Appalachian Times
A Short Biography of Benton MacKaye
Emile Benton MacKaye was born on March 6, 1879 in Stamford, CT and live until December 11, 1975 at age 96. Benton as he is most commonly known as is the one responsible for the concept of the Appalachian trail. His vision has been an on going project with many people adding contributions. A brief timeline of his life includes:
- March 6, 1879 - Born
- 1900 - Earns a Bacholers of Arts degree from Havard School of Forestry
- 1905 - Earns a Masters of Arts degree from Havard School of Forestry
- 1905 - Accepts a postion with the U.S. Department of Forestry
- 1913 - Helps form a social activist group called the Hell Raisers to raise public awareness about social and political issues
- 1918 - Accepts a position with the U.S. Labor Department
- 1915 - Married Jessie Belle Hardy Stubbs
- 1920 - 1922 Works on projects related to regional planning, during which time he formulates an plans the idea of the Appalachian Trail
- October 1921 - Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning published in Journal of the American Institute of Architects
- 1928 - Publishes the book "The New Exploration"
- 1933 - Works as a consultant for the U.S. Indian Services
- 1934 - 1936 Works on the planning staff for the Tennessee Valley Authority
- 1937 - Developed plans for the Bay Circuit Project in Massauchusetts
- July 1937 - Becomes vice president of the Wilderness Society
- 1938 -1939 - Worked as a consultant for the U.S. Forest Service on flood control policies
- 1940 - Began his study of conservation with population distribution for the US Forest Service
- 1942 - Formulated proposal for the "Alaska-Siberia Burma Road."
- 1942 - 1945 - Member of the Rural Electrification Administration
- 1945 - Retires
- July 1945 - Becomes president of the Wilderness Society
- 1968 - Publishes the book "From Geography to Geotechnics
- December 11, 1975 - Dies
His family is filled with interesting people. In researching the history of the MacKaye family some of the information is verifiable while other information located seem to fall into the category of urban legend and may or may not be accurate as they could not be verified.
Benton MacKaye’s parents’ names were Steele and Mary MacKaye.
His father was James Morrison Steele MacKaye born on June 6, 1842 in Buffalo, New York and died on February 25, 1894 in Timpas, Colorado. Steele was married either two or three times to Marie Louise MacKaye; Jennie MacKaye and Mary Ellen Keith MacKaye. Jennie MacKaye was the mother of Steele’s first child Arthur. His father is credited as being an American playwright, actor, theater manager and inventor. The list of plays written by James Steele MacKaye include:
- Monaldi and Marriage
- The Twins (1876) (with Andrew Carpenter Wheeler)
- Won at Last (1877)
- Through the Dark (1878), later called Money Mad
- Hazel Kirke (1880)
- Anarchy (1887), originally called Paul Kauvar; or Anarchy, later shortened to Anarchy, and then again changed to Paul Kauvar.
- A Fool's Errand
- In Spite of All
The inventor credit on the Wikipedia article is from "Steele MacKaye". Encyclopedia Britannica. While the citation does indeed mention several inventions none could be found in a Google patent search.. Mary Ellen MacKaye is somewhat a mystery to history (at least as far as we could find). What is known about Mary Ellen MacKaye is that she lived from July 11, 1845 to May 14, 1924 at the age of 78. She was the third wife of Steele MacKaye. She gave birth to six of Steele’s children, including Benton. She was born in Newburyport, Essex county, Massachusetts and she passed in Alexandria Virgina. Benton’s paternal grandfather was Colonel James Morrison MacKaye who was born in Argyle New York on October 6, 1805 and lived to the age of 82. He died on April 6, 1888 in Paris, France. His grandmother for whom he was named was Emily Benton Steele. She was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1806 and died on June 28, 1849 at the age of either 42 or 43 in Buffalo, New York. Benton MacKaye was the sixth of seven children born to Steele (Mary’s fifth child of six). His siblings were:
- Arthur Loring MacKaye (1863–1939)
- Harold (Hal) Steele (1866–1928)
- William Payson (1868–1889)
- James (Jamie) Medbery (1872–1935)
- Percy (1875–1956)
- Hazel (1880–1944)