A recently identified document turns out to be the original Friendship Club charter for Norwich University.
The document from August 16, 1852 was recently transferred to the Archives, where it was recognized as the original charter of the Friendship Club by Assistant Archivist Gail Wiese. Like its successors it was formed for the purpose of
...keeping in remembrance those friendly feelings and that brotherly regard which now exist among us.""
Members of the first club include: Henry Howard, President; Nathan A. Smith, G.P. Greeley, and Henry O. Harrick as Vice Presidents; and J.P. Towne and Charles E. Denniston as Secretaries; with honorary members D.R. and F.E.G. Ransom; G.M. Dodge and others.
In 1860, after the reunion at Commencement, the Reveille student newspaper reported that an Alumni Association was organized on August 17, 1860. It is interesting to note that in 1865 the Reveille also reports the formation of the "Club of 1865," which united the Friendship Clubs and the cadets of the American Literary, Scientific & Military Academy supposedly at the 1860 meeting. A previous blog post identified the charter of the Friendship Club No. 2 as the oldest document pertaining to the nascent alumni association, which is now usurped by this latest finding.
0 Comments.