The Chariton Leader, Chariton, Iowa Thursday, September 12, 1907 At the Old Settlers meeting at Derby, last week, PROF. RIGGLE acted as Marshall of the day. JOSEPH PARKINS attended the reunion of the 34th regiment at Grand River on the first day, but was present, Friday, and enlivened the occasion with his experiences. In his talk A.J. IRWIN eulogized the honesty of the first settlers, and said that locks and keys were things unknown and unnecessary. The only think they took which they did not hold title to was timber and that was a religious necessity and he honored them for being able to look out for themselves. In the first settling of that part of the country the land sharks got in and cornered all the timber and left none for improvement and fire wood. The sharks wouldn't file on prairie land at all but decided to form a timber trust. It was then that many of the settlers went in and busted the trust and in after years the sharks came out to view their possessions of barren hills and bald knobs they felt as badly as did John D. Rockafellow (sic) when a fine of twenty-nine million dollars was taxed up against him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In another column of the same date: Talk about doing things! Last week the 34th Regiment of Iowa Volunteers held its reunion at Grand River, a small town of about 400, and they put up the best entertainment the regiment had ever enjoyed on a similar occasion. Everybody took a hand and each individual was a committee of one to see that it was a success. $800 was contributed by individuals for incidental expenses, and the stand privileges netted about $200 more. At least $1,000 was expended to show a local welcome to the veterans. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert January 3, 2005 iggy29@rnetinc.net