Charles C. Deam was born in 1865 near Bluffton and died in 1953. He lived most of his life on land south of here where his house, study, and arboretum were located. A Bluffton druggist, he avidly collected botanical specimens throughout Indiana from the 1890s to the 1920s and documented an important biological transition between eras of virgin forests and intensive agricultural cultivation. He served as Indiana's first State Forester from 1909 to 1913 and from 1917 to 1928, and as Research Forester from 1928 to 1940. He wrote books on the trees, shrubs, grasses, and flora of Indiana. His collections are in the Deam Herbarium at Indiana University and the Deam Arboretum in Bluffton, and the Charles C. Deam National Wilderness Area, a 12,953-acre preserve, was established in southern Indiana in 1982.