Landess, Dantan W.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Dantan W. Landess has been engaged in successful educational work in Louisiana during the past several years, and his service has inured greatly to the advancement of the various public schools with which he has here been associated. At Port Allen, the judicial center of West Baton Rouge Parish, he is now (1924) principal of the high school, which has a corps of eight efficient teachers and an enrollment of 230 pupils.

Mr. Landess claims the old Hoosier State as the place of his nativity, and is a representative of one of its sterling pioneer families. He is a grandson of Lewis and Phoebe Landess, both of whom were residents of VanBuren, Grant County, that state, at the time of their death. Lewis Landess was born at Hillsboro, Ohio, and was a young man when he made the journey, largely by walking, to Grant County, Indiana, where he obtained land and developed a productive farm. He was a staunch advocate and supporter of the cause of the democratic party, was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and was one of the venerable and honored citizens of Grant County at the time of his death, when eighty-six years of age.

Dr. George A. Landess, father of him whose name introduces this review, was born on the homestead farm of his father, near VanBuren, Indiana, in the year 1859, and he passed his entire life in his native county. He was graduated from the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, and after thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he was successfully engaged in the general practice of his profession at VanBuren until his death, which occurred January 18, 1901. He held membership in the Indiana State Medical Society and other professional organizations. He gave many years of service as coroner of Grant County, besides having served as County medical examiner, his political allegiance having been given to the democratic party. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and was a most zealous member of the First Christian Church of VanBuren, as is also his widow, who there continues to maintain her home. Mrs. Landess, whose maiden name was Mary E. Black, was born at Richmond, Indiana, in 1859. Of the children the eldest is Dr. Chester Karl, who is now a successful physician and surgeon in the City of San Francisco California; Flossie Lois is the wife of Floyd D, Miller, who is engaged in the wholesale plumbing supply business in New York City; Dantan Wyeth, immediate subject of this sketch, is the youngest of the children.

In the public schools of his native town, VanBuren, Dantan W. Landess continued his studies until his graduation mom the high school, as a member of the class of 1914. He has since indulged no static tendencies in the matter of scholarship, but has continued a close student, appreciative of the fact that there should be no cessation or limitation of intellectual progress. He was for two years a student in the Marion Normal School at Marion, he having there become affiliated with the Phi Delta, Kappa fraternity, and thereafter attended the University of Indiana one year. Since coming to Louisiana he has attended each successive year the summer schools at the Louisiana State University, where he has specialized in history and political science, receiving his B. A. degree in the Teachers' College.

In 1914 Mr. Landess became a teacher in the Indiana Soldiers' Home School at Marion, where he remained one year; during the next two years he taught in the public schools of his native city of VanBuren, that state; and in 1919 came to Louisiana and assumed the position of assistant principal of the public schools at Rayville, Richland Parish. In 1920-21 he was principal of the graded school at Dunn, that parish, his next service being as assistant principal of the high school at Bunkie, Avoyelles Parish, 1921-22, and in the autumn of 1922 he assumed his present position, that of principal of the high school at Port Allen, where he is giving a most loyal, progressive and popular administration. He is an active member of the West Baton Rouge Parish Teachers' Association and the Louisiana State Teachers' Association. He was reared in the faith of the democratic party, and has never been deflected therefrom. He still retains membership in the First Christian Church in his old home town VanBuren, Indiana, in which state he gained his ancient craft degrees in the time honored Masonic fraternity. In that state he is still affiliated with Marion Chapter No. 55, R. A. M., but his other Masonic affiliations are in Louisiana, as here noted:

R. F. McGuire Lodge No. 209, A. F. and A. M., at Rayville, and Plains Commandery No. 11, Knights Templar, in the City of Baton Rouge.

On the 12th of June, 1917, shortly after the nation entered the World war, Mr. Landess volunteered for service in the Medical Corps of the United States Army, and as a member of the ambulance unit formed at the University of Indiana he was stationed six months at Allentown, Pennsylvania, then entered the Third Officers' Training Came at Camp Meade, Maryland, where he remained four months and where he won his commission as second lieutenant, June 1, 1918. He was then assigned to service at Camp Lee, Virginia, where he remained until the armistice brought the war to a close and where he received his honorable discharge December 7 1918. He now holds the rank of first lieutenant in the Reserve Corps of the United States Army, and as such he attended the soldiers' training camp at Camp McClellan, Alabama, in the summer of 1923.

At Rayville, Louisiana, on the 19th of August, 1923, occurred the marriage of Mr. Landess and Miss Ruby Donnell, daughter of Lee and Ida Donnell, who reside on their fine plantation estate near Dunn, in that same parish. Mrs. Landess attended the Mississippi Normal College at Hattiesburg, and also summer sessions at the Louisiana Polytechnic Institute at Ruston. Prior to her marriage she was for two years a Popular teacher in the public schools near Dunn. Mr. and Mrs. Landess are leaders in the social and cultural activities of their home community.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 122-123, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.