AARON E. GOVE PAPERS

Aaron E. Gove was born September 26, 1839, in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He was the first of three children born to John Francis Gove and Sarah Jane Wadleigh Gove. When he was eight years old the Gove family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Gove and his siblings attended school in Boston until 1855, when the family moved to La Salle County, Illinois. At the age of fifteen, Aaron worked as both a blacksmith and a country school teacher. During time off from teaching, he attended the Illinois State Normal School, graduating in the spring of 1861.

In the summer of 1861, Gove enlisted as a private in the Illinois Thirty-Third Volunteer Infantry, Company B. By September 26, 1861, he was commissioned a second lieutenant. A year later he became first lieutenant, serving as both an aide-de-camp to Gen. C.C. Washburn and as the division ordinance officer. He later served as a brevetted major at the battles of Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Big Black River and Vicksburg. Discharged from the army on June 18, 1864, he returned to Illinois, and married Caroline Spofford from North Andover, Massachusetts on February 13, 1865. They had four children: Denver attorney Frank E. Gove; Denver architect Aaron M. Gove; Ellen Spofford Gove Hanington; and Caro Gove McMurtry. On March 13, 1865, Gove received a military commission for his “gallant and meritius services during the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi”.

In 1868, Gove was appointed Superintendent of Schools of Normal, Illinois. During the five years in this position, he owned and ran the periodical, The Illinois School Master. In 1874, Gove was invited to become Denver’s Superintendent of Schools with a yearly salary of $2,500. During the thirty years he served as Superintendent he oversaw the creations of Denver’s first official public elementary and high schools, consolidation of the Denver School districts, and became the first president of the Colorado State Teachers’ Association. During this time he also received two honorary degrees: a Master of Arts from Dartmouth College in 1878 and a Doctor of Law degree from the University of Colorado in 1888. In 1903 he took a six month hiatus to Europe for health reasons. At his retirement in 1904, Gove was active in national education reform and a member and former director of the National Education Association. Because of his career and involvement in various associations he was nationally recognized for his work in education.

After retirement, Gove became associated with the Great Western Sugar Company. He again became a national figure, this time in the formation of legislation for the beet sugar and international sugar industries. He briefly became involved with the production of sugar in the Philippines. Consequently, he spent most of his time in Washington, D.C., working to improve importation, tariffs, and sugar production for the United States.

Besides his professional careers Gove was involved in many different civic and community organizations. He was active in the Republican party, and held position as a Commander of the Loyal Legion, was a thirty-third degree Freemason, a member of the Grand Commander of the Knights Templar of Colorado, and was connected with the Lincoln Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, member of the Denver and University Clubs, board member for the First Congregational Church in Denver and the curator and director of the Colorado State Historical Society.

During the last sixteen years of his life Gove suffered from ill health. On September 26, 1916, his wife Caroline Spofford Gove passed away in Denver. Gove was bed-ridden from 1918 until he passed away in his apartments at the Shirley Hotel in Denver, Colorado on August 1, 1919 at the age of 80. He was buried at Fairmont Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.