Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1877 — OLD SETTLERS’ REUNION. [ARTICLE]

OLD SETTLERS’ REUNION.

Hon. George H. Peudlet hi. of Ohio, strikes the popular chord when he says: “Labor should be free, untraniniel ed, left to itself. Its contracts should be speedily enforced. Irs injuries should be speedily redressed. The burdens imposed upon it should be 'nade as light as possible. The advantages of education furnished by the State should be made easy to all Its children. An enlightened public opinion should award honor to its highest self-respect and honorable self-assertion. Under these conditions it can best fight the hard disadvantages of the daily struggle for the daily bread. If government shall undertake its special care and management, its fostering and protection securing to it fair wages and to capital fair returns, it must also impose duties and obligations, ami exact their performance. If government shall undertake to establish a partnership between capital and labor, and to distribute the profits according to law,or to establish special b'ards of arbitraion to which labor must submit its demands for the future, as well as its 'complaints for the past, it requires no prophet to foresee that labor will be enveloped in meshes through which capital will easily escape; capital will make the laws; capital will interpret them; capital will select the arbitra tors; capital will enforce their award. If any interest should dread a parental government; if any interest -hould dread “entangling alliances” and demand a fair field, it is lab. I 1 say this with an anxiety greater than I care to express to-night, that labor should be relieved of its care ami suffering; with a heart touched to the quick by the misery ami wretchedness, the weary life, the breaking human hearts which I see around me, and the heroic fortitude with which men and women ami children encounter them. If these weary ones—some struggling for bread alone s one straining every Itching nerve Tor a higher moral and mental life ••ould be lifted up, and every obstacle to their progress could be removed; If every human being could be elevated and made to take his proper station as man above forms, above property, above capital, I would welcome the means whatever ’hey might might be J-revolution-in government, revolution in society, the subversion of every cherished idol—and thank < O 1 that I had lived to see them successfully employed. This question has been brought info special prominence just now by tl.e strikes atpl subsequeiitriots. No man approves, every right, thinking man condemns and deprecates lawless violence toward person and property, and believes it should be restrained and punished by the strong arm of the L'aw. Few believe that strikes accomplish any immediate good. They agree with the platform of the workingmen’s party adopted lit Cincinnati,

Mint they are the fruitless effort of workingmen to secure their economical emancipation by guerrilla warfare against individual employers. Yet let us not deceive ourselves or Jo wrong to others. Strikes are the loud mutSerings, the open nets which sufferings produce, r Strikes are the protest which scant food and scant clothing ;ind poor homes, make against greater reduction. Strikes are the voice of discontent, and discontent, restless as it is for a long time, aye, as long as possible, bears “the ills we have.” Happy men do not strike. The smiling faces of well fed wife and children do not permit men to strike There were bad men, and wicked men, and ill-advised men, who wiihilly did wrong and committed crime, but at the bottom of this great upheaval there was a cause, ami that cause was the jinability of willing, honest, industrious meh to obtain work and earn wagen for wife and children. Wages were low, men were xorking on short time; wages were Long unpaid, families were buying on credit at the retail shops. Wages v. ere to bo reduced still lower, and no prospect of prompter payment. You might as well try to check the thunder in the sky, as to suppress she wail of human anguish extorted by these conditions. Until the cause shall he r • moved, strikes- will be made and violence and crime will ensue.”

On last Saturday, September Ist t m Third re-union of tha Old Settlers >f Jasper and Newton counties was mid at the usual place—the grove bo--1 mgiiig to Mr. Jared Benjamin, of J isper county—which is noted as nice having been the council-ground 4 the Pottawattmies. one of the tribes then inbabitijig that portion of he country between the Lakes and tle Ohio. The attendance was unu-

ually large, the number being variously estimated at from twelve to eighteen hundred. The day was propitious, with a clear sky and a cool, b acing atmosphere. The meeting was called to order by the President the former meeting, and it being in place to make choice of new officers, the Hon. Thomas R. Barker was chosen President, J. McCarthy. Secretary. and Rev. Lemuel Shortridge, Chaplain, These preliminaries being disposed of and the organization perfected, the Chaplaiu addressed the Throne of Grace, expressing gratitude for the past, and invoking the Lrivine favor on the future. The ' m eting then adjourned to meet again at o’clock, p. m, The interim was occupied with cor- j dal greetings, hearty welcomes and j->you6 feasting. Every countenance beamed with cheerfulness. As they; reviewed the events of their early

• days, the old settlers appeared rejuvenated. These scenes of pleasure were intieh enhanced by the presence of 4nntiy of Jasper and Newton's i bright sons and fair daughters. As I they collected in groups it was pleasir g to behold lhe venerable fathers ami aged mothers, surrounded by j their sturdy sons ami charming daughj ter, alike participating in the joyousi uc*s of the occasion. / At Intervals delightfid strains of music were dis- ' coursed by the Rensselaer Band. Mihgling with the crowd, we noticed : several of our distinguished citizens j who always honor us with their piceonce on these occasions. Among these were Judge E. P. Hammond, . Hon. I». S. Dwiggins, Dr. Caldwell and Dr. Loughridge. Th--' time for resuming the exercises having arrived, the meeting was milled to order by the President, and the roll of Old Settlers, as prepared by the former Secretary was culled ami responded to by nearly all. The following Is the list with a fewadlitional names; 1532. —Aaron Lyons. 1834. —David Nowles. 1835. —Jackson Phegley, Mrs. Malinda Spitler, J. T. Rundle. 1 183 Samuel Sparling, Mrs. Samuel Sparling, Henry A. Sparling, Marion L. Spitler. 1837. Wm. K. Parkison, Addison Parkison, Joseph V. Parkison. 1838. George H. Brown, Jared Benjamin, Joseph W. Spariing, Joseph Williams Mrs. Drvid Nowles, Mrs. W, i K. Parkison, Mrs. Wm. B. Shaw, Miss ; Belle Barkley. 1839. —Samuel E. Yeoman, Steward C. Hammond, Mrs. Wm. Burns, Mrs. H. (’. Thornton, Mrs. Joseph Spar-

ling. 1840. -Nathaniel Wyatt, D. M. Price, W. J. Wright, Sidney Steward, Thus. R. Barker. Mrs. Wm. Coekrill, Mrs. Benjamin Welsh. 1841. -Lemuel Henkle, Rial Benjamin, William Noland, Mrs. Geo. H. Brown. 1842. Alexander Rowen, Samuel McCullough, Samuel Long, Jos. C. Henkle, John A. Henkle, John W. Duvall, Jubez Wright.

1843'.—Andrew Feris, Henry Saylor. H. C. Thornton, C. C. Thorntom 1814.—Joseph Yeoman, James Yeoman, Wesley Downing, Madison Makeever, Ira W. Yeoman, Clement Timons. 1845.—Ge0. Kesler, Lemuel Short ridge, Ai ram Freeland, John Daugh- ; city, Lewis L. Daugherty, Wm. H. Daugherty, Simon Phillips, L. W. ! Sayers, John Makeover. i The above is a iist of old settlers who came to the counties during their early settlement and at the times indicated by the dates. The death of Lydia Hammond was reported. This is the only death among our old settlers that is known to have occurred during the past year. The Committee of Arrangement were fortunate in their choice of speakers. The first introduced was Rev. W. M. Jackson, of Warsaw. Ind. ! He was fully in sympathy with his hearers, being the son of one cf the ; oldest pioneers of the northwest, and j having himself experienced many of the privations ar d sufferings incident to pioneer life. While narrrting the difliculties overcome, and the sufferings endured, he touchingly alluded to the fact that all Indians are not savages, and that to their-hospitality : his father’s family were indebted for the food that saved them from starvuI tion. ! He contrasted the past with the preset t, and earnestly and pathetically appealed to the younger portion of his audience to place a proper vali ue upon the religious, civil and edu- • cational advantages they now enjoyj ed which he declared to be the bequest of those who, to secure them, had encountered perils, trials and

privations. Rev. Mr. Reed, of Plymouth, Indiana was the next speaker introduced His effort on this occasion was umas-ter-pi ‘( e of oratory, and was replete with eloquence of diction, and »übli. i mity of thought. It indicated amind ■ clear, full,stately ami profound, which,like the eye of the undazzled eagle seemed fixed upon the truth; and as the-eagle cleaves the air, he soared and never paused till the height was won. The eager and fixed attention of the largo assembly evinced the fullest appreciation on their part. i Mr. John Jenkins of Newton county made the concluding speech. He ' fully corroborated the statements of ' his friend. Rev. Mr. Jackson, in refer- ; enee to the privations and i of those who first settled in this part of the country. His familiar knowledge of the history of the setUement of the North-west, enabled him to intersperse his speech with many in- ; teresting incidents, among which was the almost incredible journey which • his mother performed on foot, when moving from Ohio to this part of the country. It is one of the many remarkable instances of womanly de-

I votioii Mid fortitude, and leads us with the poet io declare: ; “The mothers of our Forest Land, Their bosoms pillowed men, : And proud were they bysoch to stand, ; In hammock, forijor glen.” The speaker wos ambitious to be 1 considered the oldest pioneer present, , but his friend Jackson had played a ’ yaukee trick on him getting into the ! world two or three years ahead of j him; and he was obliged to relinquish ; the elabr», Ixit without blame, as he . declared, on his part. ■ It was decid' d by the committee of l amingements, that the meeting for : the ensTtiirg yvnr should Im- held tt the j same place and rm rhe first Saturday I of September next, 1878, to which 1 time tlie layering was adjourned. T-R. B ARKER, Pres’t. J. McCarthy, Sec’y. A swindler is reaping a rich harvest in the gulf states by selling t# i»e I>tn bleach darkies,. He elmrges ten dolhwu down and fortv when the job Is completed. ’