USA > New York > Tompkins County > Dryden > The centennial history of the town of Dryden. 1797-1897 > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
" Is this the land our fathers loved, The freedom which they toiled to win, Is this the soil on which they moved, Are these the graves they slumber in ?"
Yes, this is the land our fathers loved and we are to-day enjoying the blessings vouchsafed to us by them, blessings and privileges bestowed upon us by reason of their energy, perseverence and economy. But we have a lesson to learn to-day. If you shall go from this place without entering into the spirit of the occasion, or without feeling a just pride in the past and a determination to improve in the future, then have you kept the day in vain.
In reading the history of the pioneer settlement of this country, and it is true of your own town, one can but be impressed of the fact that these people had implicit faith that they would succeed. In any busi- ness, in any undertaking, faith is a necessary ingredient to success and a lack of it will in nearly all cases lead to a disastrous failure. I don't want any man around me who does not have faith in his work. In our work, individual or national, we need the faith of our fathers. The learned Bishop Duane says the men to make a state are made by faith, and if that be so, the men to protect, to guard, to improve, to make substantial progress in national affairs are men stimulated to action by faith in their work and the justness of the same. Why, faith is a heritage of our people, it was one of the first lessons learned and one that should never, no never, be forgotten. A little band of pilgrims, taking their lives in their hands, brave the dangers of the ocean wave and seek a home in an unknown land, in order that they may be free and independent and enjoy their religion after the dic- tates of their own conscience. From the tears and trials of Delft Ha- ven, from the deck of the Mayflower to Plymouth Rock, what a step in the advancement of American liberty.
How, on the wings of the morning, that first prayer ascends to Heaven and how beautiful its language: "Father in Heaven, we thank thee that thou hath permitted us to place our feet upon these shores. In thy hand we leave our destiny, trusting that He who hath brought us hither will glorify our work to his own good." What a cross to
268
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
bear, what a beautiful example of faith in the divine providence. What a corner stone upon which to rear this, our temple of liberty- there upon the eternal rock, beneath the soil and shifting sand, upon the basis of equal and exact justice to all men, to lay the foundation of the government, broad and deep. Oh, I sometimes think that in our worldly ambitions we are drifting away from Plymouth Rock and that we lose sight of that implicit faith as shown by those early settlers. As I have stood upon that consecrated spot I have thanked God for Plymouth Rock. There it stands, washed by the silvery waves of the ocean, surrounded now by all of the evidence of wealth and prosperity. What a contrast-then it was a cross to bear, now it is a crown to wear.
My dear friends, we want to live more the simplicity of life of our fathers. As a nation we are living too fast. Whenever our expendi- tures exceed our earnings we certainly will find our names in the debt- or column. Practice a little of the economy and self-denial of those early days and we will be the better for it. In our national advance- ment let us occasionally go back to Plymouth Rock. We need that strength, we need more of that simplicity of life and character, we need to pray to God that all of our work may be acceptable in his sight, for I have learned to believe that that nation whose God is the Lord will live long and prosper upon this earth.
The republic was born by the fireside of the American home. It was maintained by those heroic women, who, as they spun the flax, taught their children to fear God and to live within their income. I believe that the mother who reared a family of children to manhood and womanhood in the log-cabin, such as has been constructed upon your grounds for this occasion, and sent them out into the world well equipped to engage in life's battles, taught them the lesson of honesty, sobriety and economy, and above all taught them in youth at her knee to say, "Our Father which art in Heaven, " is deserving of being classed with those persons who successfully rule a kingdom. While we are to-day thinking of our fathers let us not forget our mothers. The grand corner stone upon which the wonderful fabric of our form of government is builded is the kingdom ruled by woman, the home. Some one has said that we could not have put down the Rebellion without the aid of the loyal women of the land. In time of war while the men were at the front fighting, the women were at home praying, and I am not sure but they did as effective work as the men.
You can find enjoyment in the celebration here to-day for the rea- son that you all contributed something toward making the town of Dryden the prosperous, beautiful town that it now is. I don't mean that you have simply paid money to be used upon this occasion or that you have builded houses and blocks or accumulated wealth. No, I mean that you have given something far more precious and long to be remembered than that. Go with me to your two beautiful cem- eteries, where the roses now bloom, and where the green grass covers the graves of your silent dead. There I find cut in granite and mar- ble names that I read in your history, illustrious and honored names,
269
CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
the numbers are legion, names that are dear to you, and the same that many of you bear to-day. The same blood that once coursed in their veins, and gave them strength and activity to do their work, now courses in your veins, that you may have continued strength and activ- ity to pursue and perpetuate, to perfection as near as it may be at- tained, the work laid out and planned by them. Year after year you have borne to that final resting place the father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, and child, giving back to earth the body, and the spirit to God, who gave it, retaining only sweet and blessed memories of those dear ones. This is the precious gift that you have made and how it must touch your hearts at this time.
There is an old story that always had a charm for me: In some strange land and time they were about to cast a bell for a mighty tower, a hollow, starless heaven of iron. It should toll for dead mon- archs, the king is dead, and make glad clamor for the new prince, long live the king, it should proclaim so great a passion or so grand a pride that either should be worship, or wanting these, forever hold its peace. Now this bell was not to be digged out of the cold moun- tain, it was to be made with something that had been warmed by human touch, or loved with a human love, and so the people came, like pilgrims to a shrine, and cast their offerings into the furnace and went away. There were links of chains that bondsmen had worn bright, and fragments of swords that had broken in heroes' hands, they even brought things that were licked up in an instant by the red tongue of flame, good words they had written and flowers they had cherished, perishable things that could never be heard in the rich tone and volume of the bell. And the fires panted like a strong man when he runs a race, and the mingled gifts flowed down together and were lost in the sand. And the dome of iron was drawn out like Leviathan. And by and by the bell was alone in its chamber and its four windows looked forth to the four quarters of heaven. For many a day the bell hung silent in the tower and the wind came and went and only set it sighing. At last there came a time when men grew grand for right and truth and stood shoulder to shoulder o'er all the land, and went down like reapers to the harvest death, looked into the graves of them that slept and believed that there was something grander than living, something more bitter than dying, and so, stand- ing between the quick and dead, they quitted themselves like men. Then the old bell awoke in the tower and the great waves of its music rolled gloriously out, and broke along the blue walls of the world like an anthem, and every tone in it was familiar as a household word to somebody, because they had placed their treasure in it.
So, my dear friends, it seems to me that at this time, as we join in these exercises and lift our voices in song and praise, as the music shall float upon the air, every tone in it will be familiar to you all, for you have brought your treasure here.
One thought more in conclusion. What of the future of our coun- try ? Thus far we have been thinking of the past. That is, however, an utter waste of time, unless it stimulates us to new activity in our
270
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
work and inspires us with new hope for the future. "To-day the man who tells us what we have done, must stand aside for the man who will tell us what we ought to do." The opportunity for future ad- vancement is as great to-day as it was a hundred years ago, the les- sons to be learned as important now as then. There are great ques- tions yet to be determined which invite your most earnest considera- tion.
Where are the men who will solve the problem of how to reconcile the conflict between capital and labor, and cause them to go hand in hand, to the mutual benefit of employer and employed. To what school shall we go, and at the knee of what teachers shall we kneel that we may learn the economic lesson of living within our income, of paying our debts as we go along? Who will be the statesmen, mas- ters in the science of government, who, knowing what is right, will dare to stand up and with massive intellect and giant arm break into fragments every monopoly which seeks to fetter, oppress or rob the people ?
Again, the voice of your government is such that it welcomes within its jurisdiction people from all climes and countries, guaranteeing to all who shall come protection to life and property. The flow of immi- gration to this country at this time is wonderful, and how are you to receive the thousands who are seeking refuge within your borders ? You must furnish them homes, you must educate them, you must surround them with the influence of the Christian religion ; aye, you must make them citizens, as they have the right to demand it.
Freedom at the ballot box, purity of elections, the election of honest men to places of trust, these are important matters and must ever be guarded with zealous care.
You will doubtless remember the letter of Lord Macauley to the Hon. Henry S. Randall, of Cortland, in which letter Macauley prophe- sied that the time would come when the people of this nation would fail to intelligently perform their duties and when they would ignor- antly allow bad men to be elected to places of trust and thus bring our government into anarchy and confusion. But Macauley spoke as one having knowledge of a monarchial form of government and where the people are kept in ignorance. He knew not of the little school- houses which dot our landscape, of the institutions of learning which are found in nearly every square mile of our territory and which are the jewels that shine brightest in the crown of American liberty. In making that prophesy Macauley had in mind English society and not American. In England the society is like the crusts of the earth, one above the other, strata upon strata, the royalty, the nobility, the aris- tocracy, and down strata by strata until on the bottom are found the peasantry and common people. People in one strata never rise to the next, unless by some volcano-like eruption in society or by the over- throw of the government, the lower stratas break through the overly- ing crusts and come up. Such are the people of England and for such reasons were certain rights not given to the lower classes. Were the powers of the government submitted to them, anarchy and confusion
271
CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
would at first follow. But the sociey of America may be likened to the ocean, where the drop of water which to-day lies down in darkness on the rocky bottom, to-morrow may be glittering in the sunlight, riding on the crest of the topmost wave. The strength of our government is found in the fact that the power is vested in the common people. Were our country in danger to-day you would witness the same sub- lime response of the people to the rescue as you did in '76, when they said "Give us liberty or give us death ;" when they said "The Union shall remain one and inseparable forever ;" when they said there should be no flag but the old flag, the red, white and blue, and bathed it in the best blood of the land.
I have no fear for the future of my country and the picture of to-day encourages me to indulge in the brightest visions. We never sing the old song " America, " without its making us better ; there is more mu- sic in it to the square inch, than any opera that was ever written.
Then this sea of happy faces coming from so many pleasant homes, the click of the mowing machine heard in the meadow, the fields of waving golden grain almost ready for the reaper, God forbid that any- thing should ever occur to mar the beauty of such a scene.
I call upon you, old men whose brows have become furrowed by time, whose step is somewhat feeble, whose hair has become silvered by the snows of many winters, whose memories go back far beyond mine, to see to it that the fires kindled upon the hearths of our fathers be kept alive. I call upon you, young men, as you shall grow up in the strength of your manhood, heirs of a rich inheritance, to remember whose sons you are. Oh, let me appeal to you all, that in the great conflict of life, where right is at war against wrong, where truth and falsehood walk side by side through our streets and vice and virtue meet and pass every hour of the day, you enlist in the great army with those who, disheartened by no obstacle, discouraged by no de- feat, appalled by no danger, neither paused nor swerved from their clear line of duty until the battlefields of the past have been strewn with the wrecks of what was false, and truth and justice and right have triumphed in the glory of victory. "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, " think on these things, let your voice be raised in their behalf, let your work be earnest, and when others shall speak to your praise and tell the story of your deeds, they will rise up and call you blessed.
" Who'll press for gold this crowded street A hundred years to come ? Who'll tread yon church with willing feet A hundred years to come ? Pale, trembling age, and fiery youth, And childhood with its brow of truth, The rich, the poor, on land and sea, Where will the mighty millions be A hundred years to come ?
272
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
" We all within our graves shall sleep A hundred years to come. No living soul for us shall weep A hundred years to come. But other men our land will till, And others then our streets will fill, And other birds will sing as gay, And bright the sunshine as to-day A hundred years to come."
2990
Rouse's Bookhouse Checializinn in Michigani
Gc 974.702 D84g 1235123
272
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
" We all within our graves shall sleep A hundred years to come. No living soul for us shall weep A hundred years to come. But other men our land will till, And others then our streets will fill, And other birds will sing as gay, And bright the sunshine as to-day A hundred years to come."
2990
Rouse's Bookhouse pecializing in Michigani na in
---
GROTON.
GORTLANO ·VILLE
.
....***
A How
ION # S
J Dan>
"C J Wherle
Vater
Mg Af Toànsống
4
S
.
7
6
. ^ E Sayittr
N. Steel Est
F Sickmen
Austin .
. R.l ..
M Trapp
.& Withardien
E. Darling
AJ Mancan
11
.J Fulkersth
·G Tucker
18
20
·Mrs Rose.
.A Baker
AJHE
·J 3 Deutloss.
· S. Sayder
RI Seque
J.D.Lammer.
G
.
E Ogden
DAW Swartwood C
ISholla
26
26
28 Holes .
29
30
FRERVT LE.
27
E. Grinnell ·
.c. Sheldon
+0 M,white
-
Map)
·f o wherle!
SHN 25 .
T Tetter
TO Folker sen
·Mrs M Treter
S.C Fulkersen
H.Nyfes .
+G Albright
-
. Mas C Jagger
Z
. E d wheeler.
Y
MrÅrthus
36
39
38
E w. Butt,.
A
·TREIGS
Mrs E C. Evf.
I. B.Fr
WAE SevorY
.Jevar I & Bart
ETNA
Mas, E Me Arthurs
C King
FAY Stickies
41
f Vantins
42
.
E SPACE
PA Cemington
50
& Griswold. .
F MOLLY.
z. Lupta*
w. Corbin ·
59
5 Min
C
R Mª Clintocke
OM: Water;
A C. CAImer
56
57
58 R Ler med.
·A H,les Est.
60
.M Suzetland
F Perry ·
OR YDEN
LAKE
+D Meshft,
61
.28 8,1%
63
Comnettos I.
68
70
R
s & D.O ...
.E. Van Pelt
·ML
> Thunten
A
76
0. Hammond
79
80
4
C
Karl Pelt
.
.
of Church
ELLIS
AF
U
A
7 H Schutt Gst .
89
90
I
SNYDER
8%
HILL.
86
F
F Hatlister
LOTS
OF FL
TO
CAROLINE
IN
1887.
91
.DL Ostrander
99
C. Stamarı*
94
95
98
100
B.Salabot.
· J. Matsen,
D. Schutt
Hasbrouck Est
w Crispcil .
.DK.
BIR
0
L
2
E
PANBY.
AL-Bezemer Depet · 8 Genung
woThamel"
R.D.Crispene
Rockford
1
.L Smith
3
FOH ...
.SE Mites
( Mineah
H. Fisher
eJaydo & Smily
· John Mack
· Frank Bist-
VACA
3 Razyan
·A Reben sen
. S. Skallqq
H&. La Mott
19
.J Bloem
12
13
S.H Nº L
J. r.Minanh ,
Hard Tacter .
si,Cotanch Est.
H .G. Seaten
Simans
R Lament.
Willard Sheert
SheldonEst
w Cady
· w. Mespell.
· C Carmer
Z
21
ETenter.
22
Them &' Rhodes
MBW.
24
·WN Meart
T. Sİ
· Kele
. .
C.1. Mart.»
w Sherman
JMullen .
S
·MA Snydet
w/ w Austa 31
bes DeAn .
32
33
OF Shelden
D Bush Est.
·Mrs & Lysesgh
.J. Scars.
Frawelde
2
40
.JE Metaya
A Wa sh burs
E Manfosd .
J Rebiosen
.PR Snyder Fat
48
49
E Loften a
#5
46
C.Fim
Can
CJ Sperry .
Z. B Sperry. ·
*A w Lomme
F Yeyser .
27
et: Snyder
AT Hemthew
8 Bright
45 € Smiley
M. 7 Robertsen
54
Miş wy Lumbant
55
N & Freese
€ Undt- weed
4Mm C 5%,de
. J Mt Arthur
Æ Mineah
FIO Northrop
Robinson
À Hammond Ges Card .
·D 5 Messenger
. witt by
·F Bigem
.W Themes
69
.
T. Houpt+
Geo Coke
F. Stron
·S Stanton
L
F
Cornel us
Preonere
Mn Chafter
C Boeman
# Duhentery
I. SUL Fin .
Care
o A Mammejd
Č Keoch ·
H
.DT Turk
S steeghfor .
50.4
D Van Pelt
1 Snyder
83
YPASHA
87
88
Front
82
to A Cayfish
Masters
FP Rentald ow D Banfield
A D Phillips Mrs G Pratt
/w Johnson
·# denel
R. Sma Th
93
92
97
. J.Fundis
F Johnsen
.
W. DRYDEN.
L
·J Ellis
5.H No 21 .
webdy 3.
ambdy 1V.
L. Edgecome
ANNO IS
23
.EE Farther
. L. Johnson
@ Mrj. J. John skin
GJ.A
WMR .
· J & Platt
J Deuglass
· N J XeOPP
.Fw Oxmun
CA APTO· ·
chashing 's
L MIRASS
A Simons
DRYDEN ...
.&Mulchings
WwwHOPE
U
WILLOW
GLEN
·H & Brew*
43
44
s McArthur
w Chatfield
· Simpson
8 F.Statkke
Vi Hughes
·D.K Rbedes
e Ostrondat
VARNA
SA Rhodes
Bake
& M. ; A Derek part
Hemingway Ert
66
64
ALS HN=14
62
OH English
0
Mazen
77
73
74
L English
..
75
·R /Cornelius.
·Mrs Stewart.
D Belknap
& van
1.5 Myers
E Englishy
Conchyt.
n C Ostrander ·w Mensea
In Dray Est
H. Coopca
THESE
SET
.
.
e Smith
.
w A Collins
Castle Est.
......
.A Sager
J. Lynbard
·w rut.
MALLORYVILLE
·A 5 Fes
@5. Sichmen.
A E Hart .
15
of a Misenh
Creamery
.Jom som
₹ Dery ...
S.H Nº4. .
. F. Sanforal
RGIL
- W& ....
/H Manning.
crawford
à Feeley
. Gw Burley
T Primrose. J Rawley
~ Kowdrty
v Burton .
*/ Vanlink
Moz E Crittenden Est
, w Sanford .
u cen
· free, Cardi
DA Chatfeti
. Bunasty Est
·8 Miller
.& Tyler
.
.
.A Lancin
M. E Tripp ..
02
" KL Court. .
E Croff ..
65
7
Moment
Spyde.
R Netson
T
b. Edself
78
SHORT
C. Cole-
·A Waita
· IN Davenport.
Mog. D.Snyder.
F Tichener
, « Overerher
·AV N MidesunÁ
·w S Middaugh
..
Federa
& Banfrek.
85
E Devinpert ·
Lankin.
VOUSEN
D w Rantey.
.Cathithuith
FR ...
os H Carty
10
2
HE Sutleff"
9
S.Folkersen
Koe Clement
ow lemont &
·A Skuddmore
.
.
" Wesst .. .
Messenger.
cre
wy Thanas
Pra tfs
SB Fulkersen
.
C
.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.