The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1914-06-12

oCtNACA0 III NII6l1iat OhhSg ahiut
Maryland. y across thes Allegheny
mountains In Kentucky and Tonnes
see, northward in Ohio and In Michi-
gan. then westward into Indiana,
Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, and
standing as worthy patriots along
side OF those of the states | have
just mentioned are the early set
tiers who came into southern Min
nesota and laid the foundations OF
this commonwealth. Not many re-
main today OF those who were here
when these beautiful farms were
carved out of the forests or spread
out upon the prairie, but their mem
DRY is like sweet incense, and we
can never forget their, lives and
labor" % '!h9't' e."
1T is true that We may forget
the individual names and coming
generations may be 5'unable to
speak the names of the men and
women who formed that band OF
soldiers OF industry and toll and
upon the vast prairies gave to us a
citizenship which win never be
forgotten. / presume that many of
US on the 80th of May went in the
cemeteries of the land and stood and
looked at the names upon the mar
BILE slabs or shafts of granite and
thought OF the men and women who
have gone to that land from which
none ever return and tried
TO recall some of the things that they
did and said. and how perhaps as
children played around the fire sides
and gazed up into the faces of men
who have almost deifled themselves
in your memory, and today they
hold just as high q place in our
honor and esteem as they did then.
IL Is not strange. how we come to
think of those who have been at
the beginning Of things; how we
give to them character and quality
that are above ordinary men. Per-
,haps we throw around them a halo
that IL just a little over luminous,
but that only speaks of our hearts
affection and the deep regard I'm
which we hold them. glai
Nov, | wish to take up at this
time some, of the things. that have
made these men and women great,
for / am convinced that do not
speak at random when I say these
men and women we're great. You
know that all men are born great.
Some are comparatively great. while
only a few become, O snperlatively
great. Perhaps the larger portion
Of those who settled this country
belongs to the class whom we call
as comparatively great. and there
are some who might be considered
superlatively great. Their greatness
was won by their service TO the
world. They came into this country
in many instances with the old
fashioned prairie. schooner, hauled
by a team or teams of oxen, and
their few utensils for household and
field use all wrapped up within the
confines of the one'Sas8gon. with
the heads sefythel families came the
children, boys and girlsuofs from one
to fifteen years of ageIg They crossed
the Mississippi, La Crosse, Savanna or
Clinton, and with creaking wheels
and SLOW progress wended their way
to the promised land of southern
Minnesota. The older boys and the
father of the family trudged along
the side, walking or riding the sole
horse that belonged to the family
and kept "a constant. outlook for
unfriendiy lurking sayages. The
mother and smaller children made
themselves as comfortable as pos
sible in the" recking, bounding,
creaking old schooner that received
its name from the habit Il had of
rolling andsltossing like a listing
schooner on.fa choppyi sea. Day
after day the march continued until
they found the spot that, met with
heir approval, There they. placed their
camp and began TO build first the
sod house or log cabin. then the
barn for the cattle, the coup for the,
chickens and the sty for the pigs,
breaking the soil and the seeding of
the fields with the few seeds they
possessed was the next process.
THE first few years were lean
years, years in which the family
had to exercise the utmost care and
economy. Home spun and home
made clothing we're used, and very
little opportunity for social
privileges were theirs for the first
years, but fortune smiled upon them
and soon they began to, see the light
OF better. day. The sod shanties
and the log, cabins gave way to the
more pretentfous dwellings. The
fields were more thoroughly Guilt
waited, and the farmstead came to
be like home. AT first many thought
they would lmake their fortune and
then go back east and live. but
this vision faded away until final.
ly they resolved to stay by the
land that had been developed, and
like the workman who builds n
piece of machinery, or the craftsman
who succeeds in working out some
of his beautiful handicraft, or the
painter who paints picture, or the
Sculptor who hews out of marble
some beautiful figure, these men
began to take pride in that which
they were accomplishing, and II
soon became a. fixed principal in
their lives. They held that which
they had won by their efforts and
desired to be buried near the
scenes of their successes, and | think
you will agree with me that their
resolution was a good one, and that
In their death and burial in the
land that they had made they merely
showed that sthey wanted the dust
OF the flesh to crumble back into
the. dust of the earth that they had
made great and Inv hacOminp a M re