Thursday, November 29, 1923
On last Saturday, Frank Bond and Luther Trimble were sentenced by Judge McClintic in the Federal Court to seven years in the penitentiary at Atlanta, after conviction on six counts for violation of the national prohibition laws. Edna Bond was also found guilty and will be sentenced to a penitentiary for women. These people operated a moonshining outfit on Spice Run. In passing sentence on them, Judge McClintic spoke of the trio as “the most serious violators” of the prohibition law. The Bonds, brother and sister, are from Greenbrier County and Trimble comes from Highland County.
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Charles Barlow, of Edray, went all through the war without a scratch only to be accidentally shot by a companion while hunting pheasants in heavy cover in the Sinks last week. Two dozen shot were picked out of his face and body on Tuesday morning. His heavy hunting coat protected him from serious injury.
IN POCAHONTAS COUNTY
There is no agricultural county in West Virginia in which the writer has spent less time during the past twenty years than in Pocahontas. It was, therefore, a great pleasure recently to spend eight days in this section. Our first meeting was held at Beard. Here the community has built one of the prettiest little churches I have seen in the state, and here we had a splendid meeting. R. M. Beard was our host and with him and his good family a pleasant night was spent. We found him and his son doing about all the work that was done on the farm but he took time to spend a day with a solicitor securing members for the Farm Bureau Federation. He has a well kept farm and keeps nothing but good livestock on it, being a breeder of Hereford cattle, Shropshire sheep and Berkshire hogs, but the best thing that can be said about him is that he is public spirited and is always ready to help along with every good work.
Our next meeting was at Hillsboro. Here we greeted a fine crowd of up-to-date farmers. This country is called the Levels and there are few sections in the state that equal it in point of fertility… There is a good high school in this village and the people are in every way progressive.
Edray was our next stop and a good crowd of intelligent up-to-date farmers greeted us. This is another place where the soil is good and good livestock is kept. We were entertained in the splendid home of S. B. Moore and Son, and it was a real pleasure to spend a few hours on a farm where nothing but good livestock is kept and modern faming done. Not only is good machinery such as a tractor and the best of plows and harrows used, but the home is supplied with the most modern improvement. It was very gratifying to find here a son who had lifted the burden from his father’s shoulders and was deeply inter- ested in farming. Shorthorn cattle are bred and a fancy price was paid recently for a bull.
The next meeting was held at Clover Lick in the afternoon. The attendance was not so large because the farmers are so rushed with their work, not being able to hire help for love or money. While here, I visited the farm of J. J. Coyner, known as one of the leading potato growers of the county. For years he has been growing from eight to ten acres of potatoes and has been very successful. He owns 800 acres of land, applies a great deal of lime and wood ashes. He has a fine orchard just coming into bearing, but the thing that interested me was the poultry plant owned by his son, “Berry,” who is at the University taking a course in poultry husbandry. Here I saw 12,100 White Leghorn pullets, a poultry house 120 feet long and 26 feet wide, and another of the same dimensions is just being started.
It has been said that he who makes two blades of grass grow where but one grew before is a public benefactor, but he who takes a swamp and coverts it into a productive farm is entitled to a higher compliment and this is what W. C. Gardner has done. We had the pleasure of breaking bread with him and spending a few hours on his farm. Mr. Gardner lived in the city but in search of health came to this section and has built a good home with all modern conveniences and has greatly improved his farm. He inti- mated that the dividends were coming in rather slow but I assured him that the same could be said by those who had been reared on the farm.
At Dunmore, we met a lot of farmers who feel that the farmers of the state have not been getting a square deal in the matter of taxation and who are willing to lend their support toward righting the wrong. I visited the farm of J. N. Wilfong. He owns 1,100 acres, a great deal of which is level. He has tile drained a great deal and will tile drain more… He keeps 50 cattle, 100 sheep and about 50 hogs. He goes on the theory that it is not best to carry all one’s eggs in one basket. It was a real pleasure to find a farmer who had started with nothing and has acquired so much land and stock by his own industry, but with all this work on hand, he still found time to take one day off to drive a solicitor through his community.
Pocahontas is a wonderful county of great possibilities. It has thousands of acres of level land which are susceptible of great improvement… ~ W. D. Zinn, in National Stockman and Farmer
BIRTH
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Boyd J. Campbell, of Minnehaha Springs, a daughter.
