The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1888-07-05
Centennial Ode.

Centennial Ode.
Written for the Centennial Opening Exercises at
Cincinnati, July 4, 1881
Hail, Hrst born Of Freedom, fair Queen Of the
West,
The homo Of my boyhood, the land love best {;
All hail to the fairest Of States that adorn
The soil where green waves the luxuriant corn.
o. land Of the buckeye, tho oak and maple,
Where whisky abounds and where pork is q
staple,
Thy sons and thy daughters by thousands are
To crown thee in this thy Centennial year.
From the North, where Lake Eries blue waters
stretch DER
Like vast inland sea to the Canada shore,
From the islands where Perry his victory won
To the South, where "thy beautiful river" doth
run,
From thy dark, dingy mines where King Coal
has his throne,
From thy furnaces roaring, from thy quarries
Of stone,
From thy shops where the swift wheels Of in
dustry hum,
From thy farm-houses, cities ana hamiets We
come.
We thank Thee, o Father in heaven above,
For Thy constant protection, Thy care and Thy
love,
That here Thou has honored the laborer's toll.
That no slave ever breathed on Ohio's free soil,
That our fathers who made the first settlement
An altar to Liberty sacred did rear.
That the work Of their hands Thou hast pros
pered and blest
And crowned our loved State the fair Queen Of
the West.
From the land Of the Pilgrims from bleak
Plymouth Rock,
From the God-fesring, sturdy, old Puritan
stock,
From Connecticut's beautiful valleys and hills,
From Vermont aud New Hampshire's pure
mountsin-fed rills,
From Virginia, the lad Of the gay Cavaliers,
Came our fathers and mothers the brave pio-
noers
And the State that they founded by Providence
Sits Empress Of all the magnificent West.
Broad and deep were the solid foundations they
laid,
They knew where to look for protection and aid,
tain,
Mans industry buildeth tho city in vain.
And daily the depths Of the wilderness rang
With the prayers that they offered, the hymns
that they sang,
And 20 Heaven smiled on thy CRADLE and blest
Thy birth and thy childhood. fair Queen Of the
West.
Thou hast lived, dear Ohio, . century of years,
And scarce one is left Of thy bold pioneers,
But II one still survives with locks scattered
and gray,
What wonderful change greets his vision to-
Whore rose from the clearing the log cabins
smoke
And tho wood-cutters axe the deep solitude
broke.
Where the wild Indian rosmed and the panther
and bear
With their hideous howls vexed the still mid
night air
Where wound through the forest the pack
horses trail,
Now rush the swift trains DER the resonant
Where the wilderness spread, now great cities
The smoke Of whose factories dsrkens the
skies;
And 'Lo the poor Indians wigwam Is gone,
The march Of the pale-face has crowded him on,
For his squaws and papooses TO find new
Whore coyote, the deer and the buffalo roam.
Thy sons, dear Ohio, have honored thy name,
Al resplendsnt they shine on the banner OF
Fame.
OF Presidents three thou hast given the Ma
Grant. Garfield and Hays--s bright constslla-
Thy Waite has adorned the Chief Justices
srmins,
Thou hast given the army Grant, Sheridan,
Sherman
And thousands less famed, meath the stripes
and the stars,
X ysdsless lanreh have won In our Nationa
wars.
n art and In Letters numerous Host
OF great names thy century's annals can boast
OF sculptors, while none thy Powers can excel
Jones. Hart, Bracket, Clevenger-a have dom
we'll
~ Painters few greater In skill have sppesret
Than Powell and whitridge and Kellogg snt
Beard.
u And 70 Music this fsr-famsd Queen City o
thine
Z Has reared magnificent temple and shrine
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