Thursday, August 19, 1898
LETTER
From Lieut. Robert D. Kerr, U. S. A.
July 1, 1898
MY DEAR SISTER:
I received your letter after we were out to sea about two days, and I realize fully that it must be pretty hard for you all to have me go away, and I hated to go for that reason. But, as for myself, there is nothing hardly that could please me better. And what young man of my age could look at the situation otherwise? I am getting a voyage around the world free, and paid besides. We are not going to fight over there. There is not half as much danger as there is in Cuba….
LIEUT. ROBERT D. KERR
The impression produced in this county by the news of Bob Kerr’s death was very profound. Everyone knew of his brilliant prospects and high standing in the army, and they also knew of the uncommonly strong ties that drew him to his home people. He had been gone for two years under the rules of West Point and was ordered into active service without a chance to come home. Ever since the war began, his father, mother and sisters have suffered as much out of apprehension for his safety as they could have done if they had known the time and manner of his death.
And then when the certain news of peace had come to relieve the tension, it was speedily followed by the news that their boy had succumbed to the terrors of the tropical heat and lay buried in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.
The conditions of the journey in the steamship from Honolulu were terrible. The iron ship was crowded with soldiers and they steamed for a thousand miles on the 20th parallel, without the sign of a breeze with the temperature in the 90s. The heat was unbearable and this young soldier born and raised in this cool climate was one of the first victims…
He was the only soldier from Pocahontas County in the war, but owing to the fact that he was an honor man at West Point he was well and widely known.
INTERESTING BIBLE HISTORY
In Madrid there is an old prison at the locality named the Place of Skulls. It was here that an heir to the Spanish throne was imprisoned for 33 years by order of the crown for fear he would cause trouble by his aspirations for the throne. Death finally came and released him, and it was found that he had spent much of the time in searching the Scriptures. He had recorded what he had found out on the rough walls of his cell, using an old nail for a pencil. By these scribblings on the walls, we learn how the learned Prince of Granada was employed much of his time through the sad and weary years of his imprisonment…
SWAGO
George Douglas McNeill arrived home Friday last from Texarkana, Texas, where he has been occupying a chair of penmanship in the Texarkana Business College for the last 12 months.
The farmers along the river are guarding their crops which were left unprotected by the flood.
One told me he had no rails and could not leave the field to make rails on account of his neighbor’s hogs which were at large. The neighbor, he said, pleaded that as he had done nothing to bring on the flood, he was under no obligations to pen up his hogs.
The lack of formality and rigid adherence to many of the absurd and prescribed rules of propriety is one of the delights of a fishing trip down the Greenbrier. It was my pleasure to be the guest of the Buckeye Fishing Club on a trip of this kind last week…
For the first 24 hours, the fishing was excellent, a count of 127 being made, the small boy with one suspender coming in for the largest count. Colbert Duncan, who was with us in the capacity of “canvass boss,” placed five hooks in the entrance to a slough arguing that the waters having been high and muddy for some days past that the catfish would move into the slough that night to feed, and that none could pass without taking the bait until all five of the hooks had a fish. When he went to examine the hooks next morning, he discovered that a two pound mud cat had gathered all five of the hooks into his bosom, thus allowing the entire school to pass through unharmed. As Mr. Duncan had wagered his last “bone” on the success of this venture, his rage and disappointment was unbounded.
LOBELIA ITEMS
G. M. Williams has been building a dike to save the mill from further injury.
It raineth and behold the floods cometh and doeth much damage. We are left without roads or foundation to build on. W. B. Hill warned out his whole force of hands and put up footlogs and filled up some of the washouts in the road. R. W. Hill suffered the most from back water. The water was backed up a distance of two miles covering acres of meadows, corn and oats.
ALL DAY MEETING
The all day meeting on Elk last Sunday was a great success in every respect and the crowd of people that assembled was very great. Rev. W. A. Sharp preached in the morning and Rev. G. P. Moore in the afternoon. The program was varied by the people going out to dinner to the neighboring houses.
James Gibson entertained 55 and their horses; William Gibson 40; Bob Gibson 20; and John Gibson 20.
The people of that community are gratified that no one made the day an occasion for getting drunk and marring the enjoyment of the day.