PROFESSOR E. P. HOWE

Sacramento County

Biographies

PROFESSOR E. P. HOWE

Professor E. P. Howe, of the Sacramento Normal Institute, most favorably known as a prominent educator, was born near Marietta, in Ohio, 1838, but removed when a child with his parents to Mount Pleasant, a small town in Iowa Territory. Here his father, a celebrated teacher of that time, opened an institution of learning, in which young Howe was thoroughly drilled for the profession of teaching. At the age of fifteen he commenced his life-work, and, with the exception of a few years, during which he finished his course, he has been continuously engaged in the cause of education. At the age of twenty he was placed in charge of the Mount Pleasant Union High school, the number of pupils in attendance being over 200. At the close of this engagement he was chosen Principal of the Normal School of this place, over which he presided many years. Farmington High School and Bonaparte College was organized and put in successful operation by the subject of this sketch. Subsequently he was connected with the public schools of New York and Michigan. It was whilst he was superintending the schools of Bonaparte, Iowa, that he was induced by friends and relatives to visit California, and in 1872 was elected Principal of Sacramento Union High School. In 1873 he established Howe’s High School and Normal Institute, which is to-day the leading private Normal School of the State. The best and most intelligent families of Sacramento patronize this institution. More than fifty teachers, drilled and disciplined by Professor Howe, and who received their certificates to teach whilst under his care, have been, since the establishment of his institute, connected with the public schools of Sacramento. Some have married, other have resigned to take positions elsewhere, and a few have gone to that “undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns.” At the present writing more than half of that number still hold their positions and are doing good work. Since the establishment of this institution in 1873, sufficient time has elapsed to ascertain the effect of its training on the minds and characters of its inmates. The thorough and practical scientific knowledge it impart, the complete system of mental discipline it pursues, the moulding of the mind to intelligence, and the heart to virtue, the energy and zeal it inspires in the pupils, are more and more felt and appreciated. From no private institution, are so many able teachers supplied to the State, and from none are they so eagerly sought.

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Page 535. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.

Sacramento County Biographies