Illinois State Normal University - Index Yearbook (Normal, IL)

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The Index, 1906 divided into' the classical, theological, and agricultural depart- ments. Mr. Howe was principal and executive head of the ele- mentary and secondary schools, including the grades, high school, normal school, and college preparatory departments. The engagement at Talladega occupied eight months of each year, and during the remaining four months, when be- cause of the climate northern people- cannot well remain in Ala- bama, Mr. Howe was pursuing his studies at various schools in the north. Special work was done at the Chautauqua Sum- mer School in economics and psychology, and at Cornell Uni- versity in Mathematics. Tn 1887 Mr. Howe was elected professor of mathematics in the State Normal School at XVarrensburg', Missouri, the largest of the three state normal schools in Missouri. Here he re- mained fourteen years, being promoted to the vice-presidency in TSQ6, and to the presidency after the death of Mr. Usborne which occurred in November, 1898. In 1888, by advanced credits on work done at the Gswego Normal School, Cornell University and elsewhere, and by ex- amination, Mr. Howe was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy by the Illinois Wfesleyan University. Then during a period of twelve years he worked on the non-resident post- graduate course of the same institution and in IQ00 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Some special work was also done at the University of Chicago during this time. In the fall of IQOI Mr. Howe was invited to come to the Illinois State Normal University to succeed Mr. Felmley as head of the department of mathematics. He has conducted this department during the 'nve years with credit to himself and great satisfaction to the hundreds of students and teachers who have taken his work. In 1893 Mr. Howe was married to Miss Lillian M. Stearns, of Kansas City, a former pupil of his at XVarrensburg. Mrs. Howe's mother was an Emerson and a distant relative of the author of the same name. Mr. Howe has been prominent in the church and social life of Normal and Bloomington. He organized and taught a bible class of thirty or forty young people in the Sunday school of the Presbyterian church at Normal until he was invited to be- come the superintendent of the Sunday school of the Second Presbyterian church at Bloomington. He is also a member of the Normal Literary Center and of the College Alumni Club of Bloominoton. g 8 XV1L1.1AM T. BAVVDEN. b 5

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The Index, 1906 George Henry Howe. The Howe family traces its history in America back to the year 1634 when several representatives came over from Eng- land and settled in Salem, Massachusetts. Some years later one branchof the family moved up into Vermont and still later, about 1800, into northeastern Pennsylvania and settled at 01'- well, Bradford county. Two brothers enlisted in 1776 in the XVar of Independence, one of them being killed at Ticonderoga and the other, the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, taking part in the historic engagements at Lexington and Concord. George H. Howe was born at Orwell, Pennsylvania, and there spent the early years of his life. After completing the work offered in the village school, at the age of fifteen he was sent by his father to Towanda, the county-seat of Bradford county, to continue his studies at the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute, ahigh-grade college-preparatory school. For the next three or four years his time was divided between study and teaching, study in the fall and spring and teaching short term schools in the winter. He then taught for one year a ten- months school at Hohokus, Bergen county, New Jersey, a sub- urban residence town about twenty miles from New York City. S About this time, success as a teacher and a thoro liking for the work turned Mr. Howe's attention to the claims of teaching as a profession. As the ambition for further successes grew he began to perceive the necessity for special preparation and training, The outcome was the adoption of teaching as a life work, and the next step took him to the State Normal School at Qswego, New York. Here he spent nearly three years, graduating from the classical course in 1882. VVhile at Os- wego he made an excellent record as student and teacher, as evidenced by the fact that twicesince graduation he has been invited to return to a position in the Normal School faculty. The next five years were spent in Talladega College, Talla- dega, Alabama. This institution is a mission school patterned somewhat after the plan of Fisk University and supported as a denominational school by the Congregational Church. It is a school employing none but white teachers who have been edu- cated in the north. The plan provided a complete' system of schools from the kindergarten thru the college, the latter being 4

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