our school-house arrangements, and to offer a few hints towards their correction. I think that I may venture in closing to say on behalf of the State Board of Health that any suggestions from any quarter having reference to improving our school-houses, or calling attention to any general or special defects in their sanitary condition, will meet with a welcome, and receive special consideration; and to convey the thanks of the Board to the many teachers and superintendents throughout the state for the valuable information already given.

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IN MEMORIAM.

HON. WILLIAM STARR.

[Paper read before the State Teachers' Association, at La Crosse, Friday, July 10, 1879, by

the State Superinterdent, W. C. WAITFORD.]

The subject of this sketch died on the 18th of April last, a few minutes before noon, at his residence in the city of Ripon, in the 59th year of his age. He was surrounded by his stricken family, who tenderly administered to his wants, and alleviated as far as they were able his distresses. He had returned two weeks previous, from a tour of visiting three teachers' institutes in the state, and he complained at the time of severe pain in his head, and of extreme weariness of his body. Within two days his illness assumed the form of malignant erysipelas, accompanied with ty phoid symptoms. His constitution, never very robust, had not sufficient vitality to resist this disease, and he gradually passed away, alternating between hopeful rallying of his physical powers and their prostration in painful paroxysms, and between the unatural illumination of his mental faculties, and their prolonged stupor. During this sickness, in both his rational and unconscious moments, he dwelt in his thoughts almost constantly, not upon his business affairs and his immense property, but upon the management and the prospective growth of the State Normal Schools, all of which had been established under his administration, as the president of the board having them in charge.

He experienced great delight in the reading of favorite pieces of poetry, which seemed to sooth his troubled mind and to fix his wandering fancies. He frequently expressed implicit reliance upon personal intercession with God in securing the proper guidance in life, and in the needful preparation for the future state. His departure was as in an undisturbed sleep, without physical pain or mental anguish. After

the solemn services of the Christian religion had been pronounced, a large concourse of his neighbors and friends bore his body to its resting place in the cemetery on the bluff near his home. His grave is in a most beautiful spot, overlooking a wide stretch of country, in which he had performed his varied labors for the past thirty-four years. The vestry of the Episcopal church, of which he was an esteemed member, passed soon after his death the following resolution: "That we desire also to express our appreciation of his great worth as a citizen, his many strong elements of character, his incorruptible integrity, his unostentatious virtues, his honorable ambition and untiring service in the educational interests of the state at large, his entire devotion to the duties and responsibilities of every position he occupied, both in public and private life, and the conscientious fidelity with which he met and discharged them all."

The early childhood of Pres. Starr was spent in his native village of Middletown, Conn., situated on the west bank of the river from which that state is named, and at the head of ship navigation. The scenery at this place is delightful, and the inhabitants have always been noted for their superior intelligence and enterprise. He was the youngest of eleven children, and his father, a mechanic, lived in indigent circumstances. This parent, who died before the birth of Mr. Starr, belonged to an old family in Connecticut, and he inherited their traits of patient industry, refinement of mind, modest behavior, and strong practical sense. The mother possessed great energy of character, had an ardent love for her children, and proved a wise counsellor in their bereavement. The schools of the place were excellent, and assisted largely in forming in the young boy an ardent thirst for knowledge.

In 1829, when eight years old, Mr. Starr moved into Lewis county, N. Y., then a new and sparsely settled country, and here lived with his step-father on a farm for the next six years. Here he experienced many of the hardships of a pioneer life, occupied in clearing the lands of heavy timber, and in obtaining a scanty support. Neither could the advantages of a good public school be here enjoyed, nor could the boy be spared from hard and necessary labor to acquire a fair education. Still he seems to have improved to the utmost the meager opportunities furnished him for studying the common English branches, and he became in them an apt and diligent scholar. He formed at this time the habit of learning the contents of his school books in his leisure hours, after dinner, in the evenings, and on rainy days. He

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gratified, to some extent, his over-mastering passion for reading, and literally devoured the few works which came within his reach. Endowed with a tenacious memory, he retained all through life much of the information thus early gained.

When fourteen years of age, he resolved to satisfy the leading bent of his mind to secure an academic education. In the formation of this purpose, he was aided by the hearty sympathy of his mother. For the following eight years he divided his time between working on the farm, attending an academy at Watertown, N. Y., prosecuting his studies by himself, and teaching school. He preserved through life the text-books which he used during this period, and they were arranged, at the time of his death, with the other choice books of his library. They show the scrupulous neatness with which he learned to handle all his books during his school days. There are no torn leaves in them, no pencil marks, no ink blots, and no broken covers. Still the yellow pages give evidence of the patient industry with which he mastered the lessons they contain. Only by the practice of rigid economy was he able to purchase these books, and they represented to him always the many days of hard labor required in sustaining himself while in attendance at school, and in making preparation for his classes. It is an interesting exercise to pass from subject to subject, as presented in these school books, and to note the examples, the propositions, the rules, the discussions, and the selections from classical literature, all of which, upon being learned, contributed to qualify him for his subsequent special work in teaching, in managing a store, in charge of vast lumbering interests, in filling the positions of postmaster, county officer, and member of the assembly, and in directing the complicated affairs of the Normal Schools of the state. What facts here understood were used a thousand times in conversation or in planning business enterprizes! What sentiments here imbibed have moulded his opinions and impulses in after years! What resolutions here formed goverened him in his more active and useful career!

He evidently studied with interest the common and higher branches of the mathematics. He gave close attention to English Grammar and Blair's Rhetoric. Essay writing seemed to have been an agreeable exercise for his mind; but he enjoyed with the liveliest relish his Latin and Greek authors. Upon these he bestowed the greater labor. He read not the whole course usually pursued in our highest schools, but he advanced beyond those portions of the classics taught at the

time in our best academies. He maintained through life a sincere love for the Latin and Greek languages; and he furnishes a marked example of the practical effects which a careful discipline in these languages affords. It cultivated in him a close attention to details, the power to analyze a subject with precision, and the faculty of clear and exact statement. These traits assisted largely in qualifying him as a business man to win notable success in nearly every undertaking.

Even in his boyhood he was deeply interested in educational subjects. This bias of his mind was indicated not only by his severe struggles to acquire an academic culture, but by the favorite topics which he chose for his school essays. The following selection from a composition written by him at seventeen years of age, not only shows this fact, but also the purposes and aspirations of his mind at that early age. The article is entitled “ Education," and contains the following paragraph:

"The history of no other government is richer that that of our own in examples calculated to encourage such as are commencing their education under humble circumstances. It may be true, indeed, that under all governments and in the face of all discouragements, talents of a high order will bring their possessor into notice. But our great boast is that the nature of our institutions places no bar or hindrance in the path of any citizen, even to the highest office known in the constitution. . We know of no hereditary law-maker, and no privileged aristocracy monopolizing public stations. The son of the humblest laborer may in this country aspire to represent his fellow citizens in the state and the national legislature, or to sit in the executive chair. And for these stations, no higher education is essential than that which has been attained under the most discouraging circumstances. In proof of this, a large number of our most eminent and useful men have enjoyed in early life very limited advantages. But this want in them was supplied by industry, perseverance, and energy of character. They began to think, to reflect on what they had learned, and to judge of men and things for themselves. This is a grand end of a right culture, to habituate the mind to patient. thought and labor, and to decide with independence and fearlessness. But let us not mistake the ultimate object of education. It is not to fit us for successful progress in the path of ambition, for climbing the slippery heights of power, but to qualify us for discharging as men with credit and honor, all our duties."

Another evidence of his early interest in the educational work, is

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the fact that he studied in the academy and at home, with the view of qualifying himself for teaching. I think he intended to make it his calling for life, and was diverted from it at first by ill health, and at last abandoned it altogether on finding that he possessed abilities of a high order for managing large business enterprises. Before leaving the state of New York, he had taught portions of the time for four years in the public schools of Watertown and Leyden.

He came to Wisconsin in 1843, landing at Kenosha, June 13th of that year; and he opened at that place by the 5th of the following: month a private school, which he conducted until the spring of 1845, nearly two years. Here he taught not only the English branches, but the preparatory portions of the Latin and Greek languages. The two years following, he was in charge most of the time of the public school in the village of Ceresco, situated a short distance west of Ripon. Subsequently, he was employed at this place in mercantile operations.

Acquiring some property, he next turned his attention to farming in the vicinity of his home, and to the lumbering business in the northern portions of the state. He finally invested the main share of

. his great fortune, the fruits of his business operations, in the purchase of pine lands in Wisconsin and in Michigan; thousands of acres of which he owned at the time of his death. Besides being honored by his fellow citizens with elections to town and county offices, he was sent to the assembly of the state twice, in 1863 and 1864. His long experience in his business pursuits had not quenched his former ardent interest in educational movements; and he was made in that house the chairman of the standing committee on education.

He married about twenty years since Mrs. Annie Clark, a lady with whom he formed an acquaintance soon after coming to the state. She has been to him a most useful companion; and now surviving him, she bears the most affectionate regard for his memory. A son, the only child, and a bright and active youth about eighteen years of age, is completing the course of study in Ripon college, and will inherit a very large share of his father's property.

Pres. Starr aided by his means and his counsels the establishment of the present flourishing college at the place of his long residence. The president of that institution speaks of his remarkable efficiency as one of the trustees in securing for it a stable foundation and a prosperous opening. He continued to the last to give it his firm support.

But in his connection with the Board of Regents of Normal Schools,