USA > Ohio > Butler County > Hamilton in Butler County > The centennial anniversary of the city of Hamilton, Ohio, September 17-19, 1891 > Part 6
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THE MIAMI VALLEY IN 1891.
But the days of the station or stockade fort and the block-house have passed away, although they played an important part in the history of the back woods. The puncheon floor and the roof of clap-boards have given way to the more commodious homes made necessary by an advancing civili- zation. The buck antlers no longer hold the ever trusty rifle, and indeed the buck antlers themselves have disappeared.
The attack on Dunlap's settlement, not far from Venice, in this county, on January 10, 1791, led by the infamour Simon Girty, at the mention of whose name the women and children of the Miami country turned pale, and the attack on Whites Station on the old Hamilton road, at the third crossing of Mill Creek, on October 19, 1793, read like one of Cooper's novels.
It seems strange to us that Colonel Robert Elliott, a contractor for sup- plying the United States Army, should have been killed by the Indians, at the old Fleming place, near Springdale, while on his way from Fort Wash- ington to Fort Hamilton, while some pack-horsemen in the government ser- vice while stopping at the first little stream which crosses the Springdale turnpike below Carthage to give their horses drink would receive such a volley from the Indians as to give the name of Bloody Run to the stream-a name it holds to this day.
The "clearings" which were bounded by a dense region of shadowy woodland which encircled the cabin door have extended into cultivated farms, and the spires of churches and chimneys mark the spot of trackless forests through which even the sunlight could not enter to brighten their mysterious aisles.
We stand to-day on the heights of a hundred years-a century crowned by the blessings of liberty and order and good government. There is a just cause for congratulation in the progress of our Valley. It may well chal- lenge comparison with an equal extent of territory in any part of the habit- able globe in the fertility of its broad acres; in the character of its water, timber and roads ; in its school-houses and academies for higher learning ; in its churches and the catholic spirit which prevades their creeds, and the in-
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stitutions for the widow and orphaned children ; in the relief which it extends to the homeless and destitute, and in the charity which it offers to the help- less child of want ; in its telegraphs and telephones and fountains and parks and Music Halls and Libraries, in its homes where the incense of domestic comfort rises on so many altars and where household gods are twined with evergreen," in its influences for morality and parental obedience and respect for constituted authority, in the speedy and impartial administration of justice and in the spirit of an undying loyalty to country.
THE PATRIOTIC SERVICE OF HER SONS.
The sons of Miami Valley have met every obligation of good citizen- ship. Three of her sons, either bv birth or adoption, have filled the Presi- dential chair ; eleven have been Governors of Ohio ; nine have been Senators of the United States; one has been Chief Justice and two have been Associ- ate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States; some have been members of the Cabinet ; some have represented their country in the highest Courts of Christendom ; some have sat on the Supreme Bench of Ohio ; some served in Congress with great distinction and largely directed National legis- lation in the important period of the civil war, while one was the first mis- sionary and the first author to carry the Gospel beyond the shores of the Mediterranean.
They were gallant soldiers in the war with Mexico, in the struggle of 1812, and rendered patriotic services on every battle-field in the war for the Union. We remember with lasting gratitude their devotion to their country, and on this centennial day, reverently do honor to the memory of the gallant Butler and those who fell with him on that day of dreadful disaster at St. Clair's defeat, to the memory of those brave and heroic men who followed Anthony Wayne and perished at last at the Fallen Timbers, to the memory of the hardy pioneers who protected the frontiers and saved defenseless set- tlements from the tamahawk and scalping knife of the Indian, to the memory of every man, whether on land or on sea, who has lifted up his hand for his country.
HITHERTO THE LORD HATH HELPED US,
In the midst of these multiplied evidences of material prosperity, and with all these blessings of civil and religious liberty, which enwrap us as gently as our mothers' arms, we can not but look with gratitude to that Providence which directs the destinies of Nations as well as of men. Hither- to the Lord hath helped us.
With an abiding attachment for our free institutions, and with a sublime faith in the future, we now enter upon the second century of the Miami Val- ley.
GOVERNOR JAMES E. CAMPBELL.
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THE STATE OF OHIO.
BY JAMES E. CAMPBELL ..
Ladies and Gentlemen :
T HE duty assigned me is to speak of Ohio-the commonwealth which has given birth to many of us ; and of which whether native or adopted children, we all are justly proud.
There is something in Ohio scarcely to be described in words-that possibly does not exist to the same extent in any other state in the Union ; that is, the composite, cosmopolitan, mixed blood of her people. The lines of immigration which set into this state when first opened to settlement after the Revolutionary war, were many and varied. There came in a com- mingling stream, the Huguenots from South Carolina, the mountaineers from North Carolina, the Scotch-Irish from the valley of Virginia, the Dutch and Quakers from Pennsylvania, the New Englanders and New Yorkers. These various stocks were joined in marriage, and have been intermingled since with strains of blood from every civilized nation of the world; and the result has been that Ohio, in the last half of the Nineteenth Century, has contribited more great names to history than any other state, or nation, with the same population and resources.
When Washington gathered his generals around him at Valley Forge, where they were freezing and starving, and the patriots cause seemed at the lowest ebb, he saw, with his prophetic vision, that Ohio would some day be what she has since become, and he exclaimed, "If we are overwhelmed we will retire to the valley of the Ohio, and there we will be free."
Those early settlers were soldiers of the Revolution. They had their land grants here, and they left the East, which was the effete civilization of that day. They had defied the power of Great Britain, and conquered their liberties. When they came to Ohio they laid the foundation in morality, integrity, intelligence and honor of that great commonwealth whose glories we are celebrating this day. They followed out their careers here; they fought the Indians, breasted the storms and privations of the wilderness ; sometimes they were lead by "Mad Anthony" Wayne ; sometimes by Arthur St. Clair, the first governor of the territory. They reared such pioneers as Simon Kenton, and others whose names we cannot pause to recall, but all of whom will enter into the history of the state forever.
Then came the second generation, and with them the war of 1812. There is scarcely one of you now in middle life but, in his own household, has heard the old people tell the story of that struggle with the treacherous Indian, supported by the power of Great Britain. I have recollections going back to the stories of my grandmother, who, upon a certain Sunday, riding
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along to visit her father, sat behind my grandfather on a pillion, with a baby in her arms, and there came a courier, his horse covered with foam, galloping down the muddy roads crying out to the houses on the right and the left, and to those whom he met, the terrible tidings of Hull's surrender. The men went at once to the conflict, and the women remained at home in dread.
After this war the people turned their attention to the arts of peace, and were soon running steamboats down the Ohio river, to the intense surprise, and in some cases alarm of the untutored people of the country. The wil- derness was opened, roads and canals were built, and, with the exception of the Mexican war, which gave to Ohio Hammer and Morgan, and a few other heroes, there was scarcely a break in the peaceful growth and improvement of the country until railroads and telegraphs seemed to crown the summit of human achievement.
Then came the great war, in which on the muster rolls of the Union, Ohio wrote three hundred and twenty thousand names. She wrote them AT THE TOP I need not recount then-Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Mc- Pherson, the fighting McCooks, Custar, Hazen, Steadman, Rosecrans, Lytle, time forbids a cursory mention even of the greatest. When the battle above the clouds was fought forty-three Ohio regiments reached the top of the famous mountain. In the last year of the war, when she was depleted of her resources, and her best and bravest were either in the field, the hospital, or the grave, in ten days she raised, equipped, and sent to the front forty thousand men. There is but one episode in history like it, and that is the hundred days between Elba and Waterloo.
The motto inscribed upon her banner is, "Imperium in Imperio" an em- pire within an empire. Whoever suggested that motto for this state must have been gifted with more than ordinary foresight ; for, if there be any- where on earth an "empire within an empire," it is the State of Ohio as one of the United States of America. She is an empire in commerce. If you track the civilization of this nation across the continent, it trails across the state of Ohio. It is the throat of the country. I need not tell you here in the valley of the Big Miami what she is in agriculture; it would be a work of supererogation. She is an empire in mineral wealth. Not only is she supplied bountifully with coal, but she has those wonderful discoveries of these latter days -- oil and gas. She is an empire in population, numbering within her borders more people than George Washington ruled over when he was president of the United States. Her history in peace cannot be re- cited in the brief time at our disposal, but she has done much more than her share towards the government of the country. Presidents, cabinet ministers, chief justices, statesmen and jurists has she furnished to the nation. She has achieved a high name in art and culture. No people in the world are her superiors in popular schools of learning; while her press, pulpit, and other educational influences are unexcelled.
Her motto speaks truly when it says she is "An empire WITHIN an em- pire." I yield to no man in love for Ohio. Upon her soil were born my parents, my wife, my children-everything that makes life worth living and God worth looing. I am proud of her banner, with its beautiful sun-burst and garnered sheaf; but, after all, she is only an empire within an empire. When we turn our gaze from her banner to that other banner-the one that counts upon its folds forty-four stars, each as beautiful, as bright, as eternally fixed in its place as the star of Ohio, then are we all alike, our love for Ohio's banner is merged into an infinite affection for the other.
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REV. W. O. THOMPSON.
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THE UNITED STATES.
BY W. O. THOMPSON D. D.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
0 UR watchword from 1791 to 1891 has been progress. Our history has been made possible by the sure foundations laid by our fathers. We stand today on much higher ground than they in 1791. We are not dis- posed however to cast a reflection upon the fair name of our fathers. We are glad rather that as their sons we have met their brightest anticipations. They met the problems that faced them in 1791 and we are glad to believe that 1891 will not be criticised for its incapacity. Americans were proud of their citizenship one hundred years ago. Today no more honorable crown is worn than that same citizenship. This is, as we believe, the natural result of a free people under a free government. The dates upon either side of my topic suggest some interesting contrasts that I shall briefly name as profit- able for our meditation.
FIRST, we mention the contrast in territory, In 1791 we had a magnft- cent territory of 820,680 square miles situated on the eastern slope of the Alleghenies far surpassing in extent and natural resources many of the great nations of the earth. Now we have 2,970,000 square miles not including the territory of Alaska. This wonderful stretch of land reaches from ocean to ocean thus giving us a position of peculiar strength. But four times the area in square miles does not suggest the whole truth. This new territory embraces the richest agricultural lands in the world. The beautiful and fertile Mississippi valley then an unexplored region, is now a fruitful and prosperous empire. Beyond lies the Rocky Mountain region the great silver and mining country that is annually adding to the wealth of the world and supporting a steadily increasing population of happy and prosperous people. Beyond the Rockies toward the Pacific lies the land of flower and oranges- of wheat and gold whose varied climate and industries, together with a soil rich beyond expectation has made the Pacific coast country the wonder of the modern world. The territory thus comprised in the United States has no parallel in history. It is estimated that we have 1,500,000 square miles of arable land. A thuusand millions of people would not as heavily tax the producing ability of our soil as some European countries are now taxed. The best days of Roman Empire never saw a territory of like extent and fer- tility. Among modern nations the United States has the garden spot of the earth-a moderate climate, fertile soil, unmeasured mineral resources and an expanse of territory well watered, that makes our natural resources surpass those of any country on the globe.
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The second contrast may be found in the population. Our growth has been the marvel of history. Patrick Henry eloquently spoke of three millions of peo- ple armed in the holy cause of liberty as an invincible host. We can now plead sixty millions, not less, in love with our country and her institutions. This vast number of people is but a beginning. It has been computed that the State of Texas could support the entire population of the United States and that the whole country could readily support one thousand millions. Such a population would not more densly populate our country than some countries are now settled. To this population we are now adding year by year nearly thre-quarters of a million from other lands. Our cities are growing with wonderful rapidity. In 1791 one in thirty of our population lived in cities of 8000. Now nearly one fourth live in such cities. In 1791 there were not more than half a dozen cities with 8000 population. Now we have nearly 300, so wonderfully has our population grown. This fact alone bespeaks our greatness and offers to the thoughtful man a serious problem.
A third contrast is suggested by the progress of government. Then the ship of state was but fairly launched. The experiment of a government of the people and for the people was something new in the world's history. Many were the prophets of evil who could tell of the perils to which the young nation was exposed and of her sure destruction. But time has put the prophets to shame. We have forever banished slavery from our borders .. The spirit of our constitution is now better understood, and more loved than when first written. Evils have been corrected, provision has been made for development and today the government of the United States is an inspira- tion to every lover of liberty throughout the world, We have a representa- tive government of the people in which majorities rule while carefully guarding and maintaining the rights of minorities. This doctrine so truly American has not only in the century past brought our own government to great strength, but it has produced a more liberal spirit in other govern- ments. Our principles a century ago were looked upon as experiments. Now they are everywhere regarded as a bulwark to liberty and the key to progress. In 1791 we had just emerged from a war that determined whether such a government as ours should be an experiment. Since then we have emerged from a second war within our own borders that finally tested the question whether that government might live. We have come out of the struggle purified and strengthened until we stand to day more firmly rooted in the affections of our people than ever before.
A fourth contrast is to be found in our wealth.
A century ago we possessed a country of possibilities. It is still a a country of possibilities. Meantime we have grown to be the richest coun- try on the globe. Our wealth has been calculated at about forty five thou. sand millions. This vast amount too is nearly all a recent product. Great Britain is by far the richest country in Europe but our wealth exceeds hers
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by nearly three hundred millions. Our resources too are but little developed. A large portion of our lands are not yet tilled. Our agricultural population is beginning to learn the advantage of scientific methods and of intelligent farming. No man has yet conceived of the vast wealth that our agriculture may yet produce. Our mineral wealth is yet but little developed. New discoveries are constantly revealing new mineral resources. The wealth of commerce steadily increases and when our ocean commerce shall have been put upon a good basis, our country will be in position to lead the world in producing and gaining wealth. Despite the destructive effects of war, we have constantly increased in our national wealth. The record of the last twenty years in this direction has no parallel in history.
A fifth contrast is seen in the matter of applied science. The message of 1891 to 1791 in the field of science as applied to the comfort, happiness and safety of the people reveals a new world. At that day the world knew nothing of the railroad, telegraph, telephone, phonograph, microphone nor the many other inventions of the modern mind. The progress of the world has been greatly facilitated by the application of science. One by one we have unlocked the secret storehouses of nature. We have invented machinery beyond all imagination. The humblest citizen is made the beneficiary of the most important discoveries of science. We have over 150,000 miles of telegraphic lines and almost as many miles of railroad. Telephones connect city with city and villiage with village. These conveniences have brought every part of the world into close communication with every other part. The modern mail service is the world's wonder for efficiency, rapidity and cheapness. Electricity has become our servant in lighting our homes, and furnishing rapid transit. The weather department of our government has been brought to such efficiencey that by our rapid communication from one part of the country to another we are able to forecast with great cer- tainty changes of temperature and weather-to provide against impending storms, and the destruction of the elements in such way as often to save both life and property. Applied sience has done much to ameliorate the suffering of men and to give increased safety to people. Of all these things 1791 new nothing. The progress of the century in this way has brought a new world indeed.
· A sixth contrast is suggested in our educational and religious progress Now here will the contrast seem sharper. The public school, in which is mistured the highest patriotism, has always been a crown of glory to our country. An annual expense of one hundred millions only begins to tell the story of the work done in this direction. Our system has grown and ex- panded until the average high school now does more for the pupil than some colleges of one hundred years ago. In addition to the public school is the private school, the normal school, the business college, the technical schools of all sorts, the agricultural colleges, the scientific schools, the colleges of
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arts, the professional schools and the universities. We are coming to the days of large things in this line. The nation has given liberally to encourage education in the states and the states in turn have given large amounts. The church and private individuals seem to rival one another in their zeal to provide for the education of the people. All this it is important to note is in the interest for the masses and not for the few. One hundred years ago a fair education was a luxury enjoyed by the favored. Now such provision is made that every industrious willing person has within his grasp a good education. This wide spread intelligence is fast giving character to our country. Instead of an occasional man of rare excellence, our system now finds its best product in the higher average of the whole people.
Closely allied to our educational development is the religious growth.
So impartial an observer as Prof. James Bryce declares the people of the United States the most actively religious people in the world. The religious progress of the century has been a marked feature, not more in the increased numbers professedly allied with religious enterprises, than in the spirit of the work. The religious world is active and aggressive. Every land upon the globe is the subject of religious conquest by the American people. This. world wide movement is the distinguishing mark of our century in religious history. We have seen too a growth of the charitable spirit of the church, an elevation of morals and a devotion that brings great satisfaction to the earnest student of our history. It fills the future with hope.
Thus briefly have I indicated a few contrasts that suggest the growth of our century. We have, as I believe, a just cause to congratulate ourselves. upon the close of the hundred years of history that we today celebrate. We: have cause to congratulate ourselves upon the prospect of the future. As ai Nation we need but to keep our approved principles in full view and pursue that steady, conservative and progressive course that so far has marked our history, if we would have each succeeding year add lustre to its predecessor. We are full of hope. Our Nation has proved her strength. While therefore we rejoice in 1791, we rejoice yet more on the prosperity of 1891.
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GEN. SAMUEL F. CARY.
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THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O.
THE WORLD.
BY SAMUEL F. CARY.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :
F ROM the truthful, brilliant and eloquent addresses to which we have listened on this anniversary occasion, we of the Miami Valley with one accord conclude that "our lines have fallen in pleasant places and that we have a goodly heritage."
Not one in this vast assembly if permitted to make his own selection would have chosen any other home, any other country, any other form of government, or any other century in which to pass earthly probation.
The theme assigned me is the world in 1791 and 1891. The few vener- able natives of the Miami Valley here present who have passed their years of three score and ten if called upon to enumerate the changes they have witnessed since their early recollection would not know where to begin. If it were not for the graves of kindred who have fallen asleep and a few old landmarks it would be difficult to convince them that this is the place of their childhood.
Were it not that the milestones are distinctly marked which denote the flight of time, we would be pursuaded that a thousand instead of one hundred years had passed since 1791. Important events, and wonderful changes have been crowded into the century, which signalize this as the most won- derful period in the worlds history.
We have not time to speak of the changes which have been made in the divisions and sub-divisions of the earth by the different tribes and nations inhabiting it nor of the changes in the forms of government, except that in all of them the tendency has been towards a recognition of the rights of men to govern themselves. Republican forms of government have been estab- lished in all the states of Spanish America and in France. Where old forms have been retained, power has been gradually passing from the few to the many and the thrones of tyrants are going into decay. The people instead of being the tools of tyrants, and like the last of Egypt, their existance only known by the desolation which have marked their progress and aperting their manhood and their inaleinab'e rights.
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