176 LUTHER BURBANK 



flower; summer with its fullness blue sky and 

 green grass; autumn with the Indian summer's 

 myriad colored leaves, and harvest time; winter 

 with snowdrifts and merry sleigh bells, ice-clad 

 trees, and warm, cheery sociability each season 

 has its own attractions. 



Lancaster is rich, too, in historic lore: more 

 than two and one-half centuries have passed since 

 the town was settled by white men. Before Lex- 

 ington, Bunker Hill, or Philadelphia and the 

 Liberty Bell had been called into existence; 

 before there was any dream of the mighty possi- 

 bilities of this Western Continent, a tract of land 

 ten miles long and eight miles wide, in the valley 

 of the Nashua River, was purchased in the 

 year 1643 of the Indian chief, Sholan, sachem 

 of the Nashaways or Nashawogs, a tribe 

 whose wigwams were located near Washacum 

 Lake. 



In the year 1653, there being nine families in 

 the settlement, the township was incorporated 

 under the name of Lancaster. 



The soil and climate were not hospitable to 

 ignorance and indolence, and the great West of 

 to-day owes much of its prosperity to the high 

 ideals of these pioneers who laid a sure founda- 

 tion for future development; and from Maine to 

 California there is scarcely a community but has 



