USA > Iowa > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 8
USA > Illinois > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 8
USA > Missouri > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 8
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Chief Marshal, Capt. Israel Anderson; assistant marshals, W. S Sample, Charles Riffley, and Col. R. Root.
PROCEEDINGS.
SECOND REUNION, SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1885, KEOKUK OPERA HOUSE, 11 A. M.
Hon. Edward Johnstone, President of the Executive Committee, in calling the meeting to order, said:
OLD SETTLERS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :- I am instructed by the Executive Committee of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Asso- ciation to call this meeting to order.
It is gratifying that, notwithstanding the unfavorable weather, a good'y number of the citizens of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa have gathered together to renew and confirm, at this their second reunion, the bonds of amity and social intercourse which, it is hoped, will always remain unimpaired.
More than two hundred years ago, " the meek, single-hearted, unpretending, illustrious James Marquette," a Frenchman,-a mis- sionary of the Society of Jesus-was the first white man who lanched his birch canoe on the waters of the Upper Mississippi and floated, in that frail bark, along the shores of Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. His first landing on his downward voyage was near this city, and he was the first white man who ever set foot on the soil of Iowa.
On a day like this, when some of the inheritors of the blessings of the Great Valley he discovered meet together to keep alive the memories of the past, it would seem fit and proper that one who is an Old Settler, a countryman of Marquette, and a co-religionist,
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should be invited to say something of that distinguished Old Set- tler, and invoke the blessings of Almighty God on this assemblage. I take pleasure in introducing FATHER LOUIS DECAILLY.
Address by Rev. Father DeCailly, of Ft. Madison, on his intro- duction as Chaplain :
MR. PRESIDENT, HONORABLE MEMBERS OF THE GOVERN- MENT OF THREE NEIGHBORING SOVEREIGN STATES TO-DAY UNITED FRATERNALLY IN SOCIAL REUNION, MEMBERS OF THE CLERGY HERE PRESENT, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :- It is not owing to any merit of mine that I this day fulfill the honorable office of Chaplain among those famous for eloquence or heroic deeds, but because I am a co-religionist and countryman of the famous Father Marquette, the discoverer of the Mississippi and the countries lying on both its banks and perhaps on account of my long and early residence in Iowa have I received the, by me, much appreciated honor of praying before this noble assemblage and addressing them a few words of historical souvenirs concerning him of whom Bancroft says: " The people of the West will' build his monument." On the 17th of June, 1673, Marquette slowly sailing down the Wisconsin river, amidst its vine-clad isles finally reached the goal of his ambition by gliding into the great river which he called the Conception as the Spaniards at the south had called it the river of the Holy Ghost, both of which names have yielded to the original Indian appellation of Mississippi.
To raise the standard of the cross and to unfurl the banner of Christianity among the tribes that sat in the darkness of death was the noble object that guided Marquette, DeSoto and LaSalle, in their discoveries, hence my theme must confine itself to the relig- ious aspects of those discoveries, leaving to other orators to describe the wonderful, the incredible attainments of civilization on both banks of this mighty river that laves the shores of the beautiful city of Keokuk. During the two centuries since its discovery the salvation of the Indians and the psalm of martyrdom were the two objects sought by Marquette on landing in Canada in 1666. A missionary and a monk like his predecessor, Isaac Jaques, of New Amsterdam, now New York, who, mutilated by the Indians, returned to Europe an invalid, but begged of his superiors to send him back to' America to complete his self-sacrifice. He belonged to that class of men who are the representatives of manhood under its most pure and . energetic form; of manhood intellectual and
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moral; of manhood, in some manner conduced by celibacy, protest- ing against anything vulgar or base, condemning itself to efforts more great, continuous and profound, than are exacted by any wordly career, and by this means making of earth only a stepping- stone to Heaven and of life but a long series of victories. Wonder- ful accounts of a mighty river had reached the ears of Marquette at his mission of Mackinaw. It was said to be broad, large and deep and would bear comparison, they said, with the St. Lawrence. It emptied, they conjectured, into the sea of Virginia, while others thought it entered the Gulf of Mexico, and others considered its outlet in the Gulf of California. Its banks were inhabited by many friendly tribes, especially the Illinois, the Kansas, and the Omahas, and our missionary cross in hand, burned to convert them, His intelligent mind fully understood the importance of such an undertaking in its relations to the church and the civilized world, and he conceived at once the bold and daring project of a thorough exploration of that great river about which so much mystery, inter- mingled with dim traditions, still hung. With justice, Bancroft writes: "The purpose of discovering the Mississippi, of which the natives had published the magnificence, sprang from Marquette himself." Having secured the protection of the French govern- ment, the illustrious Marquette, with Joliet as his associate, five Frenchmen for his companions and two Algonquins for guides, lifting their canoes on their back in the beginning of June, 1673, set out on his expedition. Says Gilmary Shea, " They looked back a last adieu to the waters that connected them with Quebec and their countrymen, and knelt on the shore to offer by a new devotion, their undertaking, their honor, and their lives to God and the Virgin Mary, and passing along the Menominies, Green Bay and Wiscon- sin river, on the 11th they reached the great river. Joy that could find no utterance in words filled the grateful heart of Marquette. The broad river now lay before them stretching hundreds of miles to an unknown sea. They passed by the islands covered with cot- tonwood, where the moose and deer grazed in peace, strange ani- mals were seen traversing the river, and they proceeded to the land of the buffalo in a solitude frightful by its utter absence of man."
Finally, on the 25th, they discovered the footprints of men which led them to three villages, and when almost at the cabin doors they proclaimed their arrival by loud halloos, that brought the motley crowd to see the strangers, and in one of them they recognized the dress of the black gown, who had at last found the Illinois tribe he
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was seeking. After friendly greeting they sailed on and heard the roaring of a mighty cataract. It was the Muddy Water, as the Missouri was called by the Algonquins; passed the mouth of the Illinois and the present site of St. Louis, as they passed those of Keokuk, Warsaw, Quincy and Hannibal, little suspecting the mighty changes that two hundred years would bring about.
Having passed the Ohio, the river of the Shawnees, and going down below the present site of Vicksburg, they ascertained that the Father of Waters emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, and hearing of wars in the land of sugar cane and rice, they returned on their way home by way of Kaskaskia, where the tribe received the party in triumph and conducted them back to Lake Michigan with the promise that he should visit again the tribe and preach them the religion of prayer. Thus had the missionary achieved his long projected work, the discovery and exploration of that river, which threw open to France and Christianity, the richest and most fertile . territory of the New World, embracing especially the States you represent, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. Marquette had passed over, in his little bark canoe, 2,757 miles, and he says himself, " Had this voyage caused the salvation of a single soul, I should deem my fatigue well repaid."
On the following year he returned, undaunted by sickness, to the hardships of the mission of converting his beloved Illinois tribe. Great was the sight witnessed at Kaskaskia, when hav- ing erected a rustic altar, and surrounded by the five hundred chiefs, and more than fifteen hundred young men besides the women and children, he preached Christ crucified, explained the principal mysteries of the Christian religion, and feast of Easter, took possession of the land in the name of the risen Christ. His death is chronicled in the year following, when unable to reach Mackinaw , full of faith and with the words, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," on his lips, in a bark hut, near the mouth of the river, called afterwards by his name, he expired, cross in hand, peacefully as a child.
" Thus he died the great apostle, Far away in regions West: By the lake of the Algonquins Peacefully his ashes rest. But his spirit still regards us From his home among the Blest."
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He, however, lives still in his countrymen, who, anxious to con- tribute their grains of sand in building up society, religion and civilization, have succeeded him in the missionary field. The his- tory of Keokuk, with its Indian wars, will be related to you. All I can remember is seeing the Indians encamped on these grounds in 1847, when Father Gaultier had a little frame church on Second street. He was succeeded by Father Villars, known to many of you, then Rev. G. Reffe, and then by your humble servant, from 1858 to 1868. Finally, the last, not the least, is the worthy suc- cessor of a Marquette, the Rev. Father O'Reilly, who has just com- pleted the finest structure in this city, St. Peter's church, just dedi- cated last Sunday. So we may proudly, as citizens of old Lee, call attention to its spire pointing heavenward as a lasting monu- ment of the generosity and liberality and of the Christian spirit that animates all classes and all creeds, and may the American nation, the country of my choice and adoption, ever place, as it has done on this occasion, all its gatherings whether of joy or sadness, under the guiding hand of religion. Then will the prosperity and peace which seem to abandon the effete nations of Europe, who forgot God in all their undertakings be ours. May this era of unalloyed friendship and good fellowship forever reign in our own land, and we ask as the little boy who prayed that God might bless pa, ma and himself, may he bless Iowa, Illinois and Missouri and the whole American continent.
Father DeCailly then repeated the Lord's Prayer.
Judge Johnstone, then said: For President of the day I am directed to present the name of ex-Governor E. O. Stanard, of St. Louis, a gentleman well and widely known among the business men of the Upper Mississippi, and one who has ever been watch- ful of the commercial and other interests of his fellow-citizens:
Governor Stanard being thus introduced, came forward and said :
MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :- I am certainly not unmindful of the honor your committee have done me in asking that I preside over the deliberations of this Reunion. I should have preferred that some older settler should have occupied this position. Since I made up my mind that I could be here I have not had time to make written preparation, and the remarks I shall make will be inspired very. largely by the occasion. Since I arrived here this morning I have met a good many Old Settlers and many of them men whom I knew in the days of my boyhood in the State
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of Iowa. I believe it is best for a man to talk about the things of which his mind is fullest, and leaving largely, as I shall do, the historical part to other speakers who have been selected and who are expected to go more liberally into the details of the growth, and progress of the country, and especially of these three great States, I am going to talk about the things in my own mind which come looming up fresh to me. About the first thing I remember in my life, and yet will you remember I have not told you how old I am, was along in February, 1838, when with my father and grand-father, I stayed all night at Alexandria, Mo., in sight of Keokuk, just across the DesMoines river. Having come across the country from New England and struck the Mississippi river at Warsaw, we crossed on the ice and stayed all night at Alexandria; that was in February, 1838. Now I think I remember this, but it is possible my mother has told it to me so often that I remember it from what she has told me, but I think not. That is when my career in this western country began. We went up the Des Moines river on the ice, and I thought the roads were very good, and we stopped in VanBuren county. All the days of my boyhood, up to manhood, though not until I reached my majority, were passed in this State. Of course most of the older people have passed away ; most of them have been forgotten by me and those who are living. I suppose have mostly forgotten me. I have met several this morning whom I have not seen for thirty years. Then I went to Illinois and lived there three or four years as a teacher and clerk. The maturing period of my manhood began in that State and then I went to Missouri and have been living there, twenty-eight years in the city of St. Louis.
I am exceedingly glad to be here to-day at this reunion of people of these three great States .. We don't have to go back fifty years to remember when these States, especially those west of the Mis- sissippi, were thickly inhabited by the Indians; when the settle- ments were sparse; when we had no railroads; when the only means of communication was to walk, go on horseback or in the stage. The advancement has been of a wonderful character and while the communication then was such as I have described, to day railroads are running all over the country, cob-webbing these three great States., Fifty years ago where the traveler would take from ten to twelve weeks to go from the Mississippi river to the Atlantic, now it can be done in less than thirty hours. Then it would take three months to get an answer to a letter you had
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written your friends; Now communication is almost instantaneous. And while these States were dependent on the older States for even the bread which they ate, and for the clothing which they wore except what cloth they wove themselves, now these three States produce more than one-third of all the corn raised in the United States and one-fourth of the wheat and about the. same pro- portion of the live stock, and have between one-seventh and one- eighth of the population and an assessed valuation of over two thousand million dollars. It is possible for us to estimate the dis- tances of the planets and to speak under the ocean and around the world, but who shall estimate the greatness and prosperity of this country in the next fifty years?
Ladies and gentlemen, I told you at the beginning I did not in- tend to make a speech and this is all I have to say. I again thank you for the honor conferred upon me and will now say we are ready to proceed with the regular order of business.
ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY GOVERNOR BUREN R. SHERMAN.
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :- I feel hardly able to express in fitting terms the demands made upon me by this Association, but with all the heartiness of which I am capable and carrying out the orders of your committee, I do make you most enthusiastically welcome. All here is cheering, bright, cordial and enthusiastic, and I do but wish that this may be but the com- mencement of a series of reunions of all who are old settlers, until at last before we shall be summoned hence everyone of the old settlers in these three States, covered by this membership, will feel it a pleasure and a duty to attend these meetings. The time was, and some of you remember it well, when all this region had scarcely a place on the maps of the country: when so much of it as is west of the Mississippi was known as part of that indefinite Louisiana purchase which was regarded at the time as extrava- gant, and so largely characterized as the price of the friendship of . France against the British crown. In our school days we remem- ber this as a part of the great American desert, fit only for buffalo and Indians, never expected to be settled up when our sister State of Illinois was regarded as the outpost of all civilization. But all this has changed, and within our memories, and what was then a wilderness is now considered the most promising region on this
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continent. I congratulate you, ladies and gentlemen, on this glori- ous heritage. It is proper on these occasions to refresh our memories with respect to the past days. In the days gone by old settlers' associations were unknown. People who would have proposed them would have been laughed out of countenance; but we all know that if we would preserve the memories of those days these associations are necessary and so once again, obeying the commands of this association and its entire membership, I give you cordial welcome to this meeting. As Governor Stanard has said, it is best for a man to talk about those things of which he has some knowl- edge, and so I shall, without assuming to speak in any respect of the other States, for other gentlemen are more competent to speak for those great States than I am; so I will speak of the develop- ment of Iowa; Iowa, the younger of the three. And without attempting to make distinction or for bragadocia, but to refresh our memories as to the development of this country; since you and I remember, when Iowa was admitted into the Union in 1846, she had a population of only about 100,000. Since then she has gained about twenty times that number. Marvellous as has been our growth in population, it has been no less in regard to wealth. It was then estimated at $10,000,000, and now within the boundaries of this State it amounts to an assessed value of over $430,000,000: We can also call attention to the development of the State in manufactures, and in this respect, Iowa has grown until it is said she has now more money invested in manufactures than was invested in them in the entire Federal Union at the close of the Revolution. In agri- cultural products these three States occupy the front rank. We remember when the older States were looked to and expected to furnish the products to feed the world, but that time has passed away and here in the valley, largely composed of these three States here represented, we have the means of supplying the world with the necessities of, life. You can remember when in the single industry of pork packing, Ohio was in the lead and when Cincin- nati was known as Porkopolis. But that time has passed and we now carry the banner and these three States are in the lead in this industry ; Illinois first, Missouri second and Iowa third.
And without repeating what the Governor has said with regard to the cereals I may say, and that with truth, that these three States, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, raise cereals in this proportion, -Illi- nois first, Iowa second, Missouri third, reversing the order some- what as compared with the animal production.
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But I must claim more with regard to corn. We raise more than any other country in the world in proportion to the population. So it is with regard to live stock; these three States raise nearly one-fifth in value of the live stock in the United States. The figures show better than anything I can say, better than mere words, the wonderful progress that has been made since we remem- ber. Do you know what the first locomotive here was called? They were called prairie schooners and they were the only locomo- tion we had. I remember Major Sherman telling about his first experience in crossing Skunk river in a wagon drawn by oxen and when he carried rails to pry the wheels out of the mud. But that has all changed; railroads have come and within little more than a decade Iowa has advanced in the building of railroads until we have track enough that if it were extended end to end it would be about 8,000 miles; about one-third around the globe. And with- out boasting it may be said of Iowa, what can be said of but one other State in the Union, and that a little State down East, about as large as the counties of Lee and Des Moines, we can get into a palace car and ride into the county seat of every county in the state ; and we have ninety-nine counties. And when you compare the railroads of this western country with those of the United States, we have about one-fifth of the whole amount. As to education, one word will suffice. Here in Iowa we have expended more money for education than for any other purpose for which the people expend money. You will find this to be true, that about 60 per cent. of your taxes are made up of taxes for the support of your public schools; and this statement speaks louder than anything else of the intelligence of the state. We have more school teachers here than there were soldiers in the American army at the time of the revolution. And we have gone right along building school houses until the country is dotted with them everywhere, and the same may be said of the school houses as of the railroads, you can't get out of the smoke of them. We have great charities in Iowa, as we have also in Missouri and Illinois, but I am better posted as to Iowa, and of her speak more particularly. But this may be said, that our public institutions will compare favorably with those of any other state, and the best of it is, they are admirably built for their purposes and we don't owe a cent on any of them.
Iowa is absolutely free of debt. A word more and one that 1 want recorded. And that is, that during the late unpleasantness, a fact which most of you will remember, that the first offer of mili- tary assistance to the United States, when this unpleasantness
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occurred, was from the state of Iowa in December, 1861; the first company of troops was from Iowa and the last company mustered out was a company of Iowa citizens.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don't feel that I ought to take your time any further; the other gentlemen must talk of Illinois and Missouri, but again let me impress upon you the cordiality of the welcome accorded to you by the officers and members of this association. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather let us review old times and thank God that we have such a heritage to enjoy. 1
Gov. R. J. OGLESBY, Illinois, being introduced said :
MR, CHAIRMAN AND OLD SETTLERS :- On behalf of so many of you as are present from the States of Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, I respond to the words of welcome just addressed to us by the Governor of Iowa; I say to the Governor that we feel we are wel - come here. If you, old settlers, have been as cordially welcomed and as hospitably entertained as I have, you will be willing to stay the balance of the year. If there is anything in this world that an old settler likes better than any thing else, it is, to be not only cordially welcomed, but hospitably entertained, bountifully fed and invited over and over again.
We were told by Ed., our old friend Ed. of Keokuk, afterwards Edward, afterwards Mr. Johnstone, and afterwards, Judge John- stone, and who at last has the honor of being classed as one of the oldest of the old settlers, that this is very bad weather as did your chairman, who called it very unpropitious weather, When I first came to this country it was called rainy weather; I was an old settler before I knew the difference between an unpropitious day and a rainy day. Whatever it be called this kind of weather is most unfortunate for our present purposes. We ought to be out of doors in a grove and on the green grass; this house is no place for a gathering of this kind. We are disappointed. If the day had been bright and pleasant, I have no doubt we would have been out of doors, out in your beautiful park, where I believe we can see over into Missouri. I saw from those bluffs over the great river, far into Illinois.
These old settlers' meetings have sprung up in the last ten or twelve years. What are they for? Here is something we don't
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quite understand ourselves. You all know the friendships that spring up between soldiers, some of you have been soldiers and know. We get together after war, though we may have quar- relled time and again. The old soldiers come together regardless of everything, even personal differences, to recount the tales of war. Very much so with old settlers. We come together, many of us unacquainted, antagonizing each other in politics, business and re- ligion; at times full of animosities, thrilled by the busy pulse of life; yet we meet together at old settlers' re-union, and all the bitterness and hard talk and slang and slander disappear like burnt powder from an old flint lock musket. We get together and tell the most wonderful tales; every fellow has done something and stands ready to trump your trick every time with a more marvelous story ; but they are not lies, they are not exaggerations, no, you are not able to tell one half nor the one-tenth of your actual experience.
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