The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1899-11-30
KENTUCKY MINISTER
Spends a Week In the Noun
tstnsof Old Virginia.

ing camp on Toms Creek, in Wise county
Va. Some account Of that interesting
field may not he without its lessons t
those unacquainted with their neighbors.
left ms home OH Tuesday, October !
and passing through the Cumberland
mountains at Middlesboro, arrived on tn
second day at Norton, Va, above BIZ
Stone Gap. Here was met by Rev. T. L
Rogers, the evangelist in charge Of thi
field
If you don't know how pelican Of tn
wilderness feels, go as an evangelist t.
the mountains, one hundaed miles beyont
all who know and love you. / need no
say we were glad to see each other
"Sheep among wolves" need no introduce
ton. But | was not quite so much q
stranger as thought, when bright
young fellow walked up and shook hand;
with me, and said his name was Reese
Bowen, son OF Col. Tom Bowen and
Augusta Stuart, and grandson Of Gen.
Reese Rowen, of Tazewell county, Va,
Some twenty years ago, when he was a
Had, | preached his little sisters funeral
at his grandfather's old home, at Maiden
Spring, Va. was surprised and gratified
that he remembered me. / guess heaven
will lie full of such surprises. After din
ner, Bro. Rogers and set out for Toms
Creek, twelve miles further down the Nor
folk and Western railroad, among the red
mountains of old Virginia.
If YOU we're never in coal mining camp,
you will have to 90 there for description
of the dust and smoke from two hundred
and fifty coke ovens, and OF the noises
| from engines and cars, and dinkeys, and
larreys, and tipples, and men, and horses,
and mules, and three thousand people Of
all colors white is not color and sizes
and tongues. The little and big houses
were scattered for two miles in the narrow
valley and on the mountain side along
Toms Creek, which is the name for a river
Of black and coal dust We were fortu-
nate enough to get our room at one house.
anu our meals at another; one of DR.. Bars
Anck who has wandered away into these
mountains.
There is not church here (lor three
thousand people,. and no place to preach
except under chestnut tree, or in little
school house We took the school house,
only because we coudnt warm the other
place. 1t was half a mile of railroad
tracks, and cars, and locomotives, up to
the school house, but many Of the people
came further, and we did not complain or
get killed. Some thirty came out the
first night, but they gradually filled up
the little school house, though many had
never learned to go to church, for want of
opportunity The religious destituiion
WAS pitiiul. In twenty-five familie, Vis-
j 4 one day, fou I'd only about dozen
per- ns who haa ever belonged 10 any,
church. They received me kindly in their
humble homes, for most ofthem. were Nir
ginians. Indeed, of the fifteen hundred
meu there at work, only some thirty are
foreigners (Hungarian').
Brother Rogers worked faithfully under
the greatest disadvantages. The men
were at work from A. N. to 6 7. NJ. in the
mines and ovens, and digging and hauling
and building two hundred new houses and
two hundred and fifty new coke ovens.
was in rush, except the |
church. Money, and not souls, was the |
object Of all but very few, remnant of
Israel who had not bowed the knee to |
Baal. A little prayer meeting at $3.50 A.
", of half Il dozen good women, held in !
me of the cottages, helped us preach Mt
ight. The congregations and interest |
increased from day to day, in spite of the
lark nights, and the tired bodies of the |
aborers, and the little uncomfortable !
chool house, without breath of ventila-
ion. Some of the wandering sheep were
,athered back into the fold, the seed sown
II many heart that responded its accept
nee, and all the results left with God,
whose word never returns to him void.
The harvest will come by-and-by. Pray
or Gods faithful laborer in this great
md destitute field; he needs much assist
nee and encouragement, and | am sorry
could not remain with him month in
tead OF "A week. 4 months work here
would doubtless gather rich harvest of
immortal souls; hut place must be pro-
ided for the preaching, and earnest.
,rayerful effort made to reach these multi
udes of neglected people.
While here took the opportunity to
evsit Gladeville, the county seat of Wise
ounty, Va, where joined the Confeder-
tie army, February, 1862, thirty-seyen
ears ago! had ridden from my home in
entral Kentucky, with lot Of other boys,
cross the one hundred miles of hostile
Mountains to the Southern army. We
ound the old general in Gainesville, u
little mountain hamlet, 1890 feet up ON
he Cumberland plateau, and there we en-
listed for "three years. or during the war"
o fight for old Virginia, the land Of my
athers. IL Is eleven miles from Toms
'reek, but good horse soon elm bed the
iuest's mountain, two miles up to the
lateau, and nine miles along il to the liz