Evening star., 1896-02-29
A REMARKABLE FAMILY.
A MOuntnfneer Patriarch, With Queer
sOciOloEic Tendencies.

| n Mouutufneer Patriarch, with Queer
sOciOloEic Tendencies.
Speaking of family pride" remarked the
| drummer to a Star reporter, II stayed all
night at the house of a mountaineer in
West Virginia last summer. who had more
pride In his family than anybody I ever
heard Of, and I've been on terms with the
puritans and cavaliers for twenty years.
This old fellow was past seventy, and was
quite well to do, as that quality is known
IN the mountains. He owned a good house
OF SIX or seven rooms, and could show q
ciear ute TO five thousand acres of land,
ana was school trustee. He also owned a
store. and L went to see him to sell him
some goods. 1 had heard a good deal of
him and his peculiarlties, and / made IL
convenient to reach his place late in the
DAY SO he would have to keep me over
nSht, as was his custom with strangers
LOT ne was a hospitable old chap.
My scheme worked well, and when I
lett, the next morning, / had his history
and that of his family, and an odtler one. I
1nlhk, you VIII confess you never heard of.
ne was seyenty-two years old, and had
Deen married four times, his first mar
rage occurring when he was only eighteen
ms hrst wife was his cousin, his second
was widow with five children, his third
was a young woman, the daughter of his
sons wife "a widow, and the last one was
the stepdaughter of the widow his father
mao married. BY these several wives he
i III.
70 tne nve stepchildren, gave him a family
Oh thirfy-three boys and girls, Including
,hree pairs OF twins. and one lot of trip
let's. Two of his boys had married the
daughters OF the widow whose husband
the old man was. and one of his daughters
fad married one Of her sons"
Al TINS point the drummer took a paper
fully.
The writer locked his question.
ITS an right" he laughed. II haven't
learned 1t thoroughly yet. and was just
pohshing up my memory I've got the
Wnole thing written down here Just as he
told me. The oldest part of it is to come
The old man had in some way imbibed pe-
euhar notions from some book or other
Ie mad found on sociology. and had or
ganized a small society OF families think
ing as he did. One idea of these peonIe
was that OF the advantages of early mar
rage. ana when his son was only about
Twelve years of age he married the hoy
20 girl of the same age and each wear
ior several years after that one Of these
child marriages was celebrated
Their children. in turn, were married
at the same early age, and they were
grandparents before they were thirty. In
iact. one couple at twenty-six dandled a
grandchild on their decrepit knees. and
at forty they were sreatgrandparenfs The
same story, very nearly, could be told
OF the others, and some time before the
old patriarch was seventy he could look
back over four generations of posterity
And IT was a generous posterity too. for
all over the paterEal acres the houses Of
the children and children's children dot
ted the hills and valleys. OF course among
SO many, death could scarcely get by with
out touching some, and when L was there
there We're only twenty of the original
thirty-three left and even the old man
couldn't tell how many grand, great-grand
and great-great- -gra andchildren there were
scattered about him. They were all ex-
ceilent people. too, and far above the
general mountaiDeer average OF large
families"
That's 4 timber country, isn't it?" asked
the reporter. with apparent irreleyance
when the drummer stopped to get his
breath.
Not any more. in that locality. The best
Of it has been cut on"
"Um-er, hesitated the reporter. why
doesn't the old man get a mill and saw
up ais family tree?"