The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1873-10-08
prpApruur or TRAINS.
ahs1atslliigs
THE CHEAT.RlVER ALlEGHAMIES.
History, Natural History and
eTifF "Reminiscences. E8fAI

tuh 0hbrb 81 sss
History, Natural History and
euiIlReminiscence. n9IAI
Hears, Panthers, Rattlesnakes. West
Va. Politics and Finance--hIcNeiil,
,hc Guerrilla. r. pa
Lister Of q. A. Townsend 10 tho Chicago TIL
b1nc
CuEATIslyER, COUNTRY, ". Wa Al
3E52BI8H Sept. 25, 1873. !
"Fisk s. Hatch have failed" said the
old Marylanter. "Well, West Virginny
has cot the railroad anyway. The Ches
apeake s. Ohio is done. The. Northern
Pacific amt. And now, there's another
way over the Allegheny Mountains"
We are canterlng, quite . party Of US,
over the Northwest Virginia turnpike,
the great highway to Ohio, which was
opened about 1888, and kept up It's toll.
gates and teams, Gstagesl and owners Of
cattle, stone tayerns and occasional high
waymen, down to 1858, when the Balti.
mOre e. Ohio Railroad closed It's greater
career. Now II is an inirequented, but
still broad and beautiful mountain road,
haunted with the remembrances Of Its
prime, darkened with moss and whey
margins; and the occasional raids and
marches over 1t during the rebellion have
added 70 It's career. Here we, are in the
land oil tho mountain bear and panther,
s,ill amongst the bright green glades; and
in our party are some hunters, who have
insisted on coming along to beguilc the
way. They all want TO prove to me that
railroad can pay in these fertile and stu.
pendous solitudes.
"wEsT vIReNNY,"
says the Colonel, who rides at the head OF
the column, "has got career before her;
bu, It's slow one till they ransack her
mines Of COAL Her people keep the old
mountaineer character Of Kenton and
Boone, eat venison and bear, and still
wear moccasins and hunting shirts. They
have got only one institution OF modern
times: corrupt Legislature, which cleo.
led senator Davis 10 Washington City at
the instance Of CARROTS railroad; and they
have also Board Of Public Works which
quarrels with the Governor as 10 which OF
them shall squauder tho taxes. They
have a new Capitol edifce at Charleston,
stable cities at Wheeling and Parkers.
burg, and some immigration" -. 80.
The Colonel, be 1t known, Is o Mary.
lander, who owns many thousand acres OF
wild land on both sides of the Fairfax
Stone. Besides him is aGlittle, weazen old
man, who has killed his deer and rattle
snakes between the "Yock" and the
Cheat Rivers for eighty years. We turn
to him, and ask II there are any greater
hunters than himself In these parts. AA''
"Oho, yes y, he says. z" But sence Old
Browning's death, I'm as peart as any Of
EN-" ll.tArSS ,-trIot.,,-t4rU
"Tell US about Browning" We say. &c
he tells 1t, and we straighten 1t out. a.
THE MARYLAND NIMRoD. a.lsi
Near the confluence Of Sang Run and
theBig Youghioghney lived until recent
ly, Meshach Browning, q celebrated Mary.
land hunter, who "escheated about one
thousand acres Of land In the later sparl
OF his days, built a gristmill, and ielt Q
name respected by all and revered by
large posterlty. He was the son Of I
su6altern English soldier, who escaped
from Braddock's battle, and he was borr
In Fredrick county, Md, in 1881. HI
never saw his father, and his mother
married again His childless aunt, there
lore took him to Western Maryland, and
he kept his first remembrances as an In,
mate Of T-old TeenJ Friends cabin, in
Buffalo Marsh. He was, therefore, the
legitimate successor OF the first pioneer
Of the country, and he lived down to the
period Of our Civil War. Two men, in
habiting the same cabin, bridged the way
from Braddock's defeat TO the War Of Sc
cession = Slss,ss4t
Meshach Browning never had more
than six months schooling. Alter 81.
Glars defeat, his uncle fell back with
some forty settlers 10 Blooming Rose,
where the future hunter met his wood.
land vile. He married her against the
opposition Of her father, who turned both
Of them out Of doors. After this he hunt
cd constantly, seldom wearing his hat on
the hunt, and often killing bears, buck
deers, and even panthers. in cloae grapple
with his hunting. knife. He began to hunt
10 1905, and killed his last game In 1880
Ia that period he killed from 1900 to
1000 deer, between 300 and 400 bears, &c
pan,hers and catamounts, and scores oil
wolves and wildcats. He also, begot q
pos,eri,y at the time Of bis death, Of q
sons, A grandsons, and II great.grand-
sons, and 8 daughters,32 granddaughter
and IS OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES all
l2a, At tho time Of the second war with
England, this simple old mountaineer wal
beguiled by rival partisans to abandon
following the army,.-a subject OF grea
remorse 10 him all his days. He also
fought a terrible battle with the laborers
on the National road, at Selbysport, In
the same war, when he undertook Il
muster them as military Captain. About
1914 he began TO carry peltries and veni-
son 10 Georgetown and Baltimore; and II
1924 he put up his mill. In 1926 he WIS.,
lied Annapolis, and, although n Mary
lander all his days, tasted there the frs
crabs and oysters he had eyer seen
which he heartily disliked. On this occs.
sion he went aboard a-steamboat, and
being caught after the gang.plank wa
cut loose, Jumped 25 feet .ETulL.
Browning lived with his first wife A
years, and with the second IS years. 81
was much enfeebled in late years witt
rheumatism, but still bore traces oil o grea
frame, and retained all his kindly nature
Francis F. Blair, ST., thought his life as
hunter fully asnotable as Daniel, Boone's
There Is nothing so compatible tothes
mountain saunterings as the hunter
ales;so we listen 10 them by the hour
Snd construct q natural history Of our owr
First In our estimate Is
THE ALLgauANy BEAR. 'g'b !
The bear appears in life scarcely as big a
arat, and blind and naked. February /
his lavorite time for coming into eSistencf
and he Is sucked in the den, by his nur
sine. mother, less than three month