The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-08-24
THEIR TwENTY-FIRST.
The Old settlers again assemble In Allen
Park.-Prominent Men Deliver
Addresses
TO THE PATRIARCHs

Day by day the eye grows dim,
Silver locks replace the raven,
There is u hating OF the limb.
| Many years ye labored weary,
TIL young hearts were scared with pain
| Till young faces told the story,
OF a home ON homeless plain.
Now ye stand upon the greensward,
| Meath its blades your comrades lie
While the winds kiss their tombs softly,
| Let US pause TO beathe a sigh.
They are dead but not forgotten,
Craven on rock, hill and vale,
Are the footprints OF their passing,
Are the pages of their tale.
Twenty years ago, just as the great civil
war had swept full many son of La Sale
County's soil frem the ranks Of men, old
Josiah Shaw, A. NJ. Ebersol, s. R. Lewis, f.
Y. Griggs, Moses Osman, John Miller, David
Green, j. 8. Armstrong, Jackson R. Shaver
Geo. W. Armstrong, James C. Ebersol, d. F.
Hit, aud many others who are now sleeping
beneath the soil above which arose the
smoke Of their pioneer chimneys in the
thirties and forties, assembled in this city
and organized the Old Settlers Association
Of La Sale County. Judge Cation rendered
them the use Of his magnificent deer park
for the holding of their irst four reunions
then for two years they told the Oft told
story Of their privations at the Cid Fair
grounds, and for the past fourteen, years
with the exception Of one years reunion al
Turn Hall, the weather being unpropitious,
the gathering has been held at Allen Park
formerly Hoes Grove.
Nearly four thousand people visited the
park during the day. The overhead wire
Of the Electric Street Railway was stretched
down TO the corner Of Main and La Salle
streets, and those who we're not at the park
either rode upon or watched the movements
Of the trains. Allen Park was not over
crowded. This was not because the cro~d
was not az large on Thursday as in former
years, bu, the park is larger by nearly one
half since the Baish purchase. The silver
locks cleaned under hundreds Of hats and
beneath them all were not STORING forms.
The ladies, the young men and the children
were there. Hymns swel!ed from the Co,
tage organ on the platform, voices of patri'
archs spoke Of earlier days, and mingled
with the hum of conversation came the
merry laugh Of the children as they rode ur
and down the river on the City of Ottawa.
The great assembly in repose beneath the
spreading branches Of the great trees gave
the scene the ideal picnic air, as much so as
though it were truly rural
President Griggs called the assembly to
order at 1880 o'clock introducing Rev. NJ.
X. Whittlesey, who opened the exercises of
the day with prayer. Secretary and Treas
urer Moses Osmsn then read his annual re-
port, detailing the deaths of the societys
members, and showing it clear from debt.
Then followed the singing Of the favorite old
hymn. Coronation after which the assem-
bly, seated itself under the trees and partook
Of basket lunch. or visited the down town
restaurants, which had but little in their re-
spective larders when they had acoommo-
dated the hungry picnicers. The sandwich
and lunch men at the grounds also did .
thriving business.
Mr.. Griggs opened the afternoon program
by again introducing Rev. Whittlesey, who,
in tho absence Of Rev. Wesley Bachelor,
delivered short prayer.
MIR. Griggs welcomed the assembled set
tiers and guests Of the day in q few we'll
chosen words. He regretted exceedingly
the absence of Rev Bachelor, who had
been present at so many of their gatherings
but who was now unable to attend on 40.
count of ailments consequent upon his ex-
treme old age. He congratulated the society
upon its twenty years successful existence,
and introduced Chief Justice Shope, Of the
State Supreme Court, who delivered the
annual address.
Justice Shope opened his address BY re.
ferring generally to the great social and
economic questions of the day. The CON
troll Of the revenues of the Nation, the tariff
and internal revenue taxes which rest
heavily on the people; the taxes of cities,
counties and states the socialistio, auarch-
istic trusts, strikes, dangerous secret So
cieties, divorce, and other social problems
oil, no thought, would be clear and uncomp
located to the public mind in few years
and the public would find way Of taking
care Of them. He suggested no means ex.
oepting the application of the laws Of CON-
mon sense and equity. He said that bach
in 1888 family Of six, man and wife snt
four children. left Akron, Ohio, and jour
neyed across the plank road through thu
great black ash swamps Of Indiana, t.
Michigan. In 1889 they migrated to Mar
settles, then considered the future metro
polls Of the great west. They then came to
Ottawa and built the old Ottawa House. II
1870, when they had gathered together ,