lumberman, businessman, politician, educator, philanthropist, b. Dubuque, Iowa. He was the son of Henry Lane Stout (q.v.). He entered his father's lumber business at the age of 19, serving for a time in The Knapp, Stout and Co. Lumber Co. offices at Read's Landing, Minn., and at St. Louis, Mo. In 1889 he moved to Wisconsin, settling permanently in Menomonie, where he assumed management of the company's logging and milling activities on the Red Cedar River. Actively interested in the problems of education, especially in the field of manual training, domestic science, and teacher training, Stout constructed in Menomonie the first building in Wisconsin devoted exclusively to manual training and domestic science. In 1897 he financed the construction of a larger manual-training building to replace the earlier one, which had been destroyed by fire. From this beginning, he established the Stout Training School (1903), which in 1908 became Stout Institute, devoted to the training of teachers of manual training and domestic science. Throughout his life, Stout guided the development of this school, was instrumental in making it a model of its kind, and contributed large sums to provide it with a plant and faculty. A Republican, he was state senator (1895-1910), and for most of his years in the senate served as chairman of the committee on education. He was also president pro tem of the senate for 8 years, and was instrumental in the passage of a law (1899) permitting counties to provide training schools for rural school teachers. Stout was also a member of the regents of the Univ. of Wisconsin for many years, served on the executive committee of the state forestry association, and was president of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission. At the time of his death, he was president of the First National Bank, the Bank of Menomonie, and the Wisconsin Milling Co. of Menomonie, and was president of the Thornton and Alexandria R.R. Co., and the Stout Lumber Co. of Thornton, Ark. Wis. Mag. Hist., 42; J. G. Gregory, ed., W. Central Wis. (4 vols., Indianapolis, 1933); F. L. Holmes, Badger Saints and Sinners (Milwaukee [1939]); Wis. Blue Book (1909); Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 9, 1910; Menomonie Dunn County News, Dec. 8, 19

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the James Huff Stout Biography for details.

View a related article at Wisconsin Magazine of History Archives.

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[Source: Blue book]