USA > Iowa > Scott County > Organization and proceedings of the Pioneer Settlers' Association of Scott County, Iowa, with a full report of the first festival > Part 2
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Whereupon the Chair appointed Wm.
dents of the county on or before Dec. 31, A. D. 1840, who have deceased or moved away.
Judge Weston, from the Committee on Regular Toasts, informed the meeting of the doings of that Committee.
Altred Il. Owens. from the Festival Committee, stated that a full programme of the arrangements would be ready for publication in the papers of Friday
Moved to adjourn. Carried.
JOHN L. COFFIN, Rec. Sec'y.
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PIONEER SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF SCOTT COUNTY.
OLD SETTLERS' FESTIVAL MEETING, February 22d, 1853.
Association met at the Burtis House, , These have been shoceeded by comfortable forming, with the invited guests, a com- quand elegant was Hig -- but why sport; pany of nearly eight hun.innl persons. change. when specification were alles. ANTOINE LE CENTRE, Presich pt. in the Chair. All. all, is letasgod save the anchoging she alove u., and the chargeless river that rolls by ni ; magni! vent river !
JOHN F. DILLON, Esq. in behalf of the Association, arose and presented the Cane to the President in the following speech :
" Time wehave to wrinkles sa the ne azure brow," and witlam: avouching it. geologieal accu- racy let mea'i_
"such as cresta d'a dawn, a hold then rollest now."
MR. PRESIDENT :- I am charged with the insignia of your office. Yan. who were the first to pioneer the way to this lovely spot, , the other, has try heart molit with grati- lovelier and richer than the land Growing
This intere-t has not been the indifferent interest of a neve spectator, but with you it hn- partaken of a warmer nature ; it has claimed kindred with a paternal solicitude. and without domur has had its claim al- lowed.
Our feeble infancy-our slow growth-
What endeared recollections, and throng- war precarions situation -- our gloomy pros- ing vi-ians this occasion must vall up and pects awakened for awhile the most tender concern and anxions forebodings. There
inspire. Who would not fondly "give the hope of years" to enjoy the satisfaction and , dark days happily have passed away we delight that must to might be yours. A ten-t to retarn iever more ; and Davenport to-day, in -'se and beauty : cad. | trier among rival -- the " Quien day " of lova. Well may we rejoice to-night with you, in the triumpds of a faith in our de tiny. that thou-and incidents strike the elveiris ekain of memory, and in the light of Ry corriera- tions the past comes back again, and elews vividly before you. How pleasant, at tintes to retouch memories that are being moss- ' has suffered all things, endured all things, crown; to retint the fast fading pictures of hoped all things even unto the end. But life.
The changes yon have seen, how acto !- ishing ! The like wherent will be bought for in vain, in the realities of history and in the dreams of poetry.
these exaltaand feelings cal grateful reflec- tions come to as mitglied and theed, softened and enby lued with those of a sa ider nature. Wile we have been buy, tine nul death have not been inje.
But i are not thetl ein leben in the reflec- tions test prevede lite Pure, care to say, that the cure, male from a sort of native
Since the world began. it has never in any age or e ontry estaleifed a growth so solid. and a development an amazing av that which goa yourself base withesel. No rapid and thorough is the progress of im- band of att: erdf ter Asu broni the provement, that the in norials of our var !; distintivo, a . w. thatthegood to- settlement are fast passing away. Scar - ly a trice or vestige of the primitive por- cabin remains; and the inquiry macht he pertinently raised, not, "have we a Honr. bon" but "have we a log cabin among us ?" shall be pe more!
How chet in the quiet watches of the grateful day of preventing you with this night, when I have beheld the glory of the one, rooted in and increased by that of
tilde, that aspiring man could not reach the with milk and honey." You, who have heavens to cover firm with signs and pla- used the wealth it has born your good for- cards, or mar the beauty of earth's glorious Water rowir-e .. Especially have you oisserved, sin, with intense interest the growth of our fair and proud young rity. tune to acquire, in constant endeavors to promote the growth and advance the inter- ests of our city and country. Yon, whoare confessedly first in the esteri of all old pin- . neers, have heen unanimously elected our first President. Happy are we, that your life has been beunteam Is lengthened out to behold this night. Happy that we are able to bestow upon yon flis testimonial of our regard.
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PIONEER SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF SCOTT COUNTY.
On it will be found engraved your car and memorials of our Association, and to name -- the name of onr V-sociation, and the ; tran-tatt faem unimpaired to future genera- date of its organization. tions.
It affords ine unaligned pleasure, sir, in behalf of the " Plonger Settlers' Association very flattering terms to mat. per -only. If of Scott County," to prevent this align of office and honor to you -it- Fast President.
the as the coulis, I mme amely roman! ? ? any toadd di ckertivas I may have becs able to inske rend in adveneris the interets and pre-erity of our beloved city and
if i have acquired wealth, it is to the settlow at of the country that I am indeht- ed for it. for at want value would have been the land of wales this city and the city of Lo Claire is built. except from the fact that you, gentlemen of this asociation settled upog and improved the lands of the county and thereby enabled us to beill np a city ? So that. gentlemen, we see that we are de- pendent to a greater or less extent upon one another, and when we so prf as to con- ler a benefit upon the community, we real- ly are benefitting ourselves.
The seaciation has been pleased to elect iue their mint President. I take this, the fest opportunity afloaded me to return ny sincere anni heartfelt thanks for this expres- sion of evililence and respect. The of ject and tam . f thi- organization is so ennently al apparently proper, that it i- needless for me here to advert to it, other than to p say that Iam rejoiced that the step has been taken, med that there is the interest nemfestelia the subject that is apparent here to-night, an-l I trust that interest will be kept up and maintained by every mem- ber so long as he shall live.
Tuis care, made as you say, from a stick of native growth, is a fit and proper em dem of the office for which it is designed. for in the ordinary course of things it is to be pre- sumed that your President will be more ad- vangel in years who will require it- aid and support, it i-, too, a fit and proper cuilem, as it will remind your future Presidents that their predecessors who have leaned ap- on it for support, have passed down the vale of time into eternity whither they must soon follow and surrender it again to aid and anppent some other aged man down th . same jath, until at last, the last min . your association shall grasp it and in t . performance of his sad duty, provide for t and other memorial a place of deposit which we trust shall be kept sacred for- erer.
The It m. Jous P. Cook then delivered the first annual address, as follows :
Through the politeness of the committee appointed to arrange for this occasion. it ha- fallen to my lot to address your a -- net-
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Methinks as I look into the far, far Inture I see within the limits of our county, a 10- ble Building, dedicated to some noble Pub- lie objects, and there, in some suitable and proper place. are deposited the records and testimonials of this Association. Within its walls is a living crowd. pre-sing forward, eager to see and perise the record, to see atal touch the memoriais landed down with it, and I hear them say, " They were sent down to us from our forefathers, here is written a history of the first settlement of this beautiful land. of the trials and hard- ships endured. and of the triumphs won by them. Let them be preserved forever."
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Ladies and gentlemen, members of this Association, let me charge mom you that von impress upon your children and chil- drens' children that they hohl it as a aered duty, when we shall all have passed away from earth, to preserve, intert, the records
You have been pleased. wir, to allale in
I bise in the curse of a long life . pent here entitle i myself to and won the respect of wondering who, of those pre-out. shall me that tellaw ban, particularly the OH! S- joy the enviable. vee melancholy distinction of being its la-
To which the President made the fol- lowing reply :
MR. DILLON :- T receive this ane, tho insignia of my office, a. President of the " Pioneer Settlers Association of Scott County." with great pleasure. not alone be- cause I shall take pride in its exhibition. not alme because of it- beautiful and skillil workmanship not alone for the very flatter- ing remarksattendant upon it - presentation. either of which causes world justify the feeling, but chiefly because it is, an ! is in- tended by the Association as a timelle me- mento of the past. and of the early history of the settlement of ogr county, to be luomul- ed down, I trust, to future generation-, to be preserved for all thine ; to be exhibitel to thou sands nyou thoa-andsof our de-cond- ents yet unborn. as having been designed, made and handled by their frefithers, the first settlers of Seatt County.
With this cane, shall go down, I trust, the records of our Associati m, and if the members are faithful and furnish, as re- quired by the Constitution, the leading in- eidents of their lives, connected with their settlement and habitation in this county, to be placed upon the records, how interesting to those who come after us will be this cane as a tangible memorial of their forefathers, long since crumblel into the dust from which they came, and who-e history, to a greater or less extent, is written in the re- estds before then.
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PIONEER SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF SCOTT COUNTY.
tion, on thi- the first festival of the Pion- decree, who of our member will be the last cers of Sat. County.
The interest manifested in thi. organiza- tion, thi- large assemeddy, and the Goodliar nod of recognition it wing for the to an- other, attese the priest Lagring- weall feel in the union, tale genhet by the hand- ship of the port, tie joy of the present, and hope for the future.
In the West swet a society is neither new nor uneowain The ass settler of Illinois, Wisconsin, and of toany of the old- er counties in our own beautiful Iowa, have been drawn together by that fraternal re- gard which is always warm in the honest heart of an " old pioneer."
If, in the excitement of business and the duties of life, we have hitherto nelected to come together, at the pioneers of Scott County, the greater reason now existe, that we should nourish viss infant association, and make it ,comotive of every good and noble sympathy of the heart.
For a moment give free scope to the im- agination, and go with me to a period thir- Our organization is now complete, our names are enrolled, and with the exception of ab-entees and anch a- have not yet jome 1, although entitled to membership, our ranks are full, and under our constitution there ; can be no accession to our number, other than exceptions named. With a ju-t ap- ! preciation of the memory of the dead. you have procured the names of those who set- tled in this county prior to Is 10, but who now no longer live. so that your records will perpetuate their names, who have - acted ty, forty, perhaps fifty years hence, and he- hold here a city of two hundred thousand inhabitants, all eager to act their part in the business of life, running hither and thither. jostling each other in the crowd. I some seeking the profit, of commerce, some collecting the news of the day. some chas- ing pleasure, some bent on mischief. some bound for the station honse of a balloon about to be wafted across the Content with a full load of human beings who ex- pect to dine in New York on the same well their part," and now sleep beneath the | day, some abont to seat themselves in the cold clods of the valley, as ours, who have . ears of an atmospheric railway, advertised survived to consummate this organization. [ to go through to the seaboard in two hours In thus recording the names of the dead. who were our companions in frontier life, we but open a record that will soon con- tain the names of all who nos stand record- ed as licing manabe es of this association.
One by one we shall pass away, and at the returning festival -me familiar face will be missed at the board, some chair will be vacant, and the record of the living will be shortened to lengthen the record of the | children of a century past and gone. dead, while the void in our ranks can never, never be filled.
As years roll on, those of us who may be living at the end of the first decade, will realise the fearful work of death among us.
A little longer, yet a little longer, and a score of years shall have passed away, leav- ing but a few to cherish the memory of the departed, and to ching closely, ah! how closely, to each other.
Who shall pre-umie to lift the veil and name the pioneer who will then answer to the Secretary's roll call ?
A little longer, and still a little longer, and the youngest among us will have reach- ed his three score year- and ten. and no one may know, until time unfoll the eternal
survivor of the pioneers of Scott County .-- While we may not penetrate the dim fi- ture, nor name those who shall hold the last meeting, keep the list festival-though, alas ! more solemn than festive it will be- and perform the last rites, ere this associa- tion censes to exist, yet we may immagine it, closing scenes and admonish one another to prove faithful and true till the last one >hall have passed from earth.
You have procured a cane, and have had in-eribed thereon, " Pioneer Settler,' As- sociation, organized. January, 1858, Scott County, lowa," and presented it to your President, with instruction- that it be hand- ed down to his last successor in office. That snece-sor lives, and if not here with us to- day in propria persona, he is with us in spirit nil in well wishes, and is destined to offici- ate at the last art of your association.
withont change of cars, and amid the confu- sion, splendor and enterprise, let us, on the 22nd day of that February, enter the -pa- cious building on 25th street, and see con- gregated the last of the Scott County pio- neers. There sits the President, surround- ed by the survivors, numbering five, per- haps more, faithful hearts, whose whitened lock- and trembling limbs denote them
They are looking back over the lost years, and with vivid recollections of the carly history of our own country, are recountis many of the hardships and incident, of fron- tier life ; they recall the first festival of the association, and mention the names, and drop tear-, to the memory of many assem- bled here to-day ; they have before them the record of the association, and it tells of your annual meetings and festivals,-your official doings,-the names of your officers,- and it faithfully preserves the history of many incidents in the existence of your a- soriation.
Some venerable patriarch selected from that little band delivets the annual address, and he wants hot matters of interest, apple-
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PIONEER SETTLERS ASSOCIATION OF STONE COUNTY.
priate to the occasion. to talk about, and our way this and pulsations and have with which to hold the attention of his terer been ready so leada helping hand to Learers.
the " Oll Settle?AN
With a faithful and vivid recollection of The History of the eddy centi ment. of early times and early associations, he pic- I Spott campy is reli- with interesting in- tures the past and compares it with the re- alities about him. until vidents, and to those. us who irt MenDet- ted" and Isertel oft choms open Up.te " Fond memory brings the Light Of other days agottand that." Sam's" land. it is a satisfaction to look back to. that perpl. ssl compare scott comty then wit : scott county ton. No oto Fore to-day can china settlement anterior to that of our worthy President, and certainly
Is that the last festival ? Another year rolls around, and that emme supports the aged frame of the President to the Festive Hall, where he meets friends, young and old ; but one, a solitary one shall grasp bis ; no one has done more than he in aller and hand, and exclaim
" We two alone remain, the rest are gone. all gone."
In the ordinary course of nature it is reasonable to suppo-e, that the younger members of the association will be among the last survivors of our number, and upon them will fall the duty of closing our rec- ords, and providing a depository for every- thing pertaining to the association.
Young man! that duty may be your- ; act well your part through life. that we may have a worthy representative in closing an association so auspicion-ly commenced.
Teach your children to venerate the land they are to inherit, and impress upon them the duty they owe to tlivir native home, and their pioneer forefathers.
Leave to them as a rien legacy the pleas- ing duty of providing a fitting receptacle for the records and memorials of the a -- ociation. that they and their children's children may ever find a faithful history of the carly pioneers, and of thesettlement of the county.
Admonish them, that, when the spirit of the last one of us takes its flight from earth- ly scenes,-the sad and interesting duty will devolve upon them, to follow the re- mains to their last resting place ; to per- formu the clo-ing scenes in our history, and to write the last chapter of our record.
To the minds of some, such an association may seem of small importance and doubtful existence; lint I doubt whether a society could be organized in the west with stronger ties of friendship and sympathy than one graves of their dead ? will find among the " Old settler -. "
We have all had our strifes. our political. . local, and social disagreement-, and shall doubtless continue to have them, but they are soon forgiven and forgotten, and we turn to the bright side of the picture, and call to mind the early scenes in our settle- ment here, while the generous promptings of the heart bind us more closely together.
encouraging the first sattler; and I may be periairtel rims publicly to record the ?- ble acknow elements of my father's family to him. who was the first to extend his hand, to offer hospitality, and to welcome ns to our prairie home. I was Init a bay then, yet how well do I remember the scene when I landed one bright May morning in : 1830, within four squares of the spot where we are now assembled.
The ground upon which " mine ho-t" of the Bartis House la- erected this apricots hotel, was a corn field. and two cabins be- low Main street constituted the improve- ments of the embryo " City of Davenport :" some half a dozen Irm-e- nero -- the river m the then village of stevenson marked the spot where now stands our twin sister city.
The booming of the morning gon from: Fort Armstrong warned the red man that Uncle Sam's troops were in possession of their island home, and assured the pion er of protection and safety. The daily move- mont- of nalde steamers upon the imsom of our inajestie river tobt u- that the way was opened to immigration ; while the unclaimed acres invitel tue hu-bandman to one of the finest soils ever warmel by the sun of lienven.
Need we wonder that the ol.l chieftain Black Hawk and his noble band refused to yieldl up the country to their white breth- ren ? Can we blaine them for clinging to this lovely spot, and for lingering around the
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" O'er the fate of the Indian, The Great Spirit has cael The sne .. of the white man, I[ s givry fs pu-t."
While we may not stay the art of destiny that is fast -werling away the aborigine . of of this contini it as a distinctive race, we may question the policy that wouldl exter- minate them, and Should throw the broad mantle of charity over their acts.
There is no period in man's life at which While lanterns notare had done full; her share in andoing this country an inviting leid for the integrant. it required the g - nin- anl enterprise of man to develop it resources and plant its towns and villas. he is not more or less dependent upon his fellow man, all the experience of every day admomshes, that we should cultivate the christian virtues and neighborly kindness -and while we should manifest the-e Towns in the days were laid out with towards all who come in contact with us. reference to natural a lvantages proce. to they are doubly due to those who shared by the Mississippi River and its tributarios.
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TTLES' ASSOCIATION OF SCOTT COUNTY.
and keang every part of great along the first nameiwent to the voyage, and the river above nisa water mia! .. (Cul sotto : - place wine D.vemir: I gos centered, was low) was surveyed, platted, pictured and 'at tue rapais near Vantirar's I-and. named. While the " old Givsey," slowly ploughed
I will not undertake the task of recalling . her way through the waters of Rock river, the names even of all the carly cities in | a uciegation of Davenporters cut across by Scott county, but I must not pass in silence ' land to the Vandruf rapids, to witness the the contest for supremacy between Daven- experiment. The old steamer pushed on, port and Rockingham. The history of this and beidly approached the rushing waters struggle for the county seat of Scott is so ; and fearil boulders ahead, to the tune of fresh in my memory that I can almost hear one of the " old guard " singing-
Yankee Doodle, whistled by the wind instru- ments on board, with the variations. 'Ine " Here we are, a happy happy band, On the banks of Roc :ingham." Davenporter- lay in ambush, watching the movement, of the steamer, and wondermg Davenport claimneil the seat of justice. he- . if'such a craft could possibly ascend such a cause of her central locality, ber high and dry site, her beautiful surroundings, and her many other natural advantages, which | we all now concede and realize-while Rockingham expected to become the great eentrepot of commerce in consequence of the rich trade that was destined (@- she supposed) to flow from the fertile valley of Rock river.
a current. Uh. unfortunate Miss Gissen! why did you run your nose between those sunken boulders, and bring every thing up standing ? Why destroy the precious stores laid in for the trip, by smashing up glass and stone ware, thus rendering your passen- gers and crew forlorn and spiritless ? Will you giveit up so ? Avelifrom the "sepors" in ambush decides the question. The order is given. and all hands boldly jump over- board. and never tire or faint until their craft has cleared the treacherous rocks, and is once more in atooth water.
I think I see around me some of the mar- iners who helpedl " work the ship " on that
Who among you recollecting the incidents of those stirring times, will ever forget the first county-seat electiou ? Certainly, not the prominent actors ou either side, many of whom are with us to-day. The " border rnilians " of Missouri did not originate the idea of invading an adjoining territory in order to help their friends at an important election ; nor ean Mr. Calhoun claim to be the first man to record names whose owners were not at the ballot box. We had a " border " and a " Delaware crossing " long before Kansas was thought of, and, to use an expression of one of my pioneer friends, there was some "tall doings " on our bor- ders and on our erossing.
The Suckers furnished a goodly number for both parties, but the delegations from " Snake Digzin, " and Moscow, (the former headed by a two-fisted miner, and the lat- " ter by the " old bogus coon,") increased the her stern slowly revolves. reminding one of population of Scott county in one day to a number that astonished the unsophisticated, and threatened the depopulation of some of our sister counties.
Five days before the election both parties were certain of suece->, for each party sup- Sehen event as opening the navigation posed that it had outwitted the other in of Ros river with a stern-wheeler was of | importing voters. The day of election ar- too much importance in its local bearing rivel, wird so did the imported patriots, re- upon the future of corner lots, for Daten- juicing; in the glorious principles of "squat- Fort to wish the Gipsey a safe trip, aurl the ter sovereignty," and believing in the regu-
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steamer and John Frisk's mud wagons .- The wisdom and foresight of the statesmen of Illinois were directed to producing slack water navigation in Rock river, and a very decided amount of capital, energy andl en- terprise was devoted to building un Rock- ingham, in order that she might reap the benefit of the prosperous trade about to be opened with the Suckers in the rich valley of that river.
/I think I see the steamer Gipsey. with the boys on board. ready to start out on an experunental trip from the port of Rocking- - ham, bound for Fox river, with a carro of sundries, con-i-ting chiciy of sevo-ti-ap-po? " corn bread au! comment doing;" Sconti- ap-po? " thickin jains and uncommon duits." Captain Gray mounts the hurricane deck, 1 ring- the bell. and gives the word to the natives on shore to "east off' the starn hawser." The old Gipsy move -; that pon- derons pile of green onk lumber fa-tened to the current wheels we sometimes seeon the rapids of a river. Away she goes, and the crowd on ber decks give us three cheers at. fartiuz, while young Rockingham returns nine poli- and a rhmp.
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