Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-02-11
coRNsTALK's CURSE
Which Has Long Hung Over Point
Pleasant
IS At LAST DISPELLED FOREVER.
The Ohio Central Granted the Right to En-.
Ter the Town, and the Boom in That
Place VIII Now Begin
in Earnest.
Sphcinl % he Renisk1r.

CHARLESTON, W. VA, teoruary lu-folnt
Pleasant has the finest location for a great
city OF any place in this section OF country.
Situated at the confluence Of the Great IA.
nawha and Ohio rivers, with a magnificent
farming country on all sides from which to
draw her support, with every natural ad-
vantage that could be hoped or prayed for,
yet Point Pleasant has stood almost still,
while all about her hamlets have grown to
villages, villages to towns and towns to cit.
les. have often pondered these things in
my mind, and wondered why they were so.
/ never found out until the other day.
Something more than one hundred years
ago there lived in the land beyond the
Ohio Shawnee chief named Cornstalk.
He was a big Injun, bad man from away
up the creek. He was not only large,
thrifty, well.grown stalk himself, but he
commanded a whole patch OF big, stout
stalks, and when they whetted their toma-
hawks, sharpened their arrows aud stalked
forth upon the war-path they made the
wilderness howl and the psle.face TO "git
up and git" They use to go down to tbs
Point every few weeks and paint the village
and adjacent territory red. Men were
killed, women scalped, helpless children
luthlessly murdered, whole families butch
cred to
Make n shawnee Holiday.
Finally this state of affairs came to be
monotonous to the dwellers in the village,
and the bravest and wisest of the citizens
met with the session OF deacons and the
Town Council to devise ways and means OF
putting stop to the riot and bloodshed
INDUCED in by Colonel Cornstslk and his
band Of copper colored corn coos. Pur-
susnt to the resolutions read and adopted,
Colonel Cornstalk was invited to come
o the village and partake OF free
unch on Thanksgiving, or some other ma
ional holiday and to bring his cob pipe
md tobacco pouch with him and take
moke with the village sachems, and see
# they &C uld not patch up peace that
would last a week or two. Cornstalk &C
CepteG the bid and came To the confer
nee with hand full or two OF his bloody
braves. That anboree was his last. In
few short hours he WIS q murdered man.
Dead, with nothing OF him left TO the
world but sold, blood.stained corpse, an
echoing war whoop that was model in its
OF the aforementioned village that has
clung to it like an impecunious mother.in.
law. blighting it's ripened hopes OF fair pos
terty, and keeping Jim Menager from be.
ing Governor and Charles Edgar Hogg from
going to Congress.
| forget the exact wording OF the curse,
but it had something in it about "fossilism
lying cold and clammy upon the stomach
OF the village, that the sloth and the slug
gard might sap her yitals, and that old 10.
gyism should fssten its fangs III her most
tender parts. 1t was TO last for one hun
dred years, "or until all the old fogies shall
die"
Time sped on. Good men cSme and
went, we're born and buried, but the old
foeies stayed with the village and refused
10 sever their lease Of life. The
Stipulated One Hundred Years
expired several years ago, and the citizens
of Point Pleasant engaged in a grand ju.
bilee TO celebrate their release from the
thrslidom Of the fossils. Speeches were
made, cannon were fred and champagne
was drunk 10 the prosperity that seemed
about to dawn upon the place.
But, alas alas, The evil days were not
vet gone. There was 10 boom Tor PJlnt
PLEASANT, and she stood still ~ oi yore.
Then il was that close examination into
the conditions OF the catlse disclosed am.
bicuity OF language, npnn which the old
fogies we're depending for new lease OF
life, and resting upon which they refused
TO 90. What was 10 be done? At first 1t
was proposed to leave the matter settled
by legislative enactment. and bill was
prepared by which all the old fogies in
Point Pleasant and elsewhere in the State
were to be enacted out OF existence. But,
upon more mature consideration, IL was
agreed that as the whole question hung
upon the legal construction OF paper, II
was clearly the province OF Court oi
Chancery, and into the Supreme Court 1t
went. The matter was taken into
the court disguised snder the title
of John Doe vs. the Ohio Cen.
trail Rsilrosd Compsny, TO restrain said
companies from building their road
through one OF the streets OF Point Pleas
ant, but the real question at issue was as
10 whether Cornstalk's curse was still bind
ing or not The case WAS fully and ABLY
argued snd on Saturday Judge Green
delivered The opinion OF the court, which
will set the matter forever at rest. The
opinion discusses the question in all its
hesripps. ard decides empbatically that
Ire railrosd company may lay its strack
through the street, that the old fogies must
LEI 60. that Cornsislk's curse would have
been decided before the
Expiration Of the Century
If she f,gies had died, bat that it was de-
termiued anyway at the end OF the set tine,
sr6 that the foeies who are still alive raust
Jack their grips and get.
THIS settles it, ard Point Pleasant, freed
from the psl.lke presence OF this terri Die
cur, 2, with two railroads knocking at her
doors for admission, will bury her OLD
iopies. list her fossils. for q museum, gird
up her loips for the grand march OF pro-
gfess. and prepare 10 take her place among