Ohio History Journal

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34 Ohio Arch

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