Education in East Hampton

Among the most compelling reasons for a strong educational system are its impact upon our quality of life and progress in our community. On June 4th, citizens supported a monumental rebuilding of the 50 year old High School.  Although the vote was relatively close - 1,536 yea with 1,259 nay - I am comfortable in believing that the vast majority of all voters did not object to the goals to make East Hampton's educational system among the best in the State.  We all want our children to have the tools to excel in whatever endeavor, vocation or career they choose.  An exceptional school system brings other quality students to our community that add to the diversity, competition and challenges that hone the minds and talents of all. Among the several concerns raised, the most loudly articulated was the impact on property taxes. The other most discussed was that the plan was too plush - beyond the scope of needs cited by the New England Secondary Education Accrediting Board.  Similar concerns were expressed in the late 1950s when the current EHHS was first proposed.  Often the shock of a tragedy unites us for the greater good.  That happened in 1962 when a fire broke out in the then High School decimating the north wing.  Not only did the community come together to renovate and reconstruct that facility, within months, not unlike the actions of the current High School Building & Planning Committee, that building committee produced a plan for a new facility on North Maple Street.  Changing times or events have unthinkable impacts on people's moods and thinking.  In the 1760s succeeding from Great Britain was unheard of.  Ten years later the abuses and intolerance ran so high that delegates of the 13 colonies signed our Declaration of Independence.

Other events have impacted our views.  In 1958, the America was just beginning to get a taste of the "space race" when the USSR launched Sputnik.  I can remember watching with my dad the night sky.  The light from the Russian satellite orbiting earth was quite visible to the naked eye.  The next year John F. Kennedy was elected President, initiating a program for the US to send a man to the moon, land and return him safely by the end of the decade.  Education, especially science and math, was on everyone's agenda.  We couldn't let the Russians beat us.  Had we as a nation and community not invested in our children, think what might be missing from our daily lives - personal computers, the internet, teflon, and product after product.

 

In 1937 the Town faced a huge dilemma.  Up until this point EH students attending High School took the train to Middletown, until daily service ceased in 1931, with private vehicles making daily commutes thereafter.  Still in the height of the depression, the Town came together to approve building the high school at a cost of $120,000 (can you believe that?). The special committee appointed at the town meeting on January 31, 1938, was charged to obtain architect's plans and estimate of the cost for a new school, were: Edwin W. Markham and Loyd E. Cone, named by the Board of Finance; Robert Starr, Robert Ostergren, Charles E. Torkelson and Percy P. Markham from the Board of Education; Samuel Stewart and Lewis T. Evans from the Board of Selectmen and Morris Lanzi and Leon Voisin from representatives of the general population .  Times changed! 

The special building committee for the first East Hampton High School had a rocky road during the years of the Great Depression. In 1935 the entire Board of Finance rejected the plan to build a high school.  The times dictated frugality and cautious spending.   Three short years later in January 1938, the six member Finance Board, in an about face,  voted unanimously to approve a new high school and sent the resolution to Town Meeting.  One might think the Board of Education would also be in unanimous support - a driving force for education.  Not so!  Only seven of the nine members voted affirmatively. Key support, however, came from the EH Chamber of Commerce with not a dissenting vote among its 45 members.  Although conscious of the impact on taxes as they struggled in their own businesses, these enlighten citizens understood the importance of a well educated and trained workforce and the long term benefits to society and ultimately our tax base. 

 

Today, as we embark on the “re-build and renovate as new” high school project, none of us,  now or in the past, want  hard earned dollars to be misspent or foolishly applied.  In proceeding with this significant project, our citizens expect that those on the special building committee and, thereafter, the office of the superintendent, school administrators and educational staff be frugal and conscientious, as if in their own households, in administering the education budget.  With an eye toward preventing wasteful or unnecessary spending - simple tasks such as turning off the lights in unused classrooms or air conditioning in classrooms after school has recessed for the summer - should become a priority. The precious dollars remaining can then go for their intended use – quality education for our children. Our townspeople expected that in 1938, 1962 and do today.

Six Degrees of Separation

The concept six degrees of separation, that everyone is, on average, approximately 6 steps away by way of introduction from any other person on Earth, was popularized in a game tying any movie, actor or actress to Kevin Bacon or one of his films.  This concept really hadn't occurred to me until recently when I came across an article from 1937 in the Middletown Press.

East Hampton has had a long and active tradition of community performances and amateur performers.  In recent years Podium Players, YPPCA or Epic Arts, but in the past more informal groups where church choir singers and others from the community would participate in a local production. Often such productions developed through organizations such as the Odd Fellows, Masons, Eastern Star or church fellowship clubs and were choreographed  for community events such as Old Home Day.

That 1937 article's headline Minstrelsy To Be Given on Saturday - Rehearsal of Large Cast is Held Under Mrs. Duryea"s Direction began "Chairman Percy P. Markham (my grandfather) was satisfied with the rehearsal last night of the minstrel troupe which will present a show in the open air on Saturday evening at 8:30." Reading further, many familiar names appeared - Jane Gorin, who was performing a tap dance; song and dance by Margaret Butts and Ruby Dureya; a magic show by Lou Schwartz; a number by Claude West and his girls; and a concert by Stan Johnson and his Kay Rock Inn orchestra. Soloists included Dorothy anderson, helen Nelson, Peggy Roberts, and the end men were Francis O'Collell, Pat O'Connell, Wayne Denman, Jack Roberts, Bill Nelson and Gerald Wall.  The chorus included Gordon Bevin, Eleanor Purple, Inez Smith, Alice Daly, Julia Vondrich, Marion Bransfield, Claude West, Emil Nelson, Natalie Lutzsky, Buddy Fiegel, but two in particular, Jack Krauth and Janet Green, struck a familiar cord. 

Two years ago, a gentleman from California, Tim Krauth was referred to me at Prudential CT Realty to assist him in finding a home.  We have finally find a beauty in Columbia so I'm please to welcome his wife Lorie and he back to the area.  You see, in our discussions, he talk about him visiting his grandmother's house in East Hampton as a boy. With a little detective work, I found the house on the corner of Edgerton Street and Main Street, now owned by Chip and Bonnie Goodrich, who graciously welcomed Tim into their home when he traveled east in December 2010. 

In some additional research, I found that Jack Krauth married Janet Green, and they were Tim's parents! I am constantly amazed on how small our world has become and how truly intertwined we humans are, here at the center of it all in East Hampton.

The Boys of Summer - Belltown Bombers

Our recent EHHS men’s State Champion baseball team brings to mind the storied history of many other EH teams and our “Boys of Summer." I recently read an account of the long baseball history attributed to our Town back to the 1880s. H. F. Scranton wrote of the great Richard Wall – in an article in 1928, as the local Belltown Bombers were making mincemeat of the Middlesex County league. Ironically we had two tremendous baseball players by that name. The first played from the late 1880s to the late teens. A blacksmith by trade, his shop still exists in the rear of 64 Main Street - owned by Kevin and Kim Keily - located across the street from the Congregational Church. Smithy Wall was a stellar catcher - iron strong! By day pounding metal and crafting repair parts for machinery (blacksmiths did more than shoe horses), evenings and weekends saw Dick hammering long fly balls and rifling pick offs of runners testing his steely arm.

I said two Richard Walls. The second, great nephew to the first, was a friend and a political mentor who passed away this June. The second Mr. Wall may have been the best to play the game from our town. Dick told me how another great, Manager Charlie Barber, recruited him to play on the Belltown Bombers while a high school freshman. League rules required players to be 18 or older, so he registered under the name of his older brother John who was away at war. Later they ran Wall’s Dairy until the location was purchase by the Rossini's. Offered a professional contract, with the St. Louis Cardinals , Dick opted to stay at home to develop the thriving dairy bar business with brothers John and Phil.

In 1905, County Commissioner Hubert Hodge's team won the pennant in the Middlesex County League, the first time the title ever came to the Belltown. The 1906 County League Pennant was captured by the Belltown boys as well. Playing for that team were Frank Johnson, Arthur Gates, Richard Wall, Stanley Bevin (with a blistering fastball), Arthur Bride, David Moriarity, Wick Markham, Hubert Hodge, Charles Ivers and David Bride.

Our close knit community saw mechanics and management bank together on the diamond. Many went on to successful business careers or roles as community leaders, the skills learned of working together just another example of the success of our baseball teams.

Bevin, president of Bevin Brothers Manufacturing Co., Hodge, a pharmacist and owner of Barton Drug Store (now Devine Jewelers) who served, as did David Bride, as selecmen and W.W.B. Markham, who owned the T.S. Brown Insurance and Real Estate Agency, the bowling alley and other ventures. S. A. Bevin was the pitcher on that team and was one of the most effective in position because of his terrific speed. Dick Wall, played second base that year and Frank Johnson of Middletown did the catching. In 1914, Mark Hamilton had a jaunt with the home players. Leo Strong was the pitcher and Charlie Metcalf did the catching. In 1915, Dave Bride's team won the Middlesex County League pennant.

In 1928, Harold Scranton, a local boy who covered sports for the Middletown Press, wrote, "A winning baseball team is a good advertisement for any town and for over a span of 35 years East Hampton's baseball nines have averaged up better than any town in Middlesex County ....[he expressed gratitude]... to Rich Wall, the village smithy, considered the best backstop ever to don a net mask and wind pad in Middlesex County, for information given about stars of the old days before shin guards, big mitts and masks were use."

My grandfather Percy Markham, an accomplished player, managed the 1928 Belltown Bombers while playing centerfield, to the Middlesex County Championship. When I was a boy, he relayed stories of his baseball exploits.

Now I haven’t researched the entire history, but I came across some old pictures recently of him playing and certainly have no reason to doubt his word, especially as he was held in high esteem by others in the community. He was elected Tax Collector for 4 terms, Was elected to the Board of Education and served on the building committees for both the High School (now the Center School) and Memorial School and had been the Prosecutor for our local Court for 20 some years.

His most interesting story related to his service in the U.S. Marine Corp. During WW I he was shipped to France with the Doughboys who liberated Europe in the Great War! Returning to the U.S., he extended his enlistment and spent time near Washington D.C. before being deployed to the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua chasing bandits and revolutionaries.

But his Washington service that was of greatest interest, at least with respect to this story. While there, he played baseball as a member of the Marine Corp Team. He told me some really fine players – major league caliper – played and they had games scheduled against major league teams that came to the Nation’s Capitol to play the Washington Senators.

But it was games against the Senators that peaked my interest. He told me he had batted against the great Walter Johnson. He didn’t tell me how he did. However, we all know that the “Big Train” became one of the first five members inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame along with Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner.

As Mike Thompson, Editor of Rivereast pointed out, "Percy didn't tell Dean how he did, but, I wouldn't have been shocked if it was a strikeout. Johnson did, after all, fan 3,508 people over his 20-year careeer, a record that stood for more than 50 years after he retired. It's almost shortchanging Johnson to simply describe him as one of the game's all-time greats. And Percy Markham got to bat against him."

After four years of chasing bandoleros, he returned home, married the former Rose Knotek, their marriage lasting nearly 60 years until his death in 1983.