We Remember

OLD COURTHOUSE 1888-1954 THE COUNTY CLOCK Pendleton Tribune Thursday, July 16, 1891

"Wife, I’m going to the city tomorrow to take a load of wheat,
And if you’ll go along there’s room upon the seat;
So in the morning early while breakfast you’re getting,
I’ll have the load already so there’ll be no fretting.

I’ll have the mares all curried down and fed their oats and hay,
For you know it’ll take us the better part of the day.
Yes, I’ll drive the two gray mares, you know they’re true and stout,
For the road is rough and hilly all along the route.

Wife, put on your very best, that grand old silken gown,
The one that you were married in, the best there was in town;
For when we’ve sold the load of wheat and bought our every want,
It’s then around the city we’ll take a little jaunt.

The day that we were married you looked so bright and merry,
And so you’ve always looked so happy and so cheery,
I know that I ye often been quite snappish and so cross,
And wondered how that you kept your beauty and such gloss.

Father, not cross and snappish in all your life,
I’ve been a happy woman ever since I’ve been your wife.
We’ve never had word though married forty year;
I’ve never had occasion to shed a single tear.

Let’s see; ‘tis five long years since to the city I went,
For the butter and eggs with you I have always sent,
Yes, father, I’ll go with you and have a pleasant ride,
Enjoying the scenes and sights in sitting by your side.

And we’ll take the butter, I’ve a hundred pound or more;
And eggs there’s fifty dozen, they’ll help us at the store.
Then when we’ve done our trading we’ll go to see the sights,
for you know I never saw the great electric lights.

You say the city’s grown, that there’s houses grand and neat,
A brand new court house, too, built at the county seat’
And that upon the roof two iron women stand,
Proclaiming liberty and justice to all within the land.

You say upon the roof there is a great high steeple
From it the time of day is seen by all the people.
You say the steeple upon the roof is called by all a tower,
And that inside a great big clock that strikes every hour.

You say there are little towers, one over each big door,
A big bell in one which weighs a thousand pounds or more;
And for this clock and bell which has cost so much, you say
The county paid it all, though others promised some to pay.

But when the clock was up and running all right,
The paper that they had signed could not be brought to light;
And the people in their taxes paid the full amount,
And the signers of the paper were glad on that account.

Yet the city gets the praise as enterprising folk,
But they never paid a cent and think it quite a joke.
Now the county owns the clock and keeps it in repair,
But what’s the use to farmers in having it up there?

The morning came, ‘twas bright and fair; they had a pleasant ride;
The good old farmer happy was, his wife was by his side.
They saw the sights - court house, iron women, towers and clock.
The electric lights, bridges, and many fine new blocks.

Then home they went, with ideas new, with farmer’s life content,
The happiest life is a farmer’s life, in joy and peace well spent;
Yet oft they think of the big clock, of pledges made and broke,
Which on the farmers no benefit did the taxes yoke.