Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1916-07-21

QUAY dllu lOt AulilbSA "
mail twice day passes that place
The names CT Mathews, Ar0uckie'
Williams, Handley, WithroW f11oI'
-Greenbrier rame-are w.
familiar to US CT the older genera
ron. The genial William Arthur Al
derson, the son of Alexander Anue-
SON, assessed our personal eHec'S'
and was known as deputy assessor u
internal revenue. During the cary
DAYS of the life of The Independent
Ballard Caraway, Abram and Jali0'
Argabrite and James Jarrett at
names well remembered in the 10
organization of things between looo
and 1873, the date of the foundation
If Summers. All officers, scnoo,
seachers. and the advanced, came
from the fat country east OF Snaho
Run. Why Greenbrier preferred ~
retain Snake Run and abandon LICK
Creek we never UNDERSTOOD, Unless
it be that Snake Run produced LIE
great "Our Bill Sawyers' for OK
ample, who, by the way, came 10
better country, where greatness ah'
advancement are not at a standstlh'
Fifty years ago. in a radius "a
fifteen miles in this region OF tne
then GreenErier county, there WeCF
no public school houses. There were
two cabins beyond the mountains
called school houses. with rougn
stone chimneys, a log cut OUT WIN
creased papers fastened over the hole
for windows, split clapboards with
ridge-poles on the roof to held them'
split logs with sticks stuck in theE'
for seats and with mother earth for
floors. While we were still part
of Greenbrier after the war we ad-
yanced rapidly in educational mat
tiers. Trueblood was superintendent
of schools. During reconstruction
DAYS we were allowed one hewed-log
one-room school house on Lick Creek
known as the Cum" at the foot OF
Keeney's Knobs, and the East" pro-
vided the professors" the first be-
ing A. M. Mates; then William Lew
is: and along about that time we
! were provided with the distinguished
singing masters, that gallant soldier
and citizen John G.. Stevens, and the
splendid teacher, singer and preach
err, Jacob H. Lewis. We had two OF
the Greenbrier Dutchmen ministers
one Presbyterian another Methodist
David and Christopher Sydenstricker
and another of the Methodist faith
| who lived and died in the Meadows
Rev. Johnsey Lief. Each denomlna-
ton would furnish a preacher once
a month, Saturdays and Sundays.
When the monthly preachings came
/ all denominations turned out to heal
such men as Martin Bib, John
Bragg, Mathew Ellison, Lewis Mar,
shall, A. Weller, J, Lief, g. F. 5CiGsf5
James Haynes, P. S. E. Sixeas, sfd
John F. Gilbert.
That region produced brave 1nen
as well as good farmers and splendid
women. When the war came on
there was but one known secession
list in all that region, who died only
few years ago, John Richman, who
declared from the highways that he
was the first man to succeed outen
the Union in old Virginy," and he
was the owner Of neither houses,
! lands, nor tenements, nor of slaves,
and very little of this worlds goods.
John was simply Virginian and a
patriot and cared nothing for slavery
or its perpetuation. While all that
region was for the Union, when tho
all came to determine between the
Old Dominion and the Unior practi-
\ SnAlS " q man IACJ ouppOILCt Al
ginia. do not know of a single
member of the regular Federal army
in all that territory, tho there were
some, home guards or state troops
from the mountain Businesses or
Laurel Creek, Keeney's Knobs and
roundabout.
From 1856, during the days CT re-
construction, these hardy soldiers,
those who were permitted to return
to their homes, were stripped of the
rights of property and of the bless
ings of liberty guaranteed; their
farms were grown up; they were not
permitted to collect an honest debt
without qualification; they could not
vote, teach school nor practice law,
and there was no relief until the en-
1 oE,, - i /.