Mexico weekly ledger., 1915-02-04
FRENCH STROTRER
IS NINETY YEARS OLD
Pioneer Educator of Missouri Visit
ing His Daughter. Mrs. H. P.
Warden.
WAS FORM IN VIRGINIA isss
Had Charge of Several Schools In
Missouri Among Them Was
Underwood.

NAN 80 kAfeA " WY lev msA.
Professor French Strother, phone,
. citizen Of Missouri. instructor in hig
school and college work for more tina
forty years in this state. has safel
reached the nintieth mile stone Of hi
earthly pilgrimage, sound and well
body and mind-N pleasing piece q
news to his host Of friends and forme
pupils.
Born on a farm in Rsrpahanno.
County, Virginia, January H. 1925
Professor Strother was educated i
private schools and at the Universit,
of Virginia
In the year Is44 he taught a privati
school on the plantation Of Davi,
French Slaughter. a prominent eitizer
Of Culpeper County, Virginia. Hi
roommate and bedfellow at the HON,
Of David French Slaughter was tn,
distinguished father Of the latter
Capt. Phil Slaughter. who served hi:
country through the entire Revolution,
airy War, and whose diary accurately
kept through that war is among the
most cherished contemporary writings
on the Revolution.
Captain Phil Slaughter the room,
mate Of Professor Strother, had a per-
sonal acquaintance with Washington
and La Fayette. He was a member
of the Committee sent to Monticello,
to meet and escort General LaFayette
to Culpeper in August 1926; and Pro-
fessor Strother relates that it was
stated that the only time Capt.
Slaughter was ever known to be tipsv
was at the banquet at Culpeper, ten
dered Gen. LaFayettet on that oca-
sion.
In the fall of 1874, Professor Struth-
er went to the State of Alabama and
taught school in the counties of Sump-
ter and Green in hal State for six
years. His trip, a distance of over a
thousand miles, was made ON horse
back. From Rappahannock County,
Virginia, he crossed the Blue Ridge at
~Thornton's Gap, passing through Lur-
ay, Staunton and Bristol, Va, Knox
lille, Tenn. and Montgomery, Ala.
without seing a railroad, his first
sight of a railroad being in 1850.
when he was twenty-five years of age.
In the year 1850 he returned 20
virginia. and married Susan Petty
OF Culpepper. In 1885, with his wife
and a train of negro slaves which
were inherited he migrated to Mis-
sour, travelling by carriage and wag-
ons to Nashville, thence on a boat 20
St Louis, and then over the Santa Fe
trail to the Kingdom of Galloway.
In Galloway County he farmed a
year or two, but with inclinations ever
toward the school room he purchased
1857, Glasgow Ladies Seminary.
and during the years of school work
that followed his faithful wife, a tai
ented musician and teacher, was ever
his valued assistant and helper.
He was at Glasgow during the tur-
oulent years of the Civil War. Stella
the only daughter of General Sterling
Price, Of the Confederacy, and Anna.
a daughter Of General Thomas Barth-
blow Of the Union forces, were among
his pupils. He witnessed the battle
of Glasgow and ministered to the
wounded. A cannon ball struck tho
Seminary boarding house and a shell
struck the school building, but no one
connected with the school was in
'ured.
Professor Strother's sympathies
ere with the South, and after the
ne sold the school property at
glasgow to the Southern Methodists
or several hundred dollars less than
le was offered by the Northern Meth :
dist church. Il
In 1865 he leased Underwood Col. f
eye at St Charles Missouri. then nm s
control Of the Presbyterian church !
ma after managing the institution a S
lumber of years and spending much h
honey in its improvement, a suit in
ourt decided that the property be- G
'nged to the Northern branch of the n
nurch,to which branch the Professor o
as persona o grata, and he was is
'mpeiled to give up his lease. Bv S,
-
lacing his membership in the North o
church he could have held the col j
ge' but this he refused to do. N
In 1873 ne took charge of Kansas eI
ny Ladies College, at independence, W
o. In this institution DR.. M. M. Ell
isher, later acting president of the o
University Of Missouri, was n Of
s instructors, and Miss Retta Young. st
; the only sister of the famons liz
ounger Brothers, was one of his
pills.
IN after years he was superinten- I
OF the Carrollton public schools t
a later established a boarding
nooi IN Monroe Couny, Missouri. at
e little town of Strother, which was i
after him. When his property !
tnls place was destroyed by fire in
ne removed his school To tbe
.erprlsing town of Perry, fifteen
distance in Rails County, where
conducted a successful high school he
many years. fri
the death of his wife in 1897
married the second time, Mrs.
tile Booth Potter, of Danville, gu
, who passed away leaving him a thi
lower in 1909.