De LaRue, Harry

Submitted by Mike Miller

Harry De La Rue, the efficient and popular principal of the high school in the City of Plaquemine, judicial center of Iberville Parish, claims the old Buckeye State of the Union as the place of his nativity, and on the paternal side is a scion of the fourth generation of the family in that commonwealth. His paternal great-grandfather was born in France, and was a resident of Guernsey County, Ohio, at the time of his death.

Harry De La Rue was born at Jeffersonville, Fayette County, Ohio, October 28, 1890, and is a son of John E. and Lou (Doty) De La Rue, who still maintain their home in that village. John E. De La Rue was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, in July, 1859, and his wife was born in Ross County, that state, July 12, 1861, their marriage having been solemnized in the latter county. For a short time after his marriage John E. De La Rue followed his trade, that of shoemaker, in Ross County, and since 1889 he has maintained his residence at Jeffersonville, where he is successfully engaged in the shoe business, in connection with which he operates a modern repair shop. He is independent in politics, and he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, though at Jeffersonville, where there is no church of this denomination, they attend and support the Methodist Episcopal Church. William, elder of the two children, is established in the mercantile business in the old home village of Jeffersonville.

Harry De La Rue, younger of the two children, is indebted to the public schools of his native town for his early education, and there he was graduated from the high school as a member of the class of 1909. In advancing his education he thereafter entered Ohio University at Athens, and in this excellent institution he was graduated in 1913, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. As a member of the debating team of the university in 1910 and 1911 he participated in the intercollegiate debates in which this team took part. It is to be recorded that later Mr. De La Rue completed a post-graduate course in the great University of Chicago, from which he received in 1919 the degree of Master of Arts.

Shortly after his graduation in Ohio University Mr. De La Rue came to the South, in 1913, and assumed the position of teacher of history in the high school at Scottsboro, Alabama, where he remained two years. During the ensuing two years he was head of the history department in the Ensly High School in the City of Birmingham, that state. He next became principal of the Marion County High School at Guin, Alabama, where he continued his service until he was recalled to Scottsboro and made principal of the high school. He retained this position during the school year of 1918-19, and he has since served consecutively as principal of the high school at Plaquemine, Louisiana, save for the school year of 1922-23, during which he was again retained in the Ensly High School at Birmingham, Alabama. His work has been at all times marked by circumspection, progressiveness and fine pedagogic and executive discrimination, and high estimate has been placed upon his professional services in the various communities in which he has taught. At Plaquemine he has supervision of the work of sixteen teachers and 589 students at the time of this writing, in the spring of 1924. It may further be stated that the Plaquemine high school building was erected in 1911 and is thoroughly modern in structure, facilities and general equipment. Mr. De La Rue is aim active member of the National Educational Association, the Louisiana State Teachers Association and the Alabama Educational Association, besides which he has membership in the American Historical Association. He was registered in Class 4 for service in the World war, but the signing of the armistice brought the war to a close before there was a call for his active military service.

In the initial paragraph of this review it is noted that the paternal great-grandfather of Mr. De La Rue was a native of France and that he was a resident of Ohio at the time of his death. Elias De La Rue, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, passed his entire life in Ohio, save for the period of his service as a soldier in the Civil war, his death having occurred at Piketon, Pike County, Ohio, shortly after the close of his service in that great conflict. He was a cabinetmaker by trade and vocation.

At Scottsboro, Alabama, on the fourth of June, 1915, was solemnized the marriage of Harry De La Rue and Miss Ethel Tarpley. Mrs. De La Rue was born in Tennessee, was afforded the advantages of Brenau College at Gainesville, Georgia, and also those of the celebrated Conservatory of Music in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, she being a talented pianist and accomplished vocalist. Mr. and Mrs. De La Rue have two children: Harry, Jr., who was born July 12, 1919, and Lurena, who was born October 14, 1921.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 318, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.