1899
In June Joe Gannon's daughter Genevieve and her husband, Winter Read, picked up Louis Benezet at his daughter Genevieve Butterfield's attractive home in Farmington. Thence to Harwinton to see Montie and Martha Fuller. The accompanying picture shows this pre-Reunion group in rehearsal for the later Big Event. Note: In the July MAGAZINE account of the 60th, Esther (Mrs. David W.) Parker should have been included in the list of those attending.
Among the Class exhibits in Middle Mass last June were two scrapbooks compiled by Sam ("Buck") Burns from his life in Omaha and Hanover, and lent by his daughter, Barbara Burns Stewart. Some of Sam's friends may have forgotten the origin of his nickname. Dartmouth New Englanders imagined then that Omaha was a United States Army post stationed there to defend the Union Pacific Railroad from hostile Sioux. For this reason and because of Sam's straight black hair and dark complexion he was labeled "Heap Big Buck" by his chum Harold Kirk. Sam promptly retaliated by christining Harold "Squaw." The pair then named genial Alson M. Abbott "Papoose" and '99's famous Indian family was complete!
Helen Sydney Ditmars Sewall, widow of Millard Freeman Sewall, died quietly of a heart condition in the summer of 1958, but the news first reached us shortly before our Sixtieth. She had for some time been unable to get about because of a broken hip. Freem and Helen were married June 30, 1906. They were a singularly congenial and happy couple, united in devotion to their three children, and in community work in Bridgeton, N. J. They were also united in a loyal affection for '99 and Dartmouth, as witness Helen's words when Freem died in 1945: "The ideals and aspirations of Dartmouth, together with deep affection for his classmates have lived with my husband for fifty years."
Jericho, Vt., was the scene of Monde's firstparish. There also three big farms were onceoperated by Al Galusha's ancestors. He andhis wife Isabel drove up there in June; thelatter's sister, Bertha Cochran, and otherrelatives live nearby. Al's great-great-grandfather was a Revolutionary captain, and served several terms later as governor of the state. Among the notable guests at '99's 60th were Tom and Elisabeth Whittier, with daughters, sons-in-law and grandsons, total, 12 Whittiers. On July 17, however, Tom began an involuntary vacation; a heart attack put him unexpectedly into the Brooklyn Hospital, and later into the East Long Island Hospital. We're happy to report that the end o£ August saw him so much improved that he rejoined Elisabeth at their camp in Mattituck. It was nice to hear that Sadie (Mrs. Philip H.) Winchester stood the long trip to Hanover well, and that she has at last found a good housekeeper and congenial companion to be with her in her comfortable Syracuse home.
Bad news this summer from the '99 Class; Tree, - it contracted DED - Dutch Elm Disease—and had to be taken down. But College Manager Dick Olmsted '32 and Dartmouth Secretary Sid Hayward '26 found a replacement in a still sturdier, more fully grown elm on the same "island" in East Wheelock Street. It has been properly marked, and has been gratefully accepted by the Executive Committee for the Class. We shall plan to celebrate the adoption of this "foster child" with suitable formality at our SixtyFifth. Thank you, Sid and Dick!
Five attending a pre-reunion meeting held last spring were: (l to r) Winter Read, Louis Benezet '99, Genevieve Gannon Read, Joe Gannon '93, and Montie Fuller '99 who hosted the group in his home.
Secretary, Newbury Rd., Bradford, N. H.
Treasurer, 22 Vera St., W. Hartford 7, Conn.
