The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-08-21
THE OLD SETTLERS.
THEIR ANNUAL PICNIC AT HOES GROVE.
The Leading Features of the Day.


As announced in the papers of the county for
several weeks past, the Old Settlers picnic and
reunion was held on Thursday, in Hoes grove
in South Ottawa. The day was ushered in by
one Of the balmiest mornings of all the year.
The city, as early as half past seven in the morn
ing, began to wear its holiday apparel. Stran'
gers began arriving, and our citizens went aDou'
with that hurrying gait which betokenea tha'
something was to be did" and that they were TO
assist in the doin's. BY eleven o'clock, the
streets presented the appearance OF show-day,
and at loon the crowd had reached several thou
sands in numbers. In the afternoon, the num-
hers on the ground swelled to six or seven thou.
sand. We inferred at least that it gould be no
less from the fact that go teams were hitched
Immediately in and around the grove, each of
which had brought from four to Fl 'teen persons,
to saw nothing of the many hundreds that had
come on foot. All agreed that it wss by far the
largest turnout at any Old Settlers picnic, and
the most enjoyable they had ever attended.
The exercises were opened at 10 o'clock by the
President, Hon. John Miller, Of Freedom, calling
the crowd to order, in a few appropriate remarks.
Then there was singing by very credtable
choir improysed for the occasion by Prof Lans
ing, and consisting of himself, Mr.. Chamberlin
and his wife and Miss Lansing
After singing, Prayer by Rev. w. Batcheller,-
then more singing, and then address of welcome
or reception Speech" by Charles Blanchard,
Esq, as follows:
LadeS and Gent ien,ea and Old Settlers:
Time, on her ceaseless and remorscless
march, has brought us to the Seventh annual
reunion of the Old Settlers of La Sale
County.
To me has been assigned the honored po
sltion of delivering the address of welcome.
Sincerely do we wish that the pleasing
task had been assigned to one more worthy
and better qualified by long residence among
you.
The years that we have lived and tolled
within the original boundaries of La Sale
County and vicinity, fill full rounded and
complete the measure Of quarter of cen
fury. Yet a consciousness that we are not
entitled to be numbered among those hon
ored men known as Old Settlers embaras-
seS US not little, and mars the pleasure and
glow we might otherwise feel in delivering
this address.
The history of the Old Settlers dates far,
Back of the civilization existing quarter OIL
a century ago. Well do we remember Gid.
ing down the III. 4 Michigan canal late in
the fall Of the year 1S49, stopping at Peru,
where we procured horse of an Old Settler,
Henre S. Beeby, who still retains an honored
name among the Old Settlers of La SalleE
County. With the aid of the horse we rode
to the little village of Granville in Putnam
county, where we fell in with an intelligent
but eccentric Old Settler. Robartus II. Ste.
phenson, whom we shall ever hold in crate.
full remembrance for his kind and generous
assistance to poor boy, then stranger in a
strange land. He accompanied US to neigh
boring school district, where we soon elected
hearted Old Settlers. who still survive,
with whom we contracted to teach school for
one dollar day and board onrself
Then, the evidences OF civilization were
everywhere visible. The canal and Illinois
river were traverscd as highway for the
transportation of merchandise, farm products
and passengers,
Towns and villages of considerable size
were accessible from all points. Schools and
churches were reasonably abundant
The advance gHard of that civilization are
properly the Old Settlers. The Old Settlers
arc the pioneers, who left the land of abun-
dant civilization, babe adicu to the home Of
childhood, manhood ard womanhood, passed
far into the Interior of the land possessed by
savage beasts and still more savage men.
And there, at long intervals, under cover of
some solitary grove, or beside q bubbling
spring, erected their rude tenements, Of hewed !
logs and puncheon floors, and for long years,
amid the solitude of the prairie, contendng
with the wild beast and treaCherous Indian
Tor the mastery, tolled for bare and preca-
rious subsistence that the foundations OF the
state of Illinois might be established upon
firm and enduring basis.
Noble, selfsacrfciar men and women
were they. Tbs state Of Illinois, The empire
state OF me great Northwest EXISTS as q mon.
sulent Of their patience, perseverance endur-
anoe and tolls far more enduring than mar
bic or brass.
Old Settlers of Ia Sale County: Gratitude,
the browning virtue of the soul, has lmpelled
Us to accept your invitation to be present
with you upon this occasion. We know that
we are welcome, and we congratulate you
that upon this anniversary day of the organi-
cation Of your association you still live to
participate III its festivities, and TO once more /
>ccme, though with faltering step, and behold,
though with impaired vision, the grand and
magnificent results of your early toll and
sacrifices.
AS you compare the present outlook with
the past how changed the scene, wonderful
and incredible as a tale to bc told, credible
only as demonstrated by actual experience
and observation. Your first outlook brought
within the scope of your vision, nought but
one vast unduating plain, reposing ia the op-
presslve grandeur and solitude wherein ma
ture had formed 1t, undisturbed ny civilized
man or domestic beast.
Your present outlook brings within the
scope of your vision the same PLAIN bearing
upon its bosom scene Understandable by pen
or pencil, in poetry o. Song Grim solitude
long since departed, you behold the entire
PLAIN severed into farms and plantations by
visible lines OF demarkation, each adorned
with elegant ana substantial improvements,
forming the abode of happy families, with
their cultivated fields of golded grain waving
in the breeze rrich will soon fill the cra.a-
RES of the werlu and become prcmlun sta.
piles in the rnasts Of nations