Ralph Elwood Brock (1883-1959)
Mont Alto, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The first African American graduate of the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy here at Mont Alto and a member of the original class of 1906. A student & associate of Dr. J.T. Rothrock, Brock was Mont Alto State Forest Nursery superintendent until 1911 and then a successful consulting forester for public and private gardens and landscapes in New York City and Philadelphia.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
A member of the State Forest Academy's original class of 1906, Ralph Elwood Brock became the school's first African American graduate and a protégé of the pioneering forester J.T. Rothrock. He ran the Mont Alto State Forest Nursery until 1911, then built a career as a consulting forester shaping gardens and landscapes in New York City and Philadelphia. His work opened a professional field that few Black Americans had yet entered.
Why it matters
Brock's pioneering path through a new scientific profession marks an early breakthrough for African Americans in forestry and conservation.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Monterey Pass Battlefield Museum7.8 mi away
- Frederick County Fire Museum14.9 mi away · 300 South Seton Avenue, Emmitsburg, MD
Attractions
- Sachs Covered Bridge14.5 mi away · Waterworks Road, Gettysburg, PA
- Sachs Covered Bridge14.5 mi away
- John Eisenhower Bridge14.9 mi away · Waterworks Road
Places to stay
- The Inn at Herr Ridge B&B15.0 mi away · 900 Chambersburg Road, Gettysburg, PA
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Related people
- · Ralph Elwood Brock
- · J.T. Rothrock
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Daniel Alexander Payne
Gettysburg, PA · est. 1991
Born free in Charleston at a time when education for Black Americans was often outlawed, Daniel Alexander Payne became one of the 19th century's most influential Black religious leaders. While studying at Gettysburg's Lutheran Seminary in 1837 he also taught here at the college, and he went on to be elected a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1852 and to lead Wilberforce University, one of the first colleges owned and run by African Americans.
Thaddeus Stevens
Gettysburg, PA · est. 1954
Before he became one of the most powerful and uncompromising figures in Congress, Thaddeus Stevens lived in Gettysburg, leaving in 1842. Here he built his early career as a lawyer and ironmaster while championing two causes that defined him: the abolition of slavery and the defense of free public schools in Pennsylvania, which he famously fought to preserve in 1835. From these Adams County beginnings he rose to lead the Radical Republicans and shape Reconstruction after the Civil War.
Pennsylvania State Forest Academy
Mont Alto, PA · est. 2003
When conservation was still a new idea in America, Pennsylvania opened its first forestry school here at Mont Alto in 1903, formally named the State Forest Academy two years later. Its founders included Joseph Rothrock, the state's first Forestry Commissioner, and the activist Mira Lloyd Dock, both leaders in the movement to reclaim lands stripped bare by logging. In 1929 the academy merged into what became Pennsylvania State University.
George H. Wirt (1880 - 1961)
Mont Alto, PA · est. 2005
George H. Wirt became Pennsylvania's first professionally trained forester and, in 1903, co-founded and led the State Forest Academy that opened at Mont Alto. A protege of conservation pioneer Dr. Joseph T. Rothrock, Wirt taught forestry by joining theory to hands-on practice and set trends that shaped the young profession. He drafted the forest-protection laws enacted in 1915 and, as Chief Forest Fire Warden from 1915 to 1946, built a wildfire-protection plan that safeguarded the state's woodlands.