Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1907-09-13
Among The Sons And Daughters
of The Revolution.

Among The Sons And Daughters
of The Revolution.
From Baltimore to Monterey,
Va, where Rev. A. A. Walker Is In
charge, is distance OF not more
than two hundred and seventy five
or three hundred miles; but the trip
REQUIRES almost twenty.four hours.
Leaving Baltimore about 10 o'clock
in the evening, on the Chesapeake
& Ohio through train from New
York, Staunton is reached about
1870 M. There is then chance for
an early breakfast at the Highland
House. and promptly at six o'clock
the two. horse hack, generally well
filled with passengers and baggage,
starts on its almost fifty miles'drive
to Monterey, the county seat OF
Highland county. Just out OF
Stanton. companies of convicts
are to lie seen working on the
roads, transforming an old fashion
ed dirt road into fine pike. Perch.
ed upon some near point Of van
tage, gun in hand sits the guard;
and, in many cases. as though this
were not enough, the ccnvicts
work with heavy chains dangling
to their bodies. In enc negro. at
least, the spirit of old time darby
politentss has not disappeared; for
he raised his cap us though he had
never looked through IRON bars.
Now Churchville, where Rev. ID.
A Wilson is pastor, is reached; and
at last the stage, with a company
of passengers well able to appreci
ate the good dinner which is await
ing them, reaches West Augusta,
the halfway point of the journey.
The afternoon part of the trip is ov-
or one mountain after another
The road, from the standpoint of
the grade could not be improved.
II is. by the way, the old route to
Parkersburg, w. Va; and the
stream of trade which flowed along
its well-beaten track has played no
small part ia the development of
Stanton. Headwaters is passed
Mcdowell, where H NJ. Roane is
the efficient pastor. is reached; ard
at length, just as the sun is sink
ing behind the mountains, away in
the distance on the farther side of
beautiful valley dotted with hay
ricks and green with the grass
growing after the moving, is seen
tne of the prettiest little towns
that Virginia has. With a popuIa-
ton which BY no means approx
mares a rrruusauu, h1Uutrr1y hno as
many nice homes as would do hon
or to much larger pace. The
hotel and the stores bespeak pat
ronage from large area of coun'
try. Mr.. Bishop, of our Church,
has the finest country store we
have seen. Here, too, in Monterey
is Mr.. Jones, who for years was
Rector of the Board Of Trustees of
the University of Virginia, and
who is a steward in the Methodist
church. The fact is, the Metho.
dists and the Presbyterians very
largely hold the country; and have
from the very beginning.
Nowhere does one come so close
to Revolutionary and re-Revolu-
tionary times as in Highland coun-
ty. 1t is a rare thing for land to
change hands. The one industry
is cattle raising. The business is
diversified. In some parts the two
year. old" is handled: and in other
sections, as for instance, Crabbot.
tom. the "three-year-old" is found
grazing in the finest blue grass
pasturage that Virginia has, like
that of the Hevener estate, which
has single field comprising about
900 acres. These cattle are pre-
pared for export without the use of
a single ear of corn. The grass
suffices both for summer and win
ter. In our journeyiugs we saw
literally several thousand hay ricks
almost all Of single pattern, con-
tanning, we were told, two or thee
tons each. They stand as erect as
sentinels on guard. Only one
farmer of whose skill at this work
of putting up hay we had a chance
to test by loo liking at his hay
stacks. had to build So that the
perpendicular line was not retain
ed. Hay is worth about ten dol
lars ton; it is never baled, and is
generally fed on the place.
The fact of which mention has
been made that the land rarely
changes hands (and it may be stat.
ed in passing that when it DOES, it
is at figure all the way from sixty
to one hundred dollars an acre. is
one of the causes for a most re.
markable condition of affairs. One
can 90 from one home to another
and find the direct descendants Of
Revolutionary ancestors occupying
the same farms that their forefatb-
ers received in grants from George
III. TO sit, as we did, on the
porch at Capt. Gibson's and hear
him tell of his own Civil War ex-