Lyman Hall High school - Singer Chronicle Yearbook (Wallingford, CT)

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6 THE CHRONICLE Ihere was, of course, a host of those who criticized, who condemned Mary Lyon. The cry was then as it is today: “This will take womc«. away from the home.” But she knew better. She knew the joy that comes from lives which are lived widely, strongly, nobly and she kn w. loo. that anything that leads women upwards can not but be better, that life on the hill-top is better than life in the valley. It is difficult for us to think of a time when education was a thing denied to women, when a girl who had ambition to better herself, to rise above her environment was scorned, laughed at. There was not opportunity given to women for culture and self-improvement. The only -chools open to them confined their curriculum to a pattering of French, a smattering of music and a dab of painting. For a girl who seriouslv wished to improve herself there was no chance. We for whom education made so easy, so pleasant, do not realize our advantages, we do not thuik how much we owe to those pioneers of education. Mary Lyon was fortunate in her time of life. She had the good fortune to be born just at the right time to accomplish her ambitions. People were just awaking to an interest in the every day world, a second Renais-j'MW- They were beginning to question, to experiment, to advance and Mary Lyon was the one to lead the way in her particular line. She saw that women could not hope to take their rightful place in the world unless given equal opportunities with men. Before her time woman had been loied upon as something useful, certainly, in the home, and perhaps ornamental. but having no ability or desire to take part in the larger scheme of things. But even at that period, Marv Lyon was so much ahead of her time in ner ideas that she could find few who could fully appreciate what her aim «'a- and what it meant to women in general. But no obstacles were too great for her will power and perseverance. Her magnetic personality won many people who had come to criticize, to go away fully convened to the higher education of women and to contribute largely to the advancement of her plan. But even Man,- Lyon’s endid optimism sometimes came in contact with small-minded people who are often those who could accomplish the most. Once she had made a ong journey to lay her plans before a family of wealth and influence. On her return, empty handed, she said thoughtfully. “Yes, it is all true. J-: as 1 was told. They live in a costly house, it is full of costly things, they wear costly dothes.—but oh, they’re little bits of folks!” How much he spent of herself, her time, health and money, no one v, eve- know. But at last she saw Mt. Holyoke open its doors in 183,“, a pioneer institution. Mary Lyon was not the first to hear the call for higher education of women but she was the one who gave it its first rea birth. She saw that women were face to face with a new period in tnetr growth, a crisis, and it was her purpose to prepare them to meet it. anc to fit themselves for the lives of wider service which lay before them. And - Mary Lyon lived her life: a life glorious in the light of service and devotion, a pioneer leading the way toward the highest goals in the rid i The gr wth of human souls. Man- Lyon and her work will live e as -ne'e - one institution for women and one woman who carries her high ideals of service and self-sacrifice in her heart. KATHERINE RIGGS

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THE CHRONICLE MARY LYON, A PIONEER. Youth is the pioneer time, a period of growth, of pushing up and out, of exploration, of dreams and visions, youth is the all-conquering time, exuberant, full of the joy of living and with the vigor and freshness of Spring pulsing in its veins. There is nothing youth does not expect to do, nothing youth cannot do. The whole wide world lies open before it, its mountain peaks of achievement to be climbed, its depth of experience to be sounded, its storms and calms, showers and sunshine, its purple hills of visiqn, and fair green valleys of dreams, a true promised land. Youth sees the obstacles in its way, the places where the path is dim and the way dark. Youth sees them, yes, but it looks beyond them too, where the fair land of life lies open before it, a land of golden opportunity, and of achievement. Youth has ever been the Pioneer time. The youth of a country always produces pioneers, explorers, frontiers men, men and women who brave the wilderness and bring back gold. Not always the gleaming meta' which has ever lured the world, but something infinitely better, the gold of brave deeds and achievements. There must always be some one to blaze the trails. Some there are with the love of adventure and the free spa who glory in that life, who love to leave the beaten highways of men and search out new lands, new paths, new inventions and discoveries. There must be pioneers and a pioneer must be one with youth and the joy of living and doing eternally in his heart; one who knows not defeat and therefore cannot fear it. Such a one was Mary Lyon, the founder of Mt. Holyoke college, a woman who looked beyond the narrow limits of her day and saw the horizon broadening out and widening in every direction. No sleepy life of ease in the valleys was hers, but work, glorious work among the mountain tops. Mary Lyon was a pioneer by inheritance and environment as well as by disposition. She came of a pioneer race, people who loved the struggle with the wilderness and taught her to love it, too. Englanders they were, a race which has always been pioneers, blazing the pathway for others. She drew her strength of character, her indomitable will power, her perseverance and pluck from them, and from the rugged hills of New England which surrounded her birth place. Mary Lyon’s life was one long record of accomplishment, a true pioneer’s life. Just how much she has done for us of today, we even yet do not fully realize. Only when time has had a chance to catch up with a life, and to turn its dreams and visions into reality, can men see how far-reaching, how great the work of that life was. But this much we do know. She gave to women their chance to live a better, richer, fuller life than had been theirs before. She opened the gates not only of higher education but ol a world of higher service. The first woman doctor, the first woman lawyer, the first woman college president, even the woman in business. —-these could not have been opened for them unless someone had pioneered leading the way to new lands rich with unharvested opportunity.

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THE CHRONICLE 7 THOMAS DOWNEY. Three years ago last September, when the class of 1917 entered the Wallingford High School, it seemed at first to an inexperienced teacher like a large group of boys and girls more or less alike. Almost immediately however, the very good and the very annoying, the conscientious and the careless differentiated themselves. Of that one hundred and twenty strangers the knowing individual personalities was a slow process. I remember that one of the first of those strangers whom I noticed as an individual was a boy who always looked happy and smiling. I remember that he, Thomas Downey, came to me one day to talk over his work. What he said, I do not recall, but I do remember thinking almost with surprise—because I had been struggling with the careless ones— here is a boy who cares to do good work, who wants to learn and who Avill put his best effort into learning. That impression made upon me then, Thomas Downey made upon each teacher who was privileged to know him. He was faithful and ambitious as a student, which characteristics alone would have made him a valuable and happy member of our school. But beyond that, his influence among his fellow students and with his many other friends was powerful because of his good nature, his cheer, his love of fun and his strength for the right. His comrades knew him ever ready for fun, willing to help in the clean jokes that are an important feature of school life, but withal his teachers found him frank, sympathetic, helpful, appreciative of legitimate fun and a boy