PROF. GEORGE E. WOODWARD, Normal instructor, Mound City, Pulaski County, Ill. Among the teachers and normal instructors of Southern Illinois who have done on much for the advancement of refinement, culture and education in general, and who have raised the standard of teaching and teachers, we count him among one of the first and f for most whose name heads this sketch.
Prof. Woodward was born in Albany, Ohio, July 5. 1847. He is a son of Rev. John M. Woodward. a native of Smithfield, Ohio, where he learned and followed the carpenter trade, and afterward devoted his attention to milling. He is yet living in Zanesville, Ohio. His life has been one that may well serve as an example to posterity. He has been a minister of the Methodist Church for thirty years, and is a man of high standing in that body, where his services as pastor and friend to all benevolent enterprises are duly recognized. He has also been President of the Conference for many years. The A... F. & A. M.. and also the I. 0. 0. F. fraternities claim him as one of their earnest and active members, having, held prominent offices in both orders. Space does not permit us to give him the credit he so well deserves. His father, Presley Woodward, was a native of Virginia. The mother of our subject, Mary (Dickens) Woodward, was a native of Pennsylvania. Her father's name was Stephen Dickens. She was the mother of four children, viz.:
Our subject was educated in different high schools in Ohio, and fitted himself for his noble profession at the National Normal School in Lebanon, Ohio. But he is mainly self-educated, teaching his first school at the age of fifteen. and with money earned by teaching he paid his way through the Normal School, accomplishing what few would undertake under more favorable circumstances.
He taught eight terms in two country schoolhouses before he graduated at Lebanon, after which . he taught in Flora, Ill., and then in Fairfield, Ill., where he was joined in matrimony to one of Wayne County's fairest daughters; and then removed to Mount Vernon, Ill., where he was Principal of the city schools. From there he went to Webster City, Iowa; Lafayettp, Ohio; Wichita and Anthony, Kan..; Metropolis, Ill.; and is at present Superintendent of the city school in Mound City, Ill. In all the above named places, Mr. Woodward left a fair and enviable record as a teacher, learning the acknowledgment of different State Superintendents of Public Schools, to be one of the most natural and efficient teachers of the West, his object in teaching in so many different places and States being to make himself familiar with the best and most practical method imparting knowledge's in the United States Mr. Woodward holds three State certificates and has been. County Superintendent Schools in Iowa, and also in Sedgwick Harper Counties, Kan.
Our subject married, December 25, 1872, to Miss Clemence E. Slocumb, born December 25, 1857. She is a daughter of Judge Rigdon B. and Clemence S. (Ridgway) Slocumb, who mentioned in other parts, of this work. Five children are the result of this happy union, viz.:
Mrs. Woodward is a member of the Methodist Church.
Mr. Woodward is a member of the I. 0. 0. F. fraternity.
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