Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1889-07-19
ADD r e S S
DELIVERED BY
FORREST w. BROWN,
At the Laying of the Cornerstone OF the
Town Hall in Shepherdstown July 6.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brethren of
the Masonic Lodges-In the arrange
ment of the order of ceremonies, that
have called us together to-day, your
committee originally selected the lst
day of June. That day was deemed
appropriate and suggestive; being the
threshold of summer it was thought
that the storms of winter, the changes
of spring, the vicissitudes of climate
would have glided behind us for
awhile and with the coming OF the
rosy month we would pass into the
smooth seas of another summer.
Here in our beautiful valley, where
the Indian legends say the Manltou
in the early dawn of creation stopped
and smiled that it might become more
beautiful and fertile, the hopes of the
sower were then approaching the full
est fruition; changing fields of waving
grain nearly ready for the sickle met
the eye at every glance; the brown
ploughed field, the growing corn and
grass. the leaf-clad tree and fragrant
forest were coming forth from out
the Fl ickle spring as gifts 10 its sister
season. With the prospect OF an
abundant harvest, with nature smil-
ing in the full promise of most lavish
Weld, with fruit and flower, sunshine
and summer about us we had thought
to assemble here on that selected
morning to found in your historic
town this home for art, this hablta-
ton for histrionic talent.
But with all his boasted wisdom it
is not given TO man 10 peer into the
future, and the hopes in which we so
lavishly INDUCED were destined to
disaster. When the morning of the
first day of June dawned how diff
ferent was the scene from that ex-
pected. Instead of the sunshine the
lowering storm cloud lowered.
The birthday of summer became
the full tide of flood; the weeping
! clouds, continued beyond the memory
of man, poured forth their lavish full
ness until rivulet was swollen into
river and river to raging torrent.
Unprecedented, far-reaching and
unexpected came the devastating
flood that swept from fixed founda-
ton so many homes and from the
shores of time so many human lives.
History has recorded few more
heartrending scenes than those wit
messed while the hill and mountain
poured forth into the interlacing val
leys their overcharged and foaming
mountain streams.
To those of you who have observed
the mighty power of the raging cur
rent here on the banks of the Poto-
mac and who saw the rapid sweep OF
river wave that carried in its angry
course. tree, house and bridge, that
swept from your own vicinage
landmarks that have withstood
century of wind and weather, can
even with that experience scarcely
realize except as fiction, the dark
story Of death and disaster in the val
ley Of the Conemaugh.
Ten thousand, four thousand, we
know not which, of human souls swept
by the mighty impetus of angered
water from afIluence, home, life, at
moments notice, without an instant's
anticipation, into the great unknown.
It's recital appalls the mind, its con
temptation stirs the greatest depths
of human sympathy, and we recall
the narrowing scene with shuddering
awe. as Father Time moves onward
with steady step.
But our duty here to-day is not to
the past, but to the present, and for
the future-we have come to lay with
fitting ceremony the cornerstone of
this great public Improvement in your
historic town, that it may endure as
a monument to the enterprise OF your
ladies, and convincing evidence OF the
fact that progressive spirit pervades
your community.
/ said historic town, and | say it ad-
visedly, for glancing back through
the eventful history of the valley OF
the Shenandoah, we find imbedded
in its pages certain incidents occurring
here, that must attract to it the gaze
of the world as long as art and invent
i've talent are appreciated and liberty
is the goal and dream Of mankind.
Before the prov of the ship that
bore Columbus across the stormy At
lantic had been framed, tradition in
forms us that this place was the haunt
and the home of the red men OF the
forest. Dusky tribes and warriors
moving North and South, crossed the
Potomac here. On the line OF the
Indian trail between the tribes of the
Susauehanna and the tribes upon the
waters south of the Potomac, it was
the camping ground OF many a pow
erful and relentless race.
And when the genius of Columbus
had turned the attention OF the civil
lied world TO a new found land, and
the Star of Empire began TO move
Westward, not many decades after
Spotswood and the enterprising
Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe
looked from the peaks Of the Blue
Ridge for the first time upon this val
ley and pronounced it greater than
Canaan and more beautiful than
Cashmere, settlement was made on
or near the site of your present town.
1t was established by law in 1852,
and as Mecklenburg upon the Poto
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