1911
The next event of common interest to the class will be the informal reunion at the Mountain View House starting June 14 and running as many days thereafter as the group wishes, provided Frank can make the necessary reservations. Here is a quote from a recent letter from Frank:
"Regarding the house party, I am enclosing a list of the definite reservations which we have and there have been several others who have intimated that they are planning to come, but have not made a definite date. We are looking forward with great anticipation to the house party and to having these good friends with us and I hope that we may have good weather and that all may go well."
Included in Frank's list were the following: Agrys, Nat Burleigh, Crooks, Coopers, the Josh Clarks, the Ken Clarks, Chases, Capronis,Dunnings, Eatons, Eisemans, Griswolds, Harveys, Hawkridges, Mayos, Moseleys, Norris's,Rollins, Russells, Sandersons.
In The Whitefield Horizon, which is a little newsletter published by Frank, he refers to the fact that the winter has kept them busy getting the house all shined up, the brasses and silver polished, and the spare room ready with the best imen and heirloom spreads. They have been improving the golf course, enlarging the water supply facilities, doing much painting inside and out, enlarging the kitchen by raising the roof to give a maximum of light and ventilation, and completely remodeling the interior.
Through the kindness of Josh Clark, the following news is available from Chub Pease. He is still in Yakima, Washington, with the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation. They are completing work that was started over twelve years ago but has been held up off and on through lack of sufficient congressional appropriations and material shortages. He says it probably will be another year or two before this job is completed. One son and his three children are living in Riverside, where he is the Los Angeles manager for the Southwestern Freight Lines, a motor truck line. Chub's daughter and her family are in Seattle. In driving about the country to keep track of his family, Chub reports running across Ray and Cora Taylor in Palo Alto.
The engagement of Ned Pearson, John and Margaret's son, to Charlotte A. Kelley, a graduate of the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, has been announced. A June wedding is planned.
Dick Ballou was just a few steps ahead of Ned, as he was married on March 13, to Marth L. Ashman of Englewood, New Jersey. Dick is assistant manager of the Hotel Woodstock in Woodstock, Vermont.
Another wedding of interest was that of AI Wheeler's daughter, Virginia, to Douglas Schofield in Weston, Massachusetts.
Russ Patterson, officially known as Col. Russell Patterson, is now at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, where his address is AG Section, Hq. Second Army.
Charlie Warren has been located at 43 East 78th Street, New York 21. The Carl Waterburys are back in New York and have moved to 17 Elm Street, Clinton, New York.
Two daughters of classmates are at Middlebury College together. Bill Marden's daughter Delphine, and Ken Macomber's daughter Anne.
An earlier letter from Lew Sisson indicated he would be at Whitefield. He writes of seeing Bob Keeler frequently, is in the same office building with him now, and speaks of the good reports he hears of him with the investment house with which he is now associated. Lew's daughter, Mary Louise, has moved to Bluefield, West Virginia, where her husband, who is a surgeon, is starting practice.
Larry Odlin, having completed the American Red Cross drive, which was successful far beyond the quota, gives the information that the Eb Holdens were due back in the States early in May. Also that he met Jerry Barnes for the first time since 1911 at a recent Dartmouth dinner in California.
Art Bush is back on his summer job at his hotel in Center Lovell, Maine. Leroy Dowley, who is treasurer of the Ware-Pratt Company in Worcester, Mass., has changed his residence to 6 Paul Revere Road, Worcester. Floyd Tindall seems to be permanently located now at 7127 3rd Avenue, South, St. Petersburg, Florida. Word has come from Bryant Turner that he is now at Phoenix, Arizona, at 931 W. Camelback Road. Bryant is now retired.
Jack Ingersoll took it upon himself to call on MacGregor Hamilton and reports that he would be delighted to see any classmates and that it might be a kind act if any should drop in on him in South Boston.
From members of the Class of 1911 the editors have received the following appreciationof Theodora Burleigh, wife of the class secretary, who died April 3 in Hanover:
The names of Thea and Nat Burleigh have been bracketed throughout the entire life of 1911 and together they have contributed importantly through the years to its conspicuous unity and good fellowship.
Thea's untimely death has brought to an end only our physical contact with this devoted friend. In our memory and in many lives made better by her presence she will live on long after the saga of our class is finished.
The last survivor of the class will recall clearly her many acts of thoughtfulness which added much to the pleasure of our reunions and the watchful eye she maintained over our sons as they appeared from time to time upon the stage in Hanover. Above all, however, he will remember her simplicity and sincerity, her thoughtfulness of others and her great understanding. One could hardly bear the burdens which came to her and retain her balance and serenity without achieving depth of character. Her courage was indeed a virtue.
The pleasures which most of us take for granted which come to us through the sense of hearing were denied her from an early age. She lived by force of this affliction within a comparatively restricted world of her own until, within quite recent years, the development of hearing aids made the riches of a forgotten realm of sound available er once more. Moreover, Fate struck three bitter blows and shattered her happiness and Nat's by the successive deaths of their two boys and the tragedy of their daughter who lived for twelve years unable to see or talk or even to sit up unattended Yet so far as those outside the family could tell Thea took all this in stride, with fine support from Nat and Barbara. Thea met life naturally with a smile and in spite of everything learned to keep on smiling.
Is it any wonder, then, that her life has left indelible impressions ?
After finishing the Seminary at Exeter, Thea studied music under Arthur Foote in Boston. She became an accomplished pianist and organist and might well have had a successful professional career. But circumstances made homemaking her business. She loved her home and put all her energy into being an exceptional wife and mother In later years, her Church, the Red Cross during the war and always the less fortunate members of the Hanover community, whom she helped so greatly and so graciously, made great demands upon her time and interest and doubtless contributed to the heart condition from which inevitably she succumbed.
It is well for us to remember that in the last few years was a bit more kind. Three years in Washington during World War II were excitingly interesting. There she entered upon new Church activities and made many new contacts which she maintained to the end and took great pride in Nat's contribution through the War Production Board. Finally, having abandoned her music years before with the shock and grief of Jimmy's death, she now resumed her study and even played a little after leaving the hospital last winter.
The Class of 1911 has lost an uncommon friend, but our memory of her will be ever green. Indeed, we shall dare believe with Longfellow"She lives whom we call dead."
Thus do we walk with her, and keep unbroken The bond which nature gives, Thinking that our remembrance, though, unspoken, May reach her where she lives."
Secretary, 1 Webster Terrace, Hanover, N. H. Treasurer, Howlands Dry Goods Cos., Bridgeport 2, Conn. Class Agent, Stanwich Road, Greenwich, Conn.
