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Pioneer Life

Pioneer Life image
Parent Issue
Day
18
Month
June
Year
1891
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

MR. PRE8IDENT, IvADIES AND GeNTLEmkn: When your secretary asked me to speak here today.the tbought at once oceurred to me, "What can I say th will interest a gathering of pioneers?" It s UBUal to tpeak 01' their toils, their hardahips nnd their depri vatiojis, but I have no Hort of sympatliy with that kind of talk. I beheve that no class of persons on the round globe have as good a time, or enjoy lifo as well, as the pioneer! in a new country like this. I was once a pioneer myself in a distant ■tate. There wore no roads, no houses, no schools, no churches.and hardlyany of the restraints of civilized government or law. Yt I must confesé that I never enj oyed myself as well as when in the society of those brave and generous pioneers. We carried all our earthly possessions upon our backs, cooked our own food when hanger called, and lay down to sweet sleep at night, upon the bare ground, with nothing above us but the watching stars. The pioneers in a new country are usually men and women in the prime of life and health, and vigorous manhood and womanhood. They are full of YOUTHFÜL ENTHUSIASM AND HOPE. Nothing seems, as in anold community, to be going to seed around them. All nature seenas young and bursting into joyous life. O, how fresh and beautiful the girls all look to a pioneer! The pioneer is a man who looks forward and not backward- a man who looka upward and not downward - a man who like the true Christian hero is ever ready and willing to "leud a helping hand." If a pioneer's house burns down his neighbors join hands and build him another; if a pioneer is taken sick his neighbors turn out and put in his crops and scorn to ask pay for such acts of Christian kindness. I believe that pioneers in such a country as this are superior physically, intellectually and morally to any generation which mcceeds them. They were the piek of the communities from which they carne. It argües pluck, courage, enterprise and ambition in young men and women to tear themselves away from a comfortable home and all the dear associations of childhood and youth and go forth, siiigle-handed and alone, to carve out for themselves a home and fortune in a strange and unknown land. The genius of Milton has never. painted a nobler picture than when he describes Adam and Eve as, buoyant with health and filled with youthful affection and love, "they hand in hand through Eden "took their boutaky way," out into the great and unknown world beyond, where by the "sweat of their brows" they were to lay the foundations of the civilization, the progresa and the true glory of their race! Foi one I am glad that God placed behind them the flaming sword that none of their descendants might desire to sneak back and down into the damp, insipid and snaky garden which they had deserted iorever. So far I have spoken of the pioneer generally, but I believe the pioneers of Washtenaw county were no excepüon to the general rule. They too possessed youth, energy and ambition. They too had nothing sordid, mean and envious about them. Their acts of (Juristian kindness and benevolence ana their neighborly festivities would put to shame the ni",gardly charities and the prosy and formal enjoyments of today. They huil more fun than we are having toeicther, twice over. Why shouldn't tLey? They were young, full of enthusiasm and hope. They found themselvea in a fertile and beautiful country. As they wandered over these bilis and plains, guided by the blazed tree, they found the foresta vocal with the songs of birds and alive with noble game There was asort of romance and enchantment in their environment. In the heavy air of the early morning they often saw the CURLING 8M0KE OF THE INDIAN WIGWAM rising above these valleys.and when the ïarvest was gathered and the fruits of 'all were ripening, who can decribe the slories of that "lndianSummer" which rejoiced the heart of the pioneer sixty yeara ago! We believe that the pioneers of Washtenaw county, orthose of them who remain, as they look back and review their early days, will be satisfied that they realized more pleasure than pain, and that the balance of happineu was largely in their favor. And as they look around them today and eurvey that long panorama of üfty or Bixty yenrs they must be Katisüed wlth the results of the work which (iüd called them to do. The blazed tree has given way to the convenient highway; the scattered cabins with their solitary occupants have grown into A l'OPULOl'S COUNTY of more than 40,000 people; the sinall capital which they brought here and nvested in their land at $1.25 per acre has grovvn into a valuation of $40,000,000. ExpeneivecUurches, representing every phase of religious faith, have sprung up in nearly every neighborhood. The few scattered and uncomfortable houses where the children of the pioneers attended school havo disappeared and given place to nearly 200 comfortable and commodious school buildings, many of them costing tens of thousands of dollars. And most marvellouB of all, agreat university has sprung up in our midst, which already rival in numbers and in fame the greatest institutions of learning in the old world, institutiona already hoary with age and illustrious in history before ColumbuB was bom. I do not know whether Methuselah ived 969 years or not, but if he did, he lid not see as much progress, as many hanges, or as much material improvement in society or civilization in his ong 969 years as has occurred in the ifetime of one of our pioneers. When he president of this society carne to Washtenaw county there were hardly TEN MILB8 OF HAILKOAD IN THE COUNTRY, now we have miles enough of railroad to more tham six times belt the globe, and miles enough if extended to reach more ,han two-thirds of the way to the moon! A pioneer has told me that when he carne to Washtenaw county ít took him six days to travel with his ox-team from Detroit to Dexter, fifty miles. Today he president of this society can talk n the morning with the fisherman as he casta his net where Cape Cod hrusts its sickle of sand into the sea, and stepping into a palace car can read the newspaper or his Bible, compute his interest, sleep, and eat lis meáis, as comfortably as in his own marlor, while the great train pursues its riumphant way, from river to river, rom mounlain range to mountain range, and from state to state, and at he end of six days he can talk with the entinel who keeps watch and ward over he Golden Gate! outstripping the eagle n his flight across the continent from tho "Oriënt to the drooping West." To he pioneer the telegraph wasunknown. Coday our telegraph lines cover the country like a mighty spider's web. ?he pioneer lighted his candle with a air of tongs and coa!, matches even pere too expensive or unknown. The children of pioneers were terrified with úctures of Olympian Zeus grasping the ightnings of heaven in his hand to last and destroy the human race. The hild of today bv touching a button can ause that lightnin to illuminate a city, et in motion a sewing machine, a Drintng press or Street car, while science with its marvelous skill has made that íghtning a "common carrier" of human hought. It is already being used to ïeal the sick, and some predict that it will y et be used to raise the dead. At ny rate what the pioneer looked on as nly a danger and a curse is proving to e a faithful servant and a blessing to mankind. The early pioneer of Washtenaw mnty paced his field, and like the atriarch of the ancient world, sowed ijs grain with his hand; reaped it with lis SIC'KLE OR ORADLE nd threshed it with his flaii. Toay he mounts his light and easyiding drill and sows his field with carcely ihe ex rtion of muscle or rain; when that field is ripe for harvest he mounts another machine, which, withalmost human intelligence.doesthe work of the harvest field, while the team thresher in a single hour will acornpÜBh what would have cost the arly pioneer with his flail a month of most laborious toil. When we think of all that invention and science have done in fifty years to i(?hten the burdens and lessen the toil of the farmer, it is sad to think that ïothing, absolutely nothing, has as yet een accomplished to lessen the responibiüties or alleviate the labors of the ármer's wife. No negreas of the south over passed her days in more absolute lavery, so far as WOBK, WOKK, WORK, s ooncerned, than the average farmer' wife in WaBhtenaw county today. No washing machine has ever been invented that lessens her labora. No electrical apparatua has yet been discovered to make her bread. No steam machinery has yet been deviaed to wash her dishes, scour her knives, sweep her floors and make her beds. !t is the same everlasting and monotonous drudgery from early mom to late at night, from early youth to wrinkled age, and from generation to generation. Noclaaa of laborera in this country, L.- :luding alavés, ever worked so uany aours aday as the average faripfci's wife. tóen,although the hardest of their work s now done by machinery, are continuUly striking for less hours of labor - ten tiours, nine hours, eight hours- while without a word of complaintor expresainga word ofsympathy they allow their own wives and mothers and the wives of well-to-do farmers to work on an average twelve, fourteen and even sixteen houra a day. We have become so used to this state of things, existing as it has for generations. that we have become thoughtles8 and heedless about it. One of the aorrows that will ever fill my heart, comes from the thought that I did nothing in my youth, by deed or words of sympathy, compared with what I might have done, to relieve the awful and never-ceaaing drudgery which burthened a dear mother's life. Such vast political and social changes as have taken place in the lifetime of our pioneers have never before occurred, in so brief a period, in the history of the world. When the first American pioneer fought a home in Washtenaw county JOHN Q.UINCY ADAMS WAS PRESIDENT, the sixth out of a line of twenty chiof magistraten; and since that day the ceuterof the populatiou of the country has moved from the eastern line of West Virginia to central Illinois. Then there weretwenty-four states;now there are forty-four, then the population was 12,000,000, now it is (5,000,000. Then Michigan was a territory with undefined boundaries, and her vast resources practically unknown; today she ranks as ninth in population in the great sisterhood of states, and leads them all in those staple productione, salt, lumber, copper and iron. The pioneer of Michigan made for his humble cabin sueh furniture as his poverty and rude toois could supply; TODAY MICHIGAN LEADS TUE WORLD in the manufacture of household furniture, and tliis product of her skilied labor, models of comfort, beauty and art, may be found wherever wealth and luxury exist in any country upon the globe, as well in the harems of half-civilized sultans as in the palaces of enlightened kings. When our pioneers settled in Washtenaw county there was no city of Chicago, which now contains more than one million of people and the flnest business blocks, without exception, of any city in the world. And there was no coinmerce to load thousands of vessels which now float upon our great lakes.ñlling the horizon with the smoke of their eugines and the sheen of tbeir snow-white sails, while there annually passes through a water way over the territory of Michigan, which in the days of the early pioneers was bardly utilized at all, more tonnage of commerce than passes through any other waterway upon the globe- not excepting the Suez canal. But we need not dweil further upon these evidences of material progresa, but let ub look for a moment at an evidence of social and moral progresa of fargreater import, that has occurred in the lifetime ot' our pioneers. Just about thirty-six years ago I was in Georgetown, Kentucky.a day's ride from Washtenaw county, and r.ne Saturday alternoon, when a great crowd of planters and hor8e-racers had gathered at that county seat, I saw A YOLNÜ GIRL SIXTEEN YEAKS OF AGE, bare-footed, bare-headed and thinly ciad, placed upon a dry-goods box upon the the street for sale. She was not of full negro blood; slie was as fair as many of BB. uhe had regular features, a delicate glow upon the cheeka, and was as comel to look upon as the average school girl of Washtenaw county at sixteen. Presently a heavy, coarse man, about forty-five years of age. mounted the box beside the girl and cried out; "Attention, gentlemen! it is time for our sale to begin. How much am I offered for this 'gal?' Her name is Fanny; she is sixteen years old and perfectly healthy! How much am I offered for her? 'Nine hundred dollars,' a man in the crowd ealled out. Nine hundred dollars? She is worth twice tb.pt money to any man. Don't you see she is a handsome 'gal?' Look at her ankles! See her ivories!" and he pulled up her lips to show her white, even and beautiful teeth. "I am offered one thousand dollars for her; wh'o will raise the bid? One thousand dollars I am offered. Gentlemen, she is the flnest 'gal' in Scott county! Fourteen hnndred dollars I am offered! Gentlemen, you don't know what a chance you are losing. Fanny is a good dispositioned 'gal'- her mother is dead, and her father has been sold to a cotton planter in Mlasissippi, and she will never be seen bawling around to see her folks. How much am I offered for her?" Here the crowd.getting excited,gathered around the block. Ko woman but this. young girl was present; and I can't relate the coarse language and vulgar jokes bandied there. I noticed that the studftits of a Baptist college close by had left, their studies of the Pentateuch, and the life of King David, and Paul's advice to Onisemus, and had crowded the windows to watch the sale. "HOW MDCH AM I OFFERED FOR HER? Fifteen hundred dollars I am offered! Who will raise the bid? The 'gal' has got to go; her masker is dead and the widow is obliged to sell her to close up the estáte. How much ain 1 offered for her?" All this, while the poor girl stood there without moving a muscle- she seemed to be unconscious of what was going on around her - herlarge, sad eyes had a far away look, as if she xpected to recei ve some sign of sympatby or love from the spirit of her dead mother as she gazed into the impalpable aii! "Sixteen hundred dollars I am offered for the handsomest 'gal' for sa!e in Scott county. Gentlemen, she is worth two thousand dollars in any market in the south, and you know it. Seventeen hundred dollars- twice- eeventeen hundred dollars - gone!" "Come on, Fanny!" cried the purchaser. With a heavy and half-dazed and unconscious step she slipped from the box and followed a coarse, brutal looking man around the corner of the street and waB indeed - gone! This terrible transactiou, authorized by American law, sustained by public opinión, and saucüoned by the Christian church, took place only thirty-six years ago, within a day's ride of this village by rail; a scène thii. would have disuraced the darkest. ages of Pagan barbarism. It ia douhtful if any institution ever existed PMong civilized men 80 utterly infar.i'oua as American slavery, an institution which existed in all itsglory and has been utterly wiped out in all its infainy during the lifetime of the pioneers of Washtenaw county. From the days of Polk to the days of Lincoln, the champions and defenderá of this institution ruled the nation with the slavedriver's whip. Every question of foreign policy, any principie of domestic legislation, was cunningly devised to extend and perpetúate it. All the discoveries of science, all the material progresa that has taken place in the last iifty years, weigh as nothing in the balance, compared to the moral gain that has been secured by the abolition of this infamous institution. It enables us to read the declaration of independence without shame. It has removed AN AWFUL STIGMA KROM CIIBISTIANITY. It has so elevated and dignified human nature that future chattelization of men and women will be impossible; and by removing all causes of strife and discord among ourselves has made us, what we never were before, a united and fraternal people. Nothing serious remains to menace our growth in national prosperity and greatness. Many persons in this room will live tosee our population reach one hundred millions and, if not already, destined soon to become, the most free, the most homogeneous, the most prosperous and the most powerful nation the world has everknown. So, it seems to me that the pioneersot Washtenaw county have been, ou the whole, fortúnate men and women - fortúnate in being led in their youthful days to cast their lot in this beautiful región - fortúnate in the time in which they have lived - fortúnate in the results of their labors which they have seen around them. and fortúnate in the happiness and prosperity of their descendants. Still there is SOMETHING SAD ABOÜT THESE MEKTINUS. Seventeen years ago I read a paper before this society and a majority of those present on that occasion aro not here today. Rapidly the flying years are thinning their ranks, ;ind soon the last pioneer will have joined his old companions. I have read somewhere, among the storios of the Round Table, how in the Middle Ages twelve knights met in the dining Lall of one of their old castles upon the Rhine, whose ruins today adc so much to the interest of that historie river, and there took a solemn pledge that so long as any of their number sur vived they would annually meet there and drink to each others' health a glass of old Rhenish wine. The long walls of the old hall were hung with imple ments of war and trophiea of the chase It wasdimly lighted; narrow windowi pierced the thick walls, and masses o shadow and darkness were gathered among the timbera of the lofty ceiling Year after year the twelve knights me there in performance of their vow Then their numbers began to be thinnei by death, but the 8urvivora alway 'oucd the table spread with twelve lates and twelve glasses. Finally, the ast survivor, a bowed and gray-headed cnight, went up to the old casstle for the ast time, alone, in fulfillment of his ledge. He found the table spread with ts twelve plates and twelve glasses, and as he aróse upon his tottering limbs to Irink to the memory of his dead comaniorjs, he feit aronnd him a strange ustling like wings, and as he raised the wine to his lips he heard, in the darkness above hiin, the sharp click of ;lasses, as ïf his dead companions had til returned to drink with him that last ibation! Let us hope that the last üoneer who attends these meetings will èel that he is surrounded by the pirita of his dead companions, ready to ive him a welcome greeting as he eaches that mysterious realm bevond he river of this mortal life., His work ïas been well done here. He has eached in his private and public life,as near as any class of men ever reach it, hat high Standard described by the poet- " He serves his country best Who joins lier tide and lifts her nobly on." He serves his country best Who lives pure Ufe, and doeth righteous deeds And walk straight paths, however others stray; And leaves his sons, as uttermost bequest A tainless record, whlch all men may read.

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register