Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1874-05-07
OLD LOTTERY TINES IN VIRGINIA.


fore the Legislature at Richmond to
incorporate a lottery company for the
purpose of building a granite State
Capitol to cost 81 500, 900, the Staun,
ton Vindicator has an interesting arti
Gle under the above heading, from
which we make some extracts:
"About forty-seven years ago the
first lottery foa the benefit ofany pub
lie improvement was chartered by the
Legislature in 1927 or 28 under the
title of
THE VIRGINIA FREE ROAD LOTTERY"
1t was intended to aid in the COLI
struction of the Virginia Free Road. "
a dirt turnpike running from Stanton
to Pal%easburg and the man
ayers Of the lottery bound themselves
to pay to the building of the road,
81 200 per annum, whether their draw
ings were profitable or not The man
ayers were men of the highest standing
in order that public confidence in the
fairness of the scheme might be secur-
ed, and were the late Levi L. Steven.
son and the late Joseph Points, Jr
Capt. S. is better known to this genera.
ton, as having been one of the most
distinguished members of the masonic
fraternity in Virginia, and the father Of
Brig. Gen. Stevenson, U. S. A., and
the father>in law of Gen. Getty, U. S.
A. and Col NJ. G. Hartman. .r
Staunton being the headquarters OF
the managers, the tickets of the lottery
were all printed here by the late Gen.
Kenton Harper, who was also Cap,
tain in a Virginia regiment in the
Mexican war: who then owned the
Spectator newspaper office and had "a
special hand press for doing the work
on. The highest number of tickets
was 10000, though the number was
smaller when the capital prizes were
smaller. The clerks in the office were
Rev. W. c. Morrison, a Methodist
local preacher, who signed all the ticks
cts, and Mr.. Abraham Lynn the Faith
er of one of the Vladicator editors.
then boy. Maj. J. B. Watts, one of
our best known citizens, was also
clerk in the establishment, and on one
occasion had the good fortune to draw
S2,ls5 as his half ola quarter ticket.
The capitol prizes ranged from 500, 900
down to $4,000, and the price of whole
tickets from SIS down to So with
halves and quarters in proportion.
In the old stage days lotteries were
not such lightning operation as they
are now. The agents were selected
often by the managers themselves, af
ter personal interviews in their far off
homes, and were always men of stand
ng-merchants, sherlffs, constables
and otter members of the Legislature,
who were very effective statesmen from
their general acquaintance with the
people. Among them was the late
Ed. I. Saunders, member Of the lesisla
ture from the district of Highland and
Pendleton; Harvey Gray, Professor of
school at Woodstock Irwin &
Carson, Of Winchester; Chas. Palmer
of Danville; Col. Thos. Bigger, of
Richmond, afterwards postmaster
there; and Stratton, of the same CITY,
who also did the business for Peters
burg; Mr.. Thorn, of fredericksburg :
VIM. Anderson, of Leesbarg; Geo. A.
Baker, of Lexington Col. Hall of
Franklin, the member of the Legisla-
tnre from that county; and there were
agencies at Lewisburg, Charleston,
and many others of what are now
West Virginia towns. These agents
were all required to deposit the tickets,
remaining in their hands unsold, in the
post office the day b sfore the drawing
was to take place.
THE DRAwING-AN EXCITING ONE.
The drawings took place at first six
times in year, and then with smaller
prizes tye klSiseii& %ss I'D UlaEsburg, Har
per's Ferry, Martinsburg, Woodstock,
New Market, Harrisonburg, Romney,
Mooreield, and Huntersville in Poca
hontas county, but none east Of Rich
mond, the lottery of Y otes g. Mcintyre
filling up that field. There were no
railroads, and one OF the managers, ac
companied by Mr.. Lynn, the confden~
t;al clerk, would leave Stanton in a
private conveyance, while the glass
wheels containing the tickets would be
sent to the destined points. In all the
towns where the drawings took place
there was large crowd gathered and
nearly all being ticket holders, the in
terest was intense.
On one occasion when the drawings
took place at Winchester, the town
was crowded and the streets around the
market house, where the wheels were
placed, were blocked with the people.
The capital prize was $1,000, and the
prizes were drawn out of the wheel un-
til but three remained. One of them
must be the capital prize, and the other