Holbrook

Hist. Soc.t Apr.-July 1923; Arch. Record, Apr. 1912,
June 1923; Jour. Am. Inst. Arch., Aug. 1923; J. Moses
and J. Kirkland, Hist, of Chicago, III. (1895), vol. I;
Am. Architect, Aug. n, 1920, Aug. i, 1923 ; T. E. Tall-
madge, The Story of Architecture in America (1927) ;
Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago Daily News, July 20,
19*3-1 T.E.T.

HOLBROOK, ALFRED (Feb. 17, 1816-
Apr. 16, 1909), pioneer in the professional train-
ing of teachers in the Middle West and a leader,
as was his father, Josiah Holbrook [q.v.], in the
nineteenth-century movement for the democrati-
zation of higher education, was born in Derby,
Conn. His mother, Lucy (Swift) Holbrook,
died when he was two years old. Alfred's school
career closed at the age of fourteen, after a three-
year sojourn at Groton Academy; his further
education was acquired through independent
study while employed in his father's factory and
elsewhere. To this training he ascribed much of
his success as an educational pioneer. While he
was fitting himself to become a civil engineer, his
health failed and he removed to the Western Re-
serve in Ohio, where at the invitation of John
Baldwin [#.-£>.] he became teacher of the school
at Berea which was the forerunner of Baldwin
Institute. On Mar. 24, 1843, he married his
cousin, Melissa Pierson, by whom he had six
children. In 1855 he was appointed by the South-
western Normal School Association as principal
of the normal school to be established at Lebanon,
Ohio. The school was opened Nov. 24,1855, un-
der the auspices of the Association, but after the
first year was conducted by Holbrook as a pri-
vate enterprise. Reacting to the social and eco-
nomic conditions existing then in the Middle
West, he developed one of the most noteworthy
innovations of his time, the National Normal
School (later National Normal University, and
still later Lebanon University), which, together
" with other institutions which followed its ex-
ample, including the Ohio Northern and Val-
paraiso universities, brought college education
within the reach of thousands of the poorer
classes. Through a system of self-boarding and
boarding clubs, living expenses were reduced
one half. Special examinations were required
neither for admission nor for graduation—an
arrangement which, though opening the doors of
the school to a greater number, resulted inevi-
tably in lowering the standard of scholarship. By
"using fifty weeks in the year and more hours in
the day" the time required for completing the col-
lege course was reduced from four to two years.
No rules of conduct were prescribed. Equal
rights and privileges were afforded women and
men. Notwithstanding a steady growth in en-
rollment, increasing financial difficulties forced
Holbrook's school into a receivership in 1893.

Holbrook

After serving a year as salaried president of the
school he had founded he removed to Tennessee
where he attempted to develop similar institu-
tions. His efforts proved unsuccessful, how-
ever, and he returned to Lebanon, where he died.
On Aug. 31, 1892, after the death of his first
wife, he was married to Eason Thompson at Hot
Springs, Ark.

Holbrookes Normal: or Methods of Teaching
the Common Branches (1859), nacl previously
appeared in quarterly instalments and was widely
read. It was followed by his School Manage-
ment (1871), Reminiscences of the Happy Life
of a Teacher (1885), and by some textbooks in
grammar and rhetoric. His independence of
thought, his energy and industry, the magnetism
and forcefulness of his personality achieved for
him success not only as an executive but also as
a teacher. During his last years, former students
from Cincinnati and elsewhere were accustomed
to meet at Lebanon on his birthday, which was
sometimes celebrated jointly with that of Lin-
coln.

[Holbrook's Reminiscences (1885); Samuel Orcutt
and Ambrose Beardsley, The Hist, of the Old Town of
Derby, Conn. (1880); The Hist, of Warren County,
Ohio (1882); J. J. Burns, Educ. Hist, of Ohio (1905) ;
K. J. Kay, Hist, of the National Normal Univ. (1929) ;
files of the Western Star, Republican Record, and Leb-
anon Patriot, all of Lebanon, Ohio; records of Na-
tional Normal Univ. preserved at Wilmington Coll.,
Wilmington, Ohio.] L.F.A.

HOLBROOK, FREDERICK (Feb. 15,1813-
Apr. 28, 1909), governor of Vermont, was born
at Warehouse Point, near East Windsor, Conn.,
the son of John and Sarah (Knowlton) Hol-
brook of Brattleboro, Vt. He studied in the com-
mon schools of Brattleboro, to which place his
parents returned soon after his birth, and in the
Berkshire Gymnasium at Pittsfield, Mass., and
secured employment for a time in a bookstore in
Boston. After a year spent in Europe, he re-
turned to Brattleboro, where he married in Janu-
ary *835 Harriet Goodhue, daughter of Col.
Joseph Goodhue, and engaged in farming. He
had read and studied much concerning scientific
farming and was invited to write for agricultural
journals. He entered into a contract to furnish
a leading article each month for the Albany Cul-
tivator and the New England Farmer of Boston,
wrote editorials for the Country Gentleman, and
contributed articles on agriculture to the Brattle-
boro newspapers. For many years he served as
president of the Vermont State Agricultural So-
ciety, and in 1849-50 was a member of the Ver-
mont Senate.

In 1861 he was nominated for governor by the
Republican convention and was elected by a large
majority. One of his first acts as chief executive

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