The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1910-02-17

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dered. Miss Buck said.
= = i y
* Zalmon Gilbert Simmons 3
= Born, Sept. 10, 1928. .
Died, Feb. IL, 1910. :
x !. y = 4 y y i
"Know we not that great man has
fallen this day in Israel?o
You do know. To that fact the pres
ence of this assemblage testifes.
Throughout this community, in this
hour, the whirring wheels of industry
are stilled as a tribute to him. The
silence which death imposes falls not
alone upon us who are here in it's
majestic presence It touches the
waiting crowds outside. It reaches
to the homes and business centers of
this city and this state. 1t rests upon
the hearts of kindred and friends of
business associates, of Grand Army
comrades, in every part of our country,
Zalmon Gilbert Simmons, for sixty
years an active participant in business
life, in public affairs, in philanthropie
enterprises, has ceased from his labors,
His keen brain and busy hand are
stilled. The Office, the factory, the
bank, the church service and public as
semblage which have known his con-
slant presence even in the years of his
age, will know him no more. The erect
and dignifed figure, the snowy head,
the searching eye, the kindly smile,
will no more be seen. With the
passing of his spirit waves from the
ocean of eternity plash upon our shores
of time. Hush! Can they bring a
message to us out of the deep.
I will not speak Of the loss which
this community has sustained in his
death. Our hearts are too deeply con
scious of it. Let us think rather Of
the gain which has accrued to us from
his long life of active service; Of the
good which remains, Of the influence
which abides, which neither time nor
death can take away. 5~
Throughout his long business career,
Mr.. Simmons has dealt with enterprises
large and influential, which have aided
I the worlds progress and added to the
value of human life. How rapid that
progress has been, how enormous the
development of material resources, may
be judged from single fact to which
he occasionally referred: that every
mile of railway in the world had been
built during his lifetime. Happily,
many in this city have heard from his
own lips, in the concise, graphic, &C
curate speech which was his peculiar
gift, the narration of some Of the
picturesque events Of that career. That
account included its beginnings amid
those limitations which in pioneer days
were not poverty, but the crude begin
nings of great opportunity. 1t related
the crucial epoch when, on the after
noon when news of the first battle of
Bull Run was received, at meeting
Of the directors Of the Kenosha, Rock
ford and Rock Island Railroad, the
shadow of night fell not more darkly
than did the shadow of disaster over
their hearts; when his courage alone,
his vision of a final triumph that should
overbalance defeat and depression, car
ried the road to completion and ulti-
mate success. 1t told of the first ven
lures with the telegraph; of that grasp
of future possibility which made him
a patron of the inventive power which
resulted in the telephone, which caused
him to wire the church building which
lstood on this very site, and enable the
assembled audience to hear concert
played by musical instruments in Mil
waukee and Chicago, to prove to them
that musical tones could be conveyed
over the telegraph wire. That nara
tive portrayed the National Convention
in Chicago which nominated Abraham
Lincoln as President, to which conye~~.
ton Mr.. Simmons went as de ate,
favoring the nomination of Seward !;
from which he came an ardent support
er of Lincoln, won by his speech and
personality to an admiration that deep
ened to reverence in the succeeding
years. These incidents and others
which he told SO well were but shining
points in career that reached success