130. Winchester's First High School Commencement, 1875

Winchester Journal-Herald, Oct. 30, 1937
By Phillip Kabel.


  Knowing that all graduates of the Winchester High school have devoted much time to the study of ancient history, some from choice, others otherwise, and believing it wrong to withhold from you anything that might add to your store of knowledge, I thought it might be well to tell you the history of the beginning of our Alumni Association, of which we are all so proud.
  On the night of May 28, 1875, there appeared on the stage of the old City Hall the first graduates of the Winchester High School, two in number and they received the first diplomas ever presented by the Winchester Board of Education, the pupils being Will E. Monks and Alice Kizer.
  Will has long since answered the final call, and Alice is the oldest living graduate of the Winchester High School, not old in years, for in spirit she is the youngest of the whole bunch, and the question of old age has never once entered her mind.
  Just because she was graduated at the time your grandmother was a little girl, is not a sign of old age, but one of wisdom. So if you think we are writing about an old woman, you must dispel that thought from your mind at once.
  We wonder if you think the Winchester High School was always under such splendid supervision, and blessed with so fine a course of study as now-not so. Prior to the coming of Professor John Cooper, as the superintendent of the schools, we had no prescribed course of study, and none of the higher branches were taught. At the beginning of every school year the older pupils were put into a class that began a study in grammar and percentage in arithmetic, and went so far as they might. Then the next year they went back to the study of percentages again. The new superintendent graded the schools and laid out a course of study, and the young minds were given a chance to expand. In their senior year they studied trigonometry, Latin, rhetoric, chemistry, astronomy and mental philosophy.
  Can you imagine what it must have meant to be a member of the class of '75, you who have been in such large classes, and have had such jolly times in your class meetings? Don't you think it must have been dull indeed to have had only two? They couldn't talk about whether they would wear white dresses or light silk, or whether they would wear white shoes or black.
  By the way, would you like a description of the first commencement dress? Well it is (Yes, IS, for it still exists, and is laid carefully away in a trunk in the attic), of white tarlatan, (this is the name of the material from which the dress is made). An old maid told me that it is a stubborn, wiry goods that looks pretty before it is worn, but decidedly crumpled afterwards. Don't know how she knows it is crumpled afterwards, as she has never had occasion to wear such a dress at either a commencement or a wedding. It has a sweeping train, the part that drags behind, sweeping up all the dust from the floor, and an overskirt with the front all puffed out. These scientific terms are getting me all muddled and before getting into deep water I am going to close the descriptive part.
  Natural flowers were not the thing at all then, so she went to Richmond and purchased two bunches of white artificial flowers, wore one at her throat and the other in her hair.
  Yes, her hair was so red that red flowers could not be distinguished and white ones were necessary.
  Of course her hair was well crimped, as it had been done up on crimpers all day, curling irons were not in existence then. But the roses in her cheeks were natural, not put on with a brush.
  Will Monks borrowed Bob Morrow's basket phaeton buggy and white pony and escorted her to the city hall, which in early days had a stage or platform its full width, and, on this occasion, it was filled to overflowing with the school board, teachers, singers and a whole brass band, bass drum and all.
  But that was all right with the sweet girl graduate, for her sweetheart was a member of the band.
  The literary productions were quite weighty and the next issue of the local papers predicted brilliant futures for both of them. theorems and problems in natural philosophy
  Will's subject was, "The End, Not yet." Alice's was, "Beauty Everywhere."
  In it she spoke of the beautiful mathematical theorems and problems in natural philosophy. Getting into deep water wasn't she?
  When you have been burning the midnight oil, or electric current, studying the reflection of light when the source is between the center of curvature and the principal focus, or when you have been worrying over the binomial theorem in your algebra lesson, or tiring of that, have taken your solid geometry and have tried to prove that the area of a zone is equal to the product of its altitude and the circumference of a great circle of its sphere, did you think of the beauty of them then?
  Yes, we know you did, because at the young and tender age of 18 everything is beautiful.
  It was astonishing what this young lady did get out of her subject, with such an inspiration close by in the band.
  There were two young ladies in the audience who had attended a commencement somewhere before, and they each had a bouquet of garden flowers, which, at the proper time were thrown by main force at the performers, at the risk of knocking a gas lamp from the chandelier, or the flowers from a spring bonnet.
  Both bouquets were intended for the girl graduate, but since none of the men, (thoughtless things that they are) in the audience had one for the boy graduate, one was given to Alice, the other to Will.
  Boys, how would you like to sit on the stage, facing the audience, and hold on your lap a Black-eyed Susan or a Pansy? Of course, we refer to flowers.
  Their immediate friends did not know it was customary to give graduating presents, so they received only one each-a gold pen and holder from their superintendent, Professor Lee Ault. Fountain pens had not yet been invented.
  The diplomas were presented in large gilt frames by their high school teacher, Professor Polly.
  And thus, after another loud selection by the brass band, ended the first commencement exercises of the Winchester High School.

(The city building mentioned was on the north side of the square on the second floor of the Magee/Moore block. The Merchants Bank tore it down but it was next to the building where Tom Batt's "The Country Gentleman" is located. The second floor was also known as "The Opera House," seating 400 people. It was one of three Opera Houses in Winchester in that period. The oldest was Lee Snattinger's where Geyer Chevrolet was and the other, the newest, was Bud Irvin's "Irvin Opera House," seating 600.) 2019 mh