Orange Judd

Orange Judd (July 26, 1822 – December 27, 1892) was an American agricultural chemist, editor, and publisher.

Background and family Judd was born of a rural family near Niagara Falls in Niagara County, New York. His grandfather, also named Orange Judd (1763–1844), came from Tyringham, Massachusetts and served as a private in the Berkshire Militia in the Northern Campaigns. His father, Ozias Judd, fought at Black Rock in 1813. Orange Judd's mother was Rheuama Wright, daughter of David Wright who was a private in the New York Militia during the Revolution.

Judd married twice, first to Sarah L. Ford of Boston in 1847, with whom he had four children, three of which died soon after birth, and again to Harriet Stewart of Lockport, New York, with whom he also had four children. His daughter from his first marriage, Sarah Ford, married George Brown Goode in 1877.

Orange Judd's brother, David Wright (1838-1888), was also successful and kept close connections to Orange. Wright was the editor and proprietor of Hearth and Home, one of Judd's periodicals under his publishing firm Orange Judd and Company. In 1871 he was elected as a Republican to the New York Legislature. By 1883 Wright had become president of the company.

Education and early career In 1847 Judd graduated from Wesleyan University. After graduating he held several teaching positions, first at a high school in Portland, Connecticut in 1847, then at Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts from 1848 to 1849, and as a principal of a high school in Middletown, Connecticut in 1850. In 1850 he began studying analytical and agricultural chemistry at Yale for the next three years with John Pitkin Norton. In 1852 he took a job lecturing on agriculture in Windham County, Connecticut until 1853.

In 1853 he was made editor of the American Agriculturist (sometimes referred to as the American Agriculturalist), then run by its founders, Anthony B. Allen and his brother Richard L. Allen. He became owner and publisher in 1856. In 1856 Judd moved to Flushing, New York where he lived until 1871. Judd championed the idea of clear and concise writing in journals, and was able to turn a paper of scientific jargon into something any literate farmer was able to understand. Editors would obtain scientific material from colleges and would evaluate it and make it accessible for their readers. His success helped make American Agriculturist into one of the leading agricultural journals in the nation, going from a circulation 1,000 in 1856, to over 100,000 in 1864. However the paper was hard hit by the depression of 1873, and was failing by 1879. He would stay there until 1881, alongside being the agricultural editor of the New York Times from 1855 to 1863. He started an Illinois company in Chicago, referred to as both Orange Judd and Company and the Orange Judd Company over the years, and a New York company in New York City called the Orange Judd Publishing Company. The firms focused on publishing agricultural and scientific books, as well as Hearth and Home from 1870 to 1873.