USA > Iowa > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 9
USA > Illinois > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 9
USA > Missouri > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 9
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
Old settlers form a curious collection of people. I reckon this began shortly after the Garden was populated; when from the east came the Aryans, the Chaldeans, of whom Abraham was one, (and by the way, Abraham was not a Jew, he was a Chaldean, ) and then came a swarm from Russia to the Mediterranean and to the East- ern border of the Atlantic. These were called Vandals and North- men and a variety of names; people that became, a pest to the Roman Empire. They were nothing but the van-guard; these Goths and Vandals and Huns that hung around the southern coasts of the Baltic sea, and populated Germany and France and had their gods of thunder and the sea; they were only pioneers coming away from Noah's ark. They populated all Europe, crossed the Atlantic and in the seventeenth century went into business, as old settlers at Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. This German-Saxon race continued moving and after establishing a kingdom in Great Britain, pressed on westward across the Atlantic until at last these old settlers' meetings have brought us to the end. of the age of pioneerism. Our descendants will see no more pioneers as in my opinion they will see no more soldiers. The few remaining, of soldiers of the Black Hawk, the Mexican and the late civil war- when the fragments of these wars shall have passed away there will be no more soldiers in the United States, and these old settlers are the last of the pioneers. We began in the oriental countries; I reckon about Persia is where we started, and have wandered west- ward, over the globe until there is no more country where civiliza- tion has not penetrated. There is no more pioneer work in the United States.
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What you mean by a pioneer, is one who left the old colonial states by wagon or on foot, driving the Indian before him as he went, rifle in hand as the weapon of defence, the ax as the emblem of civilization, the one to protect, the other to clear the way. There are now only 275,000 Indians scattered over mountains and plains, even those in the Indian Territory will be compelled to . abandon their tribal relations and meet the fate of advancing civilization. There will be no more Indians to fight. There will be little scares about foreign wars and apprehensions as to troubles between capital and labor, but there is no more real danger from these than from the Indians.
You are the last, ladies and gentlemen, of the pioneer race in America. And what a great and god-like column it has been in this world! It has pressed forward against every disadvantage, against savagery and Indian warfare; and dispossessed the Indians, whether rightfully or wrongfully we may never know, we think rightfully. The Indians cannot stand against the blaze of civiliza- tion.
But with us came the African race; slavery was first here before the declaration of independence; before the war of the revolution began. It was the avarice of the British crown that forced slavery upon us, and well we know it. It was a dead weight upon us; as in moving west there was often more weight of mud hanging to the wheels than weight of population in the wagons, so we had to carry that horrid burden of slavery, but, thank God, we have it no longer. We came to Iowa, to Illinois and to Missouri ahead of the railroads, ahead of navigation, pioneering, civilization, and planted ourselves firmly in the Mississippi Valley. From here the railroads went ahead of population. A man can't be a pioneer and travel in a railroad car. Such states as Kansas, Nebraska and Colorada are not strictly pioneer states. They have gone from civilization to civilization. All the talk of living entirely on wild turkey, geese, and deer don't apply out there.
The lives of the men and women here to-day, will compass the lives of all the pioneers of America. But when we come to the older States, they were in a measure all alike ahead of us, only perhaps we had a little the advantage of them, we could wagon easier than they could, so we came to populate this country. Most of us were born here.
Within Iowa and Missouri and Illinois there are over eight million people to-day, three million five hundred thousand in
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Illinois; almost two million in Iowa, and almost two million five hundred thousand in Missouri. I do not know how many square. miles in each state, but there must be over one hundred and seventy- five or one hundred and eighty thousand in the three. Missouri has over sixty-four thousand, Illinois fifty-five thousand and Iowa about the same. This area is larger twice over than New England, twice over than New York and Pennsylvania, and what is far more important, the best country in the world. The garden of Eden was not a patching to it, unless this is the garden of Eden.
We have here the territory to build up a great moral and in- tellectual race of men and women. I do not know, as some phil- osophers persist in saying, that there can be any higher creation than man, but we do know that there can be nothing better for us to do than to become sensible men and women, to delve into the mysteries of nature and to solve them. We are ever penetrating the veil between the known and the unknown, and the leading ele- ment in all this work is the christian religion, without which the world would be a blank. We do owe something to LaSalle and to Marquette; we do owe something to the spirit of all that class of men, and to DeSoto, who discovered the Mississippi in 1542.
After that we had one hundred years of silence, because we were under crowned heads. . Then La Salle touched the head of the Mississippi and from 1667 to 1673 went down the river; then one hundred years more of silence under crowned heads and St. Louis was started in 1764 or somewhere along there, and then Kaskaskia, Prarie du Roche and Peoria. Finally we got a quit-claim deed to all the country east of the Mississippi river, and although when we started out to make peace with old George in 1782, England didn't want to recognize any claims of the colonies outside their original boundaries. Finally we got George Third to sign the deed, but it was September, 1783, before he signed the definite treaty. Jeffer- son and Patrick Henry sent Col. Clarke in 1778, into Illinois, who drove the British troops out of that country, and then Jefferson sent Lewis and Clarke, in 1804, up the Missouri river, and Thomas Jefferson, statesman and patriot, bought a slice of territory here in 1803, amounting to seven hundred and fifty-six million acres, a splendid purchase, never to be equaled, certainly never to be excelled in fertility of soil and wealth of resources. The old settlers came along and helped Jefferson; they blazed the way, they built the log cabin's and the bridges, opening the way for you to come in your ease and talk about. it.
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A wonderful race that was! I hope some genius will arise some day and take up the theme of the pioneers of America in a poem, which will live through all posterity, something grander than Homer's Iliad, which was founded on a love story and battle and was nothing more than an account of the struggle of western against eastern and ancient civilization. It was the western blood overwhelming the dying east.
It has always been the west which has been the object sought. I don't know what we shall do when the good lands are all gone, as indeed they now are. I don't know about the time when we shall have one hundred and fifty million people between the Atlantic and the Pacific. When the hive is full a swarm is driven out; we were driven out, but the west will finally turn back on the east, when you can go no further west. That time is here now. This western intellect and vigor all grew out of circum- stances; we have not been confined as they are in England and Europe to-day ; we have had a boundless field for the display of our strength, because there seemed no limit to our territory, but there will come a time when we must have room or there will be reaction and decay. I don't know what epidemics 'are veiled in the future and may come to thin the population of the world. We are steadily making discoveries in medicine and surgery and prolonging life, and if this people is to go on swarming and the land not growing an inch, how much of a scholar will it take to tell how long before we have trouble in this precinct ?
Old settlers we have had a glorious age to live in. I would not swap the years that I have lived for any sixty that have preceded me, nor for any sixty to come. This has been one of the most in- teresting periods since the world undertook business on its own hook.
We often hear that the future is to surpass the present. That may be true and it may not be true. We know the present has surpassed the past. There have been dark ages on the globe. There was once an Ethiopian civilization; the immortality of the soul was preached long before the Greeks were thought of, one thousand years before the Greek and Roman civilization came. We are people; they were people. I do not know what the re- sult of great populations without an outlet will be. But this I tell the farmer boys, that when they have eighty or one hundred and sixty or a thousand acres of land hold to it. The most foolish thing a
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man can do now is to fool land away. How beautiful this country was when we came, as many of us did over fifty years ago. How beautiful these prairies were! The eye can never behold them wild, picturesque and teeming with game as they once were. There was no restraint upon liberty ; men were almost all honest; the law of the neighborhood was the law of the land, and but little crime. A good deal of roughness, but a good deal of touch- ing, neighborly ways. All were hospitable and all were happy. Great God, when will there be another such opportunity for the courageous poor in search of peaceful homes.
Response for Missouri,-by Lieut. Gov. ALBERT P. MOREHOUSE.
MR. PRESIDENT, AND CITIZENS OF ILLINOIS, MISSOURI AND IOWA :- I appreciate the honor conferred on me, in being per- mitted to say a word for my adopted state, and meet the early settlers, sons and daughters of the three fairest of the sisterhood of states and permit me on behalf of the Missourians present and of the millions at home to thank you for the generous and hearty welcome you have given us today and I promise, that should you change your constitution, so as to permit your tri-state reunion to be held on Missouri soil, the old-fashioned, early settler, Missouri hospitality shall be extended from the sons and daughters of the second of this trio of states, a portion of whose people have met here to-day for the purpose of celebrating the early settlement of these commonwealths, will be such that you will not brush the dust off your shoes when you return to your home. I hardly know whether I shall be considered an old settler here or not, though I see your constitution requires a residence of but twenty- five years to entitle one to all the benefits and immunities of your society. Out in northwest Missouri where I have lived and pass- ed twenty nine mile-stones, where we cannot claim as old a native ancestry. as you can here, I am recognized as such; and in my younger days having lived so close to the Iowa line and having twice been a citizen of your beautiful state, I have a warm heart for Iowa and her people, among whom I have many friends, and rejoice in your prosperity and advancement.
Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, the fairest daughters of Uncle Sam and the Goddess of Liberty and the most fertile and prosperous portion of the heritage of man.
Let me say to the 'sons and daughters of the carly pioncers who subdued these forests and prairies and made them as beautiful as a
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bride upon her wedding day, that you owe it to them to erect a monument as wide and tall as the one that will commemorate the deeds and virtues of the illustrious Grant, and dedicate it to the early settlers whose strong arms and willing hand gave you this inheritance.
Nor should you forget Him, the giver of all good gifts, who called you into existence, after the toil, hardships and burdens in- cident to the settlement of every new country, had been endured and ended -- called, too, in an age and country which for magnifi- cence and splendor in all that makes a nation and people great, in- telligent and prosperous, has never been equaled. When almost for the first time in the history of the world, religious liberty is tolerated and maintained and man can worship his creator ac- cording to the dictates of his own conscience.
Called, too, at a time and in a country where for the first time in six thousand years political economy has been so far ad- vanced and man sufficiently enlightened and civilized that he could govern himself.
My young friends, you to-day enjoy the fruits of the lives of toil, privation and danger willingly endured by the old settler.
You to-day inherit the accumulated wealth of their life labors and bask in the sunlight of that' civilization of which they were the forerunners. There were, however, two virtues, which in the days of Lang Syne made their dwelling place in every log cabin erected on the borders of our early civilization. I mean charity and hospitality, which in these modern days of luxury, opulence and self-aggrandizement, no longer have their dwell- ing place by the "sugle-check." Hospitality, my friends, was the crowning virtue of our noble ancestors when their axes were ringing in the "forests primeval," hewing out the highways and preparing for the refinements of the present age. There were no dudes in those days. Every man had a willing heart and a strong arm to assist his neighbor. How many men in what we call an old settled country would now respond to an invitation to raise a log cabin, attend a logging or help husk a ten acre field of corn? Such an enterprise could not be thought of now.
In those days every housewife's larder, though it contained nothing but corn bread, made from meal manufactured with willing hands
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was cheerfully shared by all who pulled the latch-string, which always hung on the outside. Those, my young friends, were ac- complishments that I am afraid we have forgotten. This, how- ever, is the very nature of humanity, and for this we are not re- sponsible.
Let me say, however, to you fathers and mothers in Israel, though your paths were beset with thorns and brambles, they led into beautiful highways, and the rough and rugged places have been smoothed and leveled so that your declining years may be more pleasant and happy. You have not lived in vain., There has been more accomplished in your time, than in all historic time before. The seven wonders of the world fade into insignificance, when compared with what you have lived to see.
The old wooden mouldboard with which you first turned the virgin soil lives only in the traditions of the past.
The sickle and scythe with which you first cut your grass and grain have given place to many speedier methods. The threshing floor in the open field is known no more,
The lightning plucked from heaven, tamed to do man's bidding, and the waters that trickled down the mountain sides, converted into steam, have almost obliterated time and place. Your shadows have been made to stand still and now adorn your parlor walls and beautify the pages of your albums.
You can now talk to friends in your natural voice, hundreds of miles away, when but a short time ago you would not have at- tempted to throw your voice more than a quarter of a mile.
All this and much more has been accomplished in the labor- saving and scientific discoveries in your time. Your most ardent comprehension never fully comprehended the progress which has marked the history of the world and the "great west" within the memory of those present.
I doubt not but that the ground on which is a part of the Louisiana purchase has been added to our common country within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, for even this was but eighty- two years ago. We, today, are standing in the very heart of this mighty empire of this trio of states. We can with the poet say :
The castled Rhine, whose vine-crowned waters flow
The fount of fable and the source of song;
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The rushing Rhone, in whose cerulean depths, The loving sky seems wedded with the wave; The yellow Tiber, chok'd with Roman spoils; A dying miser, shrinking neath his gold The Seine, where fashion glosses the fairest forms, And Thames, that bears the riches of the world,
Gather their waters in one ocean mass;
Our mighty Mississippi rolling proudly on,
Would sweep them from its path or swallow up Like Aaron's rod those streams of fame and song."
I must say a word for Missouri. "Poor old Missouri." "If thou sayest she is not peer to any daughter far or near" thou hast not seen her dressed in her royal robes, seated on her triumphal chariot and pushed by her nearly three million sons and daughters, determined to place her in a higher niche among her sister states.
Go with me through our beautiful state and behold her five thousand churches with their spires pointed towards heaven in recognition of the obligations of man to his creator. See our ten thousand school houses, our two hundred and forty high schools, academies and colleges, our five normal schools and our university, all of which we are justly proud. Look in on her busy work- shops and see the implements of industry and the works of art and beauty wrought by her toiling sons and daughters. See her two hundred and fifty thousand farms teeming with all that makes the husbandman happy and contented and finally next week go to St. Louis, the pride of the Missisippi valley, where will be assembled her beauty and her chivalry, the representatives of all her industries in friendly competition with one another and the whole world be- sides, at the greatest exposition in America. See all this, and you will exclaim: Proud old Missouri! Thy sons and daughters shall rise up and call thee blessed, and thou shalt be the admiration, of all observers. No one who has seen all this, will ever again call thee "poor old Missouri." History has not preserved the name of the first adventurer or settler that contested with the Indians the right of public domain; nor is it known at what precise point or period he pitched his tent, but it is generally conceded that St. Genevieve and New Bourbon are the places, and tradition fixes the time at about one hundred and fifty years ago. The first settlement north of the Missouri river was one hundred and sixteen years ago at St. Charles, St. Louis having been settled five years previous. These settlers, however, were before our times, and
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though their names are recorded in history as the forerunners of a great and mighty people and as such are entitled to our highest re- gard, yet it is the later settlers whose memories are fresh and those who are with us to-day, that we more particularly allude to as old settlers.
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Missouri was the twenty-third state admitted into the Union, and when ten years old she ranked the twenty-first in population. In her infancy she seemed not to'have prospered very well, but she was ambitious and attractive, and on her twentieth birthday she ranked the sixteenth. Still, not satisfied, she was determined to win the place where the God of nature and her own merits en- titled her to stand, and at thirty she was the thirteenth, at forty the eighth and at sixty the fifth, passing the less favored sisters with kindly words of encouragement and sympathy. And let me say to her sister across the river, that she has never lost sight of you. For sixty-five years she has traveled by your side. You have been a little in the advance, but you have fair notice that on her seventieth birthday Missouri contemplates taking place as the fourth state in the Union. She does not desire that you shall take a back seat, but trusts you may take a step forward and keep up the reputation you have made for the past fifty years.
I have said Missouri is justly proud of her school systems. The constitution of 1820 declared that "a general diffusion of knowl- edge and intelligence is essential to the preservation of our liberties," and a similar provision has been incorporated into every constitution adopted by the people of the state since that time. It is true that in ante-bellum days our common schools were not all they should have been, but for the past twenty years we have kept abreast with the oldest and best states, and to-day we claim the largest permanent common school fund of any state in this great Union, which amounts, including our county and township funds, to over ten million dollars. Added to this one-fourth of our state tax proper, which is twenty cents on the hundred dollars, and an average of about forty cents on the hundred dollar district tax is set apart to the support and maintenance of our common schools, and out of the fifteen cents on the hundred dollars left to defray the ordinary expenses of the government, the last legislature appropriated over eight hundred thousand dollars for the support of our normal schools, university and other cleemosynary institu- tions, so that now nearly tive million dollars are annually expended
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on our educational institutions; thereby placing within the reach of every child in the state, without regard to race, color or previous condition, the means and opportunity of procuring an education to fill any avocation in life and rise to the highest office in the gift of the people. Right well then, Missourians, may we point with . pride to a glorious state and a generous people.
And as we are making rapid progress and maintaining a liberal educational policy, so also are our labors being crowned in the accu- mulation of wealth.
During the year 1883 and 1884 our taxable wealth increased fifty-six million dollars, while our sister state on the north increased but twenty-eight million. For one of these years-I could not obtain the figures for the other year-Illinois increased in wealth but six million dollars. I do not make these comparisons boasting- ly, because we happened to prosper more in these . two years than Illinois and Iowa, but only to show that the great state of Missouri is keeping pace with her neighbors, determined to occupy a proud and enviable position among even the foremost of sister states.
I am not prepared to state how fast we are increasing in popu- lation, for no census has been taken since 1880, but I doubt not that at the next enumeration we will show a greater ratio of increase in population than between 1870 and 1880. Occupying a central position in the very heart of the continent, with a climate as health- ful'as any of the old states, our fertile prairies capable of produc- ing all the cereals in the greatest abundance, grown in this latitude, our valuable timber, our inexhaustible mines of metals and coal, and a generous, honest and Christian people are inviting the intelli- gence, enterprise and wealth of the world.
Why, gentlemen, my own county of Nodaway, by the census report of 1880, raised more corn than thirteen states and territo- ries. Of course I would name those states and territories that raised the least corn. We raised more corn than any county in the United States, excepting six counties in Illinois, but we raised four bushels to the acre more than either of them, and while this report tells so much for Ilinois and . Missouri, it also shows that Fremont County, lowa, raised more corn to the acre than any other county in the United States. So, my friends, there is some consolation to all of us in the last census report, and let us maintain our reputation in the future.
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Let me say to our Illinois and Iowa friends that to you we are much indebted for the prosperity we enjoy and the advance- ment we are making. Your hearty, honest and intelligent sons and daughters have come amongst us and right nobly are assisting in the development of our natural resources.
We are one people with one common destiny, with a population one and one-half times greater than in the days of our ancestors in the thirteen original colonies who drove the British lion across the Atlantic ocean and with an area and soil capable of supporting a pop- ulation greater than that of the British Isles, and finally, as a nation we are the pride and envy of the world. Our politics, our civiliza- tion and our liberal Christian religion are reflecting their influence over the whole world, which is becoming more enlightened by reason of these influences, and it may be that the Creator has changed his manner of dealing with mankind, and instead of deluging mankind with water or destroying them with fire for their sins, has give us this beautiful land and this new civilization, and set us up as a bright and shining light to enlighten, civilize and Christianize the world. Then let us with the poet say :
"Our father God, to Thee- Author of our Liberty, To Thee we sing. Long may our land be bright With freedom's holy light; Protect us by Thy might -. Great God, our king!"
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