Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 221, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1912 — OLD FRIENDS IN GILLAM TOWNSHIP [ARTICLE]

OLD FRIENDS IN GILLAM TOWNSHIP

Came Back to Scenes of the Long Ago and Found Delight In Meeting Old - Friends at Independence. There is a touch of pathos in a home coming. The joys of earlier life are mingled with the sorrows that a visit to the old home recalls and the ripple of laughter that accompanies the relating of a story of a boyish prank is coupled with a few tears as there enters the mind the passing out of a life of some one very near and dear to those assembled. This mixture of gladness and sorrow was very evident at the Independence church in Gillam township last Thursday when the present and former residents of v the place met in reunion and listened to addresses of several who have gone out into the world and made good and who found great delight in spending a season amid the scenes of days long passed and gone. Thursday was the big midweek day of the home coming which really lasts an entire week, having begun Sunday, Sept. Bth, and closes Sunday, Sept. 15th. It was the pleasure of the writer to be at the meeting Thursday. There was a large crowd there. They had just finished a basket dinner when we arrived and there were evidences of its abundance in the chicken bones and pie crusts and watermelon rinds. There were beaming faces and we were introduced to people who had formerly lived in Old Gillam and who had gone out into the big world and made it known that Gillam was on the map. We were told that we had missed something by not having beet} there all week and that especially that morning had we missed it by not hearing the addresses of Attorney Elmer Rathfon and his sister, Mrs Laurrf" Rathfon Fisher, both of Chicago.

Thursday was called reminiscence day and there were many people on hand to tell about things that happened way back long before the war and several to tell about the brave lads who went out at the first call of the country in 1861. Calvin Coppess, Tom Robinson, Geerge W. Faris, George Freshour and Tim Comer were at the home coming. They went out in the 9th Indiana and among them recalled the names of others who went out in the same regiment, viz. John T. Faris, Benjamin R. Faris, Little George W. Faris, Richard R. Freshour, Harry Coppess, Frank and Dallas Prevo, Steve and John Pierson, John W. Burgett and nine men by the name of Davisson, brothers, cousins, fathers and uncles. That was a big turnout for one country township at the very first call. Tom Robinson and other? had been drilling a provisional company for a long time and they were anxious to get into service. They were not all in the same company but the majority belonged to Company G, which was commanded by Robert Milroy. Gillam township was originally a rather small territory, that is the occupied and cultivated part was small. There was a great deal of swamp land and Ipw land that made the part about the Indenpendence church and schoolhouse almost an island. It was settled by sturdy God-fearing men and women and in the very early period the almost unanimous aim was to educate the children and to bring them up within the church. J. R. Guild

says that education and religion was the aim of all and this laudable purpose has shown fruition in the large number of educators and ministers who have sprung from that locality. Mr. Guild states that some years ago he counted 125 teachers who had gone to the common schools of that township. Among the prominent Methodist ministers who were taught the fundamentals of Christianity in the Independence church were Revs. T. M. Guild, D? H. Guild, C. W. Faris, D. A Rodgers, C. W. Postill, Frank, Charles and Horace Campbell, Thos. A. and Luther Martin, L. S. Mitchell and John Sebring. Some of these were called back to preach during some of the evenings of the home coming and among those who responded were Revs. T. M. and D. H. Guild and David A. Rodgers. T. M. Guild is now pastor of the M. E. church at Peru, and D. H. Guild of the First church at Fort Wayne. Rev. Rodgers is located at New Carlisle. The program, which was prepared by Michael Robinson and Lizzie B. Faris, also provided for sermons by Rev. Aaron W. Wood, of Lafayette, and Rev. A. T. Briggs, of Valparaiso. On Thursday afternoon Austin Rathfon gave a brief history of Gillam township. He was followed by Judge C. W. Hanley, of Rensselaer, who was born in Gillam township and* received his early education there. He told of many boyhood pastimes and pranks and then spoke of some of the sad occurrences. So touching were the references that the judge almost broke entirely down and it was some time before he could restrain himself and enter into the spirit of his address. He spoke of the men and women, the mothers and fathers whose influences guided the youngsters of forty and fifty years ago in the narrow pathway that led to the right end. He mentioned the names of a number whose teachifigs he especially reriiembered •ind among them was our former townsman, William N. Jones, who was always a power for good and whose voice was always raised ih the support of any worthy cause. He was for a long time the superintendent of the Sunday school there and always had something of interest certain to bring out the best thoughts’ of the lesson. Judge Hanley also recalled with touching encomium a similar work performed by Alfonso Rockwell, now of Wheatfield, and who was not in attendance atShe home coming. He said that it was such men as these find such Christian fathers and mothers’'as existed in those days that inspired the best efforts of the girls and boys to get an education and to live in the sight of God. Judge Hanley said that he did not know of a single person who had ever left Gillam township and brought discredit upon it, while many had proven the value of their early training by their accomplishments in larger fields of endeavor. Durin° parts of his speech there was scarcely a dry eye in the audience. Little groups gathered in the large grounds near the church and indulged in reminiscences. There are many people still living in the township or at Medaryville who have the history of the township and its people on the ends of their tongues. It was generally agreed that Thomas H. Robinson was the oldest native born Gillamite. He was 70 years of age the 23rd of last February and is now a citizen of Medaryville. George W. Faris, now of Washington, D. C., who some years ago represented the Terre Haute district in congress, is probably the best known as a statesman, and so far as we can recall is the only native Jasperite who was ever elected to congress. It was hoped that he could be present at the home coming but he was unable to return. Among the more prominent educators were two of the pastors. Rev. Thomas Nelson became the president of Philander Smith college at Little Rock, Ark. Rev. L. S. Mitchell also became president of a college in the south. Among the visitors at the home coming were George Robinson, of Stockton, Kans.; Dan B. Coppess, of Dayton, Ohio; Elmer E. Rathfon and Mrs Laura Rathfon Fisher, of Chicago; W. P. Poisel, of Dixon, Ill.; Mrs. Morton Prevo, of Caldwell, Idaho; M. C, Faris, of Custer, Wash.; the who have been mentioned in the text of this article, and a number from Rensselaer and nearby points. Among visitors from Rensselaer were Judge Hanley, Jesse Osborne and son, W. Frank-Osborne and family; Tim Com-* er, Mnkjj. Wi Medicus, Mrs. C. A. Roberts, Mrs. Waren Robinson and W. J. Wright. Also quite a number of the candidates and the editor of The Republican. Among the home comers in whose work the people of his old home are greatly interested is M. C. Faris, son of John T. Faris. He is accompanied by his wife and daughter. Flora. Their home is at Custer, Wash., where he is an immigrant inspector for the U. S. His work is to prevent the entrance into the United States of undesirable

foreigners and his especial duty is to Watch the white slave traffic. Many ydung girls are brought from foreign countries to America with the promise of good wages and are planed into housesof shame and never permitted to get into communication with their relatives in the old country. The immigration service has been doing a great work in the rescue of these girls and- in the punishment of the men and women engaged in the traffic. Mr. and Mrs. Faris are in the east at this time on a mission of this sort. They took a car load of immigrants from Washington to New York for deportation. Mrs. Faris accompanied her husband as matron. They also went to Montreal, where two of the girls were taken? “Mr. Faris and wife are devoutly interested in their work and are accomplishing the rescue of many girls and keeping many undesirables from locating in America. The home coming was a great sue- ’ cess and it is quite probable that a permanent organization will be formed and other home comings held in years to come.