Old Settlers of County are Enjoying Day at Eagle Point

(Source: The Clinton Advertiser, Clinton Iowa, August 26, 1920, Page 6)

Favored with delightful weather and a bright day and just warm enough to make an afternoon in the open most enjoyable, the Old Settlers picnic at Eagle Point, being held this afternoon, is proving one of the most successful and largely attended meetings the association has ever had.

For weeks the officers and members of the State and Territorial Pioneers organization have been making plans and looking forward to this day, and now that AUGUST 26th has arrived the old settlers are making it a day long to be remembered by the several hundred members of the association, gathered here for their annual meeting.

Interesting Program

A very interesting program was carried out in the early part of the afternoon and was followed by an hour or two of visiting and reminiscences.  The program consisted of speaking and musical numbers and excedingly interesting talks about olden times. It was given in the park pavilion, where hundreds of old settlerswere seated to enjoyit.  President W. J. Shadduck presided, assisted by Secretary L. F. Sutton, and the various other officers of the organization.  The invocation was by Rev. W. Ernest Shockley, a rector of Grace Episcopal church.

Mr. Swann said in part:

When the chairman of the committee of arrangements asked me to speak this afternoon he also wanted to know how long I had been here.  I told him a year and a half and I did not know whether that was a sufficient qualifcation to make me an old settler.  However, he accepted me as a speaker at least.

One advantage I have is that while I may not know all the good things many of you have done, I also know none of the bad things.  A traveler was talking with a native one day in the southern Highland and in speaking of a character about town he asked, "Is he an old settler here?"  The man to whom he was talking said, "Him and me has been livin' around these parts together about fifty years and I never done heard of his settlin' for anything yet." I presume none of you are that sort of old settlers, or non-settlers.

But if I cannot speak with knowledge of your early local conditions here, I can say something of the pioneering work that has been the basis of the progress of our country from the early days until now.  This year we celebrate the 300th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims.  The same staunch qualities, vigorous faith, insistence upon freedom of conscience and liberty of action that characterized them and led them to leave their pleasant English homes and journey to far shores to secure the liberty of conscience they demanded, has been characteristic in large measure of their successors in pushing westward all over our land.  Thedays of the pioneers are gone, except possible in Alaska, but the memory of their heroism, their fidelity, their unconquerable will and their perserverance inovercoming difficulties remains with us as a precious heritage.

Mr. Swann then spoke in detail of the early days in New England and the eastern states, and of the more recent beginnings of white civilization in the further west, giving illustrations of the rapid progress from primitive conditions to modern comforts and conveniences, and from danger and lawlessness to the reign of law.

In closing he spoke briefly of the opportunities that are still ours to help in moulding and shaping the higher civilization with a deeper interest in the things that are worth while, and said there are plenty of worlds yet to conquer, although there may be no more virgin soil to put under the plow here or wilderness to subdue.

His remarks were enthusiastically received.  A more complet account of the meeting and program will be given in tomorrow's ADVERTISER.

Reunion Notes

John McGrath of Andover was anearly guest at the picnic.  Mr. McGrath is more than eighty years of age and is one of the Territorial Pioneers.  He came to Lyons ona steamboat in 1849 and during his early years in this section lived on the John Lynch place north of Lyons.  He has resided in te county for over seventy years.

Among the oldest pioneer members who will be missed at the park this afternoon is James Sewell, who is ninety-four years old and is not able to attend owing to illness.  G. W. Keister, who attained his ninety-fourth birthday last November, and at least six other settlers who are more than eighty-five years of age are expected at the gathering.

Among the early visitors whose names and ages we were able to obtain are

W. D. Eaton, editor and publisher of the Mirror, 86
John McGrath, 80
Wm. Leimbach, 86
Justus Lund, 83
Ed Showerman, 72
Ed Worrell, 76
Aug Johnson, 79
J. J. McGuire, 71
Mose Johnson, 79
Mrs. Katherine Little, 90
G. Gassaway, 79