Mr. Chairman, Revered Old Settlers and Visitors:
. . . Primitive man lived in trees, where he rushed to safety at
the approach of danger. Directly, he learned to use a club and
climbed down from the trees and fought his way to caves for
shelter. From these caves he would sally forth . . . Eventually,
men began to congregate and to band together, first as a family,
then a tribe or clan and later as a nation, and in so doing they
put in practice that great fundamental truth on which is based
all progress: "In Union there is strength," exemplified in modern
times by the bundle of sticks, so well known to some of us. . .
Our early Pioneers in Putnam County followed the rules of conduct
prescribed by their predecessors in frontier life in Kentucky,
Virginia and Ohio, and followed the lines of least travel
resistance, generally along watercourses--by way of Eel River, up
Big Walnut and Deer Creeks--and thus throughout the County. Once
located, and having few and distant neighbors, and with
communication more or less difficult, a barn-raising, log-
rolling, quilting bee or spelling match was an event of some
moment and not of such common experience as to be ignored.
As time wore on, roads were established; settlements became
thicker; mercantile trade followed barter, and money began to
circulate and to be offered and accepted in payment; wagons and
buggies replaced saddles and saddle bags; railroads were built;
newspapers and postal service became more numerous and easier;
the telegraph and later the telephone annihilated distance;
churches and school houses sprung up; the regular preacher took
the place of the circuit rider; factory-made shoes drove out the
"pair of fine boots"; power looms and hole-proof socks (in name
only) routed knitting needles; and so on, until now Sears-Roebuck
is trying to rout everybody and everything.
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