Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-04-13
TWO HUNDRED AND MORE.
OLD SETTLERS IN ANNUAL REUNION.
It Was Spectacle Delightful to Behold,
the Pioneers at Dixon Hotel Sporting
With the Years Gone BY.

the Pioneers at Dixon Hotel Sporting
With the Years Gone By.
The Dixon House, Centralia, was
the center of attraction Tuesday
evening, April H. 1899, for the old
settlers of Wood county, who had re-
sided here for twenty years Or more.
They came from all points of the
compass-by rail and by team in
numbers exceeding tWo-hundred. The
Dixon House had been selected as the
place Of meeting and Mr.. and Mrs. John
Dixon approaching the Importance of
the event, had their hotel suitably
and patriotically decorated in honor
of the occasion. 1t was Illuminated,
and by eight o'clock all was agloW with
good cheer and cordial greetings. The
banquet was served at eight o'clock
and proved everything the appetite
could crave. j. d. Witter presided as
toaStmaSter and at the completion Of
the banquet the literary program as
heretofore published was carried out.
The program was commenced with
that old familiar song entitled, "My
Country T'is OF Thee" in which all
present joined heartily, led by E. J.
Wood. 1t was followed by an address
of welcome by j. w. Cochran, as fol-
lows:
Ladies and Gentlemen: [ have been
detailed to extend to you in behalf of
the old settlers society of Wood
county, welcome to this it's annual
reunion.
| accepted the honor reluctantly.
feeling that some older person should
do the talking and that it was good
enough for me to be permitted to be
present. But | have finally persuaded
myself by acourse of reasoning, which
you will soon perceive, that old settlers
are not necessarily old people.
| remember having read in maga-
zine article year or more since, that
away up north, where the Arctic circle
crosses the YoukOn, where the sun
shines a portion of the year for
months at time, eighteen or twenty
hours of the day, and during another
portion of the year for months at
time it is seldom seen above the hori-
zon, that they have an old settlers
society, of which George Carmichel,
Alexander Macdonald and Joseph
Ladeau are at least honorary members,
though the oldest of them has not
been in that county to exceed fifteen
years.
Almost every new western cOmmun-
ity, and especially those wherein still
live some of the actual pioneers, has
its society of the kind made up of the
pioneers and their immediate follow
ers. | expect to hear that our young
friends, Joseph Corriveau and Arsin
Arpin have organized such an institu-
tion in San Juan, Porto Rico.
Since our last meeting in February,
1898, SO many events Of such mOmen-
tOuS Importance to the human race,
civilized and unciyilized, have crowded
upon us, that it is impossible to COM
prehend the consequences. War with
Spain has come and gone; the affair
of the Nirginias in 1873 which occurred
in the harboI Of Santiago; and that
still more cowardly and cruel affair of
the Maine in February, 1898, have
been avenged. Spanish fleets in the
West Indies and Spanish fleets in the
far east manned by Spanish sailors
have been sent to the bottom of the
sea, while territory of immeasurable
value, vastly differingin location, char
acter and climate from any heretofore
controlled by the United States, has
been acquired, .Wrested by the force of
might in the interest of right, from
Spanish misrule, and we have on our
hands villa and woolly race to subdue
and civilize and an empire on some
portion of which the sun is always
shining.
Dewey'S guns manned by American
seamen have welcomed the civilized
world to the Philippines and opened
new avenues for American enterprise
and industry, and new markets for
American manufacturers, and Amer
lean battleships shall guard our mer-
chantmen and command a share of the
commerce of the high seas.
The time and occasion is not a proper
one for any extended discussion of
these new conditions, but | call atten-
tion to the changes that one short
year has made in the map and is des-
tined to make in the history OF our
country, that we may not forget that
time is passing and that history is be-
ing made even in the seemingly quiet
era in which we live
While congress is about to convene
at st. Petersburg to consider the
question of European disarmament,
our nation is diligently pushing to
completion five new battleships, be-
side several armored cruisers, and will
without delay open the ISthmanian
canal, to the end that our eastern and
western coasts may be more accessible
to each other and better protected.
War is not the worst Of evils that
can befall people. We cannot en-
-, - e