Saturday, June 7, 1919

Beautiful bright day. Hot in P.M. Cool in evening.  Alumni parade in morning. Exercises on campus. B.B. game with R.P.I. Union won 7-3. Alumni night. Sophs took second prize in Song contest.

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The Alumni Parade is an old Union College tradition that dates back to 1911, when it became a part of their alumni weekend. Here is a write-up about it that appeared in the Union College Magazine for 2003:

"Alumni Day" has been a part of the College from its earliest years, when graduates returned for Commencement. In the late 1800s, the College began to organize and actively encourage the alumni to return, and in 1911 the first alumni parade was held. Alumni Day has become ReUnion Weekend, and it is now held a couple of weeks before Commencement. Costumes à la the Class of 1924 are still part of the fun. College Day, the major fall alumni gathering, began in 1923. Interrupted during World War II, it returned as Homecoming Weekend.

Here is a picture of a more recent Alumni Parade, taken from the May 27, 2009 edition of the Union College Magazine:

Friday, June 6, 1919

Cloudy day. Rain in A.M. and at intervals all day. Around college in A.M. Saw parade. Poured. To circus in P.M. Same Show. To library in evening. Walked around. To bed 10:30.

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The parade Stanford refers to must be the circus parade that preceded the show Stanford went to later in the day.  This was of course the great Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, touring the U.S. that year after taking a year off during the great influenza epidemic of 1918. According to one website, the circus was indeed scheduled to be in Schenectady on June 6, 1919.

Stanford must have witnessed quite a parade, since according to one historical account, the combined Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circuses "required 100 railroad cars to transport them and their animals, including 55 elephants." In fact, 1919 was the first year the two circuses performed together; though merged in 1907, they were touring separately until their joint appearance at Madison Square Garden March 29, 1919. Below is a poster that may have been used to advertise their show at Schenectady:

The springing tiger poster was designed in 1914 by Charles Livingston Bull, who was well known at the time for his paintings of wildlife. It is thought to be one of the best of its kind and continues to be used by the circus to advertise their shows.

Interestingly, the city of Schenectady suffered a circus fire in May, 1910. No one was killed, luckily, but residents must have remembered it every time the circus came to town.

Thursday, June 5, 1919

Beautiful bright hot day. 90 degrees in Shade. Some breeze. To college library in A.M. Greek exam in P.M. Down town on wheel in evening. Saw Hayes. Nettie Bacon here from India. Loads of curios. To bed 11 P.M. Thankful.

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When Stanford says he went downtown on the "wheel," I can only guess he means a bicycle. It might have been his humorous way of saying cycle, which has a Greek origin (kyklos, meaning "circle, wheel" [from Online Etymology Dictionary]), thus a sly reference to the Greek exam he had taken earlier that day.

Nettie Almira Bacon was a missionary for the Methodist church, more specifically, for the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Starting in 1913, Nettie did missionary work until at least the mid-1930s. In fact, in June of 1919, she had recently returned from her first six years abroad. She had been studying at the Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow, India, and then perhaps working there as a teacher once her studies were complete. (Here is a Wikipedia article about the school: ITC, and one from a Christian publication: Thoburn.)  Below is a picture of Isabella Thoburn, the school's founder, with her most famous pupil, Lilavati Singh, taken in 1900.

Isabella Thoburn with Lilavati Singh

In the 1910 census Nettie Bacon was listed as living in Schenectady, working as a high school teacher. By 1920, however, she was living in New York City and planning to leave again for India in July of that year.

It's not clear what Stanford means by here when he says Nettie was "here from India," but it's possible she was a friend of the family and was visiting the Clossons at their home. She may have met them in the Methodist church, or she may have been Stanford's high school teacher, or both.

Wednesday, June 4, 1919

Very hot beautiful day. 96 degrees in shade. Studied in A.M. Geology exam scheduled for P.M. Dr. Stoller didn't show up. Bought light suit. To see Wagner. Took walk around town. To bed 10 P.M.

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Dr. Stoller, who failed to show up for the Geology exam, was James Stoller, an alumnus of Union College who started teaching in the Geology department in 1884. By 1919 he had made significant contributions to the growth and prestige of the department, especially in the area of glaciation, his specialty, and in requiring all geology classes to do field work.

We know Stanford was required to do field work, since he mentions Geology field trips in his journal. Dr. Stoller retired in 1925 after 40 years at the college, but he lived another 30 years after that. (Information about Dr. Stoller was taken from the Union College Geology Department's website and others.) We don't know why he failed to show up for his exam that day, but he may have been ailing. It's interesting to speculate, at any rate. Below is his picture. He was quite a handsome man, don't you think?

Dr. James Stoller (1857-1955)

Tuesday, June 3, 1919

Very hot beautiful bright day. The temperature 96 degrees. To country play [place?] to plant and hoe. Home 3:30 P.M. Took bath. Wagner home for 3 weeks. Joint meeting K.S.P. & Phi Beta Pi at 7:30. Fine time. To bed 11:30.

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Wagner is Charles Wagner, one of the friends who appears frequently in Stanford's diary. Charles W. Wagner was Stanford's age, and in 1920 he was working as a clerk at General Electric. He lived on Dakota Street, a street that no longer exists, but it intersected Clinton Street at a point where Hamilton Street crosses now. So if Hamilton is the former Dakota, then Charles Wagner lived about 3/4 of a mile from Stanford. Charles is home, says Stanford, but where he has been he doesn't say. It sounds as if he may have been going to college somewhere, but I haven't been able to discover if or where.

Charles died in 1977 in Schenectady where he'd apparently lived his whole life.  In 1940 he was working as a firefighter for the City of Schenectady.  He was married by that time to Sophia, and had a daughter.  I wonder if he and Stanford kept in touch over the years?

I'm not sure what Phi Beta Pi is (and I can't find out, so far), but it has something to do with KSP, or so it sounds.

Monday, June 2, 1919

Bright beautiful but very hot. 92 degrees in the shade. Studied in A.M. Took English exam from 2-5 P.M. It was a hum-dinger. Floyd Smith here in evening to study french. To bed 11 P.M. Thankful.

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A 3-hour English test must certainly have been a hum-dinger! Perhaps it was a final exam, but still . . .

Sunday, June 1, 1919

Beautiful warm day.  To Church and Sunday School.  Ruth left for Potsdam on 3:25 P.M. train.  Took nap.  Read and played piano.  To E. L. [Epworth League]. Took walk with Finch, Goddard and H.H. Sat on porch. To bed 10:00.

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Yet another friend appears in the chronicle, Goddard. Since I don't know his first name (yet), I can't tell for sure who he is, but according to the 1920 census, there is a family of Goddards living in Schenectady at 225 Nott Terrace, next door to Emmanuel Baptist Church, less than a mile from 110 Park Place and very near the college.  The father, Walter Goddard, is a physician.  He and his wife Emma have a son, Leland, who is 16 years old and in school.  This boy may be the friend Stanford speaks of, but until I see another entry giving his first name, I can't be sure.  Norris has also yet to reveal himself.