The reputation of Professor Hostettler as an educator is not alone
confined to Olney, nor yet to Richland county, but is familiar to the
educational circles of all Southern Illinois. His work during the years of
his service has been of an excellent order, and has won him a reputation for
efficiency and advanced ideas that is wholly consistent with the close and
careful application he has given to all matters of educational interest.
Henry W. Hostettler was born in Richland county, June 7, 1868, and is
the son of Peter and Elizabeth (Balmer) Hostettler, the former having been
born in Ohio, of Swiss parentage, while the latter was born in Switzerland.
Peter Hostettler came to Illinois as a young man and settled on a farm in
Richland county, where he still lives. He has been highly successful in his
labors in agricultural lines and is widely known in Richland county as a
stock raiser of much ability and success. He is an enthusiastic Democrat,
and both he and his wife are members of the German Reformed church. His
father was Joseph Hostettler, born in Switzerland and an immigrant to Ohio
in early life. He was a physician and practiced his profession in Ohio for
forty years. The maternal grandfather of Henry "W. Hostettler was a native
of Switzerland, coming first to Indiana and later to Illinois, where he
devoted himself to farming pursuits, in which he was particularly
successful, being known as one of the well-to-do men of his district.
The higher education of Professor Hostettler was obtained mainly through
his own efforts, as after he left the common schools he was left to his own
resources in the matter of his continued studies, and he attended the
Southern Illinois Normal school by teaching school in the winter and
prosecuting his studies in the summer, continuing in that way until he had
finished his normal course of instructions. He was principal of schools at
Bridgeport from 1895 to 1898, and in the latter year was elected
superintendent of schools of Lawrence county, serving one term. He was then
made city superintendent of schools at Lawrenceville, where he remained for
four years, filling the position with credit to himself and in a manner that
was highly beneficial to the schools. His next position was as principal of
the township high school, a place which he filled for two years, coming to
Olney as superintendent of schools in 1911. His labors thus far in Olney
have been rewarded by a pleasurable degree of success and he is regarded as
the right man in the right place by his constituency.
Professor
Hostettler is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is an adherent to
principles of the Democratic party, whose cause he has ever supported in a
whole-souled manner. During his term of service in Lawrenceville he was
twice elected to the office of mayor, happily demonstrating his fitness for
other positions of responsibility aside from his educational work, to which
he has devoted the greater part of his life thus far. He is the owner of a
fine farm in Lawrence county, as well as other outside interests, but none
of these have been permitted to interfere with the fullest and most
conscientious performance of his duties in his educational capacity. He has
been a member of the Revision Committee of the State Course of Study,
serving from 1900 to 1902, and while a member of that committee he did
excellent work for the commission. Professor Hostettler was a teacher of
mathematics in the State Normal at Normal, Illinois, during the summer term
of 1911, in which branch he was particularly successful. He has done a vast
amount of institute work and has held various offices in the Teachers'
Association of Southern Illinois, his high reputation among the educational
interests of the state being well earned and one of which he is eminently
deserving.
In 1894 Professor Hostettler married Stella Shaw, a
daughter of Hutchings Shaw, a native of Ohio, now a resident of Lawrence
county. Three children have been born to the union of Professor and Mrs.
Hostettler: Jean, Pern and Mary. The two eldest are attendants at the Olney
schools, while Mary is but eighteen months old.
Extracted 13 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 History of Southern Illinois, pages 1244-1245.
| Jasper | Crawford | |
| Clay |
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Lawrence |
| Wayne | Edwards | Wabash |
