James Huff Stout
Founder of UW-Stout
Born: September 25, 1848, Dubuque, IA
Died: December 8, 1910, Menomonie, WI
Important Dates in UW-Stout History
On January 5, a small, wooden school opened its doors in downtown Menomonie, Wisconsin. The goal of the school's founder, businessman James Huff Stout, was to provide through a private-public partnership a supplementary form of education — manual training — for boys and girls attending the adjacent city school.
1891
1908
Stout Institute
By the early 1900s, the Stout Institute was educating teachers in the primary manual training fields, industry, and home economics.
Senator Stout's Traveling Libraries
Senator James Huff Stout, a philanthropist, and very observant man, was actively engaged in promoting education all his life.
What better way to do this than to provide the people of Dunn County with small Traveling Libraries?
Citizens living in rural areas at the end of miles of bad dirt roads could nonetheless visit nearby locations like post offices, stores, and some private homes. There they could check out carefully selected books free of charge.
In 1896, Senator Stout had several of these small libraries built at his own expense and stocked with about 30 volumes each. Volunteer librarians were appointed and the libraries were sent to locations all over the county. When the residents in an area had read the books in a case, it was replaced with one containing fresh titles.
Within two years some 37 little libraries were in circulation and the system operated at least until Senator Stout’s death in 1910. The case on display, Number 13, is probably the last surviving example of Senator Stout’s Traveling Libraries system.
Exhibit at Dunn County Historic Society