Baber's Early History of Greene County Indiana Chapter XXXVII - OLD SETTLERS FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION

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CONCULSION<

By way of conclusion, we give the following account of the Old Settlers' meeting and basket picinic, as taken from the Worthington Times of July 8th, 1875:

The Old Pioneer Settlers' Meeting and Basket Pic-nic, on Saturday, July 4th, 1875, in honor of the 99th Anniversary of American Independence, was a splendid success. Early in the morning the people took up their line of march, and began to gather at the pic-nic grounds, just west of town, by hundreds; and at ten o'clock the "Stalcup Martial Band" arrived and began to play. Old JIMMY NEWSOM was the oldest man present, and was the first to take a seat in the stand. He was in feeble health, and said he would never be at another celebration. By request of Uncle JACK BABER, the exercises were opened with prayer by Rev. JOHN LAVERTY, following which was a very nice little speech, of fifteen minutes' length, by the same gentleman, in which he explained to the young people the reasons why the fourth day of July was made a national holiday. The Declaration of Independence was read by Benjamin Stalcup, after which Rev. ROBERT BLOUNT came to the front and occupied about ten minutes in the delivery of a very interesting oration. Captain E. E. ROSE excused himself very agreeably to all, by making a five minutes' speech, and then announcing to the people that it was dinner time, and the old folks could talk and be social, while the young folks might court and enjoy themselves for a couple of hours.

The old people and young folks fully enjoyed the pleasures during recess, and at two o'clock the audience reassembled at the stand, and while the band played "Jay-Bird," the following named old pioneers took their seats: ELIAS DAYHOFF, GEORGE R. TAYLOR, WILLIAM GRIFFITH, WILLIAM J. MCINTOSH, WILLIAM HUEY, WILLIAM DYER, CYRUS CONANT, IRA DANELY, JAMES HARRAH, RICE ELGAN, DAVID HEATON, ALFRED KUTCH, J. F. ALLISON, VIRGIL CRANCE and others. We could not determine just who was managing the picnic besides the old settlers, as we noticed Captain E. E. ROSE, MAHLON NEAL, JAMES BEACH, Dr. WILLIAM L. GREEN, Dr. J. S. R. BENEFIELD, Reverend JAMES HUGHES and others on the stand. During the afternoon, short speeches were made by ELIAS DAYHOFF, WILLIAM J. McIntosh and Colonel E. H. C. Cavins, and at three o'clock the people were dismissed by UNCLE JACK BABER, who promised them a big centennial and old-fashioned barbecue, July 4th, 1876, just west of Worthington. The crowd numbered about two thousand, and be it said to the credit of all present, that no man was seen drunk on the grounds.

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Our book, was to contain over a hundred pages, but owing to scarcity of time and failure on the part of numerous correspondents oon whom we depended for information, to comply with out wishes on time, we are compelled to close right where we are. We will, however, endeavor to revise this edition, at no distant day, and issue a larger and more complete book in every respect. [pg. 96 the end]