Big Bottom and Its History. 21
the rocky fortresses of the Appalachians, Puritan and Cavalier looked down together upon the fair valley of the Ohio. To them it was as the revelation to the prophet on Pisgah - the Promised Land. They were permitted to enter. But to hold it they fought with stubborn tenacity. Every foot was contested. But forward went this army across the prairies of Indiana and Illinois until the smoke curled from the settler's cabin on the banks of the Father of Waters. Then pressing on it swept across the western plains. The Rocky Mountains were no barrier and on their west- ern slopes and in the valleys of sunny California and where "rolls the Oregon" went the pathfinders of civilization. And now through the portals of the Golden Gate we send forth our ships to that new old land in which the world seeking Genoese dreamed lay his El Dorado. To this hero of the forest - hunter, scout, pathfinder, trail- maker, home-maker - we dedicate to-day this monument as a memorial to his sacrifices and services and bravery, with the firm and confident hope that the new generations now reaping the fruition of that toil will husband the splendid inheritance left us by such men as fell beneath the tomahawk of the ruthless savage on the banks of the Muskingum on that winter evening over a century ago. ADDRESS OF E. O. RANDALL. This is a red letter day for the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. For many years it has been the custodian |
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of Fort Ancient, the most extensive and majestic earth enclosure of the Mound Builders in this country and for a somewhat less time has been the owner of Serpent Mound, the most mysterious religious relic left by that vanished and wonder-exciting race. Through the praiseworthy sentiment and generous disposition of Mr. Brokaw the Society becomes the proud possessor of this historic ground, the site of one of the most memorable events in the pioneer period of our state. The story of the birth of the |
American Republic and its sturdy strife for independent exis- |