Thursday, July 5, 1900
The oldest inhabitants fail to remember any display of electrical phenomena surpassing what occurred in view of Huntersville Friday evening. A very dark and rugged cloud loomed just above the horizon from Buckley Mountain to Browns Mountain which was illuminated by vivid flashes of lightning so continuous and frequent as not to be counted, and this too for an hour or more. Some of the flashes were of exceptional brilliance and magnitude. The silence in the meantime was very profound, but for an occasional scarcely audible echo of very remote thunder. After the disappearance of this magnificent electrical display towards the north, another cloud came up from the southwest attended with rain, thunder and lightning. The very earth seemed to be shaken.
LOCAL MENTION
L. M. McClintic, T. S. McNeel, R. K. Burns and I. F. Hill are on Cranberry this week camping.
Misses Emma Warwick, Mabel Ligon and Delia Edgar were visiting friends in Marlinton Monday.
Smith and Harper have orders for more than 600,000 bricks. The first kiln of 250,000 will be ready for burning by August 1.
The name of the post office five miles below Frankford on the Lewisburg mail route has been changed from Hattie to Maxwelton.
Norman Price went to Lewisburg to attend the called meeting of Presbytery to consider the call of Rev. G. W. Nickell to the Marlinton and Huntersville churches.
E. M. Arbogast and W. A. Bratton expect to build a big brick office building. L. M. McClintic will build a brick law office building in the fall.
County Court met last Tuesday and after auditing claims, refusing to build roads and to grant liquor license adjourned to Saturday next when it will meet to lay the levy.
During the late flood the Middle Fork Driving Company put in about 10,000 logs. The breaking of a chain on one of the dams was the cause of not getting in 2,000 more.
FROST
Frost is still booming. Anyone wanting a healthful location with pleasant surroundings, come to Frost.
W. A. G. Sharp sent his team to Marlinton Monday for a load of goods for Dr. J. P. Moomau.
Ben Sharp went to Hot Springs for a load of goods for Hannah & Harper.
Dr. Jordan is improving his house which he recently purchased from Dr. J. M Barnett.
JEFF HOUCHIN KILLED
Constable Burner Shoots Him through the Heart with a Winchester
Last Thursday, Jeff Houchin, a well-known citizen of Travelers Repose neighborhood was shot and instantly killed by C. B. Burner, a constable of Green Bank District. The affair is held to be justifiable.
Houchin was at Durbin during the day and had taken a drink or two but was not thought drunk. When in liquor, he is known as a dangerous man. Houchin was guilty of what Burner, as constable, considered disorderly conduct, and he told him that he would have to arrest him if it was continued.
Houchin went home for supper and brooded over what he considered was unwarranted interference on the part of the constable. After supper, he told his wife he was going after Burner and would get him before morning. His wife did what she could to keep him from going but was unsuccessful.
He went to P. D. Yeager’s and inquired for Burner, and next to C. L. Burner’s. He went on to Durbin. Burner was warned of his coming and concealed himself. Houchin came on with his gun held ready for shooting, crouching as he walked. He came to a place where he was on the point of discovering Burner, and Burner says that just as he fired Houchin caught sight of him and made a movement as though to fire. Burner fired three shots into the body of Houchin before he fell. The first shot was through the heart, the next just below it and the third took effect in this hand and thigh.
It is a very lamentable affair, but the end of Jeff Houchin does not surprise anyone who ever knew him. He was a most likable man when sober, a fine companion, and a good husband and father, but liquor transformed him into a dangerous, quarrelsome man. He was probably the finest rifle shot at live game in the county. He shot without taking sight apparently. While not drunk on the day of his death, he probably had had enough to raise the demon in him that prompted him to go after the constable who had threatened him with arrest.
The inquest held by Justice Gillespie exonerated Burner.
NOTES BY THE WAY
At old Millsboro, I passed an hour at the Sulphur Spring recently covered by an elegant dome roof and enclosed by a picket fence, painted white. In the meantime, Prince was turned loose to graze, and he seemed to be more than satisfied until he lifted up his eyes and noticed a young lady holding a horse near the creek a few hundred yards away, and he started for them. Upon calling to the young lady, she came forward to check him, which she did by taking him by the bridle and waited for me to come up. In the meantime, while waiting, she caressed old Prince very gently, which he seemed to appreciate very much. When I came up puffing and blowing from the race, I asked her to see what trouble her charms had caused me. A blush and a smile beautified her features and in the most self-possessed manner, replied: “Oh, well, all horses love me.”
In an instant she had vaulted her own horse in clothes-pin fashion, and galloped away, presenting a most picturesque appearance in her riding habit with white bodice, navy blue skirt and summer hat trimmed in flowers that might allure the humming bird in its search for honey dew.