Henry H. Straight

Henry Harrison Straight (July 20, 1846 – November 17, 1886) was an American geologist, professor, second president of Peru State College, and the father of investment banker and diplomat Willard Dickerman Straight.

Henry H. Straight
2nd President of Peru State College
In office
1871 (1871) – 1871 (1871)
Preceded byJohn M. McKenzie
Succeeded byA. D. Williams
Personal details
Born
Henry Harrison Straight

(1846-07-20)July 20, 1846
Charlotte, Chautauqua, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 17, 1886(1886-11-17) (aged 40)
Pasadena California, U.S.
Cause of deathTuberculosis
NationalityAmerican
Spouse(s)Emma Dickerman
ChildrenWillard Dickerman Straight
Hazel Straight
RelativesWhitney Willard Straight
(grandson)
Beatrice Whitney Straight
(granddaughter)
Michael Whitney Straight
(grandson)
EducationOberlin College
Alma materCornell University
Harvard University
OccupationProfessor

Early life

Henry Harrison Straight was born on July 20, 1846, in Charlotte, New York,[1] within Chautauqua County, New York.[2] He was orphaned while still a boy and supported himself by working on a local farm.[2]

When he was 16 he began teaching at his first school, earning $39 from three months' teaching that afforded him the opportunity to enter the preparatory school of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.[3] He later attended special study at Cornell University and became a member of the Royal Geographical Society.[4] From 1875 to 1876, he was at Harvard University and again at Cornell University, in another special study.[5]

Career

From January 1871 until 1873, Straight became a science teacher as well as the second president (referred to as principal at the time) of Peru Normal School in Peru, Nebraska, establishing the reputation for the young college that was only opened six years earlier in 1865.[3] He took over as president from the College's first president, John M. McKenzie.[6]

In 1873, he joined the Science Department of Central Missouri Normal School in Warrensburg along with his wife, Emma, also an educator. In the summer of 1873, Henry and Emma attended the inaugural program at the Anderson School of Natural History on Penikese Island, a school for naturalists and science teachers ran by distinguished Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz.[7] After Straight returned to Missouri, he tried to put into practice the methods of scientific study that Agassiz taught, combining them with procedures he developed as a classroom teacher at Peru. Henry worked at the College until 1875, when he and Emma both resigned.[3] In 1874, he returned to Penikese and in 1875, he embarked on a geological expedition in the mountains of Carolina and Kentucky with Harvard professor and director of Kentucky Geological Survey, Nathaniel Shaler.[2]

From 1876 until 1883, he taught at the Oswego Normal School in Oswego, New York where he was the chair of Natural Sciences department. In 1880, he became chair of the Practice School and in 1882, he was also given charge of Psychology and the History of Education departments.[5]

In the spring of 1883, he taught at Cook County Normal School in Chicago[3] over Col. Francis W. Parker, a pioneer of the progressive school movement in the United States.[2]

From 1883 to 1884, he in charge of Industrial Science and Pedagogy at the Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute.[2]

In the fall of 1885, his health began declining from tuberculosis and he moved to Florida to recover, moving again to Pasadena, California[4] in the spring of the following year.[2]

Personal life

In 1873,[5] Straight married Emma Dickerman (1850–1890),[8] also an educator,[4] who was born at Beardstown, Illinois and was the daughter of Col. Willard Arms Dickerman (d. 1864), of the 103rd Illinois Infantry who died from a wound received while commanding of a brigade at Resaca, Georgia. Her mother was Margaret Elizabeth Deaver. Emma was descended from Thomas Dickerman, who likely came to America from Bristol with the Reverend Richard Mather in 1636 and settled in Dorchester.[8] Emma was described as an artist who loved poetry, pictures, and beauty in all its forms, but above all else, she loved people.[9] Together they had:

Straight died on November 17, 1886 in California after a year of declining heath, followed shortly thereafter by his wife in 1890, also of tuberculosis.[4] Before her death, Emma moved to Tokyo, Japan, where she spent two years learning Japanese and teaching at the Normal School there.[5] Like his father, their son was orphaned at a young age, 10.[17] Willard and his sister were taken in by Dr. Elvire Ranier, one of the earliest woman physicians in the country,[8] and her friend (and fellow spinster who she lived with), Laura R. Newkirk of Oswego, women who were teachers and close friends of his parents,[9] who cared for and educated the children.[4]

Descendants

His grandchildren included: Whitney Willard Straight (1912–1979), a Grand Prix motor racing driver, aviator, and businessman,[18] Beatrice Whitney Straight (1914–2001), an Academy Award-winning actress,[19] Michael Whitney Straight (1916–2004), a former Soviet spy,[20] and Dorothy Straight Sanborn (1918–1947).[15]

Legacy

According to the Nebraska State Historical Society:[3]

"The success of Straight's career does not lie in his publications or even in the large number of students he influenced. Rather he was significant because he influenced other persons who themselves became educational leaders."

In the Annual Report of the Regents of the University, to the Legislature of the State of New York, Straight was described as follows:

"His great aim during mature years was to bring science to the people, through which he believed better thinking and better living could be secured; hence he chose to work in normal schools, rejecting higher salaries and more honored positions in other educational institutions, hoping thus to train teachers who in turn would train the children and youth of our land."

References
  1. Johnson, Emily. "Henry H Straight". www.findagrave.com. Find A Grave Memorial. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  2. Regents, University of the State of New York Board of (1888). Annual Report of the Regents of the University, to the Legislature of the State of New-York. Troy, New York: The Troy Press Company, Printers. pp. 229–232. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  3. "Straight, Henry Harrison, Educator". www.nebraskahistory.org. Lincoln, NE: Nebraska State Historical Society. July 2000. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  4. Jackman, Wilbur S. (1 January 1915). "Educators As I Have Known Them - (III.)". The Journal of Education. Boston University, School of Education. 81–82: 287. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  5. N.Y.), State University College of Education (Oswego) (1913). History of the First Half Century of Oswego State Normal and Training School, Oswego, New York. Radcliffe Press. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  6. Zueck-Watkins, Christine. "Peru State College 1867-1917". issuu.com. Omaha World-Herald. p. 15. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  7. Bardeen, Charles William (1901). A dictionary of educational biography: portraits and sketches of persons prominent in educational work. Syracuse, N.Y.: C.W. Bardeen. p. 263. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  8. Croly, Herbert David (1924). Willard Straight. New York: The Macmillan Company. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  9. Graves, Louis (1922). Willard Straight in the Orient: With Illustrations from His Sketch-books. New York: Asia Publishing Company. p. 1. Retrieved 21 September 2016. Henry H. Straight.
  10. MAJ. W.D. STRAIGHT IS DEAD IN PARIS - Financier and Diplomat Victim of Pneumonia While on War Mission with Col. House. BEGAN LIFE AS A POOR BOY Son of Missionary to Japan and China, He Won International Fame—Tributes Here. Chosen by E.H. Harriman Associated With J.P. Morgan & Co. - The New York Times December 2, 1918; accessed Dec 6, 2015
  11. "Willard Dickerman Straight". American Battle Monuments Commission. Retrieved 2010-03-22. Willard Straight; Major, U.S. Army; Entered the Service from: New York; Died: November 30, 1918; Buried at: Plot B Row 16 Grave 1; Suresnes American Cemetery; Suresnes, France; Awards: Distinguished Service Medal
  12. Newspaper Enterprise Association (1914). The World Almanac & Book of Facts. Newspaper Enterprise Association. p. 662. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  13. Vassar Quarterly. Poughkeepsie: Vassar College. 1917. p. 317. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  14. Harvard Alumni Bulletin. Cambridge: Harvard Bulletin, Incorporated. 1911. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  15. "Dorothy Straight Sanborn 1918-1947". www.ancestry.com. Ancestry. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  16. "Sanborn -Straight". Cambridge Tribune (Volume XXXIV, Number 30). 23 September 1911. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  17. "Willard Straight, who is to marry Dorthy Whitney. A Career That Reads Like a Romance Is That of the Missionary's Son Who Became a Figure in Finance, Politics and International Affairs, and Who Won the Love of Two Heiresses". New York Times. July 30, 1911. Retrieved 2010-03-22. Willard D.Straight, the handsome young American diplomat who has had a career in the Far East that Midas himself might have envied, who has, within the past year, obtained millions for the houses of Morgan and Rockefeller, is now, for the first time in his eventful life, on the fair road to fortune in his own right.
  18. Burns, John F. (May 12, 2008). "Diana Barnato Walker, Acclaimed Pilot, Dies at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  19. Mel Gussow (April 11, 2001). "Beatrice Straight, Versatile Star, Dies at 86". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-21. Beatrice Straight, a graceful and versatile actress who won both an Oscar and a Tony Award, died on Saturday in North Ridge, Calif. She was 86 and lived in Beverly Hills, Calif., for most of the last 10 years. ...
  20. "Michael Straight". The Telegraph. January 7, 2004. Retrieved 2010-03-22. Michael Straight, who has died aged 87, was the former Soviet spy responsible for telling MI5 that Anthony Blunt – whose lover he had briefly been at Cambridge in the 1930s – was a mole. ...

Further reading
  • Croly, Herbert. (1924). Willard Straight. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Henry H. Straight at Find a Grave

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