BIOGRAPHY: Faville, Oran
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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Honorable ORAN FAVILLE, first lieutenant Governor and ex-officio President of the 
State Board of Education, was born October 13, 1817, at Manheim, Herkimer County, 
New York.  He was reared upon a farm, educated at district schools, and from 1834 until 
1838, engaged in a school teaching during the intervening Winter.  In the latter year he 
removed to Ohio, where during the next succeeding two years he further engaged in 
teaching and in preparatory study at Granville College.   Subsequently, during two years, 
he studied at Fairfield Academy, in his native county, with intervals of teaching.  In 1842 
he entered the junior class in Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Connecticut, at which 
institution he graduated in 1844.In the latter year he was appointed teacher of Ancient 
Languages in the Oneida Conference Seminary at Cazenovia, New York.  In 1846 he 
accepted a like appointment in the Troy Conference Seminary at West Poulterey, 
Vermont, of which institution he afterward became Principal.  Thence emigrating to the 
West, in 1852 he entered upon the duties of Professor of Ancient Languages in 
McKendree College, at Lebanon, Illinois.  While President of the Wesleyan Female 
College at Delaware, Ohio, in 1853, ill health compelled his resignation; thereupon he 
removed to Iowa and opened a farm in Mitchell County.  There he was elected the 
second county judge in 1857.  The same year he was elected the first Lieutenant 
Governor and ex-officio President of the State Board of Education, then newly organized.  
In April, 1863, he became acting secretary of the board, and in January following, 1864, 
was appointed secretary by Governor Kirkwood to fill a vacancy occasioned by the 
resignation of the Honorable Thomas H. Barton, Jr.  In May, 1863, he was commissioned 
by the Honorable Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, out of the Board of Visitors to the 
United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.  In March, 1864, he was elected 
by the Legislature Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Board of Education having 
been abolished.  To the same office he was re-elected by the people in 1865, but on 
account of ill health in 1867 he resigned.  In 1867, also, he removed from Des Moines, of 
which place he became a resident in 1863, to Waverly, Bremer County, where he 
remained in retirement until his death, which occurred October 31, 1872.  Governor 
Faville, in addition to his public labors, was President of the State Teachers' Association 
during 1864 and 1865, and edited the Iowa School Journal from 1863 to 1867.
He was married July 24, 1845, to Miss Maria M. Peck, of Dewitt, New York.