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The boys of Class No. 1 wrote to politicians and dignataries all over the world, explaining their project and asking for signatures and words of inspiration. Many famous figures of the time responded and the following is a sample of the many signatures and statements collected.
President Taft leaving the Westminster Presbyterian Church at 83 South Twelfth Street, Minneapolis during his visit on September 18, 1909.
Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.
Theodore Roosevelt
April 24th 1902
As our physical organism was devised for existence in the atmosphere of our globe, so is our moral organism devised for existence in Justice. Every faculty yearns for it, and is more intimately concerned with it, than with light or hearing, or the laws of gravitation; and to throw ourselves into injustice is to plunge headlong into the hostile and the unknown.
Seymour J. Gage
Secretary of the Treasury
Washington, D.C.
January 15, 1902
You wished me to write about how Betsy Ross taught me to make the U.S. Flag. I am Mrs. Ross’s oldest living grand-daughter, and was born and brought up in her house. Naturally as I reached the age to learn I saw the flag made daily, as it was part of the business of the house. A camp of the Daughters of the Revolution was formed here and the members came to me to make them a flag, knowing I was a grand-daughter of Betsy Ross.
Mrs. Rachel Albright
Aged 90 years and 7 months
In our country we not only have equality before the law, but equality of opportunity and the young man with push, pluck and perseverance is sure to succeed.
Respectfully yours,
S.R.Nau
Governor of Minnesota
Remember the young men of 1861, who proved their loyalty to the Government during the most critical period of it history, whose sacrifices and achievements not only preserved the Union, but has made us what we are today, the most prosperous nation on Earth.
Josias R. King
Capt. Co. G 1st Union Vols.
The 1st Vol. For the War of the rebellion
St. Paul
Jan. 4th 1902
How proud every son and daughter of Minnesota may be at the progress the state has made in its brief history.
Alex. Ramsey
January 1, 1902
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
John D. Rockefeller
Oct. 6th 1903
“If you can keep your head when all about
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting, too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting;
Or being lied about don’t deal in lies
Or being hated don’t give way to hating;
And yet don’t look too good or talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you’ve given your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a man, my son.”
--Kipling
Woodrow Wilson
(written about August third, nineteen hundred and thirteen)
Rest not without the realization that your relations with God as it regards the past are right and satisfactory. Your heart pure, your life good, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit you are able to discharge the duties you owe to God, yourself and the world around you.
Melious Booth
General of The Salvation Army
Saint Paul, Minn.
Nov. 26th 1902
Patriotism is the highest civic virtue, and in this favored land ours is indispensable to the maintenance of American institutions.
It has its root in love of home, and its loftiest inspiration comes from the memory of a mother’s face and other great ministries around the family hearthstone.
Devotion to and self sacrifice in behalf of a noble cause are the crowning virtues of all those who can justly claim fellowship with the great and good.
Ell. Torrance
Commander in Chief
Grand Army of the Republic
August 27th, 1902
Signatures:
George Dorsey
Admiral of the Navy
A. Lincoln
Note regarding autograph of A. Lincoln. On Feb 3 – 1909 a letter was sent to Robert Lincoln asking him to be kind enough, on Feb 12 - 1909 (the hundredth anniversary of his father’s birth) to sign his name, with the date under the autograph of his father. On Feb 8 – 1909 Robert Lincoln’s secretary replied stating that the letter and book had been received, and that the book was being returned unopened because Robert Lincoln “prefers not to write in books in the way in which you suggest.”
Thomas A Edison
Laboratory
Orange NJ
January 3rd, 1906
Alexander Graham Bell
Washington D.C.
February 20 1912
Orville Wright
June 4th 1914 Dayton, Ohio
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Do you have information about one of the Boys of 1901 or their teacher, Andrew Benton? If you know about one or more of these boys or would like more about the Book, we would love to hear from you. Send the church an email by clicking here.
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