Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1866-01-10
For the Newsletter.
FUI IHU ANV"
JOHNSON, January 9th 1900


scribe NAV be called the Diamond We'd
ding" for it is at the close of sixty years
of happy wedlOck.
The Goth anniversary of the marriage
of Thomas and Eleanor Waterman OF this
place was celebrated this day by their
special invitation in a select and exceed
ingIy interesting party of the elder ciu-
zens, and in the evening by very large
collection of the younger married people
OF the afternoon circle Hon. Joseph
Waterman, the only surviving brother,
and Mrs Doane. the only surviving SIS
ter. and the nephews Hon. Vernon Wa
tegman of Morristown and Judge Atwood
of Cambridge, with their wives, were
among the guests.
From a paper read by Hon. Joseph
Waterman, it appears that the father of
of our venerable friend moved from Nor
wich Conn. sixty years ago last
March, and located the two sons ust
married in this town, an d on the farms
they then took possession of. they both
reside to the presens hour. This beauti-
full instance Of conservatism, amidst the
general tendency Of society to change, is
fine Illustration of the sagacity and the
prudence for which, in other respects, the
Waterman family is remarkable.
The conservative spirit should not be
wholly discarded, and much less re-
preached as is too COMMON at this time.
1t is an element in human nature more or
less possessed by all, and, like all in
stincts of our being, is there for good.
Why then reproach it as only evil If it
has swayod too much the institutions of
human society and thereby unduly fettcr-
ed social and civil progress, ascribo that
to other things quite as much as to this,
and let them share in the blame.
Without the conservative the radical
element would rush everything to ruin.
know what | say, and would dissuadc
from impaticnco of the cultivation Of the
spirit in question.
| have said this spirit was characteris-
tic of the Waterman family. That is the
reason why the junior branches of their
house arc not aAoat over the world III
the restless rush for change In that
very stability there has been encourage
ment given to steady civilization and 9TH
or things being equal, there always will
be by the conservative spirit The new
ness of change is fatal to reverence, sta
bility of location to the last degree favor
able to it. What an affection for institu-
tons men have, who have been in their
generations long accustomed to them. Oh
the power that one of the old dilapidated
churches of Europe has in derotiona!te-
ang the heart of the locker on. How fond
such man becomes of the civil institu-
tons of his country as he looks upon the
ancient castle. But to come back. The
children of our venerable host, long after
he is in the dust, will often with emotion
see him in the past improvements of the
farm-in the trees he had planted--iu
the orchard he has pruned-in the care
full and convenient fixtures within and
without for all that needed thcm-mau
and beast And from all of these they
will gather up tender love for his memo ry
and an increased devotion, for that yer,
reason, to the institutions he loved n
to the principles he cherished. 1t is FRO,
this very spirit of conservatism, NOR
than from everything else, "Old Scotia,
grandeur springs" Oh mag the grand
eur of our beloved country Spring from
similar cause. In no plan that | hay
met has the love of COUP tr' appeared warm
err and stronger thin IN Thomas Waite,
man. And may add he is man ur
derstandingly consc rvative as | have e,
er known.
Thomas Waterman, our host is eight,
live years old this day-bcing born jar
9th 1851, He was married on the st
day OF January 1906 to Miss Eleanc
Dodge of this town.
OF the Waterman family there wer
nine eight of whom lived to exceed, seven
ty years. And the subject of my preser
remarks, you preceive, has exceeded tia
period by fifteen years. He is u man {
a yerv strong mind ond bo, A.