USA > Pennsylvania > Franklin County > Waynesboro > Waynesboro : the history of a settlement in the county formerly called Cumberland, but later Franklin, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in its beginnings, to its centennial period, and to the close of the present century > Part 23
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"We live in a new civilization-in an age of gigantic industries-of fabulous wealth and multiplied advantages -in an age of rushing express trains, and ocean grey- hounds, and blazing electric lights-in an age in which a mysterious and incomprehensible net-work of electric wires has made our whole continent one vast whispering- gallery.
"The story of the world's progress within the century you celebrate reads like a romance-a fairy tale. The pulse of the world's life has tremendously quickened : the journey of weary weeks is accomplished in one brief day over any one of almost innumerable road-ways of steel that stretch themselves toward every point of the com- pass - inland. sea-ward, everywhither - between the great seas that wash our hither and remote shores. Our great ocean steamships can cast anchor in the harbors of two continents . between Sabbath bells.' I can read the news of the world, up to midnight of the day before, at my breakfast table any morning. I can do so simple a thing as turn a valve, and my home is quickly and com- fortably warmed in the coldest of winter weather. I can press a button, and my house is ablaze with light. In five minutes I can hold a conversation with a friend a thous- and miles away with as much satisfaction as though he were sitting by my side.
"But I must not multiply illustrations in proof of that which I have affirmed, and of which we are all so well aware-the marvelous and victorious march of genius, guided by the light of the most recent scientific discover- ies, into the very heart of the kingdom of nature, with
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whose mysterious elements and hidden forces men are CHAPTER XIV. continually, and successfully, experimenting in nature's own laboratories, and out of which they are constantly bringing something new, and ever developing important factors in the world's great problems of supply and demand.
"We are living in a marvelous period of the world's history ! We are living in an age furnishing constant and bewildering surprises in invention and discovery, and prophesying an astonishing revelation, and a phenomenal advance, for the twentieth century, upon whose thresh- old we stand, until, almost involuntarily, we strain our eyes in antipicating the future, and ask ourselves with bated breath, and yet with eager earnestness, what new thing will next appear-what larger possibilities of life are yet in store for us in the new and dawning century?
"Your century of history is intimately and inseparably bound up, with the period of the world's greatest activity and upward advances, in intelligent and practical utiliza- tion and employment of nature's marvelous, and seen- ingly exhaustless, civilizing agencies and powers.
"That you have used the passing years wisely and well, your steady and substantial growth, especially in im- portance as a manufacturing town, fully attests. You have kept well abreast of the times throughout the cen- tury. You have implored the aid of science, and of inven- tive genius; you have harnessed the invisible forces of nature to your chariot wheels; you have encouraged the spirit of the times by introducing, wherever practicable. the most modern conveniences and appliances for the economizing of time and labor, and for the increase of domestic comfort ; you have given remunerative employ- ment to labor; you have contributed to the progress of the age; you have built up splendid industries, in which you feel a just pride, and that have won for you an envi- able name throughout the world, wherever your manu- factured products have gone.
"You have provided for the more liberal education and thorough culture of your youth through the development and maintenance of a splendid system of public schools ; you have sought to care for the moral and religious train-
Rev. Mosser's re- sponse.
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CHAPTER XIV.
Rev. Mosser's re- sponse.
ing of all your citizens by the establishing and building up among you of a goodly number of Christian churches, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the liv- ing Christ is uplifted, and his dying love for sinful men. and his compassionate sympathy with the sad woes and urgent needs of our frail humanity, are faithfully declared.
"I could wish that the camera of the photographer had preserved for us a faithful picture of the little settlement of Waynesboro as it was a hundred years ago-in its limited extent and primitive simplicity-lying in the heart of this beautiful Cumberland Valley, and that that picture could be thrown upon the canvas here in the presence of you all to-night, and that by its side might be made to appear the Waynesboro of to-day. By such a compari- son, and by such a comparison only, could we, who are gathered here on this occasion, came to any true apprecia- tion of the actual progress you have made within the cen- tury. You have wrought faithfully and well! Nor is it to be counted a strange thing, but eminently fitting. rather, that you should pause midway between the two centuries to review the past, and to forecast the future. and, by a festal week, such as you have planned, should seek to impress the outside world with the fact that you are in it-in it as a manufacturing center of growing im- portance ; and, further, to imbue your own citizens with a more intense spirit of civic pride and loyalty.
"Each community has an individual life-a life, and in- terests, and demands, peculiarly its own-which make it right. without laying it open to criticism, or the charge of vanity, or narrowness, that in such a marked epoch as the closing of a century of history it should recount its achievements in progress, and, in the enthusiasm of such an event as yours of this week, be led to devise measures for its larger growth and broader sphere of usefulness and importance in the great world of which it forms a part.
"Very properly you have opened your centennial ex- ercises on the Sabbath day with the public worship of God, and a recognition of his providence and blessing that have contributed so largely to your successes, and have had so much to do with shaping and influencing your history. You have invited us here to share with you the
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pleasure and the unbounded enthusiasm of this really great event in your life as a community. We have ac- cepted your invitation ; and from this day until the final consummation of this significant celebration it looks as though your hospitality were going to be severely taxed to care for the friends and acquaintances already crowd- ing in upon you.
"We rejoice with you in your prosperity-in your numerous evidences of industry and thrift. We share with you your pardonable pride in your really beautiful little city, with its splendid streets, and busy industries. and comfortable homes, and excellent schools, and invit- ing churches : and we are come to take you by the hand and speak to you words of sincere congratulation, and to bid you Godspeed as you cross the threshold of a new century, that will, doubtless, witness for you, as for us all, a marvelous advance in all things that relate to wealth. and comfort, and intelligence, and morals.
"You have promised us a great treat in your wide- spread advertisement of daily events, and we have come to enjoy it with you! You have created a really splendid program! You have laid under tribute every thing with- in your reach for our entertainment and pleasure!
"We appreciate your effects in our behalf! You have tendered us a warm and cordial welcome, and I am here at this moment, by your election, for myself and on behalf of a great company of your invited guests, to express our grateful acknowledgment of the courtesy extended to us, and to assure you of our heartiest good wishes as you step hopefully forward into the larger future of a new, and every way more important, century of toil and of achievement !"
Tuesday was given up to the Odd Fellows, and was made the occasion of the celebration of the fiftieth anni- versary of Waynesboro Lodge, number two hundred and nineteen, I. O. O. F. The Odd Fellow visitors came from all directions, and when the hour of parade arrived. it is estimated that fully fifteen hundred Odd Fellows were in line.
CHAPTER XIV.
Rev. Mosser's re- sponse.
Tuesday's program. August 31st.
Odd Fellows cele- bration.
HEAD OF IO.D.F. PARADE.
THE TEARY FOL TOS COLUMBUS.C
HEAD OF ODD FELLOW'S PARADE.
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W. A. Price acted as chief marshall, and at the hour of CHAPTER XIV. two had the procession formed on East Main street in the following order :
Platoon of police, Chief Marshall, W. A. Price; Chief Marshal and Aides. of Staff, Capt. J. C. Gerbig; Assistant, Dr. E. S. Berry ; Aides, Victor Clayton, H. S. Morganthall, J. C. Crouse, J. T. Kennedy.
Odd Fellows' parade, First Division: Marshall, W. I. First Division. Bikle; Field and Staff Officers; Knights' Military Band, Baltimore; Canton Patriarchs Militant, Baltimore.
Second Division : Marshall, William C. Ernst; Citizen's Band, Shippensburg; Cumberland Lodge, of Shippens- burg ; Mercersburg Lodge: Scotland Lodge; Boonsboro Lodge; Keedysville Band; Hagerstown Lodge; Union Band, Carlisle: Carlisle Lodge: City Drum Corps ; Chambersburg Lodge; Dry Run Lodge.
Second Division.
Third Division: Marshall, Dr. H. M. Fritz; Citizen's Band, Chambersburg; Columbus Lodge, Chambersburg ; New Windsor Band: New Kingston Lodge ; St. Thomas Lodge: Greencastle Band; State Line Lodge; A. T. H. & I. Band; Waynesboro Lodge, and cabs containing Grand Lodge Officers. The Maryland Grand Lodge of- ficers who rode in the parade were: G. M., J. J. Kaler; D. G. M., Thos. Hostetter ; G. C., John M. Jones ; G. W., Richard Gibney ; S. G. T., Geo. J. Hooper ; P. G. M., Geo. W. Lee; H. G. M., Clifford Taylor; Grand Warden, Esau Loomis, of West Chester, and Deputy Grand Master, Samuel Mckeever, of Philadelphia.
The parade was followed by the literary and musical part of the day's exercises in Centennial Music Hall. Capt. D. B. Russell presided, and, after prayer by Rev. F. F. Bahner, addresses were made by Dr. E. A. Hering, Harrisonburg, Va .; Burgess J. C. Criswell; Rev. Chas. H. Coon, Philadelphia: Grand Master, J. J. Kaler, Balti- more, and George J. Hooper, Baltimore. Another meet- ing was held in the same hall at half past seven o'clock
Third Division.
Literary & musical program.
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CHAPTER XIV. in the evening, when addresses were delivered by Deputy Grand Master, Samuel Mckeever, of Philadelphia, and Grand Warden, Esau Loomis, of West Chester, Penn- sylvania.
Wednesday's pro- gram. September 1st.
The celebration proper begins.
As the weather from the beginning had been, so was it bright and beautiful on Wednesday morning. The day was ushered in by the blowing of factory whistles and the ringing of church bells, and the town was awake with the early dawn and visitors from every direction begin- ning to arrive.
Soldiers' monu- ment.
Note 73.
At the hour of eleven o'clock in the morning several thousand persons had assembled on the brow of the hill in Burns Hill Cemetery to witness the dedication of the Soldiers' Memorial Monument, which had been erected through the efforts of the members of the Woman's Re- lief Corps, the Monument Committee being: Mrs. Sarah Lee, Mrs. Rebecca Stoner, Mrs. Belle Rider. After prayer by Rev. F. F. Bahner, pastor of Trinity Re- formed church, Miss Julia Jacobs, the bright little daugh- ter of Mr. W. J. C. Jacobs, pulled the cord holding together the national colors which draped the monument. The flags fell apart disclosing the handsome monument, a salute was fired by the Franklin Guards. of Chambers- burg, and the formal unveiling was thus completed. The monument bears the following inscription :
"Erected by the Woman's Relief Corps of Waynes- boro, in honor of the soldiers who so nobly fought dur- ing the War of the Rebellion from 1861 to 1865."
Rev. T. C. McCarrell, pastor of the Presbyterian church, made the opening address. Charles B. Clayton rendered a cornet solo, after which Hon. John Stewart, President Judge of Franklin county, delivered the dedi- catory address. He spoke as follows:
Dedicatory address llon. John Stewart.
"It is because our individual life is confined within such narrow and contracted limits, that we contemplate with special interest those things of man's creation which have
HISTORY OF WAYNESBORO.
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, WAYNESBORO, PA.
IF - OW YOP EL LIERATT
LUK AN PODAT UNS
-
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longer endured. It gratifies our pride somewhat, to wit- CHAPTER XIV. ness the works of human creation standing secure long after the generations that built them have been forgotten ; for to this extent, meagre though it be, we seem to be the victors in the unequal contest with the great de- stroyer. We count it much that anything can stand in strength and vigor, with a retrospect of a hundred years; and well may, for a century is a large section of time. But four such periods separate us from the time when there was no known western world ; add but a few more and we are lost in the darkness of the middle ages ; a very few more and we are back in the early dawn of our pres- ent civilization ; still a few more and we stand at the very beginning of our Christian era.
"Because there are States and communities which count by the groups the centuries of their existence, it may seem strange, perhaps to them amusing that we so covetous of age, should celebrate the completion of our first. But it is not in rivalry to them that we lay claim to age. We are not so old as they, and yet we are no longer young. Youth cannot be affirmed of anything that has endured for a century. More especially is this true of those things which stand to-day and testify of men and events a hundred years ago. For these century periods, though of equal length, are not alike in their testing strength as applied to the works of man. The voyages may be upon the same sea, between the same ports, yet the calm water and favoring breezes of the one being no test or trial to the vessel, which, tempest toss- ed in the next, flounders and goes down beyond sight forever. A century of modern history comprises its hundred years, just as a century of the middle period did ; but so far as concerns those forces which try and test the stability of human affairs, they are of unequal length, just as fifty years of Europe, may be more than a cycle of Cathay. These forces have never been so active or so persistent as during the century about to close ; and there- fore it is, that whatever saw its beginning and yet abides with us here, in this western world. is entitled to claim the crown and dignity of age. As this latest century has been the period of greatest activity and intensest con- flict, so it has been the witness of man's proudest triumph.
(20)
Judge Stewart's address.
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WAYNESBORO.
W'e of to-day are the heirs of all the ages, but these ages have not contributed in the same degree to our inherit- ance. In extent, in richness, and variety, that portion we derive from the age next preceding our own, surpasses the contribution of any earlier period. It is because of the struggles and marvelous achievements of this later period, not in one field but in every field,that the world to-day is wiser, better, happier than it ever was before, that human knowledge is greater and more widely dif- fused, that generous living more largely prevails, that culture and comfort are more largely enjoyed, that serf- dom has given place to citizenship and that political gov- ernment with us is exercised for the protection of all alike, in the enjoyment of equal rights. A century in such an era of human activity and progress, has an importance that cannot be measured simply by its years, and it is such a century that we, my friends, look back upon to-day.
"We do well to celebrate its close, and recount with pride and gratitude its triumphs and its glories, for they are our inheritance.
"On such an occasion, when so much is suggested for thought and reflection, it is natural that our minds should turn first of all to those events occurring within the period which were of the largest and most commanding influ. ence. These press themselves upon our attention as they did upon the generation that witnessed it. We measure events by their consequences ; they are great or small as they affect the many or the few. Judged by this test, his- tory records few facts, certainly none in modern times, of vaster significance than the great Civil War, which but a generation since put in extremest peril the existence of our republic. That war was a great historic fact, the memory of which will endure so long as civilization exists : not because of the magnitude of its operation, and yet this alone without more would give it supreme distinc- tion, but because of what it involved and what it estab- lished, as we trust, forever; man's right and capacity for self government.
"We are unjust to ourselves and unjust to the men who stood in our defense, if we allow the issues of that great war to be narrowed to questions of territorial limits,
CHAPTER XIV. Judge Stewart's address.
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or division of national domain. The men who sustained the nation's cause by blood and treasure through that period of peril, saw vastly more than this involved, and drew their inspiration from loftier and nobler considera- tions. What was then put in issue was the stability and permanence of popular government. The men of the century before, had committed to the men of this, an ex- periment in civil government. They established a gov- ernment which was of the people, by the people, for the people, "broad based upon a people's sovereign will" in which there was neither king, sceptre nor throne, privi- leged class or exempted order, but in which, the people, all the people, were themselves the rulers, each with equal voice, and all alike equal before the law. No such gov- ernment had ever before been attempted. Philosophers had dreamed of it, but until established here in our west- ern world, it was but a Utopian fancy. More than half a century's experience had illustrated its beneficence by a growth and prosperity unexampled. With the deliver- ance of the individual from the restraints and oppression of the older form of government, came freedom of thought and inquiry, the emancipation and diffusion of knowledge, and with these a quickening of all the forces in individual, social, industrial and political life. The world looked on, and wondered at the results accomplish- ed in so short a time. But it was still an experiment. A half century counts but little in a nation's life. Gov- ernments to be of value must have stability, permanence. Instability leads to anarchy, and the worst government is better than that. Was it possible that a government in which the power and responsibility rested with the people themselves could endure? Humanity doubted and yet hoped. At length came the supreme test to its ability-its sufficiency to protect itself. Nothing can so test the resisting power of established authority, as the angry fury of organized revolt; and it was by such or- deal that this republic of ours was tried through four long years of civil strife. What vast interests hung suspended upon the doubtful hazard of that war! Was it true that man was capable of self government, or was this a dream to have its fulfillment only in a remoter millennial age? Were men created alike free with equal.
CHAPTER XIV. Judge Stewart's address.
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CHAPTER XIV.
Judge Stewart's address.
with inalienable rights, and could civil government rest in security upon such assumption? These, and all other doctrines taught in that great charter of our national in- dependence which make for freedom, were put in issue, for they were expressed and embodied in the nation's life ; they were its life, and it stood but as their bodily form and expression. From that war the nation emerg- ed, no longer an experiment, but an established fact and power, vindicating in its triumph the strength and endur- ance of free institutions. Thenceforth the republic was to stand not as a warning, amid its own wreck and ruin. to check and subdue the aspirations of the race for en- larged freedom: but in the majesty of its strength and greatness, to witness for the everlasting truths upon which its broad foundations were laid.
"It would be a strange omission, were we to fail to recall during these centennial exercises, this most signi- ficant event of this, the most eventful century, save one. in recorded history. It would show us lacking in ap- preciation of the exalted privileges of American citizen- ship, and wanting in gratitude to the men who, by their bravery and devotion, redeemed the nation's life. While we dare not do less than we have done in this brief re- cital, the purposes of the loyal, patriotic women of this town go much beyond. They would make the occasion itself express in some way their loyalty and devotion to their country, their admiration for the courage and forti- tude of the men who stood so bravely for the cause of civil freedom, and their high appreciation of the rights and dignity of American manhood, womanhood and citizenship. To this end they have caused to be erected here in this sacred and secluded spot, where sleep in silence many of the men of this community who gave full measure of devotion to the sacred cause, as brave and loyal soldiers of the republic, and where still more of them are soon to find a last resting place, this beautiful memorial, which they now, on this centennial anniversary solemnly, reverently, yet joyfully and gratefully dedicate to pious purpose.
"Let me give it voice and utterance, and in a few closing words declare, if I can, its meaning and its testi-
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mony ; for here it is to stand upon its eminence as an en- CHAPTER XIV. during witness.
"Associated as it is with a fact of world-wide import- ance, it is yet local both in its origin and significance. It has been erected by the patriotic women of this com- munity, to testify to a fact which is abundant cause for local pride and gratitude. It is not intended to per- petuate the memory of the great Civil War as a fact in the nation's life ; that fact will never disappear from the pages of history; it needs no other witness. Nor is it meant to perpetuate the names and fame of those illustri- ous men, who, as statesmen and soldiers, directed the af- fairs and led the armies of the Republic through that period of peril. Their names are indissolubly linked with the event itself, and their fame is imperishable. On the banks of the Hudson, within sight and sound of the busy life of the great metropolis, but all apart by itself, stands a noble building of exquisite design, whose beauty un- folds like a flower as you gaze upon it, until you come to see it as a perfect whole. It is the tomb of the great captain who led your armies to final and complete triumph. You look about you for some emblem or de- sign, or pedestal, entablature, on wall or dome, to indicate the purpose of the edifice ; but you see neither statue nor picture, nor legend nor inscription, nothing that tells the story of the hero's life, or even speaks his name, until, advancing within, you look below the surface of the mar- ble floor on which you stand, directly underneath the lofty dome, through which the sun and stars alternately keep sacred watch by day and night, and there the eye rests upon a great sarcophagus bearing the single and simple inscription-Ulysses S. Grant. Then it is you understand the absence of emblem and pictured legend. It is only the ashes that are here, thus guarded that they may be preserved ; his fame is a thing apart and fills the world, needing no monument to proclaim or perpetuate it ; his name is forever linked to an immortal fact.
"It is allowed to few to thus identify their names with great events. The many perish and are soon forgotten. Yet but for the devotion of the many, even those few could have no place, for it is the many who make the events. The devoted and courageous patriotism to
Judge Stewart's address.
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which, as displayed in the lives of these illustrious men whose fame is so enduring, the world yields its homage, though not so conspicuously, was yet as truly and grand- ly illustrated in the lives of these loyal sons of the re- public who stood undistinguishable, and unobserved, save by the foe, in the red front of battle, in defense of what we hold so sacred. But for the unselfish devotion and exalted courage of these men, the cause of freedom must have failed, this nation must have perished, and with it the glorious promise for complete enfranchisement, which for more than half a century had gladdened and encour- aged the hearts of men the world over. Their names are many and can never fill the world's loud trump of fame. but their triumph survives in the republic we call our own, and their example will long abide to inspirit, en- noble and animate to future deeds of heroism in the cause of truth and humanity. The names of those
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