Oran Faville was a famous Mitchell county resident, although he was retired at the time he moved here. A well-known educator, Oran was born in New York state, but died an Iowan.
Oran was born in Manheim, Herkimer County, New York, on October 13, 1817, and died on October 3, 1872, at just short of 55 years of age. He graduated from at Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1844, and, after teaching for a while in New York and Vermont, he became a professor of ancient languages at McKendree College in Illinois in 1852. He was also president of Ohio Wesleyan female College, Delaware, Ohio, from 1853 to 1855.
Oran retired to a farm in Mitchell County, Iowa, on account of his health, and was subsequently a County Judge, a Lieutenant Governor of Iowa, and also the president, and later the secretary, of the Iowa State Board of Education.
He edited the "Iowa School Journal" from 1863 to 1867; he was state superintendent of public instruction from 1864 to 1866; and he was also president of the State Teachers' Association in Iowa. He resigned these offices on account of failing health, and lived in retirement from 1867 until his death in 1872 at Waverly, Iowa.
Submitted by Kathy Pike -- August 2004.