1899

During my July visit in Kittery with Joe Hobbs, his neighbor, Dr. Hilda Fife, Professor of English in University of Maine, drove us to York. We passed Fred Locke's old home; the old Congregational Church in Kittery Point, where rests Margaret Hills, who "lost her life in the raging seas: A sov'reign God does as He please"; the grave of Celia Thaxter's husband Levi, memorialized by Robert Browning; Lady Pepperrell's mansion; the hexagonal fort at the Cove, named for innkeeper Andrew McClary, who left his seven children and their mother while he shouldered his musket and marched south to die at Bunker Hill - this despite his boast, "The ball is not yet cast that will kill me." We saw the white breakers rolling against the cliffs of York. We passed the old home of Ralph and Blanche Hawkes, but no child answered our knock. We did not spot the home built on land "leased for 999 years," but we stopped to admire Ralph's beautiful St. Peter's By-the-Sea at Bald Head Cliff, whose endowment rose so dramatically during Ralph's faithful years as treasurer. Finally our loyal antiquarian Joseph red-penciled a thick paper map to trace our journey from his mother's old home on Wentworth Street to York. Thus the secretary climaxed this calendar year by completing a person-to-person reunion with each surviving classmate. Thanks to you, friend Hilda also. Finally, in Portsmouth we visited Strawberry Banke, the Public Library, and the Athenaeum, each with its own special touch of the antique.

One spot in Maine I missed despite DaveStarrs' Phoebe Stebbins who mapped routes for me both by land and sea to her and Jack's new summer home on Georgetown Island - Knubble Bay Farm in Robinwood. An old fish weir just off their property is supposed to offer some hazard, but they have not found it. Nor do the four children worry about it. Ann Louise is now through at UVM, and married; Martha is a sophomore there, David at Boston's Wentworth Institute, Johnny at Exeter. Phoebe still works three days a week at Dave's old book store. Our chat, Phoebe, leaves me yet hoping to accept the invitation to look at that sea farm. George and Amey last summer came near themselves by renting a cottage at Clyde Point.

Another devoted '99 family has been the Warrens: Ned '01, Gertrude, Gertrude's daughter Julia, and Julia's husband Cliff Fifield, cousin of George Clark. These four themselves are almost natives of Clarkland. Since Ned's death Cliff and Julia have been enthusiastic promoters of our '99 fellowship. Witness their entertainment of us at Orford in '64. Now they are fellowshipping with Ned's '01 just read in that column for October. Julia wrote last spring of her mother: "God was good to her and to us. She did not linger, nor did she suffer. We will go on with that '01 dinner in June just as she herself had planned it. Cliff and I want to do it for her sake and for Uncle Ned."

Marcella (Mrs. Paul) Osgood recently presented her 1866 father's secretarial relics to the College. Now Tom Whittier's Elisabeth has done likewise for herself and for their four daughters. We remember Tom's clear voice in the Chapel Choir. Elisabeth learned that Rollins Chapel singers were using rather well-worn hymnbooks. It was a timely thought. She arranged to give to Dartmouth men of today some token of Tom's deep love of music and of Dartmouth. His ancestors, you know, were seafaring men from Maine. So now on the frontispiece of each of a brand-new set of hymnals an oldtime three-master under full sail is shown sweeping past an ocean island crested by windswept pines. The print is framed by a simple round of stout maritime cord, and beneath in light, trim print is this motto:

In Memory of Thomas Tupper Whittier Dartmouth 1899

Dean Thad Seymour congratulates Allen Dorr '10, a founder of the Berkshire CountyDartmouth Club, on the club's 50th Anniversary. (I to r) Mr. Dorr, club presidentBurton Keirstead '42, Dean Seymour, and Henry Williams '49.

Secretary, 40 Church St. Winchester, Mass. 01890