Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1913-04-25
MIR. YOUNG WRITES
OF DAYS OF YORE
Tells How ''Wild Bilr' Met His
Death-Taft Wise in Appoint
ing Postmaster Here.

Editor C. V. News,
Dear Sir:-It has been some
time since last wrote you-anC
| hope you will permit me to
bore you again with few lines,
as it is the duty of somebody &c
worry, and trouble the editor.
We have had a mild, and
pleasant winter in this part of
the State especially, not more
than the usual amount O.. rain
fall, and that fell gradually.
making no unusual high waters.
and in January the mercury fell
to II degrees above zero, the
coolest weather in three years,
and that only for one day.
We were all very much shock
ed, and sorry, to hear of the
fearful clcyone in Omaha, and
then of the terrible floods that
followed in the Ohio and some
others, which have wrought such
awful ruin, and havoc, in
Indiana, Ohio and other States.
with the loss of human life, and
almost incalculable damage to
property, that will take years TO
replace. What a terrible misfor-
tune! 1t is awful to think of il.
and it makes us all glad to know
that we are living in a country
that does not have any hard
storms or cycloneS-I have never
seen a wind since have been
here that would hardly blow the
top rail off of an old rail fence,
much less tear the hay stacks,
corn shocks, unroof houses, and
blow down timber, as it fire.
quently does in Tazewell, to say
nothing of the tornado, or
cyclone, that some 10 or IL years
ago, started below Cedar Bluff,
where it unroofed and damaged
several buildings besides the
WOODEN mills, came on to
Liberty, which it jumped over,
and hit the Knob above Mr..
Bundy's, where it cut a path
through the timber like a now
ing machine in timothy, and
completely annihilated poor old
Joshua Coles house on the south
side and spent the last of its fury
a little beyond Rural Retreat in
Wythe county, know you will
remember it, and the escape of
the family, almost unhurt was
little short of miraculous.
But for the melting of the
snow in the Cascades and other
mountains with the warm rains
in the spring this country would
not know what high waters are
as the rainfall is so gradual
You got to see quite a bit of
the West on your recent trip,
and | read your letter on Dead
wood with interest, as Archie
had told me a good deal about it,
he having been there. You refer
to "Wild Bill', whose true name
was j. B. Hickock, and of his
death. He was assassinated one
night whilst sitting in res
taurant waiting for his meal,
by one Jack Mccall, a bad man
with whom he had formerly had
some kind of trouble, and Wild
Bill had broken his invariable
rule of heretofore by sitting
with his back to the front door.
Mccall seeing him slipped
up behind him and shot him
through the head. He was after
wards captured and hung. Since
coming here | became acquainted
with man who knew both Wild
Bill and Buffalo Bill, having been
with them in the Indian wars,
about the time of the Custer
massacre, and he spoke in the
highest terms of Wild Bill, and
said he was a splendid man, one
of the best scouts in his day,
and said to be the finest and
truest pistol shot, with both
hands, in the West.
When Kansas City was in her
infancy, and on the border of
civilization then, Wild Bill, was
engaged at a high salary to act
as City Marshal, and he soon
had the town in peace, and
quietness so far as the toughs
were concerned. On one occasion
before he was Marshal of Kansas
City, he and another man con-
cluded to spend the winter in
the mountains hunting and trap
ping, and went to considerable
trouble in making preparations
for spending the winter, laying
up supplies and traps. Wild Bill
was stricken with fever and
fingered between life and death
for weeks and about the time
he began to get better, then
provisions had run so near out
that his companion had to go to
the nearest point for more, OIL
thew would Starue and thnl1ok