Ohio History Journal

Big Bottom and Its History.            33     ADDRESS OF TOD B. GALLOWAY. If I were to ask you what I should talk about, I suppose you would answer me as the small boy did in Sunday School

one day when a man got up and said, "Now, children, what shall I talk about?" and the bright boy said, "about one minute." I am somewhat like an old Scotch preacher I once heard of: A man went to church one day, and he noticed that the preacher was crying a great deal during the delivery of his ser- mon. Finally the stranger turned to an old lady who was sitting near him. "What makes your preacher cry so much?" he asked her. She answered, "Hoot mon, if you dinna have more to say than he has, you would cry too."

So if you see great streams of tears running down my face before I finish talking you will know the reason of it. It happened to be my good fortune to be sent with other gentlemen representing the commission appointed by the Ohio Legislature to investigate the State Hospitals erected for the care of those afflicted with tuber- culosis; one of the places we visited was the town of Rutland, Mass. After we were through our investigation of the splendid hospital at that place, I happened to wander through the old town of Rutland, and soon found myself standing before the historical Putnam house, and by a strange coincidence I stood there on the anniversary day on which that band had started out from that home, and it struck me with peculiar force that we were from Ohio endeavoring to carry out a splendid purpose, that of erecting a hospital for the care of those unfortunately afflicted with disease, just as our forefathers had left the little town of Rutland, Mass., to aid others of their nationality to pro- cure homes in this wilderness. Little did I think on that April morning as I stood there that I would be privileged to be here on this occasion, at the dedication of this monument, erected to commemorate the mas- sacre of the sons of that splendid band of pioneers who set out to people this valley. My friends, we of Ohio do not have to Vol. XV-3.

• 1
 

34       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

search history other than that of our own state for noble ideas.

The story of the foundation of our state and its progress is like

a romance.

Well did Washington say in the dark days of the Revolution

when he was questioned as to what he would do if he met defeat,

that he would come out here and settle in the valley of the Mus-

kingum. Several years ago a friend of mine, a lady of Ohio,

met an English woman whose whole idea of America was based

upon a winter spent on a ranch in Colorado, and she said to this

lady: "What do you raise in Oao?" "We call it Ohio, and we

raise chiefly great men and women." And that was a very apt

reply, my friends, because that is what we have done in this state

from its foundation. We have, from the days of the passage of

the ordinance of 1787 down to the present time, been in history.

It is useless for me to try to explain to you what Ohio has done

for this Union; you already know. I merely want to say that a

day like to-day marks a patriotic epoch; and also, that it is par-

ticularly gratifying to me to see so many children here, because

they learn by precept, and a day like this is a wonderful object

lesson to the citizens of the future. You know in former times

it used to be the custom when they wanted to mark boundary

lines between two places they would take the children out and

whip them and the children remembered where they were whipped,

and in that way the record of the boundaries was preserved. I

think this is on the same principle.

 

ADDRESS OF D. J. RYAN.

I congratulate Morgan county and I congratulate our society

on this occasion in doing honor to itself and credit to the people

of this county in remembering in the manner that they have the

noble pioneers who went before them, of a century ago, and I

congratulate Mr. Brokaw on living to see the day when his

judgment and patriotism inspired him to contribute something

that will bear in the mind and keep the memory green of the

younger generation, of those men and women who laid the foun-

dation of this commonwealth. The greatest thing that Ohio has

are its plain men and women who live among the hills and on

the plains, and that consecrate their lives to the dignity and

• 2