Thursday, March 11, 1898
LAST Wednesday, the heaviest snow of the winter fell. The trees on Black Mountain had been hanging with snow for some time and when this is the case, more snow may be expected any time. The date of this snow was the second of March. We were informed by a man who had the date firmly fixed in his mind, that the second day of March 1872 was an exact counterpart of its 26th anniversary.
– – –
SEVEN swans came to Hammonds’ on Williams River. At first they were supposed to be wild and three were shot. Four remain and are very tame. Whence they came is a mystery, for, if of the wild species, their behavior is most unusual; besides the swan in a wild state is almost extinct. The domesticated swan, if it flies at all, would scarcely come so far from any place where they are known to exist.
– – –
JUDGING from the last copy of your valuable paper, the Knapps Creek correspondents are all dead. I will give you a few items.
We are reliably informed that J. A. Cleek’s mule can kick the soda out of a biscuit and never crack the crust.
Peyton Moore took the saddle pockets and went to Highland last week to buy a steam sawmill, but when he got there and took off the gold-rimmed glasses and looked round a little, he found out that he could not carry the mill on horseback, he let her set.
Everybody is talking of going to war.
McDOOGAL
The Shooting Match
THE shooting match at this place last Saturday brought out a good attendance of the representative shots of this county. Elk, The Hills, Beaver Creek, The Levels, Edray, Clover Creek and Marlinton furnished sportsmen. Jasper Dilley, who has won enough matches to retire, was there with a 45-90 Winchester, which woke the echoes in the hills but while he shot uniformly well, and could have measured string measure with any of them, he failed to win a prize…
Honors were about evenly divided between the mountain rifles and the Winchester. W. L. Hogsett, U. S. Johnson and Lee Simms used mountain rifles and Jasper Dilley and Grant Johnson used Winchesters.
The last match, Lee Simms did not have the price. He had shot the other matches and tried to get a check cashed. He had fifteen cents and needed a quarter. Hiram Barnes had 10 cents. They clubbed for three shots and succeeded in winning the third price…
BIOGRAPHIC NOTES
THIS paper is composed of fragmentary notices of one of the early settlers of the Glade Hill neighborhood.
Benjamin Arbogast, Sen., the progenitor of a well-known branch of the Arbogast relationship settled early in the century near Glade Hill on the lands now in possession of Cornelius Bussard, Clark Dilley and others. In his home were five sons and three daughters, Henry, Solomon, John, Adam, Benjamin, Carlotta, Sally and Delilah.
Carlotta became Mrs. Johnathan Potts, and lived in Upshur county; Sally became the second wife of Ralph Wanless, near Mt. Tabor; and Delilah was first married to Joseph Wooddell near Green Bank, then to Frederick Pugh, of the same vicinity.
Henry Arbogast married Anna Warwick on Deer Creek, and settled on part of the homestead… Henry was a person of high natural endowments, and was widely known in our county, and greatly respected for his good qualities in all the relations of life…
Solomon Arbogast married Nancy Nottingham and lived on part of the homestead…
John Arbogast married Margaret Yeager and lived near Glade Hill. He was killed by a falling tree; leaving a widow and three sons.
Adam Arbogast married Clarissa Sutton and lived near Green Bank…. When a little girl, Mrs. Clarissa Arbogast had her arm crushed in a cider mill. She was given up to die by the physician sent for from an adjoining county. The late Captain John McElwee, ancestor of the McElwee relationship in our county, had the nerve to take his joint saw and razor and amputate the arm above the mortified part. The patient recovered and lived to rear five sons and three daughters. What Mrs. Arbogast could not do in housekeeping with her good left arm was not worth doing…
Benjamin Arbogast, Jr. married Miss Gibbons, a sister of the gallant Col S. B. Gibbons… Benjamin was one of the most remarkable persons that ever lived in our county…He was appointed constable and he magnified his office and worked it for all it was worth. He frequented the courts and seemed to have been infatuated with the lawyers of loose habits and alcoholic propensities and proficient in the history of the four kings. He aspired to the distinction of beating them at their own game, for they seemed to be what a gentlemen should be. He soon acquired his coveted distinction of being the fastest young man in the county…He attended Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, and graduated among the best in his class… He entered the ministry and became a noted pulpit orator and one of the most distinguished teachers of the high schools under the auspices of the M. E. Church South…
