Prattsburgh Central High School - Franklinite Yearbook (Prattsburgh, NY)

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26 FRANKLIN ACADEIVIY HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL share of the money which he had received for the capture of New York's greatest highwayman. Forester was sent to England for trial. After many days of debate, the judges had him hanged for his many crimes, both in England and America. THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT I N une 71 1917 it was hrst voted to offer an Agriculture course i in Franklin Academy to begin the following September. Mr. g Mark B. Gwilliam was the first i-nstructor. The department was started with only one division, owing to the fact that it was a new course. The students in the new department reconstructed the old gymnasium into a woodworking shop and the wood shed into a forge room. Besides Farm Mechanics, the students in Agriculture took up Mechanical Drawing, Biology, and general Agriculture. The Seventh and Eighth grades also took up some agriculture work. The course seemed to be a perfect success. Mr. Gwilliam remained here for two years. School opened in September, 1914, with Mr. T. W. Howe as teacher and an enrollment of sixteen students. The courses studied that year were Fruit Growing, Animal Husbandry, and Farm Mechanics. These courses counted five regents counts each. During the year, lantern slides were obtained in all branches of study by Mr. Howe and shown through the aid of Mr. Stuart and his stereopticon. They were especially inter- esting. Each pupil in the Fifth and Sixth Grades also had a home gar- den, under the supervision of Mr. Howe. In january of 1915, Mr. Howe invited each and every person inter- ested in the general welfare of the community to attend a get-to-gether meeting at the Academy Hall, the meeting to be for the purpose of es- tablishing a Night School, wherein the subiccts of Agriculture, Business Methods, and Bookkeeping would be taught by a competent faculty. School opened in September of 1916 with Mr. Van C. Whittemore as director of the Department. He arranged to publish each week an article of timely interest. devoted to Agricultural topics. He was desir- ous of making his articles into a farm question box as much as possible. On October 27 and 28, the Agricultural Department of Prattsburgh High Schol held a combined poultry and fruit show at the High School. All entries were judged by competent men and ribbon prizes were awarded. Mr. Van Whittemore taught in 1918, until April eighth, when he answered the call of his country and left for Camp Dix. The school deeply regretted this loss. The Agricultural Department was again resumed in September, 1921, after a period of three years, with Mr. Oliver Watkins as teacher. and an enrollment of seventeen members, although two of them had to drop out on account of other studies. Mr. Watkiiis also organized the By WENDELL HALL, '27 J H y H . .

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9525... l ' I 1.9 . FRANKLIN ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL 25 dash, dot, dash. When the tapping, tapping ceased he had a page of dots and dashes. Then he began to figure and in half an hour he had: Dear Forester, I have the tires for your phantom fliver and will bring them to New York some sime next week. I will tell you in the next message. A. Moreno. Denby was overjoyed for owing to his knowledge of the Morse code he had a fine chance to catch Silent Forester, New York's great- est highwayman. ' Forester had escaped the best of detectives by the use of his car. The car looked exactly like a fliver so the public wondered why the police did not run him down. But it had been tried by the most daring drivers, always the Hiver won. Evidently it contained a high powered motor. On one occasion the tires had been ripped from the wheels by a sudden stop, as the tires were of special make Forester was buying secretly, for it would be easy for a detective to catch him when he en- tered a factory to have tires made to order. The following night Denby picked out the right station and listen- ed in on the message to Forester. The cornetist told Forester that he would hide the tires in the old garage back of three hundred one, on the following Monday. Denby after turning off the radio told the captain that he had to go to New York for a week. XYhen he arrived in New York he looked for his old friend Paddy Fallon, a nephew of the captain's, and told him the story. The chances of catching Forester were excellent, for the highwayinan would expect no interference. Monday evening found the two detectives hidden behind a hedge quite near the old garage, long known in crime circles as three hundred one. Denby had a handcuff on one of his wrists: the mate dangled by his side. In their hip pockets both men carried two automatics. Evi- dently they had come for business. Presently a car drove up to the curb and stopped, two men jumped out and walked toward the garage. The detectives recognized Forester at once, for he was a tall, well dressed Englishman. The men entered the garage and presently came out with the four tires. As they passed the hedge the two detectives stepped into view, guns in hand. The crooks raised their hands above their heads, Denby slipped the handcuffs over Forester's wrist. Then Forester, who was no coward, dealt Denby a stunning blow on the chin with his idle hand. Danby fell limply to the ground. Forester ran hurridly through Denby's pockets for the key to the handcuffs, but it was not there. Denby had tossed it away. Paddy dealt the other adversary a blow which put him out of commission, and dragged him to the side of Denby. The next morning the papers were flooded with the news of the big capture. Denby decided to buy a farm near the captain's with his

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E,:'1' .I FRANKLIN ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL 27 Farm Club for the benefit of the members of the Agricultural classes. junior Project work was carried on extensively. This work was started first in 1917 by Mr. Van Whittemore. Mr. Watkins also taught in 1922. When in February of 1923, Franklin Academy burned, the Agricultural Shop was left standing, but a room in the Pinney house had to be used for a classroom. Mr. Watkiiis remained as instructor of the Agricultural Depart- ment in 1923 and then left for a larger field of work. The school and community were very sorry to lose such a valuable man. During the years that Mr. VVatkins remained here as teacher of the Department, he trained a judging team which won the silver cup at the National Dairy Exposition at Syracuse. j In September of 1924 school opened with Mr. R. C. Vrooman as instructor of the Department. In the fall of that year, Mr. Vrooman trained a judging team which won second prize in a potato judging con- test held at Alfred. Later that year, he trained another team which won a silver cup at a livestock judging contest held at Ithaca. The farm club also held an educational meeting at the High School Auditorium to which all farmers were invited. Speeches on interesting agricultural topics were made by different members of the club. In March 1925, Mr. Vrooman organized the boy scouts and was kind enough to act as their Scoutmaster. The Agricultural Department as well as all other departments of the school is now in the new fire-proof school building and it is hoped that the Department will be as prosperous in the future as it has been in recent years. A FAIRY STORY By HELEN COMSTOCK, '27 Moon-drop, a little fairy, once lost herself in a large forest. VVhile searching for her companion she stumbled and fell dcwn a small tunnel under a huge oak tree. At the foot of this tunnel she found a little brown door, which she opened, On the other side of this she found herself in a long, dimly lighted corridor. The illumination was obtained from cap- tive lightning bugs, held to the wall by spider webs. At the end of the corridor she opened a door, and stepped into a round room, almost as big around as the large oak tree under which it stood. There were about three hundred acorns of di-fferent sizes in this room. Little baby acorns, no higher than peas, were in their cradles along the wall. Larger acorns were playing on the fioor, while still larger ones were learning to climb ladders and to hang onto a limb that had been placed in one corner of the room. Moon-drop had stumbled into one of the rooms of the oak tree in which acorns are born, brought up, and receive their education. There were five similar rooms under this one. Vvhen any acorns grew up, they climbed up through these rooms to the starcase that was in the center of the oak. They would climb this staircase until they reached the