Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1893-04-06
Letters from Il. S. Keene


And forget in the glow OF your magical light,
The sorrows that since have been.
And floating down to the present years
Comes the echo Of songs unsung;
And our spirits are soothed by the tremulous
chime.
Borne down on the t1rbslent river OF Time
! From harp that has long been unstrung."
have before me copy ofthe Herald
bearing date March 10th. 1898. the
number completing its fifty year of
active life. Fifty years. Aye, l must
be old. How well remember the first
copy of the Herald, schoolboy that l
was. 1t was brought to the old log
school house near Hurricane Corners
by Isaac Greenwood, who was then in
the employ of James NJ. Otis, the then
Lancaster merchant.
The paper was passed from hand to
! hand among the scholars, and its con-
tents read with much more avidity than
were those of our school books, for we
each felt thrill of pardonable pride in
the paper, because it was IN a measure
a home prOduction-pIinted so near
our own home.
Newspapers were not so plentiful
/ nifty years ago as they are today.
Even as late as 1917 here "ere but
twenty three papers published in Wis
consin, four of which were published
in Milwaukee and three in Madison.
| From that first issue down to the last, |
have been a reader of the HERALD,
looking forward to its coming with a
certain degree of Impotence as a
schoolboy, and later when in the army
camp, where it followed me for three
years, faithful chroniceer of the many
changes that befell schoo'mates and
friends at home and amid the changing
fortunes of war.
Among the many whose wit flashed
through the columns of the HERALD"
IN those early days, j. I. Mills is the
only one remaining. so far as know.
While never editorially associated with
the paper, he was always thinker
| and worker, and articles from his
trenchant pen have reached the public
through the medium of the HERALD
! from time to time for half century.
In fact for time the HERALD was
perhaps the only paper in the state
that would reflect the advanced ideas
of Judge Mills. He, together with
Stephen Mshood, John L. Laughlin
and others whose early lives had been
spent in slave states had contracted a
bitter hatred for the peculiar "institu-
lion" and were bold and aggressive
enough TO call down on their heads the
odium of popular conservatism. Even
in Lancaster at an early day conserva-
tism could not brook radicalism, and
| in its streets men have been treated to
a shower of rotten eggs for giving ut
terance to abolition sentiments
The HERALD was more than once
threatened with the fate that befell
Loveioy's OBSERVER at Alton in 81,
for it was declared that the HERALD
had become "kinky-headed " But Co
yer and Mills. with their confreres,
fearlessly labored for the right, as they
saw it, until the sentiments they advo-
Gated became the accepted creed of the
nations glad fruition of their hopes.
The past year has witnessed the
death of two who were early identi-
fed with the HERALD. Mrs. James
NJ. Goodhue, wife of its lighting editor
who furnished its columns with many
little poetic gem over the nom dc
plltne of Ada" and Jervine S. Marsh
who was editor and proprietor from
40 to 81 But | did not intend to run
into "reminiscences Of this kind, but
rather 10 commend the HERALD for the
publication of so much OLD time local
history in this issue, and to call atten-
ton TO a few mistakes, even though
of minor importance. To begin, Lam
caster had one doctor nearer than Pc
tosi, as old DR.. Darius cambridge lived
at Hurricane Corners on the Lewis
Gelbach farm from 1886 to 1S47 He
was preacher of the "hard she'll per-
suasion rs well as doctor, but in the
latter capacity he had an extensive
ride. Dr. g. NJ Hewitt came from
Ills. to the Hurricane in the spring of
1871, and stopped awhile with DIR.
cambridge, then with Durritt Oliver
father of Uncle Dong" then moved
on the VIM S Clendening farm, re-
Gently owned by Jasper Knapp, from
which place he moved to Potosi. T. H,
Bonham, although a native of Mythe
county, n. Va, came to Wisconsin
from Pike county Missouri; his brothers
James, Harvey, Joseph and Martin
Nth tbair families having Dracadad