Class of 1885
The following is a brief and somewhat belated report of the celebration of the "Golden" anniversary of our graduationJune 14 to 17 last.
Our reunion headquarters were in North Massachusetts Hall, and were decorated with bunting and flags. We also had additional quarters at the Hanover Inn.
Our reuners began to gather on Friday afternoon. Of our 22 living graduates and 8 living non-graduates, the following attended—14 graduates, namely:—Austin, Bayley, Briggs, Brooks, Chase, Cragin, Currier, Floyd, Hovey, Moores, Plapp, Rockwood, Weeks, and Whipple, and 3 nongraduates, namely:—John Clark, Frank Colby, and John Cunningham—Our complete roster of reuning attendance with their families numbered 40.
Otis Hovey officiated as chief marshal and Edwin Bayley Buchanan, the Secretary's grandson, marched as his assistant. The unique feature of Friday evening's gettogether at headquarters was the reading of portions of the original class secretaries'records covering our four years college course. The reading of these "antique" records aroused much interest and merriment—we wonder if any other class after 50 years still retains such a unique possession.
Early Saturday morning a very satisfactory reunion picture was taken in front of Parkhurst Hall. The high spot of the reunion, so far as public recognition of '85 as the "honor class", occurred at the Alumni Luncheon, when the presiding officer presented the 17 "good men and true" of '85 to the large and enthusiastic body of alumni and called upon John P. Brooks, who as president of our class responded in a fine and thoughtful address, worthy of the occasion and of him, which was followed by our reuners rising and giving the old Indian "WAH WHOO WAH!" college cheer of our time. Brooks' address will very appropriately be our class contribution to the "Golden Book," the gift of the class of '84 to the College to perpetuate and dignify the historic honor class feature of the annual Commencement Alumni Lunch.
The class and combined family dinner and business meeting was held in College Hall on Saturday evening. The usual reports were made, interspersed with music and informal speeches, and the following class officers were elected for the ensuing five-year period, namely: president, Frederick W. Plapp of Chicago, 111.; vice-president, Frank L. Whipple of Lynn, Mass.; secretary, Edwin A. Bayley of Boston, Mass.; treasurer, Henry H. Austin of Warner, N. H.; class agent, Otis E. Hovey of New York City, who were also constituted as an executive committee, to attend to all business matters of the class.
Sunday was passed very enjoyably,—some attended the baccalaureate sermon and saw the senior class, numbering 473 members, march in to Rollins Chapel, some of us inspected the new buildings, the Foster Room in Reed Hall, named in memory of our classmate Bert Foster, and most, if not all, of the reuners viewed the Orozco murals in the basement of the Baker Library—Regarding these murals, I think it is but fair to state that without exception all of us who saw them regard them as hideous monstrosities, unworthy of the place given them, or any place whatever, on the walls of a Christian college, such as Dartmouth is now and always has been.
Our get-together on Sunday evening at headquarters was most enjoyable, singing accompanied by Miss Bernice Cragin at the piano with Austin, Brooks, Plapp, Weeks, and Whipple leading orally, revived the songs reminiscent of our college days, while humorous stories, to which both the men and the women contributed, rounded out a quite uproariously social evening, during which at various times Otis Hovey, our amateur flutist with professional ability, delightfully entertained us with his instrumental selections. The gathering broke up at a late hour with appropriate singing and our old college cheer.
Monday morning was spent in packing up and saying good-byes until our reunionfive years hence. All who attended were unanimous that the reunion was one of the best our class ever had and we sincerely regretted there should have been any absentees. As it was, we stood second in attendance, and if we had had only one more graduate present, we should have won theattendance cup.
During our reunion we had the honor and pleasure of calls from Mrs. Hopkins, Professors Anderson and Rugg, and several of our college mates of other classes, including Will Newton '86, George Bingham, Herbert Gage, Fred Howland, Sidney Junkins, Ed Knight, and Frank Sanborn of the class of '87—Gage and Sanborn adding to the sweetness of their call with a confectionery contribution.
This report would not be complete without an expression of our hearty appreciation to Sidney Hayward, secretary of the College, Arthur Fairfield, manager of the Inn, and Willard Gooding, superintendent of the College buildings, for the valuable services they and their assistants cheerfully rendered us, which contributed so much to the success of our reunion.
Secretary, Kimball Bldg., Tremont St., Boston
