The Biographical Dictionary of America/Alvord, Henry Elijah

ALVORD, Henry Elijah, educator, was born at Greenfield, Mass., March 11, 1844. He was educated at Norwich university, where in 1863 he was given the degree of C.E. and B.S. In 1862 he joined the army as a private, and through meritorious service was promoted major in 1865, and at the close of the war was commissioned captain of the United States cavalry. In 1872 he was appointed a special Indian courier. In 1886 he accepted the professorship of agriculture in the Massachusetts agricultural college at Amherst, and wrote largely for the agricultural periodicals, of England and America. He also lectured extensively. He organized and became chief of the dairy division of the bureau of animal industry of the U.S. department of agriculture in 1895.