Kendall County, Illinois - Chapter 57: Farewell, 1877

Chapter 57: Farewell

N THE history of this, as of other rural counties of the west, there have been four well-marked stages : First, the wide wilderness, with solitary cabins here and there on the sheltered sides of the groves, and the occupants toiling at vast disadvantage to obtain the necessaries of life. - Second, the era of claim speculation; the groves encircled with clearings, and occasional shanties far out on the prairie ; men with a little ready money roving about in search of bargains, and settlers without money holding on with a tight grip and struggling hard to retain their rudely fenced lands. Third, the era of rented farms. Most of the intermediate lands between the original claims, as well as many of the claims themselves, were purchased and held by non-residents and tilled by farmers not in the country early enough to take up farms, and not wealthy enough to buy them. The usual terms were for the tenant to give one-third of the crop. It was a time of hard work and slow progress. But about the time of the coming in of the railroads, produce increased in value, and cash rents were common, and then we began to enter upon : Fourth, the present era of independent farmers ; most of them owning the soil they cultivate. The struggles for existence are over, and we are freed from the pioneer strivings for bread ; but only that we may strive in

A Higher Sphere

When a man is paying for his farm, all the members of his body must work. Eyes, hands, feet, thoughts, all must work for the great object of securing a home. But the home once secured and rendered comfortable, eyes, hands, feet and thoughts have leisure for other and better things.

So it is with the members of society as with the members of the man. We begin where our fathers ended. We must end where we desire the generation following to begin. To follow the lead of covetousness, and strive to add house to house, or field to field, is but to tread over again with less cause the steps our fathers trod, and our labor does not count. We are doing pioneer work without the pioneer necessity. Every man should ask himself the question, looking it squarely in the face ; " For what purpose am I released from pioneer struggles?"

in which alone is true progress and true greatness " Education is not merely a preparation for life - it is the business of life. What one has learned in school in boyhood are the intellectual tools which should make his life a continual progress in learning and practical wisdom. Mr. Mill says : ''All through life it is our most pressing interest to find out the truth about all the matters we are concerned with. If we are farmers, we want to find what will truly improve our soil ; if merchants, what will truly influence the markets of our commodities ; if judges or jurymen, who it was that truly did an unlawful act, or to whom a disputed right truly belongs. Every time we have to make a new resolution, or alter an old one, in any situation in life, we shall go wrong unless we know the truth about the facts on which our resolution depends."

To this agrees the Scripture : " It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter." And again : ''If the iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength ; but wisdom is profitable to direct." This is true science. It consists, as Mill again says, " in doing well what all of us, during the whole of life, are engaged in doing, for the most part badly." It is edge which the first settlers in a new country have time to gather. It is not our province to grind out a daily task of toil, like Samson, with closed eyes ; nor to look at the heavens and the earth as we do at a menagerie, from behind grated fences. But it is our province to know. To ask continually : What is this r Why is this ? How is this ? to hear every fresh subject demanding of us that we gain clear ideas and true ideas about it. We shall not find perfect knowledge, but we shall find strength of character and love of truth. Prof. Faraday says : *' Such a man, though he may think more humbly of his own character, will find himself at every step of his progress more sought for than before, more trusted with responsibility, and held in pre-eminence by his equals, and more highly valued by those whom he, himself, will esteem worthy of approbation."

Again, in so far as we make honesty of character and ability of mind, instead of possession of property, the goal we aim at, w^e shall drain that quagmire of national corruption of which we have heard so much. There is in society a secret respect for wealth, however gotten ; a feeling that the man who is rich is more to be respected than the man who is poor, though both be equally dishonest.

Social display and wealth to support it, is regarded as an indispensable part of first society, and it follows that the desire being accounted right, the gratification of it will not be wholly condemned. But we must remember that the desire is wrong, and that it springs from the great central error of supposing that we have the same work to do that our fathers had, viz., to gather property, as long as we put the value on the bait. We shall never avoid the crop as long as we supply the seed. We ought to teach this truth everywhere. It is our mission - our country's mission. There is no true reason why our ambassadors to foreign courts should need seventeen thousand dollars a year to compete in style with monarchies whose business it has been for ages to blind their people with a show of splendor. Republics are to take care of the people's money ; monarchies spend it - there is the difference. And we ought to be true to our mission.

The social influence of this country ought not to compel the public servant with five thousand dollars a year to feel humiliated until he can steal five thousand dollars more to be on a level with his neighbors of ten thousand dollars. But that is what it does do, and declares it, too, so that one reason for giving large salaries is that the officials cannot otherwise live in the style required of them ! And yet we are a Republic, and Republican simplicity is part of our inheritance from our fathers. Let us give heed to it. Every man who is released from the sod plow and the grubbing hoe is released to a nobler toil. Let him remember it. Official corruption will perish so soon as that secret approbation which is the breath of its life is taken away ; while it has breath it will live. Then for our own sakes and our country's sake let us remember that the acquisition of

Our fathers have done what they could, and are gone. The claims they staked are cultivated farms ; the fields they fenced with rails are enclosed with boards or living hedge ; the cabins they erected have given place to prouder residences. The slab-floored school house and log church have shrunk out of sight as two-storied academies and spired temples have risen by their side. All this is right, - we have perfected our inheritance. But let us stop here, and not create new necessities out of our own pride. Our fathers have labored in vain, if what they left us not only absorbed their energies, but shall absorb ours also. And not less will they have labored in vain if our energies, released by their efforts from the stern necessity of pioneer- toil, shall be given to vanity and outward glitter - leaving to ourselves but the ashes of a wasted life, and to others the poison of a pernicious example. But it is our favored lot to be the pioneers in to lay the foundations for a noble future. Happy is the man of the observing mind, who labors for intelligence, as his forefathers labored for land, and helps to make truth and character as prominent in this generation as the claim fence and log cabin were in the generation past. The true development of mind, - this is our work ; and let me add, the worship of the heart, - this is our rest. For I do desire that all who have been my readers, and whom I have helped to pass, it may be, a pleasant hour, shall not only conquer the world that now is, but win

Conclusion The End

JOHN A. COY - Dry goods, ready made clothing, notions, hats and caps, boots and shoes, groceries, &c, I claim to have the largest stock of goods in Kendall county.

HUNGER BROTHERS - Drugs, medicines, chemicals, paints, oils, toilet articles, perfumery, books and stationery. Special attention paid to prescriptions. Our store is well known, and our stock complete and genuine.

CHARLES F. THUNEMAN - Drugs, medicines, paints, oils, perfumery, &c. Books and stationery. Also a full line of staple groceries and family supplies. I keep none but first quality goods, at prices as low as the lowest.

THUNEMAN BROTHERS - Successors to F. R. Thuneman - Hardware, stoves, nails, tinware, builders' supplies and agricultural implements. We aim to keep a hardware headquarters where purchasers can find any article they may want in our line.

H. K. THUNEMAN - Watchmaker and jeweler. A full line of watches, clocks, jewelry and silverware. Repairing neatly done, and all work warranted.

Business Notices

HAIGH BROTHERS - Hardware and agricultural implements. We aim to keep a general supply of everything wanted in our line, and at lowest prices.

PLANO NEWS - R. M. & Callie D. M. Springer, proprietors. An Independent newspaper, $1.50 per year. All kinds of job printing neatly and promptly done.