Guthrie County >> 1884 Index

History of Guthrie and Adair Counties, Iowa
Springfield, Ill: Continental Hist. Co., 1884.

Guthrie County Education
Transcribed by Bobbi Pohl

Timothy J. Mahoney was elected to this office [Superintendent of Schools] in 1881, and served two years. He is the son of Patrick and Ellen (Cummins) Mahoney, and was born April 17, 1857, in Crawford county, Wisconsin. After the ground work of his education was laid in the district schools of that locality, he entered the State normal school of Wisconsin, at Plattville, on the 20th of October, 1873, and remained until June, 1874. In the meantime his parents having removed, he came to Guthrie county, where he has taught several terms in the various district schools, and was an assistant teacher in the Panora high school for three years. While employed in the latter place, he was elected county superintendent of common schools, a position he filled with honor and credit. He has also been an attendant upon the Dubuque Catholic college, and is now a student in the celebrated Notre Dame university, at South Bend, Indiana. He is a hard-working, studious young man, with more than great abilities, and will yet occupy a very prominent place in the world.

Giles C. Miller was elected to the office of superintendent [of schools] in 1875, and was re-elected to the same position in 1877, and again in 1879. There is probably no better known, or more successful educator in Southern Iowa, than the subject of this sketch. In 1873 he was elected superintendent of the Guthrie county schools, and so well did he fill that position, that he was re-elected by large majorities in 1875, 1877, and 1879, and after eight years service in that capacity, refused to longer hold that position. He was born near South Bend, Indiana, December 14, 1848. His parents, Martin W. and Elizabeth A. (Wills) Miller, were natives, he of Wayne county, Indiana, and she of Hamilton county, Ohio. They reared thirteen children, of whom Giles was the eldest. He was reared in his native county until 1865, when the family removed to Polk county, Iowa, locating in Des Moines, where Giles attended the East Des Moines high school for some time. He then entered the Iowa business college, from which he graduated. In 1870 he came to Guthrie county and taught school for about two years. He then located in Stuart, where he followed clerical work until elected school superintendent in 1873. In January, 1882, with Mr. Taylor as a partner, he engaged in the grocery business. He is a member of the order of Odd Fellows and is the present treasurer of the lodge at Guthrie Center, and is also a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the V. A. S. He is a member of the Guthrie Center school board. He was united in marriage in June, 1875, with Miss Lucia A. Stutsman, a native of this state. They have three children--Lucian C., Dalton G., and Harold A.

W. Leroy Miller, is the present county superintendent of common schools. Seldom do we find a man as young as our subject, holding the responsible office he now occupies, but to say that he is well qualified to fill the same, would be but to repeat the sentiment of the people who best know him. He is the son of Addison S. and M. D. Miller, of Guthrie county, and was born in Belmont county, Ohio, September 11, 1855. When an infant the family emigrated to Louisa county, Iowa, where they resided until 1869, when they came to this county. Here Leroy was reared on a farm, and followed that occupation until 1875, when he attended the Simpson centenary college, of Indianola, Iowa, and also attended that institution during the years of 1879 and 1880. After which he returned to this county where he followed the profession of school teaching with great success, until elected county superintendent of schools in the fall of 1883, which office he now holds. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Casey.