TRIBUTE OF GLADYS HARDEN STONE ON 1ST HARDEN REUNION

Tribute--Harden Reunion

August 10, 1980.G.H.S.

Dorothy’s invitation to the Harden reunion made me happy all day

long:  My heart started singing and hasn’t stopped yet..

Suddenly, I was young again. And skipping, arm in arm down

the alley with Gene, my first-born, and we were singing

                      “ I saw the lightening flashing and heard the thunder roll

                      It was the voice of Jesus Trying to conquer my soul.”

I began to think back—To Papa. Of how much courage

strength, willpower, love, it took to decide to keep three children

together—instead of giving them to Grandma Lewis to raise.

                       Grandma had already taken the children from one family-two actually

She raised three grandchildren, besides eleven children of her own.

Papa. he could scare us to death one minute-and defend us fiercely

the next.

Papa planned to “keep us busy”. He meant for us to work. He made

us milk cows, shuck corn, plant peanuts (You remember those peanuts!!) We

buried the whole bucket-full in one hole.

 We thought he was terrible. Now we know how right he was

to plan work for us-to quote “keep us out of mischief”.

 How gentle he was, when he found us out.

People now-a-days run, jog, play golf, play tennis, play bridge,

go on trips—to keep busy. but in Papa’s day they worked.

 In Papa’s day the older children took care of the littler ones . . .

 And how!! One day when we “looking after them” we looked out

to see Henry and Harmon swinging on the pulley over the

open well at the barn.

 Papa meant for us to learn to read and write.

 Papa helped make a good school in Osierfield-helped to build a big, new

school building-and Osierfield school was good enough to compete

admirably at the Ocilla fair.

Our school had an auditorium: we had plays, and Christmas programs,

and box-suppers and speakers.   

 Papa got Aunt Suzanne to help look after us for about a year. after our

mother died.and then one day he bought a “rubber-tired buggy” and a beautiful,

spirited horse, and drove up in the back yard with a lady beside

him.

 He called us from wherever we were and said, “This is your mother”.

 Boy! She had a job on her hand But like all others, she didn’t know

it then.

Mother Harden was a teacher! and  that fit right in with papa’s

idea of the right way to raise children.

 Mother Harden taught him and us. She read to him every day from

 The Macon telegraph, The Ocilla Star,  The Market Bulletin  and

 Tom Watson’s paper – so he kept up with politics, farming, and the social

activities of the South he loved so much. 

And Mother Harden:  She could put pickled peaches in a jar prettier

than any body else in the country

>She made the best Banana pudding I have ever tasted anywhere.

>She gave us coffee with cream & sugar every Sunday morning

>When Mother Harden moved to Fitzgerald she taught the best

    Sunday School Lesson the people in her class had ever heard

>Mother Harden grew the tidiest and greenest  vegetable garden of any one in the

    community—and with our help, she canned everything we ate in the winter.

>She made syrup and cooked big fluffy biscuits to sop it up with.

>and at hog killing-time!! Mother Harden smoked-cured the hams and breakfast

    bacon we ate with the vegetables she grew.

   >She played the piano and organ at Prospect and Fitzgerald during Sunday

    School hour.

  Mother and Papa and Lewis and Harmon are here with us today. they always will

    be:

    Lewis: felt it his duty to “look after” every body he loved. and he did it.

    Lewis—Fierce, tender, loving, hating but always loyal.

     He might bless you out, tell you to hush, if he felt  it necessary, but

    always, always he came to our rescue if we were in danger. just let an

    outsider try to do us in. you would immediately find out how much he

    was capable of loving.

   We all know Lewis.

   We love him.

   We are proud of the best that was in him – and there was plenty – I

    could talk all day about the good he sought for all of us.

     >But today is Harden Reunion Day: a day for remembering.

      a day of rejoicing. 

    >How fortunate we are to have been born just at the right time,

      in just the right place with just the right ancestors

     >Just think: We have lived through the Rape of the American Puritan Ethic and

      survived. people are coming back to farms, homes, marriage and

      faith in the soil, and the dignity of physical labor, and the importance of

      human kindness, and mercy, and love.

     >Thursday of this week I heard Betty Rollin of the Today how interviewing

      several men around the age of 7-40 all except one thought the old way

      was the best.

     >  I believe we will “be in that number when the saints go marching in”.

      Why do I believe it?

1. Look at Moses.  He wrote the first five books of the Bible.  He murdered a man

   and had to leave the country.  Re-read it.

2. David, our darling poet. singer, writer of the beautiful psalms. writer of Song

   of Songs which some might consider pornographic literature.  David the

   Saint had a past!  He lusted.  He had people killed, he danced

   carrying the ark while old women gossiped and sneered.

   O, how we love David

3. Solomon.  The man who had his prayers answered.  He wanted to be

   the wisest man in the world & the richest. 

   Solomon in his old age let women ruin him.  He began to fanticize & even

   worshipped goddesses. He hunted  Jereboam to kill him-& would have

   if he could have found him.

4. Skip 400 years) Speaking of saints!

(1.) Saint Matthew-a crooked politician

(2.) Saint John the Beloved-had a terrible temper.  He had his brother wanted

     to burn up a whole town that didn’t talk & act & feel the way they did.

(3.) Saint Peter-Talked one way on  the streets and another way in church

(4.) All the saints were just like us.

     We remember the good in them.

     The saints were greedy for power, envious,  jealous, cruel, loving, hating, fighting

     until they saw the error of their ways.

                       Today-they rekindle hope for all of us.

                              -The Harden descendants are learning to love – and that is all that is

                              required – and that is the reason I believe we will be “in that number when

                              the saints go marching in” – We will be forgiven and forgiving.

                              (Before Lewis died)

                              >I saw Lewis’ countenance change to peace It shone all over his tired and           

                               wasted body.

                              >Mary Brewster saw Harmon come back from death after wrestling all

                              his life. He never let go. Like Jacob of old, he never let go until he was

                              blessed. Like Jacob, he lay resting—seeing the angels descending and

                              ascending on the ladder that reached from earth to heaven-and after he rested

                              a few weeks Mary Harmon and her children joined hands and sang

                              Harmon’s songs:

“ We are climbing Jacob’s ladder, ladder,     

“ We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,

“ We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,    

Children of the Cross!” 

Today Papa and mother and Lewis & Harmon are with us- Our hearts are

singing – for we see what Harmon saw when he

“Looked over Jordan”-

                                   >I looked over Jordan and what did I see

                                    Coming’ for to carry me home?

                                    A band of angels! Comin’ after me!

                                    Coming’ for to carry me home.

                                   Swing low sweet chariot

                                    Coming’ for to carry me home

                                   Swing low sweet chariott

                                  Coming’ for to carry us home

                                   These flowers!  11 in all.

                 This Harden reunion!!

                Webster’s unabridged:  This morning, before dawn, that  Reunion:  a reuniting of person’s

                after separation.

                Seaborn Judge Tecumseh Harden would like this reunion. These flowers.

>white for Papa and the two mothers

>Lewis

>Harmon

  Red for Annie Belle and Gladys

 Henry

 James (Snooks)

 Josephine

 Betty 

All of us here today. reunited

Yes, Papa would like this.