11 April 1896, 31 years and 2 days after the surrender at Appomattox, Adam delivered a speech to an 8th grade history class at the Park Middle School.
The Evening News (Lincoln)
April 11, 1896
(transcript)
Adam Ickes, a veteran of the late war, entertained the eighth
grade history class of the Park school yesterday afternoon by narrating
important facts about the war. He told of the number of troops called for and
the number that responded. He named the number slain in the important battles
and also the number who were starved in rebel prison pens. He also gave
interesting accounts of how the armies advanced on each other; the duties of
picket and skirmish lines and many other interesting things. Comrade Ickes took
part in many important battles, and was just twenty years old on the day Lee
surrendered to the silent captain at Appomattox.
Fort Sumter 4/13/61
Evacuated next day
109 men all told no
loss.
7000 men under Beureaugard
– 4 wounded
4/15 call for 75000
militia 90 days
Response – see next page.
4/16 & 18th
Fort Pickens re-inforced
4/18 Burning Arsenal Harper’s
Ferry
4/19 First blood
Baltimore about 40 killed & wounded
1860 Population North 22,340,777
South 9,103,014
Total 31,443,790
5/24 Ellsworth, “Behold
my trophy”
Jackson
Behold mine.
6/10 Big Bethel – Defeat through mistake.
Booneville, Carthage
& Wilson’s Creek
8/9/61 Death of Gen Lyon
7/21/61 Bull Runn
McDowell troops 28,000
Beauregard troops 31,000
Union loss
Killed 481
Wounded 1011
Missing 1460
2952
Rebel loss
Killed 378
Wounded 1489
Missing 30
2897
Gov. Letcher of Va.
I have only to say that
the militia of Va. will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any
such use or purpose as they have in view.
Your object is to subjugate the southern states and a requisition made
upon me for such an object will not be complied with.
You have chosen to
inaugurate civil war, and having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as
determined as the administration has exhibited toward the South.
Govs Ellis of N.C.
& Magoffin of Kentucky, added to their refusal a denunciation of the course
of the government as “wicked”.
Gov. Rector of
Arkansas, stigmatized the demand as “adding insult to injury”, and talked of
defense against “Northern mendacity and usurpation. ”
Gov. Harris, of Tenn,
said he had not a man for coercion but 50,000 for the defense of the rights of
his Southern brethren; while Gov. Jackson, of Mo. Poured out his wrath in words
“illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhuman, diabolical”.
Govs. Burton and Hicks
of Dela. & Maryland answered with bated breath, in the form of
proclamation. They found themselves
without power to comply &c. Delaware
did send a regiment. But the Gov. of
Maryland wrung his hands and bemoaned himself over the perplexities of his
situation. Disloyal men were numerous
and among them were many wealthy slaveholders of high social position.
The governor endeavored
to placate his constituents by assuring them that no troops should be sent from
the state except to defend the Nat’l capitol.
Two eras of the war are
distinctly marked. The first ended in
the summer of 1863 in the victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg.
Men of the same
nationality met in opposing ranks upon the field of battle. Their hearts swell with the same pride of
country and palpitate with the same beat of heroism. The issue of an engagement would seem to lie
in the advantage of position or in superior numbers. The 2000 battles fought during the war
demonstrate the fact that no more lofty acts are to form in the records of
authentic history &c &c.
Calls for Troops –
4/15/61 – 75,000 militia 3 mos. 91,816
5/3/61 – 500,000 men 3 yrs. 700,680
/6/62 15,007
7/2/62 – 300,000 men 3 yrs. 421,465
8/4/62 – 300,000 Militia 9
mos. 87,588
6/15 Militia 16,361
10/17/63 – 500000 men 3 yrs. 369,380
3/14/64 – 200000 men 3 yrs. 292,193
7/18/64 – 500000 men 1,2&3 yrs. 386,461
4/23 to 7/18, 113000 Militia 100 days 83,612
12/19/64 – 300000 men 1,2&3
yrs. 212,212
Various men 60 days to 3 yrs. 188,253
2,788,000 2,865,032
Nebraska pop. 1860 28, 841 furnished
3,157
Confederate Army about 1,500,000
Casualties Union killed
61,362
Died in rebel
prisons 71,000
Died from disease &
wounds 167,638
300,000
This means the
destruction of an army of stalwart men larger than any England ever put in the
field. It means more vigorous young men
than there are in several of the states.
Think of the horrors of
Andersonville which swept into eternity more than the entire quota of fighting
men from gallant little Delaware, and of a total mortality in prison greater
than the entire quota from the great state of Maine.
These men died to
secure a Union victory just as much as they have done in a charging column. By their sacrifice fully 100,000 rebels were
kept in northern prisons and from the lines in front of Grant & Sherman.
Union soldiers killed
in the twelve great battles of the was
Gettysburg 3,070
Wilderness 2,246
Chancellorsville 1,606
Cold Harbor 1,844
Manassas 1,747
Stone’s River 1,730
Spotsylvania 2,725
Antietam 2,180
Chickamauga 1,656
Fredericksburg 1,284
Shilo 1,754
Petersburg 1,599
23,430
Personal reminiscences-
Conclusion –
Over 30 yrs have
passed-
The most sanguine hopes
The country they saved
has prosp-
The direct result
purchased-
And the lives of those
who fell
The brave men who
passed through that crucial test are fast passing away.
The flag that floats
from the staff on top of this building is to be a constant reminder to you of
the terrible cost which has been required to establish, maintain and perpetuate
our free institutions and to preserve the Union one & inseparable.
It is our aim in
keeping the flag it so prominently before you to in graft into your
lives such a spirit of devotion to the flag “that will be to you an incentive
to the most unselfish patriotism and a guard against everything that can disgrace
the past our noble dead have made sacred”.
And it is our hope that
it may inspire in your hearts such a love for country & flag that shall
keep the land forever united, beautiful and free.
 |
| Park Middle School Lincoln, Nebraska (The original building looks to be on the right.) |
In 1897 Adam attended an insurance convention in Des Moines, Iowa and spoke at the evening banquet.
Des Moines Daily
June 5, 1897
Adam probably did a lot of business travel while working as an insurance salesman. It appears he wrote a poem entitled "Is Life Worth Living" while visiting Central City, Nebraska on 15 Feb 1899 and re-copied it on hotel stationery 22 November 1903. You can make your own judgement as to his state of mind.
Is Life Worth Living?
Is life worth living; say I
When filled with pain & woe;
The sorrows of today
Work havoc as they go.
They say, “The world is round”,
I often think it’s square;
I’m thwarted bruised and doomed
By corners here and there.
The sunlight hides in gloom
Beyond the eastern sky,
Methinks I hear my doom,
“Not coming”, love don’t cry!
My heart is sad and faint,
Deep furrows mar my cheeks,
I have but this complaint
For hours and days and weeks.
The pleasures of the past
Still linger sweet and dear,
But now O God, at last
The end has come I fear.
Kind heaven lend thy hand,
Support and hold me up;
Direct me with thy word,
Remove the bitter cup.
The dream of future years
Is dark and dull to me,
Mine eyes are dim with tears
O! sweetheart, help me see.
The way is dark and rough,
I’m weak and all alone.
O! hear the cry enough!
“Thy will, not mine be done”.
At Central City Neb.
2/15/99
The 1900 census shows that the Ickes family was living in Lincoln together with two other "daughters", Georgia and Ida. If you remember, Adam and Ellen's oldest son John and his family moved to Sidney in 1885. Georgia came with them, so I know Georgia is John's daughter and Adam and Ellen's granddaughter. Georgia's birth year should have been listed as 1884 and not 1874, and she really would have been 16 years old before the census taker changed it to 26. (The census taker was an idiot.) Ida confuses me.
 |
| 1900 census, Lincoln, Nebraska |
John's family was still in Sidney in 1900. The census taker wrote down that John's wife, Annie, indicated that she gave birth to 4 children and 4 of them were alive. If three children were living with them - Harry, Valerie, and Oral - and Georgia was living with the grandparents, then who was Ida?
 |
| 1900 census, Sidney, Nebraska |
But in 1910, John and Annie were either separated or divorced, John was living alone in Kimball, Nebraska and Annie was still in Sidney living with their youngest daughter, Oral. But this time, Annie said she gave birth to 5 children and only 3 of them were still living.
 |
| 1910 census, Sidney, Nebraska |
So I kept following the census records for Annie through the remainder of her life. In 1920 she was living with her son Harry and her daughter Georgia. In 1930 she was living with her daughter Oral. In 1940 she was living with her daughter Georgia again. So that accounts for her three living children: Harry, Georgia, and Oral. I think the 1910 census was correct in that she gave birth to 5 children and only 3 of them were living, which would account for neither Ida nor Valerie ever being seen or accounted for again in any subsequent searchable records.
One thing I do know for sure - all those people with family trees on ancestry.com listing Georgia and Ida as Adam and Ellen's daughters are completely wrong.
On 9 April 1903, Adam commemorated his 58th birthday by writing an original poem.
Today I’m eight and
fifty years,
I’ve heard the ring of
many cheers
With hearty lusty glow;
The bliss that swept
with rosy hours
We such as pleasure
seldom showers
Om (sic.) mortals here below.
My future years are
full of hope,
I’ll strive for
something more than dope
To lengthen out my
days;
I’m on life’s swift
toboggan slide,
In rain or sunshine I
must ride
And riding, --mend my
ways.
It isn’t far from fifty
eight
To three score ten
man’s destined fate,
And then the great
beyond,-
Where we have promise
we shall spend
The years that never
have an end,
And cease to talk “Gold
Bond”.
Written at Columbus,
Nebr.
April 9th
1903.
Adam Ickes.
The 1910 census shows that Adam owned a home mortgage free. This photo is not dated, but this was probably the one.
 |
| Adam and Ellen Ickes standing in front of their home in Nebraska (probably Lincoln). |
In May of 1910, Adam returned to Pleasantville for the first time in many years. The newspaper article below doesn't indicate that Ellen had an opportunity to go with him. I would assume that she did not.
Bedford Gazette
June 10, 1910
Although it's not dated, the Memorial Day address he delivered was probably this one. This is also the first of his writings that was typed. On page 7 it appears he was going to include a section dealing with "Womens part in the work", but it had been crossed out. I'll spare you my personal commentary.
Comrades of thy Grand Army, Ladies and Gentlemen:
This beautiful custom of a grateful people is said to have
had its origin in the fact that on the 13th day of April, 1862, one
year after the fall of Fort Sumter, Mrs. Evans with the wife and two daughters
of Chaplain May, of the second regiment, Michigan Volunteers, decorated the
graves of a considerable number of soldiers buried on Arlington Heights, near
Washington D.C.
In May of the following year, they rendered the same sadly
pleasant attention to the graves of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg, Md.
The custom became so popular and met with such unqualified
approval that, in 1873 through the efforts of that grand and noble volunteer
soldier the lamented General John A. Logan, Congress
declared the 30th of May a legal holiday.
And now another year in life’s campaign brings us again to
Memorial Day, with its sad memories and tender associations; and as the nation
bends over the graves of its heroes and pays to noble dust the tribute of its
love, let us remember, that we are not only to cast our floral offerings upon
the graves of our former comrades in arms but, standing in their presence to re-dedicate
ourselves to the unfinished work they have left us to do. My friends, upon this closing day of the
budding Spring, when “hoary frosts have fallen in the fresh lap of the crimson
rose,” our smiling land presents a scene that should forever blot from the record
the slander of the poet, and the silly carping of the politician.
Millions of people have gathered to day (sic) to sing paeans of gratitude to
their sleeping benefactors, and with one loud voice to chant anthems of sweet
appreciation, that may rise from Earth to Heaven like “Sabean odors from the
spicy shore of Araby the blest.”
We have come to claim our share in this beautiful and
grateful service, and to perform our parts in an act that possesses no quality
of a task.
To be an American citizen officiating in a service of
gratitude to the fallen defenders of his country, is but second to being
numbered among those to whom this homage is being rendered. No more lofty acts are to be found in the
records of authentic history than the noble sacrifices of the American soldier
upon the field of battle and the votive offerings of his countrymen upon the
holy altar of the his memory.
Let memory revert to the songs that were sung, the letters
that were written, the long farewells, the hopes, joys and disappointments of
those dreadful years when the nation was baptized in tears and blood, and we
shall catch an inspiration that shall fill our hearts with devotion and praise
on account of a free, happy and united country.
We are not here to day (sic)
to talk of the causes that led to this great sacrifice. Men and women are before me today in
the full growth and estate of maturity who have come upon the stage of life and
action since that appalling event occurred, but they know as well as the actors
in it the sad story of that blighting conflict, when men of the same nationality,
and in
hundreds of instances of the same family, met in opposing ranks upon the
field of battle. Their hearts swell with
the same pride of country, and palpitate with the same beat of gratitude as do
the men and women who lived through the crucial test, whereby the strength of
the Republic was tried in the fire of steel.
My Comrades, I wish I had language to paint a scene that,
would bring vividly to your recollection to day (sic), the memory of Gettysburg, Shiloh, Coal Harbor, Chickamauga,
The Wilderness, and the conflict in the clouds at Lookout Mountain, besides
scores of other hard fought battles; “where parks of Artillery burnished for
war, stood ready to vomit fiery shot and shell to shatter the frames of men and
stain the grass of sinless fields with human gore,” when the thunder of cannon
and roar of musketry, and the rumble and clatter and clash of the mighty
implements or war, were almost deafening amid the shrieks of the wounded and
dying as the shock of battle is felt by the opposing columns. Oh! Then it was that the spirit of
comradeship was found welling up in our hearts as we touched shoulder to
shoulder, closing up the ranks depleted by our fallen comrades.
My friends, during that fearful and protracted struggle,
many brave men fell within whose bosoms throbbed hearts as tender and loving as
any within the sound of my voice, whose bones to day lie bleaching on the green
swards of the sunny south.
It is no new custom to offer oblations in memory of the
dead. In every age of intelligent man,
the struggles of life have been sustained by a belief in and a “longing after
immortality”. There is no existing
record of the human race that does not attest this interesting fact. Monuments, mounds and sepulchers that have
survived the names of individuals, and outlasted their more perishable bodies,
alike bear witness of it. The pyramids
of Egypt, some 70 in number were built as tombs for fearful monarchs yearning
after the Gods and longing for immortality.
These piles represent an amazing effort at construction. The mighty Cheops, standing upon a level base
within the Lybian chain, still rears its lofty peak 543 feet, thus towering
within a few feet of the pinnacle of the beautiful shaft erected upon the banks
of the Potomac to the father of a mighty nation.
“100,000 men toiled
beneath the sun of Egypt for half a century to erect that tomb in order that
the pigmy of a king who was to occupy it might under the Egyptian theology be
saved to the longed for immortality.”
For four thousand years, it has waged battle with the elements. Within that period men have come and gone,
empires risen and fallen, nations have been born and have decayed, and the
world has emerged from darkness to light.
But, the great pile of cyclopean masonry stands to day (sic) the marvel and wonder of the theologian and scientist.
The monument period of America represents a still later era
and a more advanced people civilization. Monuments in Mexico and other places reveal
the same belief in a future state that has “constantly budded from the flower
of hope – from the first day that man’s voice vibrated upon the cheery air of
morning.”
The universal credence in an unrevealed future sought
fitting expression in the very earliest times, in a tender regard of the living
for the dead.
Before the full development of language some of the most
beautiful truths of nature have been illustrated by symbolic expression. It was no less natural than poetic to call in
the vegetable and floral worlds to represent the verdict of the ages against
the hopeless doctrine of final extinction.
The growth of flowers in Spring indicates the revival of the
fruitful earth after a period of quiet which bears a resemblance of death. In the ancient Republics of Greece and Rome
the crown of Honor was formed of Laurel or of Olive leaves. Victors in the Pythian games were crowned
with a wreath of Laurel leaves, which thus became the symbol of
triumph. Julius Caesar constantly
wore a laurel wreath, indicative of dominion, & Augustus & his
successors followed his example. Among
the Romans oak leaves the patriots crown; bay leaves the poets; myrtle was the
crown of beauty; olive the token of peace; ivy the representative of Bacchus, &
cyprus the emblem of mourning. By
one poet flowers have been called “the blooming alphabet of creation,” and by
another, “the prophets of immortality”.
They have been largely used as a devices of heraldry; & as
such the fleur de lis became an ornament of the crowns of royalty & of the
dross and armor of the nobility in such countries as Germany, Spain and
England; & in the latter the red & white roses signalized the warring
houses of Lancaster & York. the Fleur
de Lis became the national emblem of France, the Thistle of Scotland, and the Shamrock
of Ireland.
But, the beautiful ceremonies of love and remembrance, now
so universally performed with flowers came to their fullest expansion through
the growth of the Christian religion.
Branches of palm were thrown in the path of the Savior as he entered
Jerusalem. The crucified Christ received
a crown of thorns by his executioners, but flowers strewn by unseen hands
exhaled their fragrance around the cave wherein his body was laid.
The important feasts of all the churches are now celebrated
with flowers. Every religion that
promises a renewal of life after the sleep upon earth, symbolizes its faith
through the blooming beauties of the floral tribes. “From the baptismal font to the last couch of
man there lies but a single step; and the rose which unfolded its crimson
petals to the morning air of the child may in the evening give place to the
gentle Amaranth, that unfading emblem of immortality, as it speaks of hope from
the grave of man.”
Comrades and friends, we have come with beautiful flowers,
culled by the eager hands of our brothers, and woven into speaking forms by the
fair fingers of our sisters, to render the homage due to patriots who have died
for their country and for all mankind.
The now silent soldiers, whose life work is finished, championed
a principle toward which the warriors and armies of the world have been
constantly
by drifting marching from the earliest recorded struggles upon the plain
of Shinar. This principle – the rights
of man and the liberty of the individual – which was planted with the first
blood ever shed in behalf of government, has, like the flower, bloomed upon the
morning air of all the ages. It has been
the task of Royalty and of corporate power to cut it down as a weed
incumbering the grain. Our brothers of 1861, and our sons of 1898 whose memory
we honor to day (sic), gave their
lives to perpetuate its growth and progress to the end of time. The world will little note nor long
remember what we say on these occasions, but it will never forget what they
did, “and the story of their lives, their bravery and heroic deeds through
hunger & suffering & blood shall live to remotest time the heritage of
the nation and a grand and glorious example to all her sons. Let us bring flowers in the Spring-time
my friends, and by their gentle office – whether the bodies of our comrades
& defenders lie buried beneath the soil of our common country, or in foreign
lands, or await the final transition in the bosom of the ocean – we may
symbolize our faith, and load the atmosphere with the fragrant gratitude of an
appreciative generation.
“Bring flowers, then,
to their memory;
Throw hither all your
quaint, enameled eyes,
That on the green turf
sucked the honeyed showers,
And purple all the
ground with vernal flowers.
Bring the rathe
primrose that forsaken dies;
The tufted Crow-tow and
the pale jessamine
The white pink and the
pansy streaked with jet;
The
glowing violet.
The musk-rose, and the
well attired woodbine,
With cowslips wan that
hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad
embroidery wears.”
We shall stand to day (sic)at the graves of our former comrades
who marched with us one year ago. These graves we are reminded that our ranks here are rapidly thinning, and with
each vacant place come new and weightier responsibilities. But a few more years at most and
the noble army that broke ranks in 1865 and returned to their homes, their
families and peaceful pursuits will be no more. Their memories alone will remain. Thousands already have heard their last “Tattoo”
and have gone to join the majority on the other shore.
“Comrades &
brothers, soon shall we all join the majority.
Thomas, McLellan and
Meade,
Hancock and cavalry
Custer;
Garfield and Burnside
and Stedman;
And Logan the peer of
the peerless;
Grant, the great captain
of Peace
Transfigured on Mountain
McGregor;
Sherman the matchless old
warrior
And Sheridan the dashing
commander
Gone and fast going our
leaders,
Pillars and pride of
the Union.
Aye, and the men who
returned with them,
Out of the fire and the
fury,
Out of the craters of
conflict,
Crippled, and scarred and
dismembered;
Those who go up in the
anguish,
Waiting on war and its
heritage;
Up from the Almshouse
and alley,
Up from the taunts of
the craven;
Patriots all, going to
join the majority.
Comrades and brothers soon shall we all join the
majority.
Come with your laurels
and palms,
And fair immortelles to
heap o’re them,
Come with your tears
and your tributes
Strew honeyed phrases
above them.
Come with your sons and
daughters,
Your youths and your
beautiful maidens,
Say to them; ‘Here are
the men who loved you, and saved you, and died for you.’
So shall the Union they
wrought
Live in the hearts of
the people.
In the sons full of
valor and strength,
In the daughters of
beauty and promise;
In the splendor of
flower and fruition,
That follows the storms
desolation;
When we in our low
spreading tents,
Dear comrades and
brothers,
Have answered the final
tattoo,
And joined the
majority.”
To us their comrades is
given the duty of keeping fresh and green their memories; of perpetuating and
transmitting intact to posterity the country perfected by their sacrifices and
sufferings. Resting from their labors,
the story of their lives jeweled by deeds of valor and patriotism shall live to
remotest times, the heritage of the nation and a grand and glorious example to
all her sons – and shall inspire in the hearts of all the people a love
for country and flag that shall keep the land forever united, beautiful and
free - that there may be no North, no South, no East no West but, everywhere
all over this broad land from the lakes to the gulf, from Plymouth rock to
the Golden Gate, millions of free, patriotic, public-spirited men and women,
whose highest aim shall be the intellectual, moral & religious elevation of
all the people & the encouragement of purity in public affairs, until there
shall not be one “blot or stain upon the fair escalation of America’s greatest
Republic.” and from ocean to ocean may be witnessed – the mightiest the richest, the
most peaceful and happy people on the face of the earth.
While living in Lincoln Adam penned this poem.
Sometime between 1910 and 1912 Adam decided to make one last career change and try his hand at the hotel business. Self-employment certainly seemed to be his preference.
The Omaha World Herald
February 28, 1912
Alle never wrote that they lived in Genoa, but other documents actually show that he had ties there. She did write, however, that he owned the La Grande Hotel in Wahoo, Nebraska.
And then I found this...
Omaha Daily Bee
January 13, 1913
What a tragedy! James Moore had ties to Genoa and had the GAR in common with Adam, so Adam must have started out in the hotel business in Genoa is some way or another.
Google "La Grande Hotel" and you'll find out Darryl Zanuck, the famous Hollywood movie producer, was born on the 2nd floor of the hotel in 1902. Every historian and researcher (and for many of those I use that term quite loosely) tell the story differently, but it appears his father was a clerk in the hotel, his mother's father may have owned the hotel, and they were probably all long gone before Adam took ownership. We can learn from this newspaper clipping that the La Grande had been bought and sold more than once between Darryl Zanuck's birth and Adam taking it over.
Nebraska State Journal
January 2, 1909
You'll never in a million years guess what Adam did on Memorial Day in Wahoo, Nebraska. Give up? Yes, it's true. Yet another Memorial Day address. This time though, for the beginning portion of his speech he typed notes and key phrases as opposed to typing out the entire speech. I'm kind of surprised he didn't have it completely memorized. And also this time he finally included a sweet and touching tribute to women.
Com. of Grand Army, Ladies and Gentlemen:
This beautiful custom –
The custom became so popular –
And now another year –
My friends, upon this closing day –
Millions of people have –
We have come to claim –
To be an American citizen –
No more lofty acts –
Nearly half a century –
There are many here today –
We are no here today –
Men and women – they know –
My comrades, I wish I had –
It is no new custom –
In every age of – the struggles –
There is no existing record –
Monuments, mounds and Sepulchres –
The pyramids of Egypt –
The mighty Cheops – 100,000 men – 4000 years
Within that period, Men – empires –
Nations – and the world –
But, the great pile –
The monument period of America –
Monuments in Mexico –
The universal credence in –
Before the full development –
It was no less natural –
The growth of flowers in spring –
In the ancient Republics of –
Victors in the Pythian games –
By one poet, flowers – called –
They have been largely used –
But, the beautiful ceremonies –
Branches of palm – thrown –
The important feasts –
Every religion that promises –
From the baptismal font – and the rose that –
Comrades and friends, we have come – to
render the homage due
The now silent soldiers –
Championed a principle –
This principle – the rights of man –
which was planted – has –
It has been the task –
World’s champions
Moses - - - - - 1571 B.C.
Solon, the law-giver - - - - - 584 B.C.
Cyrus - - - - - 598 B.C.
Alexander
the Great - - - 356 B.C.
“Never knew defeat”
Julius Caesar - - - - - 100 B.C.
“Foremost man of all the world”
Constantine the Great - - - 274 A.D.
Charlemagne - - - - 742
A.D.
“Champion of Christianity and civilization”
William the Conqueror - - - 1027 A.D.
Robert Bruce - - - - - 1274 A.D.
Martin Luther - - - - - 1546 A.D.
Gustavus Adolphus - - - - 1594
A.D.
Oliver Cromwell - - - - 1599
A.D.
“Defender of civil freedom”
Peter the Great - - - - 1672
A.D.
Frederick the Great - - - - 1712
A.D.
Wellington - - - - - 1769 A.D.
“the greatest man of a great age”
Garibaldi - - - - - 1807 A.D.
Gladstone - - - - - 1809 A.D.
“England’s greatest reformer”
Washington – Jefferson –
Lincoln and Grant –
Our brothers – whose memory – gave their
Lives to perpetuate - Ingersol – page 4.++
Let us bring flowers in Springtime – and
by
their gently office –
We may symbolize – and load –
“Bring flowers then, to their memory;
Throw hither all your quaint enameled eyes,
That on the green turf
sucked the honeyed showers,
And purple all the
ground with vernal flowers.
Bring the rath
primrose, that forsaken dies;
The tufted crow-toe and
the pale jesamine;
The white pink and the
pansy streaked with jet;
The glowing violet.
The musk-rose and the
well attired woodbine,
With cowslips wan that
hang the pensive head
And every flower that
sad embroidery wears”.
We shall stand today –
At these graves – vacant place –
But a few more years –
Tens of thousands have –
“Comrades and brothers,
soon shall we all join the majority.
Thomas McClellan and Meade,
Hancock and Cavalry Custer;
Garfield
and Burnside and Steedman,
And
Logan the peer of the peerless;
Grant,
the great Captain of Peace
Transfigured
on Mountain McGregor;
Sherman
the matchless old warriors
And
Sheridan the dashing Commander,
Gone,
and fast going our leaders,
Pillars
and pride of the Union.
Aye,
and the men who returned with them,
Out of
the fire and the fury,
Out of
the craters of conflict,
Crippled,
and scarred and dismembered;
Those
who go up in the anguish,
Waiting
on war and its heritage;
Up
from the almshouse and alley,
Up
from the taunts of the craven;
Patriots
all, going to join the majority.
Com. and
Bro. soon shall we all join the majority
Come
with your laurels and palms
And
fair immortells to heap o’er them,
Come
with your tears and your tributes
Strew
honied phrases above them
Come
with your sons and daughters,
Your
youths and your beautiful maidens,
Say to them: “Here are the men who loved you, and
Saved you, and died for
you”.
So shall the union they wrought
Live in the hearts of the people.
In the sons full of valor and strength,
In the daughters of beauty and promise;
In the splendor of flower and fruition,
That follows the storm’s desolation;
When we in our low spreading tents,
Dear Comrades and brothers,
Have answered the final tattoo,
And joined the majority”.
To us their comrades and you –
Is given the duty of –
Resting from their labors –
And shall inspire –
Grander than the Greek,
Nobler than the Roman,
The soldiers of the Republic, with a patriotism as
shoreless
as the air, fought for the rights of others, for the
nobility
of labor and battled that a mother might own her own.
But my comrads (sic), let us pause a moment, “Lest we
forget”. You have fought a good fight;
you have suffered much; you have saved the union’ but you must not forget the
toil and labor and self-sacrifice of the loyal women at home in their efforts
to help you.
They were on the
battle-field and in the hospitals; they worked in our factories; they clerked
in our stores; they taught our schools; they farmed our farms; and after the
harvest had been gathered and garnered, they were diligently employed during
the long winter evenings in knitting your mits and sox and scarfs (sic), and in many other ways
contributing to your comfort and during the early years of the war, in many of
these homes while thus engaged, her voice might be heard as she sang her sweet
lullaby to soothe and quiet the little ones as she rocked them to sleep.
They have not ceased in
their labor of love and mercy, their works of charity, and helpfulness during
all the years that have elapsed since the war closed, now almost a full half
century. They also, have fought a good fight,
they have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for them a crown of glory
that shall not fade away.
The record of their
noble deeds, - is it not written in imperishable letters upon the scroll of
fame, where it shall “shine as the brightness of the firmament (sic) and as the stars forever and
ever.” God bless the loyal, loving women
of America.
Actually, the text in the newspaper doesn't match up with the text in his notes, so I may have this one mixed up with the previous one. Honestly, there were so many Memorial Day speeches it's really hard to figure out the proper order. (And ultimately, I guess, it really doesn't matter.)
One more speech, dated 22 February 1916, was probably delivered in conjunction with President's Day.
Abraham Lincoln
2/22/1916
Abraham Lincoln, born of humble parentage battled
continually for a livelyhood (sic.). His chances to obtain an education were very
meager indeed. At an early age however,
he begat a desire for reading books and after performing a hard days (sic.) work at manual labor he passed the
evenings reading such books as he could borrow from neighbors.
An athlete &c* .
After attaining his manhood he became a lawyer. This said that he won nearly all his cases &c. In 1860 I was a youth of 15 and it was after
his invitation to the presidency by the new national Republican convention that
I first learned his name. Not known in
Europe the campaign slogan was Abraham Lincoln & Hannibal Hamlin.
Duly elected.
War clouds gathered.
The Civil War. I saw
him a few days before his trajic (sic.)
death.
A great good man had been stricken down in the prime of a
splendid manhood; in the auspicious opening of a new chapter, wherein he
arrived to battle more valiantly in the interests of a “square deal” among all
his countrymen. His big heart took in
all the people, his unsurpassed intelligence made the peoples good its
study. What a brilliant career was thus
unhappily closed; unfinished in its mission, yet marvelous in its achievement.
Our history lustrous as it is with splendid names, presents
no nobler career than that of Abraham Lincoln.
No leader while he yet lived more deeply touched the mystic chords of
the nation’s love. His character was
fragrant with generous & manly virtues; his ambition was ennabled (sic.) by lofty ideals. If we review his accomplished work, he had
achieved a great mission, if we look at what seemed to open before before (sic.) him, he still had a matchless
promise.
He championed a principal towards which the eminent men of
all ages of the world have been constantly tending. This principal &c.
But God has raised up &c.
Many gave their lives to perpetuate the growth &c.
But no name upon the pages of history shines with greater
luster today than the name of Lincoln.
His example of a noble man, a true patriot, an exemplary Christian
statesman, will live to remotest time, the heritage of the nation &c.
*&c stands for et cetera
On 9 April 1916 Adam wrote yet another poem, this time commemorating his 71st birthday. He didn't quite finish what he had to say.
Wahoo, Nebraska, 4/9 1916
I’m seventy one years old today,
I may not have much more to say;
But looking backward makes me start
To think that I’ve scarce done my part.
The years have come and gone apace,
Each day and night in one grand race
Has rushed along at record rate,
To reach the goal of man’s estate.
The dear good friends of long ago –
Where are they now, I’d like to know?
Alas! A few are in their graves,
While others yearn for that which saves
Life’s struggles have been hard to bear
But joys have mingled here and there
To
On 17 February 1917, less than 2 months shy of his 72nd birthday, Adam Ickes died.
All original content, images, commentary, etc. copyright © by Joy Denison 2015-2016. All rights reserved. All writings, poems, speeches, essays, images, scans, likenesses, etc. by Adam Ickes (b 1845) as well as personal histories, images, and all other content by all persons referenced and discussed within the pages and posts in this blog may not be copied, shared, or reproduced in any way without expressed permission by the owner unless included here from other referenced sources or are historical records already considered to be in the public domain.
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