USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Turner > A history of Turner, Maine, from its settlement to 1886 > Part 18
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It is fit on such an occasion as this that we should rejoice, and that our hearts should be filled with great gladness. We can today catch the faint echo of our boyish shouts still linger- ing among the hills and valleys of old Turner. Age has only increased her loveliness. There are no wrinkles about her heart. It beats with the freshness of perennial youth. It is only the outward form that shows the lapse of years. Old age is at all times sacred, but when that age is simply the sum and substance of good deeds and a life moving in a regular and illustrious course of virtue, then it becomes more than sacred,
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it becomes honorable and venerable. It is with such feelings that we regard our native town of Turner. We honor her for her pure unspotted record, and venerate her as the place where good and honorable men and women have lived and died. The fragrance of their memory clings around her still, and as the sentiments of honor and veneration exalt the mind, we are lifted up, as it were, by such contemplation to grander thoughts and nobler life.
A few days ago, the wires flashed across the ocean the intel- ligence that our sister Republic of France had passed an act exiling all her so-called princes, descendants of the royal fami- lies who had in former times ruled over her, and the papers were full to overflowing with descriptions of their sorrowful and pathetic departure from their native country. It was a cruel act, and an unwise and foolish one from whatever standpoint you view it. In marked distinction from this is the action of that municipality whose hundredth birthday we celebrate today. She not only strives to retain the Princes she has, but would gladly welcome back any wandering Princes. Her citizens are not all Solons, but the spirit of the wise Lawgiver has descended upon them, and they recognize the fact that no country can afford to part with good men and faithful citizens, be they of royal race, or unknown lineage, unused to toil, or skilled in driving them steers.
Standing at the end of the first century of the town, we involuntarily cast our eyes backward and seek to view the past. The later years are seen in the broad sunlight of midday, but as we go further back the shadows deepen, the twilight thickens, until as we approach the end, the darkness gathers. Such age would seem to be the merest childhood, when com- pared with the age of those ancient monuments which have looked out over the sands of Egypt for thousands of years, but measuring age by the good wrought to our fellow-men, by purity of life, and faithful labors in the great cause of humanity, and
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not by the mere lapse of years, the comparison would not be so manifestly unequal. New England ideas of religious liberty, free education, freedom to all, have gone forth and permeated not only this wide land, but most quarters of the globe, and my faith in the truth of such ideas, and in the power and gracious- ness of an overruling Providence, is so strong that I believe their sway will grow wider and wider, until it embraces the whole earth. These ideas are the outgrowth of New England intelligence and culture, and have been the mainspring of the actions and lives of the inhabitants of this town. As our eyes turn backward, we see standing out prominently in the history of the town for these hundred years, the famous men of the town and the notable deeds accomplished by them. I will not attempt to enumerate them. It is not my province to sing their praises today. Eulogies of them and their deeds will be heard on every hand. They are the men and deeds which give honor and character to a town, as the world goes, but I wish to go deeper than this mere superficial view. I wish to give honor where honor is due. I wish to call up before you today the mem- ories of those men and women whom the world has not called great or famous, but who, in this goodly town, have lived and died, doing within the narrow walks of their daily life their duty to God and man. Honorable and faithful to the few trusts committed to them, their lives were redolent of purity and vir- tue, and their sweet memories, embalmed in the hearts of their fellow-citizens, were their grandest monuments. It is this class of men and women that constitute the strength and beauty of the land. From among them spring those whom we term the great men of their day, men, who by the exercise of some power or advantage, have lifted themselves or been lifted above the mass of their fellows. From their solitary position they tower aloft, and are seen and admired of all men, just as the spire of a grand monument is seen and admired more than the founda- tions of the superstructure. Judging by the eye alone, the spire
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constitutes the whole of the monument, but the good, strong foundation is as essential to the monument, and really contrib- utes as much to its strength and glory, as the towering spire pointing heavenward. To apply this illustration to the human edifice, these honest, God-fearing, and God-loving men and women constitute the broad, substantial, and sound foundation upon which the whole superstructure of our civil and religious liberty rests, and while that superstructure is adorned with many lofty spires and glittering minarets, which attract the eye and please the fancy, yet if they were not supported by these firm foundations they would fall and crumble in ruins. It is not given to every man to be a great man, but goodness often outranks greatness, even in the present life, while the triumph- ant declaration comes pealing down the ages,
" He has put down the mighty from their seat, And hath exalted them of low degree."
The man upon whose tombstone can be truthfully written, "faithful unto the end," is a noble man, whether the world calls him great or not. Let us be careful then in our judgment, and not measure men wholly by the eye. I repeat, let us give honor where honor is due.
" 'T is greatly wise to talk with our past hours, And ask them what report they bore to heaven."
Not only is this true of the contemplation of our own past, but also of the contemplation of past ages. It is of advantage just in proportion as we draw therefrom correct ideas of duty and responsibility, and weave those ideas into the woof and warp of our actual life. Life has been well described as a pilgrimage up a steep and toilsome ascent in which the successes and failures of others form beacon lights to guide us on our way. Every step of progress is made by climbing up over the failures of those who have sunk down fainting by the wayside. And in pauses, such as this of today, in the weary struggle up the hill of life, when we turn around, and resting at our ease look back
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adown the long vista of the past, not only upon the small past covered by our own lives, but over the advance accomplished in the years preceding, it seems fit that we should, if possible, each one for himself, draw true lessons therefrom. The lives of these good men and women of Turner furnish striking examples for us. They were careful to be right, and consistently and conscientiously firm when a conclusion was reached. Standing today on the border line between two centuries, and looking back on their calm, peaceful, and happy lives, which begun, con- tinued, and ended within the boundaries of this quiet town, the conviction insensibly but surely steals over us, that the great foe to the happiness and comfort of the American people is the wild and insane struggle for wealth. Everything is brought and freely laid on this sacrificial altar, - health, comfort, happiness, and even life itself, and alas, often in vain, and the remaining years are embittered by wild longings and vain regrets. Our American life is conducted largely on the high pressure principle, everything is whirled along with startling rapidity, and even those who would fain resist this tendency are borne along by the mighty rush and swirl of the current. A large proportion of the American people, instead of promoting and encouraging the beauties and graces of life, willingly run them down with railroad and steamboat, or crush them to atoms between the massive cogwheels of our factories. I call attention to this tendency of the age, that the young men and fair maidens I see before me, may realize from the lives I have been describing the important truth that true comfort and happiness may be found as well within the borders of your own town, as at any other place. Stick to your native town, young men. Become the
"Type of the wise, who soar but do not roam,
True to the kindred points of heaven and home."
As the evening shades shall bring these exercises to a close, many of us will pass from these scenes to other towns, there to
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take up again the thread of our daily life, but I leave with each one of you the wish that your life may be so unsullied, that at its close you may be deserving of a better tribute than I have been able to offer today to those citizens of my native town who are unknown to fame.
HON. E. B. WASHBURN'S ADDRESS.
Mr. President : -
I beg leave to recall to you a certain incident. When you did me the honor to invite me to be present on this occasion, you were kind enough to say that I should not be called upon to take any part in the exercises against my inclination. I am certain that I did not expect that a gentleman so well known, and so much respected by all the people of Turner, and in fact by all the people of Maine, would break his word to me on this occasion. When he told me that I should not be expected to make a speech, I concluded that I might safely run down from Port Royal, which was the original name of Livermore, to Sylvester-Canada, which you know was the original name of Turner.
I have made in my life- you will all see it has been a very short one - as many speeches as any white man should ever make. I have not only made a great many public speeches, but I have made a good many private speeches, both to gentle- men, and I may say to ladies, and so far as the latter are concerned, I do not think that I ever gained much so far as the returns have come in from the back towns. But I could not conceal or suppress the strong desire I felt to be present here today, and to meet so many people of my native State, and, I might say, of my own neighborhood, the neighborhood of my nativity. And when I look around me and see all these strong and stalwart men, and all of these beautiful and gracious women, I feel that no one can blame me for desiring to be here today. For I am interested in all that concerns the history of
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Maine, and especially of that locality in Maine in which I was raised. I have always been proud of my native State ; I have always been proud of her history. And, Mr. President, if I ever forget or forsake that dear all-mother of ours, Maine, may this strong right arm fall from my shoulder blade, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. I love the history of my native State. I love her grand mountains and her great lakes. I love her fir clad hills and her smiling valleys, and I love her tall pines and her strong oaks. I revere her history, going back to old colonial times, the times of Sir William Phips, of whom Mr. French spoke, and of Mr. Pepperill. And you men of Maine will remember that there were but two men knighted by the mother country, in New England, and those two men were natives of Maine, William Phips of Woolwich, and William Pepperill of Kittery.
I remember, coming down to a later time, two of the greatest men who were ever born in Maine, Rufus King of Scarborough, and George Evans of Hallowell, and in that opinion I believe my friend, Governor Perham, will agree with me. And I will come down to later times even, and I trust I may be excused if I refer to Oxford County, my native county, and indulge in a certain pride in the men of that county. I need not tell you that the first lawyer that ever settled in this village was Ezekiel Whitman, who came here in the midst of a blinding snow storm on the 7th of May, 1799. Every citizen of Turner will be proud to recollect that Judge Whitman, who achieved so much honor as a jurist, and who was one of the glories of the State of Maine, lived here in your village. And I might come down to the present moment and mention one of the most prominent men of the time, whose name is upon all your lips. Turner gave him to the country. You anticipate me when I say Eugene Hale, Senator of the United States from the State of Maine, a man so distinguished for his character, for his conspicuous ability, for his great knowledge of public affairs, saying nothing of the loyalty which he has always shown (applause).
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These are some of the glories of Turner. And, sir, my friend here at my left, although he may possibly be a little younger than I, will recollect the time when the country towns like Turner used to give the great men to the State, and I wish it were so today; I wish the country held its own against the town. In those days it was at the cross roads, at the four corners, that your great lawyers settled, like Judge Whitman, like General Fessenden at New Gloucester, and Simon Green- lief at New Gloucester, and would lay deep and broad founda- tions for their future success in their profession in the quiet of country life. In those times everybody did not seem to desire to rush to the centers of population ; they were content to live in the country, and to be a part of the country. And it is my pride and boast, Mr. President, that my father lived sixty-seven years in your adjoining town on the very spot where I was born ; and he was contented with his lot, and, like the parson as described by Goldsmith, "he never changed nor wished to change his place"; he was contented to live in the country. And I wish it were so at the present time; I wish the people would remain more in the country and not go away from their homes, because the country is the place. You strike out the country towns of Maine and what would be left? £ I do not know why the people of Maine should not be satisfied. You have the most glorious summer climate in the United States, and I am glad to know that the people all over the country begin to appreciate it, and come here every summer in increas- ing numbers. And your winters, they tell a great deal about your winters, and I think sometimes the people of Maine them- selves are foremost in depreciating the State and talking about the severity of the winters. Our fathers and our mothers lived here summers and winters alike, and if we cannot do it, I think we are a pretty poor set of creatures. The winters are not so bad; they are cold, as a matter of course, but I observe you have fine warm houses, and at every fireside in the winter time
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there sit enthroned intelligence and virtue and progress. And when the genial spring comes kindly on, after the repose of winter, all are ready for the duties of summer. And in Maine, I believe, there is as much true happiness as there is anywhere that I have ever been. And my faith is shown somewhat by my works, for every time I can get to Maine I am certain to come, and I intend to come as long as I can get money enough to pay my expenses. Let the people of Maine be satisfied ; let them be contented to remain at home. They have happy homes, good government, good town government, which Judge Gilbert spoke of so much to my gratification, and I would not want to see it changed. These country people, however they may be regarded in the city by the men who wear stovepipe hats, and tall collars, and squeaky boots, are a pretty good set of fellows, and I hope to see them hold their own, and more than their own, and go forward and not backward. It is of public importance that the country towns should be kept up, for
" Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied."
I am delighted to be able to be present here, even for a few hours. It has renewed my love for my native State, and my hopes for its prosperity and its happiness. I am delighted at what I have seen here today. I am more than delighted with the display which has been made here today; and, for one, I shall carry with me to my distant home the most agreeable souvenirs of this interesting occasion. And I know, having enjoyed ourselves as we have, we will all agree, if we are alive, to return on a similar occasion in 1986. And if we shall see as much improvement as we have seen in the century gone by, I presume we will have the same contentment that we have today, and the same desire, remembering all of the experiences of today, to come back here just one century hence.
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EX-GOVERNOR MERRILL OF IOWA.
Ladies and Gentlemen : -
I have come a long way to meet old friends. My father's family was born in the southern portion of this town, and as a family we are all here today, numbering six, one-half of whom have passed their threescore years and ten, and by reason of strength are approaching their fourscore years. I am next to the youngest of the family. We meet around the family board probably for the last time. And, coming here after an absence of forty odd years, it is a very great pleasure to me to meet so many that I used to know. There is, with me, a mingling of sadness as well as of joy ; joy to see so many, and sadness to see and feel that so many have passed away. I am not accus- tomed to make public speeches, though I have had the honor, as was suggested by your president, to be the governor of the great State of Iowa. I never attained that honor by making any public speeches. I was asked by a gentleman last winter, while I was in California, how it was possible for a man to get to be governor of Iowa and not make a speech. I told him that was probably the reason I got the position, that if I had made a speech I might not have been so fortunate.
I remember of reading, three years ago, some remarks of Hannibal Hamlin when he met with the sons of Maine at Chicago. He said that more great men had gone out of Oxford County than any other county in the world, and he mentioned about twenty of them; but fortunately or unfortu- nately he did not mention me, so I concluded I was not so great a man after all. Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much indeed for bringing about this grand meeting, and now I bid you goodby. Goodby, John; goodby, Henry; goodby, Louisa, and a hundred such names I might mention ; I bid you all goodby.
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DR. PEARL MARTIN OF MEDFORD, MASS.
Mr. President, and Fellow-citizens of My Native Town : -
I thank you for this kind greeting. Although I have been an errant son for more than thirty years, there is a warm place in my heart for the friends of my boyhood. There is no spot on God's green earth that I love as I do my old home, and this grand old town on the banks of the beautiful Androscoggin. Every drop of water that flows in that dear old river, from the lake to Merrymeeting Bay, is sacred to me. The very sight of the old river is sufficient to call up all the memories of the past, and to moisten and make green all the withered leaves about the recollections of my youth. It carries me back to the time when I sported on its banks, and paddled my frail raft on its crystal waters, and waded neck deep to gather the pale lilies that were as white as the driven snow, and as pure as the dreams of sleeping innocence. I am confused by thousands of childish recollections that rush upon me at this time. I see before me a cyclorama on which is painted every event of my early life.
" And memory paints raptures that manhood in vain Would barter the wealth of the world to regain, And clothes with a halo of beauty and truth The friends of his boyhood, the home of his youth."
I see in the foreground of the picture the green in front of the old homestead and the hill in the rear. I see the barn, the orchard, the garden, the hay-mow on which I used to land when I turned somersaults from the great beam overhead. I can see the old stump on the bank of the river where I caught my first minnow. I can see all the green hills, fields, woods, the creeks, bogs, lakes, rivers, and rivulets, from Auburn to Livermore, from the great river to the western stream. I see little school children in the dewy morn picking roses by the roadside to give to their teacher.
The scene changes from the season of the year when all nature is robed in her loveliest apparel, to the season of the
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year when vegetable life is held in the icy fangs of a northern winter. I see boys and girls sliding and skating on the ice covered ponds and rivers. I see sleds shooting down snow covered hills. I see snow banks by the roadside printed by the frolicsome forms of schoolboys. I see in the hazy distance the graves of loved ones. I see still further in the dim distance a monumental pile with its shaft piercing the very sky, built out of the solid gratitude of the best spirits of Turner, and sacred to the memory of those far-seeing men, who endowed this town with the school fund.
I see before me men and women, whose hairs are silvered by the circling years, and whose lineal marks are cut deep by the anxious cares of life, whom I once knew when their cheeks were radiant with the glow of health and the blush of modest youth.
CLARENCE HALE OF PORTLAND.
Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : -
MY FRIENDS OF TURNER : - I am very glad to be here. I am very glad to add my voice to this noble celebration. The memories of Turner and the intimacies of Turner are some of the most gracious and blesssed things of my life. I was born within half a mile of where I now stand. My father was born there, and lived there seventy-two years. My grandfather lived there fifty-six years. So that within that orbit of time, every memory, every scene of that old farm is made sacred and memorable to me. Mr. President, as the historical orator this morning was describing in his careful, suggestive, and interest- ing manner the past events of Turner, I was thinking how many things are beyond the realm of recorded history. How many things, the most sacred to you and to me, who have lived in Turner and who have gone out from Turner, are beyond the realm of recorded history, because they are the things that per_ tain to life, to the growth of thought, to the growth of character
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to the growth of things that are making this town great, noble, and memorable today. Mr. President, who can describe historically what the old fall schools have done for Turner ? Think of it! Who can describe what the fall schools have done for Turner simply by saying who the teachers were, simply by dwelling upon the important function that the school exerted in the history of Turner ? There are things deeper than that. They were the things that organized the thought of the people ; they were the circles from which have gone out all the culture and all the thought that are making Turner a historical town today, a well-educated town today, a town which is sending her men and women all over the world to be religious teachers and educational teachers in the world of thought and the history of the times. Who can describe, Mr. President, what the town- meetings of Turner have done, those town-meetings presided over so many years by your honored father, Hon. Job Prince ? Who can conceive what a stimulus was given by those debates that I as a boy have heard in those town-meetings, where the men rose and expressed themselves with all the earnestness, with all the vigor that any of us have ever heard in any legis- lative assembly since ?
Who can describe what the grand homes of Turner have done for the town? Who can describe, by saying who the. fathers and mothers were, by describing historically those houses and those homes - who can elaborate and describe their potent effect throughout the past history of the town, and throughout the future ?
But, Mr. President, I do not intend to make a speech ; I am here simply to add my word, to say how glad I am to be here, how glad I have been all day to shake the hands of old com- rades and schoolmates of mine, and of my father and mother of the past ; and I can only add what the eloquent orator just before me has said,-stay in Turner ; and I will presume to add to that, if you do not stay in Turner, stay true to the moral
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and religious lessons of Turner ; stay true to the lessons of these homes, and of these fathers and mothers for all time to come.
COL. F. M. DREW OF LEWISTON.
Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : -
Today has reminded me of one of the pleasantest things that I ever remember, and that is the Thanksgiving reunion when all of us used to go home to grandfather's, and when grand- mother always let us do just what we wanted to. We children had a good time and a good dinner. Well, we have now come home today to our mother. She has arrived at her one hun- dredth year, a venerable old lady. She has invited us all home, and we have come from near and from far; we have come two or three thousand strong, and the old lady must excuse us if we have been letting ourselves out and having a good time. And right here I want to ask the pardon of these able men and women who have so well entertained us by their historical addresses and by the beautiful poems, and I promise, on the part of us boys and girls, who have been having a good time shaking hands outside, that if the historian will put them all into his book, he may put us down on his list, and we will agree to read also what is published in the Lewiston Journal.
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