Elmira Free Academy - Torch / Sagoyawatha Yearbook (Elmira, NY)

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1899 1899 1899 1899 1900 1900 1900 thusiasm over this team led to the organization again of an Athletic Association, with forty- seven members. Later this dwindled until the year 1901 '02, when the membership increased to one hundred twelve. A Mandolin Club was organized in E. F. A. February 24,-1899, under the leadership of Edward Briggs. This Club, consisting of two violins, two banjos, one guitar, and six man- dolins added greatly to the attractiveness of the rhetorical programs and other school entertain- ments. Later it was under the direction of Abraham Lande, who had been a member of the club from its inception, and who was graduated from Roosa's violin school the Saturdag before his graduation from the Academy in 901. The club disbanded when Mr. Lande left . F. A. When school opened September 13, '99, recitation rooms 22 and 23, the latter occupied by the teachers' training class, were given up to the Seniors, who sat there instead of in chapel. 'Ihe training class was moved to No. 2 school. The Seniors were put upon their honor, being without supervision. It became necessary to convert the library and the museum into recita- tion rooms. The geological collection was therefore moved into the former chemistry lab- oratory- now Room 30 and 26 was seated for classes. The bank railing in the library had been removed and glass doors fitted to the cases. Benches were placed diagonally across the libraryr- Room 25---the teacher's desk being in the northeast corner. The reading-table was placed in the front of chapel on the boy's side and used for reference books: the magazines were given up The encyclfapaedia case was moved to the space between the doors of 25 and 26, and a row o seats was adde close to the wall between the doors of 24 and 25. Aisles were narrowed to what one stout fellow called a fat man's misery. For the sake of some students that wished a wider knowledge of Shakespeare's plays than the English course provided for, Miss Godfrey organized a Shakespeare Club November 23, 1899. The plays were read in character, discussions and questions following each act. The club brought out some excellent elocutionary ability, Rees Pugh's and Earle Hart's work being conspicuous. The club was continued for two years, its membership numbering twenty-four the first year and forty-two the second. There have been several short lived school papers in the history of the Academy, but the Vindex, has evidently come to stay. In the fall of '99, a prominent local paper contained some anonymous slurs upon the student body. At an indignation mass-meeting of students, Prin. Evans suggested that the school have its own paper to defend its rights, and name it the Vindex, the Latin for defender. The suggestion was acted upon. Prin. Evans selected, from each class, a few students whose English work indicated their fitness for newspaper work. From the nominations thus made, each class voted for its proper number of representatives on the Vindex board. Election entitled the successful candidate to a position on the beard until his graduation. This scheme provided for experienced editors and managers. Cecil J. Swan, 1900, was the first editor-in-chief and William T. Rathbun, '01, the first business manager. The initial number was published in December, 1899. The paper is therefor in its ninth year of successful publication, and the training received by its editors has prepared several of them for editorial work on College papers. Lewis Henry, editor-in-chief in 1904, was conspicuously successful in editorial work at Cornell, and Neil Cranmer of '06 is now making good at Syracuse. The Class of 1901, as juniors, gave a reception to the faculty, post-graduates, and seniors, February 14, 1900. The Club room was elaborately decorated with hearts for the occasion, one corner being devoted to a Post-office for original Valentines. The Juniors were royal entertainers. In connection with the graduation in june 1900, one student's record is worthy of special mention. John C. Robertshaw finished the fours years' classical course in three years, with an average of 97 per cent for the entire course. After graduation from Cornell he was for four years a member ot the Academy faculty, and is now holding twice as good a position, financially, as teacher of classics in the Jersery City High School. At the close of the school year '99-1900, Prim vans resigned to accept a more lucrative position as principal of the High School in East Orange, N. J., where he still is. The reg- istration had doubled in the tive years of his principalship. In many other ways the school's growth had been equally noticeable. Mr. Evans's departure caused sincere regret, tempered only by the fact that our loss was his gain. Yet, though the change was promotion for him, the Elmira school holds a warm place in his memory, and East Orange students have often heard of this best school of the Southern Tier.

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The establishment of another secret sorority, the Alpha Sigma, during this year, brought up the question of school societies and led the Academycommittee of theBoardto decide that only open societies might use Academy rooms for evening meetings. The Alpha Sigma died out after a few years. - There was an increase of 90 in the enrolment, bringing the registration up to 646. In four years the school had out grown by a hundred, and in five years by nearly two hundred, the capacity of the building, which comfortably accommodates not more than 450. The chap- els were badly crowded. In November of 1897, Miss Herrick and six students organized the Kelvin Scientific Society, open to both sexes. This is an open society, meeting alternate weeks, devoting every third meeting to social purposes. At first, the meetings were held in the school building, but for some years they have been at the homes of members. This society has done earnest work along scientific lines. When school opened, December 8th, it was found that the Academy building had been robbed during the night. Burnt matches and cigar stumps were strewn through all the rooms. All teachers' desks had been ransacked and any keys found in them carried to the office to aid, if possible, in opening the office desk. These failing, it had been pried open and all the soap and towel fund, the desk money, and the magazine fund, amounting to between 20.00 and 30.00 dollars, had been stolen. Miss Norman's gold pen was also missing from her desk in lower chapel. , The class of '98 started the custom of a Senior play. On the evening of December 9, 1897, they gave two farces by john Kendrick Bangs, A Dramatic Evening and The Fatal Message. The entertainment was held in Park Church Play-room with an over packed house. In addition to the witticisms with which Bangs's farces are replete, Frank Curtin, who had the leading role, interpolated wit of his own that kept- the house in convulsions. The audience encored his original efforts so repeatedly that it was almost impossible to go on with the play. . The classes of '99 and 1900 did not present Senior plays, but 1901 did: then, with the exception of 1902, it has been an annual custom up to the present. The plays,,after '98's, have been as follows: 1901 A Letter of Introduction Park Church Play-room. 1903 The Rivals Auditorium Theatre. 1904 She Stoops to Conquer St. James Hall. 1905 London Assurance St. James Hall. 1906 A Scrap of Paper Rorick's Glen Theatre. 1907 The Prince Chap Rorick's Glen Theatre. This play brought out in the title role a prince of amateur actors, Albert H. Fox, now taking prominent parts on the professional stage in the Middle West, though lacking still a year of having experienced When We Were Twenty-One. 1908 The Half Back Rorick's Glen Theatre. 1909 The Elopement of Ellen Rorick's Glen Theatre. This is a musical comedy with picturesque songs and dances. At Christmas, 1897, as a token of their admiration and love, the Freshmen presented to Miss Norman, who was in charge of their chapel, a handsome revolving desk-chair, which femained upon the rostrum in lower chapel until Miss Norman's death, more than five years ater. New Year's evening, the class of '98 repeated the Bangs's farces in the Auditorium Theatre for the benefit of the Y. M. C. A., repeating also their,success. On the 29th of january, 1898, two members from the Gamma Chapter of the Lambda Sigma fraternity initiated eighteen charter members in E. F. A. as the Kappa Chapter. These same young men had had an organization, under various names, since jan. 16, 1896. The S. U. S. S. was started at that time in School No. 2. It consisted first of Messrs. Bennett, Mil- lard, Swan, and Gridley, later adding Messrs. Swift and Earle Hart. These six introduced the society into E. F. A., September, 1896. The name was subsequently changed to K. K. K., and later to Dodona. As Dodona, they hired St. Ursula Hall. Deciding to join some chaptered organization, they chose Lambda Sigma. Clubrooms were engaged in the Realty Building, soon after organization. Now the fraternity again occupies the St. Ursula Hall. Some remarkable records were made in the examinations of 1898. Miss Rena Rock-f well, a Freshman, finished the year with an average of 99 per cent. for the entire year's work. Isaac Levy of the graduating class had seven honor papers in june.. He had earned in four years a 100 count regents' certificate with honor 3 that is, in three fourths or more of the subjects his mark was above 90 per cent. That record has never been duplicated in E. F. A. He won the Cornell scholarship in june, and in the fall captured a 400.00 dollar cash prize in the Arts course at Cornell, against one hundred competitors, most of whom had taken a course in the Cornell summer school to prepare for the three days' examination that determined the scholarship. This record fcr an eighteen-year-old reflected great credit both upon himself and upon E. F. A. His sister, Miss Harriet M. Levy, won the scholarship to Elmira College the same year. Later she was a successful teacher in E. F. A. The fdotball team of '98 had a remarkable record, losing only one game, the last of the season, which would have given them the state championship. This defeat was doubtless due to the playing of an extra game that crippled the team just before the crucial game. En- 1896 1897 1897 1897 1897 1897 1898 1898 1898 1898

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CHAPTER IX. PRIN. CONANT'S ADMINISTRATION, 1900'f- 1906. Mr. Howard Conant came from the Penn Yan Academy to succeed Mr. Evans. During the vacation the Clubroom had been dismantled and seated as an annex to lower chapel to accommodate the over-flow of 1 first and second year students. Mr. Conant placed Miss Koehler in charge of the room and changed its name to I Room K in her honor. The loss of the Clubroom put an end for some time to social functions in the school. November 7, 1900, Commissioner H. C. Mande- ville of the Board offered prizes of 15 and 10 dollars to Seniors and juniors respectively, 7for thelbest articles written on The Commercial Future of the United States. The award was to be made at the 1901 Commencement. This was the first prize offered by a public-spirited citizen since the early seventies, when several E. F. A. prizes had been established. This was for the one year only. The Class of 1901 established the custom of choosing a Patron Saint from the faculty Wa custom popular in college. Miss M. Louise Godfrey had the honor of being the nrst Patron Saint in Academy history. The example of the Naughty Ones, as they called themselves, has been followed by all succeeding els sses except '02 and '08. Their choices were as follows: soq . .ff Miss Minna B. Phelps, '04.- -'Prin. Howard Conant, '05.fNMiss Grace Foster, '06.4 Miss M. Louise Godfrey, '07.-Miss Lillian B. Herrick, Miss M Louise Godfrey '09.ff . . In May of 1901, the first demonstration of wireless telegraphy in Elmira was made by Miss Lillian B. Herrick of the science department of E. F. A., assisted by Leon Bogardus, a student. Communication was established between two rooms and the experiment was entirely successful. It called outside attention very strongly to E. F. A. Miss Herrick was a partic- ularly able and progressive teacher and such up-to-date experiments were common things while she headed the physics department. Wednesday afternoon of Commencement week in the Academy chapel, the Seniors repeated their class play, A Letter of Introduction, given first in Park Church, February 19th. The repetition was for the benefit of the Athletic Association. The 1901 Commencement was unusually interesting. Mr. Francis E. Neagle, the val- edictorian, broke the state record by securing a 127 count regent's Academic diploma in his four years' course. The nearest approximation had been made by Prin. Charles Kent of the Elmira Heights School, but he made the record in mature years, after he became a principal, and even then fell several counts short of 127. Mr. Neagle later made an enviable record in Harvard, doing seven years' work in six in the arts and law departments and lecturing regularly in Radcliffe during the last years. He is now practicing law in New York City, the Harvard Club there having given him first choice of all openings in law offices because of his exceptionally able work at Harvard. Another brilliant student of 1901, Miss Rena Rockwell, after completing the course in Elmira College, did post-graduate work at Radcliffe. The salutatorian, Miss Florence Blades, secured the 15 dollar prize offered by Commis- sioner Mandeville for the best article on The Commercial Future of the United States, Miss Clara Louise Comfort receiving honorable mention. The 10 dollar prize went to Miss Helen Jeannette Allen of the junior Class. This would look as if the commercial future of the United States were in the hands of its women. The decisions were made by three prominent Elmira gentlemen. During the summer of 1901, the Academy library was catalogued by the Dewey decimal system. The librarian, Miss Godfrey, though she had never taken the two years library course, had already roughly classified the books under the groupings of that system. The state in- spector of libraries, seeing this and knowing her familiarity with books from her English work pronounced her capable of doing the cataloguing, usually done by an expert from the library schools. Conseuuently, studying out for herself the complicated system of red tape, she undertook to learn to do by doing, consulting Mrs. Andrew of the Steele Memorial Library when necessary. In six weeks, by working early and late, Miss Godfrey classified the 3269 books then in the library. She was assisted in the handprinting of the more than 10,000 cards by Mrs. Ida M. Sherwood and two young ladies of the school. One young girl's time was en- tirely taken with labelling books with the classification number, and rearranging on the shelves. In the report of Miss Emily Nelson, an early librarian, the library was said to contain 744 books 1900 1900 1901 1901 1901 1901 1901