James Bradford Olcott papers

Luther James Bradford Olcott was born on May 30, 1830 in Manchester, Connecticut to Sidney and Edna Adams Olcott. At the age of 16 Olcott was employed by the printing office of "The Republican" in Hartford Connecticut. He continued to work here until the age of 19 when in 1849 he followed the Gold Rush out to California. On his way to California Olcott traveled via the Henry Lee, a ship that sailed around Cape Horn. Olcott had little participation in the Gold Rush itself while in California. Instead, he chartered boats to foreign locations such as Tahiti to bring back exotic and foreign produce for profitable sale in America. During his time in Sacramento, California Olcott started a restaurant and boarding house.

In the early 1850s however, Olcott returned to Connecticut at the request of his mother. Upon his return, Olcott attended the Center Academy in Harwinton, Connecticut. Olcott worked on his father's farm for several years after leaving school. On October 20, 1856 he was married to Emiline A. Roberts, daughter of Isaac and Annie Ensign Roberts, of East Hartford Connecticut. After moving several times, the Olcotts finally ended up back in South Manchester, around 1865. Here Olcott worked for the Cheney Brothers who placed him in charge of all of their outdoor work, such as landscaping and building roads. In 1868, Olcott started his own farm in South Manchester which he would turn over to his son in 1890. Starting no later than 1869, Olcott wrote an agriculture column for the Hartford Courant, which touched on a wide variety of subjects including farming, road building, and growing grass. In 1880, Olcott sat on the committee whose job it was to investigate the proposal of land and money put forward by Augustus and Charles Storrs to develop an agricultural school in Storrs, Connecticut which would later become the University of Connecticut. In 1881 the proposal was accepted and the Storrs Agricultural School was developed, and James Bradford Olcott was invited to sit on its Board of Trustees.

In 1890, Olcott received a request from the Connecticut State Agricultural Experiment Station to begin collecting grasses that would be beneficial to Connecticut. That year Olcott began to develop his Turf Garden, which was located on just over an acre of land and contained various grasses laid out in 5 square foot "plats". Most of the tools used by Olcott in the cultivation of his Turf Garden he had invented himself. Through his work with grasses and the State Agricultural Experiment Station, Olcott was able to travel to places such as England, France, Germany, Denmark, and Australia as well as all over the United States. The purpose of these trips was to gain a better understanding of the cultivation of grasses as well as their natural climates. Just before his death Olcott had discovered which grasses were best suited for Connecticut's climate and had begun to set aside a large portion of his Turf Garden for the cultivation of this grass for seeding. In 1910, after having been restricted to a lawn chair for a year due to his failing health, James Bradford Olcott died of heart failure. He was survived by three of his children: Walter Hooker Olcott, Harry Ensign Olcott, and Annie Ensign Olcott Faulknor.

Sources:

1. Former finding aid.

2. "Manchester's Grass Authority Passes", 1910. Box 4, Folder 12.

3. Archives & Special Collections Staff. "James B. Olcott Papers." Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center: University of Connecticut.http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/findaids/Olcott/MSS19770003.html.

4. "State's Grass Expert is Dead", 1910. Box 4, Folder 12.