1896

This month's life sketch of a member of the Class of 1896 comes from California. It is the first-person story of:

GEORGE E. LAKE

After four years at Phillips Andover, on my own, I determined to try to make my way at Dartmouth. Dr. Bancroft, the Principal at Phillips, told me that he thought that I could make it.

In the late summer of 1892, after a season on the home farm, I made the trip to Hanover. The start and the arrival were both auspicious. That spring at Phillips I had made a little extra money. I therefore had a bit of a nest egg for the start at Dartmouth.

At once on my arrival in Hanover I began to look about for a money-maker. Two seniors of the year before had hit on a venture called the College Book Store. One of the seniors had had his fill of the business. He wanted to sell out. I accommodated him and gave him the cash. For two years I had an interest in this venture. I then sold out my interest and called it a wise move.

One summer while at Dartmouth I was in New York City at the 42nd Street Mission House of the St. Bartholomew's Church as the representative of the Dartmouth Y.M.C.A. It was there that I met a young woman, the daughter of one of the church families, who later became my wife.

The last two years at Dartmouth were intensely interesting if not exciting. On graduation I went to the home farm in Rockingham County, N. H., for the summer. In the fall I went to Bangor, Me., to enroll at Bangor Seminary to get on in my effort to fit myself for the ministry. This had been my goal from the first at Phillips.

At Bangor I was quite at home with a Dartmouth '93 man, Willis T. Sparhawk. From the first Willis and I were fast friends. For three years we shared our joys and sorrows and good luck. At the end of the three years we both tried for a certain Maine church. My curly hair won over his more evident wits.

On graduation from the Seminary I took the Maine Church, got married, as noted above, and made a start as a minister. The winters in northern Maine proved a bit too much for both myself and my wife. I left Maine and went to a church in New Hamp- shire. This was the beginning of my life as a minister. At one time or another I served churches in four of the New England states. I had real joy in working for Lord and Church here and there.

After the years of service in the churches of New England I went to Hawaii as a missionary of the Hawaiian Board. This was a life with a real thrill. I was with the native Hawaiians and single-handed and mostly alone. My wife and I were happy there for a long time. We shared in the work and the rewards.

The climate in Hawaii was a bit too much for a Yankee from New England. Health reasons forced us to seek a more congenial climate. On returning to the States we stopped to rest and regain our good health here in California. We tarried at Claremont. The stop and the location were fatal to any thought of going on to the seasons in New England. Here we are and here we have been for a goodly number of years. We have had odd longings for the New England that we once knew but they soon passed away. We have tarried here well content.

I have busied myself in one way or another. I have taken time off to do mostly what seemed important at the time. I am at this same activity at present. I have had a double city lot and as time and inclination favored I have tilled it as a garden. Recently I sold the extra lot and now work the one left. In this I have developed a kind of vineyard. I have a goodly variety of what I think to be choice table grapes.

Since coming to California, during the intervening years between then and now, my wife and I have visited the National Parks of the West and the Canadian Rockies. I have been back East, as they say here, twice for a short visit to see my relatives.

I have not had a church in California. I am now evidently on my decline. My health has been the wonder of myself and my friends. I rarely have an ache or a pain and my eyes are all right. I am most always at home. It would be a real pleasure to welcome any of the old boys of the old Class of '96 either summer or winter. We have no pro- nounced seasons here. Sometimes the weather is a bit unusual but that is all. Come to see me sometime.

1896 Fund Contributors

14 Gifts (Participation Index 74). Total gifts: $704.13 (138% of objective).

Chase, Stephen Couch, Benjamin W.1 Cox, Isaac J. Cox, James A.1 Cox, Louis S. Duffy, Walter F. Eldred, Byron E. Fletcher, Robert H.2 Foster, Nathaniel L. Ham, Thomas C. Johnson, Hiram L. Lake, George E. Lakeman, Harry D. Laycock, Craven3

Richards, Guy C. Richardson, Carl H.4 Stark, Henry H.5 Weston, Charles A.6 MEMORIAL GIFTS FROM:1 Harry D. Lakeman '96.2 Sister, Mary A. Fletcher.3 Mrs. haycock.4_ Guy C. Richards '96.5 Louis S. Cox '96.6 Income from Charles A.Weston Fund.

CLASS AGENT HARRY D. LAKEMAN '96

GEORGE E. LAKE '96 as he appears today, from a snapshot taken at his home in California.

Secretary, HARRY D. LAKEMAN 21 Forest Rd., Cape Elizabeth 7, Me.

Class Agent.