Copy of first CCHS commencement speech shared

Last week, The Eagle printed a hundred-year-old article about the CCHS Class of 1919. Anita Ewalt was the valedictorian of the class. Local Nancy Brence has a handwritten copy of Ewalt’s commencement address. Her class was the first ever to graduate from Carter County High School. The 1919 commencement address follows:

“Our Class of 1919 is here to night to speak a last word of farewell before we separate. Whatever pathway each one of us may choose will lead to honor and success if we but follow it rightly. Tho our paths may often cross, we will each have a particular byway or sphere in which to traverse. We will have this same earth under our feet and the same blue sky above our heads.

Dear Teachers, we thank you most heartily for the protecting care and direction which you gave us so willingly. You have pointed out the heights far above and beyond us, and thru you, we have learned they are there, and we have determined to reach them although the way may often seem difficult. You have been good to us, better than we have deserved. We appreciate your unfailing efforts, and hope you shall hear from us again when we can express our gratitude in deeds. For the present we bid you a fond farewell.

Fellow pupils: Tho you may never have dreamed it, we Seniors owe you something in the way of gratitude. The deference and respect with which you have looked upon us, has meant much to us. Your adoration has forced us to do our best. But you will soon take our places and the coming years will bring other students after you are gone. We have made one record and attained one goal which will never be forgotten until the last dear companion drops smilingly away.

We are leaving our High School with a deep regard for her and for her history. We love her for the knowledge we have gained and the lessons we have learned within her doors. Here we have received the foundation on which our future depends. Before we leave her sight and hearing we should make known to you our one wish: That our high school attain a yet grander future than you have ever thought her capable.

We are ready to step into the world, yet we hesitate. Life, will never be the same to us again. Words cannot describe the emotions at this time, the tender feelings of love for the school, the teachers, the friends, the regrets with which we say our last farewells. We must bid adieu to the familiar places so full of memories.

We have spent the last four years in preparation so this night we feel as if our class motto were true: We are leaving the harbor. The ocean lies before us.

Indeed, we are leaving the harbor of High School. The ocean of experience in the world lies before us. If we have received the full benefit of all that harbor had instore for us there is no doubt, but what we will cross the ocean safely.”

Anita Ewalt went on to study home economics and teaching at MSU Bozeman. She worked in Yellowstone Park in the summers and returned to Carter County to teach school for a number of years. She married Harry Rose on May 19, 1926. That fall they purchased a parcel of vacant land that had a house and barn on Spring Creek near the Chalk Buttes. They had two children, Esther and Hughie.

Harry passed away in 1972. She then married Alfred Cline on July 20, 1976. Anita Ewalt (Rose) Cline passed away May 9, 1987 at age 86.