Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1906-12-19
ReCOlleCtiOnS Of ROSemOnt.
continued from last week.

NOW that the blockade was down
tight, was confronted with a
problem far greater than getting
a rum-crazed and immoral over
seer away from Rosemont Farm.
The owner. or rather the trustee,
of the farm, Jesse Tyson. was on
one side of the blockade line and
we and the farm were on the
other. i learned that the 80 acres
of wheat that was now first week
in June, 1861 nearly ready for
harvest had a strange history. The
wine cellar of Rosemont had been
the undOing of the big fine looking
overseer, Hunt, and in his intem-
perate weakness for drink and in
his insane jealousy for big, smart.
yellow Jane, he had failed to keep
a set Uf good help on the farm, and
not able himself to go afield and
work, Jane herself had superin-
tended the seeding and had taken
the team to the field and put in the
wheat. 1t is as somebody has said
there is no accounting for per-
sonal tastes y My part of the
wheat crop was to get it off the
field and to market. Those were
the days when harvest hands did
not ride under a silk umbrella, on
a spring seat, drink ice cold
lemonade and fan with Panama
hats. Instead of harvesting as we
do now, the farmer would select
eight or ten men who could swing
what we called cradle" and
eight men on foot in the boiling
sun would make through the grain
round after round It'll the job was
done. Mr.. Pulliam, our towns
man, threshed it, and / was lucky
enough To get it all delivered TO
Mr.. Riddle, of Charlestown, w.
Va. All these pixies were here at
that time and the delivery was not
difficult. When General Jackson
(about June %, 1s6D, destroyed
forty or fifty locomotives and GER
tainly as many as six or eight long
trains of freight cars and hundreds
of tons of coal. Esquire Pulliam
heard that there was much coal
yet undestroyed at Martinsburg.
and Mr.. Wheat, owner of the
Engle farm, sent a team and took
one from Rosemont and started.
A dirt road across country was
good enough for us and we were
lucky enough to reach there in
time TO load and get back to Big
Spring for the night. We stopped
at farm house and next day de-
livered the coal for blacksmithing
in BerryvilIe. Martinsburg was
a picture of destruction. Myl Myl
but it was a desolate looking place.
1t was the fewest number of peo-
pie we seen there. Very few.
Very few. 1t was beautiful day
elegant. | drove five horses.
My wagon was a large pitched
body, and there was 500 lbs. of
iron on the wagon. 1t was new,
made by "Pulliam & Afiieck." |
brought three tons at least.
While | was in business at the
foot of Applepie Ridge l had a
partner, Henry Anderson, in the
. blacksmith shop. l left him there
: in partnership to run the shop and
take care of some household goods
until / could come back and make
a sale. The next Saturday | re-
turned and made sale of hogs,
plows, etc., and Anderson remain
ed as blacksmith. One night in
side of month a man by the name
, of Shipe came to the house and
taking a pair of sheep shears / had
: left, called Anderson, who got up,
opened the door, ran back toward
the bed, but was stabbed to the
; heart and died in the yard imme
diately. Blood marked every steI
through two rooms, out on the
porch. to the yard. Shipe wa:
=, taken from jail and impressed fOl
service in the army. | have never
heard of him since. My son, Fred
John Shackleford, Henry Taylor
my brother Robert, and myself
were cultivating the 81 corn crol
and attending to the place whel
one afternoon Captain Mum, o
the Militia who lived two miles
. out the Charlestown pike, rod
into the field and said to us
. "Able-bodied men are summone'
p" to Winchester to answer to 'Rol
, CALI tomorrow. Robert was ehgi