My first day in school was a rather eventful one. I was thrashed three times that day by the teacher, Miss Brownlee. My mother took me to school. Each seat was for two children. The teacher seated me on one side of the seat with Oliver Graham on the other. Oliver said the side I occupied was his. I maintained the teacher gave me the side I was on and I wouldn't change. The argument continued after the teacher had ordered us to stop talking and she called us up to her desk and asked us to hold out our hands and gave us each two whacks with a hickory pointer and it hurt. I decided I wasn't going to be a crybaby, and went back to my seat. Pretty soon we were quarreling again about which side of the seat was ours. We were called up again, out came the old hickory pointer and on to our hands. I decided to show off how brave I was and looked at the others in the room and grinned a sickly grin, I suppose; Oliver cried. The teacher brought me up a third time, gave me three hard down strokes and said, łNow take your seat and we will see if you can grin like a cheshire cat.˛ It worked; no grin.

Oliver Graham practiced dentistry in Chicago for many years. When I was about 18 I was introduced to Miss Brownlee. She said she once had a boy in her room by the name of Dave Hall and asked if I was related. I told her I was closely related. I was Dave Hall!