Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-05-10

on many murky Het0, on many n
midnight march and many a lonely
bivouac, TIL all the incidents Of the
long struggle for Liberty became a part
OF her life, as real to her as the death
and funeral grief for Washington,
which occurred in her childhood.
In the bloom of her girlhoOd the
tocsin Of war was again sounded, and
the baffied lion returned to wreak re-
venge upon the growing child of Liber-
ty. She buckled the sword upon her
lovers and brothers, and sent them forth
with tears and patriotic faith to aid in
forming q living bulwark around the
temple of the worlds hope. With
tears above the freshly rounded turf of
her father and tears for those she loved
best of all the living, marching to bat
tie against the trained soldiers of the
Old World, the second decade of the
century began amid a dark and i'm
penetrable cloud. But the sun of Peace
shOne out and revealed all her loved
ones coming back from the Nations
battle field crowned with the marks of
honorable and arduous service.
Then there was a quiet wedding;
adieus were spoken, all her earthly pos
StSSlOIS WCIO ptChCu lubO u
wagon, and with her hero husband she
turned her face to the setting sun, seek
ing the Land of Promise in the un-
broken wilderness of the mighty West.
The long journey was not weary one,
for Love and Faith and Hope kept
them company and were round about
them; not only then, but for almost
sixty years of welded happiness, till
the summons came for the strong oak,
firm and majestic in its silver crowned
old age.
The journey ended in Ohio, where
the unbroken forests swept away to
every point of the horizon. Labor and
Love built up an Eden there and sons
and daughters of manliness and beauty
made the log cabin brighter than a
palace. The rude appliances of the
frontier gave place to modern progress,
and he, upon whom she leaned so con-
fidingly i'm her girlhood, led in erecting
the church and the school house and
pioneering the march of mind in the
rapidly growing cOmmunity-first of
all planting education and the love of
country in his own household.
What active, happy years those were
she still delights to recount, and how
she marked eE ch step of progress at
home and throughout the Nation, and
saw the printing press, the steamboat,
the railroad and the telegraph, one
after the other, come to the front and
lead the irresistible march of civiliza-
tion.
Gen. Scott battered down the gates
of the city of the Montezumas just
little too soon for a member of her
household to take part in the con-
quest of our sister Republic. In but
little more than half a score of years,
the civil war came like tornado and
her fair heritage was not spared. Five
sons and as many grandsons went forth
to save the Government their ancestors
had founded.
But they all came not back Their
graves are wide apart, but they are
deeply and fondly cherished. One of
her sons sleeps in the historic tract of
the wilderness; another the chestnut
haired, brown-eyed pet of the house.
hold, the youngest and gayest of all,
sleeps on the grassy slope of Mission
Ridge, and the eldest and favorite
grandson lies in an unknown grave
upon the Rio Grande, while others of
her beloved came back Scared and
manned.
Four years of agonizing, watching,
sorrow and pain to her, already beyond
the Psalmist's allotted age, at length
pass away, and sustained by her un-
faltering faith in Gods wisdom, she
lived on, calm, self-reliant, at peace
with all about her. Grief had sown
but few threads ofsilver in her golden
hair and these were soon hidden by the
fragrant garlands of Peace. Her face
was like the face of q saint, and her
smile was as purely sweet as the ten
derest light of the dawn.
And thus she has lived on for nearly
a score of years. Older in the lapse of
time, but young in Love and Faith
happy in the love of four generations,
from gray-haired, slow-paced sons and
daughters to the prattlng babe of the
last dear's bride. What unutterable
sweetness and beauty shine as un-
quenchable as Arcturus in that face, as
she looks forward for the ship that will
carry her into the great Beyond,
neither anxious to go nor to stay, filled |
with the sweet faith that when Death |
comes it will only be a change from
finite to infinite happiness.
o, bright, calm face, soft hands of
tender helpfulness, and loving heart,
your gentle influences will live in noble |
thought and warthy deeds, long after
your blue, unfaded eyes are closed in
the dreamless sleep.
THE END.