Gnadenhutten High School - Goal Yearbook (Gnadenhutten, OH)

Page 23 text:

THE GOAL Nineteen 'fOh yes, it was at John Shull's. They spent many good times that year but grieved to lose two more members, Grace Haines and Walter Shull. But a bright side appeared when they gained the first members since the Freshman year, Clara Mae Reed. And they rejoiced again in the Senior year to get another new member, Luther Lindon. Their commencement season was made doubly happy in the fact that they could use the new school building for their graduation. They all left High School leaving a wonder- ful record of a wonderful class. Oh, Wise Owl, do you really think that was such a wonderful class ? I asked, over- joyed. I certainly do and I should like to see all of them, he replied. Why, Wise Owl, that was my class, the class of 1924, I told him. His eyes gleamed as he congratulated the class of '24 and asked me to fill and light his pipe again. I did and he smoked in silence, leaving me to meditate on the happy days spent in school. Julia E. Shull '24 lllli CLASS PROPHECY Come Pet, let us go for a hike. I said. It was a wonderful spring day and it cer-5 tainly was a great pleasure for me to take Pet, my collie dog, and go for a long hike. Generally one of my girl friends went along but this time I happened to go by myself. Pet and I had not gone so very far until we reached a thicket, which we managed to break through and when we were coming out at the edge, my foot caught in some of the tangled grass, and down I went, bump- ing the side of my head on something very hard. I looked to see what it was and found that it was a queerly shaped stone. I brushed some of the moss and dirt from it and could see plainly that there had been some markings on it, which, of course, I could not make out, but I readily saw that the stone resembled those which I had seen on several Indian graves. I knew it had been there a great many years because there was no trace whatever of the grave. I marked the place so that I might easily be able to find it again. I determined not to say a word to any of my friends except an old lady friend who claimed she had the gift of prophecy. She had often told me stories about the Indians and was very fond of showing me some of her relics. Many people did not believe in her prophecies but I had implicit faith in them. I went to her home and told her about what I had found and she said that she would be pleased to have the stone. It had been ten years since I had last seen her. In the meantime our family removed to Texas where I had completed my college course and had been working as a private secretary to the Governor, when I decided I wanted a vacation. So I started back to Ohio where my grandparents were living. Several days after I arrived, I asked grand- mother if the old Indian lady were still living and to my great surprise she told me she was. I at once decided that I would go and see her for I wanted to ask her some ques- tions. I reached her cabin in the early part of the afternoon and found her sitting there in her chair and the smoke lazily curling from her pipe. She did not recognize me at first was nice but I explained who I was and she greatly pleased to see me. We had a little friendly talk, and then I told her that there was one thing that I should like Very much to know. She quickly asked me what it was. I told her I had lost trace of my High School class, the class of 1924, and wished information concerning it. She immediately took from an old chest the stone which I had found, which I had long forgotten and taking some tobacco,

Page 22 text:

Eighteen THE GOAL CLASS HISTORY I had just arrived home for a short vaca- tion from the hospital where I had been employed as a nurse and as I sat before a slow-burning grate fire, I heard a sharp whistle. I arose, walked to the window, looked out through the streaming clouds of soft white snowflakes, and saw a man walk- ing hurriedly toward the house. Shaking the snow from his coat he knocked. I opened the door and there stood Doctor Manchester. Good eveningj' he said, this afternoon I received a call from the stricken Indians out on the Indian Reservation for help and I knew you were home on your vacation so I thought you might want to help them. Certainly I will, when shall I start? I asked. will be a nurse there to meet you and to take you to your destination, he replied. I went to my room and after packing my clothes, went to bed. I awoke early in the morning, and in a few minutes was on way to the train. In the morning if you can. There my It was a beautiful morning, the snow was piled upon the boughs of the trees and looked like an endless chain of diamonds glittering in the sun. I bought some magazines and passed the time with reading and wondering about the place where I was going. The time flew and I hardly realized that I was on the train a day and a night. As I stepped off the train, a girl came up to me and said, Are you the nurse Doctor Manchester sent? I told her that I was and she took me down the road to an old coach, in which I finished my journey. She told me all about the Indians and of one particular Indian, Old Wise Owl, whom they all loved. I was greatly interested in him for she told me he was to be one of my many patients. The coach stopped in front of a large white house. Miss Smith immedi- ately took me in and up to my room where I put my uniform on and was ready for work. The first patient Miss Smith introduced me to was Old Wise Owl. He was just the kind of an old Indian I had pictured him. About seventy or seventy-five years of age, with dark eyes and outstanding cheek bones. His face was pale and thin. He asked me if I would fill his pipe and light it for him. I started to do this but had not finished when he ask me where I was from. I told him and he replied that he remembered that town. He asked me to get the little red note book from his pocket which I did and here is the story as he re- lated it. A few years ago I went back to Gnaden- hutten to visit that old historic town for it was there my faithful old Christian grand- father was massacred by the white men. While there I heard of a class whose High School life was ideal so I took their names. Opening his book he leafed through it page by page and then stopped. Here they are, the ones that entered the G. H. S. as green Freshmen. There were fifteen in all, six boys and nine girls, Victor Schreiner, Harold Thomas, Francis Nuss- baum, Mary Pfeiffer, Mary Bender, Gladys Brown, Julia Shull, Grace Haines, Walter Shull, Harry Nussbaum, Wilma Murphy, Tod Sperling, Mary Mahaffey, Mary Carothers, and Bessie Mahaffey. They closed their year with three less in their class, Mary Mahaffey, Mary Carothers and Bessie Mahaifey. The whole class worked hard, boosting their second grade school hoping to get a first grade High School. When they went back in the autumn entered as the first Sophomore class of the G. H. S. with twelve in their class. The next problem they had to help solve was how to secure a new school building. The Indian village voted three times before their success came. Their Sophomore year closed with good hopes for the next year, although they lost three members, Harry Nussbaum, who left their class and accepted a position in the commercial world, Tod Sperling and Wilma Murphy, who went to other schools. In their Junior year they gave the recep- tion-l' he hesitated, opened his book. I sat watching him every minute. When he found the name, he resumed his story.

Page 24 text:

Twenty THE' GOAL poured it on the stone, rolled it around and murmured some peculiar words. Then tak- ing the tobacco from the stone, she put it into her pipe. Lighting the pipe, she asked for my classmates' names and a little description of each. Before I gave her the description of them, I, being curious, asked her what effect the stone had. She said she had never told a person but she would tell me because I was the one that really discovered all. She said, Dear child, I had been hunting this very stone. It once belonged to an old Indian medicine doctor who was able to make prophecies and he had most of his power through it and I am one of his descendants. I have the power now that he had and which, dear child, I would never have had if it were not for you. 'fNow, whom do you want to hear about first? she asked. I began to describe each classmate and she started to talk to me, as she gazed through the smoke from the pipe, and described each so vividly that I, looking through the smoke seemed to see them also. She told me that Gladys Brown had gone to Maryland to take up nursing and had successfully finished her course there and is now Superintendent of one of the big hos- pitals in Columbus, Chio. Francis Nussbaum had graduated from Antioch College and had then taught for several years but is now at Princeton Uni- versity. Mary Pfeiffer graduated from Ohio Uni- versity and had begun teaching in Charles- ton, but is now leaving for California to be a missionary among the Indians. Mary Bender, after graduating had be- come a proprietoress of the Elite Dress Mak- ing Establishment, New York City, then she had married a noted barber. Victor Schreiner is now making his fame as a great ball player, playing at the present with the Cleveland Indians. Victor is suc- cessor to the great pitcher, Cy Young. Julia Shull, thru her great love of history, had followed up this line of work and is now on a tour to Mexico where she is gathering material for her new lecture and securing a number of relics from that ancient Indian city, Pueblo Bonito, for the museum of Gnadenhutten. Harold Thomas went to the Art College, Chicago, Ill., and progressed wonderfully in his paintings and had studied under Madame De Ogden of Rome. Harold is now on his way to America. His famous painting, Ossawatomie, now hangs in the Louvre Art Gallery, Paris. Luther Lindon, having graduated, had gone to live with his uncle in Texas and now owns a large ranch in the southern part of Texas where he and his queen reign supreme. After giving me this interesting history she took the stone, carefully brushed the tobacco from it and wrapped it tenderly in a large piece of linen and put it back into the old chest, promising that at her death it should be mine. To think it all came about through one little hike! Clara Mae Reed '24 Ulillli CLASS WILL We, the Senior Class of '24, having com- pleted our school life in the G. H. S., and pronounced, by the faculty, sound in mind, and by the lower classmen of having a wonderful judgment, do make and solemnly declare this to be our last will and testament, and do wish to dispose of our many and vast possessions in the following manner:- SECTION I Item 1. To the faculty we bequeath eter- nal peace and happiness. Item 2. To Mr. Sindlinger-The privilege of advising us in our final productions. Item 3. To Mr. Kennedy-All of our un- solved mathematical problems.