Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-10-09
FACTS ABOUT EAST TENNESSEE
Johnson County.
NO. LXXxIII.

TAYLoRsvILLE, TENN, Oct. ., 1872.
EDITORS CHRONICLES: This morning
the Johnsonites tipped their beavers to
Mr.. "yack Frost" )" and he was here in real
earnest, too, from the hill tops to the low
lands, he was here, and he promise to be
with them again on the morrow. He is
making sad havoc with the green country
side; and though the meadows and the
fields look brownish and detected, the
mountain tops sport many colored robe
and look gay and festive still. If you
would enjoy the luscious Autumn days of
beautiful October, go visit the deep wood
ed hill and nesting gentle wales of altitu-
dinous Johnson. No spot in creation can
boast of such number of lofty, pretty
mountains, limpid streams, or romantic lit
tie valleys. Yesterday, in company with
Mr.. James Rankin, the very affable and
courteous young gentleman that has
charge of the mail service between this
point and Bristol, we crossed the several
mountains lying between here and the
last named place. From one point on the
Holston Mountain, Bristol, fifteen miles
in the distance, with its tall steeples and
and as we looked over that fast-growing
city with its energetic three thousand in
habitants, a feeling of pride welled up
within us. We felt proud of our Tennes-
see sons and neighbor Virginians, who are
spending their energies in making it cover
the broad fields that surrounded it. And
as we stood there, and drank in the gor-
geous beauties of Nature and breathed the
pure airs of those high up mountain tops,
we could but feel and think that to live in
the midst of such beauties and protected
by the noblest and best of Governments
was enough to fill the veriest traitor that
ever lived with love of home and coun-
try. No wonder from the cones and
ridges of Carter and Johnson sprang so
many gallant boys in blue, the very air that
nurtured them filled them with patriotism.
A trip over these mountains at this season
is not only really sublime but very pleas
ant. From the foot of Holston Mountain,
on the Sullivan side, to the foot of Iron
Mountain, near Taylorsville, we certainly
saw at the lowest estimate, fifty bushels of
theImost delicious grapes; they just hang in
tempting clusters all along the way, in fact
the road up the mountain is literally a
grape bowery, and by way of variety ripe
chestnuts by the basket full are to be seen
on every hand. But speaking of grapes
remind me that the estimable wife of mine
host, that prince of caterers, Giles Gregory,
says that last season of the wild fox grape
that grows here in immense quantities she
made over one hundred and thirty gallon
of pure grape wine. This is indeed most
wonderful fruit region, for not only grapes
but apples of the finest quality and great
est quantity about here, and even cranber-
ries can be gathered by the barrel within
two hundred yards of the Court House.
This evening we were shown a nice bucket
full of the delicious culinaries, that had just
been gathered. Buckwheat is grown eX-
tensively in this county, and the harvest
has just closed and the yield is said to be
very fine. A gentleman told me he would
raise thirty bushel to the bushel sown.
II has been a remarkable season of fine
crops, and plenty fills the barns and gra-
naries. If 1 have smelt the breath of q
single man to-day that did not speak plain.
ly whisky or brandy, it was very mean
tobacco instead.
The candidates for Congress, Carter and
Butler, spoke here to-day, and were listen
ed at attentively by very respectable
crowd. HENRY.