USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Turner > A history of Turner, Maine, from its settlement to 1886 > Part 19
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But, Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen, it has afforded me very great pleasure to be here ; although the greatest part of my life has been spent elsewhere, it has always been my pride and pleasure that I was born in this town. The city may be a good place to live in, but the town is a better place to be born in. This has been a delightful occasion to me, because for the first time for almost thirty-four years, I have met many of my old friends and acquaintances. And, speaking for all, I know that I have a right to congratulate the town, the officers, and the committees, upon the magnificent preparations which you have made for this celebration. I say that your parade
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this morning has not been excelled by any other town, - cer- tainly by any of its size. So, in closing, allow me to say that we go away bearing with us pleasant memories of the old town, and loyal hearts to Turner.
DR. KENDALL NEWHALL OF RHODE ISLAND.
Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : -
I am from a town which has a sacred name, the name of Providence, a place in Rhode Island, the smallest State in the union, a State that was founded under peculiar circum- stances, and under a special providence, such as guides and governs every one of us in all of our efforts. A particular Providence led Roger Williams to leave Massachusetts and go to Rhode Island; a particular Providence attends us all in every act and in every word ; a particular Providence numbers the days of our lives ; a particular Providence makes us sick ; a particular Providence restores us to health. It is in accor- dance with this that I appear before you on this occasion.
Turner is my native town; Turner was the place of my boyhood; and it was the place that I left in my very early manhood. And I am thus induced to be here today, and to con- gratulate you on the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the town. Its religious privileges, its religious duties, its Sabbath day observances have not entered much into the exer- cises of today, but they cannot be dispensed with, and set aside as unimportant ; they are something to be recognized. Hence I refer to these matters, and I beg to be excused from any more words, for I did not expect to be called upon at all.
ORIN BEARCE OF MISSOURI.
I am not a politician, nor a public speaker. I desire simply to return my sincere thanks to those who have brought about this grand reunion in my native town. It is a great gratification
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to me, and I have come thirteen or fourteen hundred miles to be here with you. I have enjoyed myself very much. It would be vain in me to try to entertain this intelligent audience, and I shall not attempt to make a speech.
EX-GOVERNOR SIDNEY PERHAM OF PARIS.
I am glad your president has informed you that he does not ask of me a speech. I am under heavy bonds not to make a speech, and I have not made any for a long while. I judge this will be very good news to some of you who have heard my voice too often in times past. I came here today because I wanted to come. I wanted to mingle with the citizens of Turner, and with the sons and daughters who have gone out of this good old town and return today for the purpose of cele- brating your anniversary. And at the risk of breaking the bond I spoke of, I want to relate one incident and then I will close. I was reminded of it by the very excellent procession you had this morning, and especially by that part of it repre- senting the old church music. It illustrates how very conven- ient the name of Turner is sometimes, and how persons have been helped out of very serious dilemmas by using it. There was a good old deacon up in the town of Rumford some years ago, who led the choir in the old church as deacons were in the habit of doing. Some of you remember that in those old times, they had a fork by which they pitched the tune. The leader would strike it upon something, and hold it up to his ear to get the key, and then sound it vocally before he named the tune, and before the choir began to sing. The deacon took out his fork from his pocket, and struck it on something before him, put it up to his ear to get the sound, and then made the vocal sound corresponding to it, and undertook to give the name of the tune, but he had forgotten it, and could not recollect it for his life. By and by, a happy thought striking him, he looked
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down into one of the pews near him and said, "Mother, mother, where does Sallie live?" " Turner," said the old lady. " Turner," said the deacon, and the choir went on and sang the tune.
SOLON CHASE.
Mr. President : -
I will take but a moment of your time. I hope you who have returned to the old manor have had a good time today ; I hope you have enjoyed yourselves. Some of you have gone west ; some of you have gone south, and some to the southwest ; and some of you have helped to fill up our cities in Maine. You have come back to the old home to see us today. We are glad to see you. We hope you have had a good time. All of us did not leave the town ; some of us are here, and we are going to stick. So when you come back again, at the end of the next hundred years, friends, you will find somebody here to welcome you. We will be here at that time. I believe you have had a good time today. I have met many of you, and you have cor- dially grasped my hand. As for myself, I have enjoyed religion hugely (laughter). One hundred years have gone by, and of course we look backward and say, " What an improvement has been made !" Why, a hundred years ago it was a good deal of work to go to New Gloucester to mill, and now we go to Min- neapolis, and don't think of it. A hundred years ago, New Gloucester was a good way off, and now the whole world is a neighborhood, right in our neighborhood. Here we reach right out and communicate with everybody and everything. A hun- dred years more are going to roll by. We are wise in our day. We stand up in the town of Turner and point back and say what we have done, and we think we are the wisest men in the world, and think everything has been learned and done. But let me tell you when the next hundred years have gone by, they will have take-offs in their procession on us of today. They
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will be hauling our road machine around in the procession as an antiquated relic of the past. We think it is a big thing. In a hundred years from now in the procession, they will have a town-meeting in operation with only men voting, and point back to this day as a time of barbarism, when we did n't allow the women to vote. We have cranks you know, lots of them. A hundred years hence, they will look back to the cranks of today and call them far-seeing philosophers. Now, don't let us think we know it all ; don't let us think we are going to stop right here ; don't let us think there will not be progress in the next hundred years. I did not want to say a word here today, and I would not, but the president called so many names of those that have gone away from here, and failed to get any response, and then he said I was always ready. Don't you know every man and woman in the town of Turner is always ready to make a speech. But we do not want to talk here today ; we are right here all the time, and we have a chance to make speeches in our town-meetings ; but you people that are away from here do not have that opportunity. We want you to come back at the end of the next hundred years, and if we are not all here then, there will be somebody here to drive them steers. [Laughter and applause, and three cheers for Uncle Solon.]
DANIEL LARA OF AUBURN.
I did not expect to be called on, and I am not going to make a speech. There have been some anecdotes told of the old families in town, and something has been said about the Leavitt family among others. There was one old man by the name of Leavitt that we called Uncle Cyrus in the olden time. He had a receipt for setting out cabbage plants, and Turner being something of an agricultural community, and the receipt being among the lost arts to this generation, I think I will give it to
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you. Uncle Cyrus said, "If you want to set out cabbage plants and have them do well, you must pull them up about nine o'clock in the morning of a dry day, and lay them out on a board, and the next morning turn them over, and the next morning set them out, and they will be damned glad to take hold."
RUFUS PRINCE.
I am no speaker, and if I were, I have worked so hard for the last two weeks in getting ready for this celebration, that I am too weary to make a speech. But, ladies and gentlemen, I can say that I feel proud of Turner's centennial ; I feel proud to say that I have had a part in it. It is one of the proudest things of my life. I shall always recollect this day, and I believe that every person that lives in Turner will feel proud hereafter to look back upon this day. I wish, ladies and gen- tlemen, to thank you all for what you have done. You have all done what you could to assist your committee, and your com- mittee has tried to carry out the wishes of the town. If we have succeeded, fellow-citizens, I am very glad indeed ; if we have not, please overlook all the imperfections of the day, and believe that we have done as we thought best for your interest.
NOTE. Samuel Andrews noticed on page 64, lived on the Lower Street, where Lewis Briggs now lives. He made a stone mortar in which corn was made into meal by pounding. It held about a bushel. When Rev. George Bates rebuilt the house, about 1836, he found this mortar, and buried it in the middle of the cellar, under the ell part of the house. It is supposed to lie there now.
ERRATA.
Page I, first line, for right read west.
66 I, tenth line, for left read east.
3, last line, for puly read duly.
9, sixteenth line, for 1870 read 1770.
66 52, twelfth line, for 1801 read 1781.
" 274, sixth line from bottom should read sit instead of sleep.
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