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 4
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How fled the years in humble scenes like these, With much to sadden, more, far more to please. And who shall tell, that in thuis later das- When life has grown more earnest and less way - A richer pleasure through its current thrills Than in those cots among the breezy hills ?
Simple their joys, their days in quiet spent- Hope for a watchword, for a stueld content,- Till slow at length beneath their formung blows A garden from the wilderness arose.
Lo! As we gaze along the slender piers Which bear aloft the lengthening arch of years, An we retraer the nrst laint morning rav And glance rejoicing to this noon-tide day, Glad hopes, bright visione d'er our bosoni throug. And the full heart finds utterance in xong. Oh noble West! Oh mighty WERr : Oh ever bright and free,- Thy prairies, by the breeze caressed.
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PIONEER SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF SCOTT COUNTY.
Roll wave-li'cn As the -in. And through the long and fangled gia -- The sunbram's golden fingers pas ..
Thy streams are like the streams of The,- Their sonree we cannot se ", We mily hear the water's chine Frank low and musically, ... And bear tho plashing; waves, like rain. Dash on the shore, then sing again.
No pilgrima comes with weary ter O'er many a desert mile, His prayer or promise to ropa' Beneath some sacred pi's, Nor counts the solitary hunt's Beneath u city's ruined towers.
But in this world an fresh and young, Which like the goddess from the hut To life full grown ann .. fint spring. Lies that deur spet OUR HoyE. And round its portals Love and Truth Sball wind the wreaths of emiless youth.
Ilushed is the song, a sadder ,train wein not for hours so bright.
Only the calm clear voice of flops should whisper here to night.
Glad faces are around us, sweet tones upon the air, And the glance of fond affection meets our greeting every where.
There are blessings from the aged, kind wishes from the young,
And joy ber rosy radiance liss o'er our gathering funy.
We bail the fleeting moments, where the Fast and Present -tand, One with a dark-some cypress wreath, une with & show white band.
We bail the glorious future, with her enp of biiss untried, We hail the white-winged maiden Hope, that blushes at ber side .
And the delicious present, shall trip rejoicing Iny, As lightly as the winged wind across a Southern sky.
But tears are quivering on the moi-toned cheek, A glance on lite'e reruling track ve ra .;.
Our voice is mute, our lips refuse to zju-ak,
Our hearts o't rilow with meinories of the Past.
OH ! FRIENDS OF OLD ! Wr. m.train in-might, Our hopes and wishes as of yor to bic! !!.
Thus will we keep the linky at trendshp bright. Thus will we journey onward to the end.
And hand to Land in cordial greeting pressed, We'll breatho ables-ing ou the glorious Wast !
5. The History of Scott County-When we open this book, we lind inscribed on every page the gospel of both peace and plenty- proclaiming perenial blessings to all whose . faith is accompanied by work.
Responded to by Mr. J. A. Birchard, of Pleasant Valley, in a brief address, in which he spoke as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT :- The history of any new country must necessarily be one of trials, hardships and privations. The pioneers have to leave the land of their birth, the home of their childhood, the hearthstone around which centered all their early joys and sorrows-the dis- triet school house, where they received rudiments, if not the whole of their education - the village church where they assembled weekly to worship their Creator, the friends of their youth and early manhood. These must be all left,
and it is like tearing a young sapling from its mother earth.
New associations must be formed, now homes must be made. new school-houses and churches built. But, compared with the trials and hardships of the first settlers in the States cast of us, if we except those of our neighbor across the river, ours are not worth talking about.
There many of them packed their goods and little onos two or three bun- dred miles on horseback, almost through a trackless wilderness, and were four or tive weeks in making the journey. Then their difficulties with the Inchans. When I tell you that I was born in the valley of the Susquehanna, in the county where the massacre of Wyoming occurred, you will believe me sir, when I tell you that many of the tales of suffering that I have heard are too horrible to relate .- Before they could raise an ear of corn they had a heavy forest to remove, that took twenty or thirty hard days work to the acre. Then they had the rocks and stumps to contend with for years. I have serious doubts whether a merciful creator, that always does things well, ever intended the country for the habita- tion of civilized and christianized man. It is the natural home of the speckled trout, the wild deer, and the Indian.
For us, a bountiful Providence had provided an excellent highway to get here, and when here a prolific soil ready for the plow, and pasturage sufficient for the flocks and herds of Labon and Jacob, and their sons for a dozen generations.
It is true, that from 1839 to '44, we thought we had some pretty hard times -when it took a bushel of wheat to buy a yard of calico, and a hundred pounds of pork to pay for as many of salt. But these were very different hard times from what they have in the old country; there it i, starvation times that they call hard. If we could not get the two dol- lars a day, we could get the roast beef, and upon the whole, we had a pretty good time of it.
I first crossed the Mississippi in a canoe nearly where the bridge now stands .-- This was in July, 1836. I presume there were not more than three hundred inhabitants then in the county. You, Mr. President, and your ferryman, Mr.
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PIONEER SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF SCOTT COUNTY.
Colton, were the only settlers in Daven- We have made the new homes, raised port, and Mr. Ebazar Parkhurst, the the new altairs, built the new school- only one at Le Claire.
At that time there was not, to my knowledge, a single mile of Railroad between the Mississippi River and the Alleghany Mountains.
The iron horse, except at the Portage I road in Pennsylvania, had never tasted the waters that flow through our noble river to the Guli. Now the amount that he consumes daily would have floated the entire nary of the United States at the time of the revolution ; and the amount of produce that he moves from this fertile valley towards a market in the same time, would make a full freight ! for it.
The last time that I crossed the river was upon my return last fall from a visit to my friends in my native State, and I crossed, how differently. I crossed the great father of the waters as it cannot be crossed atany other point from its source to its mouth-upon a noble structure, a proud monument to the enterprise and perseverance of the inhabitants of the twin cities. To the pioneers of Daven- port belongs a very large share of the credit for this truly magnificent improve- ment.
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The train upon which I crossed was : brought over, by a locomotive named after one of our prominent pioneers .- We landed where, when I first crossed the river, stood the lone cabia of our President. What do I find now ? A city teeming with life, and containing a larger population and more wealth, than was contained in Galena, St. Louis, and Chicago.
I think, sir, we have proved our faith by our works, and if any man can be skeptical upon the sentiment contained in the text, let him take a ride any pleas- ant day along the river, from Buffalo to Princeton, from thence through the prairie to Blue Grass, and he will become a convert to the " Gospel both of peace and plenty."
We have formed new associations- that they have been plersam ones I have the best evidence in the world around me this evening.
We have transplanted the young sap- ling, it has tiken deep root in a congenial soil and become a sturdy tree.
houses and churches. To do this re- quired men ; men of iron nerve, of strong arms and large hearts, and such were the pioneers of Scott county.
6. The City of Davenport-The Pet and the Pride of glorious " old Scott;" crown jewel of the Upper Mississippi : the ro-e of Sha- ron and the lily of the valley.
Responded to by Hon. James Thor- ington, in whose off-hand remarks were mingled the humor and good sense which are so characteristic of the speaker .- Unfortunately, a copy of his remarks were not obtained in time for publication here.
7. The Race that occupied the land before us- Men in physical ability ; stoics in morals : They are our brothers.
Rev. Mr. Powers responded to this, and spoke a, follows :
Mr. PRESIDENT :- It is fitting, amid the stirring, local and national associa- dons of this hour, to remember that stern race whose fair heritage we possess. Their hunting grounds have become our harvest fields ; the sites of their wig- wams are thriving settlements and indus- tious maits : household sound- and christian worship, are heard where re- : sounded their war cry; and on their trail the iron railway shoots towards the set- ting sun.
Though children of the wilderness, rude sanguinary and superstitious, still their savage humanity is redeemed by many heroic virtues. As magnanimous in friend. hip as they were implacable in revenge : as sagacious in council, as dauntless in war-ever patient, intrepid, self-reliant, imperturbable in success or defeat. with their darkest traits are always blended lines of light, which reveal the nobler qualities of the man.
Indian history, sir, is not barren of pathetic incident and brilliant example. Heroes and patriots live in its exciting chronichs. And whether we contem- plate the noble constancy of King Philip, the magnanimity of Massesoit, the ten- derners of Pochahontas, the eloquent enthusiasm of Garangula and Red Jacket, the chivalrous heroism of Tecumseh, or the fervid patriotism of Black Hawk, we recognize types of character which claim our sympathy and commend our admi- mation.
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PIONEER SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF SCOTT COUNTY.
Though the Indian saw in the trophies : embraces. Its language is not that of of advancing civilization, fruitfal lands ! exageration.
and peaceful arts, the ornaments and , If I heard aright Marquette and Joliet amenities of life, still we can honor that fare styled the " Pioneers of Pioneers." sentiment which inspired his devotion to | Lite .: fly anl strictly true. Bey. nd the rude freedom of his native wilds, Icavil. the were the first white men who and provoked resistance to the aggressive , set foot on the soil of Iowa. Nor was pioneer with all the arts of subtil : the advent of the pale face so recent as strategy and force, even when the shadow ; we are apt to imagine. About fifty years of doom was dark upon him. Yes, we | onlyafter the landing of the Pilgrims- can honor him, for the land that we loved . nearly sixty years prior to the founding was the land of his fathers, and he felt , and settlement in Georgia by the enlighi- that their voices spoke to him of duty . ened and chivalric Oglethorpe-almost and patriotism from their graves.
But the memory of this peculiar race ! famous treaty with the natives, distin-
shall not pass away, though they have left no monuments in marble to plead for them from ruin and decay. It is perpet- nated in the appellation of mighty waters and everlasting lands. Their legends whisper in every wind, in the falling leaf, and feathery snow, and in all the caden- ; ces of the woods and shores. And while our harvests ripen under auspicions suns, and while the blue rivers bear our i commerce to the sea, while a grateful people enjoy the blessings of the Great Father of us all, the story of their pas- times and their prowess, shall be repent- ed in the homes of the happy and the free.
S. Antoine Le Clairr-First in settlement- first in efforts to make our city peerless among rivals-first in the esteein of his fel- low citizens-first President of this society ; may " his shadow never be less."
Responded to by E. Cook, Esq., who regretted that the reply had not been committed toabler hands -- n regret wholly uncalled for, as he did not fail in doing the subject full justice. His laudations of Mr. LeClaire were recognized as cor- rect and merited.
O. Marquette and Jolict-The Pioneers of Pi- oncer. History, poetry, fiction exhibit 110- where a heroism so lofty, a daring so noble, an ambition so pure, a faith so lovely as may be found in the oft neglected but sim- ple and touching story of the first white men who trod the soil of Iowa.
Responded to by J. F. Dillon, who said :-
MR. CHAIRMAM :- No sentiment has been offered to-night, to which I could more heartily respond than to that. In my judgment it is eminently pertinent. I may possibly amplify, but can scarcely hope to add to the thoughts it concisejy i destructive monsters.
ten years before William Penn made his
guished as being the only treaty ever made with the ill-starred race,
"News -worn to, and never broken,"
did the illustrious Marqnotte and Joliet visit lovely Iowa, -the State we are proud to call our own ! In strictest ver- ity, then, they are the "Pioneers of Pioneers."
Something methought I heard in the sentiment aboat their heroismand daring ! and something about their unquestioning Faith and pure Ambition !
How gladly under other circumstances, would I talk upon this interesting, this suggestive theme ; But it would be vastly imprudent to risk an excursion to this enchanted ground, where one would infallibly be tempted to linger longer than the proprieties of the occasion, and the advanced hour of the night would warrant. A few words. then, and a f.w only, must suffice. We must be conten- ted to glance at without entering upon the delightful land.
The whole West, the Mississippi Val- ley, at the time of which I speak, was an unexplored wilderness. More than a century had elapsed since the discovery of the Mississippi by the romantic De Soto, who, though he found not goll in its sands, most fittingly found a grave beneath its waters,-yet nothing more than its bare existence was known.
No European ever knew where it rosc or where it discharged its mighty flood -. Marquette knew of it only by from the reports of the natives as the "Great River" Iving somewhere in the distant West, and whose banks were reputed to be thronged with blood-thirsty savages, and whose waters were said to abound in
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PIONEER SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF SCOTT COUNTY.
He felt animated to attempt its discov- : early voyageurs behold the miraculous ery ; and nobly dared to brave every , growth and development of the country danger, and enduro evey hardship inci- dent to the perilous undertaking. they were the first to point out and visit. We love to imagine, as they trod these Why did he seek it ? and how? -hores in the majestic solitude of nature, that they heard the tramp of many mil- lions! and had visions of the empires that have since arisen so marvelously upon the banks of the great river they were the first to explore.
He sought it, not as thousands in our own day have sought distant lands in our i continent, and a still more distant island in a distant ocean, for Gold ! He sought it not for worldly fame, or wordly ends. He sought it as an humble missionary, for the purpose of proclaiming the Gos- pel, and ereeting the standard of Chris- tianity among the tribes that he thought to find residing upon its banks. I see, in imagination, Marquette and Joliet, with but five attendants and two guides, leave the last white settlement, and boldly pushing forward, they knew not where, among hostile and unknown tribes.
Their guides can aid them no further, and the guides return. Submitting to the guidance of Providence, with their light canoes upon their backs, they at. length find the Wisconsin. Unlike streams they left behind them, this flows toward the setting sun. They patiently follow its current an entire week, when lo! the long sought for river, as magniti- cent then as it is to-day, burst upon their enraptured vision.
Day after day they sailed down its waters. They certainly passed, mayhaps landed, at the place where our flourishing eity now stands.
Near the Southern boundary of our State they saw footprints on the sands of the river shore. They landed, anticipa- ting, but not dreading, death at every step, and kept upon the trail until it led to an Indian village upon the banks of the Des Moines.
Their courage and heroism faltered not a moment. They boldly advanced, and Marquette proclaimed to the aston- tished natives God and the doctrines and mysteries of the faith which he taught.
The remarks of the eloquent gentle- man who responded to number seven, remind me of the first words of the na- tives on the banks of the Des Moines, on beholding Marquetteand hiscompanions : "We are men," said they. And mon they were. They are brothers. They were recognized as such by Marquette " in his labors of love."
Do the departed look down upon us ? If so, with what astonishment mu-t these
They founded no cities. They left no permanent monument behind them ! Yet a generous posterity will not willingly let their names perish. So far as they, or their "simple and touching story" is concerned, no "Old Mortality" is needed by the "Pioneer settlers " assembled here to-night. So long as your river flows, it will water their memories, and preserve them fresh and green.
10. The Pioneer Press of Scott County.
Mr. Andrew Logan was first. called upon, and made some brief but pertinent wmarks in regard to the growth of the Press in Davenport. He was followed by Alfred Sanders, Esq., Senior Editor of the Gazette, who spoke as follows :
MR. CHAIRMAN: - Iu responding to that sentiment permit me to express my pleasure in meeting so many of my fellow citizens, those whose features and voices have so long been familiar to me. I love to look upon their smiling faces. many of which, alas ! since they first were familiar to my sight, have become worn and furrowed by time. while their looks have grown thin and blanched by age .- But we are all passing away-we that were boys and girls a few years since, are now the fathers and mothers of boys and girls, and the responsibility that devolved upon our parents, now rests upon us. Another score of years and our children will be the actors in the drama of life, and we either be spectators or retired altogether from the stage of action.
When the portals of manhood first opened to me, and the wide world lay spread out before me, I started upon a tour of two thousand miles. I viewed many towns on my ronte, but the one that presented the strongest attractions, that offered me the most inducements to return and make it my home, was then the insignificant, but beautiful town of
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PIONEER SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF SCOTT COUNTY.
Davenport, at that time a village of some , the time I commenced the publication of five hundred inhabitants.
the Davenport Gazete, not a single one
In the same year of my life I came remains in that capacity -- they are all and declared my intention of becoming a gone, a few to other occupations, but the
citizen, and the next year returned and brought with me my press, my partner
great majority of them to the bourne from whence no traveller returns. I stand in business-I might almost add, my alone, and yet not alone -- there are more partner in life, as she immediately fol- ,editors this day in the city of Davenport lowed-and planted my stakes for life. than there were then in the entire Finte
We landed here on the 11th day off of lowa -- and throughout the West, who August, 1811, on one of the smallest ; can number them.
steamers that ever ascended the Missis- sippi River. In crossing the Lower Rapids we had to pole over, the power of the engine not being sufficient to pro- pel the little steamer against the current ! We were four days thence in reaching the
i will but add, that if an accountability attaches to us old settlers, for our agency in inducing many persons to leave the comforts and Inxuries of Eastern homes to take up their abode here, where they were denied those luxuries, that I will town of Davenport. As we landed here : have full as much to answer for as you ; the good people of the village crowded |but if I have no worse reflection io vex down to the wharf to sce and aid in disembarking the new press, and so effectually did they succeed in the latter
my last hours, than the thought of my instrumentality in inducing good people to make Davenport their homes. I shall particular, that they managed before they certainly depart in peace.
got it ashore, to bury it beneath the waves of the Father of Waters! Thus it was baptized, and I trust it never did discredit to the town it represented, the cause it advocated, nor-the ghostly fathers that administered the ordinance ! ;
'That we saw hard times for many years in the publication of the Gazette, every old settler from personal experience knows to be the fact, but being blessed with a spirit that never says die, we persevered, and the paper now stands as one of the institutions of the West.
With pride I say it, Mr. Chairman-as I presume it to be the only instance on record in the West-that although we had to purchase all our paper and mate- ; present ocension be; and by non" will it be rials in the East, and have them brought ; remembered wita a truer, or nore lasting Measure, than by us, the junior members of this noble family -- is, "the Pioneer Children of Scott County."
out by the slow and tedious course of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and although we had our paper sunk and burned, and delayed by every aceident incident to so long a transportation, and Born here, many of us, at a time when but a few scattered and lowly drellings marked the site of the now populous and opulent city of Davenport-Stile our beau- teout- State, herself was yet in embryo -- our interest in Scott county has been no vent than their's who, emrants from other States, come here to firl a second home on our boaadless prairies, or beside our noble river. although my assistants were sick, and I alone had to fill every department of the paper, from writing its editorials, and setting its type, down to working at | less deep, our affection for her no less fer- press, and rolling for papers, yet during the sixteen and a half years that I have controlled the Gazette, it has never missed a single number.
Of all those connected with the press in the State of Iowa, or in the entire region of country west of the Mississippi We, sir, had no sacred ties to sever-no happy firesides in Eastern homes to regret -here was one tir-t, our only home-we knew no other, and we cared for cone. To river, from its source to its outlet, at i us. the world was bounded on tue East by
11. The Pioneer Children-They are now, brave young men and fair young Wollen ; may their lives, if not as eremtini, bo as useful as those of their parents.
Responded to by G. W. Hoge, in a very creditable speech. He said :
Que of Scott County's earliestborn,-it is with no little pleasure, Mr. President, that I respond to this call, which recognizes me as suen ; and to the toast, in which we, " children of the soil," are so kindly re- membered.
There are hours, sir, in the lives of all, i which, from attendant circumstances, he- come eras-landmarks along the pathway of lif .. to which memory will revert, with nu- diminished interest. Such an one will tse
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PIONEER SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF SCOTT COUNTY.
the Mississippi, and Davenport was its me- tropolis.
Scott county, sir, has been, as it were, our twin sister ; we have grown with her growth, and strengthened with her strength -her friends are our friends, and her pros- perity our "chiet joy."
Ilere, sir, has been the theatre of all our the arms of Pioneer mother <. the days of our childhood passed as one bright, unbro- ken dream ; and, as days lengthened into
have explored, to us, the unbounded expanse of the seedland, or the harvest fiehl; happy, though we could not work, to carry the sickle or the lioe; and wishing that we were men, that, we too, might hold the plough, or reap the grain, or drive a prairie team.
Or we have stood, while the " sounding aisles of the dim woods rang." to the stroke of the Pioneer's axe, and watched the big chips fly, until the mighty oak reeled- tottered and fell, with a crash that woke the woodland echoes many a rood. How longed we to be woodsmen then !
And here, sir, on many a bright Summer's day, we sat in the rustic school house, striving to comprehend the mysteries of spelling-book or primer, until released from study -- gamboling in unrestrained freedom on nature's own green carpeting, spead before the door-a merry band, we shouted our delight, unrestricted by city ordinances.
And when the week slipped by, and Sabbath morning smiled, with reverence we sat in the weather-beaten church, while, in heartfelt terms, the Pioneers praised the name of their father's God, for this their inheritance, and earnestly besought his blessings on their prairie homes.
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