Page:Life of Isaiah V Williamson.djvu/154

132 2d of April, 1894. Again a special train brought a large company of prominent people, including the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania and the Mayor of Philadelphia. Of the Trustees, Messrs. Brooks, Catherwood, Longstreth, Townsend and Wanamaker were present. Gathered in the decorated auditorium, Mr. Wanamaker presided, and made the welcoming address, after the opening prayer by the Rev. Dr. H. Clay Trumbull. Addresses were also made by Governor Pattison, Mayor Stuart, Stacy Reeves, president of the Builders' Exchange, and by two members of the graduating class. Prizes and diplomas were distributed to the fifty-nine graduates, whose average age was nineteen.

This was the forerunner of a series of brilliant commencements, honored by the presence of eminent men representative of all circles of the professions, commerce and trade. At the second commencmentcommencement [sic], in 1895, Governor Hastings made the principal address, dwelling upon the history of education in Pennsylvania; followed by J. Howard Wilson, president of the Jackson-Sharp Company, of Wilmington, who, among other things, said