Years earlier, when the United States Bank went down under the onslaughts of General Jackson, the nation had a severe blow in the matter of credit. Individual America was broke, and all were in the same boat, just as they were in 1907, when clearing house and cashier checks were substituted for money.

It was this early cataclysm of the country's finances that caught Grandfather Akers, as it caught my own and your own grandfathers, and all our grandfathers in that melancholy day.

In 1848, when some were treking through this America's Valley of the Nile, to Oregon, and others were hurrying through to the newly discovered gold fields of California, Grandfather Akers, with his several sons, and their families, in one of which was ten year old William, came west into Iowa to find homes. First to Burlington, then to Crawfordville, then to the place where Millersburg now stands.

There was no money then, and the $1.25 per acre price for land was prohibitive, so they "squatted" on claims. And when Millersburg was started, the father of William sold his "squatter's right," and moved to town, and he and young William plied the hammer and saw steadily and continually until William reached his majority.

Others have told of his war record at Henry, Donaldson, Shiloh, Lays Ferry, Lyuca, Resaca, Corinth, and other places until after three and a half years, he was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky.

Triumphs of Peace

When I was young, we were taught that deeds of valor were the greatest achievements, but now we find greater triumphs in peace. One of the most heroic things that Captain W. R. Akers has done in his splendid career, was when at the age of twenty-five years he took up the work of education which had been denied him in his younger years.