Winder Public School Class Prophecy, 1909

One night as I slept in the silence
An angel stood close to my bed
And gently caressed me and whispered
“In the stars your class future I’ve read.”

“Now tell me,” I cried, “Shining angel
Since thou holdest our future at stake
Tell me now of my friends in the schoolroom
Tell me all ere the moon and I wake.”

The angle of destiny whispered
“I see through your smiles and your tears.
You shall dream, and your dream is the story
of your score in your class through the years.”

Then I lay in the moonlight a-dreaming
And the nightingale’s song thrilled my heart
As I saw in the dream my dear schoolmates
In the years when we’d drifted apart.

I thought I saw Ruth in a mansion
Surrounded by flowers and trees
She had married a man who had money
And was living at peace and ease.

And next I was visiting in Texas,
And went out for a walk in the cool
Where I met an old maid named Miss Harris
Who was teaching a township high school.

She invited me down to take dinner
At her home in the Galveston flats;
Just over a millinery department
Where Allene Kilgore was making big hats.

I saw in my dream Sara Cannon –
Surrounded by great, shouting crowds;
She had married an airship inventor,
And was starting to rise in the clouds.

I went to a bank in Atlanta,
And there at a desk saw a girl
Her name was Blanche Smith when in Winder
She was making the typewriter whirl.

When I went to a store in Chicago,
And whom should I meet – can you guess?
A red-haired clerk named Lida McKibben
She sold me some silk for a dress.

The mail man then brought me a letter,
“Elma Matthews is married” it said.
She has married a well-to-do butcher
With hair most exceedingly red.

“Then too” said the letter,
“Rowena has changed her name from Miss Hill.
She has married a prominent surgeon,
Who is well known as young Dr. Pill.”

Grace House has at last found a husband.
What a future in marriage she got
His cognomen – Lot – is a good one
To start ’tis a house and a lot.

In my dream Mary Smith stood beside me
A senator had asked for her hand
She was going to the capitol city
To help make the laws of the land.

Clifford Foster stood next in the pulpit
As a preacher he had gained great renown
His work as a winner of sinners
Was gaining him stars for his crown.

Cliff Delaperriere was a singer
With voice loud and clear he would sing
Hayes Griffeth was now a great actor.
The people his praises did ring.

Cupid Potts took the stump for his party
And was rapidly making a name;
As a great Democratic spell-binder
He was climbing the ladder of fame.

And next I saw Latimer Griffeth
Leaning back in a great easy chair
They had voted him governor of Georgia
And he was real proud to be there.

“Braselton and Harris” was the sign
That I read o’er a prominent door
Royce and Ralph were partners in business
Getting rich in a big dry goods store

Then I saw in my dream an old bachelor
And I knew ’twas George Smith at a glance;
He had passed up the girls in his school days
And now he had lost his last chance.

And then a great farm passing by me
All white with rich cotton did teem
It was owned by William Summerour
The richest schoolmate of my dream.

And then I awoke from my slumber
To tell this sweet tale to my class
That each one might know of the future
Long years ere it cometh to pass.

And may that bright angel of destiny,
Guide the feet of our class in the light
That wherever we go in the future
We may go doing right with our might.

This was found in my grandmother’s papers after she died. She was the “Miss Harris” referred to in verse six.