Pocahontas County Bicentennial ~ 1821-2021

Thursday, April 23, 1897

THE EASTER storm came as usual as a kind of judgment on the pride evinced in the buying of Easter hats and other fixings by the ladies of the land.

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JAMES McCOLLAM, Esq., an aged and much respected citizen, has about recovered from the illness that afflicted him some months since, and is quietly and industriously spending his old age in his pleasant home on Buck’s Mountain, a few miles west of Marlinton. About 1866, he settled here, clearing land and reared a comfortable residence in a sheltered cove facing the south, where he planted fruit trees and small fruits.

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THE McCORMICK Harvesting Machine company will ship to the farmers of this county three car loads of machinery this season, already sold, aggregating in value about $4,250. This company is represented by T. A. Sydenstricker and J. W. Beard in the Levels and Edray districts, and B. McElwee, of Dunmore, in the upper portion of the county. The above machinery includes eight binders.

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A QUIET and pleasant wedding was celebrated in Huntersville last Saturday noon, at the residence of J. J. Beard, Esq., when Mr. Joseph Guth and Miss Birdie Brown Campbell were married by the Rev. William T. Price. Miss Birdie is a daughter of the late William Campbell, of Huntersville. Much of the time since the decease of her parents, she has lived with Mr. and Mrs. Beard, by whom she is highly esteemed. Mr. Guth is a native of Pennsylvania, but has been in this county for 13 years, regularly occupied in the lumber industry. A nice dinner was served and all passed off beautifully, and everyone wishes these young people the best that life may afford. Miss Mary Barlow presided at the piano and performed quite nicely.

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THE SALE of the personal property of James H. Renick, deceased, took place April 13, at Falling Springs. The fifty head of four-year old cattle brought $4.35 per hundred pounds, bid in by the administrator, and a lot of yearlings brought $22.40 each from Al Bassell, of Upshur. The sheep, in three lots, brought respectively $5.00, $4.90, and $4.85 each. The young horses brought from $30 to $50 each. John G. Beard bought the Kentucky bull at $40. S. B. Mason, of Lewisburg, bought a Kentucky cow at $36. In addition to the livestock, the machinery of the farm was sold.

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“CAP” HATFIELD was convicted of involuntary manslaughter at the late term of the Mingo Circuit Court. His step-son, who confessed to the murder of Elliott Ruthford and Henderson Chambers, was sent to the reform school.

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WAR has been declared between Turkey and Greece.

TERRIBLE ACCIDENT IN RENICK’S VALLEY

James Brown, a son of Allan Brown, of Spring Creek, was instantly killed while firing an engine in Renick’s Valley, in the upper end of Greenbrier County Friday. His death was due to the breaking of the main belt of the sawmill. He was standing immediately behind the engine and had been replenishing the fire. He had used an iron poker and had placed it in his right hand. At that instant the band parted and, in jerking back, caught the poker in its folds and struck him in the forehead, crushing the skull and causing instant death.

The victim was a man of about 30 years and unmarried. He was an expert engineer and had been in the sawmill business for a long time. In person, he was of very striking appearance, being a large, well made man, weighing about 250 pounds.

The mill he was working on belonged to Shirkey & Wright and was located at the foot of Spring Creek Mountain on Charles Bright’s land and was sawing Abraham Beard’s timber.

This accident calls to mind a similar occurrence in the same mill about two weeks ago. At that time the same belt broke and caught a double-bitted axe in the hands of a mill hand named Copenhaver and whirling it in the same manner cut the skin of Copenhaver’s throat, while the handle of the axe broke his forefinger.

BIOGRAPHIC NOTES

One of the most widely known of Pocahontas families in former years was that of the ancestor of the Lockridge relationship at Driscol, four miles east of Huntersville. It was a place of resort for judges of the court and visiting lawyers to and from Huntersville on public occasions.

Pleasant mention is made of the kind treatment received and of the nice and bountiful table comforts enjoyed in the memoir of the late Howe Peyton, Esq., and in some published reminiscences of George Mayse, Esq., of Warm Springs.

Lancelot (Lanty) Lockridge, the progenitor of the name in our county, came from the Lower Bull Pasture in Highland County, Virginia, about four miles up the river from Williamsville, Bath County.

Mrs. Lockridge was Elizabeth Benson, of the same vicinity. Some of her near relatives migrated to Ohio, from whom Joseph Benson Foraker traces his name and ancestry, and who is now in the Senate of the United States, colleague of M. A. Hanna, Esq., Senator from Ohio.

Mr. and Mrs. Lockridge were of pure Scotch-Irish ancestry. Early in the century they settled on Knapps Creek and built up a prosperous home and reared a large family, four sons and five daughters, Andrew, Matthias, Lancelot (Lanty), James T., Elizabeth, Nelly, Harriet, Rebecca and Martha…

BILLY
HIS letters came so seldom that I
Somehow sort o’ knowed
That Billy was a-trampin’ on
A mighty rocky road.
But never once imagined he would
Bow my head in shame,
An’ in the dust ‘d waller his ol’
Daddy’s honored name.
He writes from out in Denver, an’
The story’s mighty short;
I just can’t tell his mother;
It’ll crush her poor ol’ heart!
An’ so I reckon, Parson,
You might break the news to her –
Billy’s in the legislatur’
But he doesn’t say what fur.