Lacon High School - Tickler Yearbook (Lacon, IL)

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.J of our children and our children's children. This Mr. Ellsworth has done, and. although written in 1880. the value of his work enhances with each pass- ing year. Forty years have passed, forty more are coming, and then forty, yet this great citizen gave us a memorial for the benefit of the present and future generations of Marshall and Putnam counties. XYould that words would better express our admiration, our praise, our thankfulness! lts immeasurable worth. its tranquil beauty is found in the inspiration of its pages. And now the thought comes of life's greatest tragedy, yet life's greatest beauty, the passing of time. But tomorrow and we too will join that unnumbered throng. May we have done as much for ours as Mr. Ellsworth did for the people of Marshall and Putnam. There follows the preface of this volume, unexcelled in beauty and loftiness of thought. The Preface ln the following pages we have endeavored to trace the early settlement of that portion of our state embraced in the counties of Putnam and Marshall. gathering up the forgotten records of each township and neighborhood, and telling for the benefit of the descendants the story of the brave men and women who wrested their homes from the savage, and turned a desert into the fairest land that beams beneath the sun. It is not a history, and does not claim to be, nor should it be judged as such. but in its pages we have sought to tell in plain. simple language the story of our ancestors' lives, and string together for the amusement and instruction of their descendants the incidents and happenings-solemn, grotesque or ludi- crous as they were-that make up the warp and woof of their daily existence. The old settlers are fast passing away. Many prominent actors in the scenes here is well-nigh noble band passed into faithfulness At the statements of the same occurrence restricted to the uncertain memory reached the depicted have paid the debt of nature, and the story of their lives forgotten. But a few years more, and we shall see the last of that carried to their final home. Much that is valuable has already oblivion, and to rescue what remains has been our study. The with which it has been performed can best be judged by the public. outset of our task it was found that to reconcile dates and even was impossible. Our sole dependence was of a few feeble men and women, who had stage of life when the Ugrasshopper is a burden, and forgetfulness

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AC ONHIGH S CHOOL with a daughter of one of the pioneers. She was a comely damsel, with bright black eyes and hair and rosy cheeks. The young chief offered to swap twelve ponies for the white squawg the offer being refused he went away quite broken- hearted. Soon after the Indians were removed by the government to a reser- vation in the territory of Kansas. The dream the founders of Lacon once cherished-to make it a great commercial centerwhas never been realized. Yet there is enough beauty and attractiveness to makefour city a place of contentment and pleasant homes. The Indians who once lived their free, careless lives on the sloping glade under the grand old trees have all gone to their happy hunting grounds. And their white successors are resting in the Vlfhite City south of town. The changes have come quietly. The same hills are around about. The same blue sky smiles. The landscape is not quite the same, and yet it is the same. The same river goes on its way serenely and majestically to join the greater waters. And the waves are softly murmuring Stories of the days of old. MRS. LUCY IfOSTlCR. A MEMORIAL PUBLICATION This humble article purposes to he another word of appreciation and praise of a certain volume. Records of the Ulden Time, written and printed in I.acon over forty years ago by Mr. Spencer Ellsworth. whose son was an early graduate of the Lacon High School. The writer was searching for early records of I.acon when a copy of the publication was placed in his hands through the kindness of Mr. L. C. McMur- trie. XVhat a wealth of lofty inspiring historical incidents and stories were found therein. VVhat appreciation of the spirit of our indomitable ancestors! VVhat insight into the true worth of the American spirit! XYhat inspiration! VV hat character depicted! XV hat Godliness! If we could but interest our boys and girls in such literature as this, theirs would be the gain and the humble appreciation. The time will come when mothers and fathers will turn in disgust from the narrowness of current news- papers and magazines, when they will sense the value of the example of our fore- bears, and when they will thank their God that there have been men whose insight into human life has led them to leave such written records for the benefit

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L 5 is courted rather than deprecated. Human nature is weak, and forty years of revolving time dims the brightest images graven on the tablets of the mind. .Xt first we strove to reconcile these conflicting variations and strike a balance of probabilities, but the task was so hopeless that it was abandoned, and the plan adopted of giving each statement as received and allowing it to pass for what it was worth. Circumstances have compelled a more hurried preparation of the literary portion of the work than was intended or desirable, but such as it is we send it forth. Success in life is not the effect of accident or chance: it is the result of the intelligent application of certain fixed principles to the affairs of every day. Each man must make this application according to the circumstances by which he is surrounded, and he can derive no better assistance or encouragement in his struggles than from the example of those whose advantages were meagre and worthless compared with ours. He who peruses the records of those early pio- neers will surely find principles which he can safely carry into his own life and use for his own advancement. In these latter days, when every acre nearly is appropriated by the hus- bandman or covered with thriving towns and cities, it seems strange to read of the trials of those who first broke the soil and opened the way for them that followed. It seems so far back when these incidents occurred that one can hardly imagine it was only the fathers of the people of today of whom we write. XVith every comfort the mind of man can devise, with every want supplied by the creations of these later years, we look back upon the lives of our nearest ancestors as tales of an olden time, coeval almost with the days when Adam delved and live spanfy But those deeds of heroism, those days of toil, those nights of danger were all experienced. were all accomplished by the sires whose descendants we are. There lives today but a renmant of that pioneer band, fast drifting on to the confines of time, where they shall leave behind forever the recollections of those early days, and pass beyond into the glorious rewards of their trials and sorrows. But their good deeds will live after them: they will not be interred with their bonesf' The record of their lives is the property of their descendants, and in the pages of this volume we shall endeavor to tell their stories so that he who runs may read. and take some useful lessons from the experience of those gone before. 'l' 'K if 'K 1' As regards the literary value of the work, we have nothing to say, and do not now expect to see it appreciated: but there will assuredly come a time when the information laboriously sought and perhaps clumsily given will be valued, and then our labors will be appreciated. J ,