East High School - Redjacket Yearbook (Pawtucket, RI)

Page 9 text:

'DecUcatcxM, To the Memory of Miss Nellie V. Donovan, Whose Constant Inspiration, Unfailing Kindness, and Infinite Wisdom Enriched Our Lives and Those of Our Predecessors, We, the Class of 1947, Dedicate Our Classbook.

Page 8 text:

A Teacher TO have devoted four decades to an activity of the mind and spirit is in itself an experience the richness of which can be measured only by those who have shared in it. This was the experience of Miss Nellie V. Donovan, a teacher distinguished by a brilliant record of accomplishment and honored by the esteem of thousands. For she had taught in Pawtucket high schools for virtually the four decades—actually for 39 years, and in that period had made a profound impression on hundreds of minds. Miss Donovan began her teaching career well prepared by a liberal education at the Women's College in Brown University, now Pembroke College. She brought to her work not only a desire to assist her students but to broaden her own fine mind. She was one of those wise persons who understand the true value of formal education and appraise it as a preparation for the experience of living. One of the greatest of autobiographies written in recent decades is The Education of Henry Adams.'' It records the pursuit of culture through a long lifetime and leaves the reader with a deep appreciation of the values to be gained from daily experience. Miss Donovan was one who. we believe, enriched her education through contact with her students in her daily work. She taught because she was devoted to the profession, but in particular she loved to teach a student who was interested in the task at hand. She responded to eagerness to learn by her own eagerness to teach. So it was that through the years she made the English department at Pawtucket High School—later Senior High and now East High —an institution in itself. Any student who really desired to acquire the habit of good English had the opportunity there. Such a student was received as a gift and a challenge by this able woman, who not only knew her subject but also knew young people, the boys and girls of a high school. When the 1934 year book of the school was in preparation, in charge of a student committee, its dedication read: To Miss Nellie V. Donovan, whose scholarship we admire, whose humor we enjoy, whose friendship we value, the class of 1934 respectfully dedicates this year book. It was a mature tribute from young minds who a dozen years ago were paying a deserved honor to one who had won the respect of other students more than a quarter of a century earlier, who has had the respect, esteem and affection of students in the decade that has followed the publication of that 1934 year book. Courtesy of The Pawtucket Times

Page 10 text:

Samuel Slater Samuel Slater farther of Textiles in Am erica ii T ALL of The Water”, or Pawtucket, as the Indians called it. was the birthplace of an industry that has brought prosperity to our city and state, and leadership in world trade to our nation. The narrative of this birth and growth in a rude building at the site of the Slater Mill is no ordinary one but. rather, a story of a brilliant mind, patience, and an unconquerable determination pitted against the rigid principles of a great empire. Let us turn back the faded leaves of history in order to understand the complete chronicle. “'King Cotton”, often a pawn in the rise and decline of nations, was first mentioned in the annals of India of 5400 years ago. Slowly its use spread to Asia Minor, Rome, then Christian Europe; during the Renaissance it became a basic commodity. After man had sought for centuries to perfect a pratical machine to replace the crude, slow method of home spinning. James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright, about 1767, succeeded in inventing the first machine and establishing the first water power spinning mill, a fact which revolutionized the manufacture of cotton. Prior to this achievement the English Colonies in America had boasted of the fact that all their spinning and weaving were done within their boundaries: however, after the termination of our Revolution in 1781. England flooded our market with inexpensive, machine-made goods, at the same time maintaining vigilance against importation of machines, models, or skilled workmen, who knew of Hargreaves's discoveries. Quickly our young cotton industry threatened to become extinct. However, another Englishman. Samuel Slater, born in 1768, was soon to save the industry by a dream. Although an excellent student, due to the death of his father he was forced to go to work at the age of fourteen. Apprenticed to Arkwright. Slater worked diligently and observed keenly, always with one idea—that of building his own machine after emigration to the United States. Forbidden to copy machines or make models, he committed the designs to memory, and sailed from London in 1789. After his arrival he signed a contract with Moses Brown of Providence on April 15. 1790, to reproduce cotton machinery used by Arkwright in England. Deriving his water power from the Pawtucket Falls, in a humble shack he and other skilled workers labored behind closed doors. Often physically and mentally weary. Slater several limes was on the verge of surrendering his project, but his persistent will urged him onward. When the apparatus at last seemed properly assembled, he suffered his worst blow—the machine would not operate smoothly. Exhausted, he fell upon his bed and dreamed. In the sub-conscious mind of the machinist, the cogs, gears, and wheels became a whirling mass, but he discovered that one essential part had been left out. With this part in place, the next day Slater’s dream was realized. The present building, erected in 1795, is today a fitting memorial to the man to whom we of Pawtucket owe so much. We all realize the importance of the cotton industry in our history, in our economic progress, in our present world level of commerce: let us not forget that it all began a few steps from our school.