The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-09-12

dered me: not that the rough buckeyt
and hemlocl woods and mountain
creeks had been rnilwayed, .oannlled
bored for coal, and derricked for oil
looked for thati but the people had
cropped out into n new phase of life.
Ihey were lazy, smoky old ftoWns,-
| those upper Virginia and Kentucky Vii.
lages,-when was II young man: some.
thing of the solitude of 'the dark and
bloody hunting ground" hanging about
them yet; the old forts still standing
which had been the terror of the III.
dians; the grandchildren of the pioneers
holding barOnial tracts of land undeT
grant from Washington: muls-raisers.
most of them, dronmg out their lives i'm
| great ram bling stone houses. card-Dlav-
ing, Champagne-drinkinG, waited on 6y
n few slaves, and carrying in their own
tawny skins, high cheekbones. and
beetling eyebrows, hints TINT the blood
OF these same pioneers had mixed too
| freely, perhaps, with that OF their snv-
age foes and allies.
BY this time, however, the droNysv
sunshiny burghs have swelled, like the
frog in the fnble, and burst out into
Jaunty modern cities, with mills, belch-
ing SCOT and oily smoke down into.the
| muddy streets; the paVements Inre
crowded with OncleSam's bows in their
light blue coatsi the shops nre stocked
by Northern capital; the hnrd-headed,
taeiturn Western mnn, with his broad
| cOmmOn-SenSe, has set his solid foot
down on the ground, and begins to
dominate over both the sloth of the
natives and the keen Yankee speculn-
tors. The women of the old-country
itamlnes look out sullenly, talk II grent
deal of "shoddy''; are loyal, certainlv,
| but say nothing of "JackH or I1Ned,5
who hold commissions under Lee or
Hood 81 .afl .IsuE :,
However, this is not what meant TO
tell you: While j was passing through
one of the border towns, accidentally
met again the traces of curious old
character, well known through all that
region, who, if fate had but placed her
| IN the compressed action of court, in
stead of the loose, inconsequent hlIrly-
burly of n republic, would have made
herself n footing i'll history before now
She deserves Il more thorough record
than this mere sketch must be.
But must go back to my own first
Journey to that country. 1t was the
fuitilment of an old, boyish plan. NV
father had been u land-surveyor, and
had hunted anditT1pped in those early
days, from the fat riYer-bottoms of the
NIonongnhela and Cross-C Creek valleys
| mp TO the great Cheat Mountains, He
Mas a contemporary of the pioneers
Wetzel the Leets, M'CnlIochs, etc. md
| when was "a boy used to fiji nj, me
| winter evenings, with wild stories OF
/ border Indian warinre, bear-huntiug.
and the like. formed a hotter resolve
each new time of hearing, to mako a
pilgrimage, as soon as was n man. tn
his old camping-grOund, ("the Ohio'
we called it then. TO hunt out and orIen
the mounds left by the Creeks and Del
awareS, and to find the forts where
these battles of his had been Won and
iost. It always pleased my. father that
l.entered into his old stories with such
81 hope I'll live to go with you.
Zack, he would say, nodding his grtlv
head. 'WeId hunt out Mrs. c., Ii
we came within "A hundred miles of her.
She could give you the history of every
inch of ground from Blennerhnssets,
Island up to Fort Du Quesne,-thnt Is,
/ II shes were so minded. She had n
sharp, suspicious eye of he .lYvn when
she was n girl, and age Iuld not
| SWeeten her temper. Bu, ,hera's no
better authority for old legends of TINT
time,-none. She wns a cousin OF NJ
Cnlloch, who made that leap from the
mountain to escape the Indian arrows,
you remember? and was Ia the fort
| when Polly Scott went out to the gate
house for powder, bringing it in her
apron across the field, n target for hun
| dreds of the red devils. But ] doubt if
the old lady's living yet; she was mar
fled when was n stout young beau,
dancing Virginia reels out yonder
| Shepier was her first husband"
The,older my father grew, the more
the idea haunted him Of going with
''Nackn out to the banks Of the Ohio,
until, us second childhood crept ON him,
It became ruling whiin. But crossing
the Allegheny range was no light task
for even young man in those days OF
wagons and t9ge-eoaches, and he new
er was gratthed. When he was gone, /
reproached myself bitterly that It had
not been accomplished: 1t seemed SO
easy and natural a thing to do, now
that 1t was tOolate. My old plan grew
therefore, to have morbid interest for
me. u tancied that to go over his old
hunung-paths would bring my father
pack to me, and that, wherever he might
pc now he would choose to be so
brought back. .laH IIiltliHl r
About the time l was thirty, then,
having no employment except an open
ing Which FordYce offered me in New
York, chose, instead OF accepting IL,
70 start alone on my voyage of discbv-
cry. One August morning, the mir full
of u gentle languor, the heavy clouds
OF bltuminous smoke vanishing beyond
the horizon in swells of intense purple
and orange, which i never had seen in
our pale sky, i took n boat Mt Pittsburg,
md dropped lazily down the shining
l Ohio, through thiuk-wooded hills. and
dotting little islands that thrust tliem-
selves out of the water to support only
elump of showery green willows, OF
an old roalS, may be-, draped with deli.
cate trailing mOsses. Chance favored
me. nil -
IF you want the run of the Iniun
iorts,n said the Captain, as he stood be.
side mo on the Texas, "there's Abe
4 Steadman aboard. He knows leIn I1st.
than anybody hereabouts, ,-an' knows
nothin' else," )" dropping his voice. II'll
bring him up,' which he did accord,
Stendman was 1ank, yellow+haifed
c0untry-lRd, habited in q suit of blue
Kentucky jeans, ill-fittinE, and ripteC
besides. He talked acutely mud intel
4 hgently, however, on this subject, ant
gave me u clear idea of the discoyeries
made In Indian antiquities TN that re
gion. "Thetrouhle was" he said stpeo
pie who had meanE cared nothing abou-
the matter" - Q
) The next day,w naturally came to
: gether again; he. had precisely the in
formation i needed About noon h,
Iouched me on the elbow, ils stood bN
tho deel1-railing,-- III -
J There is where i live, !" pointing 1,
: tumble-down old sIanty.. back n, I,
held. There Is a small mound to b
opened in the adjacent farm next week
Would 1t interest yon to see itP Iflso
come ashore, and stay with me for
few days" ilT5s..Ie