Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-10-15
SPEAKS WELL
OF TAZEWELL
Mr.. Walter Edward Harris, a Staff Cor
respondent Of Richmond Times
Dispatch, Writes About
Town and County.
LAND FLOWING WITH MILK And HONEY
Mr.. Harris is Deeply impressed With our
County and Town and Writes Many
Things That are calculated to
Please our People.

(From staff Correspondent Of Times
Dispatch.)
Tazewell, Tazewell county, Va, Oct. 10.
i made the trip of twenty-five miles from
Bluefeld down the Clinch Valley division
of tie Norfolk aud Western almost for the
sole purpose of seeing Burke's Garden.
AS soon as reached the hotel, after a
twenty minute ride on the street car
which winds up among the hills from the
railway station, began arranging for a
conveyance that would take me into the
wonderful agricultural country, claimed by
those who iye therein to be as rich as any
area of equal size in the United States, aud
| paid visit to the famous valley. But
since that trip have seen a great deal Of
the rest of the county, and of this little
town, and have ABOUT reached the con-
clusion that they are as remarkable in
several ways as that fertile garden whose
products are export cattle, hay, grain and
fruit.
According to the census of 1900, there
were only ,O96 people living in the town
of Tazewell, yet the two banks here have
deposits amounting in the aggregate to
half million dollars; it has the largest
grocery establishment in Virginia outside
of Richmond, at least; it has one Of the
largest general stores in Virginia; it has
an insurance agency claimed to do larger
business annually than any other in Vir-
gina; it is situated IN perhaps a richer
agricultural country than any IN this State
BEAUTIFUL LAND.
certainly have not seen any town in
Virginia which is surrounded by such
magnificent green fields n overlooked by
such beautiful hills and mountains. Nor
do | think | have visited county whose
lands are naturally as fertile, nor one
whose people are quite so prosperous in
the matter of worldly possessions.
The readers of The Times. Dispatch did
not all credit the facts l printed last
spring concerning the trucking section OF
Norfolk after a visit to that region, so l
realize | must be careful in giving instances
of the fertility of the lands of Tazewell.
| was shown corn field of fifty acres III
extent, nearly all Of it steep hillside.
The shocks were as thick and the ears as
large up on the top of the hill as in the
bottom. l asked the farmer how much
corn the field would yield.
81 am counting on gathering four
thousand bushels off of the fifty acres,
was the reply.
A gentleman who was with me said he
thought the yield would be eighty bushels
to the acre
commented upon the ane corn which
had Just been cut and shocked in field
on the farm of the late Captain w. h
Peery, near Tazewell.
"Ihat field has been in wheat or Corr
every year for twenty-eight years ano
there was never pound of fertilizer pul
on it, remarked my guide.
BLUE GRASS.
A farmer who resides near here va,
Y showing me over his fine estate Of neAri.
thousand acres. 1t was nearly all yet l.
blue grass. There we're numberless hay
stacks scattered over some of the fields lnd
some fields we're forests of corn sh 'cks
II suppose This land is worth hundre
dollars an acre." said to the farmer.
81 haye just refused a hundred and
forty" he said in way which made mr
Z feel he was sorry for me in my ignorance
] Then he added, quite needlealy, though
1T isn't for SALE"
A There is no land for sale out here. Col
onel H. @. Anderson, leading lawyer OF
4 Tazewell, who took me in his buggy Il
Z trips to number of farms, said that !.
g was scarcely more difficult to purchase a
q estate in England than one Of these Tazr
q well farms. The people who own then
g will not sell them. They are investments
= which yield as large per cent. as city rea
z estate and which are safer in that fire
8 which destroys the buildings does not dc
z such great harm proportionately.
q 1t is needless to say that the great ma
Q iority of the farmers of Tazewell are lend
4 ers of money. l cannot conceive of thel
= being horse owners.
7 FINE FARM.
= Colonel Anderson took his two litt
Y grandsons and myself out 10 see the grea
' farm of the late Captain Peery, which
Q on the road to Burk's Garden, about tw'
Q miles northeast of Tazewell. The farm
4 consists of ! ,046 acres, every acre OF it II
7 blue grass or in cultivation with the ex
Y ception of a small area OF timber land
Y The old home is beautifully situated no
q far from the highway, few yards iron
o the Clinch River, which ls only a sma
4 creek at this point, having just taken it
= rise IN a large spring at the roadside
Y mile or two above. The homestead is no
' specially large nor pretentious, but it is
Q place which has been the scene of fin
@ times IN days gone by.
a WROTE SWEET ALICE THEN.
@ Thomas Dunn English wrote "Swee
4 Alice, Ben Bolt" in this house, while
Z gueet Of Captain Ed Peery, the owner
= 1t seems that Captain Peery met the au
' thor while on hunting trip in Kentuck
q and brought him to Tazewell for visit
9 the first Of several. The Tazeweil h'
4 publican recently printed poem write
y here by English, entitled "Ihe Loga
Y Grazier." | loved to linger in tn
v shade of the fine old trees on the lawn an
Q talk to old 81, an eastern yirgiaA darse
6 of tl,e old school, @ho was w. sefvai
< TO G4n.ali.Fpa IIuoton, la var b