Perpetuate Peace

The Pioneer Mother
University of Oregon Sculpture
Donated by Burt Brown Barker in memory of his mother.

“Others have perpetuated her struggles;
I want to perpetuate the peace
which followed her struggles.
Others have perpetuated her adventure;
I want to perpetuate the spirit
which made the adventure possible,
and the joy which crowned her declining years
as she looked upon the fruits of her labor
and caught but a faint glimpse
of what it will mean for posterity.
I want to recall her as I recall my Mother,
Elvira Brown Barker, a pioneer of 1847,
in the sunset of her life,
after the hardships and the battles
and the sorrows of pioneering were past
and she sat in the afterglow of her twilight days
resting from her labors.
All her hardships and sorrows
have softened in the telling in her later life,
and her rugged endurance has mellowed
with her fading memory;
but to us there lives that spirit of conquering peace
which I wish posterity to remember.”

May 7, 1932 Burt Brown Barker

For more information about the Sculptor, Alexander Phimister Proctor, of The Pioneer Mother - copy and paste:
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/104.3/hassrick.html - The information about The Pioneer Mother is at the bottom of the article.

I am thankful for all the women who gave up the comfort of their lives to become Pioneer Mothers. I really appreciate the sentiment that Mr. Barker wants us to focus on, when remembering our ancestors, "the spirit of conquering peace."

Photo by Al McDougall - 9/19/07