Frank Manly Thorn (December 7, 1836 – April 14, 1907) was an American lawyer, politician, government official, essayist, journalist, humorist, and inventor. He served as the sixth Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. The first non-scientist to hold that position, he guided the Coast and Geodetic Survey through a critical period of reform following the exposure of improprieties under his predecessor, and he defended it from being abolished or diminished by its critics.
Early life Thorn was born in Collins, New York, on December 7, 1836,Although all sources give Thorn's birth date as "1836," "December 1836," or "December 7, 1836," a photograph of the headstone at his gravesite at Find-A-Grave: Frank Manly Thorn shows that the headstone gives his birth year as 1837, with no other date information. the son of Abram Thorn and the former Phila M. Pratt; the portion of the town in which he was born later was split off from Collins in 1852 to become the town of North Collins.Wilson, James Grant, and John Fiske, Appletonʼs Cyclopedia: Volume VI: Sunderland–Zurita, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1889, p 102. He attended local schools in Erie County, New York, and then enrolled in the Fredonia Academy in Fredonia, New York. He then attended law school in Albany, New York, and was admitted to the bar to practice law in the State of New York. From 1857 or 1858 (sources vary) to 1860, he was clerk of the Erie County, New York, Surrogate Court. In 1860, he moved to Pennsylvania, where he spent seven years working in the new petroleum industry there.twainquotes.com "HY SLOCUM" IDENTIFIEDSailing Close to the Wind, p. 5.famousamericans.net "Frank Manly Thorn" from Appletonʼs Encyclopedia
Writing career In 1867, Thorn returned to Erie County, New York. He settled in East Hamburg, New York, where he established a successful apple orchard and potato farm. He also began writing sketches and essays and performing as a humorous lecturer and after-dinner speaker. The Buffalo Express newspaper of Buffalo, New York, began to publish his essays under the pseudonym "Hy Slocum," the first of which appeared on March 31, 1868, and discussed the presidential campaign of 1868. The author Samuel Clemens, popularly known as Mark Twain, bought a one-third-interest in the Express in August 1869, and thereafter many readers began to assume incorrectly that "Hy Slocum"'s humorous columns actually were the work of Clemens. The last Slocum article appeared on October 2, 1870, but on November 12, 1870, an article by Thorn under the pseudonym "Carl Byng" was published in the Express, and additional "Byng" articles followed. Other American newspapers reprinted the "Slocum" and "Byng" articles, ascribing them to Clemens.Sailing Close to the Wind, pp. 4-5.
On January 7, 1871, the literary magazine Every Saturday accused Clemens of plagiarizing its material in a "Byng" article the Express had published on December 2, 1870. Deeply concerned that such mistaken charges of plagiarism would continue to follow him as long as "Slocum" or "Byng" published in the Express, Clemens asked the magazine to retract its accusation and banned "Slocum" and "Byng" from contributing to the newspaper.
Thorn then began contributing articles to the Buffalo Courier, a rival of the Express, under the pseudonym "Frank Clive." In November 1875, Scribner's Monthly reprinted a "Frank Clive" poem that originally had appeared in the Courier on April 18, 1871. After his success in appearing in the prestigious Scribnerʼs Monthly, Thorn dropped his pseudonyms and began writing under his own name.
Political career
In 1870, Thorn was elected to the Erie County Board of Supervisors. Taking office in 1871, he served until 1875 and again from 1877 to 1880. In 1882, he campaigned for Grover Cleveland in Cleveland's successful run to become Governor of New York. Thorn again campaigned for Cleveland when Cleveland successfully ran for President of the United States in 1884. Cleveland took office on March 4, 1885, and rewarded Thorn for his support by appointing him as Chief Clerk of the Internal Revenue Bureau in Washington, D.C. Thorn arrived in Washington in late June 1885 and took up his duties on July 1.
Coast and Geodetic Survey
Investigating improprieties The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, a component at the time of the United States Department of the Treasury, was the United States Government agency responsible for conducting hydrographic surveys of the coastal waters of the United States and generating maps and charts of those waters, as well as for geodetic work in the interior of the United States. As the premiere U.S. Government scientific agency at the time, it had been assigned numerous other scientific responsibilities, such as geophysics and oceanography, and also was responsible for employing its engineering expertise to improvements in communications and transportation. When Thorn arrived in Washington, the Coast and Geodetic Survey had been caught up in the increased scrutiny of U.S. Government agencies by politicians seeking to reform governmental affairs by curbing the spoils system and patronage common among office holders of the time. At the Coast and Geodetic Survey, scientists who were not prone to following bureaucratic requirements related to the funding of their projects, and their lax financial practices, had led to charges of mismanagement of funds and corruption.Sailing Close to the Wind, p. 2.
The Allison Commission – a joint commission of the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives – had convened in 1884 to investigate the scientific agencies of the U.S. Government, namely the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the United States Geological Survey, the United States Army Signal Corps (responsible for studying and predicting weather at the time), and the United States Navy's United States Hydrographic Office. The commission looked into three main issues: the role of geodesy in the U.S. Government's scientific efforts and whether responsibility for inland geodetics should reside in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey or the U.S. Geological Survey; whether the Coast and Geodetic Survey should be removed from the Department of the Treasury and placed under the control of the United States Department of the Navy, as it had been previously from 1834 to 1836; and whether weather services should reside in a military organization or in the civilian part of the government, raising the broader issue of whether U.S. government scientific agencies of all kinds should be under military or civilian control.
When Cleveland became president in 1885, James Q. Chenoweth became First Auditor of the Department of the Treasury, and he began to investigate improprieties at the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, and United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, more commonly referred to as the U.S. Fish Commission. He had little impact on the Geological Survey or the Fish Commission, but at the Coast and Geodetic Survey he found many improprieties. Chenoweth found that the Coast and Geodetic Survey had failed to account for government equipment it had purchased, continued to pay retired personnel as a way of giving them a pension even though the law did not provide for a pension system, paid employees whether they worked or not, and misused per diem money intended for the expenses of personnel in the field by paying per diem funds to employees who were not in the field as a way of augmenting their very low authorized wages and providing them with fair compensation. Chenoweth saw these practices as embezzlement. Chenoweth also suspected embezzlement in the Survey's practice of providing its employees with money in advance for large and expensive purchases when operating in remote areas because of the Survey's inability to verify that the expenses were legitimate. Moreover, the Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Julius Hilgard, was exposed as a drunkard and forced to resign in disgrace along with four of his senior staff members at Survey headquarters.Sailing Close to the Wind, pp. 3-4.
On July 1, 1885, his first day as Chief Clerk of the Internal Revenue Bureau, Thorn became chairman of a three-man Department of the Treasury commission investigating the corruption Chenoweth believed he had uncovered in the Survey.Anonymous, Centennial Celebration of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1916, p. 139. Thorn remained with the committee through July 22. With the Survey's leadership in disgrace, Cleveland needed to find an outsider to reform its lax financial practices. He turned to Thorn, who already had met the Coast and Geodetic Survey staff during his three weeks of work on the Treasury committee investigating the organization. Cleveland made Thorn the Acting Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey on July 23, 1885, only 22 days after be began work for the federal government, and appointed him as its permanent superintendent on September 1, 1885.
Superintendency
Knowing of the management problems at the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Thorn at first approached its personnel with a degree of hostility, but during his three weeks on the Treasury investigative committee he determined that many of the accusations made against Survey personnel were petty or could not be substantiated, and concluded that in many cases the accusers were motivated by the potential for their own career advancement if they destroyed the careers of others. Upon assuming the superintendency, he quickly concluded that Coast and Geodetic Survey employees were largely innocent of wrongdoing and that he could manage the problems that did exist. He then set his mind to the issues of rebuilding the Survey's integrity and reputation and ensuring that it demonstrated its value to its critics. He knew that the Survey's improper financial and budgetary practices had to end and that increased scrutiny resulting from investigations into the Survey's operations would mean tight budgets in the future.Sailing Close to the Wind, p. 9.