Class of 1897
THE CHARLES RIVER IRISH
The class of 1897 introduced the Irish to Dartmouth. Before their time there had been an occasional Hibernian, welltreated and looked upon as an exhibit. With us they entered as a clan. At this distance, I am counting eleven, and am leaving out names which sound as Celtic as Kelley, O'Briori, and O'Malley, for I am certain that such rugged Presbyterians as these must have originated north of the Boyne.
This group of Irish was of the true Shannon River type, or at least from the Charles River branch of the Shannon.
If the Irish came as a clan, they did not show it. They entered a half-dozen different fraternities. They scattered through the dormitories and picked roommates with gay abandon.
In my opinion, Coakley led the delegation. Merry, irrepressible, never sadly serious, he made his college course a joyful experience. It is true that at first he roomed with Pete Lane, but they were fellow-townsmen from Nahant. A little later Lane was rooming with Cushman at D. B. Currier's and Coak with Robert D. Brown in Reed Hall. Lane was of a scientific trend, a man of quiet determination. He died some years ago as a very successful Philadelphia physician and proprietor of his own private hospital. Coakley is a lawyer in Cambridge, and he takes great pride in his family of children.
Then came two Conways. Pat from Old Town roomed for a time with R. P. Folsom, while Francis P. had Ben Adams for an appreciated roommate. Frank died while a young physician and Pat more recently as a very successful publisher and distributor of school texts. Pat was forceful and friendly and unabashed. Frank was a quiet scholar and a most dependable one.
I recall that Meehan roomed with Hazen '96 in Dartmouth Hall and made gladsome that ancient edifice. He was witty, direct, and good company. The host of Chaucer's Tabard Inn must have been of the same type. Billy is now a hotel proprietor in Southbridge, Mass.
It is easy to consider together Ryan and Sisk. In college they were men of high scholastic ability with honest eyes that won over suspicious professors. Sisk roomed with Harrison in a friendship that never wavered though Conant Hall shook with tumults that started in its discordant dining room and spread upward. Ryan and Johnson similarly put up with each other's idiosyncrasies. Ryan has devoted his years to the sale of school books and supplies, but Sisk, the schoolmaster, died some years ago.
I cannot tell why Keating and Ed Carr did not room together. Prospective lawyers, judges, and mayors they should have had much in common, but Keating roomed permanently with Lull and Carr spasmodically with E. L. Perkins '98. Carr is now a top-notch lawyer in Providence and unmarried. Keating is a civic leader in Stamford.
Conlon, the trim philosopher and industrialist of Pittsburgh, roomed with Blunt in the old Alpha Delta Phi house. The rooms were twelve feet high and gloomy all the way.
I have left Dave Maloney for the last, for it may be that he best typifies the Charles River Irish. He came from a workingman's home. He was inspired with the Dartmouth ideals, developed literary tastes, and became a leader in law and in politics. He is now living in retirement in Taunton. No member of the class made as many friends or has kept as many as Dave Maloney.
Conlon and Pat Conway, Keating, Maloney, and Ryan twice, sent sons to Dartmouth.
At least until 1893 Dartmouth was very Nordic, very puritan, and very much of a fresh-water Yankee college. Our class had one Negro, but there was not a Jew in the college. Of the 130 members whom we claimed for ourselves, 78 professed to be Congregationalists. There were 16 Baptists, mostly from Maine and Rhode Island. No Methodist appeared. Their pastors drove to Boston University those few whom they found both intellectual and sanctified. Of the total, 107 were born in New England and 5 in the Maritime Provinces.
Why then did the Irish come to Hanover? There was not an Irish trustee or faculty member. Daily chapel was required and so was senior theology. At no time could the fish be recommended, but fasting was not prohibited on Friday.
However, chapel was not so hard on the Charles River Irish. President Tucker was an inspiration to Maloney, Ryan, Sisk, and Conlon. Pat Conway dozed. Keating and Carr studied, but they did that at all other times. Meehan and Coakley however made this their sole study period. As class monitor, this study in chapel grieved my puritan heart.
President Bartlett's Senior Theology, one term, Old Testament History, one term Natural Theology, and one term Evidences of Christianity, was a most stimulating course, and became one of our enduring satisfactions, not because we were convinced but because we recognized the catholicity of a man of decision and of most human personal characteristics.
Still I have not answered why the Charles River Irish came to Dartmouth. I think I shall follow the revered President's theology and declare that the Lord planned it so for the discipline and the development of the rest of us.
Secretary, State Capitol, Hartford, Conn.
