Silas R. Dague
SILAS R. DAGUE. As president of the Dague Business College, in the City of Wichita, Mr. Dague has been the potent force in the development and upbuilding of one of the admirable and influential educational institutions of the Sunflower State, and the college of which he is the executive head is maintained at the highest modern standard, with the best of material facilities and with a corps of instructors who are notable for distinct efficiency in the work of the respective departments to which they are assigned.
Mr. Dague was born in Will County, Illinois, on the 17th of February, 1884, but he has maintained his home in Kansas since early childhood, his parents having removed to this state in 1891, when they established their residence at Wilson, Ellsworth County. In the public schools at Wilson Silas R. Dague continued his studies until he had been graduated in the high school, and for two years thereafter, 1903-04, he was a student in Baker University, at Baldwin, this state. For several years thereafter he taught private schools in various cities in the Middle West, and he then, in consonance with his ambitious purpose, entered the Louisville Business College, in the metropolis of the State of Kentucky, where he completed a thorough course in bookkeeping and higher accounting. Thus effectively fortified, Mr. Dague then established his residence at Wichita, in 1914, and that year recorded the founding of his present institution, the Dague Business College, the affairs of which he has directed with marked discrimination and progressiveness, with the result that he has brought its functions up to the most approved standard and gained to it a large and appreciative supporting patronage.
The well appointed headquarters of the Dague Business College are in the Bissantz Building, in the heart of the business section of Wichita, and the well lighted and ventilated rooms are of spacious orderwell adapted for the uses to which they are applied. The corps of instructors in the college numbers five efficient teachers, and all departments are equipped for the training of students in a practical and effective way, fitting them fully for the assuming of positions of responsibility in the business world. The courses of study include not only the curriculum usually to be found in institutions of the kind but also one specially designed for preparing students for work under the civic-service system. The enrollment of students for the year 1916 is more than 600, and this fact indicates the splendid growth of the college and the high estimate placed upon it by those desirous of obtaining thorough business education.
Mr. Dague is not only an energetic and progressive young business man but is also a loyal and public-spirited citizen who takes lively interest in all things pertaining to the civic and material welfare of his home city, where he is distinctively popular in both business and social circles.
Mr. Dague married Miss Grace B. Cooper, of Dorrance, Kansas, and they have one child, Virginia Belle.
Transcribed from volume 4, page 1802 of A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, copyright 1918; originally transcribed 1998, modified 2003 by Carolyn Ward.