Thursday, August 15, 1901
To see the lumber piles near Lee Overholt’s at Buckeye station is an eye opener as to the timber resources of Swago and vicinity with Buckley Mountain thrown in for good count.
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The nicest and best social given for quite a while was given last Thursday by Miss Nora Overholt at Buckeye. About forty of the young people attended and everybody went home with merry hearts, and hoping to enjoy another as good soon.
A CARD OF THANKS
I feel grateful to the kind friends and members of the old Droop church for the money to purchase a new suit of clothes to go to Conference August 28, at Parkersburg. God bless those kind people. H. H. LOUGH
A TEXAS PIONEER
Boone Slaven, of Hunt County, Texas, was in Marlinton, last week, visiting friends and relatives. This is the first visit he has paid our county since he went to Texas from Highland in 1868. When he went to Texas, both Indians and buffalo were plentiful, and the whole state was not much better than a cattle range. He was a cow puncher for years and he tells many interesting stories of the rough life upon the plains; of the development of the country; flourishing towns and fine cultivated farms occupying the grassy wastes over which he used to graze the long-horned Texas steer which, he says, has disappeared from all parts of Texas, except the extreme southern part, being replaced in every instance by blooded stock.
In speaking of transportation, Mr. Slaven remarked how much cheaper it was in the old days than now. In 1869, he started in March in Southern Texas with a very large herd, ten or twelve thousand, belonging to four or five companies who had combined forces for protection against the Comanches, who were on the warpath. They drove six hundred miles to the Red River, crossing Indian territory and freighting them on the Northern Pacific in Kansas on November 1.
In nine months, they had driven about two thousand miles, at an average cost of $1 per head. The cattle were in far better condition when loaded than when started. To ship them by rail now would entail a cost of something like $4 per head, not counting the shift in weight.
THE EXCURSION
The C & O excursion came into town last Sunday with 542 excursionists. The train was composed of 10 coaches drawn by engine No. 158 and in charge of conductor Gill.
The crowd was good natured and orderly and there was nothing to mar the peacefulness of the day. Marlinton’s hotels and restaurants easily took care of the crowd for dinner and after that the excursionists strolled over town and seemed to enjoy the day.
The train pulled out at 6 o’clock, loaded down from end to end, and the whole affair was a success for everybody concerned.
Marlinton was a little apprehensive before the crowd arrived that there might be a disorderly element connect-ed with it, but the result showed that these fears were unfounded.
The crowd left several hundred dollars in town, and we are willing to see as many excursions as the railway company cares to give us.
EH, BILL!
“Bill, I wish you would tell your brother John that I have 670 acres of land lying in the Buckley Mountain on the east side of the Greenbrier River, and one and a half miles reaches near the centre of the tract from the Greenbrier Division of the C & O R. R.
Tell John that rather than miss the sale, I would take $3 per acre. It is fairly well timbered, and the lay of the land makes it easy to put to the railroad. For further information either call or write to GRANVILL MESSER, Huntersville, W. Va.
DEATHS
Bertha Clunen died August 10, 1901, on Swago, of the prevailing epidemic. Bertha was the youngest daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Clunen, aged 12 years. Her teachers speak of her as a nice, studious pupil at school and in some respects a remarkable little girl.
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Lula Kiblinger died August 9, 1901, of cholera infantum, she was two years old and was the tenth and youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Kiblinger. Kiblinger is the foreman of section No. 9 of the Greenbrier Railroad.
