Meet at Japanese Tea Room at 6 --Edmund J. Wager of Utica to Act as Toastmaster - Many From Distant Points to Attend
Tonight, the surviving members of the class of 1878 of the Watertown High school will gather at the Japanese Tea Room to observe the 50th anniversary of their class. They will dine at 6 with Edmund F. Wager of Utica acting as toastmaster at the reunion and anniversary celebration. Mr. Wager arrived in this city Friday evening to attend the dinner.
Among the members of the class who are expected to attend are: Carrie Jones Wagner of Fort Morgan, Colorado, Nellie Moore Calvert and Jennie M. Bingham of Syracuse, Mr. and Mrs. James M. Hogan, Mr. and Mrs. Fred A. Baldwin, Misses Mae and Stella Lewis, Leonard L. Allen and daughter, Watertown, Edmund J. Wager of Utica. James D. Woley of Chicago and Dr. Edwin G. Parker of Goshen, N.Y. are unable to attend and communications from them will be read at the gathering. Many members of the class who attended the old high school in State street and was graduated from the old Washington hall, where the Y.M.C.A. building is now located have passed away. Among them are Miss Addie D. Anthony, Miss Anna M. Firth, Cyrus H. Cold, Charles P. Dexter, George C. Sherman, head of the Sherman Paper company, Frederick George, Charles H. Remington, Austin G. Adams, Mrs. Julia Galvin Yager and Mrs. Elizabeth Woolworth.
In addition to the graduates of the class of '78 there will be in attendance at the dinner some of the persons who attended high school with the members of the class but did not graduate. The principal of the school at the time the class of '78 were pupils is William K. Wickes, now a resident of Syracuse. Mr. Wickes, after leaving this city, was for a time principal of a Syracuse high school. He is in rather poor health at the present time and will be unable to attend.
Eleven Surviving Members of High School Class Meet for First Reunion
Building Was Then Located in State Street
Fifty years ago, the class of 1878 graduated from the old Watertown High School, then located on State street and holding graduation exercises in the Washington hall. Saturday night, the surviving members of the class reunited at the Japanese Tea Room at 927 State street and celebrated the 50th anniversary of their graduation. All of the survivors who were able to make their way to Watertown gathered at the Tea room with local residents, also of the class of '78, to meet together for the first time since their graduation.
From Fort Morgan, Col., Mrs. Carrie Jones Wagner came to be the guest of honor at the reunion. Edmund J. Wager of Utica was toastmaster, and a feature of the program was the singing of the class song, written in June, 1878 by the late Charles H. Remington, on of the members of the class. William K. Wickes, now of Syracuse, was principal of the local high school at the time these young men and women went out into the world to start their careers. Mr Wickes, the only teacher of the school at that time who is still living, was tendered a special invitation to be present with his former pupils but because of poor health he was unable to attend. Among the group at the tea room was Miss Stella M. Lewis, valedictorian of the class and Miss May D. Lewis, her sister, who was the salutatorian. Both are well known residents of this city. All but two of the eleven living members of the class were present at the reunion. The two who were missing were James D. Woley and Dr. Edwin G. Parker
This roster of the members of the Class of 1878, with brief biographical and genealogical information, was compiled from newspaper articles, published histories, U.S. census records and findagrave.com
Austin G. Adams (born August, 1860 - died 6 January 1916); son of George Adams and Minerva Adams; married Amelia "Millie" Wenzel;, children: Ethel Adams and Gladys Adams. Treasurer and Paymaster of the Rutland Railroad
Leonard. L. Allen (born 1860, died 5 December, 1949); When he died, newspapers throughout New York noted that he was the oldest member of the Grange in the whole of New York State. He was employed by the Watertown Daily Times in February, 1894 as market editor, monitoring Watertown's interior cheese market, largest in the world with sales of nearly $2 million annually. He later became city editor of that paper. Mr. Allen held the position of State Grange Historian for many years. In 1933 he wrote and published his "History of the New York State Grange."; married Stella E. Blood, daughter Bessie M. Allen.
Adelaide D. Anthony (born 28 November 1858 - died 10 November 1926); daughter of Thomas H. Anthony and Amelia Brown Anthony; grade school teacher, stenographer, clerk at Agricultural Insurance Company.
Fred A. Baldwin (born 1858 - died 1932); son of Charles Baldwin and Mary A. Allen Baldwin; married Kate Hall; Teacher of Latin, School Principal, Attorney, Justice of the Peace. Buried Brookside Cemetery.
Jennie Grace Bingham; (1869-1958), daughter of Mayor Charles Darwin Bingham and Sophie D. Button Bingham, buried Brookside Cemetery, Watertown, NY; siblings: Dr. Ann Tefft Bingham, Alice E. Bingham, Josephine Mills Bingham
Cyrus H. Cole (dead);
Charles Phineas Dexter, (born 2 September 1860 - died 3 May 1886); son of Simeon Dexter and Maria Hardy Dexter; owner of Poor, Dexter & Co, chair manufacturer. Died of tuberculosis, age 25.
Anna M Firth; (born 1861 - died 18 November, 1918); daughter of John Firth and Catherine Burdick Firth; accountant, Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, Nebraska and G.H. Hammond Packing Company, Hammond, Indiana. Buried in Brookside Cemetery.
Frederick George (born 30 December 1860 - died 6 December 1914); son of Henry George and Elizabeth Mantel George, president of A. Bushnell & Co.; married Annie Isabel Bushnell. Four children: Elizabeth George, Isabel George, Margaret George and Albert George; buried Brookside Cemetery.
James Hogan (born 1859); son of Michael Hogan and Mary Ann Hogan; married Mary J. Hogan; Superintendent of Mail Carriers, Post Office; children: Joseph Hogan, Msgr. John M. Hogan, Claire C. Hogan, Ethel M. Hogan.
Carrie Jones (born 1859); married M.N. Wagner; resided (1928) Fort Morgan, Colorado
May D. Lewis (born 17 August, 1860 - died 9 Mar 1958); daughter of Corporal Schuyler Lewis (Co. H, 10th NYHA) and Amelia D. Warren Lewis; Salutatorian of the class of '78; teacher; buried Elmwood Cemetery, Adams, N.Y.
Stella M Lewis (born 22 November 1861- died 8 Aug 1947); daughter of Corporal Schuyler Lewis (Co. H, 10th NYHA) and Amelia D. Warren Lewis; Valedictorian of the class of '78; art teacher, Watertown High School; buried Elmwood Cemetery, Adams, N.Y.
Nellie Moore (born 1860, died April 15, 1943); daughter of E. Dwight Moore and Mary J. Moore, Graduated from Cortland Normal School in 1882; married LaMont Calvert; three children: (Kathryn Calvert Countryman, D. LaMont Calvert and Dwight M. Calvert. Buried in Brookside Cemetery.
Dr. Edwin G. Parker (born about 1861 - died 1 October 1940); son of James Alexander Parker and Cornelia Asenath Parker; married May F. Wilcox; father of Dorothy B. Parker, Edwin Harold Parker, Marie Antoinette Parker Doty and Donald Greenleaf Parker; dentist, Goshen, N.Y.
Charles H. Remington (born 1859 - died 13 March 1911); son of Charles Rollin Remington and Helen M. Warren Remington; Remington-Martin Paper Co married Abbie C. Fairbanks; Father of Eunice Remington Wardwell, John Remington, Constance Remington Northrop, Ruth Remington and Thomas F. Remington. Buried Brookside Cemetery.
George Charles Sherman (born 25 July 1862 - died 25 June 1920); son of Charles Augustus Sherman and Caroline Norton Phillipa Sherman; President of Taggart Paper Company, philanthropist, "self-made man", multi-millionaire, Democrat, candidate for Senator, married Alice Lee Taggart;. children: Katherine Lee Sherman Fox, Carol Norton Sherman; Buried Brookside Cemetery.
Edmund F Wager (born about 1860 - died after 1940); Attorney, Utica, N.Y.; married Jennie Collis,; father of David Collis Wager and Mary A. Wager. James D. Woley, Chicago, Illinois; attorney, capitalist, Troco Nut Butter Co. of Illinois - In 1920, butter prices spiked. Woley was one of the men who incorporated the Troco Nut Butter Co., a manufacturer of a margarine made of Coconut Palm Oil, also associated with the Palm Olive Soap company.
Two additional members of the class were named in an article about the 50th Anniversary reunion of the Class. The article listed them as dead; however, Julia Galvin Yager was alive at the time. Perhaps these were two members who did not graduate but attended the reunion, as alluded to in one of the articles. Julia Galvin (born 1859 - died 1944); daughter of Morgan Galvin and Eliza (Neary) Galvin; married George Yager; mother of Mrs. Henry McCormick. Buried in Calvary Cemetery, Watertown.
Elizabeth Mary "Lizzie" Woolworth (1860 - 1937); daughter of Gilbert Enoch Woolworth and Mary E. White Woolworth. Buried in Brookside Cemetery.
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