OLD SETTLERS DAY

October 1, 1891

The Annual Reunion of the Old Settlers of Linn County at Marion Today a Grand Success.

The City is in Holiday Attire to Welcome Her Guests, The Pioneers Who Braved the Hardships of Frontier Life and Were the Founders and Builders of Many of Our Present Enterprises. Some Stirring Addresses Made and Early Reminiscences Related – Who They Are.

Marion, Oct 1 – The old settlers meeting today is a grand success. As early as nine o’clock the teams began rolling in and long before the time for speaking arrived the streets were lined with the gray haired pioneers, the sturdy young farmers and the sunny faced children. The enrollment has reached 450 and still others are coming. The city is in holiday attire, the stores and restaurants are beautifully decorated. The people of Marion are vieing with each other to contribute to the success of the occasion and the comfort of the visitors and everything that can be done to render the meeting a success has received attention.

Secretary Davis’ office is crowded with new arrivals who are registering and receiving their badges. The officers of the association are: President, Charles Weare, Cedar Rapids; secretary, J. C. Davis, Marion, treasurer, A. J. McKean, Marion.

Executive committee: J J Daniels, Bertram; J S Butler, Brown; Edward Crow, Buffalo; J C Kelley, Clinton; Wm Ure, Fairfax; Thos Lewis, Fayette; Robt Smyth, Franklin; R M Moles, Jackson; H C Platner, Linn; Preston Daniels, Marion; Ormus Clark, Maine; F Kershner, Putnam; Robt Ellis, Rapids; A Snyder, Washington; A Lyons, Otto Creek; J M Robbins, Monroe; Cord Gilchrist, Grant; J M Worthington, College; Henry Reece, Spring Grove.

This association was only organized Aug 13, 1891. To entitle one to join this association be shall have been a resident of Linn county, Iowa, prior to such joining for the period of thirty-five years and pay to the secretary fifty cents as a membership fee. The association is now on a firm footing and we may rest as sured that the meeting will each year hereafter be a great event in Linn county. Those who have registered up to an early hour this morning are as follows, being arranged under the years of their arrival in Linn county:

1837

1838

1839

1840

 1841

 1842

 1843

 1844

1845

1846

1847

1848

1849

1850

1851

1852

1853

1854

1855

1856

At 11 o'clock the park was well filled with people, the seats provided being scarcely sufficient to accommodate the ladies, while the men crowded about the stand or sat on the grass under the trees. The Robert Mitchell drum corps, composed of fourteen young boys and two leaders, furnished excellent music. President Weare called the assemblage to order and requested all over 70 years of age to occupy seats on the stand. This request brought forward about fifty veterans with their wives, who presented a fine appearance, revealing in every face the lines of care and a life of toil, but softened by smiles of happiness that revealed kindly natures and a joyousness as fresh and real as can be witnessed in the face of a class of college graduates. The exercises consisted of music, prayer by Rev. Marshall of Marion, and an address of welcome by President Weare. He referred to the growth of the county from a mere prairie forty years ago to a wealthy community of nearly 50,000 people, and congratulated the pioneers that their lots had been cast in a county where such growth was possible.

The people were much disappointed when it was announced that the orator of the day Judge Hubbard, could not be present, having been called from home by a pressing business engagement. He sent a letter expressing his regrets and referring feelingly to the early days and his early associates. The letter read as follows:

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sept 30, 1891

Hon. Chas Weare, President Old Settlers association

My Dear Sir: I am very sorry to be obliged to tell you that I cannot be present at your meeting tomorrow, as I am compelled to be away from home on business which cannot be deferred. I read, with great interest, the account in the newspapers of your first meeting, containing a list of nearly two hundred names. I read those names carefully and I know every one of them, and their faces come back to me as they looked 30 and 35 years ago. The untrodden prairies, the unfathomable sloughs, the bridgeless streams, the total lack of means of communication the sparse settlement, the 30 cent wheat and the $1.50 pork, after hauling it all the way to Muscatine, compared with the gardens and farms of Linn county today, its large and prosperous towns and cities, its railroads and public highways and bridges, and the marvelous wealth and comforts which we now enjoy tell the wholes story.

This same epitome will apply to almost every county in the United States. I think we may all congratulate ourselves that we have lived in a generation which has both made and witnessed greater progress in the acquisition and enjoyment of wealth and the luxuries of life than any generation which has preceded us. As you go over the tolls and privations of pioneer life, you may surely congratulate yourselves on the fruits of your labor that  you now see all about you on every hand. We come in columns of generations, do our work and pass out of sight, leaving our place to new columns which come after us. It is fitting that as we near the end when we are to lay down our work for other hands, to halt and survey the work of our hands and the institutions that we have aided to build and which we are soon to pass into the keeping of those who come after us. However, I do not think it well to halt too long, nor to look back too often. A great majority of those who began work with us 37 years ago have passed over the river. Looking at the list of my professional associates, nearly all with whom I began work have passed away. Judge Isbell, Judge Smythe, Judge Cook, Judge Green, Col. Preston, Major Young, Jas J Childs, A.S.Belt, Donnell McIntosh and Mr. Dudley were all here and either gracing the bench or in the full tide of a successful practice of the law. There is really none left of the first generation of lawyers except Major Thompson and myself. I have no doubt but each of you will find nearly as large a list of your immediate associates that have passed away. All these contemporaries worked to the last and died facing the future and not the past. You will all recognize many of the names I have just quoted as having been among the first men in the state in their time. 

While it is exceedingly pleasant to recount the early tolls and poverty and hardships of a new country, which have resulted in such splendid results of wealth and comforts we must not forget that the good soldier falls with his face to the front. There is no consolation at the close of life so great as the consolation of duty faithfully done; and the paramount duty of mankind is to labor for the achievement of just such results as you now see before you and which have been wrought by labor out of many trials and much poverty.

Were it not for these considerations, which I have stated, I should have dropped all other engagements to have been with you today. When I read that you had honored me by making me your orator of the day, I wanted very much to write some fitting tribute for the occasion on "My Contemporaries at the Linn County Bar," but I found that I did not have time to do so, nor was it certain that I could be present. I hope at some future time to be with you on such an occasion as this and will always take great pleasure in doing anything I can to make your meeting enjoyable.

Regretting exceedingly that I cannot be with you, I remain, Yours truly, N. M. Hubbard

Mrs. Winter was called for and she related her experiences with homony, pork, ox teams, trip to Muscatine and gave many amusing instances of early days. She said she was glad that young people of today do not have to suffer as we did but she sometimes almost wished they were obliged to take a taste of those privations. But, she said, we have gained great privileges and I fear we are not doing what we should to preserve them. Only last night she had seen two men reeling drunk and she thought the people should be interested in ridding our country of the curse of liquor selling. She declared that liquor had robbed her of her youthful home, of her own father and she appealed to the voters to cast their allots for "God and home and native land."

Horace N Brown of Brown township, who is in very feeble health, sat in his seat and spoke words of cheer and good feeling to his fellow pioneers.

Source: The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) 01 Oct 1891, Thu, pg. 1