USA > Iowa > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 20
USA > Illinois > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 20
USA > Missouri > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 20
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And so, while you of Illinois and Missouri love your own noble States and we love ours, let us this day brush aside the State lines; forget whatever, if anything, of the past, should be blotted out, remembering that we have a common country, a common destiny, that the grandeur of one State or the success of another redounds to the grandeur and success of all, and that as we meet around this common "campfire " at these annual reunions, we come as members of a common home, protected by the same flag, under the same national chart or constitution, striving for the better and clearer shining of the same bright "star"; and let us resolve that if harm shall come to that flag, to that constitution, to that Union, to those stars, it shall not
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be from any act of those who live in States so favored of heaven -who inherit a patrimony so rich as that bequeathed to us by the pioneers of this central home of the richest and grandest valley of the world, never forgetting that those gone before did swear, those of the present do swear, and those to come will swear, " that though all things else may perish the Union and . the constitution shall live".
And now, with a sincere prayer that this vow may be kept inviolate while time shall last-that this government of, for and by the people may not perish from the earth, I bid, you all welcome to this happy reunion, to the hearts of the people of this ever hospitable city, as also a most hearty "God speed ", and for myself a most reluctant good-bye.
The following short addresses were made, and were a very pleasing part of the exercises :
Col. Bush, of Pittsfield, Pike County, Illinois: Ladies and gentlemen, I want to claim your protection. I also want, as our ball players say, to claim a " foul," and I want to refer it to you. I was living down there in Pike County when I received an invitation to come here and attend this Tri-State Reunion. I supposed I was invited simply to come and see and hear what was going on ; and did not expect to be pressed into the work myself .. I am so much more in the habit of letting what I have to say trickle through my fingers than off my tongue, that I cannot expect to make much of a speech, there- fore, for that reason also, I claim a foul. And also on another score, on behalf of my friend Judge Matheney, on this ground : That Matheney never understood that this was to be a bragging match between the states ; if he had been posted on this ques- tion, I am satisfied that he would have carried the banner, for he is good at bragging on our pretty girls and on those old fellows who settled our state. What champions they were. What energy and vigor they displayed in building up all these states. Thus claiming the foul, I bid you good day.
Rev. Dr. William Salter, of Burlington : Dr. Salter remarked that the history of this region is intimately con- neeted with some of the official acts of the founders of our national government. Patrick Henry and Thos. Jefferson were
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active in securing this land, and what was not thus secured was secured by the purchase from Napoleon in 1803. In 1804 the first government of this country was established under the laws of the United States, with William Henry Harrison, at that time governor of the Territory of Indiana, as governor. This was the arrangement for one year, but it was not satisfac -- tory to our friends at St. Louis. They wanted a home govern- ment, and congress established a new territory, calling it the Territory of Louisiana. Thus we see the history of this region is intimately connected with the founders of the govern- ment - with Henry, and with Jefferson, the writer of the Declaration of Independence, the founder of religious liberty in Virginia, the founder of the University of Virginia, and the author of the purchase of the magnificent province of Lon- isiana, out of which were carved the States of Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. So I bring to you the memory of the departed, the memory of the founders of the union as properly belong- ing to this celebration.
Mr. Hawkins Taylor, of Washington, D. C., said : My friends, it is an outrage to call on me for a speech. I am too old to make a speech, and would not now say a word, but I want to put in my protest against all these great improvements. I think people were happier forty or fifty years ago than they are now. I never used to have a lock on anything, and I don't believe anybody ever stole anything from me in those good old days. Now, I don't think you could leave a saw buck out with any safety. While I was coming here yesterday I got to Chi- cago, and I went into the depot to try and get a little inform- ation about the trains. I found some dudes there an I no one seemed inclined to give me any information. Why, years ago, there was not a citizen in Iowa, Missouri or Illinois who wonk not have given that information. There is more money now, but people don't have any better manners. People hate to die now worse than they did thirty or forty years ago. Then they were satisfied, for they thought that they had had their day out. However, I suppose these bragging speakers are all after office, so let them brag.
Col. T. W. Griffith, of Des Moines : Ladies and gentle- men,- This is one of the happiest days of my life. I love to
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take my old friends by the hand as I have done many of them here to-day. Day before yesterday completed my forty-eighth year as a resident of the Territory and State of Iowa. I crossed the Mississippi on the 11th of October, 1838, at Fort Madison, and became a resident of Lee County, then part of the Black Hawk purchase. I first voted for Col. Patterson, Hawkins Taylor and Jim Brierly, and have been voting for them ever since, and expect to vote for them. We had no politics then. We were on an equality, and voted for the best
man. If the State of Illinois is well represented, so Iowa has also always had the best of everything. As to the little unpleasantness between Iowa and Missouri, that was settled by the Supreme Court of the United States, and we have the best of feeling for each other now. We can take the citizens of Missouri as cordially by the hand as we can the citizens of Illinois. I come here from our capital city, where I have been a citizen for a number of years, and I want to return you my sincere thanks for the favors you have conferred upon me, in times gone by, and I hope you may live many years to enjoy the blessings of this free country. We have but a few more years to live, and let us so live that when we come to leave this world, we may be prepared to meet each other in a better eternity.
Col. David Moore, of Canton, Mo .: Ladies and gentle- men: It is insisted that I say something, but I am not in the habit of talking very much. However, I can always say a little something in the presence of an Towa audience, because I always regard the people of Iowa as my old friends, and have always expressed that kind feeling wherever I have met them. But you have had so many eloquent and appropriate speeches here to-day, you can't expect me to say much. I heard one of the gentlemen say it was a bragging match. I don't propose to brag about Missouri; but I do say the old State of Missouri has become a very populous State within the last twenty-five years. The State has increased very rapidly in population, until now she has over two millions of inhabitants. The great resources of Missouri can scarcely be equaled in the west. She is pos- sessed of some twenty-six thousand square miles of stone coul lands, mountains of iron and large quantities of lead and other
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minerals, and the whole country is overlaid by a most magnifi- cent agricultural soil, equal to any, perhaps, in Iowa or Illinois. And again, upwards of twenty years ago, Missouri introduced public schools into the State, so that she has now a temple of learning on almost every hill in the State. She has fine col- leges and universities, so that all the youth can be educated .. In fact, she goes upon the principle that every child should be educated at the expense of the State, for the security of the State. She has a large city and an increasing number of smaller cities, and some of them are even beginning to ape St. Louis. St. Louis is a great city; she has a great bridge and a great river. In perhaps only a few years she will extend her bound- aries to eighteen or twenty miles up and down the river, with fine buildings and gas-lighted streets. She is on the Mississip- pi, as is your city, and she has greater advantages than perhaps your city has. But even here, if old Keokuk should arise, I think he might well ask, "How many centuries of peace and prosperity have been necessary to erect all these?" This is a hospitable city, it is a grand city; it has good business men and beautiful women in it. It is a beautiful city and it has a great future before it. But we may say the same thing of Quincy, Peoria and Chicago-Chicago, the Garden City. I was in Chicago abont fifty years ago; I was also in St. Louis about fifty years ago, and the changes in those places astonish me. I am not very old yet, I am still a youth, and yet these places have extended over the plains and are inhabited by thousands upon thousands of population.
Mr. Guy Wells, of Duluth, Minnesota: Ladies and gen- tlemen, I can't make a speech, but I'm glad to be here. I am glad to look at you. Since I have been here, I have looked at many familiar faces, and it has done me good. I came five hundred miles to see you, and I'm glad to see you. Good-bye.
George C. Duffield, of Pittsburg, Iowa, said: Mr. Presi- dent, ladies and gentlemen: It gives me great pleasure to be here to-day to meet and greet so many of the pioneers of lowa. Illinois and Missouri. And here let me thank my good friend C. F. Davis for the kind invitation to be present with you to-day.
As I look over the audience before me and see so many that I know to be old settlers, I cannot help thinking that at this
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time they are drawing the contrast between the cabin of forty or fifty years ago, that stood in the lonely forest or far out on the prairie, to the now populous States dotted over with cities and fine mansions.
I have always attended Old Settler's gatherings when I could do so.
This is the fiftieth year of my residence in Iowa. I have a right to the proud title of old settler. I drove the ox team that broke the first piece of prairie that was put in cultivation in Van Buren county on the west side of the Des Moines river. I moved with my parents from Jefferson county, Ohio, to Ful- ton county, Illinois, in 1833, and from there to Van Buren county, Iowa, in the spring of 1837. I spent part of 1848 and 1849 in Minnesota, and from the summer of 1849 to 1853 in California. Iowa has been my home for almost fifty years.
Well do I remember when fifty-three years ago my father settled in a lonely forest in Fulton county, Illinois, where he lived in & log cabin twelve by fourteen, through the dreary winter of 1833 with the nearest neighbor three miles away. Well do I remember the time when he settled in what is now Van Buren county in 1837 with but one'neighbor on the west side of the Des Moines river, and no human being west of us save the wild Indians.'
And now as I grow older I like to call up the reminiscen- ces of half a century ago. None of us would have dared fore- tell such a magnificent future for our adopted land.
The good thing for us to do is for the old settlers to get together and have a good time. Let us tell our young friends of our privations and hardships, of our pleasures and joys, our sorrows and our trials. How little we got for what we raised and had to sell, and what a vast amount of trading we did with our produce in the absence of money. How we purchased rye for coffee. Grated, pounded and planed the corn for bread. How we wore one pair of buckskin breeches for four years without a change. How they just reached down to the top of the first boots I ever wore. I killed two deer when I was thir- teen years old; an old Mormon by the name of Judd tanned the hides, mother cut and made my new buckskin pants and I thought
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as much of them, and felt as important in them, as the Presi- dent does to-day.
I have not the time to go into detail or speak of the pri- vations of the early pioneer life, but I will here relate one or two instances of the privations and harships some of us had to endure :
After .we had become heartily sick and tired of home made corn meal, father concluded to go to mill, which was one hun- dred miles away and the Mississippi river to cross. I went with him. We had an ox team, and slow at that. We got along finely going, but while there the weather changed very sud- denly to cold and freezing, snow and ice formed in the river, swept the boat away, and we were compelled to remain there until another boat was built. We were gone just five weeks, with a family alone in a wilderness among the Indians and but little to live on but corn, and it not sound at best. I never could imagine what the anxiety of that father could have been while we were on that trip.
That first year's crop failed to ripen and we had to look after seed corn. Father and I started for Missouri to hunt some. How he ever knew the course or found Sand prairie in Missouri I never could imagine. We traveled through the prairie with- ont the sign of a road all day. Late in the evening we came to a small log house where a Mr. Wilson lived, who kindly kept us over night. Next day we found corn at a Mr. Hill's, near Alexandria, and in three days from that time we reached home with a load of corn and corn meal, rejoicing in our success.
When we look back over the short space of one generation and see the great and good work we have done, we have canse for rejoicing. Times have changed since we went to Illinois with an ox team to get some corn meal to live on, or since we had to spend five days in going to Alexandria and return. Then we carried the mails on horseback or on foot. Then we paid 25 cents for a letter. Now our mails fly across our broad prairies at the rate of 40 or 50 miles an hour, and our letters cost ns the small sm of two cents. I well remember the first letter that came to the office in Iowa for my parents. There were 25 cents due on it. There were no 25 cents to redeem it with. It lay in
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the office three days, when my brother and I made fifty rails for a neighbor for 25 cents. We hastened to the office, got the let- ter and took it home in triumph.
Just think of it, when I came to Iowa. Burlington was the seat of government of all that is now Iowa, Wisconsin, Minne- sota and Dakota.
When my father moved to Iowa, Black Hawk and Keokuk, with their tribes, were our neighbors. I was personally acquain- ted with both of them. Black Hawk died in 1839 within seven miles of our home. He frequently visited at our house.
I love to dwell on the memories and pleasures of our life on the frontier. In our rude cabin the music of the spinning wheel was heard. The patient mother was seen to move about the tidy cabin with as much ease and as much care for its looks as the lady of the finest mansions of to-day.
May blessings rest upon the pioneer mothers.
Gen: W. W. Belknap spoke as follows: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :- Although not a pioneer, yet as an old settler of 1851 I am glad to be greeted by the pioneers and their descendants. And it is pleasant, too, to greet those men and women who, though their heads are silvered by the frosts of many winters and their faces marked by the advance of time, are yet glad to recall the memories of those early days, when in the midst of privation and burdened with care they laid the foundations of this imperial region. . Happy must their hearts be as they watch the progress of the people now, while they dwell upon the recollections of the days when rest was the only luxury that came. From farms, and hamlets, and towns have grown cities with all the appointments of modern life. From the roads of mind and dust and tiresome travel have come the iron pathways which enable this great gathering to be here to-day, while the words they speak go to their homes in an instant, and the night, ouce darkness, is made as bright as day. But with all these progressive changes, happy will we be if we have preserved the honor, the willingness to work and the gen- erous demeanor which marked those grand people of that. early day.
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The State began with them. The soldiers of the west, for whom I have been asked to speak to-day, fought to preserve the union of these States which these pioneers worked to create and keep. Over twenty years have passed since the war, and in the varied walks of the world the men who fought for the nation's life tread in the paths of peace. They did their work well. The land which the early men of the northwest opened to the blessings of good government was in that Union which the soldiers fought to preserve. They staid there and faced the attacks of a brave enemy on many fields. They left homes of affection and firesides of ease for the trials and privations of march, and camp and field. Under the flags which told the story of their country's greatness they moved hopefully to the front. Across the continent the resounding tramp of the mov- ing divisions was heard as they marched from the Mississippi to the sea. Standing upon the sands washed by the breakers that broke at their feet, they looked across the billows of the blue Atlantic and told the nations far beyond the sea of the coming end of the rebellion. And those same flags, soiled and shot and torn and tattered, but surrounded by the halo of the same old glory were furled in final triumph. In many homes are memories of the heroic dead. By many.firesides the moth- er's faded face tells of the sorrow brought to her by the loss of those she loved. But the triumph of the right gave them sus- taining hope when hours were darkest and placed the names of the departed heroes among their cherished household words. But passing years make old men of the boys who fought the fight for the Union. Here and there is an open place in the line of those veteran heroes. One by one they join that great throng gathered in their final camp, beyond the river which none of us have crossed. Those who were nearest to us in our line fall from our side withont a warning.
"Each night we pitch our moving teuts, A day's march nearer home."
But in the memories of the past the soldier of to-day can join with the pioneers of Iowa, and Illinois, and Missouri in blessing the heritage which they established and which he fought to preserve, for it will last until the end of all things.
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Mr. Adams read the following letter from the president :
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 2, 1886. C. F. DAVIS, EsQ.,
Chairman, etc.
Dear Sir :- I have received your invitation to attend the third annual reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers Association to be held at Keokuk on the thirteenth day of the present month. I should certainly be very much pleased to accept the kind invitation, but my official duties will not permit ine to do so.
The occasion cannot fail to be full of interest which gives opportunity for the assembling of those who in the day of small things, amid hardship and deprivation, were the pioneers of the wonderful development and growth which they have lived to witness.
While they happily may congratulate themselves upon the result of their intelligent labors, and devoutly commit to those who succeed them the further care and advancement of the rich heritage which they have planted, it should be with its solemn consecration, during all the years to come, to peaceful industry, the contentment of happy homes and the glory of true Ameri- can patriotism.
Yours very truly,
GROVER CLEVELAND.
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OFFICERS FOR 1887.
The committee appointed to nominate officers, reported the following :
PRESIDENT. HON. EDWARD JOHNSTONE, Keokuk.
SECRETARY. DAVID J. AYRES, Keokuk.
TREASURER. SAMUEL E. CAREY, Keokuk.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ILLINOIS. S. R. CHITTENDEN, Mendon. JOSEPH M. BUSII, Pittsfield. BENJAMIN WARREN, La Harpe.
MISSOURI. CHAS. PARSONS, St. Louis. RUFUS L. ANDERSON, Hannibal. IION. I. N. LEWIS, Peaksville.
1 IOWA.
TION. HOYT SHERMAN, Des Moines. CAPT. J. W. CAMPBELL, Fort Madison. HION. LYMAN COOK, Burlington.
The exercises at the park concluded at 5 o'clock and the vast assemblage of people departed for their homes well pleased. Without exception visitors expressed themselves as having been handsomely entertained.
Adjourned sine die. JOHN H. COLE,
Secretary.
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The following letters were received:
J. C. AINSWORTII, OAKLAND, CAL. OAKLAND, CAL., Oct. 3rd, 1886.
Invitation Committee of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association :
MY DEAR SIRS :- Your kind invitation to be present at the annual reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' association to be held in your city on the 13th inst. came to hand yesterday evening, just after I had spent most of the afternoon with Capt. Wm. G. Brown, an old resident of Keokuk, and the first to visit California from that place. I had not seen him for twenty-five years, and of course we talked of old times in Iowa, and of those that remain of our mutual friends and associates, and I think we bothi feel younger for the few hours we spent together in reviewing the days when we were young, "and the world was all before us" and of the incidents that occurred during our voyage together en route for California in 1850.
I often meet old friends from Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, who, while visiting the Pacific coast, hear of my California home and come to see me. It is needless to say that to all such I give a hearty welcome.
Of those who have thus called I will mention Guy Wells and wife, Hon. Wm. Graham and wife, and Mrs. II. T. Reid, all of Keokuk; Mr. Thomas Pope and wife, of Quiney, and Mr. Oliver Garrison and wife, of St. Louis.
It was my intention to be with you at your last reunion, but circumstances prevented, (though I was cast of the Missis- sippi at the time). This time duty (that is with us always) outweighs my inclination, and again I must forego the pleasure. I am not without hope, however, that I may yet be present at some future reunion, and that I may have the pleasure, long desired, of taking by the hand some of the friends of "Auld Lang Syne." Be assured, my dear sir, that I have a pleasant recollection of Keokuk and the many friends I valued during my residence in that city. When I left Keokuk on May 7th, 1850, 1 intended to return in three years. I have never seen it since.
During my thirty years' residence in Oregon I was not. idle, as perhaps you know. During my six years' residence in
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California, I claim to have retired from business, but I still find much that requires the experience of the past to prevent mis- takes of the present. And now, my dear sir, accept my very best wishes for a prosperous and happy reunion. Please make my greetings to all who may be present, and especially to those, if any, who knew me in years gone by.
Very respectfully, &c.,
J. C. AINSWORTII.
[The writer of this article, Capt. John C. Ainsworth, was one of the pioneer citizens of Iowa, and steamboat men on the upper Missis- sippi. He started the first packet line between Keokuk and Rock Island. It consisted of one boat called the "Kentucky," which made semi-weekly trips between the points above named. The captain was a jovial, big-hearted man, and the few remaining old settlers of 1846-7 will remember with delight the enjoyable parties, "to fiddle music," given on his boat, and be rejoiced to know that after a busy and event- ful life he is quietly enjoying the fruits of his labors in his magnificent home in Oakland, California. He at one time owned and lived in the house now occupied by Adam Hine. ]
SUE CLAGETT PETTENGILL, PORTLAND, ORE.
PORTLAND, OREGON, Oct., 4th, 1886.
Chairman Invitation Com. Tri-State Old Settlers' Association:
DEAR SIR :- My mother joins with me in regrets at our inabil- ity to attend the annual reunion of your association. I shall, how- ever, sympathize with those who will enjoy the pleasure denied to us in the memories it will revive, and the impulses it will stimulate. I believe in the value to our American people of quick and strong susceptibilities of impression from occasions of this kind. We have as yet no heritage of ancient things in the old world sense, no heirlooms, household or national, that have come down through many generations; and the danger has been that nothing with us would ever become old-so regardless of the past, so confident of the future, so unsparing and reck- lessly progressive is our disposition as a people. It is little more than a century since we achieved our national existence, and yet how few and how slightly regarded are the visible monu- ments of that momentous struggle which remain to ns. And, what is most to be regretted, how little pains we have taken to preserve and cherish an exact recollection of scenes and events which, as they are magnified in the lapse of time, already begin
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