The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-10-27
HOW ELOQUENT P. S. WHITE
CONVERTED HIS ENEMIES
of Two Distinguished Families i'm Raleigh
Who Were Married by Justices of the Peace.
Transportation so Years Ago and Now.

81 excitement here IN Raleigh. The Iuc}-
dents referred 10 were two marriages
about which there VI, i halo ii romance
Hon. Iaomulus NJ. Sanders, the father ni
esteemed friend. Co. William L.
saunders. lived on HiIlsboro street. where
S. A. Ashe low resides. and he had
4 beautiful daughter, whose heart and
hand We're sought by 4 young navy sur
sron by the name 81 LEngle. a young
gentleman OF culture aud good standing.
and Withdl, good looking. tie won the
heart Of the young LADY. but the mother
objected to the marriage because The
young doctor belonged to the navy, and
he could not bear the idea Of seeing her
laughter go of 50 lar away from her.
The doctor implored but the mother was
unyielding. and SO 1T seemed Il hopeless
case. As nothing else could be done the
young lovers determined to marry any
how. 50 the license was procured ana one
Sunday evening the young doctor took 4
walk out Hillsboro street with a magis-
%trate; ,ne young lady met them at the
gate and in the presence OF a witness they
We're married. The doctor and the mag
IStratc came back down town, the young
lady went home and no one, save the one
witness and the parties concerned, knew
anything Gl the matter. y udy Di lHp
later the young doctor returned to his
command. where he remained a month.
when he came back to Raleigh again, and
again besought the mother for the hand
CT her daughter. She refused as before.
but the young lady who was within hear
ing, said: Mother. you had just as well
say yes, for the doctor and l are already
married. And 50 DR.. Mason, the rector
~ Ctl,irt CbJ,,nh y-ar Lco11aI ~ o,l u.hl+
had been legally lone was ecclesiastically
done over.
Mr.. William Bryan, long since dead, and
a daughter OF Judge Badger, were secretly
married by a magistrate, and my recol-
lection is that when it came TO be known
by the family, DR.. Mason also married
them again. I very well ~recollect that a
son OF Mr.. Badger and the magistrate
had 4 little shooting affair over the mat
ter, but neither was hurt, and peace soon
reigned. and all parties became reconciled
The shooting was lone in p. F. Pescud's
drug store, on the west side of Favette-
vile street, and for a long time a window
shutter of the Fentress building on the
east side Of the street, contained one Of
the balls shot on that occasion.
The magistrate who performed the mar
IldSc CcIOllOIly duu lOOh pdIO III liz oHCOb-
ing affair, was Fab. Hutchings, Esq, a
friend Of my boyhoOd days, for whom l
had a great fondness. He was uncle Of
our good looking Clerk Of the Court, MI.
Russ, and, while he may not have been
as handsome as is his nephew. he was
quite as amiable and as popular. He rep
esented this county in the legislature one
session, and later on and fc~ 90 4 while
,ra count, +roac,rar HIS "a ~. Holm
Hutchings, was one Of the most successful
farmers of the county, and grew to be
rich. On the corner Of New Bern Avenue
and BloodWorth street he kept a boarding
house before the days Of the larger hotels,
and his house was Democratic headQuar-
ters during the Legislature, and he was
wont to boast that as his house went, SO
went the Legislature. No hotel nor board
ing house fed like the Hutchings House,
hence its popularity, for III those days rs
we'll as in these. people liked good eating,
and would go where they could get the
best. Mr.. Hutchings raised everything
re used in his boarding house, Or his
farm, and lad things in abundance on his
tables: while big log fires made warm
and cheerful the rooms of his guests. And
then he could feed and pasture the horses
OF those who rode horseback to the Legs
Iature, which most of the members did.
in those days. Very few came by public
conveyance, but a day or two before the
Assembly met. the members on horse
back, with their clothes IN Il pair OF saddle
bags. came in, muddy or dusty, as the
case might be. looking more like cavalry
! men than legislators. Many farmers for
! eight or ten miles from the city came
here on the meeting of the Assembly to
take horses to board, as there was no
such thing as a livery stable here, and
nobody in the city cared to be bothered
with horses. Every Saturday the far7ncr
had to bring in the horses he was boarding
to let the owners see them and judge as to
how they were kept. In these days OF
railroads it sounds strange to tell your
readers that a member from Cherokee or
! Currituck had to come on horseback to the
| Legislature, and that five or SIX days were
required to make the journey.
Speaking of horse back travelling, some
of your readers, perhaps, never heard OF
the 'lightnins express that "Old Hick-
cry ran from Woeh-I 5l City to New
Orleans. That Mas one of the worlds
wonders, in my young days. A mail bag
left Washington City every day, carried
by a rider on horse back, who travelled at
a rate of ten miles an hour. He would
run a horse six miles, and at the end OF
tie six miles. another horse stood ready
for him to mount: SO that he had thrown
; his bag on the new horse, and had leaped
on. as the horse dashed off at full speed.
A rider would go from Raleigh as far as
Barclaysville. "a miles. riding four horses
to make the distance. He would not re-
main there very long before here would
cone a rider from the south, and so the
man who went from Raleigh would take
the bag and using the same horses, he
would return to be ready to 60 out again
next morning, when the mail from Wash
ington came in. The road from Washing
ton City to New Orleans was full of riders
going and coming. II you had told one
Of those riders, who made ten miles an
hour that in sixty-f1ve years a man would
stand in Washington and talk with one
in New Orleans as easily as if face to
face. he would doubtless have replied by
asking: DO you see anything green?'
The lightning express was certainly a big
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