Chief Justices of the Supreme Court; John McLean, Noah H. Swayne, and Stanley Matthews, Associate Justices. I cannot stop to call the roll of the distinguished soldiers of Ohio. They would if living form a camp. Three brave generals are, or were, members of this association. A few weeks ago we laid in the tomb all that was mortal of that grand old hero and genuine patriot, Mortimer D. Leggett. He had reached a ripe old age, and was warmly honored and beloved for his sweet and manly character by all our people. His good gray head was everywhere known, and he went to his grave crowned with the gratitude of every citizen. We have with us to-day General James Barnett and General Elwell, whose military career and exalted character are the property of our city. In their presence I cannot speak of their gallant services in the war, or their many claims to our regard and affection. The Bar has had its full share of eminent lawyers and jurists. The great Thomas Ewing; the matchless orator Thomas Corwin; the learned, accomplished Henry Stanberry; the noble Edwin M. Stanton, and a host of names like Hitchcock, Story, Swan, Wolcott, Williamson, Galloway, Anderson, Foot, Ranney, Starkweather, Rice, Wilcox, Hunter, and many others that adorn its history. Many of these men were cradled in the wilderness, studied their books in the log cabin by torchlight, and in the early days of struggle and privation laid the foundation of lasting fame. To the pioneer women of Ohio, we owe the greatest debt. They followed their husbands through all the trials and dangers and cruel labors of the forest. They rocked their babies in fear of the tomahawk and torture by the savage. They brought peace and comfort to the disheartened husband and father. They knew how to pray, and where to look for protection and submission. There is not a Protestant church whose spire points toward the sky from the lake to the river, whose corner-stones were not laid through the influence of women. But for the power of women religion would perish. It is they who sew the seeds of piety in the hearts of their children. It is they who train them for lives of usefulness and honor. Scarcely a great man can be named in all the States, who did not trace the source of all his success to the watchful, tender, religious care of a devoted mother. The first pioneer wives and mothers in Ohio on this centennial anniversary all sleep in their honored graves. Their once busy hands are at rest. They fought the battle of life with heroic fortitude, and unwavering faith. The legacy of their virtues is the precious property of their descendants. The influence they left behind is at this moment the preserving power of the State. It would ill become this meeting if we failed to pay our tribute of respect and affection to the little mother" of the Western Reserve, and the larger part of Northern Ohio-the prosperous and beautiful State of Connecticut. She was one of the thirteen colonies that declared themselves free and independent States. The first important settlement within her border was made when that great scholar, preacher and divine, Thomas Hooker, led his followers from Massachusetts to the valley of the Connecticut River, now the wealthy, influential city of Hartford. In 1818, Those who remember the valley of the Connecticut, and the noble river running through Vermont and New Hampshire, navigable for nearly 300 miles, need not be told that this valley one of the most charming in all New England The story of Connecticut is one of the most honorable and useful in history. Bancroft says that for 100 years Connecticut was the Acadia of the world. It was in Hartford, I think in 1639, that a model of a constitution was drawn, that largely contained the principal points covered by the Constitution of the United States 150 years thereafter. the venerable Benjamin Trumbull writes: "The planters of Connecticut were among the illustrious characters who first settled in New England. In an age when the light of freedom was just dawning, they by a voluntary compact formed one of the most free and happy Constitutions of Government which mankind has ever adopted. Connecticut has been distinguished by the free spirit of its government, the mildness of its laws, and the general diffusion of knowledge among all classes of its inhabitants. They have been no less distinguished by their industry, economy, purity of manner, population and spirit of enterprise. For more than 150 years they have had no rival in the steadiness of their government, their internal peace and harmony, their love and high enjoyment of domestic, civil and religious order and happiness. They have ever stood among the most illuminated, first, and boldest defenders of the civil and religious rights of mankind." This is very high praise but it is eminently well deserved. Of her illustrious sons of a century ago, we recall the names of Oliver Wolcott, Oliver Ellsworth, Roger Sherman, Israel Putnam, Jonathan Trumbull, William Williams, Samuel Holden Parsons, Samuel Worthington, Silas Deane, and others, whose names are held in grateful recollection by the people of that State. But for Connecticut the war of the Revolution could not have been maintained. Governor Trumbull was the right hand of Washington. The dear old commonwealth gave her sons, her money, and devoted prayers, that freedom might conquer. Of the 233,771 soldiers sent by the thirteen colonies to the war, 101,846 were furnished by Connecticut and Massachusetts. Perhaps the highest tribute that can be paid to the morality and purity of the people of Connecticut, may be found in the fact that during 100 years of her existence it is said no divorce case was known in her history. No wonder that we, the people of the Western Reserve, the loving descendants of the "little mother," pay to her memory this day our tribute of affectionate pride and admiration. But what shall we say for Cleveland, our own beautiful, thriving city, whose centennial anniversary we this day celebrate. For the city is known far and wide for its wealth, its commerce, its manufactures, its shipbuilding, its fleet of stately steam vessels, its newspapers, its schools, colleges, churches, the education and high character of its people, its influence upon the State and nation, and splendid promise for greater and wider fields of usefulness. One hundred years ago and Cleveland had three inhabitants. To-day 350,000 souls. Law, order, are respected and honored. It is the home of as patriotic, generous and elevated a people as any of its size in the Union. The waters of Lake Erie wash its entire borders, and its fleet of noble vessels carry a commerce upon the great chain of lakes, richer by far than that of Tyre and Sidon in their days of loftiest supremacy. The history of our city has been honorable in the past, and we all earnestly unite in the hope that her future will be still richer in benefits to the human race, and greater and grander in all the elements of the loftiest civilization. My friends of the Early Settlers' Association, I shall to-day speak for the last time as your president. When the centennial celebration of the city is concluded, I shall place my resignation in the hands of your trustees. But since I have known so many of you, studied your sturdy characters, become acquainted with the history of your lives, your patriotic love of country, your early struggles with poverty and the wilderness, your industry and economy, and the shining example of virtue you have placed before your children, I wish to pay you the homage of my sincere regard. So long as your descendants shall follow your example, the State shall be rich in faithful, devoted sons and useful citizens. During the last five years our society has lost by death, a large number of its most prominent members, some of them the very patriarchs of the association. During the last few weeks Mr. Darius Adams, one of our trustees, and Cleveland's foremost and most valuable citizen, died at the age of 86 years, honored and beloved for a long useful, stainless life. Rev. John T. Avery, another of our members, died a brief time ago at the same age. For years he had been confined to his house as an invalid, and he lived only in the memory of the past. He loved to talk of the days gone by, when he was a moving power in the State. In the prime of his life he was an evangelist widely known for his eloquent gifts of speech and religious influence. Thousands of men and women were converted under his preaching, and he was a mighty power in Cleveland for good. The great revival led by him in the Stone Church laid the foundation largely for its splendid career of benevolence and usefulness. The last time I saw him his mind was vigorous and clear, but he knew his work was done, and he was only waiting the summons to depart. Let us thank God so many of us have lived to see this day, and behold the prosperity and glory of our city, Štate and native land. We have lived in the choicest era in the history of the world, and the blessings of liberty and free institutions have been our lot. My earnest hope for each of you is that your years may be lengthened, so long as the power of enjoyment is given, and that at last, like a shock of corn fully ripe, crowned with the recollection of a well spent life, and in humble confidence of a happy immortality, you may be gathered to your fathers, leaving to your children and children's children the memory of your labors and sacrifices. For the dead of our society, we this day specially mourn their absence, but praise or censure is alike now to them. We shall see their faces and hear their voices no more. Let them rest in peace. Can storied urn, or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath; At the conclusion of President Parsons's address the quartette sang "Auld Lang Syne," the audience joining in the chorus. Colonel Parsons then said: "As the Hon. John C. Covert was the pioneer in drafting a resolution that the Early Settlers should celebrate the centennial of this city, out of which, under the protecting care of Director Day, these magnificent displays of the last few days have taken place, I have asked Mr. Covert to tell you what he knows about it this morning." Mr. Covert, being thus introduced, spoke in part as follows: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: It sounds a little odd, and somewhat pleasant withal, to hear myself called a pioneer by Colonel Parsons, but when he went on to explain that he meant by that that I was the author of the resolution which caused this centennial celebration, I understood, and was happy to learn, that he did not mean that I was one of the pioneers who came here with Moses Cleaveland a hundred years ago. (Laughter.) There is no class of persons anywhere in the world to-day so interesting to us Clevelanders as those pioneers, and although I cannot be classed among them, yet I have a great pleasure in meeting with the Old Settlers' Association, and I hope that the pleasure will be continued for years to come, until I may be looked upon as one of the early pioneers. When the first settlers came here they thought the proximity of river and lake a good location, but they soon found the land poor, and as they wanted a good farming land, they scattered about over the country in search of better soil. Many of them went to Newburgh, which was comparatively populous in 1798. A guide to the Western country, written early in this century, described Cleveland as a place on the south shore of Lake Erie, between five and six miles northwest of Newburg. Most of the people who came here were farmers, some had been Revolutionary soldiers, two, Lorenzo Carter and Seth Stiles, were agents of John Jacob Astor, whose fur trade extended far into the west, and who was then planning the magnificent scheme described in Irving's "Astoria," to have a line of trading posts stretching over the Alleghenies and the Rocky Mountains, with ships all along the Pacific coast and a great central depot and offices in New York. People have told me in my boyhood that Carter was a genuine trapper. Some imaginative writers have ascribed to him a mysterious influence over the Indians. The only mystery about it was that he won them by selling whiskey for their furs, and severely whipped or frightened them when they became disorderly. The early settlers of this country came from the seashore, and some of them moved to the western wilderness just to keep their boys from embarking in whaling expeditions or voyages to the Indies. They were wide-awake, venturesome, and bound to go somewhere. While still young Seth Doan had made several distant voyages, and his family moved from Haddam to Herkimer, N. Y., just to get him away from When his brother, Nathaniel Doan, was sent by the Connecticut Land Company as one of the surveyors to the Western Reserve, Seth accompanied him, coming with Moses Cleaveland and his party. the sea. They went by boat down the Connecticut River, across the sound up the Hudson, then up the Mohawk River, whence they carried their outfit seven miles to Black River, which took them to Lake Ontario, and then sailed or rowed the rest of the way to the Cuyahoga, portaging their boats and luggage around the great falls. An old lady who is present here, Mrs. Harriet Doan Sprague, whose grandmother was in one of the first parties coming to this wilderness, has often described this wild journey to me, as told her by her ancestors. When the wind was fair they sailed swiftly upon the lake, a few men attending to the vessel, under the direction of a captain who had learned his business on the high seas. The men entertained each other with stories of their experience on the sea and their trials during the Revolution. The young men looked off over the blue lake and thought of the wild adventures of the whaling voyages they had missed by coming west; but the disappointed whalers were to found an empire. During two days the lake was as smooth as glass and nearly all the passengers went ashore, walking along the beach, the men pulling the boats with ropes. The children kept close to the water's edge for fear of wild beasts, the hunters made incursions into the woods and came back loaded with game. At night all the party retired to their boats to sleep, the children telling with much amusement in after years of their fear of being attacked by the immense serpents supposed to be coiled upon the wild flowers upon the shore. |