Professor Dr. Henry Vethake, LLD was born 1791 in the Dutch colony of Essequibo, on the eastern shore of South America near the British West Indies, first settled by the Dutch in the early 17th Century. The Colony was a leading exporter of coffee and cotton to the Dutch colonies in New York. This area later became known at British Guyana when England captured the Islands of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice in 1796.
He was the 3rd of 5 known children (3 boys/2 girls) born to Frederick (Fredrich) Albertus (von) Vethake, often reported to be son of nobility from the Westphalia region of Germany; and his wife, Maria Johanna Jansen, daughter of Dutch colonists in Demerara, Dutch Guiana/Guyana. His father managed slave-worked plantations for some of the wealthy New York Dutch, and was known to be director of the plantations of Mr. Abraham van Doorn of Flushing, NY circa 1792.
A year after the British captured Guyana, his family emigrated to America arriving in Boston in 1797, when Henry was 4 years old. The family then removed to New York, where his father briefly taught at Vassar then removed to New York City where he was known to be involved in the mercantile trade. Some sources indicate the family resided for a time in Paterson, NJ, where the two youngest siblings were reportedly born.
In New York, Henry Vethake became recognized as a child prodigy of chess, first noted to have played at age 9, and it was a game he vigorously played throughout his lifetime.
Henry received his early education in New York and graduated from Columbia College in 1808 and in 1813 taught mathematics and geography for a time at his alma mater.
He went that same year to a similar position at Queen's College, New Jersey, now Rutgers University. He moved on to Princeton in 1817 for four years, teaching mathematics and chemistry, until he took up the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He also taught chemistry for a time.
He lectured in the political economy at the College and in 1826 the trustees added the descriptor of "Political Economy" to the title of his chair. Vethake's instruction in political economy was possibly the first of its kind in the nation. However, he was also very aware of Dickinson's economic hardships during this decade; when Princeton sought his return with the offer of a professorship and time to visit his ancestral home at Petershagen in Germany to settle family affairs, Vethake accepted and thus left Carlisle. This departure came at a time of administrative chaos for Dickinson. When, in the autumn of 1830, the trustees of the College sought to explain the institution's troubles with an eighty-three page Narrative, Vethake was swift to issue his Reply which placed the blame for the decline squarely on the intrusive and destructive micro management of the Board. Without faculty involvement and responsibility in the running of short and medium term affairs at Dickinson, he considered there to be little hope for the survival of the College. His opinion foretold the closing of the institution in spring 1832.
From Princeton, Vethake taught at the University of the City of New York between 1832 and 1835, served as the President of Washington College in Virginia (now Washington and Lee) for a year and a half, before settling in Philadelphia to teach mathematics and philosophy and serve in administration at the University of Pennsylvania from 1836 to 1859. He crossed the city to the Polytechnic College in 1859 and remained there until his death. He continued his attentions to political economy during these years, publishing several influential books on the subject. His economic philosophy was indicative of the European orthodox ideas of the time, decrying the disruption of the natural system by trades unions and, like Ricardo and Malthus, advising employers that leisure time to workers usually degenerated the morals and the productivity of the work-force.
Henry Vethake was the author of PRINCIPALS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY published in 1838, and edited the supplementary volume of the ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANS published in 1847.
He married a woman named Elizabeth in 1836, after arriving in Philadelphia; but no further information was found on her.
Henry Vethake died at his home in Philadelphia on December 16, 1866. He was 74 years old. His body was interned with other family members at Willow Grove cemetery in New Brunswick, NJ.
He was the 3rd of 5 known children (3 boys/2 girls) born to Frederick (Fredrich) Albertus (von) Vethake, often reported to be son of nobility from the Westphalia region of Germany; and his wife, Maria Johanna Jansen, daughter of Dutch colonists in Demerara, Dutch Guiana/Guyana. His father managed slave-worked plantations for some of the wealthy New York Dutch, and was known to be director of the plantations of Mr. Abraham van Doorn of Flushing, NY circa 1792.
A year after the British captured Guyana, his family emigrated to America arriving in Boston in 1797, when Henry was 4 years old. The family then removed to New York, where his father briefly taught at Vassar then removed to New York City where he was known to be involved in the mercantile trade. Some sources indicate the family resided for a time in Paterson, NJ, where the two youngest siblings were reportedly born.
In New York, Henry Vethake became recognized as a child prodigy of chess, first noted to have played at age 9, and it was a game he vigorously played throughout his lifetime.
Henry received his early education in New York and graduated from Columbia College in 1808 and in 1813 taught mathematics and geography for a time at his alma mater.
He went that same year to a similar position at Queen's College, New Jersey, now Rutgers University. He moved on to Princeton in 1817 for four years, teaching mathematics and chemistry, until he took up the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He also taught chemistry for a time.
He lectured in the political economy at the College and in 1826 the trustees added the descriptor of "Political Economy" to the title of his chair. Vethake's instruction in political economy was possibly the first of its kind in the nation. However, he was also very aware of Dickinson's economic hardships during this decade; when Princeton sought his return with the offer of a professorship and time to visit his ancestral home at Petershagen in Germany to settle family affairs, Vethake accepted and thus left Carlisle. This departure came at a time of administrative chaos for Dickinson. When, in the autumn of 1830, the trustees of the College sought to explain the institution's troubles with an eighty-three page Narrative, Vethake was swift to issue his Reply which placed the blame for the decline squarely on the intrusive and destructive micro management of the Board. Without faculty involvement and responsibility in the running of short and medium term affairs at Dickinson, he considered there to be little hope for the survival of the College. His opinion foretold the closing of the institution in spring 1832.
From Princeton, Vethake taught at the University of the City of New York between 1832 and 1835, served as the President of Washington College in Virginia (now Washington and Lee) for a year and a half, before settling in Philadelphia to teach mathematics and philosophy and serve in administration at the University of Pennsylvania from 1836 to 1859. He crossed the city to the Polytechnic College in 1859 and remained there until his death. He continued his attentions to political economy during these years, publishing several influential books on the subject. His economic philosophy was indicative of the European orthodox ideas of the time, decrying the disruption of the natural system by trades unions and, like Ricardo and Malthus, advising employers that leisure time to workers usually degenerated the morals and the productivity of the work-force.
Henry Vethake was the author of PRINCIPALS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY published in 1838, and edited the supplementary volume of the ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANS published in 1847.
He married a woman named Elizabeth in 1836, after arriving in Philadelphia; but no further information was found on her.
Henry Vethake died at his home in Philadelphia on December 16, 1866. He was 74 years old. His body was interned with other family members at Willow Grove cemetery in New Brunswick, NJ.
Professor Dr. Henry Vethake, LLD was born 1791 in the Dutch colony of Essequibo, on the eastern shore of South America near the British West Indies, first settled by the Dutch in the early 17th Century. The Colony was a leading exporter of coffee and cotton to the Dutch colonies in New York. This area later became known at British Guyana when England captured the Islands of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice in 1796.
He was the 3rd of 5 known children (3 boys/2 girls) born to Frederick (Fredrich) Albertus (von) Vethake, often reported to be son of nobility from the Westphalia region of Germany; and his wife, Maria Johanna Jansen, daughter of Dutch colonists in Demerara, Dutch Guiana/Guyana. His father managed slave-worked plantations for some of the wealthy New York Dutch, and was known to be director of the plantations of Mr. Abraham van Doorn of Flushing, NY circa 1792.
A year after the British captured Guyana, his family emigrated to America arriving in Boston in 1797, when Henry was 4 years old. The family then removed to New York, where his father briefly taught at Vassar then removed to New York City where he was known to be involved in the mercantile trade. Some sources indicate the family resided for a time in Paterson, NJ, where the two youngest siblings were reportedly born.
In New York, Henry Vethake became recognized as a child prodigy of chess, first noted to have played at age 9, and it was a game he vigorously played throughout his lifetime.
Henry received his early education in New York and graduated from Columbia College in 1808 and in 1813 taught mathematics and geography for a time at his alma mater.
He went that same year to a similar position at Queen's College, New Jersey, now Rutgers University. He moved on to Princeton in 1817 for four years, teaching mathematics and chemistry, until he took up the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He also taught chemistry for a time.
He lectured in the political economy at the College and in 1826 the trustees added the descriptor of "Political Economy" to the title of his chair. Vethake's instruction in political economy was possibly the first of its kind in the nation. However, he was also very aware of Dickinson's economic hardships during this decade; when Princeton sought his return with the offer of a professorship and time to visit his ancestral home at Petershagen in Germany to settle family affairs, Vethake accepted and thus left Carlisle. This departure came at a time of administrative chaos for Dickinson. When, in the autumn of 1830, the trustees of the College sought to explain the institution's troubles with an eighty-three page Narrative, Vethake was swift to issue his Reply which placed the blame for the decline squarely on the intrusive and destructive micro management of the Board. Without faculty involvement and responsibility in the running of short and medium term affairs at Dickinson, he considered there to be little hope for the survival of the College. His opinion foretold the closing of the institution in spring 1832.
From Princeton, Vethake taught at the University of the City of New York between 1832 and 1835, served as the President of Washington College in Virginia (now Washington and Lee) for a year and a half, before settling in Philadelphia to teach mathematics and philosophy and serve in administration at the University of Pennsylvania from 1836 to 1859. He crossed the city to the Polytechnic College in 1859 and remained there until his death. He continued his attentions to political economy during these years, publishing several influential books on the subject. His economic philosophy was indicative of the European orthodox ideas of the time, decrying the disruption of the natural system by trades unions and, like Ricardo and Malthus, advising employers that leisure time to workers usually degenerated the morals and the productivity of the work-force.
Henry Vethake was the author of PRINCIPALS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY published in 1838, and edited the supplementary volume of the ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANS published in 1847.
He married a woman named Elizabeth in 1836, after arriving in Philadelphia; but no further information was found on her.
Henry Vethake died at his home in Philadelphia on December 16, 1866. He was 74 years old. His body was interned with other family members at Willow Grove cemetery in New Brunswick, NJ.
He was the 3rd of 5 known children (3 boys/2 girls) born to Frederick (Fredrich) Albertus (von) Vethake, often reported to be son of nobility from the Westphalia region of Germany; and his wife, Maria Johanna Jansen, daughter of Dutch colonists in Demerara, Dutch Guiana/Guyana. His father managed slave-worked plantations for some of the wealthy New York Dutch, and was known to be director of the plantations of Mr. Abraham van Doorn of Flushing, NY circa 1792.
A year after the British captured Guyana, his family emigrated to America arriving in Boston in 1797, when Henry was 4 years old. The family then removed to New York, where his father briefly taught at Vassar then removed to New York City where he was known to be involved in the mercantile trade. Some sources indicate the family resided for a time in Paterson, NJ, where the two youngest siblings were reportedly born.
In New York, Henry Vethake became recognized as a child prodigy of chess, first noted to have played at age 9, and it was a game he vigorously played throughout his lifetime.
Henry received his early education in New York and graduated from Columbia College in 1808 and in 1813 taught mathematics and geography for a time at his alma mater.
He went that same year to a similar position at Queen's College, New Jersey, now Rutgers University. He moved on to Princeton in 1817 for four years, teaching mathematics and chemistry, until he took up the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He also taught chemistry for a time.
He lectured in the political economy at the College and in 1826 the trustees added the descriptor of "Political Economy" to the title of his chair. Vethake's instruction in political economy was possibly the first of its kind in the nation. However, he was also very aware of Dickinson's economic hardships during this decade; when Princeton sought his return with the offer of a professorship and time to visit his ancestral home at Petershagen in Germany to settle family affairs, Vethake accepted and thus left Carlisle. This departure came at a time of administrative chaos for Dickinson. When, in the autumn of 1830, the trustees of the College sought to explain the institution's troubles with an eighty-three page Narrative, Vethake was swift to issue his Reply which placed the blame for the decline squarely on the intrusive and destructive micro management of the Board. Without faculty involvement and responsibility in the running of short and medium term affairs at Dickinson, he considered there to be little hope for the survival of the College. His opinion foretold the closing of the institution in spring 1832.
From Princeton, Vethake taught at the University of the City of New York between 1832 and 1835, served as the President of Washington College in Virginia (now Washington and Lee) for a year and a half, before settling in Philadelphia to teach mathematics and philosophy and serve in administration at the University of Pennsylvania from 1836 to 1859. He crossed the city to the Polytechnic College in 1859 and remained there until his death. He continued his attentions to political economy during these years, publishing several influential books on the subject. His economic philosophy was indicative of the European orthodox ideas of the time, decrying the disruption of the natural system by trades unions and, like Ricardo and Malthus, advising employers that leisure time to workers usually degenerated the morals and the productivity of the work-force.
Henry Vethake was the author of PRINCIPALS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY published in 1838, and edited the supplementary volume of the ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANS published in 1847.
He married a woman named Elizabeth in 1836, after arriving in Philadelphia; but no further information was found on her.
Henry Vethake died at his home in Philadelphia on December 16, 1866. He was 74 years old. His body was interned with other family members at Willow Grove cemetery in New Brunswick, NJ.
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