Thursday, August 31, 1911
Some years ago county people owned about forty thousand acres of land on the western border of the county. The land was then and still is in a state of nature, and they got tired of holding it and paying taxes on it. The owners were numerous and when a chance occurred to sell it, sent a committee to go over it and make a report on it.
The committee looked it over and reported that while the land was very rich, that it was without value, because the timber was so heavy that the land could never be cleared to advantage. Acting on this advice the owners sold for forty cents an acre, what is now some of the best coal and timber land in this or any other State. The scouts found the timber to be highly undesirable weeds.
Twenty-five years ago, we were giving out contracts to belt or hack trees. The working man would get seventy-five cents an acre for killing trees. Such work now would soon give him seventy-five years in jail. These trees were belted by cutting a groove across the bark. They soon died and for several seasons they stood in the summertime, leafless in the green forest. It was a very common sight at one time, but did it ever occur to you that it is one that you will never see again. They called this letting the sun in to the ground, the result of which was a fine bluegrass sod.
A hacking showed the crude methods that its name implied. Old man Wes Brown, describing the harbor at Baltimore, with its innumerable spars and masts in a day when sailing ships were more plentiful than now, said that it looked like a hacking…
The great number of lumbermen coming into the county from foreign parts have succeeded in even changing the names of some of our more important trees. Basswood is now commonly accepted as the name of a tree that we formerly had trouble with. It was spelled lynn, lin and linden and was frequently used in deeds. After considerable research, I concluded that lin was the nearest right in the spelling as a contraction of the word linden. No one yet ever speaks of a basswood corner and officially it is still the lin, but the man who sells lumber knows better than to speak of it as lin, it is always basswood in the busy marts of trade.
When this county started on its downward road to prosperity the tree most valuable in the eyes of the investor was the yew pine. It is the tree which built the railroad, and is here for the reason that our mountain sides were rich and that there was sufficient elevation.
Yew Mountain, one of the highest peaks, gets its name from this tree. Every high peak towering toward the timber line is covered with a thick growth of yew pine, except one and that has the suggestive name of Bald Knob. This tree is the spruce, and we rarely, if ever, hear the tree called yew pine any more…
The lumbermen have already taken from this county three times as much timber as the highest guess ever made at it prior to the building of the railroad. Three hundred million a year for the past ten years is a low estimate and three billion feet of lumber has been shipped from the mills and great areas of timber are not touched yet. About one-third of the timber has been cut is one guess at the present situation, though that runs the amount of timber to fabulous figures. Just when the timber of this county will give out is a hazy and uncertain period, and the subject is not a welcome one…
STONY CREEK
Amos Beverage returned from a trip to Mingo last week.
Frank Beverage made a trip to Millpoint last week.
Mrs. Mary A. Duncan and little niece, Neva Hill, were visiting at Silas Barlow’s over Sunday.
Grass is getting short and water is scarce.
Porter Kellison was in the Levels several days last week buying calves.
ONOTO
We have two threshing machines in our neighborhood – Pete Carr’s and Sam Baxter’s – both doing good business. Wheat and oats are turning out good for the season.
Henry Moore is building a fine porch for E. F. McLaughlin, which will add much to the appearance of his house.
E. B. Smith is doing a good business in the way of shipping lumber and building a large barn at the Carter siding.
Owen Kellison and Samuel Barlow took a drove of cattle to Williams river Tuesday to graze on Frank Patterson’s farm.
