Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-06-05
an APPEAL TO LOCAL PRIDE.
Why the People of Ephrata should Finish the
Revolutionary Monument

1
| From E. Il. Martins Decoration Day Oration.
You people of Ephrata little know the
| wealth of historic lore that can be gathered
from the almost sacred precincts OF the very
| spot upon which we stand. Here is material
for masters hand here within tue sound
| of my voice and within the range of my
vision have been enacted chapters in the
early history of our colonies, which gave
Ephrata fame in the infant republic, such
as she has never apprOSimated since. Here,
long before the war for independence was a
nursery OF pIety and learning that scarcely
had its equal in the land. know it is Gus
tomary IN some quarters to question the
value OF the Inonastc rites, aud the peculiar
BELIEF the early community practiced at
Ephrata, but who will say that they were
not worshiperS Ot aud seekers after truth in
It's highest sense; these ardent pietist and
gentle sisters VINO dwelt in this secluded
role, when the solitude of the wilderness
compassed them for a hundred miles surely
no one OF this period, when sects are being
dissolved into thin air, aud truth alone is
maintaining its hold on men.
here godIy men and sainted women held
communion with the learning of a period
when education was the boon only of a few
here the earliest printing press of the col lonial
period scattered through the middle colonies
The choicest thoughts of earnest scholars.
thinkers and philosophers And it was to
revolution had broken over the land and
the Federal arms had sustained a severe
shock, that General Washington sent the Live
hundred sick and wounded from the Brandy
VINE held to be nursed and healed or TO die
ana receive decent sepulture. We are told
That such was the mortality that upOu the
very spot were buried two hundred OF those
nameless heroes. At first, history has il,
they were ali buried with the honOrs OF war,
but subsequently, rite was dispensed with
"A 4
ana solemn obsequies with the funeral ser
vice OF monastiC order.
For sixty-eight years silence Law unbroken
on the Ephrata hills, when on the IIth dsy
OF september, 1915, the earth shook once
more TO the tread OF martial feet and woods
again rung with the sound OF martial strains
IN colnmeinoraton OF the erection of a monu-
ment over the ashes OF the heroes of Brandy
wine. His eXceliency, Francis X. SKUNK, the
governor OF the common wealth, attended hv
a numerous stafi, surrounded by the military
OF the state, laid the cornerstone of what was
intended TO be magnificent pedestal which
would INK the history OF Ephrata perpetuaIlv
WIN that OF the colonial struggle. Joseph
X. Chandler, distinguished orator of tbat
day, pronounced a brilliant and fitting oratiop
IN the presence OF great concOurse of
people. Alas the pile they solemnly dedi.
Gated amid imposing ceremonies and sal.
Nos OF artillery lies, before US acrumbling
ruin, but though dead it speaketh And
nave been thinking AS look into the faces of
the distinguished order OF the Patriotic sons
OF America under whose auspices this nota-
Die occasion has been created, that can be-
iueath them no more solemn legacy OF this
event than TO call upon them to take up the
work that Governor Skunk inaugurated here
~ years ago and carry II to completion re-
solve here and now that you will not rest
iroln the labors 10 which your order has
dedicated itself until yoL have rescued this
blessed memory from decay, until you have
crowned these Ephrata heights with the no.
hie shat OF which they laid but the founda.
uon stones. Thus will YOU endear your-
serves 10 the ages to come, and rescue from
" ~ non the iairest treasure that your soil
holds in its embrace, the ashes of tbe dead"
the nations dead-who died for their coun-
Try, their liberty and mankind.