Class of 1870

Six of the ten living graduates of the class of '7O gathered at Hanover to celebrate their fifty-fifth anniversary.

Of the absent four one lives in Seattle and one in Jacksonville, and these two, Abernethy and Locke, though physically able, did not find it feasible to make the long journey. They have shown a genuine interest in the class, and one of them, Abernethy, made the trip across the continent five years ago just to meet his classmates and look once more on the familiar scenes. Three of the four absentees sent cordial greetings and regrets. The Secretary has been in touch with only one non-graduate, Wilson of Duluth. From him was received a very friendly letter. Mrs. Bellows, Mrs. Cheney, Mrs. Hardy, and Mrs. Steele, widows of classmates not very long ago present at our reunions, sent letters, which were read with a peculiar interest at our class dinner.

The members present were Channing Folsom of Newmarket, N. H., Hermon Holt of Claremont, N. H., Lemuel S. Hastings of Hanover, Robert H. Parkinson of Chicago, Ethelbert Talbot of Bethlehem, Perm., Charles E. Woodbury of Roslindale, Mass. One bishop, one educator, one teacher, one physician, and two lawyers. Bishop Talbot, senior and presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church, and lawyer Parkinson are still in active service, almost as busy as ever they were; the other four are "retired," though not disabled.

The reunion was not featured by costumes, stunts, or parades; the general public was not in any marked way made aware of the presence of a handful of alumni out of college fifty-five years—not even by a formal presentation in Dartmouth Hall, or a speech at the Alumni Dinner; but our meeting, which in fact concerned so little any but ourselves, was none the less enjoyed for being very private and personal.

Saturday we had our evening meal together, all excepting Holt, who did not arrive until Sunday, at the Inn', and later spent a social hour in the home of the Secretary. Sunday evening came the "class dinner," which was served in College Hall; and Sunday afternoon Parkinson, Talbot and the Secretary motored to Hartford and Woodstock to make calls on Mrs. Pingree of Hartford, a sister of our classmate Steele, and on five sisters of the Richmond family of Woodstock, whose brother was a member of the class of '70 and who died in 1879. It is a remarkable fact that these five sisters, all widows, all above seventy years of age, still make the old family home their residence in summer.

Holt and Folsom were unable to stay through the Commencement season, and only four marched in the procession to Webster Hall and to the Gymnasium for the Alumni Dinner.

We greatly missed, and often referred to, the four strong men we had lost since our last reunion, and who had contributed so largely to the interest of that meeting—Abbott, Bellows, Drew, and Steele.

This meeting of a small remnant of a once numerous, youthful, and vigorous group, a group of classmates acquainted with each other and closely bound together to a degree unknown in the experience of Dartmouth men of today—had of course a tinge of pathos; tender memories and sober reflections and solicitous forecasts, silent or spoken, would inevitably recur; and yet the hours passed most pleasantly; good cheer and hopefulness and humor, delightful even though of the quieter sort, prevailed. And when it was all over I believe we could all of us truthfully say that we had found our fifty-fifth anniversary even more enjoyable than we had anticipated.

Secretary, Hanover, N. H.