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Covered Wagon Again Heads West For America's "Promised Land" Ox-Team Caravan Leaves Ipswich, Mass., to Recreate the Historic Pilgrimage 150 Years Ago of the Pioneers Who Braved the Dangers and Hardships of the Wilderness Beyond the Alleghenies to Establish the First Settlements in the Old Northwest Territory. ? Western Newspaper Union. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON W M HE covered wagons are on Oie march again and headed HI I* west' As a matter of fact, it's only one wagon? an II authentic old Conestoga, drawn by a yoke of oxen? P but it is symbplic of one of the most dramatic episodes jD in the annals of America. For it is recreating the his toric pilgrimage of the pioneers who braved the dan gers and hardships of the wilderness beyond the Alle ghenies 150 years ago to seek homes in America's first "Prom ised Land" and to establish the first settlements in the old Northwest Territory. On December 3 of this year this ox-drawn caravan will set out from Ipswich, Mass., and head west, as did a sim ilar caravan on December 3, >1787. Walking beside the old Conestoga wagon will be men dressed in the costume of those far-off days ? coonskin cap, fringed buckskin or linen hunting shirt and leg gings, long rifle and powder jhora, knife and tomahawk. Across Massachusetts, Con necticut, New York and iPennsylvania they will guide their lumbering craft until they reach Sumerill's Ferry near West Newton, Pa. There they will build boats from logs hewn in the forest and launch them on the Youghiogheny river. They will guide their crude craft down that stream and the Monongahela to its Junction with the Allegheny at Pittsburgh where the two rivers form the "Beautiful Ohio." Then they will float down that historic waterway until they reach the city of Mari etta, Ohio, with April 7 of next year as the official date for their arrival. From Marietta the party will proceed by ox team throughout the six states of the Old North west. Each night, while the cara van is traveling, a pageant de pleting eight of the critical epi sodes in our nation's history will be presented. Showing within easy driving distance of nearly half of the nation's population this "living picture" will thus bring to the public the dramatic Story of the settlement of the Old Northwest. Crisis at Newbnrgh. In reality that story goes back to the year 1783 when George Washington's Continental army Jay in camp at Newburgh, N. Y., wearily awaiting the news that would send the soldiers home ? and also send them out into an uncertain future. Their homes and farms had been neglected or wrecked by the ravages of war. The only money In circulation was the paper is sued by the Continental congress ? and in those days "not worth a Continental" was more than a by word. It was ? stark reality, as the** men knew only too well. ? To the soldiers who had richly earned a reward there remained but one thing? land? land beyond the mountains. With Timothy Pickering as their scribe, 283 of ficers and men prepared a peti tion providing for such land. Known to history as the "Picker ing plan," or "Army plan," it embodied humanitarian principles unheard of in its day, and later became the nucleus for the great Ordinance of 1787. Four years elapsed, however, before the dreams and ideals of the soldiers atNewburgh were written into the law of the land. They were four years ct delay and disagreement congress while the unsuccess "Land Ordinance of 1785," sod other measures were at tempted. Tired of the bickering in con gresa and eager to settle in the land of untold richness beyond the ADeghenies, delegates from various counties in New England met at the Bunch of Grapes tav ?rn in Boston on March 1. 1786 A committee consisting of Man asseh Cutler, Rufus Putnam, and others drafted a plan of associa tion. Two days later the plan was complete and the "Ohio Company of Associates" was formed. Capitalized at a million dollars, the fund was to be devot ed to the purchase of lands north west of the Ohio river. Cutler was employed to act as ag*nt and make a contract with con gress for a body of land in the "Great Western Territory of the Union." A century and a half ago the great area north and west of the Ohio river, which came under the provisions of this ordinance, was a vast wilderness, overrun by hostile Indians, and a small, but growing number, of illegal Amer ican "squatters." Cutler, doing yeoman service for the Ohio com pany, contracted to purchase a million and a half acres at one dollar per acre. One-third was to be deducted from this for un tillable lands and expenses of sur veying. By making the purchase with public securities, worth only twelve cents on the dollar, the actual purchase price was ap proximately eight cents an acre! The tract was bounded on the east by the Seven Ranges, al Alleghenies as a natural barrier, these hardy and determined men started on their brave, but dreary, trek. A Hazardous Journey. A journey through the mountain fastnesses at that time was haz ardous at any season; in mid winter it was termed by many as foolhardy. But the pioneers were going to a new land, there to carve homes from the vast, un broken wilderness ? their homes. They knew well that in order to survive during the next winter they must reach the new land in time to break ground and plant crops in the early spring. Traveling by ox-drawn Cones toga wagon and on foot they plod ded toward their goal. At Kit taning mountain the snow was so deep that Rufus Putnam records in his diary of the trip their abandonment of the wagons and the building of sleds, while the men tramped down the snow ahead of the oxen. Through howl ing mountain blizzards they groped their way, across frozen streams, the crunch of boot on snow sounding what must have seemed to them a drumbeat of farewell to civilization. After a toilsome journey of eight weeks they reached Sum erill's Ferry (now West Newton), Pennsylvania, on January 23. Here they paused seven weeks while, under the direction of Ship builder Jonathan Devol, they built boats to continue their jour ney by water, down the Youghi ogheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers to the Muskingum. The largest boat was a galley built of heavy timber and covered with a deck roof. Named the "Ad The ox-team and Conestoga wa;on which will take part in the re creation of the trek from Iptwich, Mass., to Marietta, Ohio. ready surveyed and ottered for sale by the Land Ordinance of 1785, on the south by the Ohio riv? er, and on the west by the seven teenth range. ( A halt million dollars was, to be paid when the contract was signed and a like amount when the government had completed the survey of the boundary lines of the tract On October 27, 1787, the contract was signed. Manas seh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent represented the Ohio company, Samuel Osgood and Arthur Lee signed for the Treasury board. Because the Ohio company could not pay the second installment when due the tract was reduced from a million and a half acres to 1,064,285 acres upon issuing the patent on May 20, 1792. By an other reduction of 100,000 acres for donation lands, the final pur chase was reduced to 004,289 acres. On December S, 1787, less than five months after passage of the ordinance, and only five weeks after their land purchase nego tiations had been completed, the original party of 48 pioneers started their long and arduous march to their new homes in the "Ohio country." In the dead of a New England winter, facing 700 miles of tedious ox team trav el, much of it through trackless forest, and with the snow-blocked venture Galley," it was 50 feet long, 13 feet wide and had an estimated carrying capacity of 21 tons. In addition a large flat boat and three canoes were built. Assisted by the swollen condi tion o( the rivers at the time the .party made splendid progress, 'despite numerous stops to take on supplies and provisions from the scattered settlements, and ar rived at the mouth of the Mus kingum in six days. In the haze , of a foggy morning on April 7, 1788, one of the members of the party commented to Rufus Put nam, leader of the expedition, that perhaps an observation should be made. Upon making it they found that they should be at their destination and, to their sur prise, learned that they had float ed past the mouth of the Mus kingum which was overhung with giant sycamores and almost en tirely obscured from view. With the aid of soldiers sta tioned at Fort Harmar, on the downstream bank of Muskingum, their boats were beached. About noon that day they were towed back across the Muskingum where they immediately set out to clear land for crops and to survey the land tor the city which was to be, and establish the first legal American settlement north west of the Ohio river under the Ordinance of 1787. There are several reasons why the Ohio company chose the hilly land along the Muskingum in preference to the more level tracts. In the first place""*outh ern Ohio was the only part to which the government could give ciear title. Eastern states, par ticularly Connecticut and Vir ginia, still claimed large areas within the territorial boundaries. The site, at the mouth of the Muskingum, was assured the protection of Fort Harmar, a mil itary outpost built three years be fore. Besides, Thomas Hutchins, geographer of the United States, who was intimately familiar with the territory, assured the Ohio company that the Muskingum valley was, in his opinion, "the best part of the whole of the western country." Manasseh Cutler, the shrewd Yankee who had engineered this important real estate deal and thus obtained these desirable lands, was born at Killingsly, Conn., May 3, 1742. He was grad uated from Yale at the age of twenty-three and for the next two years he worked in the whaling business and was a storekeeper at Edgarton on Martha's Vine yard. Finding this work distaste ful, he studied law, and was ad mitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1767. Finding this equally dis tasteful he studied theology and was ordained at Ipswich in 1771. He preached at Ipswich until the outbreak of the Revolution, when he joined the army as a chaplain. Returning to his parish shortly before the close of the war he de cided to study medicine, in due course received his M. D. degree, and for several years served a dual role as healer of both body and soul. Having mastered all of the so-called learned professions, he was, in addition, widely known for his scientific research, being an authority in astronomy, me teorology and botany. Besides all of these traits he was affable and readily made 'u, 0u4nj1sn*S friends in any company. Little wonder then that the directors of the newly-formed "Ohio Com pany of Associates" chose this adroit lawyer, preacher, doctor, scientist, to plead their cause be fore congress. Little wonder, either, that in four days he should completely reverse the course of congress and attain his objective in the passage of the ordinance. Notwithstanding his other accom plishments, this latter one as lobbyist made him an important, although not widely publicized, figure in the development of thi? nation. Our "First Colony." In reality the Northwest Terri tory, made possible by the Or dinance of 1787, was America's "first colony." The provision that all territories, after having ac quired a certain number of in habitants, would become states, equal in every way to the mother states, was the birth of a colonial policy new and unknown in all the world. Probably no other factor has played so great a part in the rapid development of a unified nation. In addition, the ordinance differed from usual law, in that it was a mutual agreement which bound both the United States and the Northwest Territory to its terms. Its pro visions could be repealed only by the consent of both parties. These provisions, along with all the other humanitarian principles embodied, provided a yardstick by which to measure values with the seaboard states; a pattern to follow in the organization of the remaining states which followed. Abraham Lincoln in his famed debate with Douglas said: "The Ordinance of 1787 was constantly looked to whenever a new terri tory was to become a state. Con gress always traced their coarse by that Ordinance." A new land was open ? a new land of promise, of rich soil, of verdant forests. Above all, it was the realization of a dream of a pioneer people in an incessant search for individual rights and liberties. Here, in the land be yond the River Ohio men and women were guaranteed for the first time the freedom which had been but ? hope through a cen tury and a half of tyrannical op pression, but a passion through eight tragic years of war. "Here the new nation, born of thirteen discordant and disputatious states, found, through its com mon child, the Northwest Terri tory, its formula to eminence among all the governments ol mankind " ~ IMPROVED UNIFORM INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY I chool Lesson By REV. HAROLD L. LUNDQUIST. Dean of the Moody Bible Inetitute , of Chicago. Q Western Newspaper Union. Lesson for December 5 CHRISTIAN REST LESSON TEXT? Matthew 11:28-30: H? brews 4:1-11. GOLDEN TEXT? Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and Z will give you rest ? Matthew 11:28. PRIMARY TOPIC? When We Are Tired JUNIOR TOPIC? God ? Great Invitation. INTERMEDIATE AND SENIOR TOPIC? How Christ Gives U? Resf. YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULT TOPIC? Christian Rest. "Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away," so sang Isaac Watts in 1719. One won ders what he might say today! The mad rush of modem life ? its relent less drawing of us all into its terrific tempo ? leaves us distraught, nerv ous, overanxious. Nervous disor ders are on a rapid increase, even among children. The condition pre vails in the country as well as in the city, although it is aggravated in metropolitan centers. Let us lay down the burdens of the universe for a bit and counsel quietly about that almost forgotten Christian virtue, rest. Nowhere can the troubled spirit find calm of soul as surely and as quickly as in God's Word ? and in the One revealed there, for true rest is I. Found in Christ (Matt. 11:25 30). Rest for our souls is found not in the cessation of activity, but rather in joining with Christ as our yoke fellow and in going on with him in meekness and lowliness of heart. Most of life's restlessness is the re sult of pride, of driving ambition to be somebody or to attain something. True humility removes all such dis turbing factors. But we do have a yoke and a bur den to bear. Yes, it is true that not all is easy in the Christian life. But as someone has suggested, the bur dens are like the burden of feathers on a bird. They may seem to be too heavy for his little body, but as a matter of fact they are the thing he flies with! Such are the "burdens" of Christ. II. Received by Faith (Heb. 4:3). Those who believe enter into rest. Faith in God through Jesus Christ brings a man into an abiding place that the storms of life may beat upon but can never move. Fair weather followers of Jesus who fall into a frenzy of fear and worry when sorrow or loss comes upon them need to learn to walk by faith. "Be not dismayed whate'er betide, God will take care of you," is more than the pious expression of a hymn writer, it is a statement of fact. III. Rejected by Unbelief (Heb. 4:1, 6-11). "The worst thing in the world" is unbelief ? because it effectually closes the door to God's blessing. Jesus could not do "many mighty works" in his home town of Nazareth "because of their unbelief (Matt. , 13:58). Unbelief will keep us from the rest that God has prepared for his people, for it not only hinders men from coming to the Saviour, but keeps them from resting in him after they are saved. IV. Necessary to Useful Living (v. 11). Only when the follower of Christ appropriates that rest of soul which results from turning from his own efforts and trusting himself fully to Christ will there be that absolute surrender of every detail and prob lem of life to him which will bring out in daily living the glorious beau ty and power of a life at rest with God. A poem by Fay Inchfawn which has blessed the writer's soul i3 here passed on, with the prayer that it may help you who read these notes: "Well. I am done. My nerves were on the rack. I've laid them down today: It MB tbe last straw broke the camel's back. I've laid that down today. No. I'll not fume, nor fuss, nor fight; I'll walk by faith a bit and not by sight, I think the universe will work all right. I've laid it down today. "So, here and now. the overweight, the worry. I'll lay it down today; The all-too-anxious heart; the tearing hurry; I'll lay these down today. 0 eager hands. O feet so prone to run. 1 think that He who made the stars and sun Can mind the things you've had to leave undone. Do lay them down today.'* How true it is that we are prone to bear all the burdens of the uni verse when God's Word has told us to cast all our care upon Him, for He careth for us (I Pet. 5:7). It is a powerful testimony for Christ when distraught and worry-ridden non-Christians see God's children walking steady and true in the midst of disappointments, trials, and sor rows. And the opposite is also true, that failure to trust God is a prac tical denial of our professed faith. A Good Patriot To be a good patriot, a man must consider his countrymen as God's creatures, and himself as account able (or his acting towards them. ? Bishop Berkeley. Duty i Duty ? the command of Heaven, the eldest voice of God. ? Charles Kingsley. r? Service All service ranks the same with God. ? Robert Browning. STAR DUST M.ovie ? Radio By VIRGINIA VALB IT IS a toss up whether Made leine Carroll or Loretta Young will be the most-exquis itely dressed screen star this winter. Miss Carroll writes from Paris that she is having the time of her life selecting costumes for "The River Is Blue" which she will start mak ing for Walter Wanger when she returns to Hollywood. Loretta Young was in New York recently buying fur coats, hats, and dresses by the score, just as if she hadn't had any new clothes in ages. Hollywood designers have just about run out of ideas for Lo retta for in her last four pictures she has had altogether some'' 80 changes of j costume, and each j one was supposed to be a knockout. The Madeleine more extreme and Carroll bizarre clothes are, the better she likes them ? so she keeps designers working overtime. Ton will be hearing a lot from now on about Ilona Massey, who makei ber American screen debut in M-G-M's "Rosalie." Officials of the company are so delighted with her performance in a minor role that they are going to give ber the title role in "Pompadour," one of the most alluring beauties in history or drama. There is one popular radio player who will have to mend her ways if she ever goes into motion pictures ? and most of them do sooner or later. Alice Frost of the "Big Sister" cast comes out of rehearsals with her forehead all smudged. She holds a pencil in her hand, and in a mo ment of dramatic tension invariably draws the point across her forehead. The Jinx that has dogged the foot steps of all Hollywood players who appeared on the Broadway stage this season has at last been knocked out. Frances Farmer broke the spell. She opened recently in "Gold en Boy," a play about a prize fight er, and the critics went into rhapso dies over her deft playing of ro mantic scenes. The battle of the two great glam orous stars of the screen, Garbo and Deitrich, turns out to be no battle at all when you see their new pic tures, "Conquest" and "Angel." Garbo is so far in the lead that there is just no competition at all. "Conquest" is a lavishly-produced, historically-faithful romance of the time of Napoleon, and Garbo as the lovely Countess Walewska has nev er been more appealing. "Angel," on the other hand, is just an incon sequential modem triangle story. Because of ber good work in the new Fred Astaire picture, "Damsel in Distress," Joan Fontaine is go ing to get a strange reward. She is going to be starred in "Curtain Call," which Katherine Hepburn turned down. Don't think she minds taking this hand-me-down, .though. It is a grand story. Edgar Bergen and Charlie Mc Carthy will be in the cast of a new comedy that will feature Irene Dunne and as a result she is the envy of nil Hollywood as well as the public at large. Her outstand ing success as a comedienne in "The Awful Truth" influ enced Universal to postpone their biog Charlie McCarthy raphy of Madame Curie and instead of that story to cast her in a comedy. Thus she has estab lished herself as a double threat actress, at home in heavy drama as well as light farce. ODDS AND ENDS ? Constance Bennett is the envy of all the pampered stars, be cause Alfalfa Stveizer of "Our Gang " comedies serenades her in his hilariously uncertain tenor . . . Ken Murray and Edgar Bergen have evidently decided that they are in pictures to stay because they have both bought ranches out near Al Jolson's . . . Ann Sothern's sister, Bonnie Lake, has composed a song and sold it lor "Cirl of the Golden West" . , , Kate Smith is toying tcilh t ha idem of trying motion pictures attain. C Western Newspaper UbIm, An Acre of Dirty Dishes In 12 months the average woman washes an acre of dirty dishes, S miles of clothes, 1 mile of glass and 8 miles of floors, declared a home service director of a gas as sociation in London. Degree of Latitude, Longttnde A degree of latitude is about 69 miles. A degree of longitude is about 08 miles at the Equator, but becomes less going north or south until it is no distance as the parallels meet at the poles. Foxy Little Terrier For Tea Towels Terry, the Terrier, will dry your dishes with the same "punch" he displays when rolling glasses and hurdling silver. It will make your dish-drying a joy just to see his jolly sell on the towels you use. These motifs require so few Pattern 5746. stitchete, so little floss, they're eco nomical and ideal pick-up work. Single, outline and cross stitch make this splendid embroidery for a gift. In pattern 5746 you will find a transfer pattern of six mo tifs averaging 5 by 8 "A inches; material requirements; color sug gestions; illustrations of all stitches used. To obtain this pattern, send 15 cents in stamps or coins (coins preferred) to the Sewing Circle, Household Arts Dept., 259 W. Fourteenth St., New York, N. Y. Please write your name, ad dress and pattern number plainly. .Ask Me JUiother ^ A General Quia 1. Which arc the three largest (resh-water Jakes in the world? 2. In what country did geome try originate? 3. What is the minimum age for the office of President of the United States? 4. In what country has a con demned criminal the choice of drinking cyanide of potassium or being hanged? 5. In Roman mythology who was Lucina? Answers 1. Lakes Superior, Victoria (Af rica), and Huron. 2. The history of the science be gins in Greece, but mensuration was developed to a considerable extent at an early period in Egypt, Babylonia and India. 3. Thirty-five years. 4. In Estonia the death penalty in murder cases gives the con demned this choice. 5. Goddess of Light. YOU CAN THROW CARDS IN HIS FACE ONCE TOO OFTEN WHEN you have those awful cramps; when your nerve* are all on edge ? don't take It out on the man you love. Your husband can't possibly know how you feel for the simple reason that he is a man. A three-quarter wife may be no wife at ail if she nags her hus band seven days out of every month. For three generations one womsn has told another how to go "smil ing through" with Lydia E. Pink ham's Vegetable Compound. It helps Nature tone up the system, thus Inssnning the discomforts from the functional disorders which women must endure in the three ordeals of life: 1. Turning frost girlhood to womanhood. 2. Pre paring for motherhood. 1 Ap proaching "middle age. '* Don't be a three-quarter wife, take LYDIA E. PINKHAM*8 VEGETABLE COMPOUND sad Go "Smiling Through." A Companion Choose an author as you choose a friend. ? Dillon. 666 MALARIA la three days GOLDS UQUID. TABLETS flr?*d?T MLVE. NOSE MOPS_HMfctjN, 30 WM WNU ? 4 48?37 ADVERTISING. is at essential to business as is rain to growing crops. It is the keystone in the arch of successful mer chandising Let us show you how to apply it to your business.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Dec. 2, 1937, edition 1
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