Wells High School - Crimson and Gray Yearbook (Southbridge, MA)

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oc d Editor-in-Chief ... Business Manager Alumni Editor J John Martin Phyllis Kershaw Sr Assistants Local Editor John Lepage, Jr. Ruth Simpson Louis Bourdelais Art Editor Arthur Canning Mavis Kinney v Paul Haynes O Richard Macallister Exchange Editor Treasurer Genevieve Greenwood Edward St. Onge Athletic Editor Subscription Manager Gerald McNitt Q Esther Skinner Prattle Assistants Stanley Flower Mary Dani General Reporters Louise Dumas Pauline Earls [J Margaret McKinstry Bernard Hefner O Jane Walker Elizabeth Sutcliffe Florence Lockhart Dwight Webster Walter Remian Class Reporters Senior — Helen Kelly Junior — Roger Thompson Sophomore — Frank Locki Freshman — Marjorie Hong Head Typist Ogla Dumas Assistants Annette Desaulniers Jeanne Ethier Juliette Girard Rita Lacasse Doris Latallle Faculty Adviser Miss Thecla Fitzgerald o O V O o Published Quarterly by the Students of the Mary E. Wells High School, Southbridge , Massachusetts 9 Volume XVII Number CONTENTS EDITORIALS- 100 Years of Spectacles - - - Gerald McNitt ' 34 High School in 1854 - - - Elizabeth Sutcliffe ' 35 High Lights of the Century of Progress Miss Kathryn Finnegan My Impressions of the Century of Progress Marion E. Munday ' 35 Back and Forth to Chicago - - Paul Benoit ' 34 To The World ' s Fair on $4.26 - William Curboy ' 36 LITERATURE- F. I. D. - - - Frank Locki ' 36 Old Mose ------- Winston Dorrell ' 35 Ye Old Fashioned Love Tale - Alice Rawson ' 34 Shanghaied - - - - - - - Donald Karle ' 35 Impressions of a Freshman - Marjorie Hong ' 37 Kathleen Tully ' 37 LOCALS 1—1 ATHLETICS ALUMNI NOTES — ' PRATTLE 3 oc o o o — o n n n — O O V O V O o O V O oc3

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Good Wishes of the SOUTHBRIDGE SAVINGS BANK Southbridge, Massachusetts SECURITY STRONG BANKING RELATIONS WHATEVER the character or volume of your account, we undertake to handle it satisfactorily, confident that you will grow with us. WHERE there is mutual understanding and friendship, there is a basis for perfect and complete banking relations. SOUTHBRIDGE NATIONAL BANK 95 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE Compliments of SOUTHBRIDGE FINISHING COMPANY PRINTERS of FAST COLOR PRINTS on FINE COTTON GOODS

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EDITORIALS A CENTURY OF PROGRESS HP HE spectacles business in Southbridge was staried by William Beecher, a young jeweler, in 1833. The first spectacles he made were gold and silver rimmed. Mr. Beecher eventually designed machinery to make steel rimmed spectacles, turning out the first of this type made in America. In 1839 he built the first spectacles factory in Southbridge. About 1840 Mr. Beecher sold his spectacles business to Ammidown and Putney and Mr. Beecher remained to teach Mr. Ammidown ' s son the trade. Mr. Putney retired at the end of two years and the firm then became Ammi- down and Son. In 1848 the first gold alloy spectacles were made and were known as the best in the world. One year later Mr. Robert H. Cole joined the Company and the name was changed to Ammidown and Company. Fin- ally, in i860 Mr. W. Beecher and Messrs. R. M. and E. M. Cole purchased the spec- tacles business from Ammidown and Com- pany, changing the name to Beecher and Cole. Mr. Beecher retired after two years and the firm became Robert H. Cole and Company. In the spring of 1864, George W. Wells came to Southbridge to learn the spectacles business. In one year, though not working steadily, he became skilled in the manufac- ture of spectacle rims and lens setting. Leaving this firm, he went to work for E. Edmonds and Sons, another little spectacles shop in Southbridge. But Robert H. Cole and Com- pany asked him to return, offering him three dollars a day to build them new tools and dies which he had thought of. Mr. George W. Wells ' inventive ability caused the business to grow rapidly and in 1869 he was offered the opportunity to pur- chase controling interest in Ammidown and Company, then owners of E. Edmonds and Sons plant. This lead to the consolidation of these two plants as the American Optical Company. The business rapidly outgrew the old plant and construction of a new plant was neces- sary. In 1871 the site for the new plant was purchased, and the new plant was completed the next year. This building, just south of the main entrance of the present plant, was torn down in 1904. The rimless spectacles were first made in 1874, but they were little more than an ex- periment at that time. In 1891 gold-filled spectacles were made to sell for a price much lower than that for which gold alloys sold. At the beginning of the spectacles business all lenses were imported from Europe. In 1883 the American Optical Company began the manufacture of lenses. This branch ad- vanced rapidly and many different styles of lenses were developed. In 1909 a research division was established to aid scientific de-