Source: NMHS Newsletter, May 2000

End of a Bright Life

Tribute of Respect to a Well Known 

Chester Township School Teacher

John V. Hornaday, whose serious condition was mentioned last week, passed away early Thursday morning. His funeral took place at Fairview church on Friday under the auspices of the I. O. O. F. of which he was a member. The sermon was preached by Rev. Wooten to a very large congregation. The following biography and tribute to his memory was written by Prof. H. S. Hippensteel, a life-long and intimate friend:

John V. Hornaday was born near Columbia City, Indiana, Novem

  
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ber 9, 1866 and died at the home of his brother, William Hornaday, March 22, 1900.

The chronicles of men are satisfied with the above brief statement, but the influence of a noble life can be neither wisely nor satisfactorily 

  
passed with such brevity. This young man was well and favorably known the township over and was familiarly and respectfully  

 spoken of as John Hornaday the teacher. He knew not only the sweetest and richest of life's blessings, but he was also acquainted with the keenest of earth's disappointments and the most intense of human sufferings. Cheerfulness had selected him for a pleasant associate, kindness and benevolence claimed him as their devotee, and ambition marked him as a favored son, but sorrow and disease asserted their claims to him as if to show that one may suffer and yet be strong.

In early life Mr. Hornaday was deprived of a father's care and

  
   
 
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guidance and from that time he lived for the most part away from the home of his mother with other relatives and friends. Then a mere boy, he firmly resolved to devote himself to some sphere of the utmost usefulness and to efforts to help others. In 1887 he began, as he thought, to realize his purpose by entering upon the work of a teacher. From that time until his death, he devoted all his time, when physically strong enough for any labor, to the work as teacher or student preparatory to teaching.
  Whether as teacher at Concord, Pleasant Grove, Servia or North Manchester or as a student at Terre Haute, Mr. Hornaday always entered heartily into the church and social life of the community and his influence was always recognized and appreciated. At Terre Haute, he was elected president of the Young Men's Christian Association in 1894 and was sent by this organization to the summer school at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, from which place he returned as a sufferer from the disease which blighted his hopes and destroyed his vitality.

Ambition and zeal for school work has prompted him to teach a part of the time during the six years of suffering. He spent two years 

in the Kansas schools, one more year at Pleasant Grove and he had

  
 
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served part of the present year as the Township Principal at Liberty Mills.

Mr. Hornaday was an efficient and thoroughly conscientious teacher. He filled a school room with the atmosphere of industry, earnestness, and nobility and his pupils will always remember him on account of the interest he took in them. He seemed never to forget that his pupils were soon to fill places in the pursuits of life and he followed them with words of cheer and earnest inquires concerning their success after they had passed from his own school.

Among the teachers his influence was felt in shaping the policies of the schools and in securing efficiency of work. In their councils he was listened to as one whose knowledge and earnestness entitled him to be a leader.