Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-08-30

This was followed by an excellent ac-
count of early days and an eulogy on
the death of the late Secretary, deliv-
ererd by the Hon. j. w. Seaton, of
Potosi. Mr.. Seaton said
As old settlers of Grant County we
have again assembled within these walls.
to recount some of the "reminiscences of
the past and pass an hour in social inter-
course. Places which we once knew, the
old familiar landmarks, the friends we
once met on this and other occasions are
fast receding from view. and when the
present generation shall have gone from
the stage of action, scarce an impress or
vestige of their existence win remain in
the memory of man. Change, decay and
dissolution mark the footsteps of man
wherever he treads, and as the plow-
share of destruction sweeps over his
former works and habitatioRs, all, all
are covered from sight and turned be-
meath the sod and debris to await the
coming of new life and a new genera
ton. So many and so rapid are these
changes that we scarce observe their Oc-
,currence or take note of their effect. till
they are accomplished and we awake
like lrving's hunter, to find ourselves in
some unknown place and all the familiar
features of the past forever fed We,
who were educated in the old school and
taught to believe that nothing valuable
could be done without going through a
long and tedious process of extended
years, now witness those same things
accomplished, almost in an instantaneous
period of time. The slow but sure meth
DDS of the past are now looked upon, if
not with contempt and ridicule, with
pity and sympathy for the ignorance and
follies of our fathers. Then, months were
consumed in travelling a few hundred
miles; now we traverse the continent
and span the wide ocean in week. We
take the wings of the morning and from
place to place fly with the speed of the
winds, and talk with the uttermost parts
of the earth as friend with friend.
Westward the march of empire takes
its way" said the poet of hundred
years ago, and so rapid has been It's
progress that even now it has reached
its farthest bounds, and its bold front Is
stayed by the inrolling waves of the
Pacific which say in sullen voice to the
teeming multitude Thus far canst thou
come and no farther" Pioneers to
new country are no longer recognized,
and the term ''early settlers is applied
only to a race of men and women who
are now fast passing from the face of
the earth We, my friends, who are
here to-day, and whose silvery locks and
Bonded forms attest the genuinness of
our character. still bear the latter name,
for we were of that Spartan band who
first trod these valleys and hills, these
woods and rolling prairies, and made
them ''smile as y garden and blossom
like the rose" Well do you remember
these early log-cabin days, and the men,
DRY of them comes floating down to you
from the fading past, like the sweet
incense from the affairs of a fiowery land
The places where you assembled, the
friends you were wont TO meet. the long
summer days YOU passed in toll and
winter nights in merriment, are still
fresh in memory and awaken within
your bosoms the deepest emotions. But
where are those places which were once
so familiar to our view - the farms. the
CduliiS' the 10Y ScHoOl-HOuSts anu
churches beneath the sheltering woods.
the friends of our early days that once
inhabited them? All, all have changed
or passed away like n midsummer'S
dream 1t is only as they have been
garnered up and stored in the memories
of the few who dwelt in this favored land
fifty years ago. and whose lives are now
on the fartherst verge of time,
that they are now known and appre-
ciated. To them it is signal pleasure
10 recall these early times. Would that