Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-09-30
OLD FOLKS ATT HOME.
Happy Reunion Col. TrousdaIe's
Address.

Address.
4 The annual reunion Of the Old Folks
at Home took place yesterday at the
Fair Grounds, and was well attended by
our leading citizens and their families.
A splendid band was on hand and the
supply Of refreshments was adequate to
the demand Colonel c. d. Mclean,
President of the Society, called the As
sembly to order and introduced Rev i.
p. Davidson, who offered up a feryent
prayer. After music and terpsichorean
exercises for an hour or more, Colonel
Leon Trousdale, the selected orator of
the day, was introduced.
His address was chaste, eloquent, inn
pressive. We regret that we have only
space for the concluding passages:
The founders of Rome were said by
the Romans to have been nursed by .
wolf. The founders of our city and
county had nurses as fierce and untama-
BILE as the she wolf
These were privations, toll and adver-
sity. Their tutor was nature; their play
mates the elements. From these they
gathered heroic elements of character,
which should place them as high in our
esteem as were Romulus and Remus in
the regard Of the Romans. Most of them
have passed away. They have dropped,
one by one, as the leaves fall from the
trees in autumn. There are few Of them
living Should we see them suffer as
long as we have an arm TO help or power
to alleviate their distress2 To avoid any
such possible ingratitude is another of
the benevolent and noble objects of the
Association of the Old Folks at Home.
How much is due to them may be learned
from the fact that the Legislature passed
acts to open land offices for the settle
ment of West Tennessee in 1919, the
country having been ceded by the Chick
asaw Indians on the 10Th of October
1918. And now, after a lapse of fifty
one years, we have population of more
than fifty thousand on the Chickasaw
Bluff alone-a great and prosperous city,
connected by steam and electric tele-
graph with the whole civilized portion of
the globe, with an annually increasing
trade and population, and surrounded by
the finest diversity Of soil and the best
climate in the temperate zone, after
passing through the desolation of war,
too, our motto being " Rcsurgam ~
will rise again"
But we may not dwell too long upon
prospects so cheering. Mournful recol-
lections crowd upon the mind and we
are reminded chat the duly of recurring
to those we have lost within the past
year devolves upon u.s.
OF the members of the Old Folks at
Home who have died during that brief
period, the record is unusually crowded.
| regret that time will not permit an en-
largement upon their useful lives, for
must be brief. Mrs. Catharine Whittier,
who died al her residence in the city on
the 2lst of April last, was born in Ken
lucky in 1896. She was, therefore, sew
enty-four years old. She came to Shelby
county in 1871 her husband settling six
miles above the city, on the place known
in the annals of the late war as Fort
Harris. She was fifteen years old when
her father, with his family, launched out
on the then uncertain waters of the
Mississippi on a hat-boat. There were
no burning steamers or exploding boil
ers at that time to make the pas
sengers on these rude crafts uneasy;
yet Mrs. Whittier witnessed one of
the most terrible and dangerous
scenes known to river navigation
one that she often related and never for
got. The earthquakea at New Madrid
bend were hourly occurring, and when
opposite that locality, from the deck of
the primitive boat, she saw The rapid cur
rent of the Mississippi suddenly change
its course and run with lightning speed
up stream, accompanied by sound like
the most terrific thunder, and diversified
by occasional maelstroms, as though
the bottom of the river had sunk in places
to an unknown depth. The scene was
terribly grand, and yet the frail craft
weathered out the peril and landed the
girl of fifteen on our shores, to live q
useful long and honorable life, leaving
a son in the county and some grand-chil-
dren.
Another of our female members who
have died within the year, is Mrs. Mar
garet Prescott, at the age Of "a. She
was born near Boston, Mass, was mar
ried to a Mr. Custer and removed to Gu
cnnati, Ohio, over 90 years ago. She
married Levi Prescott in 1913, and since
that time has resided in Memphis, She
leaves a son and daughter and some
twenty grandchildren, besides great
grandchildren to mourn her loss and
cherish her virsues
Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne is another of
the victims Of the destroyer since our
last annual festivity. She died at the
ripe age of ninety-three. Mrs. Haw-
thorne purchased the residence property
where she died, in 1885, from john c..
McLemore, but how long she had been
in the county have not been able to
learn. Her reputation 9s Q kind and
useful neighbor, fond mother and de-
voted Christian, ! have often heard
mentioned as above reproach, Her son,
John W. Hawthorne, also soon followed
her to the tomb He was one of our
most useful and reliable citizens, having
honorably occupied the position Of con
stable for many years in the city. John
w. Taylor, who was colleague of Nj.
Hawthorne, also passed away very soon
after the death of the latter. He was
kind-hearted, genial, charitable and true,
and as an officer, above criticism, SO tar
as have ever heard. The historians of
the Association, ] trust, will collect more
minute facts with reference to these two
useful citizens than am possessed Of.
Michael Cody, too, has gone. He was
identified with the early settlement of
Memphis Warm-hearted, generous and
true, some who knew him Familiarity
should do greater Justice to his memory
than these brief illusions have done.
John w. Fowler, one Of the most
prominent and useful citizens Of Mem
phis for forty years, was born in Wake
county, North Carolina, March 20, 1906
removed to Memphis July 3, 1880; en-
tered into rest, Memphis, January II,
1870. / avail myself literally of a mem
orandum furnished me by his venerable
and worthy contemporary, our distin.
guished President, TO speak his just and
measured eulogy, as well as that Of an
other prominent citizen, Colonel Frazer
Titus, WHOSE venerable foFm was so
lately seen daily in our streets, and
whose sudden death was so generally
! Iamanted and of whom il NAV truth