Ira Stout, superintendent of the public schools at Kiowa, Kan., has held that postition[sic] since the fall of 1908, and through his energetic and untiring labors there has become recognized as one of the efficient and progressive educators of the state. He is a native of Illinois, born at Carrollton, Jan. 10, 1870. He is a son of John H. Stout, who was born at Bloomington, Ind., Jan. 12, 1834. The father was a farmer by vocation. In 1854 he married Rachel Wright, daughter of John Wright, a native of England, who immigrated to America, in 1825, and located on a farm in Greene county, Illinois. He was one of the earliest pioneers of that county and died there in 1859. To John H. and Rachel (Wright) Stout were born eight children—five sons and three daughters: Jennie, born May 3, 1856, died in July, 1861; John H., born Aug. 21, 1858, is engaged in agricultural pursuits at Carrollton, Ill.; David A., born Jan. 9, 1860, is a farmer at Piasa, Ill.; Margaret, born April 27, 1862, died at the age of three years; Oscar H., born April 16, 1864, is an electrician at St. Louis, Mo.; Minnie M., born Aug. 16, 1865, is the wife of R. A. Meek, a farmer at Carrollton, Ill.; Clarence, born Sept. 10, 1867, died in 1869; and Ira is the youngest. At the outbreak of the Civil war the father organized a company for the Sixty-first Illinois infantry, as a captain, but failed of appointment on account of physical disability. He was a Republican in politics and an earnest worker for prohibition and, in 1878, was the head of the first Prohibition organization in Greene county, Illinois. In public affairs he took an active and prominent part and was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Fraternally he was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He died Jan. 10, 1888.

Prof. Ira Stout received his earlier education in the public schools of Carrollton, Ill., where he graduated in the high school. Later he took a course at the Western Normal College, of Bushnell, Ill. Following his graduation he was engaged in teaching three years in Illinois; then, in 1895, he removed to Oklahoma, where he took up a government claim in Woods county, and proved it up after three years' residence. In the meantime he served as superintendent of the city schools at Alva, Okla., where he remained in charge two years. He then removed to Hazelton, Kan., and was principal of the schools there four years. Since then he has been at the head of the Kiowa (Kan.) schools and has been a tireless worker in his efforts to make the public schools of that city among the best in the state.

In 1895 Mr. Stout married Miss Juliet Spalding of Alva, Okla., born May 1, 1867, at Fieldon, Ill., a daughter of William and Martha Spalding. The parents of Mrs. Stout are deceased, the mother having passed away March 20, 1898, and the father, Aug. 9, 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Stout have two sons—Howard B., born Dec. 19, 1897, and Harold I., born July 13, 1899. Fraternally Mr. Stout is a Knight of Pythias, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.