Germantown Academy - Ye Primer Yearbook (Fort Washington, PA)

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CLASS DAY ORATORS

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SALUTA TOR Y Ladies and Gevezflcazzew' lt is a pleasant duty, I assure you, to wel- come you here this evening to the closing exercises of our Class, and to thank you for your kindness and interest toward us, as evi- denced by your presence here to-night. Although of course we look forward with eagerness to the future, still it is with sorrow and a sense of deep loss that we leave behind us forever our happy school days, and depart from the fatherly guidance of our dear friend and head master, Dr. Kershaw. 'It is for us to show in the ensuing years that the ceaseless and untiring efforts of our teachers have not .been expended upon us in vain, and we shall know that whatever sue- cess we may gain in the future is greatly due to the training which we have received at old Germantown Academy. Thanking you again for your kind inter- est in us, I will now make way for our learned historian. I. I. BROWN.

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CLASS HIS TOR Y Ten years ago last September, in the year 1895, a small colony of youngsters, in fear and trepidation, emigrated, as it were, from their several homes, and settled on the historic soil of old Germantown Academy, there to begin the cultivation of their minds for lifeis conflict. Each member of this little band, practi- cally unknown to each other, and proud in the realization of commencing his school life amid the classic surroundings of the old Academy, soon found himself, like others, possessed of a courage unexpected, and Hlled with an enthu- siasm to do, so peculiar to all Germantown Academy boys. None of us had ever been out in the world before. We knew nothing of school life, of text books or teachers. VVe were, indeed, clay in the hands of the pot- ters, and only the future could determine what the potters, our teachers, would make of us. . In a very short time this small colony of boys bound themselves together under a standard known as the Class of '06, of the Germantown Academy. As historian of this class, it has been delegated to me to write and read to you to-night its history. Of the original members of this Class of '06, only four have worked their way through from its organization to graduation. They are Charles H. Riley, H. Leonard Tissot, Wfil- liam H. Mechling and your historian of to- night. These four, with the other boys, who then made up the class, began their search for knowledge in the Fifth Form of the Pri- mary Department of the Academy, where, under the patient guidance, persistent efforts, and care of Miss Bushong, we were hrst taught our A, B, C's, and initiated into the wonderful accomplishments known as reading, writing and arithmetic. Wfe were proud boys when we knew how to read and write, and what we learned in this Fifth Form Primary,