Pages 312 - 316

THE OLD SETTLERS ASSOCIATION

In the issue of the Carrollton Gazette, for September 30, 1871, the following invitation was published:

The 21st of October was a bright, pleasant day, and about one hundred and fifty old settlers, together with a large concourse of younger persons, assembled in the beautiful Thomas Grove, southwest of Carrollton. This wood is located on the south end of the first eighty acres of land entered by Mr. Thomas in 1818, and selected as a squatter's claim some time previous. At about eleven o'clock the Carrollton Cornet Band played an old time selection, and the company was called to order by David Pierson, Esq. Col. Jacob Bowman was chosen chairman, and on taking the chair, invited Rev. C. J. Gardiner to offer prayer. "This venerable and reverend gentleman kneeled upon the grass and leaves in the front of the speaker's land, and while the many aged heads were bowed, a solemnity was manifested befitting the occasion and words appropriately impressive were uttered, invoking the blessing of God upon those whose lives had been so long spared in his mercy, and beseeching a continuance of divine favor. The chair then suggested that the appointment of a committee on permanent organization would in order. Whereupon Messrs. David Pierson, Thomas Black, C. J. Gardiner, Jordan Howard, A. Hinton, Peter Hobson, Isham Linder, and Martin Bowman were selected as a committee on resolutions. At this point, the chairman, than whom there is none more skilled in the management of a dinner party, remarked that the committees would need some little time in which to prepare their reports - that the good wives and daughters were present with bountifully ladened baskets - that the hour had arrived and the tables would be spread upon the green, and, while the band struck up another good old tune, the meeting adjourned for dinner." The dinner was bountiful in quantity, dainty in preparation, and the best in quality, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. After an intermission of an hour, the band rendered another selection, whereupon Col. Bowman called the meeting to order, and asked for the report of the committee on permanent organization. David Pierson, Esq., chairman, presented the following:

Your committee would respectfully recommend -

Remarks, consisting, in the main, of interesting personal reminiscences, by Samuel Thomas, Judge Alfred Hinton, Maj. J. C.C. Parks, Gen. Jacob Fry, Hon. D. M. Woodson, and others, followed, and occupied the time until quite late. In the course of some general remarks, by Judge Isham Linder, Judge Hinton, Thomas Black, Jonas Ward, David Pierson, and others, it was ascertained that Mr. Marvel Morris and Judge Linder had been residents of the State longer than any one else present, the former for sixty-two and the latter for sixty-one years. Capt. Richard Robly was the oldest man present, he having been born in 1790.

On the Eleventh of November, at a meeting held in the court house at Carrollton, as per the resolution passed at the first meeting, Messrs. D. M. Woodson, Isham Linder, Dr. J. B. Samuel, Alfred Hinton, and T. W. Vigus was appointed a committee to draft a constitution and by-laws for the organization. The meeting then adjourned to meet to hear the report of this committee January 8, 1872, at which time the following constitution was adopted: