Alexander Winchell

Michigan

In 1854 Winchell entered the service of the University of Michigan as professor of physics and civil engineering. Eventually he became professor of geology and paleontology at Michigan.

In 1859, Winchell was appointed as State Geologist of Michigan for the newly formed second geological survey of the state. He held the post until 1863 when the state did not appropriate funding to continue the survey. The survey was resumed in 1869, and Winchell was reappointed in April. Owing to conflicting opinions between Winchell and his superiors, he resigned in 1871.

He stayed at Michigan until 1872.

Cotton-growing venture In 1863 Winchell took up a lease on a cotton plantation near Vicksburg, Mississippi, under a plan devised by Gen. Lorenzo Thomas to lease plantations along the Mississippi River to loyal men from the North, who would hire black laborers on terms prescribed by the army. Winchell organized the Ann Arbor Cotton Company and sold stock to the university's president, whereupon he received a leave of absence to engage in cotton planting.

General Thomas set wages at a low level ($7 per month for men, $5 for women, minus the cost of medical attention and clothing). Even then, many lessees defrauded the freedmen of their earnings. In the winter of 1863–64, the Treasury Department briefly assumed control of the Mississippi Valley labor system, mandated a substantial increase in black wages, and contemplated leasing the plantations directly to the freedmen. Winchell complained that the Treasury's regulations were "framed in the exclusive interest of the negro and in the non-recognition of the moral sense and patriotism of the white man."

The venture brought him only problems, and after he returned to Michigan in 1864, his brother Martin, who was managing the plantation, was killed by guerrillas.

Syracuse University In 1872, he was appointed chancellor of Syracuse University. The depression of 1873 affected both his personal finances and those of Syracuse, and these troubles led him to resign this position in 1874.

Late career and controversy

In 1875, he worked as a professor of geology and zoology at Vanderbilt University. In any case, he was obligated to resign in 1878.

In 1888, he co-founded the Geological Society of America in Ithaca, New York along with John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitchcock, John R. Procter and Edward Orton. He served as the 3rd president of GSA in 1891.

He then returned to the University of Michigan, where he was professor of geology and paleontology.

Legacy Winchell Park in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2012. His name was removed from the park in 2021. The fish Clear chub Hybopsis winchelli (Girard, 1856) is named after him.

The University of Michigan named a wing of the West Quad dormitory after Winchell, and Ann Arbor honored him with Winchell Park, a neighborhood park on the city's east side. Winchell's name was removed from the dormitory in 2018, and the park was renamed after former Ann Arbor Public Schools board president Harold J. Lockett in 2021. In removing Winchell's name, the university described his Preadamites as an "unambiguously racist" work.

Works

Sketches of Creation (1870) The Doctrine of Evolution (1874) The Geology of the Stars (1874) Reconciliation of Science and Religion (1877) Adamites and Preadamites (1878) World-Life or Comparative Geology (1883) Preadamites Or, a Demonstration of the Existence of Men Before Adam (1888) Sparks from a Geologist's Hammer Geological Excursions Geological Studies Proof of Negro inferiority