James Huff Stout was born and grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, spent some years in Read's Landing, Minnesota, and in St. Louis, and Washington, D.C., and then settled in Menomonie, Wisconsin, where he resided for the last twenty years of his life. Today the name Stout is associated readily with the University of Wisconsin-Stout and with the Knapp-Stout lumber company. While his principal claim to fame lies in his laying the foundation for a great university, his prominence in other Wisconsin and national affairs has been largely forgotten.

The neglect of James Stout's contributions was due in part to his own unassuming posture and a seeming avoidance of public praise. During his residence in Wisconsin, however, he accomplished a great deal in educational change, the development of libraries, the "good roads movement," and other progressive enterprises.

Admittedly, Stout was able to accomplish much of what he did by means of his wealth. The exploitation of the great white pine forest of northern Wisconsin yielded significant fortunes for the families involved in the Knapp, Stout & Co. Company. Stout used his money to improve the quality of life for those less fortunate.

The subtitle of his biography, 'Maker of Models," (the primary source of this online exhibition) signifies Stout's attitude that whatever venture he undertook should be so well done that it would be a model for others. Thus his manual training school was conceived as the best housed, best equipped, and best staffed school that money could buy and would therefore serve as a model for others. Likewise, his model road, the traveling library for Dunn County and the landscaping of the Menomonie school grounds were conceived as prototypes.


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