USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Annals of the Early Settlers Association of Cuyahoga County, volume IV, no. I > Part 3
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But ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to meet the early settlers at this their annual meeting. I have not been a resident of the Western Reserve for 40 years, and therefore under the Constitu- tion and Laws, as read by your distinguished President here, I find that I am not legally a member, but I was born in a county adjacent to the Western Reserve, beneath the sheltering hills of old Columbiana, and I am an Ohioan by birth, and I have never left my native state ; it being good enough for me to be born in, it is good enough for me to live in, and I hope it is good enough for me to die in. I am a loyal subject, and I must say that as an Ohioan I am proud of all its great educational interests; I am proud of its enterprises ; I am proud of the manhood and the womanhood of its people ; I am proud of its schools and its churches and its public edifices ; and I am proud too that in every emergency, either in time of war or peace, the men and women of Ohio can be relied upon to do their full duty under all circumstances.
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I have lived (and I am not going to tell how old I am ; Ed Cowles used to say that I danced in 1840) ; but I have lived to see in my life three wars. I can remember in 1846, when the volun- teers left my native county at Columbiana to go to the front ; I can remember how we boys those days all gloried in the victory of Zachary Taylor at Monterey, and how we used to roll over our tongues his saying : "Boys, give them a little more grape." And I can remember, too, when old Gen'l Winfield Scott unfurled the banner of our country over the halls of the Montezumas and con- quered great territory from Mexico. And I too remember, in 1861, when I was a young man, when treason in the south, and the Secessionists determined to dismember this Union, to dis- honor our flag, and break up and dissolve a Union that cur fathers had fought for and established during the Revolution ; and I re- member, too, how gloriously and nobly the people of Ohio and the people of the North rallied to the support of the Constitution and the Union of our fathers, and how, after five years of long and bloody war, we settled the matter on the Virginia fields and brought back a restored Union.
And now I am glad too that I have lived to see the day when the Rebel gray and the Federal blue unite together, that they will march together side by side, confederate and federal ; that Yankee Doodle and Dixie Land can be played in all the camps; and now I am glad that these men are facing a common foe, a common enemy, rallying around the flag of their country upon the hills of Cuba, and that they are standing there together, not rivalling each other and fighting each other, but standing there as brothers, first at the front and last to retreat. Now, our old flag waves over there in glory ; it waves at the head of the flags on the mastheads of our great squadrons headed by Dewey and Sampson and Schley ; it flies at the head of the regiments of Shafter ; and we are going to drive those Spaniards from this Western hemisphere ; we are not any longer going to allow that barbarism of 400 years to control any colonies upon this hemisphere.
This is no speech that is written; you will find that out; I
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have no written speech; but I am glad again to see my friend Reeve here; I used to hear of him when I was a boy. He says he is turning along toward three score and ten ; but I remember of hearing of Professor Reeve, and there is one good thing about him, and that is that he has been persecuted like I have been, for his democracy ; he has had stones thrown at him by the boys when he carried his papers years ago, and I have had a good many stones thrown at me while editing a Democratic paper, but the Lord only knows I will forgive my enemies and forgive those who persecuted me.
And then, when I turn around, I see at my right my friend Mrs. Harris; although I have not the honor of a personal ac- quaintance with her, I remember her husband, Mr. Harris, very well, and he was a gentleman whose acquaintance I made years ago, and I must say for him, he was a good fellow and one of the best dancers I ever saw in my life. I know I was at a dance with him, at an editorial dance, a great many years ago, and the old gentleman could hop around more lively than I could, and I was 25 years younger than he was.
Now I don't feel I have anything more to say except that this table is a little large, and it reminds me of a Presbyterian preacher who was a short fellow and went to church, and he had a great tall pulpit before him, and he wanted to make an impression upon his audience, and he got up on a stool, and he opened his Bible and he turned to the text and he commenced, "Be not afraid, it is I," and just as he said that he slipped and he went out of sight.
(The speaker goes out of sight into a chair on the platform).
The immortal old hymn "Coronation" was then most effect- ively rendered by the quartet.
Immediately after address of Hon. W. W. Armstrong, Mr. Williams spoke, as follows :
I wish to call a matter especially to the members that are here. We have got to have some effort made to keep up this organiza- tion, as glorious as it is. Your Executive Committee has had
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printed blanks here upon which members can receive new mem- bers, enter their names, where born, year of birth, and when they came to the Reserve. Now we want to place these in the hands of those members who are willing to struggle a little for this organi- zation. These blanks are upon the table of Mr. Butts and I trust that many of you will call there and take one for subscription.
One thing further, Mr. Chairman. I want to nominate a member for honorary membership. Without taking your time I will do it at once. I take great pride in nominating for honorary member of this association the President of the United States, William McKinley. Mr. Chairman, I move a suspension of the rule that requires that these motions be referred to the Executive Committee and that President Mckinley be elected by acclama- tion.
(Seconded). Judge Hamilton puts the vote as follows :
Without comment from me, ladies and gentlemen, those of you who favor the motion to nominate William McKinley, the President of the United States, as an honorary member of this association, will please rise. (All rise in the room who are mem- bers) .*
The motion was unanimously carried.
President Hamilton : A member here wishes to nominate an old friend of over 50 years.
Mr. Wm. Bowler then nominated Wallace J. Ford, of
* The election of President Mckinley to Honorary Membership, resulted in the following correspondence :
CLEVELAND, OHIO, July 23d, 1898.
William Mckinley, President of the United States.
Honored Sir :- I have the pleasure of officially informing you that "The Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga County, Ohio," at its annual meeting held July 22d instant, did itself the honor of electing you by a unanimous vote an Honorary Mem- ber of said Association.
Trusting that you will gratify the venerable members by indicating your accept- ance of such Honorary Membership, I remain, Your obedient servant. A. J. WILLIAMS, Chairman Executive Committee.
EXECUTIVE MANSION.
WASHINGTON, August 2. 1898.
My dear Sir : By direction of the President, I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 23d ultimo, and to convey to you and your associates an expression of his appreciation of the compliment paid him by your Association.
Very truly yours, J. A. PORTER, Secretary to the President.
Mr. A. J. Williams, Chairman, etc., Cleveland, Ohio.
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Iliram, Ohio, born in Geauga County, as an honorary member of this Association. Will not take the time to make any further re- marks. Moves a suspension of the rules. (Seconded).
Judge Hamilton: It is moved that Wallace J. Ford, of Hiram, Geauga County, be made an honorary member of this Society. I may say in passing that I received a letter from Judge Lester Taylor yesterday recommending the appointment of Mr. Ford to this position. He incidentally remarks that he is Presi- dent of the Geauga Old Settlers' Association ; that on the 5th day of next month he will be 100 years old, and that on the 19th of next month, the day of their annual re-union, he expects to be there present and to preside and make an address upon that occa- sion. (Applause). Those of you who favor the motion will say "Aye."
(Unanimously carried).
The meeting then took a recess for dinner, elegantly served by Edward Weisgerber.
The afternoon session opened with the "Star Spangled Banner" by the quartette, then followed the deferred address by Hon. Dr. H. W. Curtis, of Chagrin Falls, who was introduced by Judge Hamilton, explaining that he had kindly given way in the morning to Dr. Reeve who wished to leave early, and continuing as follows : I suppose we call him Honorable because we have so many times honored him by sending him to our Legislative Halls, and he has in turn doctored us.
ADDRESS OF HON. DR. H. W. CURTIS, CHAGRIN FALLS.
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : Not until I reached this hall this morning did I know that my name was upon the pro- gram for an address upon this occasion. I blame the man sitting at my right (pointing to Mr. Williams, who acknowledges the part). He is the gentleman who did it. When I received, Mr. President, your invitation or your notice of this annual gathering, after read- ing the letter I passed it over to a friend of mine, who happened to be in the office, for his opinion. After reading it carefully, he
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inquired of me rather anxiously upon what I desired his opinion. I inquired of him if he noticed the word "old" in that letter. He said he did. "Now, then," says I, "the practical and the pertinent thing that I wish to ask you is, if I shall take part in the exercises upon the 22nd of July-whether I would be on record as an old fellow." On that point I was not ready to be registered. He thought not, therefore here I am to-day.
I have noticed one thing, Mr. President, and it is a very prevalent thing, that all men hate to grow old, and women also; I have thought that they regret it more than the men, they take more care of themselves to obscure certain things as age grows upon them. I have noticed that. But of all things, a man hates to be told that he is growing old rapidly. There is something about this matter, this question of age, that is rather peculiar. For instance, here is a lad who was ten years old yesterday. Ask him to-day, "how old are you, Bub?" He will invariably say, "I will be 11 years old next birthday." He jumps a year in a mo- ment. You ask my friend Williams here, who will be 80 to-mor- row, how old he is, and he will say, 70. He will subtract 10 years from his age. The boy wishes to get older, and Williams desires to be registered younger than he really is.
A few days ago I met a lady, a former acquaintance, who moved into an adjacent state and whom I had not seen for some four or five years. After asking me how my wife was, whether my eldest son was married, my second son was married, my daughter married ; "yes, yes." "How many grandchildren have you got?" "Two." After asking a thousand and one questions which is common to the curiosity of women (beg your pardon, ladies, that was a slip), she settled back upon her heel, peered over her glasses, and ejaculated the following soothing and melodious sentence, "Doctor, you have grown terribly old." I looked at her. I supposed her to be a lady and wouldn't be guilty of any discourtesy intentionally, and I asked her if in this question of age she supposed that twelve lunar months pushed her along on the record of time any faster than it did me. "Oh, no," she said, "but
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somehow you look so old." I saw I was making a bad matter worse, and I changed the subject immediately and asked her what the prospects of the potato crop was in Michigan. Now, after- wards, Mr. Chairman, in thinking that matter over, wanting to be as charitable as possible to myself as well as her, I concluded that she was merely joking, and I actually looked younger than I did fifteen years ago. Whether that was a correct conclusion, gentle- men, I leave you to judge.
We have, Mr. President, a large number of aesthetic writers nowadays, people that are delving in abstruse subjects, diving into what is called the occult forces, secret forces of nature, trying to understand, to circumvent or contrive some way to understand the subtile things which you or I or any one else has never been able to comprehend, and as a result of that we have doled out to us frequently any amount of fine spun philosophy. I was reading one of these dissertations a few days ago, and it seemed to me that the author had ransacked Webster's Unabridged from commence- ment to finale to find all the qualifying words, all the adjectives that he could possibly collect together to substantiate and em- phasize this proposition, namely, That it is the duty of every man and every woman to grow old gracefully. Now that to me was a puzzler. I thought if ever I got to be old, I would not know how to apply the doctrine at all. I would like to know how it is pos- sible for a man shoulder-bent, crooked-shanked, shamble-kneed, with the rheumatism squeaking in most of his joints and his head as free of foliage as the new-born child, to play gracefully and to act gracefully ; but it is the duty of all. This book went on to relate and to prove from its own standpoint the duty of us all to grow old gracefully. Now, Mr. President, I presume these re- marks are not germain to the purpose of this organization in any respect. It doesn't make any difference to me whether they are or not. I was invited here to speak on any subject that I might choose to speak upon, and if anyone can determine what I have been talking about they will do better than I can myself.
But to come down to the principles of this organization, I
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suppose it relates to the settlement of this Western Reserve. Now, how this Western Reserve has passed into history and has got its place in the history of this country is somewhat marvelous, but I suppose that to the solid acre here there is as much intelligence, as much enterprise, and as much personal integrity and patriotism as exist in any other territory that could be designated in the State of Ohio, and perhaps in the United States. I remember 30 years ago of seeing down in New Orleans a placard out, "Western Reserve Seats for Sale." The Western Reserve has passed its record and they are known all over the country at this time, and I suppose there was nothing very peculiar about the organization, peculiar about the territory, nor about its inhabitants, but it has passed into history and become one of the most prominent-filling a prominent point.
Now I was driving down in an adjoining township, my own township, along earlier in the spring, and I met an Englishman carrying on his shoulder a double-barrelled shot-gun. I stopped and asked him, "Been buying a gun?" "Yes." "What did you pay for it?" "So much." "What do you want with a shot-gun, a man of your age?" "I was told that blackbirds destroyed nearly one-half of one of my corn fields last year, and I was de- termined to have some of the harvest this year. You understand the crow is a very shy bird, very difficult perhaps for you to reach him." He asked if I could see a bird on a tree standing out there, on an ordinary beech tree, ordinary height. I reckoned I could. "Well, now, I'll explain." Says he, "You see here is a double barrel and it scatters like chicken feed. Now, if I should put a half ounce of shot into one barrel and half an ounce into another and fire them both off at once, it would take a pretty smart crow to dodge all of those shots." I agreed with him and passed on.
You will observe, ladies and gentlemen, that I have scattered my speech.
Immediately after Dr. Curtis's address, Mr. Williams said :
I want a word personally here. I can excuse Dr. Curtis for saying that I am 80 years old after the fact that the Cleveland
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Press, commonly known as the Penny Press, a few days ago, in announcing the fact that I had given to the Historical Society the skull of a mound builder, said, "A skull was presented to the His- torical Society by a mound builder." That makes me about six or seven hundred years old.
In introducing the Rt. Rev. Mgr. Thorpe, Judge Hamilton spoke as follows :
Ladies and gentlemen : The next upon the program is an address by the Rt. Rev. Mgr. Thorpe. It is always gratifying to our association to meet people from all walks of life, all casts of opinion, who are in sympathy with the traditions of the carly set- tlers of our country. Personally, I have not had much acquaint- ance with the orator who is to address you now, but it has been my pleasure to note from time to time the fearless manner in which he has at all times sustained law and order, at all times showed his pure patriotism and love of country.
I have the very great pleasure to announce that the Rt. Rev. Mgr. Thorpe will now address you.
ADDRESS OF THE RT. REV. MGR. THORPE.
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens: I am extremely glad and deem it a very high honor to be among so many of the early settlers of our fair city, and to congratulate with them, to-day, on cur marvelous growth in numbers, in commercial importance and in brotherly love, during the past forty years. I say forty years, because of that period I can say with the Roman poet, Pars fui, and because of an indirect result of the Civil War, that period has been thus far the golden era of our existence. With a population of a little more than forty thousand, scattered over a large territory on the West Side of the Cuyahoga, until then known as Ohio City, and on the East Side known then and now as Cleveland, the fitter survived, but no one could dream that in a decade less than half a century, the United City would reach its present metropolitan proportions.
The lake was then as deep as now, the river was clearer and
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sweeter, yet few ships of any tonnage sought our port or carried our products to foreign shores. It is true a few enterprising cit- izens, among whom was the late Truman P. Handy, sont a fleet of merchant vessels with a united capacity of five hundred tons, to England in 1858, and were praised for their wonderful enterprise. Art and architecture were in their infancy. Manufacturing had had a feeble beginning, but then barely existed.
A resolution presented to the Common Council by the Hon. Harvey Rice-the venerable citizen whom Cleveland is about to honor herself by honoring-to the effect that at a cost of eight thousand dollars, to be raised by public subscription, a monument should be erected to the memory and deeds of Commodore Perry, was accepted with general favor but deemed by many a hazardous undertaking. A few groups of rough wooden sheds, perched here and there along Walworth Run and dignifiedly called refin- eries represented our oil industry-the Rockefellers were yet earn- ing a wage. The great iron interests which have helped make Cleveland so great and which even now are the life of our future hope, begun years before by John Ballard, were weak and circum- scribed. But what do we now behold? A great city of well nigh four hundred thousand people, of almost every nation under the sun ; an immense manufacturing center ; churches and schools, business blocks and palatial homes, equal to those of any other city in the world ; ships of the heaviest tonnage in our harbor and in our shipyards ; our name and our products known in every land. and all this in forty years! Verily we ought to thank God and praise Him !
But though great is this progress and wonderful this pros- perity in material things, there is another progress for which we should be still more grateful. It is this I wish to emphasize-it is this with which I am especially pleased. The spirit of toleration and brotherly love has grown and kept pace with the material growth of Cleveland. Nor is this the result of coldness or in- difference. It is the direct outcome of the true American spirit- good sense and broadness of views. It is the result of that con-
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viction which tells us that every man has a right to his belief in matters spiritual, and that, so long as that belief does not oppress the religious conviction of others, no man has a right to hate him or oppress him because of his belief. It is because we have dis- covered that while our creeds disagree there is a vast moral plane on which we stand together for the common good. We should all endeavor to make others better, though we often fail with our- selves. In this we thoroughly understand one another.
Once in awhile we hear a discordant note. But it is out of harmony with the strong and growing sentiment of the people. That fierce, un-Christian, un-American spirit which could awaken the worst passions of the human heart and that in the name of the God of peace and charity, is not in accordance with the good judg- ment of the people of Cleveland. This feeling has grown among us and year by year has manifested itself more gloriously in this community, no close observer can deny. That this feeling has year by year brought us more closely together, and the closer we come together the better we shall understand and bear with one another, is a glorious and a growing fact. In the spirit of this feeling I am glad to be with you and my most earnest hope is that each successive meeting of the Early Settlers' Society may find that spirit more strongly developed.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have, I fear, trespassed on my time, but I thank you for your hearing of the good we have observed in this city of our love, regarding which my best wish is that which the lips of a seer of old poured out on his country-Esto Perpetua.
In introducing Mr. Kerruish, Judge Hamilton spoke as follows :
My friends, many years ago, when I was a small lad, I knew a young man who used to teach writing. He is here to-day, and I want to give him an opportunity to tell us whether he is the same Kerruish that Mr. Armstrong spoke about this morning. I take great pleasure in presenting to you Mr. Kerruish, who will ad- dress you now and tell you all about it.
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MR. KERRUISH'S ADDRESS.
What I want to know in the first place is, is Billy Armstrong here? If he is, I've half a mind to say a few words to him, personally ; for so far as I recollect, I can recall no such public advertisement of a man's infirmity before a large and respectable audience since St. Paul's epistles to the Ephesians or Collossians or some others, when with his right hand chained to a soldier he was compelled to explain and apologize for clumsy characters and bad chirography.
And now, leaving that, ladies and gentlemen, a poet of the olden time-and a heathen too,-I'm reminded of it by Monsignor Thorpe's allusion to another poet- - said once, that he carried every point, who mingled the sweet-(agreeable, will be just as correct a translation)-"who mingled the agreeable with the use- ful." Some modern fellow, however, who was more addicted to prose than to poetry, and who was disposed to look at the prac- tical side of things, by way of modification of the rule just quoted, said, when the exigency arose requiring you to throw overboard the one or the other of these commodities-the useful or the agreeable-as sometimes becomes necessary in a five or ten minute speech-you should pitch the useful over every time-and in calling me here this afternoon to make this speech, I think the chairman and those having to do with my presence on this pro- gram, have made jettison of both the Agreeable and the Useful. I am not responsible for this part of the program at all. Those to blame are Judge Hamilton and Williams-chiefly Williams. He's the man who got it up. I exonerate myself and wash my hands of it ; and I further say I regard this call upon me to speak here this afternoon, when put in plain English, to be substantially this : "We know you haven't got anything to say, and will give you just five minutes in which to say it."
Now it seems to be thought by some, that because this is an old Settlers or Early Settlers' Association, we must be limited in what we have to say to retrospection and reminiscence. Not so at all. But so firm has this idea become imbedded in the minds
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of a great many people, that in endeavoring to get persons to make addresses here of a few minutes, the general opinion seems to be that whoever talks, must tell us something that is old-must deal with things of away back. It doesn't follow that this is s ' at all. The truth of the matter is, that the men and women who are pioneers, and have been pioneers in modern times, on these southern shores of Lake Erie, on the shores of Michigan, on the shores of all the Lakes and of all the Oceans, and in all time, have been all persons who had their eyes fixed not on the past so con- spicuously, as on the future. They have been indeed the builders for the future. And whilst it is a matter of fact that the addresses which have been made here at these pioneer meetings have dealt largely with matters in the past-not so very far away either- still, in the past,-in the past as connected with our local history- there is a propriety, to say nothing of the necessity, of having our eyes open to what the present and the future have in store for us.
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