Thursday, October 1, 1925
This time it was our ox that was gored. I got back from a swing around the circle, to find the county seething with indignation over an article that appeared in the Christian Observer, a paper of general circulation here. It was written in true missionary style and described this as one of the dark places in the world, and intimated that it was no fit place to raise children. The Observer is published at Louisville, Kentucky, a place that is young compared with our own country, for we had schools and churches and bred heroes when Louisville was not, and on whose site the rank thistle nodded in the wind and the wild fox dug his hole unscared! I would prefer to let the disagreeable incident go unnoticed, but that might be construed to be a weakness equivalent to confession. While we do not believe in throwing mud, still when mud is thrown at us, we will protect ourselves as best we can, and at least make it known that we are not consenting parties to such attacks.
For more than 30 years, I have been a writer whose subject was Pocahontas County, and I have used up great acres of space in recording the glory of its people. Under the rule, in speaking of others, it is incumbent to record their good points first, and if a writer will do this in anything like a thorough manner, he will find that though his life may be long in the land that the Lord hath given us, he will not last long enough to reach the place when it is necessary to record their faults.
“I have eaten your bread and salt,
I have drunk your water and wine,
The deaths ye have died, I have watched beside,
And the lives that ye led were mine.
“Was there aught that I did not share
In vigil or toil or ease –
One joy or woe that I did not know?
Dear hearts, I sought to please.
“I have written the tale of our life
For a sheltered people’s mirth
In jesting guise – but ye are wise,
And you know what the jest is worth.”
Any editor knows how hard it is to prevent the publication of matter which tends to offend, for so many people think that a newspaper is conceived for the purpose of giving offense.
As the issue was raised as to whether Swago is a good place to rear children, I think that a short review of some of the results obtained there would present some facts, which would be real evidence, against the glittering generalities of the article in the Observer.
I want to put in this list two preachers who were born just over the ridge from Swago, the late Rev. Dr. Wm. T. Price and Rev. Dr. H. W. McLaughlin, one of the most eminent ministers of the southern church.
Judge Geo. W. McClintic, Judge of the United States Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, a man of national reputation as a lawyer and jurist.
Rev. M. C. Overholt, minister of the Methodist church.
Parke McNeill, district supervisor, Forest, Game and Fish.
D. C. Adkison, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Pocahontas County.
Hon. L. M. McClintic, of Marlinton, lawyer, banker and statesman.
Hon. N. C. McNeil, of Marlinton, lawyer, senator and orator.
Prof. G. D. McNeill, member of the bar, traveler and present principal of Edray District High School.
Col. O. M. Kee, businessman in Marlinton, and Presidential Elector in 1920.
J. E. Buckley, Esq., law-yer, postmaster at Marlinton, president of his class at Washington & Lee University.
Dennis McNeill, a prominent businessman of Huntington.
Forrest McNeill, a prominent businessman of Clarksburg, twice golf champion of West Virginia.
Dennis Cloonan, soldier of the World’s War and medalist of that war.
J. S. Kellison, Wesleyan College, West Virginia’s only All-American Football player.
I am liable to get into trouble myself for leaving names out of this hall of fame, but I wanted to give those names as examples of what children may become when raised in the glen of Swago. …
TO A
THOUGHTLESS GUEST
We gave you mountain fare,
Not reckoning the cost,
And I’m not a-meaning fodder and meat –
Hit’s confidence we lost.
Friend of our friend you came –
The proper password here –
So, we sang our ballads and told our tales
To make our friend good cheer.
No matter how we know,
You mocked our ways and looks,
Naught’s hidden, but shall be revealed
Is writ in the Book of Books.
Don’t think us stricken deep.
You’ll not be named again.
Who breaks our bread, and then breaks faith,
Is naught to mountain men.
LOCAL MENTION
On Monday evening, E. M. Smith, of Edray, drove his faithful flivver home from the potato patch with a load of spuds. He left the engine running and got out to open the gate. The automobile attempted to follow Mr. Smith through the gate but got turned a little wrong and went over a steep bank into the county road. The machine was badly damaged.
A fox squirrel was killed near Marlinton last week. It was the color of a ground squirrel and as large as a cat. Fox squirrels, though rather plentiful in Virginia, are seldom seen on this side of the Alleghanies.
The venerable A. W. Moore, 83 years of age, near Sunset, was at Marlinton Friday on business.
The suit between Harper Gay and J. F. Wanless was happily compromised last Thursday at Huntersville.
Samuel Gay, some years since postmaster and toll gatherer at the Marlinton bridge, was visiting relatives and friends near Edray last week.
BIRTHS
Born to Harry Wade and Mrs. Lillian Curry Wade, near Mill Gap, a fine daughter.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Price Moore, near Mt. Vernon, a fine daughter.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Clendenen, a daughter.
DIED
Elizabeth R. Wagner was born September 19, 1853, and died August 41, 1925, aged 71 years. She was united in marriage to Joseph Wagner October 5, 1876. To this union was born two daughters – Alice B. and Minerva M… Funeral service was held at Hebron M. E. Church with interment in the Hebron cemetery.
