would return to Rose Hill in the 1850s as
a Greek and Latin teacher, and then again
in 1882 as the president of the Prep and
University. The University’s Dealy Hall is
named in his memory.
1850s
11) July 19, 1850: Pope Pius IX raises
the Diocese of New York to the status of
an archdiocese. Bishop Hughes becomes
Archbishop Hughes.
12) September 1850: Robert Gould
Shaw, ex-1854, begins his short time at
the Prep. Shaw would later be
remembered for his command of the
heroic 54th Massachusetts Infantry
Regiment, the first African-American unit
formed in the North.
completely from the Parthenian Sodality
and becomes Fordham’s first devotional
and charitable society comprised entirely
of students of the Second Division.
16) Early July 1852: Commencement
Day: Brothers Henry and John LaFarge
complete their Second Division studies.
John LaFarge would go on to become a
renowned artist during his lifetime, best
known for his innovations in stained glass
technique.
17) 1852-1853 School Year: Fordham
sees its first student literary publication
on record, The Goose-Quill, a
hand-written monthly paper edited and
posted by three members of the Prep
Class of 1855: Arthur Francis, John Rose
Greene Hassard and Martin McMahon
under the single pseudonym “Ham.”
as its two inaugural productions. The
firstknown stage manager in Fordham
history is a Second Division student at the
time — a Prep junior — Charles Melton
Walcot Jr., Prep Class of 1857. Walcot,
known today as “The Father of Fordham
Dramatics,” was the son of a well-known
acting couple, and would go on after his
Rose Hill days to have a celebrated stage
career of his own, followed by a stint in
the silent film industry.
1860s
21) 1860: St. Joseph’s Seminary, with
which St. John’s College had shared Rose
Hill since its 1841 founding, moves to a
new site in Troy, New York.
18) 1854: The St. John’s Debating Society
is officially formed. Both University and
Prep students are involved
22) 1860-1861: An official Prep baseball
team steps up to the plate for the first
time: The Live Oaks. During their first
19) July 12, 1855: Commencement
13) 1849-1850 School Year: By the
1850s, astronomy is being taught at St.
John’s College. While primarily a college-
level course, astronomy is also included
as part of the “natural philosophy”
curriculum of fourth-year Second Division
students, or Prep seniors.
Day: Martin McMahon completes his
Second Division studies, or in other words,
graduates the Prep. During the Civil War,
General McMahon would lead a valiant
mission to destroy supply wagons and
recover engineering equipment that had
fallen into enemy hands. He would later
be awarded a Medal of Honor for his
bravery. His two brothers, John Eugene
McMahon, Class of 1848, and James Power
McMahon, Class of 1853, would both lose
their lives in service to the Union.
season, they play the University men, the
Rose Hills, three times. The Live Oaks take
all three games: 35-11, 22-11 and 38-36.
23) 1862: The Prep’s varsity baseball
team changes its name from the Live
Oaks to the Invincibles. Once again, they
trounce the Rose Hills. The score: 22-6.
The name Invincibles would come to be
used formally and informally for all Prep
varsity-level teams and competitive clubs
for the next few decades.
24) June 15, 1863: At a meeting of the
school's Board of Consulters, a letter
from the Provincial is read commending
Fordham on having maintained “a spirit
14) March 16, 1851: Prep boys engage
of fraternal charity” despite the bitterness
in the most notorious food fight in school
history. Several Dining Hall windows are
broken. Apparently, there are geopolitical
overtones to the whole unfortunate
event, with Prep students of Irish descent
feeling that plans for St. Patrick’s Day
festivities had been deliberately
mishandled.
of the Civil War. From the ranks of
Fordham alumni, no fewer than four
generals, seven colonels and seven
captains would serve in the Union Army,
with eight former Fordhamites taking up
arms on the Confederate side. In
addition, one of the school nurses from
the 1840s, Sr. Hieronymo O’Brien, SC,
15) 1851-1852 School Year: The 20) December 3, 1855: The would serve as a heroic war nurse at the
Sodality of the Holy Angels, which had first
formed on October 2, 1847, separates newly-formed St. John’s Dramatic Society
presents Henry IV and The Seven Clerks institution she had founded, St. Mary’s
Hospital in Rochester, NY.
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