Walkowiak) Rice, Doug Bierly, and Justin Kirk Houser, Genealogist/Researcher of Central PA and Beyond.

Finally, Ludy T. Benjamin, Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M University, helped search for information about H.E. Bierly's academic career in psychology.

 

 

 

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1. Biography of H. Elmer Bierly prior to joining the faculty of Florida State College in Tallahassee.

The following item was originally printed in COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF CENTRE, CLEARFIELD, JEFFERSON AND CLARION COUNTIES [Pennsylvania] published 1898 by J. H. Beers & Co. (p 237). (Items bolded and text reformatted for internet presentation)

"Prof. H. E. Bierly was born in the house now owned by Hon. Henry Meyer, Rebersburg, Penn., January 28, 1866. He attended the common schools of Miles township, until he was eighteen years of age, not having a chance to attend the summer schools on account of too much work on the farm. He then determined to get a better education, and in 1884 entered Union Seminary (now Central Pennsylvania College), New Berlin, Penn. This institution he attended most of the time between the years 1884-1888, during which time he nearly completed the classical course and prepared himself for Princeton University, which he entered in 1888 as a member of the class of '92.

He spent five years at Princeton University, four as an under-graduate, taking the "A.B. course" and one year as a post-graduate, studying physiological psychology under Prof. Ormond, also the philosophy of religion, under the same professor. The next year, 1893-94, he was unanimously elected "Professor of the Natural and Physical Sciences" in Belleview Collegiate Institute, at Caledonia, Mo., where he taught one year, at the expiration of which time the Institute was partially closed.

The next year he attended Harvard and Boston Universities, studying metaphysics under Prof. [Josiah] Royce and cosmology under Prof. [William] James, of Harvard University, and comparative theology and history of religious history of Christian doctrine, in the School of Theology, of Boston University. It was then that he became acquainted with Pres. G. Stanley Hall [of Clark University], John Fiske, Joseph Cooke, Professors Carpenter and Davids, of Oxford University. This year in Boston, and as a student of both of these Universities, was of the greatest value in his educational history.

The next year he was "Professor of Mathematics and Science" in Missouri Military School, Mexico, Mo., which was destroyed by fire at the expiration of that year.

During the following year he was engaged in writing a thesis on the "Origin and Development of the Conception of God", also in child-mind investigations in central Pennsylvania, in connection with Pres. G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, Mass. and Prof. Earl Barnes, of Leland Stanford University, Cal.

At present (1898) he is professor of philosophy and science in Virginia College for Young Ladies at Roanoke, Va., one of the best of the Southern female colleges, in which he occupies a very responsible position, next to the presidents thereof.

As a student Prof. Bierly became intensely interested in philosophy, through Sir William Hamilton's lectures on metaphysics, the various works and writings of James McCosh, primarily, and through the edited works of Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, achieving a natural inclination to speculative studies. At the same time he is greatly interested in biology, through a Natural History Society, which was organized by Prof. H. N. Conser, Ph. D., at Central Pennsylvania College, and which led him to reading of nearly all the works of Darwin, Huxley, Romanes and Herbert Spencer. It was the works of James McCosh that took him to Princeton University, whose lectures on metaphysics he attended in his freshman year, this being the last course on that subject given by McCosh, with whom he as a student was very well acquainted, and upon whom he called quite often, having received special recognition, encouragement and kindness from McCosh while alive.

While a student of Princeton University he made a special study of philosophy and biology, having taken all the branches the university offers on both philosophy and biology. He took honors in the latter subject, and was offered a fellowship in osteology by the Chicago University, which he, however, did not accept, as he did not desire to give so much time in that particular line of investigation, having decided to make the study of philosophy a life vocation.

He attended and was a member of the World's Congress of Philosophy held at Chicago during the World's Fair [1893], at which time he became personally acquainted with Prof. Josiah Royce, professor of philosophy in Harvard University, who has been his private adviser and director in philosophy ever since.

Prof. Bierly is a member of the Pennsylvania German Society, and of several Psychological and Scientific Associations. He contributes a series of articles on the various conceptions of God for "The Preachers Helper". Just now (1898) he is more extensively engaged in child-mind investigations than ever, with Pres. Hall, Prof. Earl Barnes, Prof. Royce, also contributing a series of articles on child-mind study for several child-study magazines. He has also addressed and lectured before quite a number of teachers' associations and institutes in Missouri, Pennsylvania and Virginia on various, but mostly psychological subjects.

During the [William Jennings] Bryan campaign [for the Democrat presidential nomination] in 1896, on account of not being hard pressed for work, he became very much interested in politics, through his cousin, Hon. Willis R. Bierly, of North Dakota. On account of the Democratic party splitting, Mr. Bierly was requested by the foremost politicians of the county to take a hand in politics and rally the Silver forces, as he did, and has done valuable service for his Valley and the county, having been elected president of the Bryan and Sewall Club of Brush Valley, which was composed of about two hundred members.

He is a member of the M. E. Church, which he joined while a student of Princeton University. He was one of the three first members of the M.E. Church of Kreamerville, and rendered very effectual services in the building up of the Methodist Church at this place, having been appointed for this especial work, lasting several years, by the quarterly Conference (Methodist)."

 

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2. After 1898.

 

A. The available Florida State College catalogues indicate that H.Elmer Bierly joined the faculty of Florida State College about 1899 and left the faculty about 1904.

Bierly (see arrow on left) and students, circa 1904

B. During his first or second summer at FSC, H.E. Bierly appears to have spent time at Clark University from where he returned with instrumentation to establish what the College Catalogue claims to be the first psychological laboratory in the State of Florida, circa 1901.

C. Professor Ludy T. Benjamin, Texas A&M University, summarized the outcome of a search for details on Bierly's academic career in psychology as follows (e-mail to Mike Rashotte, 21 May, 2001; reformatted for internet presentation):

I have done a good bit of searching on Bierly through all of the standard and obscure history of psychology search tools (indexes, bibliographies, directories, etc). Here is what I know.

I can find only two publications by him, both in 1899 in the Florida School Journal.

1. "The comparative development of the child." 1899, 2(3), p. 29.

2. "The relation of the central nervous system to psychological theory." 1899, 2(2), p. 8.

He is not listed in Cattell's Leaders in Education (1932), nor in either volume of Murchison's Psychological Register (1929, 1932). He does not appear in Cattell's American Men of Science volumes which start publication in 1906. He does not appear in any of the APA Membership Yearbooks that I have (1914-1925). Perhaps he was a member earlier but had dropped by 1914. He is not in any of Boring's necrologies published in Psychological Bulletin.

I also looked in the literature on the founding of psychology laboratories with the following results.

FSU (or any earlier names) does not appear in the survey published by Christian Ruckmich (1912), "The history and status of psychology in the United State", American Journal of Psychology, 23, 517-531. He lists laboratories founded through 1911. It is possible that he did not send a questionnaire to FSU or that there was no one there in psychology to fill it out.

Garvey, C. R. (1929)"List of American psychology laboratories", Psychological Bulletin, 26, 652-660. Garvey sent questionnaires to all colleges with enrollments over 1,000 as listed in the College Blue Book of 1926, but also to smaller schools if he suspected a psychology laboratory existed. He lists 117 colleges in order of founding. FSU (nor its earlier names) does not appear in the listing. It is possible that a questionnaire was not sent to the school. Interestingly, University of Miami (no, it's not Miami University, which also appears in the list) does appear in the list with a founding date of 1900, which if true, would predate you. No other Florida schools appear in the list.

Benjamin, L. T., Jr. (2000), "The psychology laboratory at the turn of the 20th century', American Psychologist, 55, 318-321. I list the 40 labs for which there is good evidence of their founding by 1900. I did not list Miami because I could not verify Garvey's claim that it existed in 1900.

Note: We have been unable to locate the issues of Florida School Journal in which H.E. Bierly published in 1899.

D. A web site describing the history of the National Association of Teachers Agencies lists H. E. Bierly as attending an organizational meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1909, as a representative of the Education Review Agency of Chattanooga, Tennessee. This information indicates that Bierly became involved in education in Tennessee some time after he left Florida State College.

E. The Obituary Notices we have obtained about H.E. Bierly describe him as being in the realty business in Tallahassee at the time of his death in 1943. We have been unable to obtain further details on his academic and business careers.

 

 

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3. OBITUARY NOTICES FOR H. ELMER BIERLY (1943).

The following obituary notices appeared in the Centre [County Pennsylvania] Democrat.

A. CENTRE DEMOCRAT of 7 Oct 1943:

"Word was received in Rebersburg Tuesday afternoon, announcing the death of H. Elmer Bierly, which occurred Tuesday morning in a hospital at Thomasville, Georgia. Mr. Bierly, who resided in Tallahassee, Florida, had gone to Thomasville hospital for observation following a sudden illness, and on Saturday night submitted to an operation from which he failed to rally. His remains will be brought to the home of his brother, E. S. Bierly in Rebersburg, the date of arrival being undetermined at the time of going to press. Burial will be made in the family plot at the Evangelical cemetery in Rebersburg. Mr. Bierly was the son of Joseph C. and Judith Bierly, and was born in Rebersburg about 77 years ago. In addition to his only surviving brother, E. S. Bierly, the deceased leaves his wife, the former Mamie Johnson, of Tallahassee. A man of scholarly attainments, Mr. Bierly had been a teacher of chemistry and psychology in various universities and schools throughout the South for the past 39 years. He was a member of the Methodist church."

B. CENTRE DEMOCRAT of 14 Oct 1943:

"Funeral services for H. Elmer Bierly, business man of Tallahassee, Fla., Rebersburg native, who died Tuesday, October 5, 1943, in Archibald Hospital, Thomasville, Ga., were held Saturday afternoon at Rebersburg, with Rev. R. A. Babcock officiating. Interment was made in the Evangelical Cemetery, Rebersburg. Mr. Bierly, 77, who had been operated on for a gall bladder condition a week ago, was born at Rebersburg, a son of Joseph C. and Judith Bierly. His wife, the former Mamie Johnson, and one brother, Rev. F. S. Bierly of Rebersburg, survive. Mr. Bierly was a professor of chemistry and psychology in various universities and colleges throughout the south for nearly 40 years. Of late years he conducted a realtor business at Tallahassee. He was a member of the Methodist church."

NOTE: E-mail correspondence (25 May, 2001) to Mike Rashotte from Alvie L. Davidson reported that a search of the Florida Death Index indicated that Mamie Johnson Bierly died in Tallahassee in 1950. We know from correspondence with present-day Bierlys in Pennsylvania that she was not buried in the Bierly family plot in the Rebersburg Cemetery. Davidson suggests that she was likely buried in Tallahassee. (Photo circa 1900-1905)

 

 

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