One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XXXIX
PASSING OF THE PIONEER
"O to die advancing on! Pioneers! O pioneers!"
... Walt Whitman |
WITH THE TURN OF THE CENTURY, more than three score years had passed since the arrival, within sight of the waters of Maxinkuckee of
the first permanent white settlers. Sixty years had gone by; the seventy mark was very near. The "first comers," those who in tender
youth and as mere children had first cast eyes upon that beautiful body of water, were no longer young in years, though professing to
a youth of spirit, mind and body. Even those, the pioneer children, were by the dawn of the Twentieth Century approaching eighty,
while those who arrived while in their later 'teens were eighty and beyond.
Yes, the old-timers had begun to go long before the close of the Nineteenth Century. The majority of them never witnessed the sunrise
of the Twentieth Century, even though their innate sturdiness and endurance had enabled them to keep youthful well beyond the average
span of life.
The years from 1900 on were marked by the passing of the last of the early settlers of the township and vicinity. The rows of
headstones in the "cities of the departed" 'round about were lengthening perceptibly. And there was a goodly company there, gathered
to the last resting place, their earthly duties finished. Of them it may be said most truly, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
Theirs had been a noble task, faithfully accomplished. Theirs had been a worthy round of duties, uncomplainingly completed. Theirs
had been a glorious work for the benefit of those who were to come after them, down through a succession of generations. This work
had been bravely done, and the trust they had so firmly maintained that there might come a brighter and more prosperous future had
been fulfilled. Not without unselfish sacrifice had it been done.
Now, with the turn of the century, came another era. The pioneers had done their part. None could have done it better. Henceforth, it
behooved the later generations to "carry on," keeping faith with their forefathers, through the New Century.