Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1899-09-22
GuiIdhall Church
Centennial.
Hon. q. n. Dale's Address.
OUR HoNoRED DEAD.

OUH HONOhED DEAD
The centennial period We arr q, lehrat-
ing today, in my mind divides ilsrli IA
Two parts TO more naturally correspond
To the generations. We sec the first hall
only dimly through tradition; but some
OF us have actually lived the last half:
and We see those who lived ~ wears ago
Just as they where when living stirring
men. pleasant and kindly matronS. hoiS-
ferrous boys, gleeful girls, and prattling
children, all mingling in the pursuits
and noises of village and country life.
Healthy, hearty. zcStful lives, all in that
happy time of life when friendships are
the strongest. They are nearly all gone
now. They We're when joined them IN
the time and on the spot on which 1t
seemed to us the sun shone brighter than
it ever did before on any place on the
earth. And as often as memory walks
with me to the days of my childhood it
walks with me along the highways and
over the farms of the bold yeomanry Of
this town. Often and often | come in
memory to this village and find my old
friend Hubbard in good old age
and Schoff, Hall, Mcacham, and one
or two more. and the rest where are
they? Eternity responds " They are
here :" Those tillers of the soil were
characteristic men, intelligent, cultivated
men, proud of honorable toll. such men
as Small and Denison and Benton ana
Burton and Fiske and Webb and Hop
lins and Allen and Carbee and Free
man, the Rosehrooks and NaShbuMs'
and Grannis and the princely farmer Jon
athan BENJAMIN. the good Judge CraW-
ford, Fairchild. the Boyces, and so might
90 on if time would permit; all, all good
men and true. And in it all | find no
memory of malice or envy. lie VINO
undertakes to persuade MS that all that
life and consciousness has gone out Tor
ever attempts to rob us of much OF the
substance of our lives and consolation IN
age. In those good old stirring times
we had no thought Of dissolution or sep
aration.
"But when those others one by one
Withdrew themselves from me and night
And in the house light after light
Went out and was alone,
"a hunger seized my heart; | read
OF that glad time which once had been
In those fallen leaves which kept their
green
The noble letters of the dead;
"And word by word and line by lin"
Those dead men touch me from the past
And all at once it seems at last
Their living souls were flashed on NINE.
But must not play the truant among
the sad sweet memories OF the days that
are past and gone, but so to the little
GRAND on which You have sent me.
There is sympathetic current between
mon and nature through which every
human being loves some spot OF eartl
and IFS trees and flowers. He combs
shayes. waters and fertilizes it, takes the
thorns and thistles out of its face, anc
in return it Yields him fire and food anC
fru;ts and unlimited views of its noun
tains. lakes and rivers, and when lie II
done takes him to rest in its bosom where
he is safe from the scorns, wrongs an'
sufferings of life. 1t seems to be par
of him bv creation. Children are born
and they form additional links to bn'
mon and women to the place Of thel,
nativity or adoption. Death comes an'
resolves the forms of loved ones into
their original elements, mingleS them II
the soil, and that sanctihes the land ant
makes it part of themseIvcs-the lv
ing.
The memory of our honorcd dead Il
part of our own lives, and so genera
tions are linked together in one contlh
nous whole. marching in endless success
sion to the fulfllment OF some CRANE
design which will be revealed to us, We
hope, when the grand march is over.
Moved by that love Of home, countr.
and locality we have come here toda!
fully sensible that as a town we are no
entirely wanting in one characteristic o
barbarism-we are without complet,
written history Of the town. Until GU
young friend Col. Benton, now of Mass
achusetts then mere boy, without data
manuscript, or scarcely anything bu
broken traditions, made history of thu
town that won him the respect and graf
itude of all and until Judges Lee
Turner, and others procured portraits TO
the court house we had comparativel,
nothing which to us was
"As if a living tongue
Spake from the printed leaves and pic
tured faces"
of the past. AS grand as were the live
of the fathers are they not worth pre-
serving in some permanent historic
form? 1t is with a view of keepin!
their memory alive in the hearts of on
children that we come here today to re
animate our devotion and remark tn,
spot TO which they went up on to the
mountain to worship. Just so in all age
of all the world mountain and hill top
have, I,,,, JoJ ,,;th oI,h ion npf