Oregon State UniversitySpecial Collections & Archives Research Center
Pauling Chronology
Page 1

The Ancestry of Linus Pauling (The Paulings)

1630

Probable birth date of Andreas Pauling (1630-1683), the earliest known ancestor of Linus Pauling. Andreas Pauling’s son Christian (1650-1707) has a son, Johann Christoph Pauling (1696-1753), who, in 1728, marries Anna Baunin in Preusslitz, Prussia, where their descendants continue to live for several generations, until Johann Andreas Pauling (1767-1842) moves to Golbitz, where Christoph Friedrich Pauling is born in 1808.

1842

Christoph Friedrich Pauling, his wife Catharine, and their two daughters, Rebecca and Charlotte, immigrate to the United States from Hanover, Germany. Their first son, called Frederick in America, is born while they are crossing the Atlantic Ocean. They travel to a German settlement in Concordia, Missouri, near which they farm the land. Their second son, William Frederick, is born in 1844, and their third and last son, Charles Henry (Linus Pauling’s grandfather), is born in 1847.

1860-1865

During the American Civil War, Christoph Friedrich Pauling enlists in the Missouri infantry (eventually all three of his sons enlist). At Sedalia, Missouri, Charles Henry (or "Carl," as he is called) enrolls in Company E of the 45th Regiment of the Missouri Volunteers in September, 1864.

1868

Carl Pauling marries Adelheit Blanken, a young girl who had come to Missouri from Fischerhude, near Bremen, in Germany. This marriage produces four children, all born in Concordia: Martin, Willie, Annette ("Nettie"), and Herman Henry William (Linus Pauling’s father, born in 1876).

The Pauling Family Tree.
The Pauling Family Tree.
LP Biographical, 5.001.1. Certain annotations by Linda Pauling Kamb.

1877

Carl, Adelheit, and their four children leave Missouri and travel to California, where they live for a time at Biggs, a settlement composed mostly of Germans. Here the Paulings’ last child, Anna Charlotte, is born (only she and Herman survive into their twenties).

1882

The Paulings move to Oswego, Oregon, where Carl becomes an iron monger in a local foundry. Herman Pauling begins attending grammar school.

1890

Herman Pauling graduates from grammar school and is apprenticed to an Oswego druggist.

Late 1890s

Herman Pauling works for Skidmore Drug Company in Portland, Oregon. One of his principal jobs is to travel, by horse and buggy, and sell drugs in various communities within a hundred miles of Portland.

1899

On a trip to Linus Wilson Darling’s store in Condon, Oregon, Herman Pauling meets one of the Darling daughters, Lucy Isabelle, whom everyone calls "Belle."

Lucy Isabelle "Belle" Pauling, ca. 1915.
Lucy Isabelle "Belle" Pauling, ca. 1915.
LP Photographs, 191?i.201




Table of Contents

  1. The Ancestry of Linus Pauling (The Paulings)
  2. The Ancestry of Linus Pauling (The Darlings)
  3. Linus Pauling's Childhood (1901-1910)
  4. Linus Pauling's Adolescence (1910-1917)
  5. Pauling's Years as an Undergraduate at Oregon Agricultural College, Part 1 (1917-1919)
  6. Pauling's Years as an Undergraduate at Oregon Agricultural College, Part 2 (1919-1922)
  7. Linus Pauling as a Graduate and Postdoctoral Student at the California Institute of Technology, Part 1 (1922-1923)
  8. Linus Pauling as a Graduate and Postdoctoral Student at the California Institute of Technology, Part 2 (1924-1926)
  9. A Guggenheim Fellow in Europe during the Golden Years of Physics (1926-1927)
  10. Early Career at the California Institute of Technology (1927-1930)
  11. Pauling's Great Years of Achievement in Structural Chemistry, Part 1 (1931-1932)
  12. Pauling's Great Years of Achievement in Structural Chemistry, Part 2 (1933-1935)
  13. Pauling's Increasing Involvement in Molecular Biology (1936-1939)
  14. The War Years, Part 1 (1940-1942)
  15. The War Years, Part 2 (1943-1945)
  16. The Postwar Years, Part 1 (1946-1947)
  17. The Postwar Years, Part 2 (1948-1949)
  18. Proteins, Passports, and the Prize (1950-1954)
  19. Increasing Involvement in World Peace, Part 1 (1955-1958)
  20. Increasing Involvement in World Peace, Part 2 (1959-1963)
  21. The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (1964-1967)
  22. The University of California, San Diego (1968-1969)
  23. Stanford University (1969-1972)
  24. An Institute for Science and Orthomolecular Medicine, Part 1 (1973-1977)
  25. An Institute for Science and Orthomolecular Medicine, Part 2 (1978-1981)
  26. The Years Alone: Pauling after the Death of Ava Helen, Part 1 (1982-1988)
  27. The Years Alone: Pauling after the Death of Ava Helen, Part 2 (1989-1994)
  28. About the Author