Jefferson County, Illinois - Chapter 22: Agricultural and Horticultural Societies, 1909

The agricultural history of Jefferson county is but little more than a repetition of the history of other Southern Illinois counties. The area of the county is five hundred and seventy-six square miles, nearly all susceptible of cultivation. For the first forty years there was but little incentive to grow crops, for there was no market. Much of the surplus produce was hauled in wagons to Shawneetown or St. Louis, but now the markets of the world are at our very doors and we have only to so feed and tickle the soil so as to make it produce the greatest amount of saleable products. This, together with that other pressing need of the times, the effort to make rural life attractive, is all that is needed to make life on the farm the most desirable life in the world. But we can not give a desertation on the beauties of farming here. We merely desire to refer to Farmers' Organizations, Old Peoples' Associations, etc. The old Jefferson County Agricultural Society, which was formed away back toward war times, was a very successful and popular one in its day. It was in good hands and was always operated for the interest and amusement of the people, besides being beneficial to the grain, vegetable and stock raisers. Of course, racing was a feature, but it was not the principal one, as is the case with many of the modern fair associations. They secured admirable grounds in the southeastern part of the city, with plenty of shade, wood and water, taking in the creek, the site of the old Short sawmill and the "swimming hole" where we boys used to have bushels of fun, and the hazel thickets, where the other fellows used to play "seven-up" and other things too numerous to mention. The annual fairs given by this old society were looked forward to with much anxiety, for they took the form of a grand social reunion with the people both at home and abroad. Indeed, those were halcyon days spent in the old fair grounds, both at the fairs and the other reunions that took place there. It is one of the great mistakes of the city that it did not secure those grounds for its own use before the same was laid off in lots and sold by piece-meal. It should have been made the Forest Park - the world's fair ground of Mount Vernon for all time to come, but it belonged to private parties and they got a chance to lot it and sell out to good advantage and away it went, leaving our city without any chance whatever to get a city park. Hindsight is sometimes a good thing, but it can never be compared to good business foresight.

Recently a new fair association has been formed by some of our enterprising young business men and some good fairs are being held on their grounds at the south extremity of the corporation, where they have the basis for very good fair grounds in the future, but how inviting and beautiful can only be told by the next historian, for it will take years to get as much shade and conveniences as the old grounds afforded. The new society is paying especial attention to the improvement of the methods of farming and of the stock of the county and in this they are deserving of patronage. Another thing they propose to do is to help conserve our natural resources in timber, or at least to help to restore the great waste of forests that has been going on so profligately in late years. They have planted trees that will in a few years afford grateful shade to pleasure seekers who shall resort to these grounds for recreation and amusement. And in this way, the new fair company will make themselves benefactors.

For many years an "Old Settlers' Association" was kept up and held its annual reunions and great enjoyment was gotten out of them by the older inhabitants, but many modern reunions came along and the old had to give way to the new - baseball, football and club reunions. For many years, James E. Fergerson, that old-fashioned Tennesseean, and James M. Pace, that plain Jeffersonian, kept the "Old Folks' Association" going, but they have both transfered their membership to the pioneer army corps on the other side and their mantel didn't seem to fall on willing souls like themselves, and the "Old Folks" are unrepresented, except as referred to by the present historian.

Horticulture has been greatly neglected by our land owners - much more so than simple agriculture. Fruit growing has been with our people, too much of the hap-hazard order. Very little attention has been given to breeding good fruit, to pruning, grafting, mulching and spraying; hence we do not raise the good fruit that we might and ought to raise. This is eminently a fruit section and if our fruit men do not raise good fruit it is their own fault. A few men here, like L. N. Beal, have had good success in the line of horticulture. Others may have and we are glad to notice renewed interest along this line. Just a week or two since, the Horticulture Society of South Illinois held a session here, which had the effect of reviving the subject of fruit growing and we hope it brings forth good fruit. The visitors had on exhibition some deUcious apples, both in name and quahty. Those bearing the name "Delicious" could not be excelled - even in the garden of Eden.

A few years ago the descendants of Joel and Mary East Pace started what was intended to be an annual reunion and two or three very enjoyable meetings were held, but the later "meets" failed to materialize.

At the last meeting, a full board of officers was chosen to have charge of future reunions of the Pace Reunion and about a hundred and fifty of the relationship were in attendance, eager for another "bout," but some of the officers have died and the others have "flunked" and so the next reunion has never been held.

The Pace family is an old one in this county and in the nation. Joel Pace, Sr., was fourteen years old, and his wife twelve when the Declaration of Independence was made. The family record, copied as to Christian names and dates of birth from their old family Bible, is as follows:

Thus are old reunions giving way to the new and we old people gradually "lose out." There is no reasonable reason why this reunion and the Old Folks' Association might not have been kept up for all time as there seems no prospect of the material giving out.

The Smith family in Spring Garden township and other family relationships in different parts of the county, who are not so badly thronged with other society events as are the people of Mount Vernon, hold their annual reunions, and enjoy life. Here we have so many society fads, so many classes, casts, clubs, sets and functions, that we have not the time to have a general good time all together, as we used to have, before the "fads" came around. But such, we suppose, is life, in all up-to-date cities like Mount Vernon - whether it brings more happiness or not.

The G. A. R. reunions are the only ones that don't become old and stale, or that don't lose their flavor, and even they are being brought into disrepute by the name "soldiers' reunion" being used by fakirs, boot-leggers and gamblers, in order to draw the people to their "slaughter of the innocents." The old soldiers are so disgusted with this species of "false pretenses" that they have quit attending these fetes, and they justly demand that these frauds cease using the name "soldier " as a drawing card.

We have so many orders now that they almost monopolize the banquet and reunion business. One or more of these reunions take place each week, either by the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, Ben Hurs, Woodmen, Red Men, Pocahontas and other brotherhood or sisterhood orders, and these, together with the numerous family reunions, seem to block out the neighborhood, tovsmship and county reunions, that were in vogue some years ago. Another thing that ought not to be, is the disposition on the part of the "old- est inhabitants" to count themselves "back numbers" and abandon the field entirely to the youngsters. It is all right for the youngsters to claim seats at the first table and all that, but it is not good taste - in fact, it is absolutely wrong - to crowd the old people into the chimney corner and not allow them to have their say. And it is not right for the "old folks" to permit such treatment of themselves. They have earned the front seats and they ought to claim them.

A farewell party was tendered General Pavey, Monday evening, by a detachment of his old soldier friends and the evening was one in which happenings occurred that endeared the host to the hearts of the guests more and more and words were spoken that made impressions that not even time can obliterate. Old memories were revived by the stories that were told and many of the hardships of '61 to '65 were told again; but the conditions of the dark days are now looked back upon by many who experienced the trials as experiences they could not be without, but do not care to partake in a repetition.

General Pavey is one of the soldiers whose experiences were among the hardest, yet he tells them without the shadow of dread. He is one of the best known soldiers now living and his popularity does not stop at the boundaries of his home city, county or state, but is of national prominence. He has held many offices of public trust and is a man honored and respected by all. His last service for the government was in the department of justice, an office he was compelled to give up on account of declining health.

boys who wore the blue, and brighter and brighter do the gatherings, such as Monday night, become to the soldiers. They have lived to see war become a science instead of butchery, and while there may be other wars, there never will be a greater cause than the one in which they took part.

The gathering of old comrades seemed to put new life in the veins of General Pavey and his eyes sparkled with delight. He appeared much better for having had his comrades with him on the eve of his departure and was touched by the many expressions for his welfare.

But, after all, the reunion we all want to attend is the one that has no end.. When in that wondrous hour, that glorious day, the mists of earth shall roll away. And with vision bright, we shall cross the river and on into the land of the glorious Son, where there is no night. The pearly gates will open wide and we shall there be satisfied in heaven's pure light. There we will dwell with comrades gone before in grand reunions evermore. Till then - good night.