|
History of the Counties of Woodbury and Plymouth,
Iowa A Biographies submitted by Dick Barton. ... In 1869 the Independent district of Sioux City was formed. At that time there were two school-houses, seven teachers and 400 persons of school age. The city superintendents have been S. Rogers, Allen Armstrong and Charles W. Deane. Prof. Rogers served seven years, Prof. Armstrong, twelve years, while Prof. Deane is now serving his second year. Prof. Armstrong was a man of great educational force, and was at one time president of the State Teachers' Association of Iowa. He was extensively known throughout the state, and was highly esteemed by all who knew him. During the first ten years of his work he was ably assisted by his wife as principal of the high school. Sioux City has a full twelve years' course of study, the high-school course being one of the most extensive ones in the state. The principals of the high school have been S. Rogers, Mary Armstrong, A. K. Del Fosse and W. F. Cramer ... The following table will give some idea as to how Woodbury compares with the other counties of the state: No. of male teachers
employed 65 ... ALLEN ARMSTRONG (deceased), prior to his death, was one of the leading educators of the northwest. He was born in Belleville, Richland county, Ohio, July 21, 1838. The ancestors of our subject have lived in America about a century and a half, having originally come from Scotland, and his immediate ancestors and family, especially an uncle, were very prominent in the educational world. The early education of Allen was conducted in Plymouth, Ohio, where his father and mother, George and Elizabeth Armstrong, then resided. Graduating from the high school there in his sixteenth year he taught school for a time, after which he resumed his studies, and graduated from the State Normal school, at Lebanon, Ohio, and from Baldwin university, where he took a classical course. During the time of his normal course he was called home by the death of his father, where he remained for a year or two assisting his mother in settling his father's business, he being the eldest of eight children, six of whom were then living. He then taught school in several places in Ohio, among them being Blanchester, Cadiz, Ripley, Columbus and Springfield, at which latter place he was superintendent of the public school two years. One of the principal lady teachers under him at Springfield was Miss Mary Harrison, to whom he was married August 19, 1868, and with his bride he came west to Council Bluffs, where he assumed the superintendency of the public school, and his wife filled the position of one of the leading teachers. They remained there until 1876,at which time Sioux City, being in demand of a capable instructor, sent a committee in the persons of J. P. Allison and Dr. J. M. Knott, to seek such an one. One of the places visited by them was Council Bluffs, where they met our subject, and upon their return to Sioux City they sent him an invitation to come there. Mr. Armstrong accepted this position and filled it until hi3 death, which occurred November 21, 1888. In Cincinnati, in 1858, the first meeting of the National Educational association was held, it having been organized in Philadelphia in 1857. Mr. Armstrong was in attendance, and was absent from but few meetings of that association, being present in Chicago in 1887, and feeling keenly disappointed that ill health prevented his going to San Francisco in 1888. He became a life member of the association in Baltimore, in 1876, and was one of the number who met on the Centennial grounds in Philadelphia, in 1876, and enrolled themselves under the name "The International Educational Association." From the proceedings and addresses of the association at the meeting held at Nashville, Tenn., in the year 1889, under the head of Necrology, we take the following: "Mr. Armstrong was ever ready to perform faithfully and earnestly every duty imposed upon him by the association or its officers, and those of us who knew him so well, can testify that it was his highest and greatest ambition to have all his work well and thoroughly done, and no man ever possessed a keener dislike for superficial work. He was ready at all times to raise his voice, in his plain but emphatic manner, against everything that even in the slightest degree verged upon professional discourtesy. The National Educational association has indeed lost a true friend, an earnest educator, and one of its most valuable members." Mr. Armstrong was a member of the Congregational church, and an ardent republican. He had no children, leaving only a widow to survive him. He was at one time president of the Iowa State Teachers' association, and during his twenty years' residence in Iowa, never failed to attend their meetings but once, and that was because it would have taken him from his family on Christmas day.
|