OBIT: William Wilson OSBORNE, 1918, Altoona, Blair County, PA

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W. W. OSBORNE
AGED TEACHER PASSES AWAY

  Prof William Wilson Osborne died yesterday morning at 2.55 o'clock at 
the home of his daughter, Mrs. B. F. Griffin, at 2105 Sixth avenue, 
after a short illness from a complication of diseases, aged 89 years.  
Since retiring from the service in the schools of the city, Prof 
Osborne has enjoyed excellent health and it was not until last 
Wednesday that he became ill, gradually growing weaker until he passed 
away yesterday morning.
  Professor Osborne was the oldest teacher in the Altoona school 
district, both in age and in years of service.  He served a full half 
century in the Altoona schools and ten years in districts outside the 
city, completing his fifty years in Altoona at the close of the 1912-13 
school term when he was placed on the Altoona pension roll, being the 
first instructor to be placed on the roll of honor.
  Since he retired the instructor weekly visited the schools in the 
district and frequently called at the High school and at the Jefferson 
school, where he spent a quarter of a century as principal.
  Professor Osborne started teaching in 1853 after graduating from the 
Cassville, Huntingdon county, academy, and he remained ten years in the 
Hamilton, Logan township school.  His first school was a log cabin 
building with twenty pupils.  When he retired he presided over a 
fourteen room building, enrolling 629 students.
  He applied for a school in Altoona in 1863 and taught in the grade 
schools until 1888 when he was elected principal of the Jefferson 
school, Fourth avenue and Second street, and continued as the principal 
until he retired in 1913, the educator taking charge of the building 
when it was completed in 1888.
  A generation of men and women passed out into the world trained in 
the three "Rs" during the principal's career in the city schools and 
many men and women in the city today are numbered among Principal 
Osborne's former students.  The instructor in his sixty years as a 
teacher, in several instances, taught three generations of children.
  Wilson William Osborne was born in Fulton county on July 3, 1829, the 
son of David and Lillie Osborne, deceased.  His father, who followed 
the agricultural calling, died in 1887, at the age of 82 years.  The 
son secured his early education in the Fulton county academy and later 
entered the Cassville academy in Huntingdon county, graduating in 1853.
  He was the last surviving member of his family and is survived by two 
daughters, Mrs. Charles T. Jordon, and Mrs. Bert E. Griffin and a son, 
Crawford B. Osborne, all of this city.  He was a life-long member of 
the Methodist church, being affiliated with the First Methodist church, 
this city.
  Professor Osborne is the last of the three principals to be retired 
in the Altoona district in 1913, when the pension department was 
inaugurated, being preceded to the grave by Professor James B. Bowles 
of the Madison school and Professor J. H. Cessna of the Penn school.  
Only one other principal, W. C. Reem, remains on the retired list.

Altoona Times, Altoona, Pa., Wednesday Morning, December 18, 1918

FUNERAL NOTICES.

  Funeral services of Prof. W. W. Osborne will be held in the First 
Methodist church at 2.30 o'clock Friday afternoon.  The cortege will 
leave his late residence at 2 o'clock.  The services will be public, 
but the burial, which will be made in Fairview cemetery, will be 
private.

Altoona Times, Altoona, Pa., Thursday Morning, December 19, 1918