The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-11-28
PICTURES OF MEMORY.
An Iowa Judges RecolIections of
Morgantown as it was Thirty
Five years ago.
NAL Issue finds a Hearty
Western Welcome.
Kind Words for Ex-senator Wiley.
Correspondence of the Nrw Dominion.

Correspondence Of the NEw DOMINION.
KEoKUK, Iowa Nov. 16-Through
the courtesy and kindness of Col.
Henry Raymond, of Clarksburg, l am
just in receipt of your issue dated
Nov. 7th 1885, containing detailed
account of Morgantown's Centennial
celebration. i have read it through
with very great interest. and it re-
calls to my mind many incidents of
my boyhood days among the hills of
what is now West Virginia. / en-
close you stamps for three copies of
your issue of the above date-one
to be given to an old man now living
in Keokuk, James w. Cox, born and
raised in your county and relative
of Hon. w. T. Wiley, who made
the Historical address on that occas-
ion.
The name of Waitman T. Wiley
calls to my mind almost the first
public address | ever heard. 1t was
delivered in the Presbyterian church
at Clarksburg nearly fifty years ago,
and the subject was Temperance. !"
| heard him speak afterwards, |
think during the Presidential Cam
paign of 1910, as a representative
orator of the Old Wing Party-and
his eloqence made such an impress
ion that | have ever since cherished
his memory with the kindest recol-
lections, and after an absence of
thirty-fve years from the county
and State of my birth, for | believe
that Harrison county was once a
part of Monongalia) it affords me
great pleasure to know that w. T..
Wiley has been spared through all
these years to deliver the historical
address at your Centennial.
l have very pleasant reeollections
of Morgantown, as ] visited it sew
eral times when a boy not over ten
years of age, and your paper calls
fresh to my mind my first trip, this
must have been about 1896. At that
time Alexander Britton, brother of
my mother, lived in Morgantown
l went with mother from Clarksburg
ON visit, and this was how we trav-
eled in those days. My mother rode
on horseback, that noble and veteran
West Virginian, Nathan Golf, still
living in Clarksburg, and now past
his four score and ten years, accom-
panied her, and l, a lad of six or
seven years, rode astride behind Mr..
Golf. / do not now remember the
season of the year, but it required
two days to make the trip from
Clarksburg to Morgantown. We
spent the first night at what was
then called "Knotts Tavern" not
far from the town of Fairmont. The
second day we reached Morgantown.
l have some pleasant recollections
of some of the early citizens of Nor
gantown. There was family nam
ed Stillwell, in which there were two
beautiful and intelligent girls, for
whom l took a very great liking.
There was John Hanway, if | re
member, was a surveyor and after
ward lawyer, and became very
wealthy. He had, | think, one son
and one daughter. The latter mar
ried B. F. Smith, of Fairmont, a
bright, intellectual and studious boy,
as | knew him, when we attended
school in Clarksburg, with ex-Goy-
ernor Frank Peirpoint as our teach
er. Ben. Smith was glorious good
fellow, beside being great student,
and the most talented one of our
school, and if living should now oc-
cupy and adorn the highest position
in the profession of his choice, the
law
Again, l call to mind trip made
on horseback with my Uncle John
Davis, of Clarksburg, father of Hon.
John J. Davis to Wheeling. / was
then about ten years of age | can
not recall the route taken, but re
member very well of spending one
night at the country home of then
old man named Berkshire, not far
from Morgantown. | think we
struck what was called the "Nation-
al Pike" at stage station called
Connellsville and stopped over night
at Carmichaels; at any rate, at this
distant day, and with Il boys recol-
lection, we rode into Wheeling at
about o'clock at night, just in time
to see the city Illuminated by the
numerous factories and furnaces
that made the city. of that day a
greater wonder and delight and more
attractive than Pittsburg is to-day
with her gas and oil wells.
Nothing interests me more than
the recital of early times and Incl
dents; and l do not know when |
have been more gratified than in the