Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1909 — Country Correspondence [ARTICLE]

Country Correspondence

BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS.

MILROY. Listen for wedding bells again, noon. Henry Beaver was In Wolcott Thursday. Miss Madge "XVolf spent Sunday with Martha Clark. G. L. Parks attended Institute at McCoysburg Saturday. Our teachers attended Institute at McCoysburg Saturday, Vern Culp attended Sunday School at. Lee Sunday morning. Mr. and Mrs. R. Foulks called on Bert Beaver and wife Saturday. Mrs. G. L. Parks and children spent Saturday and Sunday with her mother. Elmer Johnson and wife moved in with Mr. Johnson’s mother, Mrs. Mary Johnson. Mrs. Mary McCashen and daughter Ettie took dinner Sunday with D. Z. Clark and family. , Mr. and Mrs. Frank May and daughter Ruth spent Saturday night and Sunday at D. Z. Clark’s. Earl Foulks attended the ’O9 class from Monon to Francisville In a sledding party Wednesday night. Dr. Clayton, Mrs. R. Foulks’ physician, has advised her to go to Chicago to a hospital and consult a specialist at that place. Several from near Lee came at a late hour Friday night to “bell” Mr. and Mrs. Clell Clark and were invited in and treated to cigars and cake. Those from vicinity who attended the wedindg of Clell Clark and Miss Durflinger at Aydelotte, Benton county, were: Branson and Ludd Clark, Mason Barlow and Naomi Garvin and Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Foulks. Those present ,at the Infair dinner at I. J. Clark’s Friday were as follows: Branson Clark, Elmer Clark, Ludd Clark, Frank Coghill, Mans Beaver and families, also Mrr and Mrs. Fred Saltwell, Mr. and Mrs. John Woosley, Mrs. Mary MeCashen and daughter Ettie, Orlando Mannon and Bertha Cook. The home of Mr. and Mrs. T. E. Durflinger of near Aydelott, Benton County, was the scene of a very pretty wedding last Wednesday evening, at which time their daughLaura was given in marriage to Mr. Clell Clark, yaungest son of I. J. Clark of this vicinity. The ceremony took place at 6 o’clock and was pronounced by Rev. F. E. Morrow of Wolcott, in the presence of about eighty guests. The wedding march was played by Mrs. Emery Durflinger, sister-in-law of the bride. After congratulations a two-course supper was served. Many useful and valuable presents were presented to them. They expect to live on a farm in White county, owned by C. E. Robison, where they will commence housekeeping about March 1. Their many friends join in wishing (them a long and happy life.

WHEATFIELD. Mrs. Frank Austin, who has been quite sick, is better at this writing. Mr. and Mrs. Wm. McNeil of Lacross came down Saturday on business. Miss Susie Jessup of Hanna is visiting her sisters, Mis* June Jessup and Mrs. James Keene. A goodly number from Tefft came down to attend the funeral of G. D. Anderson Sunday, also to assist and extend sympathy with the sorrowing. The I. O. O. F. lodge is doing a good deal of work now with several candidates in reach. Visitors welcome. Work almost every Tuesday night. Mrs. Chas. H. Hickman accompanied her husband, the Rev. Hickman to Wheatfield Saturday. This is the second visit for her since their residence here nine years ago. Burl Biggs, Henry Karch, George Myers and George Miller are home for a few days from Valparaiso, where they have been attending school. They will return to their school work Tuesday. Dr. L. Zeuch came home Friday to visit over Sunday with his family. The doctor is taking a junior course in surgery at the St. Grace hospital, Chicago. His family is living in Wheatfield while he is taking this work. Never in the history of Wheatfield has such a cloud of sorrow hung over the town, nor one which is so universally’ shared by all, coming as it did so unexpected, and in such an awful form. The bereaved family have the sympathy of all. George D. Anderson a citizen of Wheatfield, died Friday about noon of heart failure. He had been feeling bad for several days but was up and about town and no one thought anything serious was ailing him. Soon after the news of the accidental burning of the Yeagley family at Frankfort came, he was taken suddenly worse and before medical aid could get to him he died, sitting in the chair. Whether the news of the fire had anything to do in hastening the end is not known. While some think it did,

others think not. His obituary follows: George D. Anderson was born in Michigan City, Ind., Aug. 26, 1858; died Feb. 19, 1909, aged 49 years, 5 months and 21 days. He leaves to mourn their loss g wife, two sobs and one daughter, besides a mother, three brothers six sisters and a host of neighbors and friends. He was a member of the K. of P. lodge of Wheatfield. The lodge with the assistance of Rev. Chas. H. Hickman, once a pqstor of the M, E. church here, but now of Rolling Prairie, Ind., had" charge of the funeral which was held Sunday at 11 a. m., burial in the Wheatfield cemetery. Friday morning Mr. and Mrs. Grover Smith received the sad news that their daughter, Mrs. Chas. H. Yeagley, who lived at Frankfort, her husband and little son, Herald, were dead and one of the remaining children so badly burned that he could not recover. The accident was caused by starting the morning fire with kerosene. The oil was poured on cobs and came in contact with smouldering coals, which caused the explosion, throwing Mr. Yeagley back with great force, setting fire to his clothing and everything the oil came in contact with. He rushed from the house screaming for help. Mrs. Yeagley, In trying to save the children, was the first to pass away, her death taking place at 5:30 a. m. Mr. Yeagley died at 8:15 V. m., and little Herald at 12:04 a. m., the next morning. The remaining child came, with what remains of the family, to Wheatfield and no doubt will find a home with Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Mr. Yeagley was in the employ of the Clover Leaf R. R., which sent a beautiful floral offering in the form of clover leaves, an emblem of their road, which was very beautiful. The funeral* was held at 2 p. m., Monday, Rev. Vandercar officiating. Burial in the Wheatfield cemetary.

A moving picture show has been opened up in the O’Connor building. Clyde Reeve and family spent Sunday with his parents in Rensselaer. Arthur Vincent and C. H. Peck left last week for Kansas and Oklahoma, on a prospecting trip. Miss Gertrude Bartoo has gone' to Chicago where she has a position as trimmer in a millinery store. Airs. E. A. Hunt died suddenly last Tuesday at her home here from heart failure, and was buried Friday. She was 74 years of age. Her husband died about a year ago. The Milner and Culp public sale last Tuesday drew a very good crowd, notwithstanding the bad weather, and property sold well. Andy Eller bought a team of horses there at $505. Lex Fisher was called to the Marion soldiers home last week by the critical condition of his father, Chas. F. Fisher, who is an inmate of the home and has been in poor health for some time. Ed Nutt, a former well known resident of near Gilboa, died recently at the home of his sister, Mrs. Chas. Foreman, in Fowler. He had been sick for several months with Bright’s disease, from which he died. His age was 63 years. The wife of Henry Marsh, a former resident of Carpenter township, died at her home in Goodland Feb. 13, aged 71 years. She suffered a stroke of paralysis Saturday morning, February 13, and died that evening. She was a native of Oswego county, New York. The Jasper county colony of farmers who will leave for North Dakota soon, expect to get started negt week, loading their cars at Brook. There will be some eighteen families, mostly from Carpenter township go, we understand, and most of them will locate near Larimore and Lisbon, North Dakota. Medaryville Advertiser: Mr. and Mrs. John W. Reed, of Balbec, Ind., who have been visiting relatives here for several weeks past, left Tuesday for Remington. Ind., the former home of Mrs. Reed, where she expects to be the guest at her father’s, Mr. Jasper Guy, home for several weeks to come. Her visit here has been very beneficial to Mrs. Reed, her health having greatly improved.

ORATION ON LINCOLN. The following oration was delivered by Oscar Byerly of Walker township, at a meeting held at Gifford in commemoration of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, and which some of the good people of that community requested The Democrat to publish. Mr. Byerly is the teacher of Buckhorn school in Walker township. It is truly fitting and appropriate that we as American people, citizens of the greatest, best grandest nation that has ever existed, a nation that has produced more heroes, bards, patriots, and sages than any or all nations in the same length of time; a nation whose very birth was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the principle that all men are born equal; a nation whose emblem is the great American Eagle which truly represents all that is lofty, elevating and noble; a nation whose future happiness was sealed by the blood of the patriots of “76,” “Tire Immortal Band,” as history styles them, whose fame and glory have been sung in every civilized clime and which will continue down through the ages as long as time shall last. It is truly fitting that such a people, citizens of such a country should meet tonight in commemoration of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, our first martyred president; a man whose life from the cradle to the grave was such as might well be imitated by every true American; a man who believed and always acted upon the principle that“ Right Makes Right;” a man who haying experienced every phase of an honorable life from the very depths of poverty in his childhood, to the highest honors that the greatest nation on earth could confer, and amid all these cnanging scenes never swerved from the path of right and duty; a man who even while president would gladly and just as freely take the time to converse with common people as with those so-called high esteem and rank. Lincoln one time said that “God must certainly love the common people for he made so many of them.” At another time he said that “No men living are more to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty.” It is true perhaps that in the estimation of some people of other lands, whose minds have been narrowed and biased by wealth, rank, privileges, or social conditions, would scoff at the idea of a poor homely orphan boy, whose father was shiftless, Ignorant and povertystricken, ever becoming great, but thanks be to God, the can people do not look at matters likewise, but instead, believe in the principle of giving honor to whom honor is due, and that just as great victories have been fought and won in and around a humble cottage as were ever gained on the field of battle.

There are two names in American history that stand out in bold relief as the two great Americans. Not that none others did anything that merited true greatness, for as we have said, we have produced more great men than the world combined in the same time; but you might strike all others from the list and leave the names of Washington, the founder and father of his country, and Lincoln, the preserver of the constitution and liberator of the oppressed, and these alone would be sufficient to cause the heart of every American to swell with patriotic pride. The name of Washington bringing vividly to mind those eight long weary, restless years of anxiety, toil and suffering, leading as it were a handful of ragged, half-starved, half-clothed patriots whose hearts bled as did their Dare feet in the cruel snow, and after all the hardships of war were over and the opportunity afforded whereby he might easily have grasped the scepter aid ruled this American people as king, he in his greatness spurned the idea as being tne least of his thoughts, thereby establishing this our beloved country upon the principle of equality and justice for all The name of Lincoln which brings vividly to mfnd his struggles through his boyhood of poverty, his long, weary walks to borrow a book which he was too poor to buy, his intense desire for an education, and in his poverty-stricken condition, his ciphering on a wooden fire shovel, then shaving it down again for a clean surface; his devotion to his work of whatever kind it might be, his scrupulous honesty, insomuch that he would walk miles after a hard day’s work to correct a mistake of a few cents in making change; his trips down the Mississippi where he saw and realized the dire effects of slavery at its worst and at which time he made his resolve that if he ever had a chance to hit slavery he would hit it hard; his devotion to his country in his younger days insomuch that he shouldered the''musket and went to the front to quell the Black Hawks; his campaign in which he was defeated for U. S. Senator, and later his presidential campaign which resulted in his election and by which he was brought before this American people at a time when everything was uncertainty; when the life of this nation of which we are all so proud hung as it were, by a brickie thread; at a time when it was absolutely necessary to have a man at the helm of the ship of state who possessed a level head, a steady hand and above all an unerring devotion- to the cause of right and Union. All these we find embodied in the character of Lincoln and it has truly been said that “In him culminated all those characteristics that make the Ideal American; that he was the first typical American to comprehend within himself all the strength and .gentleness, all the majesty and grace of this great land of ours. Such was the life of Lincoln of whom more than twelve hundred books have been written, and in | none of them do we find his true {character more plainly set forth

than from his own orations and writings, which manifest such a wonderful combination of sympathy, justice and mercy that we are often made to wonder how such could exist as the part of the same human being, and reading of which seems more like a fairy tale of other days than the actual realties which they were. The tribute that is his, paid by his own nation as well as all others, is not to be compared to that of many of the world’s so-called great heroes. Many whose praises were once sung as being an extraordinary character in the world’s history, have long since been forgotten and their praises ceased perhaps with the following generation because their so-called greatness was of such a mature that it affected only a very small portion of humanity; in fact they may be said to have lived for their own glory and that of those then living, while .Lincoln not only lived and acted for those of his own time but his life and acts were such as to affect both his own and all time to come. This is why his greatness far exceeds that of the ordinary hero, and this is why his name will be lauded by millions yet unborn. When we consider the unselfish devotion which he manifested in the cause of his country and for freedom, we are led to believe that not even Washington himself would have been able to overlook the insults and ridicule which he many times endured for the sake of the cause of the Union.

In appointing Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, he appointed a man that was his personal antagonist on a great many occasions and in fact at one time this same man had openly and publicly ridiculed him in a very bitter manner, so much so that Lincoln’s feelings were seriously hurt, but in spite of all this he knew' that Stanton was a strong Union man and that was the need of the hour, regardless of any personal dislikes in the matter. Again we find that he acted upon the same principle in refusing to appoint some of his Illinois friends to certain offices because he felt that there were others more competent to fill them. Such we find to be the true character of the man who braved the storms of adversity 'both in private and public life, who many times patiently endured the taunts and gibes that were hurled upon him, rather than resent them. He one time said that “Any one with a serious purpose in life could not afford to spend time in the resentment of such trivial matters,” and emphasized it by saying that “It is better to walk out of the path than be bitten by a dog that persists in keeping it. Even if you kill the dog it will not cure the bite.”

How I wish for the ability to impress upon the minds of those present, the real magnitude and grandeur of this great hero. How I wish that the boys and girls .of today, they who will be the men and women of tomorrow could feel and realize what an example he has set and then conclude to follow it. What a wonderful change it would work in many instances. There would be no halfhearted business to cause so many failures; Lincoln never did anything that way. There would be no deception of any kind in our work and dealings. Lincoln was always open and free and said what he felt to be the truth. There would be no selfishness to mar our record. Lincoln was unselfishness itself. There would be no haughty pride and bigotry to hinder our success. Lincoln never experienced such. And if we as American people were once free from all these evils which are a hindrance to any one, there would no doubt be a good chance for at least some of the virtues of Lincoln to find room in our hearts and lives and then we would be able to more clearly see and realize that his life although it yas cut short by the vile hand o’s an assassin, wrought good, not only to those with whom he associated but to those pf all nations and all ages to come.