Alonzo Jonah Howe

Alonzo Jonah Howe was a professor of mathematics at the Old University of Chicago. Alonzo grew up on a farm in Perinton, NY, near the eastern shores of Lake Erie. He wanted to go to college, but his dad (Charles Howe, who was of little formal education), needing sons to work the farm, would not allow him to leave unless he paid for a hired hand to take his place (Alonzo paid for school too). After completing his studies, Alonzo joined the faculty of the Old University of Chicago almost from its beginning. The school failed financially over a number of years, eventually closing in 1886. The school's prospects had been dimmed partly by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and the Panic of 1873. The school was already in trouble when this portrait photo was taken in 1875 (he was about 44 then). An 1895 article about the Old University entitled "University of Chicago - Old and New" in The Shield, a publication of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity wrote that when the university buildings were demolished in the winter of 1889-90, "And its end seems almost tragic, when we call to mind that while the last stones were being removed and nothing remained standing save the ragged walls of the great central tower, Professor Howe, who had been professor of mathematics through almost its entire history and for many years dean of the faculty, lay dead in his home across the street. Dispirited, broken hearted, brooding over the calamities of that institution, the upbuilding of which he had made his life work, there is no doubt that its downfall directly contributed to, if it did not cause, his death." He died February 7th, 1890, aged 58.