“O let me ne’er forget”*

by chuckofish

There’s only a week left before Thanksgiving! Zut alors!

Thanksgiving will certainly be very low key this year. And we’ll have to try to be especially mindful and focused about being thankful. This weekend I will also continue to get a head start on my Christmas present wrapping which I started last weekend.

And so it begins…

In other news, I have been remiss in not noting that our great-great grandfather, John Simpson Hough, was inducted into the Santa Fe Trail Association Hall of Fame this year. Of course, they had to cancel the festivities in September, but hopefully next year we will be able to go to the conference in Pueblo, CO where he will be recognized.

JSH is a favorite ancestor of mine and he really was an important person in the history of the Santa Fe Trail and in the history of Colorado. You will recall that he went west to escape Philadelphia and all his well-meaning, upstanding Quaker relatives. Once west of the Mississippi, he was taken with the wide open spaces and with all the old rough types he met in Missouri and Kansas and in his travels westward: Uncle Dick Wooten, Seth Hays, Kit Carson. He knew them all.

He prospered, but he was no self-promoter. (When he ran for governor, he refused to campaign in his opponent’s home county. He thought it would be in poor taste to do so.) There is no county named after him as there might be. So I did a little promoting and nominated him for the award. In the greater scheme of things, this award is certainly no big deal, but it made me happy. Small historical associations such as the SFTA are extremely important and I encourage everyone to participate in ones that interest you. These associations do good work, and, if you think history is important, please support them.

By the way, 2021 is the 200th anniversary of the Santa Fe Trail, so we will be celebrating appropriately. 2021 also marks the bicentennial of the state of Missouri! Huzzah for 2021! (U.S. Grant’s bicentennial is 2022–another party on the horizon!)

Have a good weekend. Read some history.

*Maltbie Davenport Babcock, “This is My Father’s World”

This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!