The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-08-16

uiST.
Thomas Hughes, J. B. Coy, w. r.
Jewson, and A. c. Barney, executive
committee.
Above are the names of the officers
Of the Territorial Old Settlers asso-
citation, elected at the annual picnic
held in Sibley park this afternoon,
the election resulting in the re- cleo
ton of all of the former officers.
Many prominent early day settlers
and their families were in attendance
at the picnic, and about two hundred
guests were present during the din
ner and program. The day was ideal.
even the weather man having smiled
upon the affair, and the older people
enjoyed the picnic quite as much as
the settlers of later years. An excel
lent picnic dinner was served about
one o'clock, and the afternoon pro-
gram was given from an improvised
platform on the picnic grounds. Of
ficers of the association were seateS
on the platform, and G. A. Chapman,
president of the association presided.
Rev. G. A. Cahoon pronounced the
benediction and gave the prayer. Dur
ing the dinner a program of music
was furnished by Sandon's harp or
chestra. The Ladies' Lyric club, un-
der the direction of Miss Cornelia
Mansfield, sang well Never Let the
Old Flag FALL" and responded to the
applause by singing, God Be With
Our Boys Tonight" Frank Blyler,
who is home on furlough from the
navy, sang couple of selections, and
the male trio also Sang. The musical
numbers were enthusiastically en-
cored. The two speakers of the aft
ernoon, Judge W. L. Comstock and
Attorney Thomas Hughes gave very
interesting addresses and were fire.
quently interrupted by the applause
of their attentive audience Mr.
Hughes, who gave the memorial of
the association, drew attention to the
healthful climate of Minnesota by re-
marking on the longliveity of the
settlers, and the fact that many of
of health although their years were
many.
Address of Judge Comstock.
Judge w. L. Comstock spoke as fol-
lows:
How fitting It is that the Territorial
Pioneers should assemble in Sibley
park where the beautiful forms of an
derful creations of modern artifice, CIV
ing evidence of the association of the
past and present
How grateful are we that the city
ia theirs of Mankato have preserved to
the people this place of wonderful ma
tural beauty and have named it Sibley |
after the revered first governor of the |
North Star state.
Here is the center and very acme of |
lavish gifts to the far famed
undine region, so named in appreciation
by the ancient voyageurs and by such |
name charted by Joseph Nicollet, the |
sunny France some eighty years ago. |
We are meeting today under the most !
significant circumstances of any day |
since the time the pioneers were first |
organized.
While we wait from hour to hour with |
mingled hopes and fears to hear the |
tidings from our men across the seas. |
tidings of the. tide of battle waged by
the soldiers of America that to us and |
our posterity shall be preserved the |
principles and practices of justice, equal |
ity and mercy, we well may pause apart |
from our accustomed walks and give re- |
Spectful thought of the moment to the |
memory of those coura geous adventure |
ers who more than half century ago |
by their brave efforts made possible the |
foundations of that great prosperity our |
locality and our community so fully en- |
joy today.
AS we glance back through the by
gone years we clearly see that the |
gains of the progress of peace are only |
won by devotion to principles of right |
and sacrifice Of selfisnness as well as |
are the gains of victory upon the battle /
fields.
We learn in retrospect that no man
may serve the common interest who |
constantly seeks his own aggrandize- |
ment and the sole accomplishment of |
his selfish ambitions and purely person
al interests.
The community. the state and the ra-
ton have only been served we'll by |
those men who have had always, in |
the upbuilding of lettering conditions OF |
human progress.
We remember with respect and graft |
tude how those strong men of the days |
dren might enjoy better things than they |
themselves had known, better homes, |
schools, churches, highways, and better |
service of all of the public activities |
and utilities of the commonwealth and
of the community.
Stalwart Americans. they came from
the security and comforts of the homes !
OF the east and south in the dawning !
driving the hostile redlnen before them.
with rifles at their sides, they leveled
the great forests and turned the tough (
ened turf of the prairies that they /
might build homes for themselves and |
their loved ones and establish the rule
law for the protection of all.
And so with labor of love they build |
their homes that they themselves might |
not long enjoy but that were left a
priceless heritage to their children and
their children's children after them
major portion of those earlier men
might trace their lineage back to the I
colonial ancestry of America and down
through all the battlefields of the max I
ing of American liberty and freedom, and
which their ancestry had made and
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