Biography - CHARLES CLARENCE DINWIDDIE
As the capable, efficient and popular superintendent of the public
schools of Pocahontas, Charles Clarence Dinwiddie occupies a noteworthy
position among the educators of Bond county, and is eminently deserving of
more than passing mention in a work of this character. He comes of honored
Virginian ancestry, being a lineal descendant of the founder of that family
from which Robert Dinwiddie, one of the early governors of Virginia, was
sprung. He is a true type of the self-made men of our times, having measured
his own ability, and through his own efforts having hewn his way straight to
the line thus marked out. A son of the late Joseph M. Dinwiddie, he was born
near Woburn, Bond county, Illinois, March 6, 1880.
Joseph M. Dinwiddie was also a native of Illinois, his birth having occurred
August 1, 1832, in White Hall, Greene county. Succeeding to the occupation
in which he was reared, he was engaged in farming and cattle dealing
throughout his entire life, which was comparatively brief. He died February
28, 1881, while in manhood's prime. He married, in 1869, Millie A. Anthony,
of Woburn, Illinois, and she is now living in Smithboro, Bond county. He was
a stanch Republican in politics, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal
church.
The youngest of a family of five children left fatherless when small,
Charles Clarence Dinwiddie spent his earlier years in Smithboro, acquiring
his elementary education in the public schools and at the home fireside. At
the age of eighteen years he began his active career as a teacher, and for
two years had charge of a school in Concord, after which he taught for a
time in Seagraves. Going then to Decatur, Illinois, Mr. Dinwiddie worked in
the railway shops for awhile, and after his return to Smithboro was
variously employed, for a year being connected with the Vandalia Railroad as
an employe. Resuming then his professional labors, he taught in Union,
Illinois, in* 1904 and 1905, later having charge of schools in different
places in Southern Illinois. In 1909 he accepted the principalship of the
Pocahontas schools, and has since filled the position to the eminent
satisfaction of all concerned. Under his management the schools, which are
housed in a large, well-lighted brick building, have made rapid progress,
the course having been enlarged and now embracing two years of high school
work.
Mr. Dinwiddie married, in 1905, Grace Stubblefield, of Pleasant Mound,
Illinois, and they have two children, Geneva and Joseph H. Politically Mr.
Dinwiddie is a sound Republican; religiously he is a member of the Christian
Church; and fraternally he belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of
Masons and to the Modern Woodmen of America.
Extracted 10 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 3, page 1354.
