William Francis Ganong was born at Carleton, now West Saint John in 1864. He was the eldest of seven children. He is the brother of Susie, Arthur, Edwin, and Kit Ganong Whidden.
At the age of seven, the family moved to St. Stephen where his father, James Harvey Ganong and uncle Gilbert Ganong established the now-famous Ganong Brothers candy factory.
Young William Ganong was expected to join the family business when he grew up, but he developed a passion for the natural world instead. This interest encompassed botany, reading, maps, and countryside exploration. Additionally, he demonstrated a talent for languages, eventually acquiring working knowledge of French, German, Maliseet, and Mi’kmaq. By the age of seventeen, he had already become an early naturalist, having explored numerous rivers and coastal areas in New Brunswick and gained first-hand knowledge of the province’s flora and fauna. He would continue exploring throughout his life, both independently and with companions such as Arthur H. Pierce, Mauran I. Furbish, and George Upham Hay.
William Granong attended the University of New Brunswick, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1884 and a master’s degree in 1886. In 1887, he obtained an A.B. from Harvard University, and in 1894, a doctorate in biology from the University of Munich, publishing two papers in German. It was likely during his time at Harvard that he met Jean Murray Carman, sister of his friend and fellow Harvard student, New Brunswick poet Bliss Carman. They married in 1888 and remained together for 32 years until her passing in 1920; they had no children.
After graduating from Harvard, Ganong was appointed as an assistant instructor in botany there. In May 1894, he accepted a position as Professor of Botany at Smith College, which he held for 36 years. He also served as the director of the Botanic Garden at Smith. The greenhouses at Smith College were established during Ganong’s tenure, beginning in 1894.
Ganong authored several books, including The Teaching Botanist, A Laboratory Manual for Plant Physiology, The Living Plant, and A Textbook of Botany for Colleges, allowing him to build and maintain an international reputation in botany. Under his leadership, Smith’s Botany department flourished in student enrollment, staff size, and course offerings. He ensured students had access to high-quality equipment, contributing to the department’s positive academic reputation. Enrollment in the introductory elective class reached its peak at 182 in 1926. Dr. Ganong retired from Smith College in 1932.
In 1907, he was elected President of the Botanical Society of America.
Ganong pursued historical work during his teaching career, returning to New Brunswick during summers to study and document the province’s historical geography. He surveyed locations such as St. Croix Island, the site of Champlain’s first North American settlement in 1604.
He acquired working knowledge of Maliseet and Mi’kmaq languages, and through consultation with linguists and native historians, he investigated aboriginal place names in the Maritime Provinces, publishing a series of six articles in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada between 1911 and 1928. During his explorations, he named several geographical features in the largely unexplored central and northern parts of New Brunswick, including Mount Carleton, the province’s highest peak, named after its first Lieutenant-Governor, Thomas Carleton. Another mountain north of Mount Carleton was named for Ganong in 1901 by his friend and naturalist Mauran Furbish.
As a scientist, Ganong brought a unique approach to the study of New Brunswick history, emphasizing map-based studies and accurately determining the locations of key historic sites. He visited the places he wrote about in person. His translations and edits of the 17th-century Acadian narratives by Nicolas Denys and Father Chrétien Le Clercq made him a leading scholar of the Acadian period. He often contributed articles on Samuel de Champlain to publications by the New Brunswick Historical Society, the New Brunswick Magazine, and Acadiensis. In addition to research and translation, Ganong prepared maps, took photographs, and gave slide presentations. He frequently collaborated with others, including Dr. John Clarence Webster, for whom he prepared numerous maps and other contributions. Ganong also took great interest in the international border between New Brunswick and Maine, leading to his participation in the cross-border tercentennial celebrations on the St. Croix River in 1904. In 1918, he completed the translation of Volume III of Champlain’s Voyages for the Champlain Society. He was the first to propose a scientific explanation for the often sighted Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait, suggesting it was an electrical illusion.
William F. Ganong’s work significantly contributed to the establishment of the New Brunswick Museum and archives.
Ganong’s second marriage was to Anna Hobbet from Iowa. They had two children: William Francis Ganong Jr., a renowned physiologist, and Ann Ganong Seidler, a professor of speech theory and children’s author. Ganong passed away at his summer home outside Saint John in 1941 and is buried in the St. Stephen Rural Cemetery. He was 77 years old.
The Town of St. Stephen commissioned a Quebec foundry to sculpt a six-foot-eight statue bronzed likeness of Ganong at their foundry.
This post has already been read 4840 times!
