Market›Increase A. Lapham
Company Profile

Increase A. Lapham

Increase Allen Lapham was an American writer, scientist, and naturalist, whose work focused primarily on the what is now the U.S. state of Wisconsin. He made maps of the area and published numerous books on the archaeology, biology, and geology of the region, and discovered both the Panther Intaglio Effigy Mound and Milwaukee Formation. He founded the Wisconsin Natural History Association, and served as the state's Chief Geologist for two years. He also lobbied Congress and the Smithsonian Institution to establish an agency to predict the weather around the Great Lakes, and these efforts led to what is today the National Weather Service.

Biography
Born in Palmyra, New York, his family moved to Pennsylvania, back to New York, to Ohio then to Louisville, Kentucky (1827–1830) then back to Ohio while his father, Seneca Lapham, worked on the canals in various locations. Lapham was of entirely English ancestry, all of which had been in what is now the United States since the early 1600s. His ancestors were among the first English colonists to establish Rhode Island. He displayed a talent for scientific observation early on while working on the canals and their locks, producing drawings that he could sell at the age of thirteen. In July 1836, Lapham moved to Kilbourntown (which soon incorporated into the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and worked closely with Byron Kilbourn in his business and development endeavors. The two had worked together previously on the Miami Canal and Lapham considered him a loyal friend and mentor. Before the end of the year, Lapham had published a Catalogue of Plants and Shells, Found in the vicinity of Milwaukee, on the West Side of Lake Michigan, perhaps the first scientific work published west of the Great Lakes.