USA > Ohio > Ohio's progressive sons; a history of the state; sketches of those who have helped to build up the commonwealth > Part 68
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In 1896 the degree of Doctor of Science was conferred upon him by the Ohio State University, and in 1899 he was elected to his present position of Professor Emeritus in Mechanical Engineering. In connection with his other work, Professor Robinson was State Inspector of Railroads and Bridges from 1880 until 1884; was consulting engineer to the Santa Fe Railroad from 1887 until 1890, and consulting engineer of the Lick Telescope and mountings in 1887. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Amer- ican Society of Mechanical Engineers, Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education.
He has been a frequent contributor to scientific literature, his writings being of great value. He is the author of "The Principles of Mechanism," a college text book; four of Van Nostrand's Science Series, namely : No. 8, Compound Steam Engines; Part II in Ana- lytical and Graphic Treatment, published in 1884; No. 24, Teeth of Gear Wheels, and Robinson's Templet Odontograph, issued in 1876; No. 59, Railroad Economics, published in 1882; No. 60, Strength of Wrought Iron Bridge Members; also numerous monographs, including measurement of gas wells, railroad laboratories, car brakes, vibration of bridges, car couplers, flow of water in rivers, and numerous articles in connection with reports of railroad inspection to societies of membership, and engineering magazines.
Professor Robinson has been twice married. In 1863 he wedded Miss M. E. Holden, who died in 1885, and in 1888 he was united in marriage to Miss M. Haines. Their home is located at No. 1353 Highland Street, Columbus, Ohio.
Herbert Osborn,
Professor of Zoology and Entomology, Ohio State University, Director of the Lake Laboratory, was born in a frontier home in Lafayette Township, Walworth County, Wis- consin, on the 19th of March, 1856. His parents were both from Massachusetts; both had reached Wisconsin in early days, and they were married and located in Walworth County on the Ist of May, 1844.
His father, Charles Paine Osborn was born at Hadley, Massachusetts, on the 22d of November, 1817, and died at Fairfax, Iowa, on the 27th of April, 1891. His grandfather, Alpheus Osborn, was a soldier in the War of 1812; a great-grandfather, Roswell Paine, and a great-great-grandfather, James Chamberlain, were in the American Revolution, the former
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as a Captain. His grandmother on the father's side descended from Stephen Paine, who settled in New England in 1638, coming from Norfolk, England. His mother, Harriet Newell Marsh, was born at Montague, Massachusetts, on the 28th of August, 1823, and still lives. Her ancestors trace back through six generations of Marshes to John Marsh, of Hartford, Connecticut, whose wife was a daughter of Governor John Webster. A great- great-grandfather, Enos Marsh, was a Revolu- tionary soldier.
The family moved from Wisconsin to Iowa in 1863, locating at Fairfax, Linn County, which was at that time practically unbroken prairie. The country settled rapidly, how- ever, and schools fully up to the average of the time were soon available.
The subject of our sketch, after the usual common school work, began study at Iowa College, Grinnell, but work here was inter- rupted by sickness and lack of funds, and his next college work was taken up at the Iowa Agricultural College at Ames in 1876, where he completed a four years' course, graduating in November, 1879, with the degree of B. Sc. Funds for the college course were secured by teaching country schools and by work during the college terms. On graduating, he was elected to a position as assistant in zoology and entomology, but continued his studies, receiving the degree of Master of Science on HERBERT OSBORN completion of the graduate course of study. Though holding the position at Ames con- tinuously from the day of graduation till 1898, he was able, by taking advantage of long winter vacations, to pursue studies further. Thus he spent the winter of 1881-1882 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, the winter of 1883-1884 in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Des Moines, giving also a course of lectures on Parasites and Parasitic Diseases of Man; the winter of 1885-1886 in Washington, working in the Division of Entomology and the National Museum.
From assistant in zoology and entomology he was gradually advanced to the head of the department, and given charge also of the work in geology. In 1890 the duties of entomol- ogist of the Iowa Experiment Station were added, while during the years 1885 to 1894 he was special agent for Iowa of the Division of Entomology of the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture. In 1893 he had charge of the exhibit in entomology from the experi- ment stations of the United States in the Columbian Exposition at Chicago. A law was enacted by the Iowa Legislature in the winter of 1898, under which the entomologist of the experiment station was made ex-officio State Entomologist, and Professor Osborn filled this position from the time the law took effect till his departure for his present position in Ohio. Dr. Kellicott died in April, 1898. The position was offered to Professor Osborn in June. He assumed the duties of his present position in September of 1898.
During his connection with the Department of Agriculture, Professor Osborn made numerous trips for the purpose of investigating insect outbreaks in Iowa, Wisconsin,
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Missouri and Kansas, and his published reports include life history studies upon a number of important pests. In the winter of 1891-1892 he took an extended trip through Mexico, collecting insects at various points as far south as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The results were the discovery of a number of new species and the gathering of material that has added to the known distribution of a number of other forms. A trip to Europe was made in the winter of 1894-1895, primarily for study at the Naples Zoological Station, where for three months he occupied the Smithsonian Table. Visits in London, Paris, Berlin, Leipsic, Munich, Florence, Rome and other cities were utilized in studying the laboratories and museums of some of the best-known centers of zoological study.
While his efforts have been primarily in the field of the teacher, not a year since his first country school in 1875 having passed without its regular grind of school work, an active interest has been kept up in other lines, and investigations and experiments in the field of entomology have been numerous. Many new species of insects have been discovered and described, mainly in the groups of Mallophage and Hemipters, and numerous additions to the knowledge of life-histories and methods of controlling injurious species. He has con- tributed many short articles on injurious insects to leading agricultural papers, among them the "Iowa Homestead," "Prairie Farmer," "Orange Judd Farmer," "American Agri- culturist," and "The Ohio Farmer." His scientific papers have appeared in various tech- nical journals and the proceedings of scientific societies. An extended report on the "Insects Affecting Domestic Animals," over three hundred pages and numerous original illustra- tions, was published by the Department of Agriculture in 1896, one on the "Hessian Fly in the United States" in 1898. The articles on "Parasitic Insects" and "Poisonous Insects" in Woods' "Reference Hand Book of the Medical Sciences" (1903), are from his pen.
He was elected a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1883, made a Fellow in 1884, and a member of the Societe Entomologique de France in 1888. He was President of the Iowa Academy of Science in 1887-1888, and for a number of years its Secretary-Treasurer and editor of its proceedings. He was President of the Entomological Club of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1891, during the Washington meeting, and of the Association of Economic Entomologists for the Boston meeting in 1898. He is also a member of the Biological Society of Washington, the Entomological Society of Washington, the American Entomological Society of Philadel- phia, and of the National Geographic Society ; Treasurer of the Ohio Academy of Sciences, member of the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, and member for Ohio of the Advisory Board of Entomologists for the National Mosquito Extermination Society.
He was married on the 19th of January, 1883, to Alice Isadore Sayles, of Manchester, Iowa, a graduate of the Iowa Agricultural College in 1881. They have a family of five children.
John Robert Anderson,
Superintendent of the Public Schools in Bellaire, Ohio, a conscientious and capable educator, was born on the 3Ist of July, 1863, at Bellaire. He is the son of a coal miner, Isaac C. Anderson, a native of Pennsylvania, and M. J. Lashley Anderson, a native of this State. The father's family were early settlers of Pennsylvania, and were of English origin, while the mother was of German parentage. Mr. Anderson was educated at the Bellaire common schools, and graduated from the High School of that city in 1882. Later he attended Bethany College, West Virginia, from which institution he received the honorary degrec of A.M. At the early age of nineteen years Mr. Anderson became a teacher in the Belmont
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County schools. He subsequently held the posi- tion of Principal of the Second Ward school at Bellaire, served for ten years in the Central School in the same capacity, and as teacher in the Bellaire High School. Since 1897 Mr. Anderson has had charge of the Superintend- - ency of the public schools of his home city, and, thanks to his ability, energy and con- scientiousness, the schools of Bellaire have reached a high standard. Mr. Anderson has devoted a great deal of his time to technical studies, the result of which culminated in the invention of a thermo signal, a heat regulator of great merit, which will be introduced in in the new High School building at Bellaire. He is proprietor of the flourishing enterprise, the Bellaire Foundry and Machine Company, located in the city mentions. For many years he has been a member of the Teachers' JOHN ROBERT ANDERSON Examiners of his city. Socially, Mr. Anderson is a Mason, K. of P., and a member of the I. O. O. F. In 1887 he became the husband of Mollie B. Ward, and by that marriage is the father of eight children, five of whom are boys. The Anderson family attends the Christian Church of Bellaire, in which Mr. Anderson is a Deacon and a member of the Official Board.
John Kirk Baxter,
Superintendent of the Public Schools of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, was born at West Liberty, Iowa. He is the son of William A. Baxter, a miller, and Mrs. Hannah (Ball) Baxter, both of whom were natives of Ohio. Mr. Baxter is of Irish descent on his father's sidc, his great- grandfather emigrating from Ireland when seventeen years of age. His mother's people were of Scotch extraction. At the carly age of six months Mr. Baxter's parents brought him to East Rochester, Columbiana County, Ohio, where he obtained the first rudiments of an cducation in the district schools. Later he attended Malvern High School and gradu- ated from Hiram College in 1800. When six- teen years of age hc commenced to earn his own living, working laboriously in his father's mill, and afterwards as a teacher in the coun- try schools, thereby obtaining the necessary funds to pay for his subsequent education. For five years he was Superintendent of the
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schools of Malvern, at the expiration of which time he entered Hiram College, remaining there for three years. After leaving college, Mr. Baxter accepted the position of Principal of the Mt. Vernon High School, holding the same for a continuous period of eight years. In 1898, when Mr. Bonebrake retired from the Superintendency of the schools of Mt. Ver- non, to enter on his first term of Commissioner of the Schools of Ohio, to which honorable position he was elected the previous year, Mr. Baxter was unanimously elected by the School Board of that city to fill the vacant position. Mr. Baxter is an educator of high rank, and a fluent speaker. He has done a great deal of Institute work in different parts of the State, and is the holder of a life High School certificate, given to him in 1893. In politics, Mr. Baxter is a faithful Republican. He is Trustee of the Public Library of Mt. Vernon, a member of the different branches of Masonry and a K. T., and belongs to the National Teachers' Association, of which he was a director in 1902; and a member of the State Teachers' Association. Miss Flora Ross, an accomplished lady of Carroll County, became his bride in 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Baxter are members of the Christian Church of Mt. Vernon.
A. D. Beechy,
Superintendent of the Public Schools of Norwalk, Ohio, an educator of recognized ability, was born on the 11th of April, 1852, in Berlin, Holmes County, Ohio, where his father, David Beechy, operated a farm. His mother's maiden name was Judith (Yoder), and she, like his father, was a native of Ohio. The boyhood days of Mr. Beechy were spent on the farm, where he assisted his father in obtaining a livelihood. He was educated in the common schools of Holmes County, at Haysville Acad- emy, Ashland County ; at Mt. Union College, Alliance, and in a post-graduate course at Wooster. He holds the degrees of A.B. and A.M. from Mt. Union College and the title of Doctor of Philosophy from the Wooster Uni- versity. When eighteen years of age he began teaching, following his profession in country, village and town schools, at Elmore, Ohio; Louisville, Ohio, and Berlin, Ohio, saving his earnings to pay for his further education. During the years of 1889-1891 Mr. Beechy was A. D. BEECHY Principal of the Norwalk High School; since that latter period he has filled the position of Superintendent of Schools of Norwalk. Mr. Beechy is an affable, large-hearted and highly educated gentleman, and has a circle of appreciative friends throughout the State, especially in his home cities, where his long resi- dence has year by year added to his popularity. He stands high in his profession, and is looked upon by the public, as well as those over whom he occupies a supervisory position, as a man of exceptional ability and stability of character. In political life, Mr. Beechy is a staunch adherent of the Republican belief, but has never held any political office. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the I. O. O. F. In 1882 he led to the altar Miss Theresa Baumann, an accomplished young ladv. One daughter is the issue of this union.
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John Remsen Bishop,
Ex-Principal of the Walnut Hills High School, at Cincinnati, Ohio, and now Principal of the Eastern High School, Detroit, is con- ceded to be an educator of more than ordinary ability and learning. His education was thorough, he having graduated from the cele- brated Harvard University, after which he took up the profession of teaching. His career as an educator commenced in 1882, when he accepted the position of instructor in Greek in the St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hamp- shire. This position Mr. Bishop held for one year, after which he became Principal of the Preparatory School in Princeton, New Jersey, remaining there for a period of three years. In 1888 he became instructor in Greek and Latin in the Hughes High School at Cincinnati. For seven years he taught those languages at Old JOHN REMSEN BISHOP Hughes, and it is needless to say that he met with the greatest success. His ability as a teacher, as well as his executive qualifications were fully recognized in 1895, when the Board of Education of Cincinnati appointed him as Principal of the Walnut Hills High School, which institution had been recently erected. Mr. Bishop continued in that important position for nine years, and resigned in 1904 to accept a position as Principal of one of the High Schools of Detroit, Michigan, in which city he now resides. In June, 1903, he received the honorary degree of Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. His departure from Cincinnati was considered a great mis- fortune to the educational advantages of the Queen City, for during his stay in the metrop- olis of Ohio he has been of incalculable service to the educational advancement of Cincinnati. It is hoped that in his new field of usefulness the people of Detroit will appreciate and ben- efit by his many sterling qualities, not only as an educator, but as a man.
J. J. Bliss, A. M.,
Superintendent of Public Schools, Bucyrus, Ohio. Among the educators of Ohio few have been more thoroughly devoted to their pro- fession than has J. J. Bliss, who by teaching sent himself first to Hiram College, then to Oberlin, at which latter place he graduated with the degree of A.B. in the full classical
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course in 1881. His next year was spent as Superintendent of the Schools on Kelley Island. Three months in a private school in Mansfield the following autumn convinced him that the public schools afforded the most satisfactory field for teaching. In January, 1883, he entered the Bucyrus High School, where he spent the remainder of that year and the two succeeding ones as Principal. In the autumn of 1885 he was called to Crestline in the same county (Crawford) as Superintendent, where he remained ten years, going back to Bucyrus as Superintendent in 1895, where he has since been.
Mr. Bliss has been active in all educational matters of the county, having taken especial interest in the Ohio Teachers' Reading Circle branch in the county, and in the teachers' institutes. At present he is actively engaged in establishing a Y. M. C. A. and a public library in his city. Of the former he is President, and of the latter a Trustee and Secre- tary. He is a graduate of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and of the Prang course in Form Study and Drawing, and holds a State High School life certificate. In 1886 he received the degree of Master of Arts from his Alma Mater, and was also married on the 24th of June of that year to Ella May Fuhrman, of Bucyrus. One son died in babyhood, but a son, Marion George, and a daughter, Mary Mahala, now bless their home.
Mr. Bliss was born on the 16th of May, 1854, in Russell, Geauga County, but was reared on a farm in Bainbridge Township in the same county, where as the oldest of a fam- ily of five children he spent a happy boyhood in the educative pursuits and pleasures of a Western Reserve country life. His father was Olney R. Bliss, and his mother Mahala J. McFarland, the parents of both of whom had come from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, in pioneer times. He had three grand-fathers in the Bliss line, who were Revolutionary soldiers, and two in the Potter line, to which his maternal grandmother belonged. Through the latter line he is descended from Roger Williams by his daughter Mercy. Mrs. Bliss's paternal grandfather was a soldier under Napoleon I. The Bliss family is descended from Thomas, of Belstone, England, who came to Massachusetts in 1636 and became a freeman in the Plymouth colony in 1645. The mother's family, the McFarlands, were of Scotch ancestry.
By giving his entire time to his profession, by visiting schools in various parts of the country, by vacation travel, by attending edu- cational conventions, and by diligent study of educational journals and of his ample peda- gogical, historical and literary library, as well as by thorough study of the actual conditions of his schools, Mr. Bliss has kept himself in the front rank of practical educators, and aimed to be worthy of the family motto, "Semper sursum."
Richard Ganse Boone,
From 1899 to 1903 Superintendent of the Public Schools of Cincinnati, Ohio, was born on the 9th of September, 1849, at Spiceland, Indiana. He is of Quaker descent, and received his early schooling at the academy in his native
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village. Later, after several years of experience in teaching, he pursued special studies in psychology and educational science in the Johns Hopkins University. He received the degree of A.M. from DePauw University, and that of Ph.D. from Ohio University. Having begun teaching at the early age of seventeen, Dr. Boone, in the course of twenty-five years, has held positions in schools of every grade, from the country district through village and city graded High Schools, normal school, and the University, an experience of inestimable value to a man who has been at the head of institutions for many years.
In 1886, while holding the position as Superintendent of City Schools in Frankfort, Indiana, Dr. Boone received the appointment as Professor of Pedagogics in the Indiana State University, at Bloomington. This University has been known throughout the country for the strength of its courses, the thoroughness of its scholarship, and the care exercised in the selection of its teaching force. Nearly all of its chairs were filled by specialists of reputation in their respective lines-the President of Leland Stanford Jr. University, pro- fessors in Harvard and other leading universities have been chosen from among its faculty- at the time when he was called to the University.
Dr. Boone has made an enviable reputation among leading educators of the country, a reputation extending far beyond the limits of his native State. He is well known by his contributions to educational journals and by his courses of professional lectures in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas.
Dr. Boone was called to Michigan as President of the State Normal College in 1893. He remained there for six years, bringing the institution up to a higher standard of excellence than it had ever before attained. His influence was felt throughout the State in a very forceful way. While thus doing great service to the cause of education as a prac- tical worker, and displaying great interest and activity in the spreading of sound pedagogical ideas in the country, Dr. Boone was too much of a student and scholar to lose sight of the importance of thorough professional learning as the only true basis of successful practice of the profession. Besides steadily pursuing those psychological studies so indispensable to the educator, he felt early drawn toward the historical side of educational knowledge, feeling, like every true scholar, the want of an acquaintance with the work of others, in the past and present, in his own chosen field, for it has been truly said by a world-famous edu- cator: "The science of pedagogy without the history of pedagogy is like a house without a foundation." The history itself is the greatest science. Confining himself in his historical studies at first to the comparatively narrow field of the educational development of a single State, he soon after commenced the preparatory studies for an undertaking of wider scope and greater scientific importance, an account of the original development and actual status of education in this country. From a vast amount of material largely in a chaotic state, to be found only in public documents and dusty files of many libraries, the author of "Education in the United States" has succeeded in composing a volume which in a very short time has won the highest praise of the profession and the press-the first noteworthy attempt at a general history of education in the United States, an honor to American learning, a work involving much patience and trying labor, and evincing strong powers of judgment and reasoning. The results of his earlier studies ("Education in Indiana") were published at at later date. Dr. Boone was appointed Superintendent of the Cincinnati schools on the 5th of September, 1899, and resigned his position in 1903. Dr. Boone is editor of "Education," published in Boston, one of the oldest and best-known magazines in the United States. After leaving Cincinnati, Dr. Boone became extensively engaged as lecturer on educational and scientific topics.
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C. L. Boyer,
Since 1899 Superintendent of the Public Schools of Circleville, Ohio, has a place among the best-known educators of the State. By his untiring industry and unflinching persever- ance, he has worked his way through the various fields of school life to his present position, in which he is serving with marked success. His early life was spent on a farm, where he acquired the habits of industry and of perseverance. At that time there were no eight or ten- hour labor laws, but work began at the peep o' day and continued until the last rays of the sun had melted away. Having some natural gifts, he was sent to school at the age of five and at seven gave considerable evidence of becoming a champion speller, an accomplisli- ment that was regarded at that time as a mark of learning. However, it was through this subject that he acquired a taste for knowledge and sought to take advantage of opportunities for advancement. Not the hard work of the harvest field and of haying, nor the labor of following the plow caused him to lay aside study. While the men and horses were resting he would make the fence corner his school- room for the study of Latin and German.
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