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structive progress, which assure to thrift and energy just and proper rewards.

War is devastating and terrible but infinitely more blasting of human hopes and human happiness is that condition where a nation through selfishness and greed of affluence sinks to the level where it no longer is willing to defend with its last farthing, its last gasping breath, the liberties of its people, the guarantees and principles which form the structure of its civic righteousness and character.

"Greater love than this hath no man. He gave his life for another."

In the firm belief that a revival of the memory of the stirr ing events of 1898 and a just recognition of the service and sacrifices of the "Boys of '98" will be conducive to good citizenship and afford opportunity to renew our devotions at the shrine of our beloved America, we invite and urge participation in these commemorative exercises on the part of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Confederate Veterans, the American Legion and all other patriotic societies and civic bodies.

I quote in closing words from an address at Fort Sumpter, April 12, 1865:

"On this fateful day we again lift to the breeze our fathers' flag, with the fervent prayer that God will crown it with honor, protect it from treason, and send it down to our children with all the blessings of liberty, education and religion. Terrible in battle may it be, beneficent in peace. Happily no bird or beast of prey is inscribed upon it. The stars which redeem the night from darkness and the red beams of light which beautify the morning are united in its folds. So long as the sun shall endure or the stars, may it continue to wave over a nation neither enslaved or enslaving."

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JOHN MCMURRAY LANSDEN.

By THOMAS W. SMITH, D. D.,

On the morning of January 17th, 1923, there passed away at his home in Cairo one of the leading citizens of all southern Illinois. Lawyer, scholar, historian, Christian pillar in this state for almost six decades-John McMurray Lansden needs no encomium to preserve his name in Illinois. He has written it deep in the heart of a great community that has made wonderful progress since he chose it for his field of labor.

Mr. Lansden was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His greatgreat-grandfather, Richard King, came from Dublin in 1728, and was a member of the old Tennant Church, Freehold, New Jersey. His King and Lansden ancestors were active in the old Thyatira Church, near Salisbury, North Carolina. His father, Abner Wayne Lansden, was named after Rev. Abner Wayne McCorkle, son of the famous pastor of that church, Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, and became a minister of the Gospel. His two uncles, James King Lansden and Hugh Bone Lansden were also preachers in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, as were the three brothers of his mother James, Allan and William Gallaher.

Born and reared in North Carolina, Rev. Abner Wayne Lansden afterward crossed the mountains to carry on his ministry in East Tennessee. There he met and afterwards married Mary Miller Gallaher. In 1835 he made another move, this time to Sangamon County, Illinois. Near the western edge of this county his son, John McMurray Lansden, was born on the 12th day of February, 1836. About 1841 Rev. Abner Wayne Lansden purchased a farm near Loami, Illinois, and on this farm his son, the subject of this sketch, grew to manhood, attending the village and district schools. After studying for college at Virginia, Cass County, he went to Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1858. Doing three years work in two, he was about to enter the senior year

in 1860 when national politics changed his plan. The feelings of the southern states were wrought to such a pitch over the election of Abraham Lincoln that Mr. Lansden, being a union man opposed to slavery, decided to attend Illinois College, Jacksonville. Here he was graduated in June, 1861. During the next three years Mr. Lansden taught in the public schools of Menard and Sangamon counties and served as superintendent of schools at Centralia, Illinois. He must have been reading law also during this period for he entered Albany Law School (New York) in 1864 and was graduated in 1865. The same year he was admitted to practise in Illinois and in 1866 he decided to settle in Cairo, whose future seemed to him destined to be linked with commercial greatness.

For fifty seven years Mr. Lansden practised law. He was a member of the firms of "Olney, McKeaig, and Lansden"; "O'Melveny and Lansden"; "Linegar and Lansden"; and "Mulkey, Linegar, and Lansden", which firm continued until Judge Mulkey was elected to the Supreme Court of Illinois. From 1887 to 1908 Angus Leek was associated with Mr. Lansden, the firm name being Lansden and Leek. In 1908 Mr. Lansden and his oldest son, David S. Lansden, established the partnership of "Lansden and Lansden", which continued to the time of the father's death. Early admitted to practise in the Supreme Courts of Illinois and Kentucky, Mr. Lansden also appeared before the United States Supreme tribunal more than once. It was there that he carried the case of the City of Cairo against the Illinois Central Railroad Company, following the building of the Cairo bridge, when it was sought to compel the Illinois Central under its charter to run all its passenger trains into the depot at Cairo. For thirty-five years he was district counsel of the "Mobile and Ohio Railroad" for the states of Illinois and Kentucky. In his Memorial Address Hon. Walter Warder, speaking for the Alexander County Bar, said "Among the leaders of the bar of southern Illinois I recall those whom I knew personally; David J. Baker and John H. Mulkey, afterwards members of the supreme court of Illi nois; Willard Wall, member of the Illinois Appellate court; William H. Green, judge of the circuit court; David T. Linegar, noted as a criminal lawyer; S. P. Wheeler, eminent railroad lawyer; W. J. Allen, judge of the U. S. District court;

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