Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1905-07-20
Dedication of Nash Park at Des
Moines.

as L . hhONh W. "oop VI cui iS"eSASP
our hOnored mayor and leading citi-
zen, John A. Nash, is a o of Elder
John a Nash, who was in the early
times of Des Moines that city's lead
ing minister and educator. He was a
Baptist clergyman and for some time
was president of Des MOines college.
DRY by naming a park for him and on
Tuesday of last week it dedicated the
park, We give below the address of
George G. Wright on that occasion:
To those who enjoyed an intimate
, personal acquaintance with the below
ed DR.. Nash, the naming OF this beau
tiful place for him expresses a deeper
meaning and invites a wider %apprecia-
ton Of its appropriateness than may
seem at first apparent to those who
were not privileged to personally know
the man. But a short distance re-
moved from this location he chose his
home site, and a great many years of
his life we're passed in this immediate
community, and if living this day,
July II, would have marked his S9th
year. This occasion, therefore is
doubly significant and this environ
ment of his old time home today IS
hallOwed with memories of n who by
a life of kindness and sacrifice and
loving service endeared himself in the
affections of all. .
BY this dedication a spot of natural
beauty is devoted to the pleasure and
happiness and comfort Of the public,
and by doing so we honor one who
throughout his life was a student of
nature, and an interpreter of his
Masters laws through all her varied
manifestations. How fitting it is that
this shall be his memorial, and what
happier thought than this-that per-
hapS he would have chosen above all
others the method and form expressed
here tO honor his life, as being an in
depreciation of his long and faithful
endeavOr to add to the sum of human
happiness and comfort by! assisting in
the solution of some part of the prob
lens which prepleN humanity, to d
to the sum of human wisdom, and to
enlarge our spiritual horizons. y
Out of his wholesome hOmely phil
OSOphy Doctor Nash preached the
urgency of the simple life. Today
finds almost universal approval of his
creed. With him, as with another
who was born to preach of human
needs;
THE world was too much with us; late
and soon
Getting and spending, We lay waste
our powers.
Little we see in Nature that is ours.
We have given Our hearts away. A
SOrdid boon,
For this, for everything, we are out OF
tune"
He realized that the requirements of
intense modern life were calculated to
involve the social welfare, AMI it was
his prayer that the world might be
won back to a more intimate relation
ship with nature and a more universal
obedience to those great first laws
which an Infinite Wisdom so merci-
fully manifests on every hand for our
physical and moral help.
To DR.. Nash the voice of nature
spoke in an enhancing language; he
delighted in every phase of life and
found his most pleaSurable recreations
in communion with the spirit seen in
all its visible forms. He taught the
sciences, but with an inner spiritual
| vision which enabled him the better
to define the written word of God.
{ With him there were no miracles, no
} perplexities, no doubts, for he found
= their solution in the laws of the uni,
= verSe-and in the light of science
= through the vision of his higher faith,
4 the lessons of his Master we're made
plain in every aspect of nature; writ,
t ten upon the clouds, in the spangleC
, depths OF space: read again and agair
= in leaf and bud and bloom; engraved
upon the eternal rocks and sketcheG
with unerring truthfulneSs upon every
hill.
1t was my good fortune as a boy tc
have been a student in some of his
: classes, and to have come within the
influence of his personality as a teach
err and as a helpful, sympathetic friend
J look back now upon those days anC
count them as of the dearest memories
OF my life, since they we're profitable
ones 10 me, and only made,so through
his patience and fOrbearance and by
reason of those happy methods il
teaching, which filled our hours in hi:
classroom with profit and delight
To have enjoyed such a friendship, t.
have walked with such a teacher, tC
have been guided willingly and gladly
by his gentle hand through pleasan
paths, and to have passed these al
too brief days in the companionshil
OF n who impaired of his goodnes.
as much as of his wisdom, was
precious privilege, and to all of III
who shared this relationship will
him, those are counted as sacred
days indeed. -.t.n
He was a teacher through all hi
years. The church was as much hi
classroom, and he taught therefrou
with even a wider influence perhap
than in his schools. In personal inter
course with those he casually me
passing among his neighbors an,
=, friends, his mere greeting and kindl
expression of interest or CONCERN
carried with it and left with one tn
pleasing consciousness that some
thing of his fine mind and great hear
e had been given forth.
The park board, in their decision {
= honor the name of DIR. Nash her
has expressed a reverence for one VIII
coveted no fame and ask no create
praise than that due to an humbl
servant of God who did his duty we'll
he disliked any public form of appre
citation, and with the modesty of
. child he belittled his talents no dout
To his great Hatrimant