Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-03-05
Interesting "reminiscences of DIR.
Thomas Dunn English.
by Mr.. r. M. Lawson.)

-FOUR recent sweet Alice" research
es recall for me part of my earlier
life, to which | often revert, and al
ways with pleasure.
l recall, quite clearly, the coming of
DR.. Thos. Dunn English to Logan, and
think it was about 1852. For several
years saw him daily. No doubt he
directly after leaving Tazewell, and
that he did not at any time live at
Beckley.
Dr. English was n reformer of rest
less activities, we'll educated and
versatile. He was first surveyor, doc
tor, lawyer and mayor of Arracoma.
This is the beautiful Indian name of
his selection for the town Incorporated
at his suggestion. 1t is now called
logan"
Mayor English, in his official capac-
ity, in his attempt to impose fines,
penalties and orderly conduct on a
people whose freedom had known no
limits, was seldom appreciated by the
sufferers, nor heartily sustained by
public sentiment.
Personally, he was n trine above 6
feet, spare of build, clean shaven, ex-
cept very heavy black mustache,
(the only one known to me at this
period and for years after)-a figure
and face easy to recall, if not impos-
sible to forget.
This prose poet, writer, contribu-
tor to Harper's and other periodicals
of the time, seems now only known by
"Ben Bolt" the sole survivor of his
writings and basis of his fame.
1t may be a forgotten fact that the
authorship even of this song was con-
tested.
or this, as boy, knew only that
Judge Ward, lawyer and poet), said:
"The authorship was disputed and he
did not believe English wrote it."
However. | have since read bro
chure, which gave every detail of the
writing, and publication of "Sweet
Alice" and there is no longer a rea-
son to doubt that it is properly cred
tied to DR.. English.
1t was not, | feel sure, written I'M
der the elm tree on the Guyan, or the
walnut in Tazewcll, as my recollection
is that it was published in New York
before DR.. English came to Virginia.
DR.. English was regarded as ner-
vous, irritable, and intollerant, and
far from being credited with crea-
tive tenderness. 1t may, therefore, be
thought that Judge Ward had assum-
ed the psychological impossibility of
his authorship of "Sweet Alice"
However, in justice to this inter
esting man, | came later to know
Mrs. English, the gentle and accom-
plished pianist, and to see in her I'M
assuming life, that DR.. English must
have learned to love the type he had
so tenderly immortalized, as he had
transferred it to his own household
i'm the mother of his children.
In 1901 and 1902 ! was much in
Washington and often at the capitol.
In Congress | always looked for
DR.. English. He was never found in
his seat. Finally | called on him at
the Ebbett, and when / told him of
my efforts to find him in Congress,
he said: 81 only go there to vote;
will not stay there and breathe that
bad air." He wore the black mustache
and was not showing his age greatly.
He was staunchly Southern in his
sympathies, and In this, as all else,
frankly outspoken-onceo or oftener at
the peril of his life from mob violence.
My life was very intimately asso-
ciated with the accomplished author
of the blue Alsatian Mountains" He
,are to my fathers home to teach his
children, and after two years of this
trying work, having married Miss
Emma Saunders, of Lynchburg, in the
meantime he went to Beckley to prac-
tice law. He was in the Confederate
army and was badly wounded. He
and his wife are residents of Lynch
burg, never having lived at Peters
burg. OF these earliest and best of
friends,
None knew them but to love,
None named them but to praise.
Stephen Adams loyalty to manly
conception of duty commanded my I'M
qualified admiration.