Surry by the Bay

Text by Lynn Bonsey

Images contributed by Surry Historical Society

The new Surry Grammar School was dedicated on August 10, 1952 with Senator Owen Brewster as the principal speaker. Officers of the school district were Claude L. Bonsey, President; Robert T. Carlisle, Treasurer; and Frank G. Whitney, Clerk. Trustees were Floyd Black and Raymond Jacobs.

Just weeks after the 1952 dedication of the school, Bonsey received a letter from a disgruntled town citizen. “I am commanding you as President of the Surry School District Trustees,” Mr. Harry G. Carter wrote Mr. Bonsey, “to remove or cause to be removed the weather vane now placed on the top of the School Flag Staff.” According to Mr. Carter, such placement desecrated the National Flag and violated Federal Flag Code Rules. Ten days later, Dr. Wilson G. Smillie penned a letter to the State Commissioner of Education explaining that the flagpole had been erected in memory of a respected citizen, Clifford Coggins, and asked for a ruling on the matter. The Commissioner, in turn, referred the matter to a Robert T. Hall, a former Navy officer, who checked with the Adjutant General of the State of Maine and he concluded that “Surry is acting with proper respect and propriety in displaying the flag as is now being done.”

Pleased with this ruling, Mr. Bonsey wrote a pointed response to Mr. Carter accusing him of lacking the intelligence to comprehend the facts (through no fault of his own), and, partially concluding, “I hope that you will join the ranks of us who have worked so hard for better education in our schools in Surry. “