University of Wisconsin Oshkosh - Quiver Yearbook (Oshkosh, WI)

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promoted to the principalship of the Dewey school, the finest and most completely equipped school building in that city. Mr. McLoughlin is a natural and therefore a successful teacher. He is a close student of educational history, thought, and activity, and his sympathies in school work are broad and, at the same time. deep. Aside from his regular school duties lie is a diligent and discriminating student of political and economical history, literature, and the sciences. His hobby, if he has one. is literature, in which he has read widely and methodically. He is familiar with most that is good and stimulating in English and American literature, and while partial to the great masters of the past, he finds time to read and contemplate the best writers of the present. Mr. McLoughlin has enriched his mind by extensive travel. A few years ago he spent several months in the British Isles and Western Europe, and he is personally acquainted with everv section and nearly every state in the United States. He was married in 1885 to Miss Katherine Mulvev, one of the most successful teachers in Fowl du Lac countv. They have a pleasant and happy family of two daughters and one son. and live in their own comfortable and charming home in Englewood, Chicago. Besides a lively professional spirit. Mr. McLoughlin possesses good business ability. and by prudent and judicious investments he has acquired a financial competency that places him bevond the reach of want or worry. A LETTER TO THE “QUIVER” Editors- of “The Quiver: —The invitation to contribute a letter to “The Quiver” came to me as a very pleasant surprise. 1 do not feel that I have any thoughts that will be of especial value to the present generation of Normal students, but to be given the opportunity to again take an active part in the student life of the Normal, even for a little time, helps one “to renew his youth,” as it were, and brings back memories of days that were wholly good—days filled to the brim with hard work. and. as it seemed then, sometimes filled almost to the brim with trials and vexation of spirit, but as now seen through the vista of a decade and more of years gone by, they were the days when the real and the good in life were first making themselves known to a soul hungry for just those things, and that makes them, not better than the days which have come since, but withal, very pleasant to think upon. As I sit by my window this beautiful spring morning, memory takes me back to a similar morning, in April, (I think it was the nth), 1888. On that morning I returned to the Normal after a two years’ absence in teaching school in the country. I thought my plans, so far as my school life was concerned, were fully settled. That was to be mv last term in school, for T was getting too old to go to school. Life was too short to spend any more time in getting ready to live. I wished to get out into the world and really live. But these plans were changed before the end of the term. The reason for changing my plans was that I fell in love during the term with the study of Geometry and Miss Webster’s way of teaching it. And when school closed in June. I felt “that I must go to the end, I must know what comes after.” 19

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Vassar graduate and a graduate of the State School at Trenton also. Miss Dynes has visited the Oshkosh Normal once since 92. on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary. and hopes to attend the lumni meeting in June of '02. ELD WARD McLOUGHLIN Edward McLoughlin was born in Troy, New York, in 1852. His parents migrated to Rosendale. Fond du Lac county. W isconsin, in 1885. and there he was brought up amid all the trials and hardships of a pioneer farm life. Ilis father died in 1856, leaving the mother and three children, of whom Edward was the oldest, to fight the battle of existence. When old enough he attended the district school, two and a half miles from his home. As soon as he was able to work he was obliged to help on the farm, and after that his schooling was limited to four months the winter term—every year. He was always assiduous in his studies, always ambitious to excel, and. as a result of earnest and extra work at school and at home, he received his first teacher’s certificate when sixteen years old. The following winter lie attended the bond du I.ac High School, and taught his fust school the next summer in his home district, for $24 a month. During the next three years he taught district schools in the winters, attended High school springs and falls, and worked on the farm summers. He entered the Oshkosh Normal School in the spring of 1872. and graduated with the first class in 1875. In January. 1876. he became principal of the New London High School and held that position until January, 1S78. when he resigned to accept the county superintendence of Eond du Lac county. He held the superintendency eight years, declining further re-election to enter journalism. He was editor and half-proprietor of the Eond du Lac Journal three years, relinquishing both positions because lie could not secure entire proprietary control. He then took up the study of medicine, graduating from Rush Medical College. Chicago, in rpoo. as valedictorian of his class. He practiced medicine two years in the city of Fond du Lac. and then abandoned it to accept the principalship of the Fond du Lac High School and supcrintency of the city schools, which positions he held two years and until he went to accept a school principalship in Chicago. In 1885 he was nominated for State Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin by the Democratic party, and. with one exception, led his ticket, running several thousand votes ahead of his colleagues. He was elected mayor of Fond du Lac in the spring of 1892. resigning in September to assume the school duties in that city, referred to above. During the eleven years of his county superintendency and editorship, he served as state conductor of teachers’ institutes. receiving his appointment annually from the state superintendent. He was twice a member of committees to visit Normal Schools. In i8 o lie declined to be a candidate for state superintendent, preferring a professional career, upon which he had just entered. to political preferment. His party was successful that year.and had he accepted the tendered honor, he would have been at the head of educational work of the state four years. Mr. McLoughlin went to Chicago in January, 1895. to accept the principalship of the Herman Raster school. He held that position until January, 1901, when he was

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During the following long vacation, I reasoned myself into the belief, which has stayed with me since, that we have no right to consider our student years as a mere getting ready to live,” and the years which follow as the real life. Every year, in school or out. should he a getting ready to live.” and at the same time every year should he made a part of real life. If young men could get this thought firmly in mind, 1 think some of them might not he in such a hurry to bring their student years to a close. When September of the year mentioned came. I felt, the temple hells are calling. and it's there that I would he”—I learned many a valuable lesson during those years, and the above was not the least among them, for it made me contented to prolong my student days. Equally valuable was a lesson which never fully formulated itself in my mind until near the end of my Senior year, and seems to have come more especially in connection with my work in Psychology with President Albce. ft was something as follows: The human race naturally loves life, and it is commonly considered desirable to live many years. Put to one who loves life and longs for life more abundantly.” length is not the most important dimension. That which is of highest importance may he thought of as the cubical contents of life. Length is desirable only when there is also height and depth and breadth of living. That which is worth being concerned about is that we live each day with high aspirations, and with deep and broad sympathies. If this be done it makes little difference whether the years an individual passes in the particular cvcle we call life be few or many. It a soul lives on the highest level which it is able to reach, and with the deepest and broadest sympathies it is capable of. it has done all it can. 1 thank the editors of The Quiver” for this opportunity. Fraternally yours. A. B. O'NEIL. 20