Windows Into the Past

Beatrice Morrow Cannady

Interestingly, there is one woman missing from yearbook’s biography pages, and the language in Louise Wilson’s tribute implies that this omission was not simply an oversight. The first African American woman to graduate from law school in Oregon, Beatrice Morrow Cannady was already famous for the newspaper she and her husband published, helping to found the Portland chapter of the NAACP, and leading a protest against the showing of The Birth of a Nation in the city’s theaters. She would go on to become an internationally known civil rights activist.

It’s not clear why Cannady’s name is missing from the yearbook. The Oregonian reported not only that she graduated with the class, but that she had also performed two songs at the commencement ceremony. Her brother, who graduated at the same time, had a biography among those of their classmates. But what is known is that Beatrice Morrow Cannady and her brother, Almus Morrow, were asked by Dean J. Hunt Hendrickson to leave the premises of the Multnomah Hotel, site of the commencement, immediately following the ceremony.

Hubert L. Barzee

As an energetic, up-to-the-minute, full-o’-pep hard worker, we all take off our hats to Hub. He fairly radiates personality—and that duty which he is given to do can well be counted as done. Hub has made a splendid record in his school work and in the performance of his school activities. His only handicap in the study of the law is that besieging army of feminists who continuously interfere with his plans. However, he is successfully combatting this dangerous foe, and while he is not wholly infallible, still it seems that he will be able to withstand the temptation until after the twelfth of July, but then—? When Uncle Sam decided to stand up for his rights a few years ago, Hub picked the Marines. He reluctantly and modestly admits that ’twas the Marines that won the war, and, of course, we all agree with him. Hub is also one of the most active members of the Delta Theta Phi law fraternity.

Harry W. Fletcher

“H. Wellessley Fletcher, Class Poet,” speaking more correctly. While poetry may be interesting to Harry as an avocation, still he is quite serious about the practice of law as a vocation, and every indication points to his realization of this ambition. Harry is now practicing law to a limited degree, and made his debut therein but emerging victorious in an argument upon a demurrer before Judge Bell recently. Harry is the tribune of Williams Senate, Delta Theta Phi, and takes an exceptionally active and leading part in all school activities. He is another overseas vet, and carries a total disability classification as a result of his service therein.

Huldah P. (Mrs. N.G.) Anderson

The better half of the Anderson family is now before us. Mrs. Anderson has come back to school, after an absence of a couple of years, to keep a watchful eye on hubby, and incidentally to keep him company and graduate with him. Mrs. Anderson is already a member of the Bar and proves that fact very forcibly by the nature of her work in the classrooms. She is at the present time an instructor of Commercial Law at Jefferson high school. She is vice-president of the senior class and one of the recognized leaders among the co-eds of the school.

Huldah P. Anderson was already a member of the bar and teaching commercial law at Jefferson High School when she enrolled in Northwestern College of Law.

Harrison Howard

Among his host of friends, Harry Howard seems to look most favorably upon two which stand out head and shoulders above the rest—his law books and his good old pipe. They are inseparable companions, and from the nature of his recitations and the results of his examinations it most emphatically appears that they get along well together. Harry, like a good many of the other seniors, has been producing results under what might be termed severe handicaps, for we think that bearing the burdens of the head of a family and producing results in a night law class is not the snap it is sometimes represented to be, but it is the men like Howard who continue to produce results long after they have completed the course in this school prescribed. Go to it, Harry, we’re with you!

Charles R. Raymond

Active, alert and everready is Charlie Raymond. He is a natural leader; one that institutes and continues in motion the activities of the school. Charlie is the vice-dean of the Delta Theta Phi national law fraternity, Williams Senate, and is president of the senior class. During the war he did his bit with the engineers. Charlie, though married, has left his former employment with the railroad company and is now devoting his entire time to the study of law and preparation for the Bar examination. He truly deserves to win.

James W. Gantenbein

Jim—we call him that for short because he hasn’t time to wait for the rest—is not only a very able student of law, but he is also a senior at Reed College, and expects to receive two degrees in rapid succession. And to cap the climax, Jim is the worthy secretary of the school. Yes, verily, he is a busy ant, but even withal, he always wears a happy smile and has a cheery word for everyone. Jim takes an active interest in the work of the school.

James W. Gantenbein was the eldest son of Judge Calvin U. Gantenbein, the last dean of the University of Oregon’s Portland-based law program and the first dean of Northwestern College of Law. His family’s name would become synonymous with Northwestern College of Law in the first half of the 20th century. 

You can read an early history of the law school by the younger Gantenbein here.

Louise Wilson

“Bill,” as she is well and familiarly known among those who know her, is one of the two feminine members of the senior class, of whom we are justly proud. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon, a member of Phi Beta Phi Sorority, and an invaluable member of the class above mentioned. No more positive proof of the statement that “valuable things come in small packages” and that “still waters runs deep” appears anywhere than in the person of Louise Wilson.

Almus H. Morrow

Mr. Morrow has been a resident of the city of Portland for the last eight years. He is a native of the Lone Star state and a graduate of Samuel Huston College at Austin, Tex. Since beginning his course of law, Mr. Morrow has become the proud father of a baby girl. He is with The Portland Times Publishing Co., with offices at 419 Abington building, holding the position of business manager since January, 1920.