Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Wangenheim, Frederick Adam Julius

WANGENHEIM, Frederick Adam Julius (vong'-en-hime), Baron von, German scientist, b. in the castle of Wangenheim, near Waltershausen, duchy of Coburg-Gotha, in 1747; d. in Gumbinnen, Prussia, 25 March, 1800. He received his education at Waltershausen, and in 1766 entered the service of the duke of Coburg as lieutenant. He passed afterward to the Prussian army and attained the rank of captain. He came to the United States in 1777 in the Hessian contingent in the British service, commanded a squadron of light cavalry in New York and Pennsylvania in 1778-'83, and won a reputation for his successful raids. On his return to Germany he was given the cross of the Hessian military order, and later re-entered the Prussian service. He had studied while in North America the natural history of the country, and especially the trees and shrubs, and in 1785, in a memoir to the Berlin academy, showed the immense advantages that would be derived from the naturalization of several species of American trees. On request of the academy he was then sent to Gumbinnen as director-general of the waters and forests of eastern Prussia, where he carried on experiments on a large scale and planted a great number of American trees. His works include “Beschreibung einiger Arten von Bäumen die in Nordamerika wachsen, mit Bezug auf ihren Gebrauch in den deutschen Wäldern, nach den Beobachtungen in den nordamerikanischen Provinzen von 1778-1783” (Göttingen, 1781); “Supplement zur Wälder-Kultur-Wissenschaft, mit Anwendung auf die Umpflanzung der Baumarten die in Nordamerika wachsen” (1787); “Beschreibung der verschiedenen Holzarten die in Nordamerika wachsen” (1788); “Betrachtungen über die Tannen von Preussisch-Litthauen” (1789); “Betrachtungen über die Weichhölzer die in Nordamerika wachsen” (1795); and several memoirs in the “Transactions” of the Berlin academy of sciences.