Norman J. Colman

Norman Jay Colman (May 16, 1827 to November 3, 1911) was an American politician, attorney, educator and newspaper publisher who served as the 6th United States Commissioner of Agriculture from April 1885 to February 1889 under President Grover Cleveland, during which he helped secure passage of the Hatch Act of 1887 establishing agricultural experiment stations. When the office was elevated to a cabinet-level Secretary of Agriculture in February 1889 he became its first holder, serving only eighteen days before the Cleveland administration ended, a position never confirmed by the Senate.