Ohio History Journal


The MacGahan Monument

The MacGahan Monument.                    217

 

Thy hills, thy fields, thy woods have been,

Since boyhood days, my own blood-kin,

And long my soul and the soul of thee

Are blent as one for eternity.

In infant eyes thy mother-face

Poured deep the wine of mystic grace,

And now to me thy voice and spell

Speak high as heaven and deep as hell.

 

To breathe of thee, all I have known

Or dreamed, beloved and my own,

Were to assail a sacred lore

But thine and mine forevermore.

Thus much, howe'er, I may impart,

That, in all seasons, night and day,

We lived and loved with linked heart

The sweet Hellenic life alway.

Thou took'st my hand--didst vouch for me

To cloud and moon and humble-bee

(Free things divinely wise and good):-

The brook, -the flowers of hill and lea, -

The dim-seen forms of deepest wood,

All birds that sing on wing or tree.

 

Thou taught'st me somewhat of the tongue

God-spoken when fading stars were young;-

In which thy hills, with shaggy crest,

The earliest blaze of morning greet;-

The same the wood-thrush on her nest

Sings to the sumach and the wheat.

And oft in hours of sad unrest,

If I did tramp thy wood and glen

And cast me on thy patient breast,

Some benediction of the blessed

Consoled and made me man again.

 

Other exercises added to the interest of this meeting; Miss

Ada Cotterman, of Somerset, sang Prof. Murdock's "Perry

County Home Sweet Home" in a most delightful manner.

Hon. Joseph Simpson, of Columbus, spoke most entertain-

ingly on the campaign of 1840 in New Lexington and Perry

County.

The exercises of the morning were concluded by enjoyable

musical selections by Miss Jessie Moodie of Shawnee and the