Mr. George L. Teeple was born in Champaign, Illinois, in
1864, and at the age of nine came to Whitewater to live with
his aunt and uncle. He was graduated from the old "Academic
Department" of the Whitewater Normal, about which school he
writes so charmingly in the sketch here given.
Mr. Teeple planned his collegiate career in preparation for
the profession of engineering. He was graduated from Cornell
University in 1889, and was engaged in active engineering
work and instructural duties in this line until 1895. But at
this time he felt the call to the field of English, and he
gave special study to this subject for two years at Harvard.
From 1897 to 1899 he was instructor in English in the State
Normal School at Stevens Point, but at this time the demands
of his health made it necessary that he resume active outdoor
work, so, since the latter date, he has been more or less
closely identified with his first-chosen profession. But in
all these years he has never lost his interest in creative
literary activities. He writes very slowly and carefully,
with infinite pains and almost endless revision. His work, as
represented in "The Battle of Gray's Pasture," fully repays
his effort, for, though the phrases seem to have come easily
and readily, they show the fitness and grace that are the
result of no other thing than rigorous care.
His home is in Whitewater, which, as will be noted, has
sheltered many Wisconsin writers, notably President Albert
Salisbury and Dr. Rollin Salisbury, George Steele and Julius
Birge. The selection here given is an account of a real
football battle. But "Gray's Pasture" has now been
transformed into a modern athletic field, and the "spreading
oak" has been replaced by a concrete grandstand.