Laconia High School Class Of 1920

PHOTO: Laconia High School Class of 1920.

by Robert Hanaford Smith, Sr.
Weirs Times Contributing Writer

In this unusual year of 2020 in mid-summer there is still celebrating happening for the graduation of this year’s class of seniors, so I guess it is not too late to look back a hundred years to recognize the 1920 graduating class of Laconia High School.
Since there are no members of the class of 1920 still around to gather for a class reunion we will recognize them in this article.
There were thirty-one graduates in that century old class and they published a paperback yearbook with a light blue color and 1920 printed in gold on the front cover. Maybe this year’s high school seniors who feel they were separated too soon from their classmates can somehow feel a connection with the Class of 1920.
The Valedictory message to the classmates ended with the words,“All too soon is our Commencement upon us. All too soon must our four years of comradeship end. But Time beckons us onward – we must face life sternly. We have our work cut out for us. The evil seeds I have spoken of must be dug out; the pressing problems I have enumerated must be solved. Moral force, a feeling of responsibility to God and humanity alone can accomplish this. Our nation needs men of character. Let this be our aim – to build up characters that will be towers of strength against evil. Let us each count one on the side of truth and righteousness.”
The Laconia High School Senior class officers for 1920 were President John Twombly, Vice-President Hazel Dunlap, Treasurer Leslie Smith, and Secretary Bernice Burrows. The Headmaster of the school was Verne M. Whitman who also taught mathematics. The Yearbook included an editorial by Elizabeth Osgood in which she expressed her opinion that it was about time that the school had a debating society and went on to give praise to the orchestra which had put on two concerts during the year and raised enough money to purchase a melophone, a double bass, and a clarinet. Osgood lamented the fact that the construction of a proposed new high school building had been put on hold. Arguing that the whole city would benefit from a new building, she urged that there be no further delay in building it with an assembly hall and gymnasium which could be used for “other than school purposes.”

The new building was built and occupied in 1923. One internet source incorrectly says that sports were introduced when the new high school was occupied in 1923. The Class of 1920 had a football team, basketball team, and a baseball team when the high school was still on Academy Street.
The yearbook headline about the football team declared “Laconia High will have a winning team next year.” Having made that prediction the writer considered the 1919 season to be successful with Laconia playing such teams as Portsmouth, Brewster, and Proctor Academy, and winning half of their games. Names of players included Ryan, Twombly, Stafford, Gilman, Hawkins, Bagley, Quimby, and Joyce.
The basketball team claimed to have the best record in the State and to be the State Champs. That, after the coach, at the beginning of the season, commenting on his inexperienced players, “considered the material poor.” Most of the young men were not seasoned players and of their first game with Ashland Joseph Bloomfield wrote: “I can remember even now how Stafford and Bloomfield stood with their mouths wide open wondering where all the people came from.” Laconia won the game by a score of 26 -15. They lost their second game to St. Joseph High of Manchester and then had a second game with Ashland at Ashland which they won.

Bloomfield’s comment about Ashland was that they seemed to have their best time in Ashland. He said “we had warm rooms to sleep in and were undoubtedly well fed. At Ashland everything is very cheap, and twenty cents apiece ought to have been enough to feed a horse on…”
They had games with Franklin and Holderness and went by train on a private car to play against Lisbon. The train was delayed by a wreck in the Weirs so they were on it for four hours and had but ten minutes to get on the court when they arrived in Lisbon. One of their basketball games took them to Haverhill, Massachusetts, again by train, where they became, according to their report, the first team from Laconia to play against a team from Massachusetts in Massachusetts. They had played and won games in New Hampshire against Lawrence High and Dean Academy.
A report of a concert conducted by the Laconia High school Orchestra was one of many articles in the 1920 Year Book. The music teacher, Fred H. Osgood, was the conductor. Miss Ethel Wilson was the “reader” and her selections were warmly received, “the most enjoyable of which were those of a humorous nature in dialect.” The solos of Miss Hazel Dunlap were also well received along with the cornet solo of Sutherland Miller and the piano skills of John Twombly. The orchestra was made up of mostly underclassmen with a few Seniors.
There were not many pictures in the blue soft-covered Year Book of the Class of 1920, but there was a lot of printed information including a class will and class honors. The school newspaper, the Lakonian, was mentioned and the names of local businesses supporting the year book and class of 1920 were on the first and last pages of the Year Book.

There appeared the names of Oscar A. Lougee, The Melcher & Prescott Agency, Lakeport National Bank, Bailey’s Music Store, Maher’s Book Store, W. D. Huse & Sons, Booth, the Jeweler, Opechee Lunch, Texaco Gasoline and Motor Company, and many more.
Among the class Honors for the Class of 1920, where girls and boys received mostly equal but separate honors, were Everett Kimball as the most popular boy and Hazel Dunlap as the most popular girl. Most respected boy was John Twombly and most respected girl was Christine Avery. Emily Payson was chosen as the prettiest girl and the most likely to succeed, and Arnold O’Mara was the handsomest boy. John Twombly was considered the most intellectual. Joseph Horn was the busiest boy and Christine Avery was the busiest girl.
There were other honors, but not all of them were complimentary. Maybe there are some descendants of the class of 1920 who can tell me what their ancestors did after high school, and we can see if the predictions came true.
In honor of the Class of 2020 let me leave you with an “ Ode To L.H.S.” by Howard Francis Greene (the teacher’s pet): “Fairest of all high schools Thou wilt ever be; Dearest of all mem’ries Are our thoughts of thee. We will always love thee, Praise thy glorious name; And in love and honor Sing fore’er thy fame.”

Robert Hanaford Smith, Sr., welcomes your comments at danahillsmiths@yahoo.com