Charlton Ogburn, Jr. at Highlands

Charlton Greenwood Ogburn, Jr.

Charlton Greenwood Ogburn, Jr. was born on March 15, 1911, in Atlanta, Georgia, and by the age of 12 was captivated by birds, creating what he called “a lifelong ardor” that would further inspire his appreciation of the depth and importance of nature and strong support for the Highlands Biological Station and its mission from the beginning.¹ At the age of 17, Ogburn began working at the “small museum at Highlands, North Carolina” where he helped to create the earliest checklist of birds present in the Highlands area while the Station was yet beginning.²

Ogburn attended Harvard University from 1927 to 1932, studying history, government, and economy, enlisted in the Army as a private in 1941 to serve in World War II, and climbed the ranks to Lieutenant in the communications division by the war’s end. He then served with the US State Department in the role of policy information officer for Far Eastern affairs from 1946 to 1957. In this role, he foresaw the coming conflict in Vietnam, though he was unable to convince US officials of its inevitability, earning him recognition in foreign relations history.³

Ogburn was married twice, first to Mary Cornelia Aldis of Chicago on June 22, 1945. The two had one son, William Aldis, and were divorced February 18, 1951. Ogburn remarried sometime later in 1951 to Vera Marcella Weidman, and they had two daughters, Nyassa Raymond and Holly Ogburn Martin. Ogburn remained married to Vera until his death on October 19, 1998.⁴

A Prolific Writer… On Many Subjects

Charlton Ogburn, Jr., was most well known throughout his lifetime as an author. He published works of fiction and nonfiction, ranging from stories based on his experiences on the front in World War II to narratives on the beauty and diversity of birds to theories of the true identity of William Shakespeare. During his time, his most popular work was The Marauders, about his time and experiences as the communications officer for the famous Merrill’s Marauders Unit in World War II.

One of his most well-known works today is a book on his theory of the true identity of William Shakespeare published in 1984 titled The Mysterious William Shakespeare: The Myth & the Reality. Ogburn, Jr., and his father were adamant supporters of the theory that “William Shakespeare” was actually Edward de Vere, the 17^th Earl of Oxford. The two Ogburns wrote many works making that argument ranging from a letter to the editor in the Chicago Tribune in 1953 to multiple book-length works each throughout both of their lifetimes.⁵

Though the majority of his works related to the Shakespeare argument or were fictional renditions of his time in the war, Ogburn also wrote and contributed to many biological works. His very first publication was actually an article in The Highlands Maconian on May 27, 1931, titled “Song of the Hermit Thrush,” pictured here. This article described the work Ogburn did at the “Highlands Museum” during the summers, compiling a list of the summer birds of the area, with a poetic description of the hermit thrush song, as the title implies.

Also in 1931, while still studying at Harvard, Ogburn wrote a paper on the summer birds of the Highlands Plateau, that would never be published. This paper was completed based on his work at the Highlands Biological Station in the summers of 1928 and 1929 and was intended to be published by the Highlands Museum. However, disagreements between Ogburn, E. E. Reinke, and Clark Foreman on what should be included in the introduction to the list and Ogburn’s apprehension to shortening the paper prevented its publication in fall of 1931.

↓ Turn the pages of the 1931 typescript, below

Later on, in 1976 he would publish an entire book on birds for the home birdwatcher entitled The Adventure of Birds. It was in this book that he proclaimed, “I am an ornithophile rather than an ornithologist, though during most of my adolescence I hoped to become the latter.”⁶ The work was and is an encouragement to other home ornithophiles to appreciate the full beauty and wildness of the birds they witness, whether through the living room window or out exploring in the wilderness.

One year prior, in 1975, Ogburn published The Southern Appalachians for the Time-Life wilderness series. This book expands upon the vast biological diversity of the Appalachian range and includes suggested hikes for readers to see the sights and ecosystems he describes in the book. It includes a brief history of the Highlands Biological Station and references Highlands often throughout as a source of early inspiration for his forays into the mountains and appreciation of nature.

Ogburn’s Early Days at Highlands

The earliest record of Ogburn at Highlands in the Reinke Library Archives is where he signed the very first page of the first guest book of the Highlands Nature Center. He signed the book on July 9, 1928, when he would have been in his first year at Harvard University. He was at the Station observing birds and working in the Museum, as he writes in The Southern Appalachians:

“In 1946 I was driving south to revisit Highlands, where I had spent parts of several summers beginning when I was seventeen. Said to be the highest incorporated town east of the Rockies, Highlands is located just within the last high rim of the Blue Ridge to the southeast, from which one looks a few miles into Georgia and South Carolina. In 1928, the well-known Highlands Biological Station of today had barely been got under way by an indefatigable Atlantan, Clark Foreman, and shared a little white clapboard building with the public library. My having been imported, to see what my youthful enthusiasm for birds could discover about the area ornithologically, will give an idea of the modesty of the Station’s beginnings. After those brief summers, I had seen no more of the mountains until, the war over, I set forth from Washington, D.C., to return.”⁷

Instead, his observations were included with those of other researchers at Highlands to produce the first “Preliminary Check-List of the Birds of the Highlands Region” compiled by Thelma Howell in 1945. This checklist included 126 bird species that had been spotted in and around the Highlands area according to observations by Howell, Ogburn, other researchers in Highlands, and staff at the Weyman Laboratory and Highlands Museum.

In addition to providing data on his observations of birds, Ogburn also donated a preserved bird to the Highlands Museum. The bird was a female rose-breasted grosbeak found in Highlands. There are no notes in the accession book regarding how Ogburn came into possession of the bird, but the book records that he prepared and donated the specimen to the Highlands Museum on June 25, 1929. This bird has since been lost, but we do still have a male rose-breasted grosbeak in the Nature Center Aviary Collection today.

Highlands Biological Station in The Southern Appalachians Book

After his manuscript in 1931, there seems to be no clear record of Ogburn at the Station again until the trip he mentions in 1946, quoted above, to visit the Highlands area after serving in World War II. Beyond this brief reference, however, the records go silent until 1973, when Ogburn reaches out to Dr. Howell at the Highlands Biological Station for help with exploration and research for the Time-Life wilderness series book he is writing about the southern Appalachians. His letter is responded to by R. C. Bruce instead of Dr. Howell, as she had fully retired by this point, but Bruce provided the resources and recommendations Ogburn requested and thus began a new chapter in Ogburn’s work at the Station.

From July 8^th to the 11^th, Ogburn stayed in Highlands while he explored and photographed the surrounding area for his upcoming book. He borrowed the services of Mr. Bill Floyd, a botanist and, at the time, the research assistant at the Station, to help in the exploration of possible trail recommendations for the book and in the identification of flora of the area during his explorations. They explored the Cullasaja Gorge, Glen Falls, and “one of the ravines below Highlands” observing many ferns, mosses, fungi, plants, and salamanders that Ogburn would later describe in his book.

Following the suggestions given to him by Bruce, Ogburn recommends trails in the Savannah and Chattahoochee gorges, the trail following the East Fork of Overflow Creek in the Glen Falls Scenic Area, and the trail across Shortoff and Yellow Mountains. He lists these in the Appendix of The Southern Appalachians among the many trails he recommends throughout the Appalachian range for those with an explorer’s spirit.

Between the time of his visit and the publication of his book, Ogburn kept a consistent correspondence with Dr. Bruce, enlisting the help of researchers at the Station in identifying plant, fungi, and insect species in images that were to be published in the book. When the book was finally published in early 1975, Ogburn included many acknowledgements to the Station and its researchers for their help in the endeavor and for the important work that the Station does in providing a space for the expansion of the field of nature studies in the Highlands region and the southern Appalachians. He also dedicated a copy to the Station that is still in the Reinke Library, and inscribed it with a special note of gratitude:

“For the Highlands Biological Station
With the affectionate admiration and gratitude of one who got in on the ground floor and stayed there -
Charlton Ogburn, May 1975”

One special passage in Ogburn’s book is dedicated to telling the history of the Station and its purpose in the region to study and educate people about the great biological diversity found on the Highlands Plateau. He views Highlands to have been a town with two major possibilities when Clark Foreman first began the Highlands Museum in 1927: a station of biological diversity and a place to be developed for tourism and summer resorts. He goes on to explain that both have gained footing in the town, neither seeming to impede the other, as the Museum grew into the Highlands Biological Station, and the town’s tourism industry continued to grow. The two pages of this discussion are depicted below and express deep gratitude for Dr. Howell and Dr. Bruce’s hospitality during his many visits to Highlands over the years and for the work completed at the station by researchers from across the area since 1927.

Ogburn and the “Clark Foreman Museum”

After the publication of The Southern Appalachians in 1975, there is a shift in purpose of Ogburn’s correspondence with the Station when the record picks up again in 1980. At this time, he takes up his typewriter to argue with Dr. Bruce and Dr. Larry F. Grand for the formal recognition of the contributions of Clark Foreman and his wife, Mairi, to the Station by way of naming the Museum for Clark Foreman and the Park for Mrs. Foreman.

These letters show a distinct passion on the subject, arguing that without Clark Foreman there would be no Highlands Biological Station. He believed that to rename the Museum as a “Building” or “Nature Center” would be a downgrade and discredit the work Foreman did for the Station. He makes his request clear to Dr. Bruce in his letter of June 7, 1981, concluding:

“Give him the full measure of what is owing him. I am sure those responsible will feel better in the long run for having done so.”

In response to Ogburn’s passionate letter, Dr. Bruce explains the situation and the decision being made. He does not believe the redesignation as a “Nature Center” instead of a “Museum” would offend Foreman and explains that this designation refers to the entire public facility, including both the Museum and Botanical Garden. He further explains that the old Museum building is going to receive “a handsome plaque” commemorating its new name, the “Clark Foreman Building.”

No record of Ogburn’s response to this letter exists in the Reinke Library Archives, but based on his earlier letters, I do not believe that this explanation would have satisfied him.

An Explorer of Life Through Nature

Though interspersed over sixty years, Ogburn was an involved figure in the early days of the Highlands Biological Station. He knew Clark Foreman personally and was invited to join him at the Station to complete research as a teenager, no small feat for a man who would go on to study history and government at Harvard.

Though a man with diverse interests and involvements throughout his lifetime and ever an eccentric character, Ogburn’s passion for birds never seemed to be satiated in his lifetime. His writings and musings on the beauty of nature and colors and character of birds are comparable to the great works of Henry David Thoreau, a contemporary of his that he likely admired for his appreciation of the depth of nature, beyond just its “science.”

Charlton Ogburn, Jr., was an explorer of life through nature, always showing that the beauty of nature can remind us of the complexity and beauty of life if only we take the time to look, explore, and take it all in.