USA > Iowa > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 14
USA > Illinois > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 14
USA > Missouri > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 14
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My engagements are such that I cannot hope to have the leisure to attend, although I appreciate, that in the pursuit of other things we are too apt to neglect the social part, without which life is hardly desirable and which these reunions of the people that have devel- oped these States do so much to cultivate.
Respectfully, PETER A. DEY.
IOWA Crry, Sept. 15, 1885,
HON. EDWARD JOHNSTONE,
Keokuk, Iowa.
My Dear Sir :- It is with pleasure that I acknowledge receipt of your very kind invitation to be present at the " Tri-State Old Settlers' Reunion." I should be very happy to attend and rejoice with the pioneers of the sister States, but I have a duty before me that will render it impossible for me to join you.
I am very busily engaged in preparations for a proper representa- tion of Iowa at the new exposition at New Orleans, and also at the great American exhibition in London, in 1866. My desire is to so represent the State, that when the young men, like myself, join with me in the future years, when we are old settlers in the fullest sense of the term, to celebrate the past, we may have as glorious a triumph to rejoice over as have you good old settlers of Iowa when she was a prairie entirely uncultivated.
Please convey my kindest regards to your colleagues on the com- mittee, many of whom I take pleasure in remembering among my personal friends.
Yours very respectfully, H. S. FAIRALL.
ELK GROVE, CAL., Sept. 16, 1885.
J. H. COLE,
Dear Sir :- Your invitation to attend the "Tri-State Old Set- tlers's Association," has just been received.
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The organization is a good one. You have our best wishes for its success and prosperity. It is pleasant to know after an absence of almost a life-time our names are remembered among our old friends.
We would gladly be with you at your annual meeting, but feeble- health will not permit this year.
Please accept our best wishes to all.
MR. AND MRS. O. S. FREEMAN.
CHICAGO, Sept. 16th, 1885.
HON. EDWARD JOHNSTONE,
President Tri-State Old Settlers' Ass'n. Keokuk, Iowa.
Dear Sir :- I very much regret my inability to accept your kind invitation to attend the second annual reunion of old settlers of Illi- nois, Missouri and Iowa. Having resided at Oscaloosa, Iowa, nearly ten years, and having lived in this city over twenty-one years, I naturally consider myself an "Old Settler" within the scope of your organization. Nothing would prevent my being present on that occasion but for the inexorable power of a "previous engagement."
Very respectfully yours, A. F. SEEBERGER. PORTLAND, OREGON, Sept. 16, 1885.
HON. EDWARD JOHNSTONE,
President Tri-State Old Settlers' Association.
My Dear Sir :- I received your kind invitation to attend the second annual reunion of old settlers of Illinois, Missouri and lowa to be held on the 20th inst.
I am under many obligations for this kind invitation, and would most gladly attend if it were in my power to do so, but age and its attendant infirmities warn me that this is a pleasure I must forego.
" In your circular I perceive the names of old and valued friends whom I would like to meet again, and especially on an occasion like the one in contemplation. Were | there, ! probably would have the pleasure of seeing Capt. J. W. Campbell, of Fort Madison, who was a pupil in a school which I taught near Keokuk in 1830. He possibly might not be able to recognize his old teacher now.
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I was born in Kentucky, and with my father and his family emi- grated to Hancock county in Illinois, where he settled. Soon after- wards I started out alone for the "Half Breed Tract," west of the Mississippi, before the territory of Iowa was organized. I was then about twenty-three years of age and of somewhat roving dis -- position .
"The world was all before me where to choose my place of rest," and I chose the country afterwards organized into the terri- tory of Iowa, and it was there I taught the school, near Keokuk, in 1830 already referred to. This was the first school taught in that vast territory north of the State of Missouri and west of the Mis- sissippi and between that and the Pacific Ocean. Since then, seven or eight states and territories west of the Mississippi have been or- ganized, with a population, probably, of seven million inhabitants, and from the little school in 1830, schools, colleges and seminaries of learning have been established in them all, since I first placed my footstep on the soil of Iowa.
Besides this, emigrants from Iowa to the Pacific coast brought with them the statute laws of that territory, for in 1844, the Pro- visional Government of Oregon adopted as its Code of Laws, the statutes of Iowa territory passed in 1838, so far as the same could be made applicable to our situation here. Thus you will perceive that Iowa has left the impress of its laws on this distant common- wealth, where I at last have made my home.
You will be pleased to express to the "Old Settlers" at your re- union on the 30th inst., the kindest regards of one who cannot be there, but loves them all.
I am, Dear Sir, Very truly your friend, BERRYMAN JENNINGS.
DAVENPORT, IOWA, Sept. 17, 1885.
HON. EDWARD JOHNSTONE,
Keokuk, Iowa.
Dear Sir :- Your favor covering invitation to attend the "Tri- State Old Settlers' Reunion" was received by Mrs. R. during my absence in the East.
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Please accept my thanks for the courtesy therein extended with assurances of my regret in view of inability to meet you on the Interesting occasion promised, as I am about to enter upon another extended visit to New England.
Allow me to express the hope that the forthcoming assembly of men and women of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, to whose enterprise, energy, endurance and many other virtues were due the successful laying of the foundation for much of the present greatness and prosperity of those States, which excite the admiration of all ob- servers, may be indeed an occasion of abounding pleasure. May the father and the mother of the Tri-States enjoy a genuine "feast of reason and flow of soul" as they commune together at the reunion of the 30th.
Yours truly,
EDWARD RUSSELL,
PORTLAND, Oregon, Sept. 17, 1885. HON. EDWARD JOHNSTONE,
Keokuk, Iowa.
Dear Sir :- I have to acknowledge the receipt of an invitation to attend the second annual reunion of old settlers of Illinois, Mis- souri and Iowa, to be held at Keokuk on the 30th inst. It would afford me very great pleasure to be present upon that interesting occasion and meet some of my old Iowa acquaintances and friends, but unavoidable circumstances will prevent. Hoping that Heaven may smile upon your meeting, and friendship and good feeling abound, I am yours very truly,
GEORGE H. WILLIAMS.
FORT DODGE, IOWA, Sept. 18, 1885.
MESSRS. C. F. DAVIS, J. M. REID AND OTHERS:
Gentlemen :- I have your invitation to be present at the old set- tlers' reunion at Keokuk, of citizens from the States of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, on the 30th inst. I am thankful for the invi- tation, but my business will not admit of my absence from home, and I will therefore have to forego the pleasure of meeting with you upon this occasion. I know it will be pleasant and profitable for those who will be able to attend, and I would like to take these old settlers, who have been the factors in laying the foundations of these great States, by the hand, and bid them God-speed for the future.
Yours truly,
C. C. CARPENTER.
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ST. LOUIS, Mo., Sept. 19, 1885.
EDWARD JOHNSTONE, EsQ.
Dear Sir :- I have received the polite invitation which you sent me to be present at the second annual reunion of the old settlers of Missouri, Iowa and Illinois, to be holden at Keokuk on the 30th inst., and regret to be obliged to decline on account of pressing pro- fessional engagements.
I lived in St. Francisville, Clark county, Mo., when Black Hawk and the yonnger Keokuk pitched their wigwams on the Sac and Fox reservation, -- on which the contemplated meeting is to be held and should be delighted to meet the men who will meet on the 30th inst., but will have to defer that pleasure to some future reunion.
Very respectfully, JAMES C. MCGINNIS.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 20, 1885. HON. EDWARD JOHNSTONE, EsQ.
My Dear Sir :- I am in receipt of yours of August 31st, invit- ing me to attend the annual reunion of the old settlers to be held at Keokuk on the 30th of September. I have deferred answering up to this time, hoping to give you a favorable answer, but I cannot, my duties require my presence here daily. I warmly favor these meetings,-are fruitful of much good in the cultivation and broad- ening of that spirit of fellowship and nationality of all men. We are one people, and with thanks to God I say, one grand united pco- ple, with one hope, one destiny; may the blessing of Heaven rest upon the old settlers, -- the old citizens. They have performed their parts well in this life, and may their successors imitate their enno- bling examples.
Very Truly, THOMAS T. CRITTENDEN. FAIRFIELD, IOWA, Sept. 20, 1885.
C. F. DAVIS, J. M. REID AND OTHERS,
Committee on Invitations to the Tri-State Old Settlers' Reunion, Keokuk, lowa.
Gentlemen :-- I have the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of your invitation to attend the second reunion of the old settlers of Illinois, Missouri and lowa, to be held in your city on the 30th.
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I regret to say that my expected absence in the western part of the State at that time will deprive me of the pleasure of enjoying the sight of so many old settlers as will most assuredly be present on the occasion. I am proud of the thought of being classed with the old settlers of Iowa, and would be proud of the privilege of in- scribing my name upon the roll of honor.
On the 21st day of April, 1844, early in the morning, the steamer St. Croix, on which I was a passenger, landed for a short time at Keokuk, and then steamed up for Ft. Madison, my destination on the river, arriving there about 9 o'clock, and landed during one of the famous rains of that year, being merely an introduction of what followed, and what will be remembered by all old settlers, for the year 1844 is recorded as one of the rainy seasons, but being young and full of western fever those days I did not become discouraged at the prospect, nor become homesick to return to my native home, Pennsylvania. My destination was Fairfield, at that time a town of considerable importance, in consequence of the United States Land Office being located there, besides having the reputation of being settled by a good class of people, and in a county unsur- passed for natural advantages. In that town and county I have lived continuously ever since, with the exception of about a year's temporary absence.
Again regretting my inability to be with you, and wishing that Heaven may smile upon you all, I am sincerely your
Friend and Old Settler,
JAMES ECKERT.
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, - OFFICE OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL, WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 21, 1885.
HON. EDWARD JOHNSTONE,
Keokuk, Iowa.
My Dear Sir :-- Accept my thanks for your polite invitation to attend the old settlers reunion of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, to be held at Rand Park in your city on the 30th of September. I re- gret that official engagements prevent acceptance.
Very respectfully, WILLIAM F. VILAS.
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ST. LOUIS, Mo, Sept. 21, 1885.
HON. EDWARD. JOHNSTONE.
Pres. Old Settlers.
Dear Sir :- Your kind invitation to visit and be present in Keo- kuk to the meeting of old settlers received. I regret that I cannot- be with you. Although not old I see by article 2 that I am eligi- ble. It is pleasant and eminently proper for our people to meet and know each other. More reunions of the character of yours would bring a better understanding between the citizens of adjoin- ing States.
Very respectfully yours, JOHN G. PRATHER.
BOSTON, SEPT. 21, 1885.
HON. EDWARD JOHNSTONE,
Pres. Tri-State Old Settler's Association.
Dear Sir :- It grieves me to find that I cannot be present at the second annual reunion of the old settlers of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, to be held in Keokuk on the 30th of this month.
Nature has fitted those three States to be the mothers of all boun- ties. They were three cherished homes of my boyhood. I have galloped over their prairies and rambled through their woods. Grim destiny drove me from them over thirty years ago. Consider- ing the changes which have since been made, those were almost primeval times. Then and there I found everything that could make a boy's heart glad. There I have paddled and fished in the creeks, ponds and lakes, swam the Mississippi, chased the rabbit and squirrel, roamed through thickets of running oaks, tore my trousers climbing black-jacks, gathering hazelnuts, black walnuts, shell- barks, grapes and plums and ate .green persimmons, and, -I am ashamed to say,-with other boys hooked watermelons from stingy old farmers.
I wish I could do all those things again. I have never had such happy days since I left those dear old States.
All hail! Missouri, Iowa and Illinois,-though far away-1 greet you with good cheer.
Very truly, . S. F. VAN CHOATE.
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Helena, Montana, Sept. 21, 1885.
MESSRS. C. F. DAVIS, J. M. REID AND OTHERS, Committee.
Gentlemen :-- I regret that the great distance I am off will pre- vent me from attending the Tri-State Old Settlers' Reunion, to be held at your city on the 30th inst. I presume you will have but few there who were citizens of Keokuk when I first made my visit. there. It was in the fall of 1836. There were a good many Indi- ans and half-breeds there, but very few whites. It would be a great pleasure to me to see your great city now and to talk over the olden times with your citizens, but I can do no more now than to wish you a successful and pleasant reunion.
Very respectfully yours, ALVIN SAUNDERS.
Des Moines, Iowa, Sept. 22, 1855. J. H. COLE, Sec.
Keokuk, Iowa.
Dear Sir :-- Your kind invitation to the Tri-State "Old Settler's Reunion" at the city of Keokuk on the 30th inst., is received, and to express my sincere thanks for the compliment, as well as my re- grets at not being able to accept owing to sickness in my family. Nothing would afford me more pleasure than to meet the many old friends and acquaintances of early Iowa that will no doubt be pres- ent. I trust your meeting will be one of profit and pleasure. My acquaintance with Keokuk dates back to 1837. I landed in Iowa October 23, 1834.
With great respect to yourself and the Committee with whom you act
I am most truly, GEORGE W. JONES.
Jamaica Pond Aqueduct Corporation, 2169 Washington Street, Boston, Sept. 22, 1885.
I. H. Cole, Esq .,
Secretary Tri-State Reunion, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa.
Dear Sir :-- Your most cordial invitation to make me one of your members on the 30th, it being the second annual reunion of old set- tlers of Illinois, Missouri and Towa is at hand. Thanking you for your kind remembrance of one who has spent a large portion of his
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life in your city and county and who will always look back to those days with pleasure, it is with much regret that I cannot accept your invitation, business only preventing, but hope at some future reunion to participate in your joy and pleasure. Wishing you one and all a happy time, and that you may all live to meet again in 1886.
I am truly yours, .GEORGE STANWOOD.
Washington, D. C., Sept. 22, 1885.
C. F. DAVIS, Esq., Chairman, &c.
Dear Sir :- Your kind invitation to meet the old settlers of Illi- nois, Missouri and Iowa on the 30th inst., received by me here after an absence of several days. I am sorry to say that a prior en- gagement, which takes me to my old home in Pennsylvania on the Ist and 2d of October, will prevent me from being present with you.
Wishing you a pleasant meeting and a happy reunion of old timers,
I am truly yours, HIRAM PRICE.
MITCHELLVILLE, IA., SEPT. 23d, 1885.
C. F. DAVIS, EsQ., Keokuk, Iowa.
My Dear Sir :- Your very kind invitation to the Tri-State Old Settler's Reunion to be held at Rand Park, Keokuk, Sept. 30th, was duly to hand, and I thought I might be able to meet with yourself and other old time friends at that time, but I find it will not be convenient for me to be there.
It would afford me great pleasure to greet so many of the early settlers of the three States as will be there. It seems but a short time since I landed at Keokuk in March, 1840, so few short years, where there were but two houses, to now see a grand city and back of it such a magnificent State. Hoping you may have a grand, good time, I am
Respectfully Yours, THOMAS MITCHELL .. '
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NORTHWOODSIDE, Lake Geneva, Ill., Sept. 23d.
C. F. DAVIS, EsQ.,
Chairman Invitation Committee.
Dear Sir :- I thank you for your invitation and' very much regret my inability to be with the Tri-State youths this time. Harvard College opens October ist, and I have to be there with my son, or I should certainly run down to take by the hand my pre- historic friends. Could you not enlarge the scope of the Reunions and in the way of some kind of a fair, let the old and young settlers bring together the evidence of their progress in agriculture, mechanics, art, etc., thus introducing a healthy inter-state rivalry ?
The three states represented there, contain more visible and latent wealth and various, almost universal resources, than the whole of any other nation than ours on the globe.
The seven millions of population will be twenty millions, when our sons shall have taken our place as old settlers. I sometimes wish I could arrest this so-called progress in population and wealth. I doubt whether it means more happiness per capita. It were better, I think, to leave to our children possibilities, than wealth acquired for and not by them. But why moralize? We cannot stay the advancing tide if we would. We can help to infuse into all this progress a spirit of social and intellectual life that shall mitigate, if not ward off, some of the greatest evils that accompany our national advancement.
With every good wish for your Association and sincere personal regard for yourself and your committee, I am, dear sir, always
Sincerely Yours, HENRY STRONG.
THE TRIBUNE.
Chicago, September 23d, 1885.
J. H. COLE, ESQ., Secretary, Etc.
My Dear Sir: 1 have to thank you most cordially for your very kind invitation to attend your old settlers meeting at Keokuk on the 20th of September. It is eminently proper that the "Oh Settlers" of the Northwest should meet and talk over the facts of the history made under their own observation. Most of that history at least that which is worth preserving has been made by them,
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and it can be best preserved by such incidents as will be narrated in their social meetings. Having myself seen the growth of Chicago and the Northwest for more than 37 years, I am deeply impressed with the importance of this subject. Wishing your As- sociation all possible success,
Very Truly, Your Obedient Servant, WM. BROSS.
THE MOUND HARTFORD CO., MARYLAND. S Near Jerusalem Mills P. O., Sept., 23, 1885.
J. H. COLE, EsQ.,
Secretary Tri-State Old Settler's Association, Keokuk, Iowa.
My Dear Sir :- The invitation with which I have been honored to attend the Tri-State Old Settler's Reunion, to be held at Keokuk the 30th inst., has been received. Nothing will give me more pleasure than to have it in my power to attend, and I will certainly do so, nothing preventing. It is true, that but few, very few, of those whom I first met in 1834, in what is now the great and pros- perous state of Iowa, will be there to greet me. I can now recall to mind but two. My old friends, Gen'l Parrott and Alexander Cruickshank, Esq. Still the pleasure would be great to witness the wonderful changes which have been wrought since those days, then a vast wilderness of prairies, the virgin soil of which, since its creation, had not known the ploughshare, and which was only tracked by the trail of the Indian and the buffalo. Now, this wilderness has become the seat of thousands of thriving and busy cities and towns, and the home of hundreds of thousands of indus- trious and prospering tillers of the soil. Where the trail was, is now the iron track, and the iron horse drawing to the. centre of trade, the rich and varied productions of the farmers' labor. And its great rivers, which then, save the occasional trip of the Scuti Chemon, or fire canoe, (steamboat ) of the white man, carry- ing supplies to some far distant military post, bore upon their waters no other craft except the Chemon or canoe of the Indian. Now, these rivers form highways for an immense commerce, bearing in steam vessels of palatial construction, the products of incalculable value, of the vast region through which they flow, and destined for the markets of the world.
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Such are the changes which have taken place since the pioneer of Iowa first began to emigrate to the "New Paradise" and it is to be hoped that under God's providence she may continue to grow and prosper, and in the course of time become one of the brightest stars in the constellation which forms the great Republic of America, which is destined to be, from its inexhaustible resources of every description, and if the people will only be true to them- selves, the controlling power of the world. What I mean by the people being true to themselves, is that they will ever continue to cherish and support those principles and institutions established by the Father of our Country, and profiting by the experience of the past, never again engage in another fratricidal contest, let the cause be what it may, but in a spirit of friendship and brotherly love settle all matters of differences without reference to the arbitration of the sword. With great respect,
Very Truly Yours, JOHN CARROLL WALSH.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, September 24th, 1885.
DEAR SIR :-- I have a fondness for the gatherings of old settlers not exceeded by any one, and I always attend them when circum- stances will permit, without waiting for an invitation. I am one of the few men now living who, as member of congress, voted to ad- mit Iowa into the union. When I entered congress in 1843 I found your delegate, Hon. Augustus C. Dodge sitting by the side of his father, Gen. Henry Dodge, the delegate from Wisconsin. [ was upon the committee upon territories; and at this late day, their able and indefatigable presentation of the wants of their constituents is fresh in my remembrance. I would like to say something to the old settlers of the state of Iowa in commemoration of these two honest, patriotic and hardworking statesmen who entered congress poor, and left it as poor as when they entered. The stigma of try- ing to make money from public position was never fastened upon their brow. I was with them ten years, and purer men in thought and action I never knew.
Were I able to attend your reunion, I should say something of my Dartmouth College classmate, James Wilson Grimes. Hc settled at Burlington about the time I did at Chicago. I was with him in the last congress of which I was a member. He was inde.
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pendent, fearless and intellectual from his boyhood. He had the same characteristics when a schoolboy that he had when honoring Iowa as a senator.
Regretting that I cannot be with you, I nevertheless thank you for your invitation. I have the honor to be very respectfully your very obedient servant,
JOHN WENTWORTH, An Illinois Settler of 1836.
Hon. E. Johnstone.
OTTUMWA, IOWA, Sept. 24, 1885. J. H. COLE, EsQ.
Keokuk, Ia.
Dear Sir :- Your invitation to attend "Old Settlers Reunion" and the offer of a tent for headquarters I appreciate as a most kindly welcome, but it will be impossible for me to avail myself of it.
I regard these old settlers' reunions akin to those of those old soldiers, in supreme enjoyment and pleasure, and would be glad to be with you. I hope the weather will be propitious, that you may have the full measure of enjoyment which I know will follow. My Iowa age is now in the 32nd year ( not among the OLD FATHERS, as you observe ) but still old enough to enjoy with much zest your reunion, could I be present.
I am a little proud of having been first a Buckeye, and then a Hawkeye. Yours &c.,
A. H. HAMILTON.
BRIGHTON, IA., Sept. 24, 1885.
J. H. COLE, EsQ.,
Sec'y Tri-State Old Settlers' Ass'n,
Keokuk, lowa.
DEAR SIR :- Your kind invitation to attend your meeting on the 30th instant was duly received.
Nothing would give me more pleasure than to be able to be with you on that occasion. If my' health is sufficiently improved by that time, both my wife and I will be there. We would doubtless
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meet many of our old friends that we will never see elsewhere. It is 47 years since we first saw Keokuk, and 45 years the 8th day of last March since we made that our home.
I hope and know you will have a very pleasant and most inter- esting meeting, and I hope to make one of the crowd.
Truly yours, L. B. FLEAK.
Dubuque, Sept. 24th, 1885.
To the President, EDWARD JOHNSTONE, ESQ.
And members of the Tri-State Old Settlers Association.
Gentlemen :-- 1 thank you sincerely for the honor conferred on me, in extending to me your very cordial invitation to attend your pleasant meeting, at Keokuk, Iowa. However, I regret very much to state, that it will not be convenient for me to attend at that time. It is hardly necessary for me to say, that it would have afforded me genuine pleasure to be present with you, on that happy occasion, that I might greet old friends, and make many new ones, among men respected and honored for their sterling character and achieve- ments, during the stirring, and at times, exciting scenes of pioneer life, a life of adventure and danger, a life of privation and self- clenial, -- a class of men I know to be genial and social in their habits, kind-hearted and generous to their fellow-men, -- men of deep experience and clear insight. These are the men, who in their youth, left their old homes and dear friends, and turned their backs upon the comforts, social privileges, and the easy pursuits of the older settlements in the far East and South, and struck out for the "FAR WEST," to them boundless and unexplored; there to lay the foundations for prosperous business, and for future homes, not only for themselves, but for their children, and for those who should follow after to the "New Land of Promise."
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