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Daniel Otis Barto

Principal High School 1880-1888, 1890-1893

Daniel O. BARTO, the second Principal of the Ithaca High School, has been connected with the school by bonds of unusual closeness, for not only did he serve eleven years as Principal but it was in the Ithaca Academy that he received his preparation for college.

Mr. BARTO entered Cornell in the Autumn of 1873, a member of the class of '77. In both his Sophomore and Junior years he rowed No. 2 in the first of Cornell's victorious crews, the winners at Saratoga in '75 and '76. At the close of his Junior year he left the University to become Principal of the Trumansburg High School.

When, in 1880, Mr. BARTO came to the Ithaca High School he found only 121 boys and girls of Ithaca in attendance; the remaining fifty of the 171 students were non-residents. The graduating class at the close of his first year numbered but eight. In the following year, 1881-82, there were but 169 students and a graduating class of ten, all girls.

Then began the period of growth which with increasing rapidity has ever since continued. The causes of this growth need not be dwelt upon here--the growth of the city, the stimulus of the University, the excellence of the school, all doubtless had a part. The fact to be recorded here is that from 169 the registration grew steadily until at the close of the year 1892-93, when Mr. BARTO resigned, the High School numbered 419 and the graduating class 62.

As a result of this growth another important fact of High School history must be associated with Mr. BARTO--the demolition of the old Academy and erection, in 1884-85, of a new building which was thought to be more than adequate to meet the new demands. Yet it was only a few years before the new building was crowded, so that we see the last year of Mr. BARTO'S incumbency, 1893, marked by the first of the new additions, the one at the southeast corner.

During two years of this period from 1880-93 Mr. BARTO was not connected with the school, for in June, '88, he resigned to join Mrs. BARTO in California, whither shortly before Mrs. BARTO had gone, hoping that a gentler climate might restore her to health. The succeeding year he taught Latin in the Ladies' College of Los Angeles. When death showed that their hopes had been vain Mr. BARTO returned East to take charge of the department of mathematics in the Roxbury Latin School in Boston. In 1890, he was again elected Principal of the Ithaca High School.

Upon resigning his position here in 1893, Mr. BARTO became Principal of the High School at Oak Park, Illinois, where he remained until June, 1898. He was then elected Principal of the Princeton Township High School at Princeton, Illinois, a position which he still fills.

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