USA > Iowa > Delaware County > Manchester > Reunion of the 12th Iowa V.[eteran] V.[olunteer] infantry 1st-8th, 1880-1903 > Part 36
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Comrades, join me, once more as of old, in three cheers for Gov. barra- bee.
Following Major Reed's address, Miss Beulah Wright, of the Depart- ment of Oratorieal expression of U. I. U., stepped forth in the beauty of young womanhood, with her soul filled full of patriotic fire, and in the most effect nal manner reproduced the Dag presentation speech of Miss Sorrin, delivered to Co. C, September 15, 1861.
At the elose of Miss Wright's reading, Mrs. Chas. D. Neff touchingly rendered "The Flag of Our Union", all joining in the chorus, lead by (. E. Comstock of Fayette, who led the same song sung at the presenta- tion of the flag when the hoary heads now bowed with age were the brave and gallant boys who enlisted in their country's cause from old Upper lowa. Some of these boys came from far off states, one, P. R. Ketchum, from Idalio.
At a signal, the cannon brought by the boys from Fayette, to do honor on this occasion, boomed forth thirteen times, as a salute to the flag, Lincoln monument, and Henderson statne, thus closing the services at the Henderson statue. The sea of interested spectators moved to the pavilion, where two very large tents, joined together as one, furnish- ing a seating capacity of some four thousand, was packed full. Senator Dolliver and Col. Henderson were orators of the day ( See both address- es reproduced in this book. )
Among those of note who were upon the platform, were llon. and Mrs. Larrabee, Hon. and Mrs. Henderson, Senator Dolliver and wife, Ilon. G. N. Hongen, of the fourth district, Col. JJohn F. Merry of Dn- buque, Hon. J. H. Sweeney, of Osage, Col. Rood, of Mt. Vernon, Hon. S. B. Zeigler and wife, our beloved Col. J. H. Stibbs, Chicago, our venerated and much loved surgeons, Dr. C. C. Parker, first, Dr. W. H. Finley, first Ass't., Maj. D. W. Reed, Maj. Geo. Il. Morrisy and wife, Hon. R. W. Terrill and wife, Lient. Dunham and wife, Geo. E. Bissell of New York, sculptor of the Lincoln statue, and Mrs. Rebecca Ofis, who served as nurse from '61 to '65, being now in her 77th year.
Col. lienderson arose, greeted by a tumult of applause and made remarks as follows:
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Col. Henderson's Speech.
Mr. President, comrades and friends: To me this is a sacred day and a more than sacred occasion. I see before me men of the old Twelfth lowa. This is our reunion. I see before me the faces of several sur- vivors who were in old company C, assembled and enlisted in this county of Fayette, but the dear, bronzed faces of the living call up the equally dear faces of the dead. The events of life are one mile-stones, and he who has not such marks has not a life in which it is important to record its events. Clermont is one of my mile-stones; Fayette county is another dear old Henderson prairie; in this township, is another; the 12th lowa and all of its men, is another. Standing here I recall my third war meeting, held in this village in September, 1861, to gather fighting men for company C of the 12th. It was held in some hall in this town. It. would take a poet to describe that night, the historian cannot do it Jus- tice. We enlisted that night twenty-three men for war, picked out of the simple farm homes of this vicinity. I can recall many of the faces, outside of company C. that were at that meeting. Every eye contributed tears of patriots and friends. Whenever a man was enlisted cheers were given; the old flag was carried around the room and cach man as he en- listed marched after it as the cheers of the people rent the air. I recall the face of Governor Larrabee, who tried to enlist at that and another time, but was denied that honor, because of a physical defect in one eye. I recall the dear faces of the honored parents of our beloved Captain Warner of company C and his sisters too were there, patriotic angels of the Republic and our beloved hostess of this occasion, Mrs. Governor Larrabee wasthere, leading in our glorious songs. Her father and mother, Captain and Mrs. Appleman were there, the first a hero of the seas; the second, and both, early pioneers, laboring for the benefit of our fields and the up-building of our great state. I can see Steadman & Stough the merchants; dear old John Hosford was with us then, and is with us now. age not dimming the warmth of his noble heart and unvarying friendship for the soldier of the Republic. "We recall Ben Agard, afterwards a sol- dier and now in Heaven. We recall the bright-eyed Lowmis, now the husband of Captain Warner's oldest sister, a man ever true to the high- est duties of life, and Father Dibble was with us, and it seems to me that the citizens of this locality, far and near, were with us, with one heart for all of us, and one voice for the songs and life of our country.
One hundred and four men who wished to join company ( went with us to Dubuque to muster, and after physical examination by the surgeon, v8 were found able and qualified for battle. After service in many battles: after volunteering for a second term, and after the war was ended, 38 remained, who assembled at the Upper lowa University, the place of original enlistment. The young hero and patriot, Win. W. Warner was brought home in his cottin and sleeps now near where we are assembled. My own brother Thomas was shot through the heart in the "Hornet's Nest" at Shiloh and sleeps today among the immortal dead by the noiseless waters of the Tennessee. Of all that we enlisted in Clop- mont, very few survived, but it fills me with joy to see so many of the survivors of the old Twelfth lowa here. They have come " from hear and from far" for this meeting. making another great milestone in our travels
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through life. It is heart-warming to see so many of those dead heroes' children here; there are, however, but few survivors of that sacred band of old citizens, who cheered the boys to war, to victory or death, at that. little war meeting in 1861.
To me, and to many of us here, everything has a sweet memory and is stamped with battle history. There stands the mill, owned at one time by "Jack Thompson," and afterward and for a long time, by our dear William Larrabee. The Turkey River running by, many of us have lished in, swimmed in, and it's ancient music is still in our hearts. There is no ravine around here that is not made sacred by the memory of dear homes, beloved homes, Irish dances. American dances, Norwegian dances. spelling schools, singing schools, and above all debating schools. These surrounding woods contain memories and sacred stories which will ever be dear to most of those here now and on this very occasion, when Gov- ernor Larrabee is doing so much for this Fayette county and his friends. Let it not be forgotten for I believe that, in the people of Clermont, he ever has bad and has now a generous. honest and enthusiastic constitu-
When we consider what has been done, and is being done in Clermont , you will agree that it is a great mile-post in the life of Governor Larra- bee, and his surrounding friends.
WHAT HAS HE DONE?
My friends, it would be easier to answer the question: What has he failed to do? 'Turn your eyes to yonder square, where we have this day dedicated, through his precious gift, that splendid bronze statue 10 Al- raham Lincoln. It is, as it ought to be, heroie in size; his duplicate has not yet been produced in our country. He gave his life to liberty, and no Union army, regiment or company, failed to recognize him as a comrade. Washington was the father but Lincoln was the preserver of our country. Yonder statue is by one of America's greatest sculptors. What a per- pet ual lesson for our people? Orator, statesman, poet, lawyer. law maker, our chief executive. martyr! His life presents a field that will ever be rich to the historian, the artist and the patriot. Governor Larrabee, you have done much that is good, but I believe that presenting this statue. is one of your greatest acts.
TWELFTH IOWA INFANTRY.
I must make a few observations, especially to my old comrades and friends of the Twelfth lowa Infantry. The history of your state and country will show that no truer body of men entered the United States service during the Civil War. Its history is a part of the bloody history from which was evolved the final and sacred establishment and preser- vation of our Republic. On its great deeds I may not dwell, for history contains all that can be written of a regiment. I wish I could pen to-day the nowritten history of the old Twelfth lowa: the early glowing heart of our patriotic boys when they left home to save their beloved land: the agonies, the tortures of the battle field: the never-to-be-truly-told story of the hospital: the sufferings of that great body of our comrades, known toder the names of father, mother and friends; the ummarked graves, and. ob. if I could tell it. and make the world know it, that peculiar short, almost a yell that followed the victorious struggle of our men. I will not leave that story for the painter of the poet. to sculptor
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or historian; it is buried with our dead and still remembered and cher- ished by our living. It was a part of the grand old Army of the Tennessee, whose commanders were Grant, Sherman, MePherson, Logan and Howard, a part of an army that never lost a single battle during The great civil war, and whose survivors are assembled here.
It would be cruel for me to name one of that regiment and at the same time omit a single name. I superintended the burial of thirteen dead comra des at Shiloh, and they are now in the National Cemetery there with a monument in the center of a half-circle, telling briefly who were buried there. It is sweet to see that the sister of dear, dead, Cap- tain Warner, the wife of Mr. Loomis, bas made her home our home on this occasion, ber table our table, but all of the rest of Captain Warner's family have passed beyond and are with our departed comrades now.
You will pardon mne if I refer to a letter written me, on the 21st of April, 1903, from 279 Henrietta Court, Passadena. California. It was written by a true member of company C, 1 must put it so. It is from Miss E. A. Sorin. In closing she said:
"One thing I forgot to say that I mest not forget.
"I want you to bear my greeting of loving remembrance to company C."
Would you like to hear a word or two about that dear woman? She - was Preceptress of the Upper lowa University at the time of our first war meeting, and saw twenty-two of the old students enlist for the 12th. Our enlistment roll was short, we did not know just what was required for an enlistment roll. Here are the closing words:
"We drop our books to fight our country's battles."
While some of the faculty were frightened at the injury to their school, this dear woman, one of the faculty. never flinched, buni her voice, her tears, and her prayers, went with us from first to last, and her love message I have just delivered. A Southerner born was she, but never for an instant was she other than faithful to the flag of her whole country.
STATUE OF D. B. HENDERSON.
Touching this bronze statue of mys If, I can, should, and will be brief. I am grateful to Governor Larrabee for permitting my old regiment to conduct the unvailing and the dedication of this statue of myself. It is the product first, of Governor Larrabee's own brain and heart; the details of the work were all born of his brain. Personally, I feel a delicacy about. the appearance of a crutch, but Governor Larrabee was the historian, and would have it there as a part of the monument. I am glad to note that my old comrades, with one voice, approved of this feature of the monu- ment. Second, heroic in size, it is the product of one of America's great sculptors, Mr. J. Massey Rhind of New York, like myself, born in Scotland, and I know, like myself, ardently loving his adopted country and its great history. The statue fells its own story. But, oh! how glad I am to learn from your lips, my dear comrades and friends that, Glover- nor Larrabee and the artist have faithfully told the story it is intended to represent. It stands in the street, where, with horses, cattle, blute- jeans and bare feet, I have often gone while a boy, discharging the simple duties of a farmer's life.
You who know me best. can measure the depths of my gratitude, and my inability to tell you what is in my heart to-das.
WILLIAM LARRABEE.
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TWELFTH IOWA
GOVERNOR LARRABEE.
I will be pardoned, I know, for saying a few words about Hon. Wil- liam Larrabee, my boyhood and lifelong friend, but whether you approve of not. I am going to say some things of this great man; something of his work; something of his life; something of his heart, and something of his great character. When I first knew this man, he was hardly more than a boy, leading the work on his brother-in-law's farm in Clayton county, the farm of the Hon. E. I. Williams, whose noble wife still sur- vives him, and who in addition to service on the district bench, became a member of the Supreme Court of lowa, and whose farm isstill enjoyed by his widow and his children. It is just across the line from Fayette county, situated in Clayton county. Many a time in youth I have bound grain by the side of William Larrabee, and I must admit that he could bind a bundle of grain about as quickly as any man Lever knew, and we had more than one test of our skill. Subsequently, he bought that mill down there in Clermont, and it was the boast of the farmers that they could send a load of wheat to Larrabee's mill by their younger children and know absolutely that they would get every cent they were entitled to, Without compensation this Connecticut yankee taught the first singing school on Henderson Prairie; the noble woman, his wife, and I were among his first pupils. He was a constant attendant upon the Henderson Prairie debating school, meeting us at the old stone school boase, and here he partly developed the wonderful mind that has so en- riched his state. Thoroughly educated in Connecticut, this young yan- kee at obce took a front rank, as a leader, thinker and worker in our community. None of his old neighbors fell in battle without his looking up and ascertaining the condition of the surviving members of the dead soldier's family. His heart was ever open, and his purse ever free to those who needed help. Pardon me, if I say that, on my return from wir, minns a leg, he moved without telling me, to have me appointed Commissioner for the Board of Enrollment for this district, and brought. my commission to me while lying on my back after the amputation on my father's farm. With years of industry he has acquired a competency, but no man can truthfully say that there is a soiled dollar in his pocket. The accumulations of his able brain and untiring energy are as clean as his soul. His pen has contributed to the literary works of his time, not fiction, but the solid treatment of great questi ms. He was sixteen years in the State Senate of lowa. the recognized leader of that baly; twice he was the honored Governor of Iowa, and left a record as such Governor, which the most noble aad patriotic m ty well follow as an example. From his birth he was a tireless worker; integrity was stamped upon his soul; each member of his family is a credit to Governor and Mrs. Larrabee, for both have lived together, worked together and are thought of and loved as one. Let um briedy resume. H > has ever been my friend, loved and was loved as a brother: singing ter her, refusing compensation: a constant attendant of a vigorous debating society: a loyal friend of his Govern- ment and of its defenders: a beautiful neighbor; a patron and promoter of art, and I should add, has now a splendid bronze statue of General Chant, which at present stands at his old home in Clermont, the produce- tion of a great sculptor, which will be daly erected bere; an honest miller wise and tireless farmer, a broad-minded and successful law maker; a member of the State Board of Control, where he mapped out the course
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his successors should pursue; an uncompromising patriot; an advocate of a sound, stable, and generous currency; a great Governor of a great state, his influence has been felt in the state, in the Nation, and in his beanti- ful home.
IN CONCLUSION.
I propose three cheers for Governor Larrabee, his accomplished wife, and to all of the citizens of Ciermont. ( Three cheers and a tiger given with wild enthusiasm. ) And now, my friends, with gratitude to you who have come so far to spend this day with us, and with an affection which I hope will grow with life, I will bid each and all a kind good-bye.
COL. D. B HENDERSON.
Senator Dolliver's Address. .
Senator Dolliver, who delivered the principal address of the day, was given an ovation when he arose to speak. Ils oration was an eloquent effort. Touching at length on the character and achievements of Col. Henderson his address made a marked impression. He said:
Members of the 12th Iowa and Fellow Citizens: - The honor of taking part in the exercises of this day is one which I sincerely appreciate. 1 thank the veterans of the Twelfth lowa for their invitation to speak a few words about their old comrade whose statue they have dedicated amid these scenes of his early manhood, among the neighbors and friends who have followed his career with affection and pride all the days of his life.
The erection of these monuments, one to the great President, and the other to a typical volunteer soldier, is an act thoroughly characteristic of the honored citizen to whose public spirit the people of lowa owe this generous contribution to the higher life of the commonwealth. It was not the privilege of Governor Larrabee to serve in the ranks of the army in the field. though he org thized a company and tenderedi his own service. But from the outbreak of the rebellion to the surrender at Appomattox, his patriotic heart was with the enlisting rezim uts, encouraging them by words of cheer, caring for their families while they were away, and in after years proving by unnumbered acts of kindness his right to the place he has always held in the gratitude and good will of the surviving veterans.
Few men in the history of our state have served the people with such distinction in the various offires which he has occupied. He has shown the most complete devotion to public interests and has discharged his duties with an eye single to the welfare of the commonnity. He has not needed the pomp and ceremony of official station: for his counsel and guidance in the management of all publie business, have never been more acceptable or more valuable than since he bas occupied the position and exercised the rights of a private citizen.
In other times as interested travelers pause on their journey through this beautiful valley to look upon these impressive figures, commentoral-
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ing names famous in our annals as a people, they will not forget the unpre- tentions citizen, conspicuous for more than a generation in the affairs of the state, who has enriched the community with such an enduring legacy.
Their erection has in it a significance somewhat deeper than at first appears. They are a witness or rather they preserve the testimony of one who has done his full part in the material development of the state, that the time has come for the people of lowa to turn aside from the pursuit of business, to consider the place in our scheme of popular education which belongs to the ornaments of grace and beauty. It foreshadows the approach of that public opinion which will attract into the homes of our people, and into all our public institutions the Intinences of the ther arts, and at last make the state, already the abode of wealth and culture. a contributor in a still larger sense to the real assets of the world.
It is a pleasure to all of us that the sculptor whose genius created the statue of Lincoln which we have dedicated today, is present on the plat- foma, and I take great pleasure in presenting Mr. Bissell, who has come all the way from his home in New York, to join in the exercises of the day. He is not only a great artist but was a good soldier in the Union army.
(Senator Dalliver at this point brought Mr. Bissel forward amid hearty enthusiast in which the whole andience shared. )
Senator Dolliver continued:
Now that the thread of us discourse has been interrupted, I will say another thing. The author of the Henderson stattie is not here, but There is one here who has had as much to do in shaping the character and moulding the career of Colonel Henderson as the art ist had in giving form and stature to his image in bronze. I ask the Twelfth Iowa to salute Colonel Henderson's wife the woman who has shared his honors, and helped to carry his burdens.
(Senator Dolliver at this point escorted Mrs. Henderson to the front of the platform, the whole audience rising and following the members of The old regiment in three rousing cheers for her. The Senator then con- tinted his speech. )
Governor Larrabee has been peealiarly fortunate in choosing his hermes. It is a difficult thing to pick out. especially from a list of men of our own time, appropriate subjects to be perpetuated in bronze or marble. It has been said that the sculptor's art is the most helpless of all the efforts of the human mind to express itself. Therefore the statute of a man seldom does more than to record the accepted est imate of his charac. ter and his achievements. It adds nothing to what he is and little to the rafattat ion of what he has done. There is a sense in which a statne is a thing sacred and set apart so that men and women Looking upon it may be made better, wiser, stronger, by considering the manner of man he actually was. "Show me the man you honor;" said Thomas Carlyle, "I know by that symptom better than any other what kind of a man you yourself are." This conclusion of the whole matter of statue making the blunt old Sevichman writes down in the midst of his fierce philippic on the subject of a proposed stattle to a anecessful railroad promoter of 1850, a how entirety forgotten mmultiamillionaire by the name of Hudson, and incidentally against " that extraordinary population of brazen and other images" which at the time dominated the market places of towns and salletel worship from the Baglish people.
MONTH REUNION
A statue of Lincoln, while it adds nothing to him, is in itself a worthy commentary upon the national character, for it brings us face to face with the grandest, simplest, purest life that was ever lived by a man among the children of men. It stands for an epoch in human affairs in which were blended all the heroisms, all the sublime aspirations, all the pathetie sacrifices which have made the national life worth living. Yel there is a meaning which takes even a stronger holdt upon our hearts, in the other figure standing there on crutches and looking down upon us with the benignity of an old neighbor and an old friend. Abraham Lin- coln has already become one of the legends of our heroic age. All the rugged lines have been smoothed out of that care-worn face; while the man himself, who once sat upon store boxes and entertained villagers with eurions narratives drawn from the homely experiences of his own life, of the quaint resources of his imagination, has been lifted up by the common consent of mankind above all thrones and has taken his angust rank in the midst of the ages.
A statue of David B. Henderson brings back to us in a more intimate way the events of that period without taking us very far from home. It is fitting that this monument should stand here near the pioneer farm- house from which Colonel Henderson and his two brothers went out as soldiers of the republic, and that these ceremonies should be conducted by those who remain of the regiment in which he served with sush gal- lantry and renown. Not very far from this spot is the prairie upon which his parents established their homestead in 1849. They had come from a foreign land, but from a country so like our own in its inheritance of free- dom that its scattered children have had little difficulty in making them- selves at home everywhere in the United States.
I heard Colonel Henderson once in the midst of a gay social assembly at our capital, in answer to the question of a fashionable lady, relate the story of their long journey from Old Deer, Scotland, to America. He told of the injustice of the landlord's son who had come into the estate; of the anger of his old Scotch father, and of his resolution to take his little family, David being the youngest, and make his way to a new land to find better opportunities for his children; a land where "a man is a man for a that." Ile related also his visit to his old home a year or two ago, passing modestly over his audience with Kings and noblemen, to tell of his effort to discover among those who were acquainted with his family in Scotland, some one who had known his mother; and of finding only one who could tell him anything about ber, an aged woman who only fe- membered that she was kind to the poor and was often seen going about carrying in a basket some delicacy tor the sick.
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