This column came from the Progress-Examiner, and was found in a scrapbook owned by Tom McCart.

"Editor Progress-Examiner:

Dear Sir, how very kind of you to ask of we old Orange county people to tell of our lives here.

I was born in Cumberland county, Pa., on April 12, 1822. When I was twelve or thirteen years of age my father decided to come to Orleans, Orange county, Ind., to live. We came on a canal boat from Harrisburg, Pa., to Pittsburg. Pa.; then on a steamboat to New Albany, Ind. My father had a relative living on White river, and he brought a four-horse wagon to New Albany to meet us. There was no network of railroads as now.

When we settled in Orleans there were probably six to ten residences, and, like Orleans is today, no better people on earth than we found there for friends and neighbors. Where the square is now was a solid woods then. There were two churches and two or three stores. I remember when Morgan's raid passed through Orleans and of the awful excitement at that time. Two men who were injured then were carried into my home. One died on the table and the other on the floor.

The Court House at Paoli was a log building, and my father helped build the one standing now.

I remember so well the first train that passed through Orleans. The Monon had for its rails at that time timbers 2x4, on which were strips of iron. The first passenger coaches resembled box and flat cars, with benches in them. Now Orange county has one of the best railroads in the counry running through, and, best of all, she has my neighbor boy and an Orange county boy, for her President.

Orange county is one of the dearest spots on earth to me, for about eighty-one years, without a break, I have lived here, and have seen her grow from a vast woodland to one of the best counties in the State. And now, with my husband and five children sleeping in the cemetery at Orleans, I can say Orleans is the most sacred spot on earth to me.