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Early Settlers' Association.

JULY 22, 1899.

The annual meeting of the Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga County was held at Army and Navy Hall July 22nd, 1899.

The meeting was called to order by the President, Hon. Edwin T. Hamilton.

The chaplain, Rev. J. D. Jones, offered the following prayer:

OPENING PRAYER BY CHAPLAIN JONES.

Our Heavenly Father, we look to thee in the name of thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee for what thy Son has been to many of us that are assembled here today. We thank thee for what thy Son was to our parents, the early settlers of this section of the country. We thank thee for the work of the Church of Jesus Christ. We thank thee, O God, that we were led when children into the Sabbath school. We thank thee for the family altar in the homes in which we were brought up; we thank thee for those precepts and Christian examples that were set before us in our early life. We look to thee today to ask that thou wilt forgive all of the shortcomings and mistakes and sins that we have been guilty of. We pray thee that through faith in thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we may enter into that communion and fellowship with thee that will enable us so to live and so to honor and glorify thee here upon the earth that when we come to the end of our journey in life we may be admitted into eternal habitations prepared for the people of God.

We ask thy blessing today upon this venerable company of people assembled here. We pray thee that thou wilt make their last days their best days, that they may walk in the pathway of the just, that way that shineth brighter and brighter until the

coming of the full day. We thank thee, O God, for thy paths, which are paths of peace, and thy ways, which are ways of pleasantness. And we pray thee that thou wilt especially today remember those of our company who have been bereaved of their beloved ones, and who are now looking forward and anticipating a happy meeting and greeting on the shores of eternity.

We ask thy blessing upon our city and upon our city government, upon our state and upon our state government, upon our United States and our United States government; we pray thee that wise men may rule us.

We pray thy mercy that the day of strikes and strife may soon pass away, and that righteousness may soon prevail in our land. We ask thee that thou wilt enable us who have learned to love and honor and serve thee to so live that we may prove an example to those who will follow us.

We ask thy blessing upon the officers of this association, these venerable people who have banded together for the purpose of setting an example to the young by bringing back the history of the pioneers of this region. We pray thee that, as we hear of their Godly lives, of their lives of industry, that we may inspire the young to walk in their footsteps and do as they

have done.

Hear us in these many, many things we have laid before thee, and grant that our lives may be spent in the service of Jesus Christ our Lord, and Master, Amen.

The Odeon Quartette then sang "Auld Lang Syne."

President Hamilton then delivered his annual address, as

follows:

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HAMILTON.

My Friends: "Again we meet and greet in closing ranks in life's declining Sun."

We meet to revive our recollections of the past-to pay our tributes of affection and love to our honored dead-to interchange our thoughts and feelings and to make a permanent

record of the old and new. In view of the exigencies of travel, I congratulate you that so many of you are present on this 20th Anniversary of the day we thus celebrate.

Since our last meeting, your late President, Hon. Richard C. Parsons, died. He was born October 10, 1826, at New London, Conn., of Puritan ancestry, received a liberal education, was admitted to the bar of this state in 1851 at Elyria, Ohio, and practiced his profession with Hon. R. P. Spaulding, under the firm name of Spaulding & Parsons. In 1852 he was elected to the city council of this city and was made its president in 1853. As a Republican in politics he was in 1857 elected to the lower branch of the General Assembly of this state, and was re-elected in 1859, and was made speaker of that body at the age of 33 years. In 1861 he was by President Lincoln appointed consul at Rio Janeiro, and after one year's service, resigned, and in 1862 was made collector of internal revenue at Cleveland, Ohio, and later was created Marshal of the Supreme Court of the United States, which position he occupied from 1866 to 1872. In 1873 he was elected as your congressman in the National House of Representatives, and to his services in that body may be attributed the origin of the Life Saving Service at this port-the Lighthouse at the Government Pier-and the beginning of the Cleveland breakwater.

Since that time he served as examiner of the National Banks of this district, and from 1877 to 1880, was editor and one of the owners of the Cleveland Herald; and at his death was Register in Bankruptcy in this city.

In 1891 he became president of this Association, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of the Hon. Harvey Rice, and served as such until 1896.

He died at his home in this city on January 8th, 1899, in the 73d year of his age, and was followed to his tomb by a large concourse of his sorrowing fellow-citizens.

This simple statement of the many and distinguished honors which his friends and neighbors bestowed upon him, commenc

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