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Excerpts from Souvenir Submitted by David M. Waid |
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FRIENDSHIP. "Rare as is true love, true
friendship is rarer."
La Fontaine.
All friendship must have a beginning, and different are the
circumstances in life from which it has its origin.
I will cite one. On
December 10, 1886, I received a letter from Anna
Tyler, of Norwood, Franklin County, Kas., whom I only saw once.
Freeman Tyler and family I regard as our friends, the acquaintance
having been formed November 18, 1880, as my brother G.
N., G. W. Cutshall and myself were traveling from Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, to Council Bluffs, same State, not only on the same train, but in
the same coach. The Tylers
were then moving from Illinois to Kansas, where they now reside, whilst we
were on our way to St. Paul, Howard County, Neb. It was in the evening
when we took the train, and part of the day we had spent in Cedar Rapids.
We did not intend to sojourn any length of time in that town, but
we did, and some people might say it was because we had "got
left." But that was not
the reason. One of my mottoes
is: "Do not always look
at the dark side of things." It
is well enough to look at the background of a picture, but what
satisfaction is it if you do not remember the front view?
Well, the reader no doubt asks of me what we gained by being
"left," and my reply is that I think we gained three points:
first, our breakfast; second, several points of interest in the
city visited, and last, not least, the forming in the evening on the train
an acquaintance with Mr. Tyler's folks--an acquaintance that has been
bringing the rewards of friendship ever since.
Correspondence between us has been frequent, and I had the pleasure
of sending them a copy of my 1886 SOUVENIR, receiving two days later the
following brief reply:
I feel very grateful and thankful to you for your kindness in
remembering us as your friends. We
hope, in the future, we will return the compliment. *
* * *
Before finishing, the letter refers to the tintype picture of us
three (Mr. Cutshall, G. N. Waid and myself),
which we had taken by John Proud, at Rochester, Minn., and which we gave
the Tylers, at Council Bluffs, before parting.
As I handed the girls the tintype, my brother remarked he would
tell my wife when we got home, and Anna reminds us of the incident in her
letter. She says of G.
N. Waid's portrait, in my first SOUVENIR, that "it is the most
natural she ever saw." I
do not wish to close this topic without acknowledging my thanks are due to
Mr. Tyler's family for continued friendship, and that I do not forget the
girl, Hattie Tyler, who gave me a seat in the
coach on the evening referred to above.
To forget such an act would be unkind and ungrateful on my part.
On our return from St. Paul, Neb., we three visited Ephraim Smith,
then living near New London, and about four miles from Mt. Pleasant, Henry
County, Iowa. Mr. Smith and
his wife were formerly from Crawford County, Penn., having lived near
Blooming Valley. They were
quite aged people when we visited them, and since then Mrs.
Smith has died. While
in St. Paul, Neb., we attended the funeral of a young man named Devenport,
the funeral services being held in the courthouse, no church building
being completed, although there were two nearly so at the time I speak of.
Death sunders the strongest human ties ever formed, and like all
other things earthly, friendship comes to an end.
Permit me here to repeat the words of Martha Smith to her husband.
She was a little older than I, and we were always acquainted, she
being one of our nearest neighbors in her youth, and afterward a resident
of Meadville, where she died March 12, 1874.
The remark she made to her husband, taking his hand, a short time
before her departure from earth, was this:
"Do you remember where you first saw me?"
"Yes," he replied, "in the cemetery;"
"There," she added, "is where you will see me last."
Many are the pleasant memories that arise to me as I think over the
past, even in this single instance, for her life was one of usefulness. We never can forget such friends. Here we have in those few last words of hers the beginning
and the end, not only of friendship, but of the bond and union of life
complete within itself, looking from the starting point to the end of the
journey. Martha
Smith is interred in Greendale Cemetery, Meadville, Penn.
An older sister, Mary Smith, married Nathan
Southwick, and died at Little Cooley, Crawford County, Penn.,
February 12, 1860, in her thirty-eighth year.
She is interred in the Smith Burying-ground, in Mead Township,
Crawford County. They were
not only my schoolmates, but, as I have already remarked, our nearest
neighbors. Of Joseph
Smith's family of twelve children five are living-the youngest
daughter and four sons; the aged mother is yet alive.
I remember the last time I saw Mary
Southwick; it was on this occasion.
My brother-in-law, Asa Masiker, who
lived at Spring Creek, Warren Co., Penn., was here (Blooming Valley) to
attend the funeral of his father, who died January 30, 1860, and I
accompanied him with my horse and cutter on his way home after the
funeral, as far as Little Cooley. Before
leaving this place I called to see Mary, who was very low with
consumption, though still able to sit up.
She did not see me coming in, but she recognized my voice at once,
for she said: "Why, that
is Francis Waid, I know your voice,"
reaching out her hand to me, "I am so glad to see you, I thought I
would never see you again." Now
there was in that last interview the fruit of true friendship; and before
I close I wish to relate one incident that occurred in our lives which
doubly endears her memory to me. When
I was a lad of not more than seven or eight summers, she and I had to come
home from school together, a distance of a mile and a half, on a certain
cold, stormy, wintry evening. We
expected my father to come for us with the team, as was his custom in
stormy weather, but we were disappointed, and so had to face the bleak
wind and blustering storm as best we could.
In coming over Felty Hill, I believe I would have certainly
perished with cold but for the protection and care Mary manifested in my
behalf. To her eldest
daughter, who lives in Bloomfield Township, Crawford County, I had the
pleasure of presenting a copy of my 1886 SOUVENIR.
On December 14, 1886, I wrote in my diary the following:
"There is not a moment in our lives without a call for some
duty, and he most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. I consider that no act should be done withour a purpose, and
I know of nothing better than to do right, and to aim at bringing about
peace. My heart, has often
been made glad in rendering some little service for the benefit of my
kindred or others; or in seeing parties, after years of separation,
reconciled, differences adjusted, and all things set agoing in the right
direction for good, as I have had the pleasure of doing to-day.
That is true friendship, and brings comfort to me.
It is well for us to remember the example of Gen. Washington, who,
before going into battle, always invoked the Lord's blessing; and if
victory and right prevail with us, let us attribute all praise to Him. Such are my thoughts as I retire to rest to-night.
I feel I have made 'a day's march nearer home,' and it adds to my
happiness to see my neighbors traveling the same way.
Sometimes we need their help, then again they require ours.
'Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.'
"Nick P. Waid and Orlando
Waid have traded intersts in their father's (R.
L. Waid's) real estate, each one to take possession of his own
April 1, 1887; and this day, December 14, 1886, they have rented said
estate of their mother, Almeda Waid, I, F.
C. Waid, assisting in the transaction and writing the articles of
agreement. And so the day
closed with what I wished to be considered an act of TRUE
FRIENDSHIP."
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