Show 0 pioneers pioneers rio XA pioneers V of 1 0 L s 4 t V L J 7 av waves T 3 I 1 ig t ay vr X 9 1 1 r NY 4 r Tie Kansas i woman bar r brilant baker ay abara ab SW 7 h Z T 1 i 0 aneer P r ta mily ia by taft by ELMO SCOTT WATSON l HE setting aside of one day in the year the second sunday in may for special observance as mothers day has hag 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 particular type of mother who had so much to do with the building of our nation the pioneer mother has hag also come about only recently but with a great abunda abundance nes as though to make up 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 challenge to his big fellow countrymen their monument chere does it stand their epitaph who reads no braver dames had bad sparta no nobler matrons matrona rome yet tet who or lauds or honors them eren een in their own green home me the th mothers of our forest land they sleep in unknown graves andrad and had they borne and nursed a band of In frates grates or of slaves they had riot not been more neglected I 1 but their gravo graves shall yet be found and their monuments dot here and there the dark and bloody ground had this thia poet lived until now he would have found his answer in many places besides the dark and bloody ground of kentucky ne ile could be taken over the splendid national highway known as the national old trails road and in twelve of the cities on that road bethesda md washington pa wheeling W va springfield ohio richmond KIch mond ind vandalla vandalia ill dl lexington mo council grove kan lamar colo albuquerque N X M Spring springerville erville ariz aril and upland calif he could be shown statuel upon each of which Is this thia inscription the madonna of the trail N S D A it memorial to the pioneer mothers of the covered wagon days V V V v nor would this chain of memorials which link the atlantic and the pacific be the only monuments erected to perpetuate the memory of the women who followed the star by destiny westward which he be could be shown for recent years have seen been an increasing number of individuals 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 traded in blass la in connection with the pilgrim tercentenary celebration in 1920 this same mother was also honored in the pilgrim memorial fountain at plymouth mass authorized by the national society of the daughters of the american revolution in 1920 2920 but not actually dedicated until 1925 just its as it was appropriate that the first memorial to k pioneer mother should be erected on the atlantic coast so it Is appropriate that the latest one in 1828 1528 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 elt or statuary groups of a pioneer family in worcester mass in elmwood ill in topeka kan in kansas city mo near ponca city okla in wichita kan on the campus of the university of oregon at eugene and there are under way projects tor for similar memorials in other ether cities and states to in several cases there has been some dispute as 88 to the appropriateness of the delineation of the pioneer mother by some of the sculptors tora commissioned to execute the memorials dis dl P ae 0 I 1 CEO 4 1 01 1 1 41 agreements have arisen over details of costume and as to whether or not the pioneer mother should be shown holding a rifle an axe or a scythe as a symbol of the era in which she lived this was especially true when 12 of the leading sculptors ot of the country submitted models for the statue of the pioneer woman which E IV 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 each city to aid sir BIT Bl marland arland in making his selection when the exhibit was wag held in denver colo it brought from lee taylor casey an editorial writer on the rocky mountain news new the following eloquent tribute to the subject of these models the american woman not one woman tile the composite of many women momen it must be not one of our historic heroines but an ideal woman but not idealized away from her environment that would never do and it must not be attempted tor for the sake of pleasing the purely fastidious think of that pioneer american woman 1 conjure her in the brain but first of all consider what confronted her go back and learn of her antecedents and what the years must have hammered into her soul and done to strengthen her body she had been prepared in a hard bard school not hardened or coarsened but tempered to bend and not to break one thing to be remembered 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 1111 higher gher power working in the lords vineyard a bleak enough one as it turned out to be she had the home homesteading instinct and this need not be overlooked desire for a home of her own and freedom she 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 the pioneer woman was not a motherless woman the pioneer woman of the west was the daughter of the pioneer Iio neer woman in america dowered cowered with ith the batters lat courage fortitude and resourcefulness resourceful slie 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 perspective if you please the models produced by the sculptors are varied and should give pleasure among them to a great number hardly needful to state they are works of art beyond question from the salon balon and artistic points of view because the artists chosen are already famous one model Is delightful to look at in the photograph but it is not a model of the pioneer amerlean american woman most americans americana will have in their mind minds eyes A puritan an idealized one niad mabe be one or two of the figures may not appeal because of their classicism for the model to be chosen must be of 0 itself american not greek or italian A noble looking mother Is to be found among the dozen several are armed the pioneer man has been sung of in plenty too often the woman pioneer is forgotten the heroics belong to the male but his mate gave in pride and faith so that her sons and his might know what is the meaning of 0 a mans life and a comans w omans spirit adventure we take up the task tak eternal and the burden and the lesson pioneers 0 pioneers P v v v v in the light of tills this writers words she had espirit a spirit sense always she was buoyed in her heart by the thought that she was wag in the service of a higher power working in the lords line ine yard a bleak enough one as it turned out to be it Is interesting to note that the final selection tor for the marland memorial was not that of a woman holding a rifle ride an axe or a scythe instead it was a woman oman carrying under her arm a bible As mr casey says one of the models that of the puritan woman the pilgrim mother waves farewell shown shou a above Is not the pioneer woman most americans will voll have in their minds eyes but even though this woman noman because of her garb may not well represent the pioneer woman moman of other sections of the country and of other periods period tile tact fact remains that the pilgrim woman and the puritan woman of massachusetts chu were the first pioneer mothers and to them a special meed of honor Is due y V v va v A fitting tribute to them was paid at the dedication of the 1111 pilgrim grim memorial fountain in plymouth mass blass in 1925 1023 by mrs george maynard minor honorary president general of the D A B R when she said on their monument we say they brought up their families in sturdy virtue and a living faith in god without which nations perish after daring the perils of the 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 landing on a desolate and savage coast in the dead of winter inhabited only by wild men and wild md beasts after experiences that might well overcome the hardiest handiest har diest and most gal gallant larit nature they settled down to the making of homes with a faith in the dally daily presence and guidance of god which sustained them in every hour of need through hunger and starvation through sickness and death which exacted the toll of halt half their number they tolled on and endured looking only toward the goal of their high calling in christ jesus we hear far more about the pilgrim F fathers a 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 tn in civilization it Is time that history took note of them rarely if ever are they mentioned by name except in the genealogies or by specialists in pilgrim history their names with few exceptions are not household words in our tong tongues mes like those of allies standish sh or william bradford and the rest they figure only in the passenger list of the mayflower and only as mary blary or katherine Kath erino etc wife of so and so the family names of but few are given the names of some are literally unknown not even the baptismal name being recorded these latter figure solely as the wives of the fathers father without further identification fi we may read the tragic list for ourselves the wife of john tilly vho aho wag she by what name was she called in those terrific years of sorrow and suffering buffering the maidservant of the carvers who wag as she what faithfulness and courage must have been hers to follow her master and mistress into such nn 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 go BO indicated the nameless that they may share in the immortality of the rest unknown soldiers of a future nation we salute you I 1 by western newspaper union |