History of Gainesville, (Wyoming County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Norman A. Calkins, educator, was born at Gainesville, N. Y., Sept. 9, 1822. He received a classical education, and in 1840 began teaching at Castile, N. Y., later becoming principal of the central school at Gainesville, and superintendent of schools, 1845-46. In 1846 he removed to New York city, and was engaged in establishing teachers' institutes in New York and adjacent states. He was appointed assistant superintendent of schools in New York city in 1862, giving his attention to the primary schools and holding the office up to the time of his death. He was instructor in methods and principles of education in the Saturday normal school from 1864 to 1871, and professor of methods and principles of teaching at the Saturday classes of the normal school of the city of New York from 1871 to 1882, when they were discontinued. He held important offices in the national educational association and became prominently identified with its work. He was treasurer of the American Congregational union from 1857 until 1883. He published: Primary Object Lessons (1861; new edition, 1870; Spanish edition, 1879); Phonic Charts (1869); How to Teach, a Graded Course of Instruction and Manual of Methods (with Henry Kiddle and Thos. F. Harrison, 1873), Manual of Object-Teaching (1881), and From Blackboard to Books (1883). He died in New York city, Dec. 22, 1895.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Charles Henry Gere, editor, was born in Gainesville, N.Y., Feb. 18, 1838; son of Horatio N. and Julia D. (Grant) Gere; grandson of Dr. Isaac and Hannah (Tracy) Grant of Litchfield, Conn., and a descendant of George Gere, who came to Boston, Mass., in 1632; and of Matthew Grant, who immigrated to Windsor, Conn., in 1636. He was graduated from Dickinson college in 1861; was a private in the 10th Maryland infantry, 1861-65; was admitted to the Baltimore bar in 1865, removed to Nebraska, and was attorney for Pawnee county, Neb., 1865-66. He was a member of the legislature in 1866 and the governor's private secretary, 1867-68. He founded the Nebraska State Journal and became its editor in 1867. He removed to Lincoln, Neb., in 1868; was state senator, 1869-70, and 1881-82; a member of the state constitutional convention in 1875 and chairman of the state central committee for four terms; and president of the board of regents of the University of Nebraska, 1881-91. He was Republican delegate to the national convention in 1892; postmaster of Lincoln, 1891-95; and became president of the State Journal company in 1872. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by the University of Nebraska in 1894.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

David Starr Jordan, naturalist and educator, was born in Gainesville, N.Y., Jan. 19, 1851; son of Hiram and Huldah (Hawley) Jordan; grandson of Rufus and Rebecca (Bacon) Jordan, of Port Henry, N.Y., and of David and Ann (Waldo) Hawley, of Whitehall, N.Y., and a descendant of John Elderkin Waldo, of Tolland, Conn.; and of Richard Grenville, of the Revenge. His first ancestor in America, John Drake, who was a second cousin of Francis Drake and third cousin of Sir Walter Raleigh, came from Exmouth, Devon, England, with Winthrop and settled in Windsor, Conn. David Starr Jordan worked his way through college and was graduated from Cornell university in 1872 and from the Indiana Medical college in 1875. He was an instructor in the botanical laboratory of Cornell university, 1871-72; professor of natural history at Lombard university, 1872-73; principal of the Appleton collegiate institute, Wis., 1873-74; student and afterward lecturer on marine botany at Anderson school, Penikese Island, Mass., during the summer of 1874; teacher of natural history in the high school of Indianapolis, Ind., 1874-75; lecturer on zo?logy at Harvard summer school, at Cumberland Gap, 1875; professor of natural history at Butler university, Ind., 1875-79; naturalist of the geological surveys of Indiana and Ohio, 1877; assistant to the U.S. fish commission, 1877-88; professor of biology at Indiana university, 1879-85; special agent of the U.S. census bureau, 1880, investigating marine industries on Pacific coast; president of Indiana university, 1885-91, and in the latter year accepted the presidency of Leland Stanford, Jr., university, Cal. He was president of the California Academy of Sciences, 1896-98, and again in 1900, and U.S. commissioner in charge of fur seal investigations, in the interests of which he went on several expeditions to Alaska. He was elected a fellow in the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in 1883, and a member of various scientific societies in Europe and America. He was one of the ninety-seven judges who served as a board of electors in October, 1900, in determining the names entitled to a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, New York university. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Butler university in 1877, and that of LL.D. from Cornell university in 1886. He contributed numerous papers on ichthyology in the proceedings of various societies and government bureaus; was associate editor of "Johnson's Universal Cyclop?dia" in charge of the department of zo?logy, comparative anatomy and animal physiology, 1892-94; contributed to the "Standard Natural History" and to periodicals, and is the author of: Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States (1876); Synopsis of the Fishes of North America (with Dr. Charles H. Gilbert, 1882); Science Sketches (1887); The Food-Fishes of Indiana (with Dr. Barton W. Ever-mann, 1888); Matka and Kotik (1897); Care and Culture of Men (1897); The Innumerable Company (1897); Catalogue of the Fishes of North and Middle America (with Dr. B. W. Evermann, 4 vols., 1896-99); Report of the United States Fur Seal Commission (4 vols., 1898); Footnotes to Evolution (1898); Imperial Democracy (1899); California and the Californians (1899); Book of Knight and Barbara (1898).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor