Ohio History Journal


OHIO

OHIO

Archaeological and Historical

PUBLICATIONS.

 

 

THE SHANDON        CENTENNIAL.

 

 

ALBERT SHAW, NEW YORK.

[On August 26 and 27, 1903, there was held at Shandon, Butler

County, Ohio, a centennial celebration of the Congregational Church and

community of that place. The order of exercises embraced addresses

by the Reverend M. P. Jones, Pastor of the Church, Mrs. M. P. Jones,

Mr. Stephen R. Williams, Mr. Minter C. Morris, Mr. Stanley M. Roland,

Mr. Michael Jones, Miss Edna Manuel, Dr. W. O. Thompson, Mr. Murat

Halstead and Dr. Albert Shaw. The proceedings of that centennial have

not been published and it is through the courtesy of Mr. Albert Shaw,

the editor of the Review of Reviews, that we are herewith permitted to

put in public print for the first time his admirable address delivered upon

that occasion. Dr. Albert Shaw was born in Shandon, Butler County,

Ohio, July 23, 1857.-EDITOR.]

As this centennial occasion has from time to time been in

my thoughts, I have found one idea presenting itself in a more

fixed and definite way than any other. That idea is the sense of

gratitude and pride we ought to feel in being the sons and daugh-

ters of a race of sterling pioneers. It is a great thing to found

a nation or a state or a worthy community. In all history we can

discover the records of no better or braver people than the men

and women who subdued the American wilderness; prepared it

to be the home of millions of people speaking the same language

and possessing the same kind of civilization, and left to us the

heritage of their hope, their courage and their faith.

Our ancestors in England or Wales, or Scotland or Ireland,

or Germany - or whatever other ancient land - may have been

very humble, or they may have been of educated or even of aris-

Vol. XIV-1.             (1)