Pocahontas County Bicentennial ~ 1821-2021

Thursday, June 11, 1897

THE EARTHQUAKE is said to be causing trouble in Giles County. The mountain in which a fissure a mile and a half was made, is issuing fire and smoke and making everyone sick. The people near the mountain have moved away.

ERVINE HOUDYSCHELL in jail has a very severe case of fever, and there are doubts as to his recovery. He took sick within a week after his incarceration and was feeling premonitory symptoms at that time, so it is not the fault of the jail.

THE REPORT that the earthquake knocked a chimney down in Marlinton last week is apt to mislead. It was a lamp chimney on a shelf instead of a chimney on a house, but the earthquake is no respecter of chimneys for all that.

JOSEPH WILSON, one of Marlinton’s factotums, was at his work on Powell Hill last Friday afternoon when he encountered and killed a fine specimen of the yellow rattlesnake. It measured four feet and had eight rattles and a button.

NEARLY ALL of the cattle have been sold that will go out of the county next fall. Foreign buyers have been riding the county for the past two months and probably never in the history of the county has so much stock been sold as is now the case. Evidently the buyers expect cattle to advance in price this fall. Wool is about three cents better this year than last. The new administration says have patience and times will be better, but the answer was that “Patience does not pay debts,” and wool and cattle are both sold to those who speculate in patience.

THE SUN, that may be well called the “New York Thunderer,” quotes with approval duly qualified some remarks on the liquor habit made by the Rev. Goodchild a week or so since: “Just whisper that a man drinks and his reputation is gone. No store, no church wants a man who drinks. No sensible woman wants him for a husband, no man wants him for an executor. A young man that tipples might as well be at the bottom of the sea, so far as worldly success goes.”

EDUCATION

To the Editor of The Times;

Dear Sir – From an historical point of view, notice that throughout all generations, from the “era” of ancient history down to the present period of time, the “best educated” people lived the happiest lives, were the best citizens, the freest and most independent people of the globe. When we look on the inventions by which man’s labors are so easily performed, and ask what has been the means of bringing all this about, we answer –through the faculty of educated men and women. We see that the educated man is, in a general way, the better man in a community – the more reasonable and a better neighbor.

We should urge the young minds to obtain that which can never be taken from them – education. We insist that employing first-class teachers in our public schools is a necessity, and that an increase in salary is a needful step in this direction…

LOVE’S ROMANCE

The happy termination of an interrupted romance is about to transpire in Summers County. Last Saturday at Hinton, County Clerk Ayer issued a marriage license to James W. Fortune, 76 years old, and Adalaide McCormick, 56 years old. Fortune is a bachelor and Miss McCormick, a maiden. They were lovers in 1860 and quarreled. Fortune joined the Confederate army and went South and was not heard of for many years.

Recently Miss McCormick heard from her former lover, and upon his revisiting his old home, they met, revived the friendship of earlier days, and the wedding, which is about to take place, is the happy result. – Ronceverte News.

WEDDINGS

Married at the residence of Jacob S. Moore, Esq., on Upper Elk, George Tyler, of Edray, and Miss Linnie Moore, third daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob S. Moore.

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John Payne and Miss Nora Kinnison, near Academy, were married May 9, by Rev. Dills.

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On June 2, 1897, in the quiet little village of Green Bank, two young people began the journey of life together. The happy persons were Mr. Leslie O. Beard and Miss Ruby M. Ralston. They were married at the home of the bride’s father, Mr. J. H. Ralston, in the presence of a few relatives.