Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1913-09-24
ANNUAL REUNION OF
ZACHARYS AT CASHIERS


many in Oconee and other sections
of this State Is the reunion Of the
Zachary family, which is held an
nually in August at Cashiers, n. c.
was attended by more than a hun
dred Of the family connection. John
r. Zachary, Of Oconee, is one of the
leaders in the movement which es-
tablished the Zachary reunion as a
permanent annual feature.
The Welcome Address.
Below we give the welcome ad-
dress delivered at the recent reun-
ion by J. Fred Zachary, of Cashiers,
as follows:
1t is a pleasure to me to-day to be
allowed to welcome you to our COM
munity on this our fifth annual re-
union; but it is useless for me to
attempt to say how welcome you are
for the language of man contains not
the words that can express it. The
occasion is one that permits not a
full expression of our welcome to
you, or our reverence for the day we
come to celebrate--the day to which
we look forward from the time
goodbye is spoken one year until
the reunion rolls around again. And
so this morning | extend to you. our
kinsmen and friends, welcome
that arises from the very soul of the
living, and that which would come
from the spirits of our dead could
they but speak it. Welcome. Why,
cverything-th birds. the flowers,
and the very air-seem animated
with spirit Of gladncsS over your
being here, and our hearts acknowl-
edge your presence with the same
spirit of glad reception that the
thirsty flowers feel when they lift
their grateful heads in response to
the cooling rain. Zacharys. those
VINO are related TO the Zacharys, and
the friends of the Zacharys, and
their kinsmen, are as welcome as
the song of the mockingbird on a
summer morn.
There are some here to-day, per-
maps, who have never attended our
gatherings before, and TO them, we
extend our sympathy and an addi-
tional welcome for their conversion.
AS we gather here this morning
many are the reasons why we do so.
Some come to see what we have to
eat here in the valley, and to them
| must speak of both quality and
quantity; some come only for the
purpose of having a good time, and
| certainly hope they will; others
are mere to see and be seen; but let
us hope that the majority are here
to perpetuate the memories of those
who have fought the great battle of
life and gone to their reward, and to
add new links to the golden chain
OF friendship that binds the living
together
The Purpose
of our reunion is to keep green
within our hears the deeds OF those
who slumber near, to beautify their
last resting place, and to Keep be-
fore our minds eye the proper con-
ceptiOn Of our duty to ourselves, our
country and our dead. Let us give
honor to the noble men and women
who, by their dauntless spirit, carved
homes amidst the wilderness. wrest-
ing the land from an inferior race,
in Gods good way and time, and
left to us, their posterity, the re-
gion that is fast achieving world
wide fame for it's beauty and its
health. 1t was a different country
then from that which we occupy to-
day; the wolf howled and the pan
ther screamed upon the mountain
side, and to their very doorsteps
came the antlered buck, gazing in
mld-eyed wonder upon the strange
creations of man. The graded roads
and steel rails Of to-day have taken
the place Of the rough paths they
nSed to t!avel, and instead OF TAX
ing days and weeks to go from here
to Augusta, Ga, which was their
nearest town. the journey j; accom-
plshed in a few short hours.
Change there is on every hill and
in every dale-but does not change
bring opportunities that otherwise
would never come? Where, a few
centuries ago, the vast stretch of
wilderness was practically unbroken
from the blue mountain tops on the
west across the State to the glitter
shores OF the Atlantic on the east,
there is change in mountain, hill