BIOGRAPHY
ALICE B. CONNELLY.
Miss Alice Beatrice Connelly, daughter of Francis J. and Alice P. Connelly, a
graduate of 1894, was born in San Francisco, California, July 3, 1876. Her paternal ancestors were vigorous North
of Ireland Stark and on the mother started she is of English descent. Her great-great-grandfather, Lot Hawkins,
settled in New Jersey in early colonial days.
Her great-grandfather, Job Hawkins, who while very young served as
drummer boy in the Colonel Jonathan Johnson's Regiment of the Connecticut Line
of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary struggle, was born in New Milford,
Connecticut, and died at the same place, at the advanced age of one hundred years. He was also is soldier of the War of
1812. Inheriting the loyal spirit of
this ancestor, and herself "a staunch friend of her country and zealous of
her cause," it is not strange that Miss Connelly is about to identify
herself with the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a society
which aims to keep alive the memory of those who fought and died for their
country.
Her early education was directed by her
mother, until she entered the public schools of her native town. Her first entrance upon school life was in
the Powell Street Primary School under the charge of Mrs. Cordelia Newhall and
Mrs. N. R. Craven, Principal; from thence, on account of change of residence,
to the Emerson Primary, with Miss Ida Shaw as instructor.
Alice was a child of marked intelligence, of
affectionate and winning manners and in her home has always been a benediction
and it a joy. A thorough student, she
has fully profited by the advantages offered for her mental growth. Of the specially notable traits of her
character is her deep and personal attachment to those with whom she has been
brought into special relations, and is one of the secrets of her success as a
student and pupil.
She is an enthusiast in music developing in
early childhood a marked talent in that direction; and under the guidance of
Professor Hugo Mansfeldt has devoted much time and earnest study to this
subject, with a corresponding degree of success, and through these efforts has
become a musician of no common great.
She is also a fine elocutionist.
Although her school life has been frequently
interrupted through sickness, thereby lengthening her term of study, yet we
find her always diligent, inpatient of the delay, and anxious to go forward in
the work which she early marked out for herself, which neither sickness or any
other adversity could for one moment cause her to swerve from.
In 1889 she entered the Hamilton Grammar
School, William A. Robertson, Principal, and with increasing zeal turned her
attention to the studies of this more advanced grade with the same spirit of
active inquiry that had to characterize her early efforts. After a three-years’ course of study, she
was May 23, 1894, graduated from Miss Ella J. Morton's class, receiving one of
the class metals awarded, her scholarship record ranking among the foremost of
the school.
Having completed the grammar school course and mastered the alphabet of her education, she has now entered upon the course of study prescribed by the State Normal School at San Jose, the examination for which she has recently successfully passed, with the view of fitting herself for a teacher. With joyful anticipation she entered September 4th upon this field of labor, where for the present we will leave her.