labor now find a profitable market, and he is not unfamiliar with the sight of money. The savage, too, once so formidable, will soon cease to be an object of terror to him. So far as physical causes can operate, his character can be subjected in only a comparatively slight degree to novel influences. But our own pioneers were subject to other conditions, and to many transforming agencies. Taking no account of ancestral traits or natural tendencies, they could not, from the necessities of their situation, fail to wax independent in spirit, fearless in danger, tenacious in their opinions, persistent in their undertakings, and thrifty in their habits. If they had not been affected by their surroundings, they would have been an exception to the general law which governs the rest of mankind. It is well said by Buckle that physical agents powerfully influence the human race; that they have originated the most important consequences in regard to the general organization of society, and from them there have followed many of those large and conspicuous differences between nations which are often ascribed to some fundamental difference in the various races into which mankind is divided. In studying the character, then, of our early settlers it becomes of interest to know the manner in which they lived, what their occupations were, to what perils they were exposed, what was the drift of their thoughts, what, if any, opportunities they had for education, what were their pastimes and social enjoyments, what, in fine,

was the difference between their new condition and that which they had left behind them. Our pioneer records thus become attractive and fraught with instruction, and are no longer musty and repulsive chronicles, and you gather up the leaves that would otherwise perhaps be scattered. You learn of the dreadful sufferings of James Kingsbury and his family, during the first winter after their arrival at Conneaut.

Lorenzo Carter is the

Major

mighty hunter, and the terror of

who dwelt in the log house, on

street to the harbor.

The sight

the bear. He it was the slope from Superior of weakness and oppression can draw "iron tears" down his cheek, and the fugitive from slavery, on his way to the land of promise beyond the lake, feels his helping hand. His maxim was, not to give an insult, but when he received one, the giver usually bowed beneath his sturdy stroke. His influence with the Indian was unbounded, for he was known always to do justice to him. Judge Huntington, on his way from Painesville on horseback, while floundering after dark through a swamp at what is now the corner of Wilson avenue and Euclid street, is attacked by a gang of hungry wolves and barely escapes. For two or three months the only way in which the Doane family were supplied with food was for young Seth Doane, who had two attacks of fever and ague daily, to walk to Kingsbury's, five miles distant, with a peck of corn. grind it in a hand mill and bring it home upon his

shoulders. In the morning after his first attack of ague was over, he would start on his journey, and having obtained his meal, he would wait until the second attack on that day was over and then set out on his return. In the year 1802 the Rev. Joseph Badger, a soldier of the revolution, writes that he had preached on the Sabbath in Newburg, that there were five families there but no apparent piety, and that they all seemed to glory in their infidelity. These few brands, however, we are assured, were afterwards snatched from the burning. During the same year the first village school was held in Major Carter's house, and Anna Spafford was the teacher. Economy in those days was counted among the Christian virtues. Three Western Reserve boys left home for Connecticut to get their education, with fifteen dollars among them, and reached New Haven with twelve still in their pockets. One frugal young man, wishing to visit the ancestral home in New England, bought him a cow, and trudging at her heels with his book, lived on her milk and what he got in exchange for it, and sold her at an advance when he reached his point of destination. In 1809, Stanley Griswold informs his friend in Vermont that Cleveland would be an excellent place for an enterprising and skillful young physician; that the country around bid fair to increase rapidly in population; that a young physician, well qualified, would be certain to succeed; but, for a short time, if without means, he must keep school in

winter, till a piece of ground, bring a few goods for sale, or do something else in connection with his practice. The next year the physician came, and the attorney also entered his appearance. The fur trade grows into a lucrative branch of business, and Nathan Perry, filled with the mercantile spirit, masters the Indian dialect and lays the foundation of an ample fortune. The river holds out its inducements for honest gain, and Noble H. Merwin, crossing the mountains, becomes the founder of our city's commerce, and builds the good schooner "Minerva "-the first vessel registered at Washington from the district of Cuyahoga. But let me not detain you any longer with these fragmentary incidents and details of our early history.

I would that at this gathering I could point in fitting terms to the lessons which the pioneers of the Western Reserve and their descendants have read to the world within the past seventy years. In all the stirring events of peace and of war, that have risen to National importance, they have borne a conspicuous part. With but little outward enthusiasm, the current of their feelings and convictions has run deep and strong, and their latent ardor of soul has known no diminution. They have occasionally been called impracticable, and have been slow to compensate, reconcile and balance; but it is because they have regarded it a low and groveling policy to prefer expediency to right, and have feared the maxim that

in public affairs we should "join compliance with reason and sacrifice to the graces." Whenever any great measure has appealed to the moral sense, even though in feeble terms, it has been easy to determine where they would take their stand. Though they may at times have seemed to be a peculiar people, they have always been zealous of good works. Such an element in the mass of our national interests is not incapable of imparting a healthy tone to public sentiment and of extending its salutary influence to the farthest extremities. With such depth of conviction and earnestness of purpose in the line of duty, those who have gone forth from our Western Reserve to try their fortunes in other regions, have carried the talisman of success, and have reflected the lustre of their triumphs upon the place of their origin. They are found in the halls of legislation; among the officers of the army and the navy; among the ornaments of the bench and the leaders of the bar; among eminent divines; among the votaries of science; in the walks of literature; and, wherever there is an appreciation of intellectual and moral worth and of the highest traits of manly character, there you will find them in the foremost ranks of their fellow men. And as often as the day shall come around for the annual convention of this Association, a proof of your own elevated standard of excellence will be afforded in the high estimate which you shall place upon their many ennobling characteristics.