Thursday, October 1, 1897
LIEUT. PERRY, the arctic explorer has just returned from Meteoric Island in the far northern regions. He brought with him a meteorite. It measures twelve by eighteen feet and weighs one hundred tons. Its composition is very similar to that of the material used for plate armor on war ships and looks like nickeled steel.
MOST OF the corn of the county suffered frost-bite last week and the fields turned white. It made terribly dry cutting. Those who had corn binders fully appreciated the blessing this year. On one farm in the Levels, a crop of forty-two acres of drilled corn was harvested in five days.
A PLEASANT home wedding at the home of S. B. Moore, Edray, September 22nd, A. R. Gay and the beautiful and accomplished Miss Flora E. Moore were united in the bonds of holy matrimony. The happy couple started at once for Washington amid the congratu- lations of friends.
A BUNCH of twenty-odd two year old cattle were sold by J. K. Bright of Academy, to Griffith & Stout of Pennsylvania. They weighed 1,130. An offer to leg them at $36 a head was refused. They brought, after being weighted, nearly $40. They, with other cattle, will be driven a distance of 178 miles over land to Pennsylvania…
FOR SEVERAL weeks there have been much trouble and anxiety, as well as suffering and many deaths, from yellow fever in various places in the southern and southwestern states. It would seem from the latest news that the disease is on the wane and the fever may soon disappear. It is feared, however, that the germs may lie dormant and break out early next summer. Sanitary precautions may prevent this if used effectively and in time.
HENRY WARWICK, the one year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Massie Warwick, of Fire Creek, has been a grievous sufferer of eczema. His fond parents spared neither pains nor expense for the relief of their child. Mrs. Warwick spent some weeks in Baltimore with a specialist. For months the little sufferer had to be pinioned, hands and feet, to a pillow to prevent self inflicted injury. Early in the summer, Mrs. Warwick brought her family to Mr. Andrew McLaughlin’s to spend the heated term. A month of two since, Mrs. Warwick ventured to let her little boy drink the alum water from a spring in the vicinity. The improvement is so marked as to be almost incredible. In a few weeks this emaciated infant covered with sores became a beautiful bouncing boy, and a happier mother is hard to find or one more grateful to Him that heals our diseases.
BIOGRAPHIC NOTES
Among the earliest settlers of the Elk region was Joseph Hannah, a son of Dr. David Hannah, the Irish emigrant who lived at the mouth of Locust Creek. Quite early in this century he married Elizabeth Burnsides, on the Greenbrier east of Hillsboro. She was a sister of the late Robert Burnsides. Soon after marriage, he settled on the “Old Field Fork of Elk.”
His home was on Mill Run near where William Hannah, a grandson, now lives.
This immediate vicinity seems to have been a place of more than ordinary importance in prehistoric times. One of the most frequented Indian trails seems to have been from Clover Lick up the creek to the Thomas Spring, thence over the mountain, crossing at the notch near Clark Rider’s farm; thence down by James Gibson’s to Elk. Here the valley runs due east and west, which was noticed, evidently, by the Indians, and at the point midway between the east and west horizon a symbolic circle was constructed representing two colossal rattlesnakes in the act of swallowing each other. One light, the other darkness. The day seems to swallow the night and the night seems to swallow the day – as the Indian medicine man saw it – and this marked the process that seemed to destroy something while making other things alive.
It was here religious rites of more than ordinary solemnity were performed preparatory for hunting and for war.
Nearly a mile further down was the encampment where about two acres of land had been denuded of trees for camp fires, and this was the “old field” that gave this branch of Elk its name, and was the first piece of ground planted by Joseph Hannah.
Mr. and Mrs. Hannah reared a large family of well-behaved, industrious children. This family did a good part in the development of this thrifty section of our county…
When the writer first remembers seeing Mr. Hannah, he was of very venerable appearance. His grey hair was combed back and plaited in a cue that hung down between his shoulders. The last time I ever saw him we were spending the night at Sampson Ocheltree’s in the winter of 1849. The two old men were in busy conversation until a late hour, and most of the talk was about the children of Israel and the dealings of God. The fire was getting low, the candle about burned out, when mother Ocheltree observed it was about time to get ready for bed.
At this suggesting, Mr. Hannah arose and in a very soft solemn tone repeated the words and then sang:
“The day is past and gone,
The evening shades appear,
O may we all remember well
The night of death draws near,
“Lord, keep us safe this night,
Secure from all our fears;
May angels guard us while we sleep
Till morning light appears…”
~ W. T. P.