Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-05-21
UNCLE JOE TO
VISIT SOUTH
fPEAkER CANNON WILL RETURN
TO NORTH CAROLINA AFTER A
LIFELONG ABSENCE
Washington Bureau Of
The Qttumwa Courier,
w. - M On

w Ndy ~.
There will be great doings down
FUncle Joe" Cannon. speaker of the
house, is going down there to the state
sofs his birth, and hold reunion. All
gion worth ones while to witness.
While Speaker Cannon is known
the country, over as the foremost
citizen Of Danville, ILL.,, he is not
generally known as a native of the
Stats 0f North Caroline. But he was
born there seventy-one years ago this
month at the historic town of Guilford.
He left there With his parents when
he was four years of, age and has not
besn back since. Repeatedly, he has
been invited to pay the old home
locality 9 visit but he has never been
able to do SO. Now, Guilford college
wants him to make the trip next
month, at commencement time, and he
expects to do SO. Rumor has it that
the latest chickens in all the district
round about Guilford will be slain and
put In the pot in honor of the event
and that "Uncle Joe" will be dined
ind feted and visited with all the way
from the Roanoke to the Yadkin If
No has good fortune once more to
step on the soil of his native state.
Although the Speaker has never mad,
The chance to go back to North Car
DINA, the people down there have not
forgotten his parents and himself
Every now and then, some Of the old
folks down Guilford way send pack
age to the Capitol at Washington
Sometimes 1t is a suit Of old-fashioned
homespun, sometimes a pair of old-time
galluHes, but always it is something
that serves to remind "Uncle Joe"
effectively that the people down in
the land Of tar, pitch and turpentine
have warm place in their heart for
him.
IN connection with the fact that
Speaker Cannon is North Carolinian
by birth, his friends point to some
most interesting history. 1t is not
generally known that the Speaker Of
the house is Of Quaker descent His
parents were Of a colony Of Quarkers
that went to North Carolina in COL
onial days to escape persecution. One
branch Of the family went there from
England and another from Massachu-
setts, for the same purpose. The laws
Of North CarliIu in those days were
the most liberal of any Of the colon
les. Perfect religious freedom was al
lowed and the laws as to debt were
reasonable. Grants of land were made
to intending settlers. Altogether. it
was q favorite refuge for the oppress-
I'd. The region about Guilford was
largely settled by Quakers.
.Cncle JOE" was Torn in 1885. He
lived at Ililford four years and then
the slavery lilest'or began to, grow
To- proportions that troubled the
minds OF the Guaktrs. who were cp.
YOsed to It, Finally, the Cannons and
other families put t. cir worldly ,o<.
Degsions into wagons and started for
the west by way Of Virginia and Ken
lucky. The Speaker says his most dis
tfnct, recollection Of North Carolina is
his mother bidding goodbye to civili-
1Ation az the teams drove away from
Guihord and headed for Virginia. The
Cannon family settled down in South
erh Indiana. on the banks of the
Wabash, and It was there the present
Speaker was reared and educated. He
studied law there and finally located
at Danyille.
The Speaker has no particular pro-
gram this summer He will not ex-
ert himself much in chasing the presi-
Dental bee. His married daughter and
her husband have set out for a trip
to Europe, at the insistenee of Uncle
Joe" who has promised to stay at
home with his daughter, Miss Helen
ynnnon, well-known In Washington
S6ciety, and watch his grandchildren,
preventing them from getting run
over by the street cars and other mis-