USA > North Carolina > Guilford County > Greensboro > The history of the first North Carolina reunion at Greensboro, N. C., October eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, nineteen hundred and three > Part 14
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Resolved, By the non-resident natives of North Carolina in attend- ance upon the first Reunion of the sons and daughters of the Old North State at Greensboro, that their most hearty thanks are due and are hereby tendered :
First. To the General Assembly and Governor of the State. and to the municipality of Greensboro, and the various organizations of her citizens, for the cordial invitation to gather again around the ancestral hearthstone;
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Second. To the reception committee on the part of the State, com- posed of executive, legislative, and judicial officers; the United States Senators and Representatives in Congress and judges: to the reception committee on the part of the county of Guilford; the reception commit- tee on the part of the city of Greensboro; the ladies' reception com- mittee; and the local committees on transportation, decorations, badges. information and registration, program and arrangements, luncheon at the Battle Ground. and the press committee, for innumerable courtesies and kind attentions :
Third. To the railroads which have given a special rate for this occasion ;
Fourth. To our venerable and courtly presiding officer. General Ransom, and to speakers who have welcomed us in words which will warm our hearts as long as we live :
Fifth. To the teachers and students of the State Normal and Industrial College for Women. and the Greensboro Female College, for the delightful and instructive entertainments given us on Monday evening: and to the institutions and organizations which have estab- lished headquarters with open doors at various places throughout the city ;
Sixth. To the patriotic and enterprising Guilford Battle Ground Company : and
Last. With the most grateful appreciation which it is possible for us to express. to the superb board of managers of the North Carolina Reunion Association and their incomparable chairman, Dr. Charles D. McIver, to whom we feel that we are indebted for an epoch-making occasion in the history of North Carolina.
These resolutions were unanimously adopted, after which Rev. Dr. Moore, at the request of Governor Avcock, pronounced the benediction.
And thus ended our great Reunion, which is pronounced a great success : which will go into the history of the Old North State as a glorious occasion : and which in its far-reaching influence exceeds the fondest hopes of its most ardent friends and promoters.
Voices of the Absent
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Honorable James E. Boyd United States District Judge
Voices of the Absent
Practical Results
One of the practical results of the Reunion movement has been to show the mutual advantages of organization of non-residents into North Carolina Societies in our larger cities and elsewhere. By such organi- zation these at home and those abroad are enrolled to keep in frater- nal touch and to see and know more of each other. It is helpful in a thousand ways. The good in one stimulates the best in the other. The one at home is inspired by the success of the one abroad. The non- resident is proud of the achievements of the Tarheel on his native heath. These organizations bring us together and foster a fraternal feeling and helpful spirit.
Thousands of letters of the following import have been received at headquarters, showing that the object of the movement. which was not only to foster a beautiful fraternal feeling but to effect a thorough organization of North Carolinians at home, has been attained :
"As non-resident natives of North Carolina, we, the undersigned, now resident in Colorado, send greeting.
"We commend you most heartily in calling this notable gathering of the sons and daughters of the Old North State. Loyal they all are to their native soil, and whatever concerns the welfare of the State that gave them birth is not without interest to them.
"This reunion will be productive of great good in that it will show the rapid strides that the State is making along industrial and educa- tional lines, and you who are carrying on the splendid work will gather new inspiration.
"Though absent in person, we are, one and all, with you in spirit on these notable days, and may they be the beginning of an ammal gathering that shall unite more closely still all the sons and daughters of North Carolina.
"J. M. Canada, Denver, Col .. Guilford County, U. N. C .: Cora May Gwinn, Denver. Col., Rockingham County : J. B. Tarris. Denver, Col., Granville County : Kemp B. Stephens, Denver, Col., Orange County ; Chas. B. Livingstone, Denver, Col., Hen- F. N. C. R .- X 137
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derson County: A. R. Oates. Denver, Col., Henderson County : W. II. Gill, Denver, Col., Iredell County ; Chas. E. Ward, Den- ver, Col., Wake County; R. P. Mills, "Clothe, Col., Madison County : J. B. Killian, Delta, Col., Madison County : C. R. Os- borne. Delta, Col., Madison County; W. O. Temple, Cripple Creek, Col .. Warren County : Mrs. Suffner, Dewey, Col .. Wake County : Roderick MeIver, Denver, Col., Moore County ; David Sellars, Hayden. Col., Moore County."
In addition to these letters expressing the fraternal phase, the more practical one of organization has been developed by the formation of North Carolina Societies in New York, Baltimore, Richmond, Philadel- phia, Norfolk, Atlanta, Macon, New Orleans, Chicago, Seattle, and several other cities.
Extract from Letter of Woodrow Wilson President of Princeton University
It would afford me the most gennine pleasure to attend the North Carolina Reunion if I were not tied fast on the very days for which it is set. I have imperative engagements on those days, and can not go a foot from home.
I have no doubt that the Reunion will be the best possible success, and wish you the greatest satisfaction in the whole matter.
Very cordially yours, WOODROW WILSON.
Extract from Letter of Speaker Cannon
Your favor of the 22d instant, covering invitation to the Reunion of Non-Resident and Resident North Carolinians at Greensboro, on Octo- ber 12th and 13th, received. Please accept my thanks for the same. I very much regret that my engagements are such that it is not possi- ble for me to be present. I really wish I could be.
Hoping that the Reunion may be a perfect success, and thanking you again for the courtesy of the invitation, I am,
With respect, etc .. yours truly, J. G. CANNON.
Honorable Joseph G. Cannon. of Illinois Speaker of the House
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Extract from Letter of Representative Small, to Dr. McIver
Those who have worked in the public service simply in -the per- formance of a civic duty to the community and the State know some- thing of the pleasure which is derived from the satisfactory perform- ance of such duty, and yet expressions of recognition naturally add in some degree to the feeling of satisfaction and reward.
Ever since I left Greensboro this week I have felt an impulse to write you, and tell you how mich I as a citizen appreciate the service to the State which has been rendered by yourself and by the other unselfish men and women who conceived and brought to a successful conclusion the Reunion of non-resident North Carolinians at Greens- boro. In this, I am sure, I must reflect the sentiment, not only of our eastern section, but of the entire State. These occasions can not be successful except by the united effort of the many who are willing to contribute something of their time and ability and means for the pub- lic good, and every opportunity for the exercise of these qualities of good citizenship makes our people stronger and better equipped for the next demand upon them. Not the least result which has come from this Reunion will be the tendency to strike down the barriers of pro- vincialism which have surrounded our State, and to place us well along in the ranks of other States, whose people are engaged in doing things, and constitute a factor in the thoughts, the ideals, and the progress of the country. I am.
Very sincerely, JOHN H. SMALL.
Extract from Letter of Samuel Hill, Esq.
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your kind invitation to be present in Greensboro on October 12 and 13, 1903. I regret more than I can tell you my inability to be present. Engagements will detain me; those which I can not break.
October 8th and 9th I shall be presiding over the Washington Good Roads Association. Spokane, Wash., and later at the banquet of the Harvard Club. In speaking of good roads, at once the thought comes to my mind that North Carolina, which leads so often, is well to the front in good roads.
At the next Reunion. if advised in time of the date, I shall certainly make an effort to be present. Looking over the list of those who are to receive visitors I see many of my kinsfolk, but none of my own name. It must be that there is a place somewhere for a Hill family in North
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Carolina. I believe the first time that the name Samuel Hill appears is where he was arrested in the year 1681, when he refused to bear arms in Muster-field. That my own exit from the State was not attended by similar results, is probably due to the fact that we traveled by night.
I should like to be with you and sing the glories of the Old North State.
Mr. Josiah Collins, Judge Albertson, and myself have often dis- eussed the formation of a North Carolina Society in the State of Washington, and it may interest you to know that there are probably as many people from the State of North Carolina in the State of Washington as there are from any other single State. If the formation of such an organization could in any way be affiliated with your organ- ization, will you advise us?
Although we are far away I never have met a North Carolinian that was not proud of the fact that he or she came from the Old North State. And though other ties have been formed no soil as that which gave us birth is so dear to us.
O, sunny South, land of our birth, to sing thy praise were vain,
The mists arise and dim our eyes: our heart's with thee again.
With thee again? It ne'er has left thee-though the wide world's wandered o'er,
And the hand that once caressed thee, presses thine, and asks no more.
Very truly yours, SAMUEL HILL, Seattle, Wash.
Letter from Hannis Taylor
Carlton Hotel, Pall Mall. London. October 4, 1903.
Charles D. MeIver, Esq., Chairman,
Greensboro, N. C.
Just a line. my dear Mr. Chairman, to tell you how deeply I regret my inability to be with you at the Reunion now so near at hand. The older I grow, the prouder I become of my native State of North Caro- lina. Wherever I am in England I am continually contrasting the genins of the people here with that of the people among whom I was born. There is no State in the Union, perhaps, whose substructure is more purely English than that of North Carolina. The main admix-
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Honorable Hannis Taylor Ex-Minister to Spain
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ture has been with other peoples from the British Isles, notably the Scotch. The outcome has been a homogeneous community, with high ideals of morality, religion. government, and law. Thus armed, many of our sons who have gone forth into the world have been able to make their impress upon other communities.
You do well to assemble in order to honor those who have had the greatest success in that regard. Your action will ineite others to still higher endeavor. No matter how long a man may be severed from the land of his birth, no matter what he may achieve in the home of his adoption, he is ever whispering to himself. in the penetralia, of his heart-what verdict has been rendered upon my life by my own people? And as the end approaches he is ever comforting himself with the hope that some day he may "return and die at home at last". Please remember me tenderly to all of my people who still remember me.
Faithfully yours, in love for the Old North State, HANNIS TAYLOR.
Extract from Letter of Bishop Fitzgerald, of Nashville, Tenn.
A previous engagement, accepted conditionally, will not allow me the pleasure of being with you in actual bodily presence at your Reunion, October 12th and 13th. but I will be there in spirit, and will send my benedictions by the instantaneous line that is swifter than the Marconi wireless telegraph. when hearts are tuned for fellowship. With love for everybody in the dear Old North State, and every inch of her soil, I am.
Affectionately and sincerely, O. P. FITZGERALD.
This Letter Is Too Good To Be Withheld
Forestelle, St. Charles County, Mo. October 5, 1903.
To the Honorable Board of Managers:
I, John Smith, was born in Orange county. on Haw River, near Murphy's Mills. My father went to the war of 1812, when I was twenty-eight days old, and died in Norfolk, Va. Mother lived there about ten years, and then she moved up to Guilford. Was raised on South Buffalo; married Robert Reese on the Alamance, a noble step- father.
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I lived at home sixteen years, then started for myself. I tried farming three years: found it slow.
And now I come to your Greensboro. Learned the tailor's trade with Andrew Weatherly. and made my start in this world at that.
I now must leave Greensboro. When I bought my stage ticket I had $2.00 in my pocket, my own money. It is not worth while to go into details. I found myself in Leaksville. on Dan River. Stayed there nearly two years; then went to Henry county, Va. Stopped at Catherwood. Set up shop there in a nice as well as wealthy neighbor- hood. In three years I married one of Spottsylvania's fair daughters, and when we moved home her father made a negro bring out wag- ons, and her goods were put in, and then her father called out a fifteen-year-old negro girl and a boy eight years old and said, "My daughter, here is a woman to cook and wash, and a boy to catch your old man's horse", and I had to give him my best thanks.
We lived at Catherwood two years, and I thought I had money enough to buy a home in Missouri: and in 1841 we moved out there. bought a home in St. Charles county. and are on it yet. My wife's father died: we got a lift. Her single sister died: we got a lift. She had an old bachelor uncle who died, and willed her about $5.000.
In 1861 the Civil War came on, and we had fourteen likely negroes with about $9.000 that went. We had a good farm, 360 acres, stock money, etc., and have it yet, and it is worth about the same.
Now, to your Honorable Committee, I do not want this read before the crowd. I am pleased to see so many old familiar names in your crowd.
My wife died the sixteenth of November, 1899. We lived together sixty years, two months, and four days. She died in her eightieth year, and I have turned on my ninety the first day of last month. I am in good health at present : all my faculties are in perfect order : left eye is failing; I am writing this without glasses, but it is getting very difficult.
Would like to be with you, but my age will not permit it-1,020 miles. I wish you a happy Reunion.
Yours truly,
JOHN SMITH.
Echoes of the Reunion
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Honorable J. C. Pritchard United States Circuit Judge
Echoes of the Reunion
A Good Thing
By Frank S. Woodson, of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
The man or woman, as the case may be, who originated the idea of issuing a call to scattered natives of North Carolina to assemble once more on the sacred soil and do honor to the good old State that gave them birth, is entitled to a monument as high as any that marks the grave of any departed son.
It does not matter if he or she did borrow the idea from our New England friends, who put so much store by their "old-home week". One is entitled to a due measure of credit for borrowing, if he borrows a good thing.
The Reunion
.By Colonel Paul B. Means
This is a wonderful result and event here today, on Guilford Court- house battleground. I have seen a great many meetings of the people in North Carolina, for a great many purposes, during the last thirty years. I have never seen one which was more productive of good for our State than this, the "First North Carolina Reunion". I feel, under its influence. as one who. for fifty years, has lovingly watched and studied the benefits and blessings and glories of his own home State and, with all his soul filled to overflowing with its high and hallowed memories, is gently turned. under the guidance of the "Spirit of truth", to a beatifie vision of North Carolina's glorious future, surpass- ing as far her past, in every respect, as her present surpasses the times of her aborigines. This is no mere imagination ; it is a living picture to me of "things to come", as the fruits of the thoughts. feelings, and actions of North Carolinians hereafter.
And then, too. this meeting had an effect and blessing far beyond the borders of our State. It has begun the uniting of the hearts of the
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"folks at home" with the hearts of our sons and daughters absent from "the Old North State", in a way and to a degree that neither ever felt or realized before. And this will continue, under the blessing of our Father in heaven, until it will add new strains to the angels' song of "Peace on Earth, and Good Will to Men", throughout all the States of this God-blessed Republic of "sun-crowned" men and women.
Every great, practical result is simply the concrete form of previous thought and action. Two men stand pre-eminent in North Carolina as the creators of this Reunion on this battlefield. First, Judge David Schenck: without whose thought and action the Guilford Battle Ground and its present heroic history, for North Carolina, would not have been what they are today, and, judging the future by a hundred years of the past, would never have been what they are today, and this Reunion would never have been held on this sacred soil. Second, it was through the action of Dr. Charles D. MeIver, in whose great soul the idea of this Reunion was conceived and born, that did most for its production. Without this great educator. this star of the first magni- tude in the educational firmament of the "States United", this great Reunion would not have been. All honor to the names of McIver and Schenck, now and at all the future North Carolina Reunions, when they occur on this spot annually, as they will. For, these Reunions will be as perpetual as this place of "Fame's eternal camping-ground". Because this place, as it now exists, and this Reunion are full of the immortality of the two mighty souls of which they are the love-fruits; and year after year, while time lasts, North Carolinians and other Americans will see similar scenes right here, only more loving and more glorious.
God bless North Carolina and this Republic.
Let It Be Made Permanent By J. P. Caldwell
North Carolina Day for once has been properly celebrated in the State. Greensboro has won the right to a monument, commemorating the first great Reunion of the "dispersed-abroad". Others may be held in the future; but to Greensboro belongs the honor of having paved the way.
It was pleasant to have the visitors: but the best results were wrought upon our home people. There was no one there who did not leave a better North Carolinian. Dr. Charles D. McIver and his co- workers in behalf of the Reunion covered themselves with glory.
Mr. J. P. Caldwell
One of the Leading Editors of North Carolina
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Greensboro acquired new luster from the event. It was the unanimous sense of those present that the occasion must be made permanent, and so, indeed, it should be.
A Glorious Inspiration
Extract from Editorial of Colonel R. B. Creecy
Our sister town of Greensboro, ever foremost in good works for our dear old State, has outdone herself this week, and has accomplished a work of love and patriotism that entitles her to the gratitude of every man and woman, wherever their lot may be cast, in whose veins a drop of North Carolina blood courses.
This week it has stretched out its arms of loving welcome to all the sons of the Old North State, wherever they be, and whatever their condition, to come home and rejoice with us around their old heartli- stone, where they were caressed by a mother's love, and where life was ever fresh and joys ever new. And she has invited our home boys to come to the festival, and help to welcome our scattered sons.
She has thrown her doors wide open. and asked all Carolina's sons away from home to walk in without knocking, hang up their hats, and make themselves at home. It was a glorious inspiration at Greensboro, this idea of a reunion of our scattered sons and daughters around their old family altars. They all love her, wherever they be: they all turn to her with loving eyes; they rejoice with us in all her heroic renown : they love her the more for her faults and shortcomings; and they look with patriotic hopefulness upon her bright future. Would that we could have been there to rejoice with them on this grand occasion ! We were not forgotten; and we were tempted to forget age and infirmities aud join the procession of our loving sons who have come back to ren- der homage to their old mother.
This is not all that Greensboro has done for us; and we lift our hat in reverence and honor.
See her glorious Guilford Battle Ground. Always revere and cher- ish the honored name that resurrected and burnished its history. Let our children learn to lisp his name, and recount his patriotic story. Let his monument stand at the outer gates of the Battle Park. Let flowers crown its summit; and let ns recall his benign and intellectual face, and even invoke blessings upon the memory of David Schenck, the founder of the Guilford Battle Ground, the man who changed the current of history, and with pen and voice placed
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the laurel leaf of honor upon the brow of North Carolina, gave honor to whom honor was due, and challenged the world to deny the true record of our Revolutionary history.
Home-Coming Reunion By James Wiley Forbis
The maternal call to come back home --
First given by the city of "Flowers";
Then by the Governor under the dome : Then by the Legislative powers For all who wander, where'er they roam.
To stop and ponder, and come back home.
Now comes, from the pines and sands of the East --- From the mountains and caves of the West -- From the birds of song and wildest beast- From river and rill and mountain crest : At dawn, at noon, when the day is done,
Rings the glad welcome-Come back home.
O tired prodigal, once more return, To the home of your early youth ; Where still the fires so brightly burn. On the altars of love and truth. Where'er ye be 'neath Heaven's blue dome. One and all-oh ! come back home.
This swelling song of welcome tells A story of love and beauty To each wandering one. where'er he dwells, If there he has done his duty Mother State still claims him as her own: Still lovingly bids him come back home.
From the Southern seas and yellow sands, Where the orange blossoms grow : From the Northern lakes, where icy hands Pile frozen foam and drifting snow ; We hear them sigh in homesick tone -- "We're all once more coming back home".
Honorable Joseph M. Hill Chief Justice - Elect of the Supreme Court of Arkansas
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From the Eastern cities' crowded halls-
From the forests and plains of the West ---
From the highly gilded palace walls-
From the cabin where the hunter's at rest --
From the thronged court, and the prairie lone.
They sigh and sing-" We are coming back home".
The mitred priest and LL. D.,
The cowboy from the Western wild,
The men and women-band and few
Who saw the light when but a child,
'Neath Carolina's maternal dome
All sigh and sing-" We are coming back home".
Among Our Non-Resident Native Lawyers
It is worthy of note that Judge Fitzgerald, now Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Nevada, will on the first day of January, 1905, become the Chief Justice.
At the recent election (1904), in the State of Arkansas, Judge Joseph M. Hill was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of that State.
The late Honorable Henry G. Turner, after his long and useful career in Congress. adorned the Supreme Court bench of Georgia up to the time of his last illness.
North Carolina has also a son on the Supreme Court bench of Virginia.
W. W. Fuller, Esq .. of New York, has accumulated a larger fortune from the practice of the law than any other lawyer from the South.
There are hundreds of others scattered in these forty-seven States, who are rapidly making name and winning fame.
Among the Grandsons
Mr. Murat Halstead, the veteran and distinguished writer. whose books, editorials, magazine articles, and newspaper correspondence, are a part of the history of the last half-century of this Republic, is a grandson. His grandfather, John Halstead, lived in Currituck County ; and his father left the State when quite young.
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The great Union Admiral, David Farragut, was a grandson of North Carolina. ITis mother was a native of Lenoir County.
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