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 PIONEERS AND PATRIOTISM 
 
 Address of Ernest F. Acheson at the Farmers^ Picnic, Stout^s 
 
 Grove, East Finley Township, Washington County, 
 
 Pennsylvania, August J 9, J 909. 
 
 [Compliments of The Washington, Pa., Daily Observer.] 
 
 It is 140 years since this beautiful 
 section of country in which we live 
 was opened for settlement. The fame 
 of the rich lands in "the horse shoe," 
 as the region between the Mononga- 
 hela and the Ohio rivers was called in 
 those early days, spread abroad 
 through all the eastern counties of 
 Pennsylvania and of New Jersey, Del- 
 aware, Maryland and Virginia. The 
 new comers from across the sea, the 
 sons of old Ulster in the north of Ire- 
 land and those who had flown from op- 
 pression and religious persecution in 
 Scotland and England, were told of 
 the wonderful fertility of the country 
 we now inhabit. A stream of emigra- 
 tion passed over the Alleghany moun- 
 tains and the ax of the hardy pioneer 
 began to clear these hills and valleys 
 of tne dense forest which covered 
 them. 
 
 Within six years after these lands 
 could be patented and a year before 
 Thomas Jefferson wrote the immortal 
 Declaration of Independence came 
 Abraham Enlow and settled within the 
 limits of what is now East Finley 
 township. He built a block house, fa- 
 mous throughout this region as a ref- 
 uge in time of peril from Indians. He 
 was soon followed by the Roneys, who 
 likewise erected a block house or fort, 
 near which occurred the tragic death 
 of eight members of the Mcintosh 
 family, murdered by the Indians, toma- 
 hawked and scalped. Only one daugh- 
 ter who had been sent to a distant pas- 
 ture with a horse escaped to tell the 
 terrible story at Roney's block house. 
 
 other places of refuge in those peril- 
 ous times were Beeman's blocK house 
 and Campbell's block house in which 
 the sturdy pioneers took refuge when 
 necessary from the savages. Their 
 work in the fields had to be carried on 
 while the rifle was kept near at hand 
 and sentinels were posted to give 
 warning of danger. Such was the 
 condition in this region for 20 years 
 after the first settlers came. For two 
 decades the Ohio river was an insuper- 
 able barrier to the onward march of 
 civilization. Not until after the bat- 
 tle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and 
 Wayne's treaty with the Indians of 
 the Northwest Territory the year fol- 
 lowing, were the inhabitants of this 
 region free from fear of Indian incur- 
 sions. 
 
 In the meantime many sturdy sons 
 of old Scotland, of Ulster, of the Quak- 
 ers of England and the Scotch-Irish 
 from the seaboard settlements had 
 made homes here. Among these were 
 the Montgomerys, the Elliotts, peaceful 
 Quakers, who came as early as 1780; 
 the Cracrafts. Scotch-Irish, in 1781; the 
 five Sprowls brothers, before 1782 — en- 
 terprising Englishmen, one of whom, 
 Hugh Sprowls, was with Colonel Craw- 
 ford, the friend of Washington, in the 
 ill-fated expedition against Sandusky 
 where Crawford was burned at the 
 stake; Henry Holmes, an Irishman, in 
 1780, and James Beeham perhaps be- 
 fore that date; Alexander Burns, a 
 Scotchman, probably a kinsman of the 
 immortal bard, who wrote "A man's a 
 man for a' that," in 1780; the Byers 
 
<^N^^s<v>A 
 
 lamily, Irish, in 178G; the Sutherlands 
 and the Fraziers, both Scotch, the 
 same year; and the Hendersons a year 
 later. Many other families which 
 have left their impress upon this re- 
 gion were among those early settlers. 
 Familiar names found in the records 
 are the Carrolls, two of whom suffer- 
 ed from Indian ferocity; Hill, Wolf, 
 Post, McCleary, Martin, Rockafellow, 
 Vansyock, England. Knox, Rose, 'Po- 
 land, Porter, Davidson, Davis, McCoy, 
 Isaac Lucas, a Revolutionary soldier 
 and aidecamp to General Washington, 
 William Gunn, from old Aberdeen, in 
 Scotland, and Alexander Gunn to 
 whom he was not related, the Hunters, 
 Stouts and Shorts and others 
 whose names are familiar to us all. 
 
 In 1788, seven years before the In- 
 dian troubles were settled, Finley 
 township was erected. It embraced all 
 of what is now East and West Finley 
 townships and Rich Hill township. 
 Greene county. It was :]U miles from 
 north to south, a veritable principality 
 in extent and resources. Robert Mor- 
 ris, a patriot of the Revolution, who 
 financed the colonies in that heroic 
 struggle for freedom, owned ;J0,000 
 acres in old Finley township. It was 
 one of the disastrous land speculations 
 which brought him to poverty and the 
 debtors prison in his old age. This 
 tract was sold, divided into 75 farms 
 of 400 acres each, most of which were 
 purchased by Scotchmen, so that this 
 neighborhood came to be known as 
 "the Scotch settlement." 
 
 These pioneers, our forefathers, 
 were embued with a love of liberty. 
 They willingly endured hardships that 
 their children might worship God ac- 
 cording to the dictates of their own 
 consciences and enjoy the blessings of 
 freedom. Many of them left their 
 farms before they were cleared to 
 fight the battles of the Revolution. 
 They were with Washington at Valley 
 Forge and at Yorktown. Again when 
 Detroit was surrendered a wave of 
 patriotism swept over this region and 
 Washington county sent more soldiers 
 to the war of '12 than any county 
 in the Union. Among them were many 
 patriotic sons of old Finley. So when 
 the tocsin of war again sounded for 
 the dreadful civil conflict of 'Gl, the 
 boys who had breathed the free air of 
 
 these noble hills, were among those 
 to promptly respond. On many a 
 bloody battle field they "gave the last 
 full measure of devotion" for the 
 country which their forefathers sub- 
 dued the wilderness to create. 
 
 The opportunity comes to few men 
 to serve their country as did the pion- 
 eers or the soldiers of our various 
 wars. It is occasionally given to the 
 members of one generation to fight for 
 their country by shouldering a musket 
 and carrying a knapsack. But it is 
 given to every citizen to defend the 
 noble heritage which came to us 
 through the sufferings and privations 
 of the pioneers and the service in war- 
 like camps of the soldiers who wore 
 the blue. Every man has a more effec- 
 tive weapon with which to defend his 
 country than the old flintlock rifle or 
 even the deadly long range Mauser. 
 This is the ballot. 
 
 If we are worthy of the splendid 
 heritage which God has given us 
 through the privations and toils of our 
 brave forebears we will so use the 
 priceless privilege of the elective fran- 
 chise as to make this a better coun- 
 try for our children and our children's 
 children. We must above everything 
 else stand for the strict enforcement 
 of the laws of the land. Men cannot 
 choose what laws they will obey. The 
 good citizen obeys all laws. He fol- 
 lows the divine injunction, "Render 
 unto Ceasar the things that are Cea- 
 sar's." We must sternly rebuke and 
 punish crimes against the ballot. 
 These are all too common. Men do 
 not appreciate the sanctity of the bal- 
 lot box and when partisan feeling is 
 aroused or a factional fight is in prog- 
 ress will either buy votes or induce 
 those who are not entitled to do so to 
 vote; and other men are willing to 
 condone fraud if it is done by or in be- 
 half of the party or faction with which 
 they are affiliated. These vile prac- 
 tices have gone so far in some of the 
 counties of this state that Judge 
 Brumni, of Schuylkill, has proposed to 
 brand the forehead of any one con- 
 victed of polling an illegal vote or of 
 buying or selling a vote, with the let- 
 ter "T," for traitor. While such a 
 l)unishment cannot be indicted under 
 our constitution, we can enact strin- 
 gent laws for the protection of the bal- 
 
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 lot and we can as individuals help to 
 make a public sentiment which will 
 render odious the boodler and ballot 
 box stuffer. The red hot branding iron 
 of righteous indignation should be felt 
 by the conscienceless violator of our 
 election laws and the finger of public 
 scorn should point to him as a traitor 
 who possesses all the despicable qual- 
 ities of Judas Iscariot, Benedict Ar- 
 nold and John Wilkes Booth. 
 
 The ballot can be used to conquer 
 the insidious foes who seek by legis- 
 lative enactment to secure special 
 privilege. We must have further regu- 
 lation and control of the gigantic cor- 
 porations engaged in interstate com- 
 merce. The Roosevelt policies must 
 be carried to their logical conclusion. 
 I was never an admirer of the infi- 
 del, Robert G. Ingersoll. but in his last 
 years he said one thing with which I 
 fully agree and that was that he had 
 always been a believer in the tariff 
 and favored the protection of all in- 
 fant industries but that when these in- 
 fant industries grew to be giants who 
 wore seven league boots and could 
 kick the stuffing out of you he was no 
 longer interested in their protection. 
 The ballot can protect us from the ex- 
 actions of the vast aggregations of 
 capital which have come to be known 
 as trusts. The dweller on these hills 
 can get a clear view of the National 
 problems which this generation must 
 face. He is likely to decide that 
 hereafter our system of taxation must 
 be modeled after those progressive Eu- 
 ropean nations, England and Germany, 
 and the proper burden placed upon the 
 multi-millionaires who have been en- 
 abled to pile up enormous fortunes 
 under the protection of our laws. The 
 income tax and the inheritance tax 
 can come none too soon to relieve the 
 poor and those in moderate circum- 
 stance, as more than 95 per cent of 
 our people are, of the rapidly increas- 
 ing burdens of taxation which the 
 widely expanding fields of public en- 
 deavor require and which modern con- 
 ditions of civilization demand. 
 
 With the ballot we can push forward 
 those movements which vitally affect 
 the local community. Paramount 
 among these are the efforts for better 
 roads and better schools. The public 
 
 schools have been called the citadel of 
 our liberties. While we have accom- 
 plishel much for the cause of public 
 education in Pennsylvania our schools 
 are far behind those of New England 
 and many of the Western states. 
 There, schools are centralized and 
 graded so that better work can be 
 done. A township like East Finley 
 should have a single school building, 
 centrally located, of handsome archi- 
 tectural design, with modern conven- 
 iences and as well equipped as any 
 city school in the land. To and fi'om 
 this central school all pupils should 
 be hauled in comfortable conveyances 
 at the public expense. Do you say 
 the township can not afford it? I say 
 it can. The argument of expense was 
 used asrainst the public school law of 
 lSo4 and only the burning eloquence of 
 the "Old Commoner", Thaddeus Ste- 
 vens, saved it in the lower house. Wash- 
 ington county had a glorious part in 
 the enactment of that first law for 
 free public schools. Under the leader- 
 ship of John L. Gow, a native of New 
 England, who had made his home in 
 this county, a man in whom progres- 
 sive ideas concerning public educa- 
 tion had been instilled, a strong senti- 
 men for the important measure was 
 created here. It so happened that 
 Col. Thomas Ringland, of Morris town- 
 ship, was speaker of the senate, and 
 William Patterson, of Crosscreek 
 township, speaker of the house. Bota 
 were ardent advocates of free 
 schools, used their influence lor the 
 bill and signed it when passed. At 
 that time my father was the law part- 
 ner of Isaac Leet, a distinguished 
 member of the bar. Mr. Leet was 
 elected to the state senate in 1834. 
 Among my father's papers I found a 
 petition sent to Mr. Leet in 18c!5, sign- 
 ed by 489 taxpayers of Washington 
 county praying for the repeal of the 
 common school law. They asked for 
 this on the ground of the great ex- 
 pense of the system which it was al- 
 leged the people could not bear. In 
 the 74 years which have passed since, 
 a wonderful expansion of the public 
 school system has taken place. Those 
 who founded it never dreamed of its 
 growth to present proportions. The 
 school expenditures of these days 
 would have shocked those petitioners 
 
 -3— 
 
for repeal could they have forseen 
 what was coming. And yet would any 
 person in this audience, if I were to 
 produce that old petition, be proud of 
 the fact that his father or grandfather 
 had put his name upon it? You may 
 be just as certain that no descendant 
 of any one here today will rejoice in 
 the fact that you opposed the expan- 
 sion of the public school system. 
 
 The movements for good schools 
 and good roads should go hand in 
 hand. Good roads are taken as a sign 
 of the highest civilization. The old 
 Romans were ahead of us in providing 
 them. They built magnificent thor- 
 oughfares more than 2,000 years ago 
 which still stand as a monument to 
 their greatness. After wading in the 
 mud for a century and a third isn't it 
 time that our people provided them- 
 selves with solid, modernly construct- 
 ed highways.' It is only eleven years 
 since the rural delivery system was 
 inaugurated in Washington county. 
 In that time we have witnessed a 
 great awakening of civic pride and 
 the development of a sentiment for 
 better roads. Nine years ago the Na- 
 tional Department of Agriculture made 
 an experiment in the building of good 
 roads in this county. One section was 
 built of macadam and one of brick. 
 This work was intended as an object 
 lesson for our people and it has prov- 
 ed to be one of great value. After 
 experiment and trial the people seem 
 to have come to the conclusion that 
 the most durable road is that built of 
 brick. Our mileage of public thor- 
 oughfares is so large that the co-op- 
 eration of state, county and township 
 must be complete and harmonious if 
 this generation is to see an adequate 
 system of good roads constructed. The 
 state and the county authorities 
 should build as rapidly as they can. 
 Each township should likewise build 
 its portion of ])ublic highway. Several 
 townships of Washington county have 
 already built sections of brick roads. 
 Others are arranging to do so. 1 hope 
 that East Finley and its neighboring 
 townships may soon adopt this policy 
 and each year build a section, no mat- 
 ter how small it be. of permanent road. 
 A start must be made somewhere and 
 no petty local jealousy should prevent 
 the inauguration of the work, even if 
 
 the geographical location of the road 
 to be improved is such that many of 
 the taxpayers never have occasion to 
 use it. The inauguration and prosecu- 
 tion of a good roads program will 
 send abroad the fame of any town- 
 ship which adopts it, will make pros- 
 pective purchasers anxious to secure 
 farms within its limits and enhance 
 the value of property. 
 
 As good citizens we can promote 
 those things which contribute to the 
 happiness and well being of our fellow 
 man and advance the Kingdom of 
 Righteousness. The Creator dealt 
 with this region with a bountiful hand. 
 It is blessed as no other portion of 
 God's footstool has been. His gifts 
 have been lavish — a soil of exceeding 
 fertility, fine timber, natural gas, oil 
 and splendid coal. The proper use of 
 these gifts is incumbent upon us. "We 
 may keep in mind Andrew Carnegie's 
 saying that "It is a disgrace to die 
 rich." The poor miser found in an 
 Allegheny hovel last week after hoard- 
 in.u: money for a lifetime, is no more to 
 be pitied or despised than the man in 
 any walk of life who accumulates a 
 large amount of money under our 
 beneficient laws and without recogniz- 
 ing his moral obligation to the com- 
 munity, sneaks off and dies like a dog 
 without giving one dollar for benevo- 
 lence, charity or civic betterment. Not 
 many years ago I knew a peculiar old 
 man who lived in the eastern part of 
 this county, near the Monongahela riv- 
 er. The rich Pittsburg coal vein un- 
 derlaid his farm. Through vanity and 
 on account of a quarrel with relatives 
 he let the contract lor a monument as 
 high as an oil derrick. Dying before 
 its completion he provided by will 
 that his executors should finish it and 
 use the rest of his estate in building 
 a wall around his cemetery lot with a 
 pillar at each corner as high as the 
 money he left would pay for. So to- 
 day in a Quaker burying ground on 
 the old National road, towering 80 
 feet above the hilltop, can be seen for 
 miles around, the memorial, costing 
 $40,000. by which a foolish old man 
 vainly strove to perpetuate his name. 
 
 While this sinful folly was being 
 consummated, away at the other end 
 of the county, within a mile of the 
 West Virginia line, died Jerome 
 
 -4— 
 
Plummer, another farmer. God had 
 blessed him with an abundance of this 
 world's goods and after providing for 
 those naturally dependent upon him, 
 he left $33,000 as a fund to be invest- 
 ed under direction of the court and 
 the income to be used throughout all 
 coming time to teach temperance and 
 fight the blighting liquor traffic. 
 Thus was built an imperishable mon- 
 ument which will stand when time has 
 obliterated the last vestige of that 
 massive pillar of granite which 
 marks the final resting place of one 
 who did not appreciate his duty as a 
 child of God and a brother of all man- 
 kind. 
 
 While most of us can not afford to 
 do much in a material way to make 
 the world brighter and better, yet 
 every one can uo something, if it is 
 only to plant a shade tree or erect a 
 watering trough along the highway. 
 To make the surroundings of the trav- 
 eler through life more comfortable and 
 his sojourn here more happy are du- 
 ties which all should find it pleasant 
 to perform. Individual public spirit 
 can be shown by giving such a grove 
 as this for a township park or by fix- 
 ing up and providing for the perpetual 
 care of old graveyards. In this re- 
 spect we are also far behind the New 
 England towns. There all incorpor- 
 ated districts whether in country or 
 city are known as towns. A gentle- 
 man who spent several weeks this 
 summer in Massachusetts told me the 
 other day that he found that many be- 
 quests had been made to the town 
 which he visited. No less than $389,- 
 000 had been given to that town by 
 bequest or otherwise, most of it to 
 be held in trust, either for the poor, 
 the sick, the unfortunate; or for edu- 
 cation, for parks, for playgrounds, or 
 for some noble form of charity or 
 civic improvement. How much money 
 has East Finley township invested to 
 carry on such splendid works? One 
 thousand dollars will earn $50 per 
 year if invested at five per cent. That 
 amount properly used would relieve 
 many a human heartache and care 
 for many a weary and afflicted one 
 during every year of the future until 
 the last syllable of recorded time. 
 
 The wilderness which our forefath- 
 ers subdued and made to blossom as 
 
 the rose was their bequest of love to 
 us. This section is destined to wit- 
 ness a wonderful transformation dur- 
 ing the next few years. Our vast ma- 
 terial resources are to be developed. 
 Though the coal industry of Washing- 
 ton county is in its infancy 83 mines 
 employing over 10,000 persons are al- 
 ready in operation. The county now 
 has within its borders people from 
 nearly every country of Europe and 
 Asia and almost every language of 
 those continents is here spoken. With 
 the growth of our industries and coal 
 development the tide of population 
 will continue to flow in upon us with 
 ever increasing force. Shall it over- 
 whelm us? We must make a gallant 
 fight if we would maintain the high 
 quality of citizenship that has charac- 
 terized the inhabitants of this region 
 since our forefathers, one hundred 
 and thirty or more years ago, "lighted 
 on these hills the beacon fires of a 
 pioneer civilization and planted nere 
 the standard of tlie cross." 
 
 Once I asked a man in a Spanish- 
 American city what its population 
 was. He answered, "1,000 responsible 
 citizens and 19,000 irresponsible." That 
 is 95 per cent of its inhabitants cared 
 nothing for religion, owned no proper- 
 ty and felt no obligation to be good 
 citizens. It is no wonder they have 
 unstable government in such places 
 and are haunted constantly by the 
 spectre of revolution. In that town, 
 which is about the size of Washington, 
 it takes 450 policemen to preserve or- 
 der and protect people in their rights. 
 It is not the number but the character 
 of a people which makes a nation or 
 a community great. The more re- 
 sponsiDle citizens you have in a com- 
 munity, the more people who anchor 
 to the earth and own their own homes, 
 the more people who are honest, indus- 
 trious, sober and frugal, the more peo- 
 ple who love God and keep his com- 
 mandments, the greater force that 
 community is for good in the world. 
 
 We must welcome the poor foreign- 
 er who comes from lands of oppres- 
 sion, as many of the pioneers did, to 
 make a new home under the stars and 
 stripes. He must be taught what 
 constitutes good citizenship and help- 
 ed to a knowledge of his rights and 
 duties under our laws, 'lae beer 
 
 —5— 
 
agent should not be the first to greet 
 him and give him the glad hand. We 
 should not call these poor people 
 Dagoes or Hunkies or Sheenies. 
 Through schools for adult foreigners 
 they should have a chance to learn 
 the English language and be instruct- 
 ed how to protect themselves from the 
 horde of sharpers and greedy officials 
 who prey upon their ignorance. Most 
 of these people are of sturdy races 
 and they prove their enterprise by 
 crossing the ocean to set up family 
 altars anew in the land of which they 
 have heard so much. They will not 
 be drones in the hive. They can 
 teach us economy and frugality now. 
 They are grateful for kindness. Most 
 of them will make good American cit- 
 izens. Their children and grand- 
 children will take an important part 
 in the up-building of this Nation. With- 
 in a few generations they will doubt- 
 less be blended into the race of future 
 Americans which under God will lead 
 the world to yet greater and nobler 
 things. 
 
 And so as we gather in this beauti- 
 ful grove upon this peaceful summer 
 day let us highly resolve that as citi- 
 zens of the great Republic and child- 
 ren of a just, wise and loving God that 
 we will try to so perform our duties 
 hereafter and so use His gifts as to 
 aavance His kingdom. May we un- 
 derstand that in this country the bal- 
 lot is the safe-guard of our liberties, 
 that no man should be bound by the 
 tyranny of a party name, that the in- 
 dependent voter is the hope of the na- 
 tion, that every voter should carry his 
 conscience into the election booth 
 with him and that he is responsible 
 only to his conscience and his God for 
 the way he marks his ballot and not 
 to any political party. 
 
 With good schools, permanent 
 roads, telephones, mail delivery, motor 
 vehicles and the introduction of the 
 
 wonderful devices for public utilities 
 and personal and family comfort, we 
 can make country life so desirable as 
 to counteract the trend from the 
 farms caused by the lure of the city. 
 "God made the country, man made the 
 town." No man can live among these 
 hills without breathing the breath of 
 liberty and nourishing the love of 
 country. Here within the limits of 
 old Finley township three-quarters of 
 a century ago far-seeing and patriotic 
 men met at the house of Kenneth Mc- 
 Coy and resolved that human slavery 
 must go, and their constant agitation 
 and work brought glorious fruitage. 
 Shall we not resolve that ere another 
 generation passes that accursed twin 
 relic of barbarism, the legalized liq- 
 uor traific, shall be crushed by the 
 power of the ballot? 
 
 When Finley township was erected 
 121 years ago it numbered among its 
 citizens Duncan McArthur, son of a 
 poor Scotchman as his name might tell. 
 Removing to Ohio when a young man 
 he became governor of the Buckeye 
 state. His career illustrates the pos- 
 sibilities of American citizenship. 
 Who will be president of the United 
 States forty years hence? Possibly 
 some diligent boy, eager to learn, who 
 is bending now over his booKs in an 
 East Finley school. And so I say 
 that your greatest product is men. 
 
 \Vhile I hope that the people of this 
 neighborhood may continue to be 
 blessed with abundant harvests, that 
 vine and tree may yield fruit in plen- 
 ty, that the mines soon to be opened 
 here may produce thousands of tons 
 of the best coal to do the work of the 
 world and that its sale and mining 
 may bring material prosperity to all, 
 yet I also wish that old Finley may 
 achieve more lasting fame through the 
 multitude of good men and good 
 women who make their hoToes among 
 these beautiful hills. 
 
 3U77-251 
 Lot-3ti 
 
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IBRARV OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 209 774 6