Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-06-20
SUFFERING PATRICK COUNTY.
HistOry of she Sad Dessiturion y. n
Part or Virginia.
DanuiHe Correspondence Baltimore Day.

DGnuille Correspondence Baltimore Day
The average reader not familiar with the
history and topography of the suffering
county of Patrick might we'll ask, why is it
that there happens to be so much des'itu-
tion In our county. while rs Deighblr a
rolling In wealth ard plenty, and why do, s
this wall come from Patrick SO suddenly snd
all at once? In the first place, Patrck's
neighbors are not rolling in plenty. They,
too, have suffered from last yea ,. drough',
but not so seriously, and then they are
favored with better transportation facilities
aud were able to bring from a distance
surplus necessary to make up the deficit
In last years crops. Patrick county has
l3,3OO inhabitants, composed of strictly agli
cultural people. They always make their own
bread, cure their own wheat, spin, weave
and make their own clothes in the olden
style, and have ever been free, independent
aud heroic people, hedged in from the out
side world by the rugged peaks of the Blue
Ridge Mountains. There Is no railroad
nearer to Patrick than Burned Chimneys, in
Henry county, forty-five miles distant, to
which point the Danville and New River
Narrow Gauge has recently been completed.
These people have ever lived In their noun
tain county almost to themselves, being
entirely independent of the balance of the
world, and having the least possible inter-
course with 1t. So notorious is this fact
that the county has from time immemorial
enjoyed the soubriQuet Of "The Free State
OF Patrick" There are no strictly
wealthy people in Patrick, aud here
tofore but few really poor We're known
there. All were welI-to-do, independent
farmers, making ample for home consump-
ton, and caring for no more. The crops Of
Patrick are grain and fruit. Some tobacco
is cultivated In certain portions of the coun.
tY. ln 1879 the largest grain crops ever
known were raised In the county, and every.
body had wheat and corn to sell, but there
were no buyers. Being destitute of railroad
facilities, and the cost of transportation by
wagon across the mountains being more
than the surplus grain would bring when
taken to market, the people carried over to
the next year enormous quantities of corn,
wheat etc. The year 1880 then found them
with nearly enough old grain to carry them
through the twelve months. They had no
way to get 1t to market and hence there was
no inducement to the farmer to pitch a crop.
Can 1t he wondered then that the people OF
''The Free State OF Patrick,' made the year
1880 kind Of holiday and gave their usual
avocations but little attention?
1t is said during that year these people In
a great number of instances attempted no
crop at all, and yet there was plenty In the
land. Then came 1881 with its great drought
The usual large crops were pitched that
year. but the yield did not pay back tht
seed used 10 planting. Why 1t was that the
strip OF fertile land along the mountains
which makes up Patrick county should have
been dryer than any other part of Virginia
cannot be explained, but such Is the truth.
1t is fact, and one that will never be for
gotten by the now wretched and famishing
people, that from the 19h day OF April,
1881, to the Sd day OF October of the same
year, there did not fall In the county
enough rain to wet linen duster. Nothing
like 1t was ever known In that region be-
fore. Streams, springs aud wells dried up,
and people had to depend upon the larger
creeks and rivers for drinking water and 1t
became the custom for neighborhoods to
club in, gather up all the barrels, casks, etc
to De found, put their teams together and
haul water from the rivers to a common
rendf zvous, where the participants in he
enterprise would repair for water. These
trips 10 the river were made once a week
and of,ener II necessary. Some neiehbor
hoods had TO haul water fifteen and twenty
miles. Some wheat was raised, but corn
wighered upon the hill, and even the stalk
and root d ed. Fruit was a total failure
also, and none was saved.
Last fall the Board of Supervisors of the
county purchased quantity of corn to te
sold at prime cost to the needy. These brave
of coming to want, did not relish the idea
OF becoming beggars before the world, and
they fOndly hoped that with the aid the
county government was Offering they might
hold out until the crops of this year should
be gathered; but they did not know their
own situation, for such was their pride that
neiohbor would keep from neighbor his true
condition. But hunger forced them before
the world, and hence six weeks ago, when
the county treasury was exhausted; when 1t
was discovered that there was no corn in
the county; that those who had some had
divided with those who had not till all was
gone; that FIVE thousand men, women and
children were upon the eve of starvation and
nothing in the county to feed them upon-;he
wall from Patrick, which has gone all over
the land, was heard. Men we're starving
almost before they knew 1t. A man with a
family in one section, not knowing the ex-
tent of the desiitution himself, thought he
would economic to the last aud try to make
out without exposing his poverty. but II he
should come to the bottom of
bis scanty barrel. he would be
borrow little from his neighbor on the
next section TO him. When his bread was
all gone and he started CO. borrow from his
neighbor, he met that neighbor on the road
with parched lips, shrunken cheeks and
hollow eyes, the very picture Of woe and
hunger, coming on the same errand-to
borrow of him. Thus it happened that the
county was aroused almost iR a night to a
real'z alton of the fact that the people were
starving and there was no bread to appease
their hunger.
Such in brief is true history of the
famine. The cry for help has been heard
by noble people everywhere. Danville has
contributed largely; Richmond has taken
prompt and vigorous action; Lynchburg has
0nn ntrth fa6 nd al
does, has acted nobly. 1t is impossible now
to say whether the danger is past. There
are 5000 or more destitute people to be fed
until the wheat is harvested the last Of July.
The question, will the wheat crop now
standing supply the county with bread until
the standing corn crop Is available is a
debatable and serious question. The sup
plies which Baltimore and other cities are
sending reach Patrick slowly, as they have
TO be hauled by wagons fortv-fye miles.