Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1911 — Nation’s Men [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Nation’s Men

Greatest Were Bom ill the Counfay

By REV. MADISON C. PETERS

■■■■■% RECENTLY delivered the oration at the dedication of the I I monument to General Thomas Hamer, at Georgetown, Ohio. I He died in Monterey, Mexico, December 1, 1846, after par* ' j ticipating in the operations on Monterey, where he led his I regiment from , Ohio, which was the first to plant the Stars and Stripes in capturing Monterey. This country village of about one thousand people is re* jl§!j|| ■ markable for the great men it has givefl the state and nation. laim Of soldiers alone it furnished the Union army four generals, including U. S. Grant, West Point graduates, and nine gen-

erals and field officers of volunteers, among whom were General A. \. Kautz and General McGrorierty, and most of these men were citizens of Georgetown when the war broke out From Brown countv I went to Adams county, and in the backwoods of that county—much of it away from all railroad*—there lived among other notables the ancestors of M hitelaw Beid, Sini>ot, the father of Mrs. Charles P. Taft of Cincinnati, while the spot where the late John A. Cockerill, the great journalist, was born is pointed out to the passerby. In my travels about, speaking here and there, everywhere in the small towns I find, boro, reared and often still living the nation's foremost men. I turn to any encyclopedia of American biography and find that the mightv men who have made and lifted the nation to greatness were country boys. Of twenty-seven presidents of the United States, all, with the exception of Boosevelt and Taft, were from the country. Call the roll of the 481 senators and congressmen, and with possibly one or two exceptions, all who are ever heard of were not only bom in the country but began life in their shin sleeves. Go into any city or town throughout the land and practically all the men who have done things worth white be-"an life without a dollar. These men made their own chances. They never despaired, never whimpered, but they were up and doing.

A “hapnv hit” mav sometimes be made by a bold Tenrnre, but in the long run the safest road is the highway of steady industry. God gives you enough when be gives you opportunity. A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. Possess your sod hi patience. Your time will come if you deserve it. Don’t saT vtm have been unfortunate when vou were just foolish. Bad lnck is bad pluck. Good pluck k good luck. No man ever lost his-luck until he lost his pluck.