The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-03-18
sas, and TO accept the Principals chair,
~ hich .noeifi0u ba e$;lI holds


His appearance is manIy-a young,
boyish cast, his conversation elegant
and plain, his views extensive, his dis
position amiable, his great executive
talent is indelibly impressed in his
countenance. He is as much admired
for his amiability, simplicity, and high
bred courtesy as for his remarkable
abilities and requirements.
In February, 1866, he took charge of
the Normal School, and with zeal, dill
igence, self-denial, and perseverance
which have seldom had any parallel in
the history of education, he has been
able to make and sustain the rank and
character ofthe Kansas Normal School
and has, by his uniinching labor in the
cause of education in Kansas, gained
reputation as one of its best educators.
All the friends of the Normal, as we'll
as the students, are highly elated at the
thought of having such spokesman at
the helm, and the manner in which he
entered upon his duties more than an
sWered their highest expectations. The
consciousness of intellectual strength,
the just reputation he has attained, the
elevated station to which he has been
raised, have not, in the slightest degree,
injured the natural modesty of his char
acter or the mildness of his temper.
PROF. II. B. NORTON,
Associate Principal, and refined and
accomplished scholar, was born in New
York in 1887. OF his youthful years l
know but little; but that his education
was not neglected, and that he applied
himself with assiduity to his studies, 1
may fairly infer from his subsequent
services in the teachers profession and
the editors chair.
He was educated at the Rockford (IlI.)
Academy and Beloit CWis.) College,
and graduated at the Illinois Normal
University in July, 1861. From 1861 to
1868, he taught in the public school at
Warsaw, ILL.,, and in 1S63-'64 he edited
the Daily PantGgraph at Bloomington.
In 1864 he was elected County Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction of Og-
den county, Ill. In 1865, he entered the
Kansas Normal School as Associate
Principal, where he still remains.
To enter into the particulars of his
early and eventful Efe-the continued
offers of offices of public trust and hon.
or; his fearless and manly defences of
the reform movements ito enter these
and other numerous eventful incidents
of his young life would be impractical
BILE for the writer to do and do him JUS
tice.
Prof. Norton is very remarkable |
man. His power, as a speaker, as a |
writer, and of selling and retaining |
a strong hold upon the popular mind, |
has seldom been equalled by the best |
speakers and writers of Kansas. OIL
great originality, and of strong and |
clear conceptions, which he is able to |
in language equally perspicu-
GUS and forclble, and has the power of
making his oral instructions in the |
school room superior to the text book. |
With ripe scholarship, the patience to
bear with dullness and waywardness,
"a peculiar trait with young people,,
those kind and urbane manners to win
love and respect, that tact in controll-
ing and governing the free and wild
spirited American youth, and that hap
py manner of illustrating difficulties
and imparting knowledge, which are
as essential as high literary attainment
to form the perfect schooImaster, has
endeared him to the young men and
of the Kansas Normal School,
and to his brother and sister teachers in
and Illinois.
MRS. GoRHAM
is an efficient teacher, and brief sketch
of her labors by one of her pupils will
not be inappropriate in this connection,
though the most important theme of
her life is due, perhaps, to the death of
her husband, Col. Gorham, during the
rebellion.
Mrs. Jenette H. Gorham was born
May IS, 1912; commenced teaching
when very young, and taught nine
years in the counties of Winnebago and
Ogden and in the fall of 1865 was sent
Is delegate from Winnebago county
to the Illinois Normal University. She
there two years, during which
time she did the work of three years
taught four terms in the Model depart
nent, and one in the Normal.
In the fall of 1867, the Board of hi
rectors of the Kansas Normal School
applied to the President of the
Illinois State Normal University
for suitable person for preceptress, and
Mrs. Gorham, at the urgent
request and recommendation of Presi-
dent Edwards, came to Kansas to accept
The position at salary of $3.50. During
the first year her salary was raised to
5000, and then to $1,000, and during
the last year increased to $1,000. 1
hope it will soon be on an equality
with the stronger % sex.
Quiet, modest and unassuming in
manners and appearance, there is be-
meath this quiet exterior an intense
and untiring energy, and active and
intellect, brilliant con-
versational powers, a resolute will, and
IN executive force which is found in
few of the '1ords of creation" and
which mingled with the tenderness,
and grace of a refined and
true womanhood, eminently qualities
her for her high position.
The Normal School opened its pres
emit session with 160 pupils.