Thursday, June 25, 1897
From what Mr. C. P. Jones, of Monterey, Va., said while at court last week in discussing the formation of this county, it received its name accidentally. According to his understanding, this county and Alleghany were formed the same session of the Virginia Legislature. This county has the highest average elevation of any part of the Appalachian range, and it was to have received the name Alleghany, while that county was to have been named after Pocahontas, the Indian squaw, a name which would have been as appropriate for that county as this. As it happened the two infant counties were left to the tender mercies of an enrolling clerk who changed them in the christening and gave to this county the name intended for Alleghany county. The narrator wished it understood that he had not verified the legend… and that if it were discovered that Alleghany and Pocahontas counties were not formed the same year, then this nicely constructed anecdote would fail.
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THE trial of Trout Shue for the murder of his wife was set in the Greenbrier court for Wednesday of this week. It is said that the defense has summoned 120 witnesses. Messrs. Preston and Gilmer prosecute and Dr. William P. Rucker defends the prisoner. On the issue of this trial depends the question whether Shue, who is a Droop citizen, will reach his seventh wife, as he has boasted that he would have seven. The passing of the third endangers his neck or is liable to send him to the penitentiary where there is no marrying or giving in marriage.
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A GENTLEMAN in the far South, who has traveled over much of the United States from Canada to the Gulf, gives it as his decided opinion that Pocahontas has the best summer climate of any place in the union for its tonic effects upon the nervous system.
He predicts that when facilities for reaching this region become convenient and ample that our woods will be filled to repletion with people who have nerves needing bracing up. He speaks of a transient visit to this region as the means of making him feel good for a year, and he was nowhere near the Black Mountain or the nerve-refreshing pre-cincts of Cheat and Gauley. There is reason for thinking that our climate in summer is about the best in the habitable world for the purpose indicated.
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THE Prince of Wales is the Masonic Grand Master of England and, on June 14th, he presided at a meeting where ten thousand masons were assembled in gorgeous regalia. This was one of the most notable functions that has ever occurred in the history of masonry since the dedication of Solomon’s temple.
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THE Queen of England is almost totally blind. The cause is cataracts.
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OIL prospectors on Elk River above Charleston are putting down wells in the hope of striking oil.
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STAUNTON will reach the 150th anniversary of its formation July 15th of this year.
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LAST Saturday, June 19, a very remarkable marriage was arranged for at Ligonier, Indiana. The parties are James Saxton, aged 84, and Mrs. Mary Twinkle, aged 80 years.
They were engaged and would have been married, but Mr. Saxton went into the army and was lost sight of; and finally it was believed he had been killed and buried with the unknown dead. In the meantime, Saxton buried three wives, and Mrs. Twinkle has mourned the decease of four husbands. It has been about two months since they found out each other’s whereabouts, and have concluded it to be better late than never.
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ON Saturday the 13th, immense suffering and some destruction of life was occasioned in various parts of India by earthquake shocks. The heat was 126 degrees in the shade at certain points. Much misery was caused among many of the poorer Europeans, Eurasians and natives over the extensive area that was affected.
BIOGRAPHIC NOTES
AMONG the persons settling in what is now Pocahontas County early in the century, John Sharp, Senior, a native of Ireland, is richly deserving of more than a passing notice. He is the ancestor of the families of that name that constitute such a marked proportion of the Frost community, and have been identified with that vicinity for the past 95 years. Previous to the Revolution he came in with the tide of Scotch-Irish immigration that spread over Pennsylvania and New Jersey and thence moved South, and finally located in Rockingham County, Virginia.
His wife was Margaret Blaine, whose parents resided in west Rockingham in the vicinity of Rawley Springs…
After a residence of several years in Rockingham County, Mr. Sharp came to Pocahontas in order to secure land for the use of his large and industrious family, and he succeeded well, and saw them well fixed in life all around him. He reached Frost in 1802, and settled on the place now occupied by Abram Sharp, Esq. There were six sons and as many daughters. The daughters were Margaret, Anna, Isabella, Elizabeth, Rosa and Polly…
In reference to the six sons that were of this family, and the brothers of the six sisters whose history is so briefly traced, we learn the following particulars from Mrs. Elizabeth Sharp, the aged relict of the late John Sharp, a grandson of the pioneer John Sharp. This venerable lady has a remarkable history; left alone during the war, she supported her young and numerous family, paid off mortgages on the land, and came through the great trouble out of debt.
The pioneer’s sons were John, Robert, Daniel, James, William and Joseph.
KNAPPS CREEK
News is scarce, but if you want to hear the latest, ask M. F. Herold.
John C. Cleek goes to Green Bank occasionally for his health.
The social at William Cleek’s was a success and was enjoyed by all who attended it. Some of the boys got home in time for breakfast.
Corn is very short this year, because McKinley was elected.
ADVERTISEMENTS
Hamlin Chapel Grove
There will be a patriotic and musical assembly held in the Hamlin Chapel Grove on Stony Creek Saturday, JULY 3rd, opening at 10 1/2 A.M.
It is proposed to have patriotic speaking, vocal music, innocent amusements and refreshments.
Singers will please bring their books.
Special arrangements made for suppressing disorderly behavior.
Come one, come all and help in having a nice and highly enjoyable, moral and patriotic reunion.
R.E.L. DOYLE
T. D. MOORE
General Managers
NOTISE 1
THE “4th” on DRY BRANCH
Thair Will Be a PICKNICK on the hed waters of Dry Branch July Saturday 3, 1897, at the Old Stand which has been used for that purpes for some time.
A Platform and surplus of wind and lots of dinner will be furnished free and Refrisheness on the ground.
There is a Big Preperation been made for this 3 day of July.
General manergiers are H. McCloud, D. Lindsay and others that we will not menchun.
