Early Life
Ferdinand Hayden was born in Westfield, Massachusetts. As a young boy he was fascinated with all nature and wildlife, the likes of which led him into the field of medicine. He worked in Cleveland under J. P. Kirtland and thereafter in Albany, NY, where he worked under James Hall, of the Geological Survey of New York.
He graduated from Oberlin College in 1850 and from the Albany Medical College in 1853, where he attracted the notice of Professor James Hall, state geologist of New York, through whose influence he was induced to join in an exploration of Nebraska Territory, with Fielding B. Meek to study geology and collect fossils.
Hall sent him on his first geological venture in the summer of 1853. Being of independent mind Hayden ended his commission with Hall, and with the encouragement of S. F. Baird, and a partial sponsorship from the Smithsonian Institution, he spent the remainder of the 1850s on various exploring and collecting expeditions in the northern Missouri River areas.
In 1856 and 1857, Hayden accompanied exploration expeditions led by Lieutenant G.K. Warren and in 1859, the Raynolds Expedition of 1860 led by Captain William F. Raynolds, both of the Topographical Engineers. One result of which was his Geological Report of the Exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in 1859–1860 (1869).
During the Civil War he was actively employed as an army surgeon. He rose to be chief medical officer of the Army of the Shenandoah.
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