Class of 1897
Word has been received by members of the class of the death of Mrs. Walter F. Kelley at her home in Indianapolis on March 22. At the reunion in June, Kelley had reported to us that his wife was unable to accompany him on account of prolonged ill health.
Mrs. Kelley was Mary L. Drury of Bradford, Mass., and was a teacher in the Bradford public schools at the time of her marriage. The only child of this family is Frances Katherine, a graduate of Connecticut College for Women, and now Mrs. Carrington.
THE FIRST FAMILIES OF BARRINGTON
Barrington, N. H., is so small that a literary Dartmouth graduate would rank it with Robert Frost's Bungy, at which Easton laughed when Littleton laughed at Easton. Yet Barrington contributed more to 1897 than did New York City, Chicago, Boston, Concord, or Manchester, and with the help of the adjoining town of Dover it contributed as many as all of these cities together.
State Senator Austin Calef—on the old gravestones it reads Calfe—Dartmouth graduate, keeps Barrington's only store. A. P. Watson was born in Barrington and his father was town minister at a time when Sunday was still observed in Strafford County. Ward became in Barrington its practioner of medicine, and was the town's last settled doctor before automobiles had replaced horses. Ham was born in Barrington and all Hams since the time when Noah's sons first reached New Hampshire. Every Ham generation built a house and all are still standing, and always Hams were going to college or becoming converted or going to war or getting drunk or holding town offices. If all of the Hams had been taken out of Barrington, the town records would contain little but Chesleys and Hales.
On the whole, the designation Chesley was the more aristocratic, which means that Ham boys married Chesley girls more frequently than Chesley boys married Ham girls. Roscoe Hall Chesley came also from Barrington. In the nearby Dover High School, these boys first met classmates Harrison, Meserve, Kid Folsom, and Sisk. Sisk's father was an insurance agent. Folsom's a school superintendent. Meserve's grandfather was a physician, and Meserve began in Dover the medical practice which he now continues in Cincinnati. Harrison at a later time was married to Marjorie Benton of Hanover. As a rising young editor, he died in Cambridge in 190 a.
The first Folsom reached the Dover country very early and was promptly scalped by the Indians. The rest of the family cleaned up the Indians and settled on the opened fields. They have never left there. From such stock came to us the highly hilarious Kid.
Of the seven men, three made the 1897 Aegis. Sisk, Psi Upsilon, was editor-inchief, and in all of my experience, I have never known an editor who could decline articles so graciously. I recall that Apollyon led me to write a carping criticism of Kid Folsom, a better man than I, and Bob talked to me like one with a vision. However, even Bob could not keep Theron Huckins, Sigma Chi, and Billy Ham from throttling each other on questions of Aegistic art or philosophy. Still it was a harmonious board. Hod Pender, Beta Theta Pi, stole for our use the very early picture of a professor's daughter, Dorothy Dartmouth Crehore, and John Meserve, Delta Kappa Epsilon—and Dekes were very religious in those days—persuaded Coakley to write the Ayer's Sarsaparilla testimonial that brought us a fullpage advertisement. Herbert Thyng, Phi Delta Theta, keen, earnest, convincing, was the best business manager ever. Of the nine, Ryan, Theta Delta Chi, was most popular, for his enthusiasm was contagious, and Shattuck, Alpha Delta Phi, scholar and gentleman, was most respected.
Judges Louis S. Cox and Nelson P. Brown will certainly remember that this was the year that our fraternity, Kappa Kappa Kappa, in its hunt for big game broke all the chinning rules and regulations of ethics and holy writ and con pounded a delegation of high initial merit Eight of the nine editors were determined to use the Aegis to castigate this erring sister fraternity. It was a hung jury fot two weeks and each night I argued and then treated the band to the best that Carter's Fountain afforded. The combinetion finally worked, but I knew my firs, financial recession.
Secretary, State Capitol, Hartford, Conn. MRS. WALTER F. KELLEY
