The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1907-07-27
MAY CHANGE THE YEAR.
Black Hills iionccr Society May
Admit Younger Members

The Deadwood Telegram says: The
Pioneer Society of the Black Hills
will, at it's next meeting in January
1908, consider the question of chang
ing the date for admission to the So
ciety from December 81, 1S76, to
December 81, 1877. Under the pres
ent constitution of the organization
only those who came to the Black
Hills before the end of 1876 are
eligible to membership.
| The society was organized in 1889
as result of a call issued by Capt
Tom Russell, who became its first
president, while Harry Flint was it's
first secretary The object of the or
ganization, as stated in the preamble
to its constitution, is "To cultivate
social intercourse and a more perfect
union among the pioneers Of the
Black Hills; to establish fund for
charitable purposes in their behalf;
to collect and preserve information
connected with the early settlement
and subsequent history of the Hills;
to perpetuate the memory of those
whose sagacity, energy and enter
prise induced them to settle in the
wilderness, and to become founders
of new state"
The question of changing the year
required for admission has been dis
cused for some time and was con-
sidered at the last annual meeting.
The subject was brought up by Mr..
Gushurst, Of Lead, and it was voted
that the secretary be instructed to
secure a full attendance at the next
annual meeting, which takes place
in January by sending out notice to
the members thirty days ahead.
AS years go by the number of old
trail blazers grow less and less One
by one the hand of time leads them
to their last resting place on the hill
overlooking the gulch where they
lived the best of their life, the years
when history WINS in the milking
and when the foundations of civiliz-
alton in the Black Hills was laid by
the men whose eyes are growing dim
and whose hair is being whitened
by the frost of time 1t is hard for
the present generation to realize
that the aged men who are now the
staid, substantial pillars of the COM
munity were once the rosy checked
boys who lived through the days
when every man carried his life in
his hand.
Their numbers are dwindling very
fast. OF the 240 names on tLe ros-
ter of the society at the time of its
organization less than one-half re-
main, and if the step is not taken
the time is not far off when the Pho
neer society will be only memory.
There is no doubt however, that at
its next meeting they will decide to
admit those who came to the hills in
1877, and it is expected that this
action will more than double the
membership Of the society. In do
ing so the Black Hills Pioneer So
ciety will only be following the ex-
ample of the pioneers of Montana
and also of Idaho. In Montana the
society there raises the date every
third year. In Idaho they raise the
date every second year.
The bonds that bind together men
who in old days fought Indians,
lynched horse thieves and faced
dangers and hardships side by side,
are strong as steel, and the advance
of time has only made them stronger.
If it has done nothing more than pre-
serve the memory of those early pic
turesque days the Pioneer society
more than justifes it's existence.