University of Minnesota School of Agriculture - Agrarian Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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'W I i --A - V V -----7 .i'..-2'....4,....'+- f'--.::'.:-'-,1---7qxgfr3.: +-l-AQ-H------i-lv 1 I, .fZ'Nf'vf??5ff. 'Q' ' x,fii ii'lXX..f 'iN Q-. 'nf -1 ilk ? t1 'fir--3T7Kx tw 14+ Y :A . Q 1 14421. fi? :lf 5 tt' ' r ' V.--'NNN 'sf so it m not r f-1:cfff1 Hffr. M S N 'fig l 51 TN ,fl N11 allw Wen l Saito l to print only at Potosi. His seat mate, Scott Dag- l gett, taught him to write-the teacher not having 4 1 xlildi l 1j'ijT 'll iff time. l wg 1- ii A f .5 ll fri At the age of 14 he passed into the state lijjjfl QQ-Qi' . . l'i'll 1 ll fbi Normal school QPlattev1llej. This he held to be . LCM lllifiill a great promotion. This was his 'awkward age.' wi' A . l . . . 'xzylf ll'-,ff He wore number 11 boots as his father said 'to Xl 4 4 u J! gm' allow for growing' and in walking lunged about 75--ly . ff 'limi over the whole sidewalk. He was too bashful to 'lf . - 2-'il if I be a ladies' man and, as a boy, avoided them un- :i,vfvlji'fi l 'J , Vg 3 ,Q less he was brought into contact by means of ggy T . . I+-.- l fi. .Xp surprise parties or the games at school. irlflg In the summer of his seventeenth year his .ll . . - l iff, i father informed him that on account of the family My M . f' x. All finances and the fact that there were other chil- ll?-W dren to educate that it was necessary for him to lfrifl illiki get out and earn money by teaching. He, there- 1 . . . .lf 1 Q. fore, made application for various country schools, Wy y lf! MR- MAYNE ON THE FARM CAMPUS, at last securing the Mound Valley School at S35 I if .ifimi 1929 er month for three months in the winter. He i M, I P ,ll A . lj-I .5 egx attended the Normal before and after this term of school. He had about 30 students Qi, ll SHN at the school. He lived at home walking out at some times and at other times driving Q71 i Qi ,l 'TJ-'W out to the school. ,A ' li ' I 5 'ull 3'-l gixlfyf. The next school he taught was a graded school of two departments at Eatna, X f ' . .... . . ff' ip Lafayette County, WISCODSIH. This was in the mining region and was a rough Part of l i Y . . . . . rx wx the country with the morals of a mining camp and all the religious fervor of the early W ',', . . . - il 'K l Rlimjl Methodists. It was difficult to get a boarding place because there had been circulated lnfhbff X V ' ll. Ellfv the story that the new teacher must' have a secretaryg as this was understood to be Xi' .ll 54 . . . '- . . . 'X lifgiej one who could write for him, it was a matter of considerable discussion. why the new ll iffy! teacher needed someone to write for him. Was he a cripple or what was the trouble? 'l ' . . . . I' ii Ny? A local preacher took him in temporarily until another place was located. The upper Q ig ii l . u N' 1 1 .4 department of the school was not well attended at the beginning but before the end of ,l Q f fn i Us, X the term 72 students were enrolled. Many of the students were much larger and older yggl TM than the teacher. It was a typical 'Hoosier schoolmaster's school.' A 'time' with the 1 lxyilil teacher was expected. The larger boys carried revolvers, dirks, or razors and felt them- i selves 'quite terrors.' The test came and the teacher gave eight of the largest boys a good fflx strapping before the school one morning. That made delightful work during the re- i. mainder of the year. At the close of the school the ring leaders went on their horses MQ! to Leadmine and bought numerous presents for the teacher. X ig! ll Then Mr. Mayne came back to the Normal at Platteville completing his work when ill, ' ,ff . . . . 1' 'ml he was twenty years old. His commencement oration was Westward in which he 5 fi . wx fi showed the development of civilization toward the west. I i 1 . . . . ' 'I ,pull The year following his graduation from the Platteville State Normal School he i 9 ii . 1 2, Vi? Mil 1 iw M-.xp Qi' l 5 l'i' H ri. . if. ij? --Q? ii? -' W 'gwwiiijgiji i, i .Y ' nl? A ,lk 'i , jiii' 'nA'j,QfQ i f sae,-' f ,f i H ,.3.g,ff55,-are-X W1 AQ. KXQ.. ng fffi 5SlX1f+ai1:f'i:fiAf5'sl Page Eigbfren S

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moving was a great delight to him. They moved into a small brick house. He was in the Primary Tifaffwjf . , f 3,'-f igA'15i-'i5f+:,ge pf., C: gf CW V., f if ference. After preaching for the Methodists here for two years-still a young man, ' Q ffl 34 years of age-he thought he would go to school. Arrangements were made and he K attended Bloomington Academy, preaching alternate Sundays at Beetown, Wisconsin. Following this he united with the Congregationalists. It was during the time at Bee- - town that Dexter was born on May 14, 1863. From here let us have the story in Mr. Mayne's own words as shown in excerpts taken from bits of a sketch of his own life , written a few years ago by himself--and quite characteristically frank and keen in its 9 W 3, introspection. Y- D. D. Mayne was born in Beetown, Grant County, Wisconsin, May 14, 1863. , 'Qi His father was a Congregational preacher. The place of his birth was a small brick KG? house of one and one-half stories. The house held two families-the Maynes living O upstairs. He was called Dexter after Reverend Dexter Cleary of Beloit, who was at .M that time the Wisconsin secretary of the Home Missionary society under whom his father I was laboring. The name Dwight was from the great theologian Dwight whose works IV f?i his father had studied. Q' ENW In January of '63 the family moved to Rockville, Wisconsin. Here he lived the A 1 U very simple life of a small boy in a small village. This was in the lead region. He H SI, often picked nuggets of 'mineral' from the waste dirt of the mines, and traded it at M the village store owned by John Carthew-later of Lancaster, Wisconsin-for candy and A so forth. A German family by the name of Meyer was the next door neighbor. They X together with his two brothers and one sister formed his companions. A pet sheep that had learned to bunt with considerable vigor occasioned him much sport. A .xl When he was six years of age the family 9 X45 moved to Potosi about six miles distant. The X I ll X A w 1 1 i X. K. R. S4 li: 5 fi department at school with Miss Pet Seaton as teacher. It was in this school that he received a severe shaking for trying to skip out of the room before regular dismissal. Heretofore recess was declared by a stroke of the bell and each pupil made a rush for the door. Miss Seaton proposed to have the pupils march out by rows. It was this order that he desired to circumvent, much to his sorrow. In the summer of 1872 the family moved to Platteville to enjoy the educational advantages there offered. They first lived in a house where the city hall now stands. It was in the Brick School here at Platte- ville that he was put back into the second reader because he could not write. He had been taught D- D. MAYNE AT 1-HRT, YEARS OF AGE, 4 K 2 C 2 4 as Page Sezfenleen

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fjiv-3' 'VX ,I it A Qf '- 'i' W I-im 'i ii ? T' -ff--1-ii'-fn ff ' 7-if weilllf si I 'mf W is H time an .wi A-for 9 eeet H f 1- -- -A yr QM as Nl served as principal of the public school at Fennimore, Wisconsin, going to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, the following year where he remained for five years. While at Elkhorn he was married to Nella G. Coman of Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, and to this union were sl born four children, James, Mac, Dexter and Nella. From 1889 to 1893 he was superin- N IZA A ,. w v X 1 tendent of schools at Fort Atkinson, going from there to Janesville where he was prin- cipal and superintendent of schools for eight years. In 1901 he became superintendent of schools at Ishpeming, Michigan, where he remained for one year. In 1903 he ac- cepted the call to his greatest life's work, the School of Agriculture of the University ,xl of Minnesota, a position which he occupied up to the time of his death, December 14, iff, 1929. It was at the School of Agriculture that his genius flowered, and grew to a fulness O' that made that institution the outstanding one of its kind in the world. In it he lived, A to it he gave his life, and it stands today as a memorial of achievement and unselfish X127 devotion dedicated by thousands of grateful and loving hearts, to whom he had shown xgl the way of success and happiness. .6 J' To Professor Mayne the problem of education was the problem of enriching the E. nation's life with minds of maturity, integrity of character, and social sympathy. He inaugurated new principles of educational contact which now constitute the very N core of the School of A riculture, and which have served as foundation stones for .fy g y i similar educational institutions throughout the world. He was born to fight for the Q goodness which is at the heart of things, and he made it a point to see that oodness X S K and develop it. He had the power to arouse and persuade the intellect in the clarity 43 and orderliness of his talk, brightened by humor and tingling wit. It seemed to him yt' to be his duty to teach, not to tickle mankind. The ambition which made him pre-eminent was X the ambition to create new ideals or to reillumine SX old neglected ones. Among his greatest mental Ex: gifts was the power to look into the future, to assemble facts, to marshal his propositions in due 1 . . . . ig order, to generalize fairly and to state his inter- pretations with such clearness and soundness that QW they sank into minds that listened. Mr. Ma ne , ,lf Y ygyl was original, fearless, and independent in his think- Alf ing and men could not frighten, decieve or cajole him. He gave his trust and loyal support to those IQ who worked with him, defended them against in- justice, and upheld them against misrepresentation. Thousands with bowed heads honor his memory, and with one voice to all time proclaim him a l Q man. J. O. CHRISTIANSON, lm Acting Principal, ,' . Miz. MAYNE READY For AN AIRPLANE lyk School of Agriculture. RIDE ANN .XJ Q IB- HL-f' -4 - N, i., Z.. i' nr ,H Z EW' -115 ing, at iii' - 'L.,,Q' H 1 , 7 Page N inefeen