William Butts Mershon
Encyclopedia
William Butts Mershon was an author and businessman. He led a number of businesses and served as Mayor of Saginaw, Michigan
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and here his interests enabled him to gather together the material from a number of sources to publish a volume on the Passenger Pigeon
in 1907. The book on the Passenger pigeon was published several years after the last of this once endemic bird was last killed (in 1900) and before the last died in captivity in an American zoo. In 1909, the American Ornithologist's Union offered a prize for any wild bird or nest found but to no avail. The book contains contributions by a number of writers.
Merson kept two huts, one local and another in Canada. His visits to each of these annually with his friends was the basis of his second book.
He was a member of Michigan's tax commission in 1912.
Mershon had married Catherine Morse from Detroit in 1889 and they had three sons and a daughter. All of these outlived him with the exception of his daughter Marion. His papers were given to the state in 1944 and consist of over 40 feet of material.
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
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Biography
Mershon was born on January 16, 1848 to Augustus Hull Mershon and his wife Helen (born Johnson). Mersom started the William B. Mershon and Company in Saginaw that manufactured bandsaw blades which his father was attributed with inventing. Emerson was a member of the national guard, the parks and recreation committee and was mayor of Saginaw in 1894/5. For two years he was a state forester and he was an associate life member of the American Ornithologists' UnionAmerican Ornithologists' Union
The American Ornithologists' Union is an ornithological organization in the USA. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birders...
and here his interests enabled him to gather together the material from a number of sources to publish a volume on the Passenger Pigeon
Passenger Pigeon
The Passenger Pigeon or Wild Pigeon was a bird, now extinct, that existed in North America and lived in enormous migratory flocks until the early 20th century...
in 1907. The book on the Passenger pigeon was published several years after the last of this once endemic bird was last killed (in 1900) and before the last died in captivity in an American zoo. In 1909, the American Ornithologist's Union offered a prize for any wild bird or nest found but to no avail. The book contains contributions by a number of writers.
Merson kept two huts, one local and another in Canada. His visits to each of these annually with his friends was the basis of his second book.
He was a member of Michigan's tax commission in 1912.
Mershon had married Catherine Morse from Detroit in 1889 and they had three sons and a daughter. All of these outlived him with the exception of his daughter Marion. His papers were given to the state in 1944 and consist of over 40 feet of material.
Works
- The Passenger Pigeon (1907)
- Recollections of My Fifty Years Hunting and Fishing