Ohio History Journal

The Taylor-Livingston Centenary, Etc.      489 Jr., of a paper prepared by his father, Edward L. Taylor, Sr.; address by ex-Governor George K. Nash; address by Col. James Kilbourne; address by Hon. Phil. H. Bruck; recitation of poem by Mrs. William Sprague; address by Hon. Thomas E. Powell. The program as carried out was from first to last impres- sive, instructive and entertaining, characterized by sentiment, wit and humor.   Immediately upon the conclusion of the exer- cises supper was served and the closing hours of the beautiful afternoon in June was spent in social intercourse by hundreds of the descendants of the pioneer settlers in Franklin County.

ADDRESS OF WELCOME.   BY HENRY C. TAYLOR. Ladies and Gentlemen - It gives me great pleasure to have so many acquaintances and friends here to-day. I thank you for the compliment of your presence on this historic occasion. On behalf of all the members of my family I extend to you all the most cordial welcome, and I trust that you may experi- ence as much pleasure in being guests as we do in being hosts. I should like to indulge the hope, that one hundred years hence, your denscendants and mine might under like favorable

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490       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   circumstances assemble at this place to commemorate the com- pletion of the second century, as we have the first. In the closing years of the 18th and the opening years of the 19th century, a tide of emigration began to move from the Atlantic coast states, west over the Alleghanies and into that territory, that was designated as northwest of the river Ohio. These emigrants came on foot, on horseback, in wagons, along the wilderness roads and Indian trails, and in boats upon

the navigable streams. Their object was to establish themselves in new homes in a new country; to win from the forests and plains a competence for themselves and their families. They were adventurers only in the highest and best sense of that word. They were not gold seekers, in search of hidden treasures, but were home-seekers and founders of new commonwealths. With courage, with faith, with hope they left their old associations, their kindred, their friends, and went forth to meet hardships

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The Taylor-Livingston Centenary, Etc.      491

 

and privations in what was to them at that time a far-off coun-

try. They were a race of men and women whom any nation

would be happy to have as citizens.

The Puritan of New England, the Cavalier of the south,

the Dutch, the English, the Irish, the Scotch, never to be sur-

passed by any of the races of the children of men. History is

more and more abundantly honoring their noble qualities and

great deeds. They triumphed in the east, in securing our in-

dependence; they won the west; they traversed the continent,

and saved it all for the nation founded by Washington and his

compatriots. We shall never weary in recounting their great

virtues, their heroic qualities, their lives of noble endeavor and

of sacrifice. They were firm in their conviction, self-reliant in

their character, and possessed of a fine dignity in their lives.

The Bible and the Declaration of Independence were their

religious and civil guides.  The church and the schoolhouse

were the two institutions first provided for and most highly

prized. These nurseries of piety and learning were remote and

of difficult access, as must necessarily be the case, in a sparse

and widely scattered population. We can now scarcely conceive

the difficulties encountered by the men and women who came

here with the first wave of emigration. They labored and we

enjoy the fruits of their labor. We reap the benefit of their

toil and self-denial. To-day the sunshine and shadow may come

and go upon the ground where we are assembled. Three gen-

erations ago, it was covered with such heavy forest, that the

sun could rarely kiss the earth.

To clear away the trees and make room for a home in the

virgin forest was indeed a labor. There are those living to-

day, who can remember the dark border of forest trees that lined

the narrow strip of road leading from their homes to the then

small city of Columbus. And in later years upon their return

home in the evening, the way may have been lighted up by

the burning logs in the clearings. The heavy fringe of great

trees has long since disappeared under the heavy blows of the

woodman's ax, the clearing fires have gone out, and the logs

were many years ago covered with their ashes.

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492       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

From the ruins of this first estate, we have the smiling land-

scape, the green grass, the fertile fields of waving grain. We

have the advantages, ease, comfort, conveniences, luxuries of

modern civilization. For the generation that first came to this

goodly land, and rough-hewed the way there is lasting remem-

brance and perpetual honor. In their lives there was a serious-

ness of purpose that is not characteristic of the later generation.

In the midst of difficulties and dangers there was exhibited to

an unusual degree the qualities of fortitude and endurance.

The Indian trails and wilderness roads have disappeared.

The horseback riders from New York, Pennsylvania, Connecti-

cut no longer pass along the old highway bordering these

grounds. The stage coach, the wonder and admiration of seventy

years ago, has ceased to pitch and creak and roll its heavy way

eastward and westward. The moving wagons, that so frequently

lined this road when Ohio was a new state and Indiana and

Illinois almost unknown territory, have passed into a faint tra-

dition. To-day the merchants in Franklinton do not ship their

goods over the Alleghany Mountains in a Conestoga wagon.

There are those here to-day in the fifth generation from

the first settler. They can daily witness many marvelous things

unknown to their forefathers in this country, and beyond the

realm of their conception or dreams.

There has been material progress and a marked change

in social life. We do not look back with regret to the good

old times, rather we rejoice in the good new times, and look

forward to an ever changing, and ever better condition of

human existence. But when we come to estimate the sterling

qualities that make a man or woman, we shall probably never

find them in a finer combination, or a higher degree of develop-

ment, than in the pioneers who located a century ago in Franklin

County.

ADDRESS BY EDWARD L. TAYLOR, SR.

[Edward Livingston Taylor, Sr., was not able to be present on

account of illness. The address was read by his son Edward Livingston

Taylor, Jr., Prosecuting Attorney for Franklin County.]

The Livingston and Taylor families represented here to-day both

had their origin in Scotland. Their ancestors had lived there for many

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