Retrospect: School's oldest alumnus returns

Sixty years ago this week, the oldest living graduate of Bryant High School had returned for the school’s alumni banquet. 

Pearl (Butcher) Coggeshall traveled from her home in Norfolk, Virginia, for the banquet, which was held on May 10, 1958. 

Coggeshall graduated from Bryant High School in 1902. She was one of four students who graduated that year, the second graduating class ever for the school. In the first class was Coggeshall’s twin brother Pearlon, who had died prior to 1958, and a student who was younger than Coggeshall. 

In her senior year, Coggeshall took literature, algebra and geometry. She had previously attended Portland High School, where she won first place in the declamatory division for the local competition for the Eastern Indiana Oratorical contest. She was awarded a $10 gold piece. 

In an interview with The Commercial Review, Coggeshall remembered how excited she and her classmates were to graduate. Her graduation was held at Bryant Lutheran Church, and Coggeshall gave a speech with the theme “Stepping Stones to Success.” Diplomas were handed out by Jimmy Whiteman, the principal and only teacher at the school. 

Coggeshall was born in Bryant to to Newt Butcher and his wife, who owned a sawmill there, and was one of five children. She married Tony Coggeshall in 1904. The couple lived in in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania before moving to Virginia, where Coggeshall had lived for the previous 45 years.

She was staying with a former classmate in Portland and was planning to attend the banquet with friends.