HORATIO GATES WINSLOW (1820 - 1893)

"Wise in his planning, systematic in his labors, and just in his judgment" - Horatio Gates Winslow, educator and amateur botanist, was most of all a devoted family man. He settled in Racine so that his wife, Emily Bradley (1823-1877), could be near her family.

Winslow ran a bookstore in Racine for 25 years. Bu his real love was not the books so much as the children and their education. It was fitting that he became the city’s superintendent of schools in 1880. During Winslow’s twelve-year tenure as superintendent, Howell and Lincoln schools were erected. Both were considered models for their time. Since there still were no compulsory education laws, Winslow saw to it that all the basics were included in the elementary curriculum, better preparing those who withdrew after the fourth grade. At the high school level, chemistry labs were built and secondary botany classes significantly strengthened. Winslow served for thirty years as a trustee of Racine College. He was also chosen as a member of Racine’s school board and as a regent of the University of Wisconsin. Such devotion to education was recognized in the naming of Winslow School for him.

Gardening the four acres surrounding his Sixth Street home filled Winslow’s 1892 retirement with joy. He looked forward to more time with his beloved grandchildren, too, but his son John’s appointment to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin prevented that. Regretfully, as expressed in letters to his only son, Winslow would never see his five grandchildren again. He died of pneumonia in 1893.

The Winslows and the Bradleys remain as close in death as they were in life; they share the same monument with their family names on adjacent sides.

Submitted by Deborah Crowell