USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > A centennial history, 1837-1937, Colby Academy, Colby Junior College > Part 28
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the private preparatory schools of the state, but its ef- ficiency was complimented at public drills or on the march with other patriotic units.
Long after military drill had ceased to be required drilling was revived voluntarily, and in 1889 a company of forty men went through the evolutions under the direction of Mr. Wilbur of the faculty.
At Colby baseball became in time the leading sport. The academy boys played among themselves and matched up against local school and town teams. An annual game was played between the academy team and the alumni. Soon the Colby team was playing other school teams in friendly competition. Yet there was some criticism of the sport, and the editors of the Voice thought it advis- able to come to its defense in the first published number in June, 1889. They said: "Many people have nothing too severe to say about the student who plays ball. But if the aim of education is to train and develop the whole man, then baseball has a place in his school life that no other one kind of exercise can fill. Perhaps it is well to consider what this place is.
"Baseball is valuable, first of all, as a means of physical exercise. It sends the blood coursing through the veins, gives suppleness to the body, makes the player a swift runner, and puts muscles on his arm capable of doing a large amount of work in a short time. But more than this it does, and the game is chiefly valuable for the men- tal and moral training it gives. Any one who has played ball will understand how it holds the attention, makes the eye quick and the aim steady; how it requires cool- ness of nerve, decision and promptness of action. Have you ever watched a game of ball where the two teams are just a match for each other? It is the last half of the ninth inning. The side now at the bat is one score behind, and has two men out, three on bases, and a good man at the bat, with two strikes and three balls. How intense is the
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feeling that pervades the spectators and the players! The least false movement changes the scale. Can a boy pass through many games like this without being trained to keep cool and act with decision in the later crises of life, when thousands of dollars or scores of lives may hang in the balance?
"A prompt recognition of authority, absolute com- mand of temper, gentlemanly bearing towards the op- posing side in the face of an adverse decision, and the keeping of one's honesty through it all, are manly virtues called into constant exercise in every well-played game.
"Many have a horror of ball playing because some one of their friends has broken a finger, or possibly been permanently injured. Which is better, to break down in school for want of exercise, or run the risk of breaking a finger? In one case you will have to leave off playing a few weeks, in the other, perhaps, never be able to go back to school. But as to the positive danger, I think any doctor will tell you that two at least are killed by want of exercise where one is permanently injured by ball play- ing. Exercise is what a student must have in order to be a healthy man, and he gets this nowhere at better advan- tage than in baseball."
The old Academy continued to be used after military drill had ceased to be prescribed. Besides the bowling alley that was popular on rainy days and in the winter, polo was played on the second floor with contests "hard and bitter." The boys boarding at the boarding-house played a team of those who boarded in club, and the girls attended and rooted for those who ate with them. The old Academy was therefore the recreation center for the school, though the girls were provided for on the hill. Track athletics were practised in the season and annual meets were held with various contesting teams. On the walls of the old Academy were painted the scores of baseball and track teams.
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There was considerable agitation for a new building as time went on. The editors of the Colby Voice respect- fully invited the trustees "to stroll into the cruciform building used as a gymnasium and look for the chest weights, parallel bars and other conveniences belonging to such an institution. Then they will please label them for the accommodation of new students, who have much difficulty in finding them." Such sarcasm did not prove effective at once, but five years later the defect was remedied. The trustees authorized a gymnasium be- tween the Heidelberg and Colby Hall. The first floor was intended as a dressing room, for Indian club practice and a bowling alley; the second floor was designed for the use of bars and for baseball practice. Equipment discarded from the old brick gymnasium at Yale when the new gymnasium was built was purchaseable. Cer- tain of the students took it upon themselves to raise the necessary purchase money by correspondence, and the apparatus weighing a ton was shipped to Potter Place and freighted to New London.
The young women had been required to take regular exercise in their gymnasium during the winter term, but the trustees were advised that "the young ladies would be pleased to have them look around among the woodpiles and rubbish in the basement, and see if their gymnasium still exists." The trustees did provide a new roller for the croquet and tennis grounds.
After the fire had destroyed the quarters of the women the new gymnasium served the needs of all the students fairly well for thirty years, giving opportunity for regu- lar exercise and team training. Football started about that time and before long crowded baseball into second place. The athletic associations of both men and women were active, and many of the records of Colby Academy teams were envied by other schools. Students of physical ability in baseball and football were in attendance, and
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track and field athletics were not neglected. Gymnasium schedules for both sexes were kept faithfully with faculty members as instructors. There were chest weights and Indian clubs, horizontal and parallel bars, dumbbells and rowing machines and boxing gloves. In 1895 Colby won six out of seven baseball games, losing only to the State Team at the Warner Fair. Most of the games were won by decisive scores. In the fall Colby won from Frank- lin High and from Tilton Seminary in football, but lost to New Hampton by a small score. The Ladies' Asso- ciation had tennis, golf, archery, and general sports com- mittees.
Students who could not play well enough to make the teams encouraged the players by their presence and their yells. At the most excited moments
"Rickerty cax, co-ax, co-ax, Rickerty cax, co-ax, co-ax, That's the kind! That's the kind! Colby Academy every time!"
would come from the sidelines, or
"Co-rack-a-jack! Co-rack-a-jack! Co-boom-a-lack-a-ba! Colby! Colby! Rah-rah-rah!"
With Libe Washburn as pitcher and Edward Durgin as catcher Colby's baseball team, Reid, Sprague, Hill and Cleveland for the infield, and Phelan, Young and Clough in the outfield, Colby took New Hampton and Claremont High School into camp in the spring season of 1897, but defeat came at the hands of Kimball Union and Andover. In the fall the Colby football team made a clean sweep of victories over Kimball Union, Franklin High School, and two games with Claremont High. Melendy played center for Colby, Dimick and Hapgood were guards, Curtice and Durgin tackles, and Cann and
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Young played the two ends. The two half-backs were Cleveland and Fox, and Washburn was full-back.
In that same year Colby sent a track team to contend with teams from Concord, Tilton, Portsmouth, Roches- ter, and Brewster Academy. Washburn won the run- ning broad jump, the standing high jump, and putting the shot, took second in the standing broad jump, and third in throwing the hammer and the pole vault. Hill won the hundred yard dash, and came in third in the two hundred and twenty yard dash and the standing broad jump, and tied with Curtice for third place in the running broad jump. Cann won the mile and the half mile runs. With such a showing as this Colby won the meet with a score of 46, compared with Tilton 33, Portsmouth 24, Brewster 21, Concord 16, and Roches- ter 12. It was a proud team that returned to the hill with a silver cup as trophy.
Several of Colby's best athletes went to Brown after graduation, including Washburn, who became 'varsity pitcher. At least three made the 'varsity football team the same year. Nor did the Colby athletes cease to go to Brown with that particular period. Harry E. Pattee, a Massachusetts boy, spent two years at the academy playing shortstop on the baseball team. Entering Brown in 1902 he played the same position on the 'varsity and made the all-America team because of his record. Nu- merous athletic and popular honors came to him in col- lege, and ten years later he coached the Brown team. He even played professional ball for a while on the Roches- ter team of the Eastern League, which won the pennant, and then he went into business. As evidence of Colby's reputation at Brown is a report written in a letter from a member of the Colby club at Brown to a friend in the academy. He wrote: "Colby's existence has been known at Brown all this year, but it sprang into prominence as usual at the interscholastic meet on Memorial Day.
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As the writer was watching the pole vault, a stranger standing next to him remarked, 'They don't send many men down from that school, but those they do send are all point winners.' "
Athletic success reached its high point in 1918. Out of twelve baseball games played in the spring Colby suffered but one defeat, and that was from Harvard freshmen. Included among the defeated nines were the Dartmouth Reserves and Cushing Academy. Tilton and Kimball Union bit the dust twice. In the fall the football team made a similar record. Colby lost to Phillips Exeter Academy 13 to 6. Large scores were piled up at the expense of the old rivals, and several schools never played before, including Cushing Academy and the Everett, Massachusetts, High School. In basket ball eight games were won and four lost.
New sports were added as time went on. Colby had a 'cross-country match with Holderness School, with the academy team on the losing side. The girls organized field hockey and in 1924 took four games out of five, including Keene Normal, losing to Tilton. In the same year the boys' ice hockey team played a clean slate of three games, with a victory over the Dartmouth fresh- men. It was then that the trustees came to the conclusion that Colby deserved a new gymnasium, an enterprise made real by a gift from the Northern Baptist Conven- tion as a consequence of the New World Movement. Completed while boys were still on the hill, it needed no alteration when only girls were admitted to the Junior College.
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XVII THE JUNIOR COLLEGE. 1928-1934
I HE town of New London celebrated its ses- quicentennial in 1929. One hundred and fifty years had passed since the pioneer settlers planted their homes in the wilderness. The population of the town had not gained for a hundred years, but the village had expanded with new buildings and was adding to its equipment a hospital, a fire department, water and sewer systems and better roads, and summer homes were dotting the hills and lakesides. It had flourishing fra- ternal organizations, a grange, and a post of the Ameri- can Legion. Its church still lifted its steeple to the sky, and found new ways of ministering to spiritual and social need. When the business men of the community turned their searchlight on the town they decided to organize a Civic Association, which should function as a chamber of commerce to build up the community. Plans were at once undertaken, the New London News was started as its organ, an information booth was pro- vided in the public square for the convenience of tour- ists, ball games and banquets were arranged, money was raised for the hospital and for a bathing float at Little Sunapee, and the New Hampshire Real Estate Associa- tion was entertained on its first annual outing. These were not all accomplished the first year, but they are included in the record of the five years that followed the formation of the Association.
It was appropriate that the town should celebrate its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary in 1929. Houses were repainted and decorated with bunting. Elaborate
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preparations were made for the historical pageant en- titled "The Hills against the Sky." Governor Tobey and Congressman Tillson of Connecticut and his daughters were special guests. State Highway Commissioner Fred E. Everett came back to the hill to take the part of his ancestor, and local citizens impersonated the early pio- neers, some of them of their own families.
When the day dawned for the celebration the village and countryside were athrill with excitement. Hundreds of citizens and visitors watched the impressive scenes. They saw the pioneers dressed in the fashion of the older day, the velvet gowns of old England, and an early English dance in contrast with the homespun of the new. They listened in to the first town meeting at Samuel Messer's, and participated in the clearing of woodland and pasture. Then they took an evening walk with Elder Seamans and others as the century drew to a close. They saw Indian dances, and bonnets and shawls from Hominy Pot and Goose Hole. As if riding along the highways and byways in a new century, they were shown Josiah Brown and his merino sheep, they watched the first stagecoach go by, they looked in on the students studying in the old Academy, and they shared in a salute to Governor Anthony Colby. Then with the swift movement of the years came the Civil War, the call for troops, soldier and sweetheart, and the Civil War ball. And soldiers of the various wars had their places in the record before the tale came to its end. An event of the day was the unveiling of a marker on the Colby mansion.
Before the town celebrated its anniversary Colby had commenced its new experiment. When the school closed in June, 1928, there was a nucleus of three girls out- side of New London who might be expected to return in the fall. One of them did not return on account of the change in policy, a second withdrew later on account of
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illness. Only one remained as the corner-stone of the new institution.
The trustees realized that the new policy would change the character of the students as a whole, and would necessitate the building up of a new constituency. A liberal appropriation was made for advertising, and by means of personal contacts President Sawyer and Mr. T. O. Parker widened acquaintance and enrolled can- didates for admission. When the first year opened in the fall of 1928 forty-nine girls were in the dormitory and there were forty students from New London, of whom a number were boys. It was evident that dormi- tory accommodations would soon be overtaxed, and the trustees were faced with the alternative of providing more rooms or of raising the rate to twelve hundred dollars and limiting the school to fifty girls. It was apparent that the needs of town pupils would soon be taken care of in a town high school. The matter of the sectarian character of Colby was agitated again by the state department of education, and it was decided that no town should pay tuition, as New London was doing, from funds raised by public taxation after September, 1928. New London students in the junior college must pay their own bills.
Nineteen girls were registered in the college depart- ment as freshmen, and fifteen new ones were expected ready for college work a year later. Affiliation was ar- ranged with Denison University and with the University of New Hampshire, and it was pending with Boston Uni- versity.
The budget for the first year allowed for expenditures of sixty thousand dollars, including a salary list of about half that amount; receipts were estimated at $64,370, over half of which would come from student fees.
The first year of college grade was undertaken at once, the second year in 1929. Four courses were outlined by
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a curriculum committee and adopted by the trustees. These were college preparatory, secretarial science, music, and the first year of college. H. Leslie Sawyer continued as the head of the "Colby School for Girls," as it was called at first, with the title of president. Thomas O. Parker, Dartmouth 'og, was submaster and teacher of the sciences. Walter T. Moreland, a graduate of the academy and of Colby College '22, was teacher of mathe- matics. M. Roy London was recalled to the hill from Chicago, where he was at the head of a business school, to direct the department of secretarial science.
At the head of the women of the faculty was A. Car- men Taylor, Bates '10, with the title of dean of women and with Latin as her department of instruction. It was an unwritten tradition that the lady principal should teach Latin. Five other women completed the faculty. These were Marguerite H. Hirsch, Wellesley '23, in charge of instruction in English, Kathleen Haff, Tufts '25, teacher of history, Elizabeth Hastings, Mount Hol- yoke '25, French teacher, Elizabeth Donovan, Wellesley '26, appointed to teach Bible, psychology and sociology, and Muriel Steeves of the University of New Hampshire, made responsible for physical education. Four of the teachers had advanced degrees, two had engaged in foreign study related to their subjects of teaching, and two had pursued advanced study in America towards the master's degree. Each instructor had his own depart- ment, and in addition was assigned to extra-curricular responsibilities, such as conferences with students, library oversight in the evening, and chaperoning or supervising study periods.
At once it became necessary for the trustees to make plans for a new dormitory to meet the expected increase in enrollment. Because of the changed character of the school it seemed advisable to elect outstanding women with educational training to be members of the Board
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of Trustees as fast as vacancies occurred. It was a par- ticularly happy arrangement when Mrs. McKean was the first to be elected. Later Mrs. Elbridge G. Davis of Boston, Mrs. John G. Winant of Concord, and Mrs. Mary Shepard Clough were added. It was thought wise and proper to seek the advice of the Colgate family and of the Baptist Board of Education before deciding to erect a new dormitory and settling the fate of old Colby Hall, now without tenants, but the trustees were con- vinced that a new dormitory must be built if funds could be obtained. The attendance of the second year made it imperative. Teachers and girls were living at the Inn and in the homes of the village. With a contribu- tion of fifteen thousand dollars from Miss Colgate the trustees felt justified in proceeding with construction, hoping that the new building would be ready by the spring term. Ground was broken in September, 1929. At the laying of the corner-stone President Sawyer made an address on the beginnings of higher education for women nearly a hundred years before, particularly at Mount Holyoke and New London. A copper tube was buried which contained names of students, copies of the cata- logue and the first issue of the Blue Quill, and two fresh- man hats. Student officials among the girls shared in placing the mortar for the stone.
The trustees decided to call the new building Mckean Hall in honor of the principal who had saved the acad- emy from extinction thirty years before. The structure of brick with light trimmings was in harmony with Col- gate Hall and added to the attractiveness of the campus. It provided accommodations for two teachers and thirty- three girls.
The administration did everything possible for the comfort and satisfaction of the girls. Excursions were made to Dartmouth College, St. Gaudens's home at Corn- ish, Concord, Franconia Notch, a sail on Sunapee Lake,
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and hikes in all directions. The girls were not long in adopting the customs of a college. The class of 1930 adopted red and white as class colors, selected the red rose for class flower, chose as its motto "Here endeth the first lesson," and planned class day exercises on the four- teenth of June. These included a class history, class sta- tistics, a class prophecy, a class will and a class song. Natalie Sklut, president of the class, gave an address and read the prophecy. Marian Bailey and Emma Dearnley presented class gifts, and ivy was planted at Mckean Hall.
The girls had a glee club and a chapel choir, which impressively engaged in processionals and recessionals in black gowns and added to the dignity of chapel exer- cises. An orchestra of several pieces was added to the musical organizations. A dramatic club was the next logical association, since music and physical action are closely associated, and dancing made an irresistible de- mand on festive occasions. Plays were produced by those who felt a budding histrionic talent, and presently "The Rouge Pot" was organized to provide legitimate occasion for the use of its contents. It was to be composed of those who had given notable performances in several plays or who had written plays produced by the school.
As music, dancing and dramatics satisfied the aesthetic sense, so, original efforts at literature found expression in the Blue Quill. This was a quarterly magazine purely literary in character, and had an editorial staff chosen by competition on the basis of published contributions. Barbara Clough was the first editor-in-chief, and under her direction the magazine speedily won the support of the students and attained to a standard of excellence that became a model for subsequent issues. It is interesting as the years go on to read again the Salutatory of the new magazine. "It is with a spirit of adventure," said the editors, "that we have compiled this first edition of
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the Blue Quill. Our purpose has been threefold. First we have felt that there are those who have the ability to write, but who need the encouragement and goal offered by this magazine. Second, those who have already experienced the pleasure of writing we would reward by the publication of their endeavors. Finally, we earnestly wish to create among our readers a desire for a literary magazine and an appreciation for the creative talent of their fellow students.
"The members of the editorial staff have mapped the route and chartered the vessel. But upon you, the pas- sengers aboard this ship, they depend for a successful voyage. They urge you to contribute, to read the maga- zine thoughtfully, to criticise constructively, and, finally, to offer suggestions to the members of the board. Then, safe in port, all may say.
" 'The ship has weathered every rack, The Prize we sought is won.'"
The Colbyan with a staff selected by the senior class continued to provide a college annual. For a few months the students edited The Seminar, a typewritten sheet, but it lived only a short time. The Student Government Association published annually a Students' Handbook, giving information about campus activities, the regu- lations of the college, and other matters of interest to in- coming students. This was issued before the opening of the year in September, and was sent to both old and new students.
The Student Government Association included all the undergraduates. It was directed by the usual officers of such an organization and by a council composed of the officers and a representative from each dormitory, one from the preparatory division of the school, and a faculty adviser. Its function was to legislate in non-academic mat- ters, to maintain observance of the rules, and to encour-
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age continual co-operation wth the college administra- tion.
The students found that the gymnasium gave them all the indoor exercise that they needed with systematic instruction by a director of physical education. The ozone of the hills stimulated activity. Tennis and arch- ery were taken up promptly. The Athletic Association included all students who paid the necessary dues, and conserved the various interests that came under the head of athletics. They played field hockey, four teams re- porting for practice. Basket ball was popular, and it was decided to have a number of teams for each class rather than a 'varsity team. Contests were held between the classes and the dormitories, and an all-school team was selected. A toboggan chute with a steel tower twenty feet high was erected in the rear of Colgate Hall.
Horseback riding was a favorite form of recreation, and the Shepard Riding School provided the horses and instruction for those who had had no experience in riding. Earlier generations of Colby students walked to Gay's sugar camp on the Burpee Hill road; now twenty- five girls obtained horses and visited a camp at Wilmot. As early as 1930 a riding exhibition was held on a Satur- day in June. Before long the Boot and Saddle Club was organized and Mr. Shepard fitted up a Boot and Saddle Room for the girls, where they could hold rendezvous and occasionally have supper. With the help of the Art Department of the college they decorated the walls with maps of the Sunapee roads and trails. The club arranged special trips, opened new riding trails and planned meets with other schools, and held a horse show. A field day was observed in May with competition in archery, riding, tennis, hockey and baseball.
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