Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-02-19
About Burke's Garden.

About Burke's Garden.
The following correspondence in Il
recent issue of the Roanoke Times is
of interest:
BURKE'S GARDEN,
Toms Creek, Va, Feb. 4.
Editor The Roanoke Times:
Replying to your editorial inquiry
of yesterday, as to whether or not
Burke's Garden should be spelled with
or without the final "e", this question
brings upon me flood of memories:
Thirty years ago or more, my faith
er, Henry B. Groseclose, (now de-
ceased), was postmaster at Burk's
Garden, on the old star route between
Wytheville and Tazewell. There was
then no Clinch Valley Division of the
Norfolk and Western Railway and
nearest railway station was Wythe-
vile, thirty-two miles to the south
east. All of our mail, and all mer-
chandise came by wagon from Wythe-
vile; and all of the fat cattle, and
grain, pork, poultry-everything for
market-went by the same route,
to Wytheville. My father kept tho
only store for miles around, and |
have known him to start six and eight
wagon loads of produce to the depot
at the same time, ad three days Jour
ney for the teams across the Garden
Mountain, Little Brushy and Walkers.
All mail for Tazewell came by this
route. 1t usually required two horses
and often three to carry it. Post
masters had not learned to bunch"
the mail for the different offices, as
they have more recently, and every
packet of letters had to be gone
through. have known my father to
spend three solid hours of the hardest
work going through that mail, while
his customers patiently waited to do
their trading and get days mail.
Burke's Garden was then an i'm
portant point on the highway. The
road was always crowded with con-
veyances of all kinds, as all commune
cation between sections of the country
was then carried on by means of pri-
vate conveyances.
In those days the post office was
"Burk's Garden" While father was
Democrat, he kept the only store
and for that reason, l suppose, kept
the post office for many years.
Later, another store was put up,
and the post office was removed to It,
l do not know whether the office was
applied for, or whether father wished
to, give. it up on account of the con-
siderable work and poor pay. NV
next recollection connected with it,
however, was getting mail The
postmaster then, or at least the gentle
man who waited ON me was Mr..
Simon Kelly, "Simon-pure" Irishman
and one of the most accommodating
men who ever served the public as
postmaster.
If my memory is not at fault, it
was when Cleveland became President
the first time, my father was re-
appointed postmaster at Burke's Gar
den and up to that time, so far as am
aware, no final "e" had been used or
thought of.
Shortly afterwards my brother j..
X: Groceclose, now at Blacksburg,
who was acting as assistant post
master called my attention to the fact
that the department at Washington
was spelling the name with the final
Perhaps the Irish blood in Simon
Kelly during his term of office. got
the upper hand of him, SO that he
(unconsciously) added the re" in his
correspondence with the postmaster
general.
More likely, some clerk in the gov
eminent printing office at Washing
ton, at a revision of the postal guide
about that year, inadvertently added
the final 6e". At any rate. there
has been doubt in the minds of
some ever since as to whether the
final re" should or should not be used.
tradition has it that man named
Burk,, pioneer and hunter, wander
ing through the mountains of what
IS now Southwest Virginia, started an
Elk on stream in Grayson county,
and that the stream took the name OF
Elk Creek; that the chase led him to
INTO what is now Wythe county, where
on another stream, since called Cripple
Greek, ne got shot at the quarry.
and crippled it, whence he followed
the wounded animal into Burk's Gar
den, where the game upon the broad
plains was able to eldude the dogs.
But Burk was delighted, however
and planted potato patch from some
seed carried with him for food. near
the present residence of Col. Rufus
Thompson and spent the season ex-
plorlng and fighting the Indians.
whether Burk was Scotch or Irish
| can only surmise from the fact that
his name, as l first heard it in nv
childhood was spelled without the
final "e"
1t is said that he employed an
attorney to take out patents cover
ing the land of this beautiful valley
to own farm in which has ALWAYS
been considered but one step removed
from Paradise; that the patents were
mostly taken out in some other name,
or names; that Burk wasan-unlettered
man, and received, and was content
with, small boundary back next to
one of the mountains. The patent
office at Richmond, if one should take
the trouble to investigate, might
throw much light on the question.
! But If ,Burk were so .lliterate as
such a story would indicate, he might
not himself have known how cor