J Harlen Bretz (1882-1981) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree (2024)

JHarlen(J Harlen)Bretz

Born 2 Sep 1882 in Saranac, Ionia County, Michigan, USA

Ancestors

Son

of Oliver Joseph Bretzand Rhoda Maria Howlett

[sibling(s) unknown]

Husband ofFanny Belle (Challis) Bretz— married26 Jun 1906 in Unionville, Genesee, Michigan, USA

Biography

"No one with an eye for land forms can cross eastern Washington in daylight without encountering and being impressed by the "scabland." Like great scars marring the otherwise fair face to the plateau are these elongated tracts of bare, black rock carved into mazes of buttes and canyons. Everybody on the plateau knows scabland…[]…The popular name is a metaphor. The scablands are wounds only partially healed - great wounds in the epidermis of soil with which Nature protects the underlying rock…[]…The region is unique: let the observer take wings of the morning to the uttermost parts of the earth: he will nowhere find its likeness." (J Harlen Bretz, 1928.) ^[1]

"'J' is his entire first name, not an abbreviation to be followed by a period." ^[2]

Parents: Oliver Joseph Bretz and Rhoda Maria Howlett, farmers in Saranac, Michigan ^[3]

Marriage

Name: J Harlen Bretz

Gender: Male

Race: White

Birth Year: abt 1883

Birth Place: Jonia Co

Marriage Date: 26 Jun 1906

Marriage Place: Unionville, Genesee, Michigan, USA

Age: 23

Residence Place: Flint

Father: O J Bretz

Mother: Rhoda Howlett

Spouse: Fanny B Challis

Record Number: 7176

Film: 88

Film Description: 1906 Genesee - 1906 Mackinac ^[4]

1920 US Census

Name: Harlen Bretz

Age: 37

Birth Year: abt 1883

Birthplace: Michigan

Home in 1920: Chicago Ward 32, Cook (Chicago), Illinois

Street: Western Av.

House Number: 10750

Race: White

Gender: Male

Relation to Head of House: Head

Marital Status: Married

Spouse's Name: Fannie Bretz

Father's Birthplace: Michigan

Mother's Birthplace: Michigan

Able to Speak English: Yes

Occupation: Professor

Industry: University

Employment Field: Wage or Salary

Home Owned or Rented: Rent

Able to Read: Yes

Able to Write: Yes

Neighbors: View others on page

Household Members:

Name Age

Harlen Bretz 37

Fannie Bretz 38

Rudolph Bretz 5

Roda Bretz 2 [2 1/12]

Allen Bregler 42 ^[5]

Find A Grave

Birth: Sep. 2, 1882

Death: Feb. 3, 1981

J Harlen Bretz was a geologist whose ideas about the origins of the "scablands" of Eastern Washington evoked ridicule when he first proposed them, in the 1920s, but eventually revolutionized the science of geology. Bretz argued that the deep canyons and pockmarked buttes of the scablands had been created by a sudden, catastrophic flood -- not, as most of his peers believed, by eons of gradual erosion. It was a bold challenge to the prevailing principle of "uniformitarianism," which held that the earth was shaped by processes that can be observed in the present. Since a flood of the almost Biblical proportions envisioned by Bretz had never been seen, it was dismissed as a throwback to the pre-scientific doctrine of "catastrophism." Not until the 1940s did other geologists begin to present new evidence supporting the flood theory. Satellite imagery in the 1970s provided the final vindication. Bretz had the satisfaction of living long enough to see his once heretical ideas become the new orthodoxy. In 1979, at age 96, he received the Penrose Medal, geology's highest honor. He later reportedly told his son: "All my enemies are dead, so I have no one to gloat over" (Smithsonian).

J Harlen Bretz did not enter the world with that name. The county birth registrar recorded his name as "Harlan J. Bretz" when he was born, on September 2, 1882, in the small town of Saranac, in central Michigan's Ionia County. He was listed as "Harland J. Bretz" in the 1900 Census. He entered college in 1901 as "J. Harlen Bretz." He dropped the period after the "J" around the time he completed graduate studies in geology at the University of Chicago in 1913. According to his two children, his given name was actually "Harley." Most of his friends and associates in later life simply called him "Doc."

He was the oldest of five children of Oliver Joseph Bretz and Rhoda Maria Howlett. His father, a farmer, was a descendant of John Bretz, an early settler in Ohio. Bretz was proud of his German heritage. In a family genealogy, published in 1949, he described in detail the hardships encountered by German immigrants to the Midwest and praised their "love of liberty, of husbandry, of home" (Bretz, 1949, p. 6).

Raised a Methodist, Bretz intended to become a missionary when he entered Albion College in Albion, Michigan, in 1901. An innate skepticism turned him toward science instead. His first scientific paper was his senior thesis, "Winter Field Work in Botany," published in the Seventh Report of the Michigan Academy of Science. He concluded the paper with a modest disclaimer: "Different obstacles might be met, different results obtained than I have mentioned. This paper is presented simply as a pregnant suggestion" (Bretz, 1905). Few of his subsequent papers would demonstrate that degree of tentativeness.

Bretz graduated from Albion in May 1905. The following year, he married Fanny B. Challis, the daughter of a Methodist minister, whom he had met while both were students at Albion. In the summer of 1906, after a honeymoon in Bay View, Michigan, Bretz completed a graduate course at the University of Michigan in Flint. He began teaching biology at a Flint high school that fall. According to his biographer, John Soennichsen, Bretz asked for a fairly substantial raise at the end of the school year. When the request was denied, he accepted a teaching job in Seattle, and the young couple decamped for the Northwest.

Family links:

Parents:

Oliver Joseph Bretz (1854 - 1924)

Rhoda Maria Howlett Bretz (1859 - 1920)

Siblings:

J. Harlen Bretz (1882 - 1981)

Bina B Bretz Goodwin (1884 - 1974)*

Martha B. Schreiber (1892 - 1987)*

Marguerite L Bretz Vroman (1898 - 1972)*

*Calculated relationship

Burial: Unknown ^[6]

Research Notes

born Harley Bretz

Sources

↑ http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/a-concise-history-of-geological-maps-mapping-noahe28099s-flood/
↑ http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/J_Harlen_Bretz.aspx
↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Harlen_Bretz
↑ Source Information: Ancestry.com. Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867-1952 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.; Original data: Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867–1952. Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics.; Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics
↑ Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Chicago Ward 32, Cook (Chicago), Illinois; Roll: T625_351; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 2044; Image: 559; Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.; Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA. Note: Enumeration Districts 819-839 are on roll 323 (Chicago City).
↑ Created by: Darla Mays (Rodeogirl73); Record added: Aug 18, 2009; Find A Grave Memorial# 40802624; URL: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=40802624

I'm writing on behalf of Nick Zentner, a geologist professor from CWU in Ellensburg who is currently producing a series of online lectures about the Ice Age Floods in the Pacific NW referencing Bretz's early work. He's made a public request to help him find for a living contact in Bretz's family. If anyone can help, you can contact Nick direct, or via me.Cheers,Simon

postedNov 09, 2023by Simon Welander

Richard Hollenbeck

On 19 Jul 2017, Peter T Doran wrote:

Hi, I'm familiar with J Harlen Bretz. He and his wife Fanny had two children (none listed here). His daughter's name was Rhoda Bretz Riley. She was his care giver when he died in Homewood, IL. I believe she stayed in Homewood until she died. His sons name was Rudof C. Bretz. He ended up living in California until his death I believe in the 1990's. I believe they both also had children of their own. I'm actually trying to track down the lineage for a local Homewood museum.

Thank you Peter! :-)

postedJul 19, 2017by Richard Hollenbeck

This week's featured connections areFathers:J Harlen is13 degrees from James Madison, 25 degrees from Konrad Adenauer, 22 degrees from Charles Babbage, 19 degrees from Chris Cornell, 18 degrees from Charles Darwin, 15 degrees from James Naismith, 29 degrees from Paul Otlet, 24 degrees from Henry Parkes, 26 degrees from Eiichi Shibusawa, 25 degrees from William Still, 19 degrees from Étienne-Paschal Taché and 17 degrees from Cratis Williamson our single family tree.Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.

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