USA > Indiana > Howard County > History of Howard County, Indiana, Vol II > Part 32
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introduced : the course of study throughout has been modified and improved. the latest and most approved appliances purchased and everything in keeping with modern educational progress. tested and where practical retained.
Superintendent Ogg takes great interest in his teachers, all of whom are selected with especial reference to their ability to fill ac- ceptably the positions to which assigned, the force being increased from time to time by such graduates from the high schools as he dleems best fitted for the work. In fact he encourages many of the high school students to enter the teacher's profession and to this end devotes considerable time to pedagogic lectures and instruction on this important and far-reaching subject, being greatly prized by those who contemplate making the school room their chosen field of endeavor. That the advantage of a liberal education may be generally disseminated. he has encouraged young people of the county to attend high school by giving them every possible con- sideration.
In addition to the duties of the superintendency Mr. Ogg is deeply interested in educational matters throughout the state and from time to time, he has been honored with important official posi- tions in various societies and associations, which make for the good of the work and the advancement of the teacher's profession. He was formerly an active and influential member of the Southern Teachers' Association, which he served one year as president : in 1807 he was president of the State Teachers' Association, besides holding the honorable position of president of the elementary de- partment of the National Association, the largest and most im- portant organization of teachers' of the United States. As a mem- ber of many inportant committees in those bodies, his influence has been felt while his suggestions have always commanded respect and carried weight. He has also served on a number of the leading committees in the City Superintendents' Association, besides taking
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an active part in the discussions and general deliberations of the organization, advocating certain measures with masterly force and skill and opposing whatever he deemed dangerous to the progress of educational thought.
Superintendent Ogg is widely and favorably known as an in- stitute worker and lecturer on educational subjects. He is an easy and pleasing speaker, and at times forceful and eloquent, his famil- iarity with the subject under consideration with his full command of strong and vigorous English making him popular with his audiences and to no small degree a master of the public assemblages. Before his classes he entertains and instructs at the same time. His style is direct and forceful, entirely free from redundancy, his perception is keen and his analysis acute and in all of his work he selects from a choice vocabulary the precise words that convey his meaning accur- ately and elegantly. His work in every department of education is characteristically practical and in teaching, in superintending and in devising or modifying the course of study, he possesses to a re- markable degree the sense of proportion and fitness. Continuous application through a period of thirty-six years has given him a clear and comprehensive insight into the philosophy of education and the largest wisdom as to method and means of attainment of ends, while his steady growth in public favor wherever he has labored and his popularity with teachers and pupils have won for him educational standing. He possesses the personal charm and tact which make him popular with the young and it is nothing im- usual to see him on the street surrounded by a group of urchins. some of them clinging to his arms and all listening intently to what he may be saying. By entering into their spirit and pastimes, sym- pathizing with them in their troubles, listening to and settling their disputes and making their interests his own, he has become the idol. almost, of the juveniles of the city, his being one with them render- ing the teachers' work easy and adding greatly to his own popular-
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ity, not only with the children but also with the adult portion of the populace.
Although a school man in the broadest and best sense of the term and as such, making every other consideration secondary to his professional and official duties, Superintendent Ogg has never become narrow or pedantic as have so many whose lives have been spent in intimate association with the immature minds within the four walls of the school room. He is a well rounded, symmetric- ally developed man, fully alive to the demands of the times, thor- oughly informed on the leading questions before the public and takes broad views of men and things. By keeping in touch with the times and the trend of current thought he is enabled to discharge the duties of citizenship in the intelligent manner becoming the level-headed American of today, and his acquaintances with the history of the country and its institutions makes him in the true meaning of the word a politician, but not a partisan. In state and national issues he votes with the Republican party, but in local matters and issues he is practically independent, voting as his judgment dictates, in- stead of obeying the behests of party leaders. He believes in prog- ress in other than the profession to which he belongs and to at- tain the end manifests an abiding interest in whatever makes for the material advancement of the community, encouraging all worthy enterprises and lending his influence to means whereby his fellow men may be benefited, and made better. He is in hearty accord with landable and healthful pastimes and sports, such as base ball, basket ball, hurdle and foot racing, and all kinds of athletics that tend to develop and strengthen the physical powers. These he en- courages among the pupils of the schools, believing that development of the body as well as the mind and heart to be essential to the make-up of the scholarly and well rounded man.
Our subject owns a farm in Greene county, which he pur-
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chased in a wild condition and with his own hands helped to clear and ditch. developing the land from a marshy state into a fine and productive place. For a month each summer he hies away to his farm and spends the time as a tiller of the soil. In this way he finds rest and recreation which the arduous duties of his office render im- perative, and later returns to his work in the city, strengthened and refreshed in body and reinvigorated in mind. He has his farm thoroughly under drained and improved with substantial and com- fortable buildings and from its cultivation no small part of his in- come is derived.
Superintendent Ogg was married in the year 1877 to Louise Hutcherson, of New Albany, Indiana, but at that time living in the town of Mitchell, where the ceremony was solemnized. The two children born of this union died in infancy. Superintendent and Mrs. Ogg have opened their home and hearts to several nephews and nieces whom they have partially reared and to whom they have devoted the same consideration and affection they would have shown to their own off-spring. Both are well known and highly esteemed in social and religious circles, moving as they do in the best society of their city and being active and prominent workers in the Methodist Episcopal church. Both are deeply interested in the Sunday school and have done much in their respective lines of en- deavor to bring it up to the present high and flourishing condition. The superintendent now has charge of about thirty-five young men. the majority of them students of the high school. who profit by his analysis and interpretation of the word of God. He is a man of commanding influence in his church, both in local and general mat- ters, stands high in the councils and deliberations of the organiza- tion in Kokomo. He has also been prominent in the state Sunday school work, being for several years a member of the board of directors of the State Association, attending at intervals the various
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conventions under the auspices of the State Sunday School Associa- tion, besides being a delegate to the interdenominational conventions, in all of which bodies his voice has been heard in behalf of better methods of instruction and a higher grade of teachers, for what he considers one of the greatest and most important fields of labor ever vouchsafed to human instrumentality. The Beta Theta Phi Society, a college fraternity, is the only fraternal organization with which he is identified, nevertheless he is in sympathy with the ends which secret benevolent societies have in view and to the extent of his ability and influence strives to live up to the high standard of man- hood and citizenship which they enjoin. He was for six years a member of the board of trustees of Indiana University.
Superintendent Ogg is a gentleman of pleasing personality, re- fined and cultured, courteous in his relations with his fellow men and retains the warm and abiding friendship of all with whom he associates. His individuality, which is very distinct, is impressed upon any work with which he is connected, and in the accomplish- ment of a purpose, he is willing to assume any amount of labor re- quired or any measure of responsibility incurred. In brief he is a broad-minded, manly man, a credit to his profession, a leader among the educators of the state, and a gentleman without pretense whom to know is to respect and honor.
JOHN 1. VINEY.
The subject of this sketch is a well known and popular citizen who has been commissioned pension attorney at Kokomo where his labors among his fellow men have made him a much liked public character, being known as a man of keen perceptive faculties, un-
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usual soundness of judgment and upright in all his dealings with his fellow countrymen, until today his name stands high on the scroll of honored residents of Howard county.
John I. Viney was born in Fayette county. West Virginia, Janu- ary 12, 1840, and came to Indiana with his mother and step-father in 1852, settling in Carroll county. The name of the latter was John V. Fullwider and his mother's name was Francina. The subject was reared to manhood in that county, living there until past twenty years of age, when he felt it his duty to sever home ties and offer his ser- vices in suppressing the great rebellion that was threatening the Re- public, consequently he enlisted in September. 1861, in Company .A. Forty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, at Delphi, Carroll county. with John H. Gould. ex-judge of the circuit court, as captain. The company saw its first service in Kentucky and Tennessee, later in Missouri, where New Madrid was taken; then in Arkansas and Mississippi : was sent to New Orleans, and later returned to Vicks- burg, where it engaged in the great siege for forty-seven days, and was in the army that took Jackson. Mississippi. The company was again sent to New Orleans with General Banks and to Matagorda Bay. The subject was wounded November 3, 1863. at Faux Carion Crow Bayou, Louisiana, receiving a musket ball in the left arm and side. The ball came out and he still has it in his possession. to- gether with a part of the bloody coat sleeve. He refused a dis- charge from the general hospital, the chief surgeon advising it, and after a furlough of sixty days he rejoined his company at New Orleans, being at that time on the Red river expedition. Being wounded he was refused, but was put in charge of twenty men in guarding repair shops, later serving as military police in New Or- leans. He assisted in making out the pay rolls of non-veterans for six or seven regiments. He was discharged December 1. 1864. after an absence from home of three years and three months, and came
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back to Carroll county. He had met Susan Z. Powell in New Orleans, a southern girl, born in Panola county, Texas, and ed- ucated in New Orleans, who then lived at Tangipaho Station, Louisi- ana, where her parents moved October, 17, 1864, but he left her to come home for the purpose of being mustered out. He sent for her and she came on to Burlington, Carroll county, Indiana. Her family was divided, one brother was a captain on a Confederate gun boat and lost a leg at the battle of Bayou Beth, Louisiana. One brother, Henry, was in the Seventh Louisiana "Tigers". One sister was also in league with the South, but the girl who became our sub- ject's wife was a Northern sympathizer. One brother, who at- tempted to surrender, was accidentally shot by Federal troops.
After returning home Mr. Viney engaged in farming for sev- eral years near Burlington, Carroll county. His wound somewhat handicapped him for farm work, and he went to Burlington, en- gaging in a grocery store for six years. He was postmaster of that town under Harrison's administration, having ably served in that capacity for four years and six months. Then he was elected as- sessor for one term, after which he was re-appointed postmaster under President McKinley, serving another term for four years and again was re-appoined for four years, but resigned after nine years of service as postmaster, having been compelled to do so on account of failing health. He came to Kokomo May 29, 1902. For a time he clerked in a store; then operated a garden and since 1906 has been devoting his time exclusively to his duties as pension attorney, having a commission dating back to General Q. C. LaMars as secretary, having served in a similar capacity in Carroll county after the war for three terms. He has also been deputy county assessor for one term and also did other similar work on various boards. He was quarter master of the local post of the Grand Army of the Re- public at Burlington, of which he was a charter member, having held the position mentioned until the post was disbanded.
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Mr. Viney had one son, Claude, by his first wife, living in Ko- komo. The first wife of the subject passed to her rest after they had been married sixteen years. The mother of the subject's first wife was a radical Union woman. Mr. Viney married Mary C. McGuire, of Burlington. November 18, 1878. He has the following children by this union: Omar, living in Kokomo: Roscoe, a nail maker : Ethel, a milliner : Myrtle is a school girl in 1908. Mr. Viney is and has been notary public for about eleven years. He is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. He has been well and favor- ably known wherever he has resided, always maintaining a high standard of living. being upright. industrious, honest and kind hearted, so that he makes friends easily.
PROF. SHERIDAN COX.
Of high professional and academic attainments and possessing organizing force and executive ability of a superior order the late Sheridan Cox, of Kokomo, for twenty years the efficient superin- tendent of the city's educational system, achieved honorable distinc- tion in one of the most responsible and exacting callings and at the time of his lamented death occupied a conspicuous and influential place among the leading educators of the Middle West. . As an organizer he had few equals as his work in various places abundantly indicate, as an executive he possessed rare judgment and foresight, together with the ability and tact which enabled him to take ad- vantage of circumstances and mould them to suit his purposes, and as an instructor he had the faculty of imparting to others precisely and specifically what he knew so as to obtain the best possible re- sults. Distinctively one of the most successful educators of his day
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and generation in Indiana, and a gentleman of commanding talents and sterling worth whom to know was to esteem and honor, he left the impress of his individuality deeply impressed upon his various fields of labor, the schools which organized and raised to a high state of efficiency through his efforts constituting a monument to his ability and painstaking endeavor.
Prof. Cox was a native of Harrison county, Ohio, where his birth occurred on the 20th day of December. 1833. His early life amid the stimulating influences of rural scenes was conducive to a well rounded physical development and on his father's farm, where he spent his childhood and youth, he not only learned habits of in- dustry but matured plans for the future with the object in view of becoming something more than a mere passive agent in a world which called for men of strong will and well defined purposes to di- rect and control its affairs. Possessing a keen and naturally inquisitive mind and a liking almost akin to passion for books and study he made rapid progress in the country schools which he first attended. the discipline thus received being afterwards supplemented by a course in the McNeely Normal School at Hopedale, where he prosecuted his studies for the purpose of fitting himself for the still higher training of the university. In due time he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, where he applied himself closely and earned an honorable record as an able and industrious student, stand- ing among the first of his class when he was graduated in the year 1862 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Prior to and during his university course he devoted considerable time to teaching and im- mediately after receiving his degree he accepted a professorship in Marshall College, Marshall, Illinois, which he held one year, re- signing the position at the expiration of that time to take charge of the public schools at Winchester. Indiana.
Professor Cox's advancement as an educator was rapid, and it
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was not long until his services were in demand in other and larger fields than the one at Winchester, where he earned such a creditable record as a superintendent and instructor. Learning of his success as an organizer and manager the school board at Logansport. In- (liana, tendered him the superintendency of the schools of the city. which position he accepted and in which he accomplished a work of great and far-reaching importance, such as had never before been attempted in the place and as signally successful perhaps as any of his subsequent efforts. He found the schools of the city in a dis- organized condition with no executive head, each teacher being in- dependent and privileged to make his own course of study. In due time he effected a radical and important change. evolving order from chaos by reorganizing the entire educational system and establish- ing it upon a permanent basis and securing only such teachers as were professionally qualified to conduct the work assigned them. The happy results of his efforts were soon apparent in the enlarged enrollment of pupils, the adoption of a systematic course of study and the introduction of new and improved methods together with a full complement of apparatus for scientific and other work in the higher grades. Mrs. Cox was elected principal of the high school and as such proved the right person in the right place, being eminently fitted by professional and academic training for the duties and re- sponsibilities of the position and so demonstrated her ability as a teacher that within a comparatively brief time the apartment was crowded to its utmost capacity with eager and ambitious students. not a few of whom were young men and women from the rural dis- tricts, anxious to avail themselves of this opportunity for acquiring an education. From the time that Mrs. Cox became principal of the high school it took on new life and during the seven years she held the position the growth was steady and substantial and its popular- ity much more than local as was indicated by the large number of
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students that came from other parts, many of whom, as already stated, in the first blush of young manhood and womanhood. Never was the attendance of non-resident pupils so great as during her in- cumbency and it is a matter of frequent comment that after her resignation there was a decided dimunition in this class of learners. Among those who formerly profited by the able instruction of Mrs. Cox and who hold her name in grateful remembrance are many of the representative men and women of Logansport and Cass county, some filling honorable positions in law, medicine, business and other vocations and all attributing to her any success in life they may have obtained.
In the year 1873 Professor Cox and his estimable wife ser- ered their connections with the schools of Logansport to accept similar positions in Kokomo where, during the ensuing twenty years, they labored earnestly and effectively, bringing the educa- tional system of that city to a high degree of efficiency and making it one of the best in the state. As a superintendent Professor Cox had no superiors. An excellent disciplinarian, the schools under his management were always orderly and in the highest degree system- atic and between his teachers and himself a mutual confidence ever obtained while his relations with pupils were such as to gain their good will and profound regard. Personally he was the most affable and companionable of men, possessing to a marked degree the qual- ities that win and retain strong friendships and his high standing as a citizen with the best interests of his fellow men at heart gave him influence such as few in the community exercised. In appear- ance he was above the average height and compactly built, a com- manding figure in any crowd or assemblage and of calm dignified demeanor, moving among his fellows as one born to leadership. Notwithstanding the dignity of his presence, he had a pleasing and attractive personality, was easily approachable and though modest
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and unostentatious in his relations with the world, made every other consideration subordinate to duty regardless of consequences and lived in harmony with his highest ideals of manhood and citizenship.
Professor Cox was a student all his life. from his first experi- ments in living until its toilsome close. He accepted labor as the motive duty and destiny of man and never was he known timidly to shrink from its mandate or injunction. Labor to him was a joy and pleasure and his ambition to excel in the noble field of endeavor to which his talents were devoted became the predominate incentive of his life. That he rose to a high and honorable position among the distinguished educators of Indiana and won a reputation second to none of his contemporaries was due to his inborn determination to succeed and in the broadest and best sense of the term he was the architect of his own fortune, and eminently worthy to wear the proud American title of "a self-made man".
After serving the people of Kokomo very acceptably for a period of twenty years and identifying his name for all time with the educational interests of the city he resigned the superintendency and established the Maplewood Classical School, which in con- junction with his wife, he conducted until his death and which has become a popular educational institution, patronized and greatly prized by the best families of the city besides attracting students from other places. In his church relations the professor was a Methodist and for many years occupied a position of commanding influence in religious circles, having been an influential worker in the Grace church of Kokomo and widely and favorably known in his denomination throughout the state. He also stood high in Masonry, in which he took a number of the advanced degrees, in- cluding that of Sir Knight and Chaplain of the Grand Lodge and was ever active in disseminating the principles of the order among his fellow men, his own life affording a conspicuous example of their value when applied to human affairs.
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Professor Cox was an upright, manly man of noble aims, high idleals and generous impulses whose life was fraught with good to his kind and whose long and useful career presented a series of con- tinued successes such as few educators achieve. There were no whirl-eddies or cascades in the current of his years, it had rather a quiet, steady, earnest and placid flow. He chose the noiseless ways and paths of the world rather than the din and clamor of the mad- dening crowd that induce unrest, but when it became necessary to enter the public arena he did so fearlessly and left upon the minds of his contemporaries the impress of duty ably and faithfuly performed. As already indicated, he aimed to be thorough and exhaustive in all he undertook, assuming nothing and taking nothing for granted. any subject under his consideration received his undivided attention and discriminating thought. This accounts very largely for his suc- cess as a teacher and superintendent, and for the honorable standing which he attained in social and religious life and in the world of affairs. If there was one mastering, dominant instinct or impulses of his nature, it was to do right for he early chose the good as his law and always aimed and labored to diffuse it. His temperament was even, calm but positive, and like his morality it never abated He cared little about the probabilities-the end was the truth and from this he would not fluctuate nor with less than logical or rational motives make excursions from it. He was withal a man of warm heart and tender sensibilities and few unkind words ever escaped his lips. His friendships were ardent and unflattering, his integrity and candor above reproach and his large and genial nature stole into the minds and hearts of all who knew him in such a way as to gain and permanently retain their confidence and esteem. After an ill- ness of one week's duration, on May 2d, of the year tooo, Sheridan Cox. student. teacher, professor, superintendent and prominent ed- ucator, also an influential co-laborer with good men and women in
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