Noted Townies of the Past and Present

Defined & Described

Up TO THE present time this series has been confined to the men of the community and most of them have been little interested in what might be called "high society." Now with fear and trembling we dash right into a polished social environment all the more conspicuous because it was somewhat unique in its day.

Sally Perry Smith occupied a dominant position in Hanover society because of ancestry, training and eminent fitness. Of hexdistinguished lineage and early life we will say little because the subject has been covered so well by more polished and authoritative historians.

As the daughter of old President Smith she was the first lady of the College and of Hanover for quite a long period. Her influence with the administration was undoubtedly great and she no doubt brought with her from New York ideas both of social procedure and precedence which were not conspicuous before. While quite democratic in her personal relations, she endeavored to enforce the rule that no-one living below the hotel should be invited to a faculty dance. Us Townies found it rather difficult to join the Academic Club although many of us counted Sally as one of our very best friends.

But this short sketch covers the period after her father's death. We recall the envy with which we regarded the fortunate few who had the money and the clothes to take their meals (not board) at her imposing house at the end of West Wheelock Street. We would have liked to label them "lahde-dahs" but they were too prominent in undergraduate affairs to make that epithet plausible. Many too failed to maintain their meal time refinement throughout the balance of the day and especially the night.

Rigid rules were proscribed especially in dress. Sweaters were allowed for breakfast but one had to slick up for dinner and supper. One time a crowd of seniors who had 11:00 o'clock recitations went on a dress strike but Sally was adamant, so this revolt, led by a later Justice of the Superior Court of a powerful state, was ineffective. The strikers decamped and their places filled at once.

Sally sat at the end of the long table with the seniors around her and the few freshmen at the foot and served the meals with punctilious decorum. Katy, her father's old cook, reigned in the kitchen and produced food unrivalled in the whole North Country. Mornings Sally used to sit in the curve of the double bay windows watching the traffic come up the hill from Norwich. When she saw a farmer with meat, poultry or produce she would open the window and signal him to drive in and then pick out the choicest specimens before anyone else got a crack at them. Five dollars a week was a pretty stiff price for board in those days but it surely was worth it if you had the clothes to enjoy it.

Sally initiated faculty receptions and they soon became very popular under her brilliant leadership. She was fond of music and an excellent critic so the Glee Club nearly made her home its head quarters. She sang very well herself and for many years was a member of the choir at College Church. She kept in touch with College affairs more closely than anyone else through the boys who year after year took their meals at her house. Her only rival was Sarah Jane McMurphy but that's not the proper word to use, for McMurphy's was a high class boarding house with little or no prestige beyond wonderful food, few faculty boarders and a pretty stiff price.

Commencement time was the gala event for Sally Prexy. She had to keep open house as boy after boy of years gone by dropped in to pay his respects. The senior Ike Paul was an especial favorite and what a list of eminent men there would be if a roster could be compiled.

Those of her boys who still live, and there are many of them, will think of her sitting day after day at the head of the table, sprightly, interested in them, in the College, and in the life of Hanover. She had her standards and most of them were fine but above all she wis interested in people and especially in the boys of Dartmouth College soon to go out and win their way and then come back to tell Sally all about it.

When she came with her father from his ministry in New York City, she became a part of Dartmouth and remained so until her death. No-one like her ever appeared before and none has come since. So for a few minutes let's be one of her old boys and give a cheer for Sally Prexy Smith.