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John D. Rockerfeller
John D. Rockefeller starts the Excelsior Refinery in Cleveland, Ohio. By ruthless business practices he would develop a near total monopoly on oil by the turn of the century and become the epitome of the robber barron. Standard Oil was broken up under the Sherman anti-trust act in 1911. Rockefeller was also seen as the primary opponent of renewable fuels development in the early 1900s. -
Bill to Protect the Trees
Sen. John Conness of California introduces a bill to protect the Yosemite Valley. During the debate, Conness recalls the Mother of the Forest, cut down in 1852, and says his bill is designed to protect the trees. "The object of this bill is to prevent their being cut down or destroyed" (Congressional Record, 1864, p. 2301). Lincoln signs the bill in June -
Metropolitan Board of Health
In response to the New York Sanitary Survey of 1865, the state legislature creates the Metropolitan Board of Health with authority to conduct house-to-house inspections, remove nuisances and order cleanups (horse manure in vast quantities -- hundreds of thousands of tons -- was removed from the city). Any person considered to be a threat was moved to a hospital. The police or the board's own officers would enforce the orders. As a result, a cholera epidemic that swept from Europe to North Americ -
American Public Health Association
American Public Health Association formed. The Association aims to protect all Americans and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure that community-based health promotion and disease prevention activities and preventative health services are universally accessible in the United States. -
Contaminted Water
Investigation of drinking water sources by the Newark Daily Advertiser uncovers sewage, animal carcasses, dead human bodies and industrial poisons. Chemical tests revealed, in the words of one consultant, "a shocking degree of contamination." -
Yellow Stone National Park
1872 -- March -- President Ulysses Grant signs Yellowstone National Park Act. One factor was that Grant's opponent in the 1872 election would be Horace Greeley, a champion of Western conservation. In fact, Grant was no friend of wilderness, as is clear with his veto of an 1875 wildlife protection bill. -
Bill Vetoed to protect Wildlife
President Ulysses Grant vetoes a bill protecting buffalo and other wildlife. -
US Forest Service
Division of Forestry established in US, later to become US Forest Service. -
Air Pollution Cut Down
First U.S. municipal smoke abatement laws aimed at reducing air pollution from factories, railroads and ships. Regulation under local boards of health under common law nuisance statutes -
Forest Reserve Act of 1891
Law that allowed the President of the United States to set aside forest reserves from the land in the public domain. Passed by the United States Congress under Benjamin Harrison's administration. Harrison put 13 million acres (53,000 km2) of land into National Forests; Grover Cleveland put in 25 million acres (100,000 km2) and William McKinley put in 7 million acres (28,000 km2).
