Bit of HiStory
THE LEGACY OF
E
By Pat Jollota
: Paddy Hough
Early hardship and deprivation profoundly affects people. Some become hardened and cruel. Others develop strength and understanding. Patrick Hough, for which Vancouver’s Hough Elementary, Hough Foundation, and the Hough neighborhood were named, was born far away from Southwest Washington, on St. Patrick’s Day, 1846 in Slevoir, near Tipperary in Ireland. That was the year the infamous potato famine struck Hough’s home country. Potatoes, the single energy crop of the Irish, rotted in the ground, causing The Great Hunger, as the Irish called it. The blight would last for years, causing suffering and death. The laissez-faire British policy was blamed for much of the suffering. They imported food from Ireland as the people starved. The conditions lead to one of the largest population emigrations in history. When war between Prussia and France erupted in 1870, most Irish took the side of the French. Following suit, Hough enlisted as a stretcher bearer, and set out for France. The war didn’t last long, but it was too long for Hough. A German artillery shell ripped off his left arm. He returned to Ireland, 24 years old with one arm. There was no future in Ireland. He joined the million immigrants to the New World.
He landed in Canada and taught for 13 years at St. Louis College, a Catholic Boys School in British Columbia. Then, Holy Angels College, which stood west of St. James Church in downtown Vancouver, Washington announced an opening for a head of staff. Hough accepted that position. He taught classes during the day, and trained students by night to prepare them for teaching positions. He also began to purchase property, the first parcels in what is now Fruit Valley. He bought in the Arnada neighborhood, and in Ladd’s addition in Portland. He invested in the First National Bank. He found time to court and marry his wife, Ann. In 1891 he left Holy Angels College to become principal of the Columbian School on Kauffman Avenue where John Ball Park is today. In 1898 he became principal of Vancouver High School. When he retired in 1908 at the age of 62, the tribute in the Vancouver High School yearbook read, “To Patrick Hough, our dear old professor, whose sympathetic advice and Christian example have been to us an inspiration to live higher and nobler lives.” But Hough’s retirement was short lived. He returned to education as a deputy superintendent of County schools and was a substitute teacher during World War I. Eventually, his friends noticed a change in the heretofore dapper and elegant Paddy. His clothes became worn, his shoes were thin. He bought meat less, and his meals were poor. They knew he had investments and property, so why was he living like a pauper? The mystery wasn’t solved until after his death on December 17, 1927, when Hough’s will revealed that in addition to a few small bequests to St. Louis College (the institution in British Columbia), to Providence Academy, and $500 to his niece, Bridget Parkinson, his properties, shares, and investments were to be used by the executors of his will to institute an agricultural high school in Clark County. This school was to teach agriculture, horticulture, dairying, domestic science and manual training. It was to be open to students of both sexes. It was to be free of cost to the students. If that wasn’t revolutionary enough for the day, Hough also specifically requested that “no question of sex, class, creed, party continued on next page Patrick “Paddy” Hough, for which Vancouver’s Hough Elementary, Hough Foundation, and the Hough neighborhood were named, left a legacy of learning in Southwest Washington. Photo courtesy Pat Jollota.
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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • March 2018