Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-07-10
Yours very respectfully,
AL. j. JENNINGS

Yours very respectfully,
AL. ]. JENNINGS.
Sitting at my desk near a window
overlooking Broadway, one of the
principal thoroughfares in our beau
tiful City of Oklahoma, 1 was watch
ing the pedestrians hurrying along
through the falling rain, and idly
opening bunch of newly arrived mail
My mind was not occupied by the
work in hand and clipped the end of
the letters in listless, careless, man
ner. One, not unlike many others,
strangely drew my attention. From
curious interest l became absorbed.
The "Clinch Valley News" on the en-
velope showed it to be from Tazewell,
Virginia. l had opened hundreds since
the Saturday Evening Post begun the
publication of my story, Beating
Back" l had read with gratifying in
terest, words of praise from hundreds
of friends and admiring strangers,
but this one, this letter from Taze-
we'll, Virginia, what did it contain?
felt new emotion-years of the
past rolled swiftly by like fleeing sha-
dows, calling back dead phantoms of
days gone, never to be recalled.
opened and read your letter, Mr.. Les
lie, and the enclosed article from
your paper. 1t had never occurred to
me that my being born in Tazewell
county, Virginia, should occasion any
doubt or create more than passing in
terest. Poverty and dire distress SEEM
ed common heritags of the people
of the South during that cruel war.
No complaint ever came from my mo-
ther of those days of direst poverty
and unusual hardships. She came of
race of people who said least when
days were dark and gloomy.
In my early childhood my mother
recounted to me the story of my BIRTH
eve suffered much, my child but your
father and his comrades suffered more
than we." l recall those sad words
now. They come back to me across
years dead and gone. l see the dear,
sad face, seemingly cold to strangers,
yet always soft and loving to me.
Death claimed her when l was eleven
years of age. She was laid to rest in
little village churchyard near Cedar
Grove on the banks of the beautiful
Ohio River. She died, as she had lived
in the Christian faith.
Mr.. Leslie, l know little more than
has been already recounted of the
hardships before my birth on the 25th
of November, 1868. A courier sent by
my father from the field hospital bade
my mother take the children and flee
to her mother in Virginia. The family
consisted of my mother and four chill
dren, all boys, the eldest, Zeb,s, John,
=, Ed, a, Frank, 2. (My sister Mary
was born after the war in 1870 at
Marion, Illinois.) My mother and the
two younger children rode in the FAM
lily carriage, the two older boys each
occupied a seat astride the old car
riage horses, occasionally walking
with the six faithful negroes, viz:
Uncle Tom, Jake and Nose, with their
wives, Lucy, Mandy and Liza. The
negroes carried packs, trudging along
behind the carriage in the muddy road
AT the crossing of Clinch River the
carriage broke down and one of the
horses was drowned. That would have
been the fate of my mother and bro
theirs, had not some Union soldiers,
ardi h. L.
assisted my mother in crossing. The
negroes fled at the sight of the Yam
KEGS. The carriage was lost in the
stream. do not recall how my mo-
ther and brothers travelled thence to
Tazewell county. l think, however,
they were assisted various times by
other refugees. / recall that my mo-
ther spoke of the kindly assistance
OF a man and his wife who STAYED
with her until after my birth. God
bless them! We received some assist
ance VERY meager, indeed) from my
grandmother, DR.. Scates' wife. Mo-
ther did not sell pies and cakes to
assist the family-that is trait un-
known in our family. She, with some
other ladies, gave to the returning
soldiers from Appomattox such as
they had, freely and cheerfully. Some
weeks after the surrender of General
Lee, mother, (who thought my father
. dead) saw ragged confederate SOL
dier limping down the road. She went
out with such refreshments as she