CHARLES W SHUMWAY, b 1 April 1861

SHUMWAY, REANEY, ROSS, GREENLY, WOOLSEY

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 11/13/2004 at 12:57:14

Prof. Charles W. Shumway, Principal of the schools at Miles, has occupied his present position for a period of four years, and stands high in the estimation of the citizens of this vicinity. He is accredited with having more than an ordinary interest in his chosen vocation, to which he devotes his whole time and attention, and employs every known method to give his pupils the benefit of the best instruction at his command. He seems remarkably adapted to this work, having apparently been born with a natural love of learning, and believes that education is the basis of all good society.

Prof. Shumway is a native of Dubuque County, this State, was born near the town of Epworth, April 1, 1861, and is the son of John W. and Margaret (Reaney) Shumway, the former a native of Worcester County, Mass., and the mother was born in the North of Ireland. The father of our subject was a man of good education, and for many years held the position of book-keeper in one of the large factories of his native State. He came to Iowa in 1854, and settling in Dubuque County, occupied himself at farming and stock-raising. He is now retired from active labor, and, with his estimable wife, is living at Epworth; they are both sixty-four years old. Their family consisted of two children only - Lilly and Charles W., our subject. The former is the wife of Will E. Ross, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and stationed at Plymouth, Iowa.

The boyhood years of the life of our subject were spent upon his father's farm, and he received the advantages of the public school. He was never of very robust frame, and was always studiously inclined. At the age of nineteen years he entered Epworth Seminary, of which he was a student three years, and thence went to Cornell College, at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, where he took a two year's course. He entered upon the duties of his present position in the fall of 1885. The first class was graduated in 1889, and the first commencement exercises of the institution were conducted by Prof. Shumway. The graduating class were Alice DeRiemer, Harrie Van Camp, John A. Watts, and Fred S. Davis.

On the 6th of June, 1888, our subject was united in marriage with Miss Loraine E. Greenly. This lady is the daughter of George L. and Mary (Woolsey) Greenly, who are now residents of Brush Creek, in Fayette County, this State. Mr. Greenly is a native of England, and the mother of Mrs. Shumway was born in Illinois. Mrs. Shumway is also well educated, and made the acquaintance of her husband while they were both attending the Epworth Seminary. The Professor, in politics, is a stanch Republican, but is far more interested in educational matters than in political questions.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)