Class of 1897

The publication of the 1897 Report has brought to the Secretary most interesting letters from the wives of deceased members of the class, and this gives an opportunity to introduce or re-introduce to the class three admirable lady members.

Marjorie Benton Harrison. A number of us remember the charming Marjorie Benton, who lived in the colonial brick house near Mink Brook, and we followed with rapt attention and approval the romance which made for Tods Harrison his senior year notable. Harry and Marjorie were married in October, 1901, for in four years our classmate had gone forward in his profession. He bought the Cambridge Tribune, but death came suddenly in the third month of his marriage and when the first issue of his own paper was still damp from the press.

After many years Mrs. Harrison married Harry J. Lee, and from her Washington home has written.

"I have read every word of the Reportwith much interest and with some emotion.It has taken me back to those happy youngdays as nothing else has done in a longtime. Many of the men I knew, and I amalways interested in the welfare of eachone of '97. It truly is a great class, and thereport is very good after all the years. Ihave felt very badly about several unfortunate men who were Harry's friends,men whom I knew to be fine in so manyways."

Cornelia Hazen Smith. The next letter is from Oklahoma. It tells the story of the educational progress of the children of our classmate A. J. Smith, and it extends an invitation for far-faring classmates to call on the Smiths, 15 miles from Enid and six miles from the Albert Pike Highway on a good graveled road. Mrs. Smith continues:

"Possibly such a book means even moreto me than to many actual members of theclass, as I have never since my marriageinto the class been able to attend a classreunion and in all that time have neverseen any member of it, except my husband,with whom I had a very happy married life.It happens that I have known at leastslightly more members of the class of '97than of any other Dartmouth class.

"In fact it would seem there must besome affinity between my particular branchof the Hazen family and that particularclass. My nephew married a sister of Benjamin Marshall, my cousin's son marriedProf. Poor's daughter, and Loren Mosheris a cousin of another Hazen cousin ofmine.

"I am a graduate of K.U.A. in the classof 1895, and Dr. Roy Ward's wife andMyron Phelps' sister were classmates andgood friends of mine. Also, I used to seethe boys of '97 who were K. U.A. alumni atour infrequent socials. I remember Tracy,Noyes, Duncklee, Maurice Watson, theBacon boys, M. D. a?id J. D. Brown, Dascomb, but best of all I knew 'Dick' Boardman and 'Bert' Watson, as they each taughtschool one winter while in college in'Jericho', my home neighborhood, over between Hanover and West Hartford. I attended high school one year at WestLebanon, so also knew slightly George Gilman and Sumner Sargent, who were thenin W. R. Junction High School.

"I believe Henry Lull lived at my aunt'shome while teaching at West Lebanon,and he and my cousin taught together inHonolulu.

"I have been back to New England buttwice since coming West in 1907, but I stilllove and long for the old Vermont andNew Hampshire hills, though I love Oklahoma, too."

Eleanor Z. Dascomb. That no member of the class has ever seen the wife and child of Arthur S. Dascomb is not a satisfying statement, and some of us intend that errors of omission be corrected.

Mrs. Dascomb has written from her home in the Burlington Hotel, Washington, D. C.: "I appreciate your mention ofArthur's association with this class inyour history. It has never been my pleasureto meet any of the members of IS9-, but Ifeel I really know many of you at least byname, for in the early years of our married life I so often heard Arthur speak ofmany by name, and I surely hope thatsometime I may know members of the classeven better. I thank you for this most interesting book and your thought of me,for I do appreciate the fact that I, too, aswell as my son, belong with the class of '97,mi (I may I ask you if any are ever here inWashington to let me know so that we mayhave a real visit together?"

Secretary, State Capitol, Hartford, Conn.