Thursday, June 16, 1921
STAMPING CREEK
The health of the people is good at this writing.
Most of the farmers have their corn worked over.
We understand that Mr. Cutshall’s sawmill will begin operations this week with Adam Irvine as sawyer and general manager.
A grocery store has been opened next door to the mill here which will be a great convenience to the people.
Quite a few of our elder as well as our youngsters attended the serenade at Mr. Hefner’s Wednesday night. All report an enjoyable evening.
Some more weddings in sight. Boys, keep your senenading machines in readiness, you may need them at a moment’s notice.
MINNEHAHA SPRINGS
Among the recent arrivals at the Allegheny Club are the following:
Dr. Chas. S. Kramer, of Marlinton who entertained at dinner Miss Beulah Moore, Miss Madge Moore and Mr. Lawrence Warren.
Prof. C. C. Rossey in company with Miss Ida M. Edwards, Miss Ora Peters and Miss Louise Henderson, all of Athens, motored through Pocahontas county and visited the Club, being highly pleased with the fine scenery they found in Pocahontas county.
Mr. and Mrs. P. T. Ward, of Marlinton, entertained Mrs. J. W. Yeager and Miss Mildred Yeager at the Club.
Dr. E. G. Herold and wife motored up from Marlinton and spent Sunday at the Club.
Dr. and Mrs. H. C. Solter arrived at the Club last week and will remain during the summer. Their son, E. Holderby Solter, accompanied them. Mrs. M. C. Solter, of Baltimore, arrived at the same time and will stay until September first.
Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Bratton and family have moved into their bungalow, “Pine Lodge,” for the summer.
The Allegheny Club and the management of the Minnehaha Hotel will work together in unison, and by their united efforts they will be able to take care of all who are likely to visit these famous resorts during the season.
CIRCUIT COURT
The Circuit Court has been in session since the 7th day of June, disposing of matters that affect the county. A grand jury was in session for three days and found that the minority was still inclined to tamper with the deleterious, though not to the extend it did some months ago.
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink. – Isa. 5:11
Whoa unto them, says the court.
The common run of people would not accept a bottle of moonshine liquor as a gift, and yet an occasional man may be found who is willing to give ten dollars for a small vial of the stuff. There must be something wrong with the man’s mind to purchase repentance at so dear a price.
It appears that of late there is a disposition to put concentrated lye in the booze to give it a kick, the result is that the kick is so vigorous that the man may never come to.
At this court, there was a very dramatic scene when eight young men lined up before the court to report upon their progress toward a better life. Each one of these boys had confessed to and pled guilty of a felony at the April Term and the court had allowed them to be paroled on the condition that they be of good behavior, that they work, attend Sunday school and do not go to moving picture shows. Each one presented letters from Sunday school teachers and employers showing that the holder had complied with the requirements of the court. They were all well dressed and healthy looking and the plan seems to be working good. They are to report again at the October Court.
The case of the State of West Virginia vs Holmes Sharp and Cyrus Bowers occupied three days in trying. This was a case in which Judge Sharp was disqualified from trying owing to his relationship to one of the defendants and it was heard before a special judge.
Last Summer, a felony warrant was issued against the defendant Holmes Sharp, and Sheriff William Gibson and State Policemen Moore and Wooddell went to serve it in the afternoon of July 12th. The defendants lived in the old homestead of Col. Lockridge on Knapps Creek. When the officers drove up in a car and stopped and got out and were approaching the house, the defendant and Cyrus Bowers, a young man aged 26, took guns in their hands and stepped out of the back door and started across the bottom in the direction of Knapps Creek and the main Alleghany mountain, towards the Virginia line, which was distant a few miles.
Moore ordered them to halt and emphasized his order by two shots from a pistol. In the bottom was a field of wheat which was almost as high as a man’s head, and the fleeing men hid in this field. Very soon shots were fired from the wheat field and one of them struck the Sheriff inflicting a painful wound which bled profusely but which was not especially dangerous to life. The State Policemen returned the fire with their rifles until their ammunition was all but exhausted and then left for reinforcements. When they returned the same day, the defendants were gone, and were not seen by the legal authorities for some days when they came in and surrendered and gave bail. They were indicted for shooting with the intent to kill.
The defense offered by the defendants was that they had fired no shot at the officers, but that as they fled through the wheat they saw two men under an elm tree, in the wheat, firing upon the officers and that soon after they identified them as two men by the name of Combs, father and son, who had come out of the mountain and eaten dinner at Holmes Sharp’s house and who had left a few minutes before the officers had arrived and who had gone toward the Alleghany Mountain by way of the wheat field. The defendants testified that the men had told them they had done the shooting intimating that they had done so to keep the officers from pursuing the defendants…
Under the indictment, one of four verdicts was called for. Malicious wounding, under which the penalty is from two to ten years in the pen; unlawful wounding, fine and imprisonment up to five years; assault and battery, punishable as a misdemeanor’ or not guilty. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty of malicious wounding, the highest degree of crime under the indictment…
It is a matter of conjecture, whether the jury disbelieved the testimony of the defendants that the Combs, of Virginia, had done the wounding…
Holmes is a well-known citizen of the county. Belongs to a prominent family. Is 43 years of age, married and has eight children. Bowers is unmarried, and it is not very clear as to how he came to be mixed up in the affair. He served in the late war.