The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-09-18
HENRY COUNTS OLD SETTLERS.
The Annual Meeting at the County Fair
Address by Hon. Benjamin s. Parker.

Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal.
New CASTLE Ind, Sept. l6.-To-day was the
second day of the Henry county fair. and also
the day set apart for the annual gathering of
the old settlers. all pioneers who have resided in
the county fifty years or more being admitted
free. School children under sixteen years old
were also admitted free. More than 1000 old
settlers were present, and INDUCED in many
| "reminiscences of the olden time. The address
of Hon. B. S. Parker with which the exercises
closed, was received with marks of warm appre
citation. The following are extracts from the ad
| dress:
"Our greatest failures as a people date from
the decline of the neighborly principles and
practices of the past. AS result Of that de-
cline, we not only have instances of deceit and
treachery. of grinding and relentless greed that
crucifes neighbours happiness in order to gain
another eighty acres. but we also have big land
| owners, who butcher up and half cultivate
| farms enough to support a great many families
in comfort and plenty Neghborhoods are bro
| ken up, schools destroyed, churches weakened,
| and the character of society impaired by the
exchange of good families for people of that
| shiftless class who have no higher ambition in
| life than to do the bidding of the
| men who employ them. All this is loss-loss to
society, loss to morality, loss TO social life. loss
| to the State-dnd IL makes no returns to COM
| pensate for its wholesale destruction of the
| best interests Of community. 1t would be bet
| ter, think, to return to the old love of the
| settler for his neghbor, to kindle again that
spirit which teaches men to care for one another,
and thus conserve their own good and the gen
eral welfare. The wise Mentor in Fenelon's
| celebrated allego1y always impressing this
| lesson upon the young prince, that the greatness
and power of any government depends upon the
number of sef-supporting people Injured to labor
and acquainted with self-denial that 1t contains.
In a smaller sense. this is true of communities.
| A well peopled country, full of neat cottages,
| carefully cultivated farms and smiling gardens,
1 indicates far more happiness and greater aggre-
| gate wealth than overcrowded towns and monster
| farms. But with better division of the land
| the towns would be more prosperous, and bust
ness men could calculate with greater certainty
| upon the results of their investments. These
| things can best be attained by the returning
good sense of the people, hallowed and perfected
| by that same neighborly interest and fraternal
affection that bound the settlers together.
| Men may say that this is Utopian-the
| dream or a dreamer. It was not Utopian in the
days when you were young; why should it be
| idle dream now2 Ifyour higher civilization. and
higher Christianity, and more refined culture
lead away into the desert lands where the few
| own the soil and the many live by days work,
| from hand to mouth, then there is something
radically wrong with your civilization. your re-
ligion and your culture. But do not lay the
blame at their doors. It lies at the doors of
selfshness and greed that exist in defiance of
their teachings. When young men are educated
| for the farm and the shop we'll as for the law
and the ministry, the era OF the land -grabber
viii begin to wane. Fortunately there are
parents here in eastern Indiana who realize that
necessity, and some of the most thorough
scholars in this county of Henry are to be found
| to-day among the tillers of the soil. I was
present at the house of one farmer this summer
when his wheat was being threshed Out
| of the twenty-five men who did the work more
| than one-third were college graduates school
| teachers and ex-school teachers, and goodly
| per cent. Of the remainder were young men we'll
| on their way through various high school and
| college courses. There is encouragement in that
| sort of examples. 1t is carrying the pioneer
| pluck, the pioneer industry and the pioneer good
| sense right up into the high-schoos and through
the colleges and fitting them for the very best
uses. l know farmers in Henry county, sun
Drowned by toll and hard -handed from their in
| timacy with the ak, the pillow and the spade,
who can translate Goethe from his native Ger
man, or Beranger from his French; make the
of the stars. This is the outcome of your log
! cabin schoolhouses, with their creased paper
| windows. 1t is the hopeful indication of flu
ture full of prosperity and blessing
| ''Sixty-three years ago the first
grand jury held its first session on log
heap near the present site of the court
house in New Castle Dempsy Reece, who
died in 1873, was the last of the twelve
men good and true who constituted that
first grand jury. In 1923 there were but 300
voters i'll the county of Henry, and scarcely more
than 1000 people In 1880 the population had
risen to 6.497. In 1910 it reached more than
$4,000. In the next tw enty years it gained
5000, reaching 90 1l9 in 1860. Then came the
war, with it's wide desolation." and hen set H.
also, the outflow of Henry county people to tn Q
| West that has sent so much of our lest blood
| and best strength to enrich the new and growing
| communities of other States. And so it happens
that in the next score of years from 1860 to $780,
the growth was only 1000 We have to-day a
reading thinking population of q. 600 souls
most of whom are acquainted with hard
| work, and all of whom owe the com
forts and prosperity they enjoy to the
conscientious toll and perseverance of the rio-
neers Now, Henry county is fair sample of
the better counties of the State. The record of
its progress is correct index of the progress of
all these eastern Indiana counties. Figures are
said to be prosy things, but sometimes they tell
| story or point moral with better effect than
| the fervor Of oratory or the rapture of song.
| Here, think, is an instance In 1S4l we had
been going on = twenty years The growth of
! the new land had been wonderful The popua-
| tian had grown more in those twenty years than
it has in the forty odd years that have elapsed
since. In that year the total taxables of the
county was S., 376, $50. A pretty good value
to be forced from the wilderness by the toll
of poor men and women who had, in addition,
| earned their own livelihood and that of
their children. Fortytwo years later in
1888 your taxable property was valued at
$13, 808, 775, increase of more than five
fold. Surely the talents that the pioneers
received in the shape OF wild lands covered with
forests have yielded sufficient usury to satisfy
even the hard master of the parable But
count not the money value of these fields and
homes of the Henry county people as even
among the best results of the pioneers toll The
best results the homes themselves, where
| peace and happiness reign; the free schools
and institutions of learning that smile upon the
passer-by In every direction; the general intel
| ligence of the masses; the young people. brave,
| industrious, virtuous; maturing into that class
of citizenship that is the surest guarantee of the
Nations future, the bulwark of liberty and the
| fountain from which all true progress springs
l would add to these that deep religious faith
| and character that is the heritage of so large a
portion of our people. / allude not to faith in
creeds or systems of belief. but to that larger
| religious sentiment that sanctifies and hallows
all things for good. Let no cynic say that the
/ ploneers are praised too M lch Uhila