Cusick, William C. (William Conklin), 1842-1922

Botanical collector, Union County, Oregon.

From the description of Papers, 1906-1924. (Washington State University). WorldCat record id: 29852930

Botanist.

From the description of W.W. Eggleston collection of William C. Cusick, 1862-1922. (University of Oregon Libraries). WorldCat record id: 18061386

William C. Cusick was born in Illinois in 1842 and emigrated to Oregon while a youth. He had a modest "collegiate" education and worked as a teacher for a time. Most of his adult life he spent as a rancher in the area of the Wallowa Mountains. He began botanical collecting and distribution sometime in the 1870s, encouraged by Harvard’s Asa Gray. Most of his plants came from the area of the Wallowa and Blue Mountains and were arranged in two successive herbariums, one of which he transferred to the University of Oregon, while the second went to Washington State University.

Encouraged by C. V. Piper, Cusick’s second herbarium project included extensive and exhaustive botanical surveys of the area in the two mountain ranges. Unlike his earlier efforts, this second phase did not include large distributions of plants. Cusick died in 1922.

From the guide to the William Conklin Cusick Papers, 1906-1924, (Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections)