OLD FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS x 



In 1856, thirty-two years ago, the first Fourth of July 

 celebration was held in this neighborhood. I well remem- 

 ber to have been present. Thirty-three years is the av- 

 erage of human life, and a generation has come and gone 

 since then. 



In being called upon to speak to my old friends and 

 neighbors of auld lang syne, I feel tempted strongly to 

 make an old settler's address. Seeing so many of the 

 good old familiar faces of my boyhood days around me 

 revives recollections of toil and sorrow, of happiness and 

 grief, when in the light of the early morning of life the 

 glow of beauty and of hope colored all things. Standing 

 now in middle life the sunrise has lost its glorious hues 

 and while the sunset has not yet begun to cast its shad- 

 ows, I look back with love and regret upon a past genera- 

 tion, and with hope and confidence upon a generation that 

 is arising. 



Where we now stand is a place full of pleasant mem- 

 ories to me. Mahaska County is the loveliest county in 

 Iowa and Eveland Grove the most charming spot in Ma- 

 haska county. When Adam was alone in the Garden of 

 Eden he called the land Paradise. But when Eve came 

 and his happiness was full and complete he called it Eve- 

 land. Whether this is the same Eveland or not I am not 

 able to state but must prove it by some of the old settlers. 

 I am not the oldest settler by any means. In the lan- 

 guage of the Arkansas traveler, "That black stump was 

 thar when I come." 



i Delivered July 4, 1888, at Eveland Grove, Iowa. 



