Maricopa County AZ Archives Biographies.....McNaughton, James unknown - living in 1896
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 1, 2005, 10:19 pm

Author: McFarland & Poole

p. 457


  DR. JAMES M'NAUGHTON. The public interest which centers about the institutions
of a commonwealth lends itself in a greater or less degree to those who conduct
them. Whence came they? How prepared for their duties? What have they done? Such
are the pertinent questions that the public wisely ask, and should have
opportunity to know.

  Dr. James McNaughton, the president of the Arizona Territorial Normal School
at Tempe, is a native of the State of New York, having been born near the famous
Chautauqua Lake. His mother was born of Scottish parents in the State of New
York. His father emigrated to this country from Dumbartonshire, Scotland.

  Dr. McNaughton's rudimentary education was acquired at the district school. At
an early age he was sent to Ellington Academy, where he graduated at sixteen,
having served as assistant teacher in that institution a portion of the time.
The seven years following were spent in teaching, in studying law, and in
pursuing college studies, at the end of which time he graduated from the
classical course of Alleghany College. The succeeding year was spent at Michigan
University in the pursuit of mathematical and scientific studies. Among his
instructors were the celebrated Bishop Kingsley, Dr. Alexander Martin and
DeVolson Wood. On his return from the university he was elected School
Commissioner of Chautauqua County. New York, which office he resigned during his
second term to accept a position as superintendent of city schools. His duties
as School Commissioner and his study of pedagogics during that period, under the
able tutorage of Dr. Armstrong, prepared him eminently for his chosen work. He
rose by successive steps to more responsible positions in city school management
until he resigned the superintendency of the schools of Council Bluffs, Ia.,
after an administration of more than seven years, to organize and conduct the
State Normal School at Mayville, North Dakota. This position he held until the
financial condition of the State bankrupted the normal school.

  The honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Alleghany
College a few years after his graduation; later, he pursued a course of study
leading to that degree, laid out by the Illinois Wesleyan University, and
received 24 the degree from that institution upon examination. The degree of
Doctor of Philosophy was conferred upon him by Alleghany College, after his
having pursued the required three years' course and passing the necessary
examinations.

  In all school questions, he has ever taken a lively interest. He was a pioneer
in the semester plan of dividing the school year, a plan now universally adopted
in the leading city schools. The main principles of the New Education were
applied in the various departments of the schools under his supervision, long
before they were announced as such from the Quincy schools, and the
recommendations of the committee of ten closely coincided with the system of
work that had been in force in his schools for more than ten years.

  He is a man devoted to his profession; aggressive, and yet conservative enough
to shun most of the educational follies. In the Arizona Territorial Normal
School he is conscious of great possibilities for the elevation of Arizona, and
diligently labors to that end.


Additional Comments:
From:

A Historical and Biographical Record of the Territory of Arizona
Published by
McFarland & Poole, Chicago, 1896

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/az/maricopa/bios/gbs18mcnaught.txt

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