, 1872-01-01
The Pioneers.


white settlers of this region have taken
steps to organize themselves into Il so
eiety for the purpose of perpetuating
the fraternal relations formed by COM
mon perils and privations, and preserv-
ing and transmitting the history which
they helped to make in the incipieney of
future empire Several similar attempts
have been made in different parts of the
Territory, all of which have come to
naught for reasons which we cannot
comprehend. We have better hopes
for the success of this organization from
the determined and persistent charac er
of the men who are engaged in it, and its
apparent freedom from ulterior person.
al OR political designs, which mar and
defeat many societies ostensibly organi-
zed for public benefit.
AS a pioneer in the old Northwest, we
have witnessed and fully appreciate the
great advantages of such an organiza-
ton as this, conducted with an intelli-
gent will and purpose. Now, all the in
cidents and facts connected with the
first civilized settlements of the coun-
try may be gathered by mutual inter
change of recollections, and pass into
recorded history attested by living wit
nesses, for the information and gratif-
cation of succeeding generations who
may call this their home and country.
Delay the matter until the pioneers
have passed away, and the State histori-
an will only have unsatisfactory and
uncertain tradition from which to gath
er his facts by great labor. Many
of the States have employed vast labor
and expended immense sums Of money
N efforts to reclaim their early history
from family records, fragmentary pri-
vate journals, and the personal reminis-
censes of old inhabitants of impaired
memory, and we never heard an intelli-
gent citizen find fault with the expendi-
ture of public money for such pur-
pose.
Every citizen of the State and all who
may become so hereafter, are interested
in this matter, and should do all in
their power to promote its success; and
to the members of the society we would
suggest, that each should at once enter
upon the duties of historian, by writing
down his own personal experiences and
observations of pioneer life, to be de-
posted in the archives of the society for
present OF future use. From such col
Lotions an authentic history of the
State, from its first settlement, could
readily be compiled.
There is common impression that
an antagonlsm, or at least preju-
dice, exists between the old settlers and
the new comers. If any such feeling
exists it is without any reasonable foun-
dation; their interest in the growth and
prosperity of the country is mutual;
the old settler had the advantage of
first choice of location, and every ac-
cession of population enhances the val
ne of his possessions; the new conner
enjoys the social and business advanta-
ges created by the old settler by paying
the enhanced value of his property
therefor, and then they have a common
interest in the material growth of the
country. and common rights in its So
eial and political government. Any
jealousy or division into classes in So
cial or political life, of the old settlers
and new corners, is never conceived or
instigated by the reputable portion of
either, but generally emanates from
cross roads politicians, village dema-
gogues and small-beer editors, who lose
their prestige by competition.