Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1891-07-10
THE PIONEER REUNION.

Inc anniversary of the Idaho county
floneer Association is June 13. and the
annual meeting is usually held on that
date, but last month the weather was so
unfavorable that It was postponed until
July T. Therefore on the national holi-
day the old-timers assembled in force ot
MT Idaho with their wives and chill
dren, and their children's children even
unto The third and fourth gen Grafton
thereof, and good gathering was the
result. There had been a thunder
storm the previous evening and the
rain which fell had left a chill in the
AR and moisture in the grass and nm
derornsh of the picnic ground, and SO
the exercises were held in the court
room which was filled to its full SEATING
capacity. The number of ladies present
was very large, and it is but Justice TO
say that they always manifest a livelier
interest in listening to the recital of
incidents of pioneer life and times than
the pioneers themselves.
Hon. l.. P. Brown was the nresid;no
ofhcer and he was fanked by vice. pres
ldents j. IL. Robinson and f. b. KING
After few brief and timely remarks bv
the president there was PRAYER bv rev
Maxey. The annual address by J.H
Robinson followed, which we will pub-
iish next week. 1t is a pen picture of
tue social life of the people in the most
primitive times of the earliest settlers.
A. +. Parker was then called upon
and prefaced his remarks by recitinu
the following poem:
The Aged Pioneer.
Seventy years it has been since his face was
set to the westward
He was an infant in arms when his father
came out to Kentucky.
over the Cumberland Gap, when the border
lay to the eastward
ihey followed the trail that was bIszed bv
Boone and his fearless companions
twenty years later it seemed that the country
held too many people;
oo ne ana MS bride of a week rolled out ono
spring morn for Missouri
ihere' free from conventional clogs, thew
reared rude brood, and were happy
III .he RED deer was gone from the hills, and
the Indian had crossed the Missouri
ihen he scented the wind of the west and
dreamed of the rolling Savannahs;
Anu iohged Tor home in the land where
roamed the wild tribe of the Kanzas.
Eighteen hundred and ninety onei White is
his hair. and his vision
Is dim with the sights of a lifetime. but the
spirit of old is undaunted
Inc hre OF unrest drives him westward-tbe
blood OF his fathers is burning
And it's: Down with the rifle my boys. and
no for home in the DESERT"
over the prairies again. the spirit of change
lures him onward
With visions of limitless range, and air that
by man is untainted.
Ha! 'Tis the voice of a sireni She leads him In
crowds and to babel.
Freedom has vanished from earth-the border
become a tradition.
Mr.. Parker then described the condi-
tion of Oregon, Washington and Idaho
when he first came to the North west.
The Dalles, Walla WalIa, Lewiston,
and Boise city were the onty trading
points in the interior. Portland and
Seattle were the two important ship
ping points. Tacoma, Spokane Falls
were mere villages, no larger than
Grangeville to-day. and with nothing
to indicate the great prosperity which
has since overtaken them except the
unbounded determination and faith of
their people in their future destiny
faith which has successfully surmounted
the mountainous obstacles which stood
in their path. and from the summit of
which they can see the reward of COM
mereial pre-eminence for which they
had labored SO zealously. In those
days there were eight organized coun-
ties and only three newspapers in all