The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-10-27
RESTING AMID VIRGINIA HILLS.
A Tar Heel Scribe Writes Pleasantly of Stay
at Buffalo Lithia Springs
Especial to News and Observer

Buffalo Lithia Springs, Va, Oct "a
few days of quiet rest among these beau
ttiful Virginia hills is very delightful.
The guests have all gone from the summer
hotel and cottages and quiet reigns SUI
preme No one who has not made per
sonal observation here has any idea of the
immense amount of water that is shipped
from these springs every day. There IS
demand for it all over this country. 1t is
shipped away in solid car loads. l no
,ticed shipment to Chicago, and one to
ST. Paul a day or two ago.
The proprietor of the springs, Col. Thos.
f. Goode. is a kind and liberal man, as
he gives Sundays supply every week to
the people of the. country who come and
carry it away to their homes in large
quantities.
About 1903 Mr.. stephen Poole, a man of
business in this community and at one
time a member of the Virginia Legislature,
purchased and owned the land on which
the spring has been discovered and built
the first house on the premises, which are
now the beautiful grounds about the ho-
tel and cottages where hundreds OF guests
spend the summer for the benefit from
these waters.
The daughter of Mr.. stephen Pool, Mrs.
Rebecca p Blanks, is now in her ninety
fourth year. Her husband. the late JOS
eph Blanks, died some years ago at the
ripe old age of eightyfour and Mrs.
Blanks still lives with her son, Mr.. r. G..
Blanks, whose home is about one mile
from the springs.
Grandma Blanks as every one calls
her, is quite remarkable old lady in
many ways. She sits up and goes to her
meals occasionally and talks freely and in
diligently about passing events, as we'll
as about things of the long ago. She has
14S descendants, including children,
grand children, great grandchildren, and
great great grandchildren. She remem-
bers when the market towns for the peo-
pie of this community were Petersburg
and Richmond, respectively, 100 and 200
miles away
Mrs Blanks husband was away at
Richmond to sell tobacco when the Nat
Turner Instruction broke out. which so
alarmed the people of Virginia and North
Carolina. All horses and wagons in Rich
mond were pressed into service to carry
arms to the scene of instruction, and Mr..
Blanks escaped only by reason of the fact
that he had no wagon, having rolled his
tobacco to market in a hogshead.
Grandma Blanks tells with great in
terest about the horrors Of that insurrec-
ton. How people in this region left their
homes and spent the time in the woods for
fear of being murdered if they remained
at home. Sometimes several families
4 10, no nd nj
remain together She relates with keen
interest also the strange atmospheric phe-
nomenon which preceded Turner's msur-
rection. On Saturday morning the sun
refused to shine until perhaps two hours
nigh 1t was something like twilight and
the same thing late in the afternoon
When the sun did shine it had the appear
ance of pewter, and the sunshine was
blue. The moon was affected the same
way and this continued for several days
and nights
TUESDAY following the first appearance
of this strange condition of 1.-The elements, -
Nat Turner commenced his bloody insur-
rection. The story went then that he had
been so smart from his very childhood he
was thought destined for something great
or unusual and he took the strange APP
pearance of the sun and moon to be sig
nal for his work.
Many other remarkable things uoes this
remarkably intelligent old lady relate.
She tells about the time when people ate
with knives and forks which were crude in
manufacture. The knives were made in
the blacksmith shop and the forks were
made of reeds There We're no cups and
saucers, and spoons were made OF wood
and plates and dishes of pewter. The
family drank milk by gathering about a
dish. and each one dipping in with his
spoon.
The GROWING glory of this remarkable
woman's life is not her strength of body
or mind in her very advanced age. but it
is the fact that nigh unto three quarters
of century she has been a devout ser
want of God, having been all these years
a consistent Christian member of Buffalo
| Baptist Church. She has never been Tar
out of the community and her Life is
known to all the people as beautiful eX-
ample of Christian work in thcssR rest
of the kingdom of righteousness Her
childlike faith in the promises of God is
| beautiful, and while she still enjoys HE
she will be glad to go up higher when the
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