100 years ago
aOCTOBER 20, 1904 — To get hold of some real interesting things one has but to inquire of those whose lives have reached back toward the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Old people crowding past the three score years and ten allotted to man, who have lived in the pioneer days, who have seen all of the crude and all of the new in our form of living; whose faculties are still keen, and whose memories are still vivid, in spite of their years; these can tell some interesting things if you just ask them to.
In fact we never see a real old person, whose faculties are still preserved but what we think of what a wonderful repository of reminiscences they are, and what a panorama of changes has been crowded into the long span of their years.
Here are a few interesting things which have come to us out of the golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Paddock, who came to Marion county many years ago, and who for the past twenty years have been residents of Emporia.
They celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary last Saturday by having "home" all the family, children and grandchildren, sixteen in number, only the wives of two of the sons being absent, Mrs. A.W. and H.P. Paddock.
They invited a few of their most intimate neighbors to celebrate with them. There were also present witnesses of the ceremony performed fifty years before, Messers C.P. and A.P., Creek of Indiana.
To each guest was given by the old people a gold lined souvenir card containing a list of antiquities which they have preserved during their long and happy marriage. An interesting history is connected with each but we have space for only one or two. Here is the list: Brass clock bought by Elihu Coleman in 1722 in London. Crock bought by Newton Gardner in 1850. Quilt made by Elizabeth Folger, mother of Mrs. Paddock, in 1810. Bed spread made by same person in 1812. Bed spread made by Pauline Gardner 1845 and 1852. Salt cellar and tea plates quaint and old fashioned made and used in 1839-38. The old bureau with which they began keeping house in 1854. Cane made of whale's jawbone in 1836. Teaspoons over one hundred years old. Silver cups awarded to Mr. Paddock as stock premiums in 1854. Wedding clothes. Case of antiquities. Pictures fifty years old. Baby clothes made for "Webb" and "Pres" before the days of the sewing machine.
These were distributed around the house, numbered to correspond with the card, and the history of each given.
The history of the old brass clock is like this — Elihu Coleman was a boy eighteen years old when the first whale was caught by the crew of the vessel upon which he was shipped. According to old English custom every sailor eighteen or past was entitled to share in the "catch" of whales. Coleman being eighteen on the day the whale was caught, was the cause of a contention as to whether he was entitled to share in the spoils, some claiming that he was not entitled to share because the whale was sighted before he was eighteen. He took the matter to the courts and won. With his share of the whole bones he bought the clock in London in 1722. He made the case for it himself. What the old clock could tell if it were endowed with speech is beyond the imagination to conceive, but it reveals the fact that these good old people can trace their lineage back to when Martha's Vineyard and Elizabeth's Island had their governor, and even beyond that, and back to the time when men looked for fortune by "going down to the sea in ships."
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Many of the old settlers, especially in the vicinity of Hillsboro, will cherish kindly memories of W.C. Hill who died in this city last Tuesday. He moved with his family to Hillsboro in 1879, his being the second family in the town and his house was the fourth one built in that now thriving little city. For many years he was Justice of the Peace there, so long in fact that the name by which he was best known was "Squire" Hill. He was always active and earnest in promoting the welfare of the town, and was a good neighbor and loyal friend. He was greatly afflicted during his last years, being unable to walk, and blind. Death came as a sweet relief, and ushered his soul into the eternal morning.
The old stone house south of Frank Morse's place on Third Street, was destroyed by fire last Sunday morning about two o'clock. The fire alarm failed to awaken many, and few responded to pull the hose cart. The building was almost totally destroyed. No great loss was incurred however.
October eighteenth, (when this was written) and still no killing frost! Certainly all of the corn and the feed will have had ample time to mature, after the late planting necessitated by the floods and unfavorable weather, earlier in the year. Kansas always has a way of compensating for all her losses.
(Copied by Joan Meyer from the 1904 microfilm files of the Marion Record.)
