Eagleville Missouri

At Eagleville each year is held the old settlers' meeting.  The meetings are informal and the object is for the old settlers to get together and renew old acquaintances rather than to have a regular program.  The association was founded at a time and under circumstances when men and women felt keenly the bond of human sympathy.  It is generally understood that forty years' residence in the county constitutes one an old settler, so this association can be perpetuated, providing the people continue to take an interest in it.  The secretary of the association, O.W. Curry, gives the following report of the origanization of the Old Settlers' Association:

On July 4, 1863, there was assembled at Eagleville a large crowd of people to celebrate the Fourth and if possible learn news from the siege of Vicksburg.  This assembly was made up of the fathers, mother, wives, sweethearts and children of soldiers who were at that time engaged in the great conflict between the North and the South.  News was very scarce, the mail coming only once a week, and each man who came from any distance was eagerly sought after and questioned as to what he knew, if anything, of those at the front.  It was a sad crowd that awaited on the Fourth of July the return of a carrier sent on horseback to Gallatin to bring news from the front.  The news was sure to sadden the hearts of many, and yet they waited, firmly bound together by the common tie of sympathy and grief.  It was under these circumstnaces and among the early pioneers of this county, who had not only shared the hardships of pioneer life together but who has sent their sons to the front to fight and, if need be, to die for the cause that they believed right, that the first old settlers' meeting was held in Harrison county.  In a speech made at that meeting by Dr. James L. Downing it was stated that Vicksburg would fall in the next few days, if it had not already fallen, and it was there agreed that each year thereafter the Old Settlers would meet to celebrate that occasion.

For many years these meetings were held on the fourth day of July, but in the year 1908 it was decided to change the date of the meetings to the second Tuesday in September of each year.  There are always a few who attended the first meeting of the Old Settlers present at these meetings. The records of their meetings call to mind many men who have been prominent in the affairs of the county.

submitted by: Melody Beery
mbeery@grm.net




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