- PROF. C. H. KEYES, Superintendent of the Janesville public
schools, is one of the leading
- educators of the State of Wisconsin. He is still a young
man, however having been born in Grant County, Wis., Sept. 6,
1858. His father, Henry KEYES, was a native of Niagara County,
N.Y., and an early settler of Grant County, Wis. He was a skillful
machinist, in which capacity he was for many years connected
with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company.
He and his wife were the parents of four sons, of which number
our subject is the eldest; Kennedy F. is engaged in the real-estate
business in Ogden; William resides at La Crosse, where he is
assistant train dispatcher for the Chicago, Burlington &
Northern Railroad Company; and George E., who is a student in
the law office of WINANS & HYZER, expects to form a partnership
with his brother C. H. in the practice of his profession.
- When a child, Prof. KEYES removed with his parents to Prairie
du Chein, where his youthful days
- were spent and his early education received. For a period
of six years he was a student in the preparatory department of
the college in that city, which was under the charge of Prof.
J. T. LOVEWELL, now of Washburn College, Kansas. In 1873 he
entered upon the classical course of the college, graduating
on the 24th day of June, 1877, when he received the degree of
B.A. Immediately after completing his studies he engaged in
the profession of teaching, and after a brief experience as teacher
of a district school was tendered and accepted the position as
principal of the high school of Pepin. His next engagement was
as superintendent and principal of the high school at River Falls,
and at the end of one year he accepted the professorship of mathematics
in the State Normal School of that city, resigning his office
as superintendent. This department of the Normal he conducted
in an able and satisfactory manner, but the schools of the city
had been highly prosperous under his administration, and the
public was unwilling to lose his services, believing that the
best interests of the schools demanded his return. He was therefore
induced to resume charge of the public schools, and he continued
until called to Janesville in 1885.
- Prof. KEYES has been prominently connected with the educational
interests of the State of
- Wisconsin for the past twelve years, and has long been acknowledged
as one of the most successful conductors of institutes within
her borders. In fact, it can be truthfully said that no high
school principal in the State has done a greater amount of this
class of work than he. When we stop to consider the great value
of institute work, the influence it has exerted in bringing the
public schools up to their present high standard of excellence,
the value of such instructors as Prof. KEYES to our educational
interests can be better realized. The schools of Janesville
have made rapid progress and assumed a higher degree of proficiency
under his able administration. He has occupied many prominent
positions in the educational field, the duties pertaining to
which he has discharged with marked skill and ability. For three
years, from 1883 until 1886, he was secretary of the Wisconsin
Teacher's Association, and in 1888 served as director of the
Wisconsin Exhibit of the Centenary Exhibition of the National
Educational Association held in Chicago. At present he is a
member for the First Congressional District, of the Board of
Visitors of the University of Wisconsin, and is secretary of
that board for 1889. The past year, 1888, he was chairman of
the university Summer School of Science, and was president of
the committee which organized that system. For several years
Prof. KEYES has been giving considerable attention to the study
of law, with the view of retiring from life as a teacher and
adopting the legal profession, and in April, 1888, was admitted
to the bar at Madison by the State Board of Examiners. In his
retirement from the teacher's profession the schools of the State
lose one of their most faithful and effective workers, but the
activity, energy and ability that have characterized his career
heretofore will carry him rapidly to the front in his new profession.
- In 1880, Prof. KEYES was united in marriage with Miss Nettie
E. BROWN, a native of Grant
- County, Wis., and a daughter of Lebbeus BROWN, one of the
early settlers of that county, of which he is still a resident.
Four children, two sons and two daughters, grace the union of
this worthy couple, namely: Maud V., Charles Sumner, Harold Brown
and Helen Brown.
-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 931-932.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|