Thursday, July 15, 1898
Hawaii is now an American territory. Our multitude of counsellors in Congress, who have filled volumes of the Record with speeches, have voted in the Senate 62 to 42 to annex, which all the while has been the will of the American people.
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The shelling of Santiago began at 4 o’clock Sunday evening. The Cuban and Spanish residents have all along been anxious to surrender and save their property, but the place is given over to 23,000 Spanish soldiers who murder and pillage. General Shafter now has a force of 27,000 men. The American entrenchments are nine miles long.
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As the Fourth of July is past, and my nerves are settled, I will grasp my rusty pen to let the outside world know that I spent a most enjoyable 4th on Slaty Fork, and the whole trip – fun, dinner and supper – only cost me $15.00. Who cares for $15.00 on the 4th of July? Everybody seemed to have laid aside their toils and cares of this life and came out to enjoy a good time.
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Frank Hogsett, the Browns Creek cyclist, is becoming an expert. He was met on his return from the Dilley’s Mill post office Monday morning. When his wheel is in good order, he can make the trip in fifty minutes, four miles each way, eight miles in all. He says wheeling is better than walking.
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The shepherd dog and the sheep recently advertised in The Times have been found. The dog at Clover Lick and the sheep in the Greenbrier mountains west of Dunmore. Nothing is better for finding missing things than advertising. It puts everybody on the lookout, far and near.
A Daily Mail
We learn from the Independent an item of postal news that is of interest to our reader. It has been decided to make one route from Lewisburg to Marlinton, and the arrangement is to go into effect September 5…
The mail will leave Lewisburg daily, except Sunday, no later than 11 a.m. and arrive at Marlinton in ten hours and, returning, leaves Marlinton at 6 a.m. and reaches Lewisburg at 6 p.m.
This ensures the mail direct from Ronceverte and daily papers will be received a day earlier. The Cincinnati Post will be received on day of publication, and the Richmond dailies the day after. Pocahontas is now in the front woods, or soon will be.
Tardiness in Church Attendance
Church-going people in Marlinton are urged by pastors and others to give more earnest heed to the ringing of the first bell for divine service.
It is not intended for a musical symphony, but is supposed to give the signal for persons, who are robed and ready, to start at once for church. As it is now, nearly everyone waits for the second bell before starting, reasoning falsely that every- body will do the same.
The sexton will see to it that the bell for Sunday School is always rung promptly at 9, and for service at night at 7:30.
BIOGRAPHIC NOTES
Among the citizens of our county deserving special notice for industry, hospitality and good influence on society, Robert Dunlap McCutchan, late of Thomas Creek near Dunmore, is to be remembered as one justly entitled to such consideration. While he was not one of the pioneers, he came to Pocahontas soon after the organization of the county, virtually settled in the woods and built up a home that was noted far and near for its good cheer and lavish hospitality.
January 11, 1825, he married Elizabeth Youel Lockridge, near Goshen, Virginia, and settled on Thomas Creek in 1826. They were the parents of five sons and four daughters…
Mr. and Mrs. McCutchan were natives of Rockbridge County. He was from near Goshen, and Mrs. McCutchan from the vicinity of the Rockbridge Baths. Both were related to the earliest settlers of that region and were of pure Scotch-Irish descent and they retained to the last, many of the peculiarities of that remarkable race. They numbered among their relatives many of the most worthy families in West Rockbridge.
Mrs. McCutchan, whose pet name was “Aunt Betsy,” was a typical Scotch-Irish matron. She was endowed with the traits of character developed in her ancestry by the civil and religious commotions that occurred in the Scottish Highlands and the historic parts of North Ireland… She was self-reliant, kind-hearted to a fault, self-possessed in all emergencies, diligent in business, fervent in spirit, ever ready to weep with those that wept, rejoicing with those that rejoiced, and could hold more than her own in a controversy if challenged on doctrinal points…
In a piney section of Pocahontas, Mr. McCutchan found lands that reminded him of the kind where his own parents had toiled and made a bountiful living for well nigh a century. He selected this for a home, though there were those who felt sorry for him and said it was a pity such nice people with their young family could be so easily suited.
“I do not brag on my land, but there is one important matter I feel proud of and could brag about it if I wanted to, and that is my neighbors. Where could one find better neighbors than the Matthews, Gatewoods, Warwicks and McLaughlins and others too numerous to mention?…
