Sunday, January 10, 2016

The Owl - June, 1905

Oops, I'm already out of order.  So I'll go back and catch up on 1905 - the June, 1905 edition was the commencement edition which means lots of photos!


 Always fun to see the faculty.

I
  1. Fred J. Armstrong, U.C. '99, Commercial Department
  2. A.C. Olney, U.C. '98, Principal - Mathematics
  3. Miss Olive M. Dunbar, Stanford '98, Latin
  4. Miss Bessie Carpenter, Stenography and Typewriting
  5. L.A. Buchanan, Stanford, Manual Training and Mechanical Drawing
  6. Miss Mabel Cory, Stanford '96, History and English
  7. C.L McLane, Northern Indiana N.U. '87, Superintendent of City Schools
  8. Miss Jessie Dewell, U.C. '97, English
  9. John A. Nowell, Stanford '93, History
  10. Harlan C. Smith, Stanford '87, Mathematics
  11. Henry Kerr, U.C. '97, Science
  12. Mrs. E.M. Babcock, Stanford '95, Biology
  13. Miss Laura E. Marshall, Chicago Art School, Freehand Drawing
  14. Miss Elizabeth Adams, U.C. '03, Latin and English
I wonder who out of this group was the favorite teacher?  And who did the students dread having?

And of course the Class of 1905 took center stage.

  1. Mable Anderson
  2. Wm. Wainright (graduated in February)
  3. Grace Niblock
  4. Lawrence Pierson
  5. Charles Shaw
  6. Helen VanSlyck
  7. Myrtle Newlin
  8. Zillah Beall
  9. Alma Prather
  10. Lulu Markley
  11. Jessie Price
  12. Katherine Gundelfinger
  13. Jessie McDonald
  14. Anna Wallace
  15. Lotta Young
  16. Minnie York
  17. Erle Leaf
  18. Cloie Loveall
I need to keep my eye on Katherine Gundelfinger.  Often times when I search for my Gunzendorfer ancestors, Gundelfinger will pop up and I've ignored it.  But not any longer.


  1. Edna Bates
  2. Aleen Lambie
  3. Della Yeargin
  4. Edward Glass
  5. Tullius Tupper
  6. Mattie Barnwell
  7. Lenna Prather
  8. Burt Swartz
  9. Elizabeth Gorman (graduated in February)
  10. Dora Linderstrand
  11. Grace Stewart
  12. Ola Harrell
  13. Sadie Smith
  14. Ella Hume
  15. Genevieve Walker (graduated in February)
  16. Axchie Davis 
  17. Ethel Rhea
And then three other names - maybe those without photos?  Leslie Clark, Georgia Barker (graduated in February), Mildred Rorick (graduated in February).

Unfortunately, not a familiar name in the bunch.  But maybe one of their descendants will find my blog.

Of course, sports was a big draw and I was glad to see the teams' photos.

Track Team.  Sounds like they didn't have a great season.


The baseball team finished 5-2 in 1905.  The Owl stated "Of all the teams this school had in the field this year the baseball team is the only one that has made an unqualified success."  No names associated with this photo but I do know the captain of the team was Pierson and the battery for one game was Leonard (pitcher) and Pierson (catcher).


And of course, football, where Clinton Collins was captain of the team at the beginning of the season but was obliged to resign soon after he was elected.  Geo. Hensley (fullback) was then elected to fill the position and Fred Scott coached the boys.  The team finished 2-2 for the year.

The team nearest and dearest to my heart was the Tennis team.

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Members of the team were:  Boys - Sig Levy, Arthur Drew, Lloyd Griffith, and Gus Hoover. Girls - Violet Hodgkin, Marcia Edwards, Ola Harrell and Constance Beveridge.  Of course I can't put a name to a face for anyone except my grandfather, Sig Levy, who is seated on the left.

I loved the description of the April 15 match against Easton High School where Fresno High won three out of five events.  

"The first event, the boys' singles, was easily won by Arthur Drew, then Marcia Edwards and Constance Beveridge won the girls' doubles in three hotly contested and well-played sets.  In the next event, the boys' doubles, was seen the best playing of the day, Levy and Griffith winning it in straight sets.  Levy's driving and Griffith's lobbing were the features of the game.

I find the advertisers so interesting.  

My parents were both born in Burnett Sanitarium (1927 and 1928) and here they are in 1905 advertising in the Fresno High yearbook.  I wonder if my grandfather ever thought about the fact that his son would be born in this facility.  Glad to know they offered weekly rates of $15 to $40 which included room, board, and nursing.  What a bargain!


Nyman Levy?  That's a new name to me.  Is that two surnames or someone with the first name of Nyman and last name of Levy?

Now that I look at it closer, I think it is two surnames and I think Levy is my great grandfather, Herman Levy!  This is an excerpt from Sig's brother (and Herman's son) Ben's autobiography.

When the county seat in Fresno County was moved from Millerton to Fresno, my father came to Fresno.  He worked for the pioneer firm of Kutner and Goldstein Co., which later had stores in practically every town in the Valley.  Later, my father owned and operated a clothing store on Mariposa Street and later moved to an enlarged store at the Corner of J (Fulton) and Mariposa Streets.  This store was destroyed by fire and my father then became the sole agent of the New York Life Insurance Co. which he held until his death.

Maybe someone who is familiar with Fresno in the early twentieth century can tell me if 1936 Mariposa could be the store?



This is an interesting advertisement.  My mother's maternal grandfather, Edward Fitzgerald, had a sister, Anna, who married Robert Sronce.  And Edward's wife, Mabel McAboy, had a sister, Clara, who married Alexander Dick.  Somehow these have got to be related to this business on "I" Street.


So fun to see the snappy footwear of the time!


And at Waterman Bros. you could buy a "white" touring car.  10 years later my grandmother would call their car a "machine".


Sure gives us a feel of what life was like in 1905.


2 comments:

  1. It looks like there were almost as many teachers as seniors! And they had some impressive credentials. It also seems your grandfather must have been one of the few if not the only Jewish member of his graduating class. Was it that non-Jewish of a community? Love the ad! What a great find.

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  2. I can't help thinking that had to be a slow tennis match for those girls in those dresses! It's surprising how common it was in older yearbooks not to identify people in photos.

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