| Show 1 0 pioneers pioneers re na A q baves bobby bo dby bs ker 4 e W py a W b I 1 ix 01 N ly 4 YN n V arx JR aeK ansac tv 11 ia 44 ay TJ la a of offie am tl rb ail w X thep boneer ar bio lorea rt taft ey X by ELMO SCOTT WATSON HE setting aside of one day in the year the second sunday in may for special observance as mothers day haq been a custom of comparatively recent development in this country but one whose sentiment has appealed strongly to all americans similarly the offering of tangible evidence of our debt of gratitude to one lar type of mother who had so much to do with the building of our nation the pioneer mother has also come about only recently but with a great abundance as though to make up tor for the former neglect by the very number of memorials to her an early american poet in paying tribute to the mothers of the west once flung this chal lenge to his fellow countrymen their monument where does it stand their epitaph who reads no braver dames bad had sparta no nobler matrons rome nome yet who or lauds or honors them E en in their own green home the mothers of our forest band landl they sleep in unknown graves and had they borne and nursed a band of ingrates or of slaves they had not been more neglected neglect edl but their graves shall yet be found and their monument monuments dot here and there the dark and bloody ground had this poet lived until now he would have found hia his answer in many places besides the dark and bloody ground of kentucky he could be taken over the splendid national high way known as the national old trails road and in twelve of the cities on that road beth esda md lid washington pa wheeling W va springfield ohio richmond ind vandalia III lexington mo council grove kan la mar colo albuquerque N M springerville Spring erville ariz and upland calif he could be shown statues upon each of which Is thia inscription the madonna of the trail N S D A R memorial to the pioneer mothers of the covered wagon days T y IV V V V nor would this chain of memorials which link the atlantic and the I 1 be the only bonu ments erected to perpetuate the memory of the women who rho followed fol loRed the star by destiny west ward which he could be shown for recent years have seen an increasing number of in divi duals and patriotic organizations giving evidence of a determination to pay a tribute to the pioneer mothers of their communities or their states in some enduring form the earliest of these was the statue of the pilgrim mother the work of the distinguished american sculptor paul W bartlett which was erected in Province provincetown town mass mars in connection with the pilgrim tercentenary celebration in 1920 this same mother was ras also honored in the pilgrim memorial fountain at plymouth mass authorized by the national society of the daughter daughters of the american revolution in 1020 1920 but not actually dedicated until just as it was appropriate that the first memorial to a pioneer mother should be erected on the atlantic coast so it Is appropriate that the latest one in 1828 1028 should have been erected on the pacific coast in vancouver wash in between in both time and location have been erected statues of the pioneer mother her self or statuary groups of a pioneer family in worcester mass in elmwood ill in topeka kan in kansas city mo near ponca city okia okla in wichita kan on the campus of the university of oregon at eugene and there are under way vay projects for similar memorials in other cities and states in several cases there has been some dispute as to the appropriateness of the delineation of the tle pioneer mother by some of the sculptors commissioned to execute the memorials dis 11 agreements have arisen over details of costume and as to whether or not the p aneer mother should be shown holding a rifle an axe or a scythe as a symbol of the era in which she lived this was ras especially true when 12 of the leading sculptors of the country submitted mod els for the statue of the pioneer woman which E W marland the oklahoma oil millionaire proposed to erect on the famous cherokee strip in oklahoma the last government land opened to homesteaders the 12 different models were exhibited in a number of the leading cities of the country so that the public would be given a chance by popular vote in eich vich city to aid mr lk marland larland in making his selection when the exhibit was wag held in denver colo it brought from lee tay lor casey an ed tordal writer on the rocky mountain news the following eloquent tribute to the subject of the these thee e models the pioneer american woman not one woman tl e composite of many NN women omen it must be not one of our historic heroines but an ideal woman but not ideal aed aw aray ay from her environment that would rould never do and it must not be attempted for the sake of pleasing the purely fastidious think of that pioneer american woman 1 conjure her in the brain but first of all con s der what confronted her go back and learn of her antecedents and what the years must hae hane hammered into her soul and done to strengthen her body she had been prepared in a hard school not hardened or coarsened but tempered to bend and not to break one thing to be remembered remember elin in making the final selection she had a spirit sense she must have had in her the soul of a martyr the pioneer american woman did not come solely for her gain always she was buoyed in her heart by the thought that she was in the service of a higher power working in the lords vineyard a bleak enough one as it turned out to be she had the homesteading instinct and this need not be overlooked desire for a home of her own onn and freedom she waa was looking ahead generations ahead as what pioneer woman in her innermost soul does not to sustain her she must have had that far vision ingrained within her which Is not given to the male she envisaged herself in the future of the race that was to spring from her tl TI e pioneer NN oman was not a motherless woman the pioneer woman of the west was the daughter of the pioneer woman anoman in america dowered with the latter s courage fortitude and resourcefulness she was born to endure hardships she was not afraid of the wide waste spaces and her intuition was to better those that came after as much as herself she too had a perspective a maternal tive if you please the models produced by the sculptors are varied and should give pleasure among them to a great number hardly needful to irate they are works of art beyond question from the salon and artistic points of view because the artists chosen are already famous one model Is delightful to look at in the photo graph but it is not a model of the pioneer american woman most americans will have in their minds mind s eyes A puritan an idealized one maybe one or two of the figures may not appeal because of their clas cism for the model to be chosen must be of itself amer lean not greek or italian A noble looking mother Is to be found among the dozen sev bial are armed the pioneer man has been sung of in plen ty too often the N oman pioneer Is forgotten the heroics belong to the male but his mate gave in pride and faith so that her sons and 1 Ms Is m know what Is the meaning of a mans man s I 1 fe and a w m oman a spirit adventure we take up the tak ta k eternal and the burden and the lesson pioneers 0 pioneers I 1 v v v v in the light of this writers words she had espirit a spirit sense alvais she wa buoyed in her heart by the thought that she was in the service of a higher power working in the lord a v beyard a bleak enough one as it turned out to be it Is interesting to note that the final selection for the marland memorial was not tl at of a woman roman holding a rifle an axe or a scythe instead it was a woman carrying under her arm a B ble I 1 1 As mr casey says one of the models that of the puritan woman the pilgrim mother waves farewell above Is not the pioneer worn wom an most americans will have in their minds eyes but even though this woman because e of her garb may not well represent the pioneer woman of oti er sections of the country and of other periods the fact remains that the all grim woman roman and the puritan woman of massa chu were the first pioneer mothers and to them a special meed of honor Is due V V v v A fitting tribute to them was paid at the bedl cation of the pilgrim memorial fountain in plymouth mass in 1925 1025 by mrs george may nard minor honorary pre president aident general of the D A R when nhen she said on their monument we say they brought up their eimil es in sturdy virtue and a living faith in god without which nations perish after daring the perils of tl ti e unknown ocean and the still more unknown land after sharing with the men all the hardships and privations and sufferings of a voyage of weeks in a cockleshell cockle shell of a boat and land ng on a desolate and savage coat in the dead of winter inhabited only by wild men and wild beasts after experiences that might well over come the hard est and most gallant nature they settled down to the mak ng of homes with a faith in the dally daily presence and guid guld ance of god which sustained them in every hour of need through hunger ani starvation through sickness and de death deith ith which exacted the toll of halt their number they toiled on and endured looking only horard tow ard the goal of their h gh calling in christ jesus we hear far more about the pilgrim fa than we do about the pilgrim mothers while in no way wishing to detract from the rightful glory of the fathers nevertheless it is time that the world realized the part that these women played hi in civilization it is time that history tool note of them rarely it if ever are they mentioned by name except in the genealogies or by specialists in pil grim history their names with few excel eions are not household words in our tongues like those of miles standish sh or william bradford and the rest they figure only in the passenger list of the May mayflower floRer and only as mary or katherine Kather hather lne etc wife of so and so the family names of but few are given the names of some are literally un known not even the baptismal name being recorded these latter egure solely as the wives of the fathers rathers without further fi catlon cation we may read the tragic list for ourselves the wife of john tilly who was wag she by what name was she called in those terrific years of sorrow and suffering the maid mald ant of the carvers who was rag she what faith falness and courage must have been hers to follow her master and mistress into such an adventure yet her name is lost and her identity sunk in oblivion we have inscribed on our fountain all the names that are known we have cut them into deathless stone that all coming generations may read and remember and we have so indicated the nameless that they may share in the immortality of the rest unknown sol diers of a future nation we salute you I 1 Q by western newspaper union |
