9. The selection of County Superintendents from the number of those who hold such certificates, or equivalent credentials.

10. The establishment of a Polytechnic Institution for the promotion of agriculture and other industrial pursuits, with provision for military education. Resolved, That a committee be appointed, whose duty it shall be to bring these measures before the Legislature, in such a manner and at such times as they shall deem most proper, and as they shall be instructed by the Association. Resolved, That the County and City Superintendents be requested to co-operate with the committee in circulating petitions to the Legislature to grant such acts as they may deem desirable from time to time.

The following resolutions were also adopted:

Resolved, That while we miss from our annual session many who have been wont to meet with us, we are proud of their self-sacrificing patriotism and devotion to the country; that we have heard with pride of their deeds of heroic bravery on the battle-field; that we send to the living to-day a meed of praise from swelling hearts, and that the dead are embalmed forever in our memories. Resolved, That we as citizens, and especially as educators, feel it our imperative duty to support the Administration under its present trying circumstances, and to instil into the minds of the youth intrusted to our care the most unswerving patriotism and love for our noble Republic.

THE TWELFTH MEETING will be held at the call of the Executive Committee, under the following officers elected in 1863:

President C. H. Allen, Madison; Vice-Presidents-S. T. Lockwood, Janesville; Miss M. A. Merrille, Fond du Lac; Miss F. C. Sutherland, Monroe; Secretary—A. J. Cheney, Delavan; Trersurer-J. P. Pradt, Madison; Counselors-A. Pickett, Horicon; I. Stone, Kenosha; S. D. Gaylord, Sheboygan; A. D. Hendrickson, Waukesha.-Barnard's American Journal of Education. NOTE.-The preceding sketch was condensed from a History of the Association read at the Eighth Annual Meeting, and from the published proceedings.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

PRESIDENTS OF THE WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

JOHN G. MCMYNN.

JOHN G. McMYNN, first President of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association, was born in Montgomery county, N. Y., in 1824, and was left at an early age to make his own way in the world. While yet a lad upon a farm he resolved to secure a collegiate education, which he accomplished, but with many a difficulty aud struggle. He began classical studies, with a fair English education, at Union village, Washington county, N. Y., and in two years entered the Sophomore class of Williams College, in 1845. Having spent three winter terms in teaching in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts, he graduated in 1848.

Removing to Wisconsin, Mr. McMynn commenced the study of law; but believing that he could be more useful as a teacher, he engaged again in that work at Kenosha; and during five years' labor, laid the foundation and reared

much of the superstructure of her excellent system of graded schools-the first in Wisconsin. In 1853, he took charge of the High School at Racine, where the same energy and success characterized his labors-the schools of that city obtaining under him and his coadjutor, Rev. M. P. Kinney, the superintendent, a reputation extending far beyond the State.

In 1859, he carried out a long cherished design of a trip to Europe, visiting England, Scotland, and portions of the continent, and bestowing careful attention upon their educational and social condition. Returning to Racine, he remained in charge of the High School till 1861, but soon after entered the service as Major of the Tenth Regiment of Wisconsin Infantry, forming part of the Army of the Cumberland. Rising to the command of the regiment, he enjoyed In a large degree the confidence and esteem of his superiors, among them Generals Mitchell, Rousseau, and Harris. After two years' service he resigned, on account of the ill-health of his wife, and has recently declined, for the same reason, an appointment as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Washington Territory.

Mr. McMynn was the editor of the "Wisconsin Journal of Education," (the State patronage for which he secured) from its commencement in March, 1856, till September, 1857; has been a member of the Board of Regents of the University; in 1863 was appointed Agent of the Board of Normal Regents for the examination of Normal Classes in the State; and has recently received the appointment of Principal of the Normal School at Winona, in Minnesota.

JOSIAH L. PICKARD.

JOSIAH LITTLE PICKARD, the second President of the Association, was the eldest son of Samuel and Sarah Pickard, and was born in Rowley, Essex county, Massachusetts, March 17, 1824. His preparation for college was at the Academy in Lewiston, Maine, studying winters and working during the summers upon his father's farm. Entering Bowdoin College the second term of the Sophomore year, he graduated in 1844. He had taught a public school in Minot, Maine, in the winter of 1842-3; and immediately after leaving college, took charge of North Conway Academy in N. H., where he remained till December, 1845. He then removed to Elizabeth, Jo-Davies county, Illinois, and in November, 1846, to Platteville, Grant county, Wisconsin, where he took charge of a newly organized academy, and remained till December, 1859, a period of thirteen years.

Mr. Pickard opened the Academy at Platteville, 1859, with five students, and left it with an attendance of nearly two hundred; and in all, more than twelve hundred different pupils were under his instruction, a large number pursuing the regular course of study; while the institution has long been a nursery of teachers for the common schools. But a severe attack of illness in 1859, followed by prostration of the nervous system, compelled a change of occupation. Accepting therefore, a nomination for the office of State Super

intendent of Schools, he was elected in November, 1859, and entered upon his duties on the first of January following. It was his hope that a temporary release from the confinement of the school-room might restore his former sound and vigorous health; but impaired eyesight, pronounced by occulists to proceed from incurable amaurosis, and to require an active out-door life and work, forbade a return to teaching. He has continued in his present position four years, and has recently been a third time elected-the best evidence of the success and acceptance with which he has discharged the duties of his office. Although he had not been engaged to any great extent in the public schools, yet he had learned to consider attentively their wants while preparing large numbers of his students for their work as teachers, and entered upon his present duties with a degree of professional fitness not always found in similar officers. Leaving much of the sedentary work of the office to his able assistant, Mr. A. J. Craig, he has labored much more than any former incumbent in its outward work, particularly in institutes, conventions, associations, and public addresses, and with an effect most beneficial to the interests of education.

AMBROSE C. SPICER.

AMBROSE COATES SPICER, the third President of the Association, was born in Independence, Allegany county, New York, July 31, 1820. Reared in a newly settled and "lumbering region," his early advantages for education were quite limited; and, after the age of twelve, he was inured to hard labor. But determined upon improvement and usefulness, the first summer of his majority found him laboring on the excavation for the Genessee Valley Canal to earn the means of attending the academy at Alfred, in his native county, in the autumn. Too close application to study brought on failure of health and eyesight; but recovering, and renewing study in the academy, with frequent alternations of labor, teaching his first school in 1843–4, (and several winters aftewards,) and finally assisting in the academy, he entered the Junior class of Oberlin College, Ohio, in 1848. After more interruptions from ill-health, and two intervals of teaching, the last in Deruyter Institute, N. Y., he graduated at Union College, in 1850. Removing soon after to Wisconsin, he taught several terms in the Academy at Milton, then in the Janesville Wesleyan Seminary, and returning to Milton, remained in the Academy there four years. While thus employed, he was active in procuring the passage of a bill by the Legislature of Wisconsin, appropriating twenty-five per cent. of the income of the swamp and overflowdd lands donated by Congress, to the aid of Normal School and institutions maintaing "Normal Classes," and was twice appointed one of the "Board of Regents," to manage and disburse the fund thus set apart. He returned to his native county in New York with impaired health in 1858, and taught from time to time, as he was able, in Rushford Academy and the Wellsville Union School and rendered some assistance in Alfred Academy, now Alfred University. Removing again to Wisconsin in 1863, he took charge of the Walworth Academy, Walworth county.

O. M. CONOVER.

O. M. CONOVER, the fourth President of the Association, was born in Dayton, Ohio, October 7, 1825. His early education was in the schools, and especially in the "Old Academy," of his native city, of which latter, Mr. E. E. Barney was, at that period, the skillful and accomplished instructor-one who anticipated and practiced many of the recent improvements in education. His subsequent classical training preparatory to college was in the same academy, and principally under Rev. Frederic Snyder. Both these gentlemen were graduates of Union Colege, the latter taking his degree with high honor. Mr. Conover entered the Junior class of the Miami University, Ohio, in 1842; but becoming dissatisfied with the character of that institution, he entered the next year the college of New Jersey, at Princeton, where he graduated in 1844. The next two years were spent in teaching, first near Lexington, Ky., and afterward in the academy of his native place. In 1846, he he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, and after three years' study, graduated in 1849. In 1850, he was appointed professor of ancient languages in the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and filled that chair acceptably until 1858. Since that date, with the exception of eighteen months' service, in 1859 and 1860, as Principal of the High School at Madison, Wis., and of three months in 1861, filling a temporary vacancy in the Milton Academy, in the same State, Mr. Conover's pursuits have been disconnected with the work of education. He is now engaged in law-reporting for the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, and is likewise the State Librarian.

AARON PICKETT.

AARON PICKETT, the fifth President of the Association, was born in Andover, Ashtabula county, Ohio, May 6, 1826. His parents were natives of Massachusetts, and had both been successful teachers. He was one of a numerous family, religiously and industriously reared, after the salutary New England manner, upon a large farm. Among his educational advantages beyond the family hearth-stone, he remembers with much gratitude and respect the instructions of an admirable teacher-one of a renowned family of teachers, of Jefferson, in his native county-Miss Flora Atkins. Mr. Pickett enjoyed for several years, at intervals, the advantages of Kingsville Academy, then in charge of Z. S. Graves, since President of Winchester Female College, Tennessee. He first taught a district school in 1843, and for three successive winters. years were then spent, first in charge of the Academy at Nelson, and then of that in Windham, both in Portage county, Ohio, where, through excessive exertions, health failed, and a change of occupation was pronounced necessary. In 1858, Mr. Pickett removed to Winnebago county, Wisconsin. Finding his health improved, after a few months, by rural pursuits, he took charge for three winters of the public school in the village of Winneconne, then taught a term in the city of Oshkosh, and one in Racine. For the past seven years he has

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been principal of the Union school at Horicon, where his success and acceptance have been most flattering; the school, in its several departments, being one of the best in the State. As chairman of a standing committee of the State Teachers' Association on the "Revision of the School Laws" of the State, he has also rendered important service. During twenty years' teaching (seven only in the winter) Mr. Pickett has never but once punished with a blow that caused pain, and has passed several entire terms with no punishment beyond a reprimand. In connection with his brother, J. L. Pickett, he has written and published one edition of a treatise on English grammar.

A. J. CRAIG, the seventh President of the Association, was born in Orange county, N. Y., November 11, 1823, and received his early education in the common schools, but, like many an American youth, continued successfully a work of self-improvement in scientific and classical study. He resided in western New York till 1843, when he removed to Wisconsin. Occasionally spending his winters in teaching until 1864, he was then appointed Principal of the Fourth Ward Public School in Milwaukee, where he remained two years. In 1857, he became resident editor of the "Wisconsin Journal of Education," and continued such for a term of nearly three years. In January, 1860, he was appointed assistant Superintendent of Public Instruction. As editor and superintendent, Mr. Craig has rendered important services to the cause of public education in his adopted State. In 1859, he was a member of the Lower House of the State Legislature, and was chairman of the Committee on Education. Here, in behalf of the State Teachers' Association, he brought forward and advocated important improvements in the school system of the State. Mr. Craig is now acting as Adjutant of the Fortieth Regiment Wisconsin Hundred Day Volunteers.

JONATHAN FORD.

JONATHAN FORD, the eighth President of the Association, was born in Broome county, N. Y., in 1814, and was the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, who was settled for several years at Elmira. Mr. Ford graduated at Williams College with the class of 1839. Subsequently he had charge for two years of an academy at Claverack, N. Y., and for eight years was Principal of the academy at Hudson. After his removal to Wisconsin, Mr. Ford was Principal of one of the ward schools in the city of Milwaukee, and served a term (1859-60) as Superintendent of the Public Schools of that city. To this position he brought not only educational skill and experience, but efficient business habits.