Lewis David de Schweinitz
De Schweinitz was born in 1780 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was educated in a Moravian institution, and later studied theology in Niesky, Prussia. After spending time in Europe studying mycology and publishing Conspectus Fungorum in Lusatia superiori, de Schweinitz returned to the United States and settled in Salem, North Carolina. He furthered his mycological efforts and published Synopsis Fungorum Carolinæ Superioris on the local fungi. De Schweinitz returned to Pennsylvania and continued to study mycology until his death in 1834 of 1835.
Ivey Lewis grouped de Schweinitz with the North Carolina cottages, and described him as “Minister of the Moravian Church, first native born Doctor of Philosophy, once offered the presidency of the University of North Carolina, discoverer of more than a thousand species of fungi.” De Schweinitz was also the first native-born American to have a Ph.D.
Eliza Brodie