Who Was Joe Cone?: Two Hundred Years Ago

Monday, May 18, 2015

Two Hundred Years Ago

Yaas, a mighty lot hez happened sence two hundred years ago,

Some good things ez well ez bad things, ez our countenances show.

But frum Maine to Californy hain’t a spot uv more renown

Than this ‘ere town East Haddam, where Rob Chapman settled down

Back in sixteen hundred seventy-five, on Crick Row Boulevard,

Where today great crowds assemble long the drive an’ promenarde.

An’ ol’ Rob’, ez I recall him, wuz a Chap’ you’d like to know,

Unnerstan’, ez I recall him sence two hundred years ago!

Then the place begun to broaden, an’ the town begun to spread,

An’ the Injun took his whiskey, which some later took his head;

An’ the white man took his acres, while the red man took him hence,

An’ a town wuz slowly moulded frum the day uv common sence.

An’ the reds left naught behind them but the “Noises” which they feared,

But I’ve come to tell yew, breth’ren, thet yew needn’t be a-skeered

Uv them strange an awful “Noises”, which hev risen frum below,

Which hev frightened Moodus sinners sence two hundred years ago.

I hev found a true solution an’ I’ll give it to yew here:

‘Tis the mighty voice uv Nature praising yew, my townsmen dear

For yewr noble lives an’ actions which hev followed yew frum birth,

Which are spoken of in thunder frum the bowels of the earth!

I could dwell upon yewr virtues here in yards an’ yards of rhyme,

But I know yew will excuse me for there really isn’t time;

I must hurry to my finish – be it happiness or woe –

For a mighty lot hez happened sence two hundred years ago.

There are other “Moodus Noises” which are famed frum sea to sea,

With their “rub-a-dubs” an’ “boom-booms”, an’ their fifes in pleasant key;

They are given royal welcomes which they take with manners gentle,

While for any other drum corps they don’t care a “Continental!”

Here are lakes an’ ponds an’ brooklets with a river winding down,

Jest a thing of joy an’ profit to our well beloved town,

Drivin’ mills thirteen in number, with its mellerfluous flow,

Singin’ jest the same ol’ sence two hundred years ago.

I hev heered it said, my brothers, by a wise an’ learned mouth

There would be no mills in Moodus, everything wuz goin’ south.

Thet wuz years ago I heered it, but our mills are turnin’ still,

An’ I prophesy that shortly we will see another mill.

An' I say right here in earnest, if our mills should cease to sing

We would hev this bloomin’ country on a little cotton string!

So yew see the great importance, which perhaps yew didn’t know

That hez come upon our township sence two hundred years ago.

Now a word for those who’ve given much of glory to her name,

Who hev honored town an’ country, who deserve an’ endless fame;

Past an’ present, preachers, lawyers, sailors, soldiers brave an’ true,

Bankers, judges, artists, actors, business men a score or two;

Doctors, editors, professors, sturdy tillers of the soil,

Teachers, students an’ inventors, an’ our worthy sons of toil,

All contribute to the glory of the fairest spot I know,

To the town which donned long trousers just two hundred years ago.

An' a word for future glories which I prophesy are near:

Once again the axe an’ hammer of the shipmen we will hear.

We will see the trolleys whizzin’ over mountain, hill an’ dale,

An’ the fleeter automobiles will be bringin’ up the mail.

We will grow hops in the “Hopyard”, while the “Tanyard’s” tangled spot

Will take on another color, an’ grow tan-dems, like ez not.

We’ll expand, an’ grow an’ prosper, an’ our industries will hum,

And we’ll annex all New England in two hundred years to come.

Joe Cone

May 18, 1900

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Nathan_Hale_Schoolhouse,_East_Haddam,_CT_circa_1900.png

The formal acceptance of the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse and Park was held June 6, 1900, the one hundred and forty-fifth anniversary of the birth of Nathan Hale, when it became the Headquarters of the Connecticut Sons of the Revolution, where the annual meetings are held during the month of June. The ceremonies were combined with the Bicentennial celebration of the town of East Haddam, and the unveiling of a bronze bust of Nathan Hale by the townspeople to mark the original site of the schoolhouse when Hale taught in the winter of 1773-74.

The town exercises held in Goodspeed’s Opera House at 10:30am, consisted of:
Music,
Prayer,
Address,
Response for Haddam by Rollin U. Tyler
Reminiscences of the Old Schoolhouse by Judge Julius Atwood.

Poem — “Two Hundred Years Ago” by Joe Cone.

Singing — “The Star Spangled Banner” by East Haddam School children.
Historical Address by Hon. E. Emory Johnson.

-Procession to Village Park-
Presentation of bust of Nathan Hale by Wm. E. Nichols.
Unveiling by Mrs. Marcellus Hartley.
Acceptance by Hon. Francis H. Parker.

-Afternoon Exercises-
Music by Colt’s Band.
Prayer by Dr. Edward Everett Hale.
Address — Nathan Hale, Schoolmaster by Victor H. Palsits.
Music, Poem by Judge Francis M. Finch.

Presentation of the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse by F. S. Tallmadge, Esq., President of the N. Y. Society Sons of the Revolution.

Acceptance by Hon. Morgan G. Bulkeley, President of the Connecticut Society Sons of the Revolution.

Address by Colonel Richard H. Green.
Singing — “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” by school children and audience.

-Benediction-

http://connecticutsar.org/the-nathan-hale-school-house-in-east-haddam-2/