LAGRANGE — The LaGrange County Community Foundation has received a $2.5 million gift from the Howe Military School Board of Trustees to establish two endowments in honor of the school’s history.

The gift comes from the sale of the Howe Military campus after the school’s closing in 2019, and is the largest contribution in the Foundation’s history, according to a news release.

“Following the sale of the campus, the Trustees sought an opportunity to use the remaining funds to enhance the community of Howe and provide educational scholarships,” the release said.

The Trustees began working with the Foundation in 2019 to identify their plans and the scope of how their charitable gift would be permanently managed. They settled on creating two endowments: the Howe Legacy Fund — a community grantmaking fund and the Howe Legacy Scholarship Fund – a scholarship fund for college, trade, or vocational education.

“It was important to us to continue the legacy of Howe School; we partnered with the Community Foundation because they understand the size and impact of this gift and could help us realize its mission,” said Howe Board President Phil Malone in the release.

The Foundation’s leaders anticipate both program funds will begin accepting applications in 2024 and make its first distributions that same year, the release added.

Howe Military School was founded in 1884 as the Howe Grammar School with a bequest by John Badlam Howe, a prominent banker, lawyer, and politician, who moved to Howe in 1833. His widow, Frances Marie Glidden Howe, took the $10,000 bequest left by John Howe, and with the help of the Episcopal church, established it as a preparatory school for young men seeking ordination in the church. The school opened in the former home of Mr. and Mrs. Howe, a Greek revival building still standing at the east end of the former campus.

The school became a military school in 1895. At its peak, Howe Military School enrollment was 458 in 1966-1967.