The Illinois Free Trader And Lasalle County Commercial Advertiser

The Pioneers.

A little group of veterans—five in number, one of whom was Gen. Jackson, all of whom were companions in the early settlement of the Mississippi Valley—happened together at the Post office in this place a few days ago, when, in the course of their conversation about events of olden time, they mentioned their several ages, which, added together, made an aggregate of 288 years. Of the five, Gen. Jackson, who was 74 in March, is the youngest.

These brave and persevering pioneers of this region, who were among the first to penetrate the dense forests—who subsisted on the game they could take as they passed along, clad themselves in the skins of beasts, and fought their way westward over the corpses of red men—made notches on the trees beside their pathways, as guides for their return, or for the direction of those who might come after them, and felled the green canebrakes that flourished on the side of our own beautiful city—seemed to enjoy a vivid recollection of the retrospect. Their contrasts of this country with its now flourishing cities, its steam navigation, its M'Adamized turnpikes, its cultivated fields, and its immense population, with its wild aspect in earlier days, was of the deepest interest to the young who witnessed their interview.

Each has more than numbered his three score years and ten and one of them, who is now more sprightly than half the young men at twenty, has entered on his fifth score. We wish them many a delightful hour in the evening of their well spent lives. They must soon pass away—but the freshness of their memories shall co-endure with their country's history.—Nashville Union.