Wampler Lemuel Cochrane Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1277-1278 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	WAMPLER LEMUEL COCHRANE, PH. D., superintendent of. the public 
schools of Aberdeen, is a native of Mercer county, Pennsylvania, born in 
the town of Clarksville, October 22, 1870, and nine years later 
accompanied his parents to Sullivan county, Missouri, where he lived on 
a farm until a youth of seventeen. Meanwhile he acquired his preliminary 
education in the public schools, and at the age noted entered Humphrey's 
College, Missouri, from which in due time he was graduated. While 
prosecuting his collegiate course he devoted his vacations to teaching, 
and, better to fit himself for the latter profession, subsequently 
became a student of the normal school at Kirksville, Missouri, where he 
pursued his studies until 1900, when he graduated with the class of that 
year. Prior to finishing his professional course at Kirksville, 
Professor Cochrane served as principal of schools at Glenwood and 
Browning, Missouri, also held a similar position for some time in the 
town of Craig, and in 1899 was elected superintendent of the public 
schools of Moulton, Iowa. Entering upon his duties at the last named 
place immediately after his graduation, he held the position during the 
ensuing three years, and at the expiration of that time resigned to take 
charge of the schools of Aberdeen, South Dakota, to which place he was 
chosen by the unanimous vote of the board of trustees. Professor 
Cochrane's work in this city has fully justified the board in the wisdom 
of their choice. his labors as an organizer as well as an educator 
giving new life and impetus to the schools of the city, and making the 
local educational system not only the leading one in South Dakota, but 
among the best in the United States, as prominent educators who have 
investigated his efforts and critically observed his methods cheerfully 
admit. Since taking charge of his present position he has inaugurated 
and carried to successful issue a number of radical reforms in the 
matter of instruction and management, including, among others, a new and 
greatly improved course of study, which is conceded to be one of the 
most thorough in the state, and making professional training as well as 
scholarship a prerequisite on the part of the teacher. The present corps 
of teachers, carefully selected with reference to intellectual culture 
and professional training, are either normal graduates or hold diplomas 
from other first-class educational institutions, and their tenure 
depends entirely upon fitness, the incompetents in due time being weeded 
out, and only those of high order of ability as instructors being 
retained. There are now in Aberdeen six school buildings of the latest 
and most improved style of architecture, all neatly finished and 
supplied with the necessary furniture and educational appliances. A 
building but recently erected is said to be one of the finest specimens 
of school architecture in the state, if not the best. It is seventy by 
one hundred and forty feet in area, two stories high, contains twenty-
two commodious, well-lighted rooms, with a seating capacity of three 
hundred, and with furniture and other necessary appliances, represents 
an outlay considerably in excess of fifty thousand dollars. The high 
school has long enjoyed the reputation of being one of the best 
institutions of the kind in the country, its graduates being received by 
the leading colleges and universities of South Dakota and other western 
states without examination, and it also articulates with the Chicago 
University, Columbia University at Washington, D. C., and with all the 
first-class educational institutions in the land. 

	In addition to his duties as superintendent Professor Cochrane is 
in great demand at certain seasons as an institute lecturer, his 
services in this capacity being highly prized wherever he has labored. 
Since locating at Aberdeen he has not only been active in promoting the 
city's educational interests, but has also contributed in no small 
degree to its general prosperity, being interested in all movements and 
enterprises making for the material advancement of the community and the 
social and moral good of his fellow men. Fond of athletics and healthful 
outdoor sports and amusements, he has used his influence to encourage 
the same among young people of the city, especially among students, and 
it was, largely through his efforts that a finely equipped gymnasium was 
added to the splendid school building recently erected.

	Professor Cochrane, in 1895, contracted a matrimonial alliance 
with Miss Alice Knight, of Linneus, Missouri, one of his classmates in 
college, and later a successful and popular teacher, the union resulting 
in the birth of one child, a son by the name of Harrold. Religiously 
Professor Cochrane and wife subscribe to the Methodist faith and belong 
to the church of that denomination in Aberdeen.