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Question AnsweredWho Was The Man WhoGave The Atwood Prizes ?FRANK L. SWANN (Yates County Historian)Though the Atwood, student awards were established in 1906, the donor has remained little more than a name to the generations that have witnessed the presentation of the prizes each year at Penn Yan Academy commencements. The first part of an - account of Alfred 'T. At-.* wood’s productive and long life was published in the Chronicle-Express June 2L The concluding part follows:Soon came the Civil war and Mr. Atiwood enlisted. He participated in several engagements and at Gettysburg his horse was shot from under him. By the close of the war he was a captain in the Quartermaster's corps, serving under General George G. Meade. In ,nis service he had been joined by his former partner, Jared H. Mun-,on, who became a clerk in the unit of his former- associate.Typical of his attitude towards life, for some years AtWood did not apply for his Civil War pension and did so then to stop any •umor that he might not be entitled to it because of an unclean Army record. He did not believe that his country owed him anything.Married Maryland GirlFollowing the war Jared Howes Munson went for a short time to Oil City, Pa., and in 1866 to New fork city where he entered the brokerage business. Atwood returned to Maryland where he married Miss Georgianna Nicddemus, the daughter of a family of northern sympathizers whom he had met when his army unit had wintered at Hagerstown, Md. Following her death Jan. 18, 1866, about a year after their marriage, he made his home with his mother-in-law and with her traveled extensively until her death when he inherited her estate, a substantial sum for that period.Returning to Moravia he later married Mi(s. Fannie (Rasbach) Jewett, the widow of Theodore Jewett. Her death occurred Feb. 22, 1897, at Moravia.As to the awards. Similar awards were made available to Penn Yan Academy and Moravia High school.' At Penn Yan the proceeds of a $1,000 bond of the United States Steel corporation were to finance several prizes: $10, deportment, most deserving boy; $10, deportment, most deserving girl; $5 each, spelling, most deserving boy and girl; $5 each, writing, most deserving boy and girl. For obvious reasons, in recent years, three prizes for essays on American history have been substituted for the two deportment prizes.A $10 award was to be made each year for the best essay, boy or girl, on “Character Building” or “How To Live at One’s Noblest and Best.” That year, 1905, the essay prize was awarded to Jessie CurCkom. Last year the 50th award was made to Jane Pedersen.Provided Syracuse Scholarship Also provided at that time was another $1,000 bond of the United States Steel corporation which was accepted by Dr. James Roscoe Day chancellor, and Wilford W. Porter, secretary of Syracuse university, granting a perpetuity a scholarship in the Liberal Arts College of Syracuse university to a graduate of Penn Yan Academy or $60 annually would be applied if the gradaute chose the College of Fine Arts. ,Since the winner, Nathan Wells, did not accept, the first award, that of 1906, went to Miss Elizabeth Miles, now Mrs. James T. Cusick of Hammondsport.Obviously conditions have changed radically since the first agreement. Tuition that in 1906 was $60 annually is now about $900. In keeping with this inflationary trend, on Jan. 15, 1947, anagreement was made between Clayton Rose, then superintendent of schools, and Dean Peck of the College of Liberal Arts liberalizing the provisions so that the income from the bond, the. principal of which Cannot be used, could be accumulated for scholarship purposes. The last scholarship requested and awarded was $2100 to Miss Edith Handleman for the second semester of the 1946-47 academic term.Keenly Interested In Penn YanThe writer has sought a motive for the Atwood awards. His nephew writes of his great interest in Penn Yan. MiSs Fannie.A. Munson, sister of his business partner, was one of the first class of 10 to leave Penn Yan Academy in 1863, six years after its organization. The Elmmendorf diary records two visits to Penn Yan, one in 1867 during which time Jared Munson was also here, the other in 1903.His funds were evidently invested in gilt edge securities for when his former partner, friend and war buddy went to New York in 1866 he soon was in the banking and brokerage business in Wall street and at the time of his death Aug. 7, 1906, was a general stock broker, and senior partner in the firm of Munson Ketchum. There is evidence that they kept in close touch with each other.Quoting in substance from a letter received from Mr. Atwood’s nephew. Life had used him well. The estate he had inherited (and apparently invested well) was ample for his simple needs. He spent little *on himself. Perhaps his major extravagance was a trip to Europe at an age when others were content to stay at home.His niece tells of his love for flowers. On his way to church on the last Sunday before his death he stopped at her home for a flower for his button hole. This sable niece writes that her uncle gave her strict instructions when she was a student at Moravia High that she was never to try for any of the Atwod prices.At Moravia the Atwood and Jewett families were staunch Con-gregationalists. He was active in his church and in community activities. From 1886 to 1890 he wassecretary of the Indian MoundCemetery association. He was clerk of the board of trustees of Moravia High school 1890-1893 and president of the board in 1896. He was trustee of the First Congregational church of Moravia in 1897 and a deacon for 22 years from 1893. His second wife, Fannie Atwood, was clerk of thechurch for two. years.There are two other of hisknown benefactions. In honor of his sisters, Martha Atwood Comstock and Naomi Atwood, a maiden sister who kept house for him following the death of his second wife, he endowed teachers in.foreign lands through the missionary societies of his church.Quoting from Wright’s “Historical Sketches of Moravia” written in 1918, in a chapter referring to George C. Stoyell post, No. 155, GAR, “Alfred T. Atwood, a member, was 85 years of age on Sept. 19, 1917, and is still active on the streets and in very good health. He keeps abreast of the times and is greatly interested in the present world conflict.”His death occurred at Moravia July 20, 1924 at 93.(Since the writing of this article and too late for use this week, Mrs. Philip Pepper of Bluff Point sent us a picture of Mr. Atwood and her uncle, the late H. W. Perkins of 134 Elm street. The picture was taken in 1919 when Mr. Atwood was 89.)Mrs. Willis (Pauline) Fingar fs a patient in the Clifton Springs sanitarium.
Newspaper Details
Penn Yan Chronicle Express
Penn Yan, New York, US
Thu, Jun 28, 1956
Page 43
Full Page
Clipped by
Midpointe L.
OH, USA 30 May 2024
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