Morning journal and courier., 1882-02-25
Letters From west Virginia.
A Cautionary sIgnaI-shtftIsss Noun
Acknowledgements of sueeess-Extra-
ordinary seIEDependenee-A Railroad
Through a Rich DIStrief-A Sporting
Fireman, Etc, Etc
HAYWOOD, Fsyette Co, W. Va,

HAYWOOD, Fsyette Co, WA,
Feb. II, 1882.
To the Editor Of the JoUzSAL AND CoUEIz:
A friend writes from the North: asYou
must not allow your imagination to mislead
anyone as regards the resources of the coun-
try or the ease with which money can be
made" While freely acknowledge that all
my letters SO far have stated but one side of
the case, wish to repel the idea that my
Imagination has entered into the matter at
all. have simply tried to impress upon my
readers the fact, which is patent to every
student of economical science land we are
all more or less students in that Enel, that
this being new country it offers opportuni-
ties which are not offered IN older settled
communities. At the same time there are
many disadvantages which must enter into
the account of the prospective settler, and il
is for him to inform himself of the disad-
vantages here and in other parts of the
country and to compare them intelligently.
What a new and naturally rich country GER
tainly does is 10 offer to every man who is
willing and able to put his shoulder to the
wheel the certainty of an independent and
honorable living. Such thing as utter, alb
ject poverty is something that has not yet
fallen under my eye-vild hoga are too
plenty and corn bread is too easily raised for
that. 1t is true that all the men who are
around me are poor, according to northern
notions, and that what sufices for the sup.
port of one of our mountaIneers and
his family would not be considered enough
for the support of northern farmer in like
circumstances. But our mountaineers, with
mar cd mir HE 0ualifiaG IF hearf ind
lent, shiftleSs and wastefuL They look no
further than to the suficieney unto the day.
A young native of Fayette, although he msJ
be in perfect physical health and may have
a wife and regiment of youngsters to pro-
vide for, sits contentedly before the FIRE
lost in abstraction, as long as there are
q days rations in the house. When his
victuals are all gone he buys what he wants
on credit, and then goes to work to pay the
debt. 1t stands to reason that if such a shift
less fellow as the average West Virginia
mountain farmer can make all he wants by
working one hundred days in the year, a
New England farmer with his improved
methods and greater steadiness ought to make
more than living In an ordinary work year
Nevertheless there are some of my neigh
bors who are at this day men of considerable
property. They are all men who have at
least worked hard, and have deserved their
so-called success. John d. Crookshanks
whose farm adjoins my property, IS pointed
out by the natives as Succession III.
and so he is, in certain way. He makes il
his boast that he can neither read nor write.
The only literary production ever seen by the
family is the Greenbrier county paper.
Crookshanks' methods are primitive, bat his
crops are always good He OWES about
eight hundred acres Of choice land free from
encunbrance, and about two hundred acres
of his farm are cleared and under fence. He
H.. rsr for of hic oxzd Of
daughters liberal starts in life. But Crook
shanks started in the woods about twenty
eight years ago with wife and two small
children and an axe, but no taxable property.
He bought his land on credit, put up log
house, cleared out and seeded q corn patch,
all in one spring. In three years he had paid
for his land and had accumulated some little
personal property IN the shape of
live stock of various kinds. His present
circumstances are the result of always
having something to sell and seldom needing
to buy anything. In the matter of the house
hold don't know of anything tnat they buy
except calico for the women, cotton cloth for
shirts for the men, and an occasional cooking
utensil When steer or q COW dies-rzre
hing-or is killed for beef, the hide Is tan
ned on the place and the boys make the shoes
for the family The old woman weaEes the
material for the clothes, which the girls make
up. They weave their own wool and FAX.
They make every spring enough sugar TO last
the family year, and a few pounds more TO
sell. Every year they salt away twenty or
thirty hogs, whose heads they throw away.
The old woman makes all her dye eolors
from the bark of trees. To see how self-de-
pendent these good people are one might al
most think they had sometime been Robinson
Crusoes on desert island
+ A. II. Sims is another Eeighbor of mine
who has accumulated comparative wealth
H. tod the eloSa rf he Nth Jfkf1a
or nothing, and he has now large farm In
remarkably high state of cultivation, and he
always has plenty of money TO lend at high
rate of interest on good security. / give the
two foregoing instances to show what may
result from untiring work and continual
economy, even when not backed by reason
able amount of education and its resulting
Judgment and common sense. As long as a
man has the muscle to swing an axe, and as
long as there is mast in the woods f0r~the
wild hogs, he can have good home and
plenty of fuel and plenty to eat, and he may
blame himself if his nose is at the grindstone
after the first year.
Now have flung up my hat again for the
mountains of West Virginia LET me return TO
my muttons. The special disadvantages IN
der which we labor are the bad condition Of
the roads and the distance from and the diff
ficulty of reaching the railroad. Both of
these drawbacks will be remedied in time.
As the country settles up the roads must
gradually be improved, even should the pres
emit abominable road law not be changed.
As step towards increased railroed facih-
ties, charter was secured last week for the
Meadow River Valley railroad" which viii
extend from the White Sulphur Springs TO
Coal Valley, on the Great KanaHha, and will
tap the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad at each
of those points. A survey of the proposed
route viii be made early IN the spring Should
this road ever be built il viii shorten the
distance to the West some twenty-five miles
and at the same time will open up one of the
richest districts in the State The noun
tains on either side of Meadow river hold the
finest and richest seams of cokiug coal in the
State and iron ore abounds in quantities
which a railroad would render richly paying
At the foot of Little Seweu mountain and
directly on the proposed line of the railroad
a Parker City oil company have taken up
land and propose to bore for oil as soon as
spring opens. 1 have thought for some time
that the stretch of table land on the Little
Sewell ridge is the spot on which a colony
from the North ought to settle. The lands
there are rich, partly improved, low in price
and are reached by good road and are only
seventeen miles from the Chesapeake and
Ohio railroad.
There are other drawbacks to be found
down here but they are only such as are in
cideut to settlement in a new country-sueh,
.
hired labor. 1 engaged a young fellow about
year ago as fireman in the mill. He was
to come on the following Monday Monday
morning came, but brought no fireman
was obliged to have a couple of hundred feet
of boards for the carpenter who was working
on my house, so, in desperation, / made
fire myself about noon, intending to get my
brother in-law to help me get out at least
enough lumber to keep the carpenter
going. Pretty soon my fireman sauntered
| in with his rife on his shoulder and three
/ squirrels dangling from his belt do yon
/ want to buy any squirrels Dir. Wurts ?"
/ 'sNo." said savagely; 81 don't buy SPUR
! rels from fellows like you. Why did yon prom
/ Use TO come and work for me If you did not
/ intend to come 9n 81 did low 10 eOEae," said
the young scallawag "but this was pretty
| day and there wss right smart o. squirrels a.
running, so thought would 90 shooting"
Nv