Arthur A. Hughart, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Arthur A. Hughart
ARTHUR A. HUGHART, A. B. It is most gratifying to note that the city of Valparaiso retains as the able and popular superintendent of its public schools one who is a native son of Porter county and a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of this section of the old Hoosier state. Professor Hughart is known as a man of fine intellectual attainments, as an efficient and systematic worker in the field of practical pedagogy, and as an executive who has brought the schools of Valparaiso up to the highest standard in all particulars. His success and his popularity in his native county set at naught any application in his case of the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country."
Professor Arthur Abram Hughart was born on the homestead farm of his parents in Center township, Porter county, on the 12th of August, 1864, and is a son of William A. and Mary (Fulton) Hughart. William A. Hughart was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, and was a scion of a family, of staunch German lineage, that was founded in that historic old commonwealth in an early day. He was about five years of age at the time of the family removal from the Old Dominion state to Porter county, Indiana, in 1835, and here he was reared and educated. He devoted his entire active career to the great basic industry of agriculture and was one of the prominent exponents of the same in Porter county. The death of William A. Hughart occurred on September 4, 1912. He was a son of David Hughart, who likewise was a native of Virginia and who was the founder of the family in Porter county, Indiana. David Hughart removed to this county in 1835, as already stated, and he secured in Liberty township a tract of government land, to the reclamation of which he bent his energies, with the result that he developed a productive farm. About 1860 he removed from his farm to Valparaiso, where he engaged in the buying and shipping of grain, and here he continued to reside until his death, at the venerable age of eighty-nine years, his devoted wife having preceded him to eternal rest. He was one of the sterling pioneers of the county and his name and services merit recognition in its recorded annals.
Mrs. Mary (Fulton) Hughart, mother of Professor Hughart, was born in Pennsylvania and was a daughter of-Abram and Jane (Turner) Fulton, who removed from the Keystone state to Indiana about 1840. They established their home in LaPorte county, where they passed the residue of their lives and where their daughter, Mary, was reared to maturity. Mrs. Hughart, a woman of most gentle and gracious personality, was summoned to the life eternal in 1907, at the age of eighty-three years, and her memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her influence. Of the four children the subject of this sketch is the elder of the two who attained to adult age, and his sister, Ruth, is the wife of Samuel E. Collins, of Valparaiso.
Like many another who has achieved success and prestige in the domain of educational work, Professor Hughart was reared to the sturdy and invigorating discipline of the farm, where he perhaps gained a somewhat closer communion with "nature in her visible forms" than was at all times pleasing to his youthful fancies and desires. His rudimentary education was obtained in the district school and after completing its curriculum he entered the Valparaiso high school, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1889. At the age of twenty years he initiated his career in the pedagogic profession by assuming the dignified office of teacher in one of the district schools of his native county, and it was not until later that he was enabled to complete his high school course. His success as a teacher spurred him to further effort and has eminently justified his choice of vocation. He finally entered Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, in which he completed a four years' course and in which he was graduated in 1893, with the well earned degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the meanwhile he had continued his work as a teacher and after his graduation he became principal of the public schools at Hebron, Porter county, an incumbency which he retained for two years. The special efficiency of his work in this connection, as well as his personal popularity in his native county, were significantly shown at the expiration of the period noted, as in 1895 he was elected to the important office of county superintendent of schools, in tenure of which he continued for seven consecutive years. In this position his administration was marked by thoroughness, system and progressive policies, and he gained the earnest co-operation of the teachers of the county, as well as the unequivocal approval of all citizens who were appreciative of the great value of the work of the public schools as conducted with high ideals and practical methods. Upon his retirement from the office of county superintendent, in 1902, there came further and most gratifying recognition of the ability and effective service of Professor Hughart, since he was then elected superintendent of public schools of Valparaiso. In this office he has continued to accord most effective service and his earnest devotion, his ability and his enthusiasm have inspired both teachers and pupils, with the result that his regime has been peculiarly successful. But after a most successful career as an educator and superintendent of the city schools of Valparaiso for ten years, Professor Hughart severed his connection with his home city schools to assume the superintendency of the city schools at Coffeyville, Kansas, where he goes to begin the school year in September, 1912.
Taking a broad-minded interest in public affairs, Professor Hughart is essentially liberal and progressive in his active attitude, and his political allegiance is given to the Republican party. In the Masonic fraternity he has attained to the chivalric degrees of the York Rite, and he is affiliated with the lodge, chapter and commandery of this time-honored fraternity. He has been a member of the board of trustees of the Valparaiso public library from the time of the organization of the same, and he is one of the zealous and valued members of the First Presbyterian church in his home city. He is an elder in the church and has been an active factor in the work of the Sunday school, in which he has been a teacher since 1895. His wife likewise is active in the various departments of church work, as was also his first wife, and Mrs. Hughart is a popular factor in the representative social activities of Valparaiso.
On the 16th of August, 1893, Professor Hughart was united in marriage to Miss Ruth Talbott, and she passed to the life eternal in 1897, being survived by one daughter, Lyal, who is now a student in the Valparaiso high school. On the 26th of September, 1901, was solemnized the marriage of Professor Hughart to Miss Grace Louderback, daughter of John S. Louderback, a well known citizen of Porter county, and they have two children, Esther and Jane.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 780-782
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook