THE COUNTY OF LEE ARDELLA HAUSEN, Dixon Chapter, Dixon, Illinois. For the benediction of the heavens overhead; For the dauntless courage where our fathers fought and bled; Chorus: We hail in song the Beautiful and Free, A song of cheer, O Loved and Loyal Lee, Forth thy starry banner floats for Law and Liberty Over thine altars forever. From the blue Rock River with its vanishing canoe, From the grove and thicket where the deer have skirted through, From the open prairie with the cabin still in view, Hail to our loyal Lee County! Chorus: Dost thou dream, O county loved, of "Light-horse Harry" Lee, How he crowned our Washington with deathless eulogy? Chorus: Where the Dixon Ferry ran above the river's swell, Where the menaced shadow of the chieftain Black Hawk fell, Chorus: In the lofty rigging where the winds are whistling sweet, Chorus: Wake the chiming chorus, touch the great bells everywhere, Swell the joyful music in the Illinoisian air, With our watchword "Victory!" and "Peace" our battle prayer, Hail to our loyal Lee County! Chorus: THE OLD OREGON TRAIL With fitting solemnity the Old Oregon trail monument, the first commemoration of its kind in the state of Nebraska, erected by the Fort Kearney Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was unveiled June 9, 1910, in the Union Pacific Park, Kearney. Large crowds of visitors and residents of Kearney gathered to witness the ceremonies accompanying the unveiling exercises. Visitors high in the councils of the Daughters of the American Revolution and in state political realms took part in the dedication of this monument to the future generations of Nebraska, of Americans, of all who hold dear the memory of the pioneers of civilization, who endured hardships of war, privation, the dangers of the desert, all that a greater people than they might live in the Golden West. The Old Oregon Trail is the pathway blazed by the brawny pioneers of the Great American Desert, now the Great Garden Spot of America. Some of these pioneers were men forced out of the fast crowding east by an intensive competitive system of labor. Others were men dissatisfied with the narrowing opportunities of the east and the lure of the undulating plains bounded by the serrated slopes of the Rocky mountains held forth a promise of riches, freedom and excitement. And yet others of these pioneers were the home-builders who sought to conquer the west and make it a land of homes. All of these men started in a ragged caravan toward the west. Then gold was discovered in California and when the news flashed over the plains the making of the Oregon Trail began. Through long days, hot with the menacing dangers of the desert, and night made hideous by the fear of lurking death this caravan wound its tortuous way toward the sinking sun. Life became a cheap and futile thing and out of the conditions arose a grim fearlessness that knew nothing but the thrill of success or the deep oblivion of death. Storms of sleet and snow, of dust and nameless things swept the plains and nipped the life-breath of many a man prematurely. But the lightning and the thunders were the lesser dangers. The prairie schooners were sufficient protection from the elements to insure life. The insistent, burning thirst, that thickened the tongue and made the air feel like the breath from a furnace was scorned by these men of toil and privation, these men of strong bodies and steadfast minds. It was not the storms nor the thirst nor hunger that claimed the bodies of these men most often. When the body had been robbed of its life by hunger and thirst the body itself was left whole and not unsightly. It was the Indian, whose stealthy step or startling war-cry, set the blood of the pioneer running like icy water through his veins. For the red man showed no respect for the dead and left his victim mutilated, a thing of horror, unburied on the plains. There are thousands of nameless graves forgotten on Nebraskan plains and there are thousands and thousands of crumbled bones mingled in the surface dust of our soil. But out of all this chaos of a past existence one thing remains. Here and there across the plains where the plow of the farmer has not broken the sod are deep ruts in the earth; ruts cut by the wagon wheels of the pioneers. A platform was erected near the monument and upon it were assembled Governor Shallenberger and wife, Mrs. Oreal S. Ward, the state regent, the members of the Fort Kearney Chapter, to whose unbounded patriotism was due the fitting memorial to the brave men who over sixty years ago passed this spot with faces turned toward the setting sun. After several patriotic selections by the Fort Kearney band, and the invocation by the Rev. R. P. Hammons, Mrs. Oreal S. Ward, state regent, unveiled the monument which bore the following inscription: "The first stone erected in Nebraska to mark the Oregon trail 1811-1869. Dedicated by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Kearney, Nebraska, February 14, 1910.” As the flag hung suspended in the air, drooping in graceful folds of red, white and blue, Mrs. Oreal S. Ward, while men stood with uncovered heads in silent reverence of the emblem of national unity and honor, with uplifted eyes and in these words paid tribute to the flag: "I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands; one nation-indivisible-with liberty and justice for all." Mrs. Charles Oliver Norton then, with a brief, fitting explanation of the value of such a monument, not so much to us but to generations to come, presented the monument to the city of Kearney. Mrs. Charles Oliver Norton is the regent of the progressive chapter that has shown the way that other chapters of the grand young state will follow. They are gathering up the threads of their history that future generations will not find the difficulties that are experienced in the old colonial states. The brave young West is alive to the needs of that preservation and chapters like Fort Kearney and regents like Mrs. Norton are faithful to their duty. Mrs. Norton said: "More than sixty years, the Old Oregon Trail ran close to where we stand to-day but the hammer's stroke that drove the golden spike on that memorial day in 1869 uniting the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads, just west of Ogden, proved the death knell of the old road and drove freighters and stage drivers from their peculiar avocation and made it a memory only. "Monuments are enduring links; which bind one generation to another. We of to-day do not need monuments to remind us of the romance and tragedy of the history of the Old Oregon Trail for there are still among us men who have travelled the dreary stretches of this long road, who can tell us the story of their privations and sufferings of their escapes from the savage foe, of the famine and thirst which they endured and of how after many years they have seen the full fruition of their hopes, and the realization of their wonderful dreams of the building of an empire in the great west which stretches out from the Missouri to the Columbia. But our children and our childrens' children will need these monuments. Lest they forget the Daughters of Fort Kearney Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution are very proud of erecting the first stone in Nebraska to mark the Oregon Trail and they are grateful to those who have assisted in making this monument, a reality. We feel that in placing it under the care and protection of the city of Kearney, that its permanence is assured for untold generations. Mayor |