The Topeka state journal., 1901-10-01
About 1000 People Were Out
to Honor Pixies Memory.
FAR FROM HABITATION
Marks the Spot Who're Stars
and Stripes Floated.
First Over Kansas SOil-TWO
Notable Addresses.


General Zebulon NJ. Pike the man who
first raised the stars and stripes on
Kansas soil. The monument, a shaft of
| Vermont granite, stands upon a bluff
| overlooking the Republican valley and
| one of the finest scenes ever presented
to the eyes of man. The site is mile
from any habitation; none will ever see
it save those on curiosity bent or those
who travel the country road which
passes by it. 1t is passing strange that
Kansas should have erected her first
monument structure, plunged for the
first time into decorative art. in a place
SO far removed from the center of pop
ulation and the routes which people
travel This fact is accounted for by
the ceaseless effort of the Republican
County Historical society.
The visible remains of the old village
have been inclosed by a substantial
iron fence, and the monument, an ele-
giant shaft of granite, % feet high,
stands in the center. The inscription
on the monument reads:
Erected by the State of Kansas,
1901,
To Mark the Site of the Pawnee
Republic, Where
LIEUT.. ZEBULON NJ. PIKE
And the Flag of the United States to
be Raised.
September 26, 1906.
The site of the Pawnee village is on
the farm of Mrs. Elizabeth A Johnson
She gave the land to the State Histori-
cal society. The last legislature appro-
priated $1,000 for the m monument-
The programme was carried out as
announced. The Sixth battery of Uni
ted States field artillery fired salutes
Il 7C1n
ure band of 40 Indians gave their war
dance and other exhibitions. Colonel
John G. Carpenter, introduced by John
Francis, served as chairman of the day.
Addresses We're made by Colonel Car
penter, Congressman w. A. Calderhead,
c. E. Adams, Noah Bowman, T. Du-
mont Smith, Miss Helen kimber and
Mrs. Stowis. The statue was stripped
of it's veil by Mrs. e. A. Johnson and
Mrs. Lucy B. johnson. The day was
filed out with the usual features of an
outdoor gathering, including a picnic
dinner.
SENATOR SMITHS ADDRESS.
France had a farm to sell and we
bought it and so Zebulon Montgomery
Pike, linea1 descendant of a race of ad-
venturers and explorers, blood kin to
Raleigh and Hudson and Boone, came
by painless ways to this spot where We
celebrate today.
He found here the emblem of a for
eign sovereignty, here on soil that be-
Ionged to the Stars and Stripes. His
men were a handful, the savages were
thousands. He had no express mandate
for such a case. He was not sent forth
to conquer territory or levy war. He
had no com mission and no armed force
to compel obedience to his flag, but the
instinct of his race. the hardy Self-cOn-
fident blood of the Anglo Saxon neither
doubled nor hesitated- At his COM
mand the flag of Spain fell to the dust
and that flag for the first time saluted
the Kansas sunshine. That act was
typical, and emblematic: it bore the
imprint of the Anglo Saxon spirit and
Pike himself was the heir and exemp-
lar of that long line that, stretching
back through the centuries, yielding to-
day a Funston, tomorrow a Baldwin,
ends not till the race shall perish and
its blood cease to flow in the veins of
men,
This spot from thence on was sacred
ground. 1t is altogether fitting thai
here that stately monument should rise,
this festival be held and these tributes
paid. And, while we honor the dead,
let US not forget the living. Let US hon
or the woman's heart, American in ev-
cry fiber, that conceived and planned
this dedicated pile, whose steadfast
purpose and unfaltering energy are
here today rewarded. This monument
is not less hers than his whose name it
bears.
That flag has witnessed the growth or
an empire since Pike planted it hers
for the first time. The face of the
world has changed; space has ceased to
exist and time has been annihilated-
We have bound the continent together
with iron bands and hung the whisper
ing wire from ocean to ocean Necro-
NANCY and magic have been surpassed.
And not less startling. stranger than the
fabric of dreams has been the rise, the
growth of the history of Kansas. When
Pike led his followers through this val
ley it was a land of desolation- Gray,
monotonous plains stretched to hori-
zon unbroken. unmitigated by the habi-
tation of man, or sign of tillage, barren,
vapid, intolerable to the eye Today, no
fairer landscape stretches to the sun
There is nothing bold or sublime in it.
No towering peak pierces the sky. No
sparkling waterfalls laces the rocks
with spray. No gloomy gorge holds the
heart in awe: no snow clad SUBMITS
lift it in wonder But it has a beauty
all it's own The beauty of harmony and
ordered line and well titled field. A
peaceful, smiling, well-fed. well-cloth-
ed beauty. A fat and hearty beauty
with no angles and no rough places.
But the same dazzling sky that snil=
ed on Pike still bends above us. The
same sunlight glids the dawn with
splendor and sets in cloudless benedic-
ton. The same air that inspired Pike
a hundred years ago breathes upon us
today, fresh and invigorating as the
ether of Creation.
Born OF race of pioneers, bred of
this soil and climate, bone of the Kan
sas bone and flesh of the Kansas flesh,
we begin dinly TO apprehend that
Kansas is about to pass to the control
of a generation of native Kansans-
The men who made Kansas are pass
ing away. The scepter of power is slip