Harry M. Gage Biography


	This biography appears on pages 581-582 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				HARRY M. GAGE. 

	Harry M. Gage is a young man who has already attained a position 
of prominence in educational circles and has labored effectively for 
intellectual advancement not only in the classroom but also on the 
lecture platform. He is now the president of Huron College and has 
already done valuable service as the head of this important institution 
of learning. 

	His birth occurred in Ohio on the 15th of October, 1880. His 
father, a Presbyterian home missionary, came west in 1865 with Sheldon 
Jackson, a pioneer who attained some fame by introducing reindeer into 
Alaska. As a small boy Harry M. Gage lived in Minnesota, while his 
early education was acquired in the public schools of La Crosse, 
Wisconsin, where his father was a pastor. Subsequently he attended 
Grinnell College Academy for two years and following his graduation 
from that institution, in 1896, entered the University of Wooster in 
Ohio, from which he was graduated with honors (cum laude) in 1900. 
While attending the Academy and during the early part of his college 
course he helped defray his expenses by working on a farm, and during 
two summers he sold maps in Iowa and Illinois. In the February prior to 
his graduation from college he decided upon a business career and made 
a contract with the United States Building & Loan Company of Akron, 
Ohio, agreeing to work for them one year. In August, 1900, however, he 
received by wire an offer to become instructor in Greek in Huron 
College, which caused him to change his plans suddenly, resign his 
position in Akron and go to Huron, South Dakota. After the first year 
in Huron he became instructor in philosophy. Immediately after his 
arrival here he began working to promote the interests of the college 
among the people of South Dakota and spoke in its behalf in many 
churches, also giving many addresses before teachers' institutes and on 
commencement occasions. He likewise appeared on the lecture course in 
several towns of the state and spent much time in raising money to pay 
the current expenses of the college, leaving the work of the classroom 
largely to others. While still a resident of Huron he also pursued a 
summer course in Chicago University, doing graduate work in psychology 
and education.

	In 1903 Mr. Gage resigned his position in Huron to become 
Columbia University Fellow in Philosophy, receiving six hundred and 
fifty dollars per year in that capacity. He studied in New York for two 
years, specializing in philosophy, psychology and education. In 1905 he 
was appointed assistant in philosophy in Columbia University and 
resigned to accept the Armstrong professorship in philosophy in Parsons 
College of Fairfield, Iowa. Throughout the next four years he devoted 
his time exclusively to classroom work, while during the summer months 
he did work in the Teachers College of Columbia University. Throughout 
one summer season he appeared on Chautauqua programs 

	In 1909 he was appointed dean of the faculty of Parsons College, 
serving in that capacity for three years and spending much of the time 
in general administrative work. During the years 1911-12 he did 
considerable work under the direction of the committee on speakers for 
The Men and Religion Forward Movement, speaking on problems of religion 
in rural communities and on mental hygiene in Illinois, Iowa and 
Nebraska. 

	In 1912 Mr. Gage accepted an appointment to the position of dean 
of the faculty and professor of philosophy and education in Huron 
College. In this position he devoted most of his time to classroom 
duties and to developing the purely educational work of the college. As 
president he will continue instruction in the classroom' giving 
personal attention to student life in the college and to increasing an 
interest in scholarship in all departments of instruction. 

	On the 7th of August, 1912, President Gage was united in marriage 
to Miss Florence Louise Avery, of Newburgh, New York. She is a graduate 
of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, was 
also a pupil of Teichmuller of Leipzig, Germany, and has gained an 
enviable reputation as a teacher of the piano.