Lucia Summers (1835-1898) - First Resident Botanist in the Pacific Northwest

Aug 28, 2026

Biographical account of Lucia Summers (1835–1898) as a pioneer resident botanist in the Pacific Coast region between 1871 and 1898. The narrative places her within the early European-settler era, describing how she and her husband moved from Seattle to McMinnville, Oregon, and traveled widely to collect bryophytes and vascular plants. It highlights the scarcity of regional herbaria and her practice of sending specimens east, and recounts personal details and stories that illuminate her scientific and cultural life.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Lucia Summers’ pioneering work

Life in early Pacific Northwest settlements

Plant collecting and specimen exchange

Family background and marriage

Robert Summers and frontier interests

Seattle Episcopal Church years

Lucia Summers (1835-1898): First Resident Botanist in the Pacific Northwest Edward R. Alverson The Nature Conservancy, 87200 Rathbone Rd., Eugene, OR 97402 Lucia Summers was a pioneer botanist in the Pacific Coast states between 1871 and 1898. She experienced the Northwest landscape as it was just beginning to be altered by the first generation of European settlers. When she arrived in Seattle with her husband, the Rev. Robert W. Summers (the first Episcopal priest in Seattle), it had been a mere 17 years since the arrival of the first permanent European settlers. Seattle of 1871 was little more than a village of about 1500 inhabitants. Lucia was well educated, and an accomplished linguist and musician, when she arrived in Seattle at the age of 34. After three years in Seattle, the Summers moved to McMinnville, Oregon, where they lived until 1881. In Oregon, she traveled extensively with her husband, collecting both bryophytes and vascular plants. In that era there were no herbaria in the region, so she sent her specimens to botanistsat Eastern herbaria. Consequently, her role as a pioneer resident botanist is not well known to present-day Northwest botanists. However, her experiences were remarkable. Once, she traded the dress off her back to a Native American woman in exchange for a shell necklace and beaver charm. Born in Vermont, Married in Missouri Lucia’s given name was Susan Ann Noyes, and she was born in Hartland, Vermont, on November 22, 1835, the older daughter of Benjamin Noyes and Julia Ann Bartlett. Her nickname Lucia was Herbarium specimen of death camas ( Toxicoscordion venenosum) collected by Lucia Summers in Yamhill County, Oregon, in 1873. This is one of the oldest collections from Oregon in the Oregon State University Herbarium. Image courtesy of OSU Herbarium. probably in honor of her father’s first wife, who died in 1831. Lucia had one sibling, a sister, Lavinia, who was born in 1839 (Noyes 1904) . Lucia’s father Benjamin was listed in the 1860 census as a “master carpenter,” with a combined value of real estate and personal property of $2900, a considerable amount at that time. The Noyes were a long established New England family, and 16 Kalmiopsis Volume 18, 2011 sufficiently affluent for Lucia to receive an advanced education, unusual for women at that time. Some time during the 1850s, Lucia’s family moved from Vermont to Hannibal, Missouri, where she met her future husband, Robert William Summers. They were married there on July 17, 1859. Hannibal, of course, is the river town along the Mississippi that was the childhood home of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) . Robert’s Origins Robert Summers was born in 1827 in Madison County, Kentucky, the son of John Summers, an officer in the U.S. Army who had distinguished himself in the “Indian wars” of the west. Perhaps it was hearing stories of his father’s experiences on the frontier that was the source of Robert’s life-long interest in Indian culture and artifacts. Robert’s family had been long established in the New World; his obituary stated that he was descended from Sir George Somers, part of a group of Virginia colonists who were shipwrecked on Bermuda in 1609. Sir George’s published account of their experience was the source of the plot of William Shakespeare’s play,“The Tempest.” As a young adult, Robert Summers undertook a brief tenure as a homesteader in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. He established a claim in 1853 in the Eola Hills, in northern Polk County between Salem and McMinnville (Cawley 1995) . Cawley’s biography speculated that Summers emigrated to Oregon because he was a distant relative of the Applegate family. Barely two years later, in early 1855, he sold his claim and moved back east, indicating that perhaps he was not cut out to be a farmer. Early Married Years We know only a little about Lucia and Robert’s activities and whereabouts between 1859 (when they married) and 1870. Apparently, the couple spent

FAQs

What made Lucia Summers a pioneer resident botanist?

Lucia Summers is portrayed as one of the early resident botanists in the Pacific Coast states, collecting plants during a period when the landscape was just beginning to change under European settlement. Her long residence in the region between 1871 and 1898 underpins this pioneer role.

How did Lucia Summers preserve and share her plant collections?

With few or no herbaria available locally in the region at the time, she sent her specimens to botanists at eastern herbaria. This allowed her collected bryophytes and vascular plants to be studied and preserved beyond the Northwest.

Where did Lucia Summers and her husband live during their moves in Oregon?

After arriving in Seattle, the Summers later moved to McMinnville, Oregon, where they lived until 1881. During their Oregon years, Lucia traveled extensively with her husband for collecting.

Aug 28, 2026

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