The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1916-09-22
THE LITTLE GIRL IN
THE HOMESPUN FROCK
Fidello Patton Ball Writes Letter to
Old Home Newspaper.

F. i. Ball of this city has written a
very interesting letter to the Ashville
Citizen. Mr.. Ball lived in Ashville, 90
years ago, and his letter is fragrant
with the memories of over a half CEN
fury ago. 1t affords This Tribune gem
uine pleasure to reproduce this inter
esting communication:
Sixty years ago ! left Ashville,
when our little world there was
young" writes Fidelio Patton Ball,
nearly ninety, from his Idaho home
81 was bookkeeping then for Montra-
vile Patton, a wealthy man, with
negro plantations, steam saw and
grist mills, and a store on South
Main street doing $4,000 worth of
business each year. | was sitting on
cracker box in that store one day
Druzilla Patton sobbed and told me
about the little Lindsey girl and her
homespun froGk and of the apples
and cakes she divided with her poor
schoolmate. Druzilla must be sixty
six or sixty-seven years old now and
| wonder if she's still here
The letter from this old subscriber
to The Ashville Citizen is fragrant
with memories of Ashville's earlier
days, hen steam power up there
among the mountains was wonder
full thing, even notorious, with people
coming in crowds for hundreds of
miles to see the steel piston play at
lightning speed with neither overshot
nor undershot water wheel to make
it go" The letter is pathetic in its
plea for tidings of people the old sub
scriber knew as boys and girls, for,
says he: 81 have grown back again
into childhood, and this has won
derfully sharpened my desire to hear
from the friends of my youth Just
grow old yourself, and you will find
this to be so,'' the letter says, very
simply.
Squire Blackstock.
My fathers name was Jarius
Ball; my mothers maiden name was
Roberts She had three brothers
Riley, Braxton and Thomas, and lived
ten miles north of Asheville. They
were well known citizens in that
community. Father had two sisters,
Avelda and Hammoleketh. Avelda
married Thomas Gentry, and Ham
moleketh welded Nehemiah Black
stock, generally known as Squire
Blackstock. He served as justice of
the peace for forty years in old
Buncombe county. His home was
about thirteen miles north of Ashe-
vile. Anyone living that may re-
member these will know who I am
and | would greatly rejoice to hear
from any of them The old sub
scribcr then tells how he has wander
ed far over the land and sea since the
day he left Asheville but that no.
where in all the world has he found
just and so true as those he left in
the mountains many years ago.
1T seems to me that nature has
been more than kind to that country
Of the hills" he writes from heart
full of memories nearly century
old. For health and comfort l
think its equal is yet to find The
recollections of those days fill my old
heart with love and my nights with
dreams that are pleasant. AS I walk
around the blocks | find my mind
wandering around in the old happy
hunting grounds of my youth. The
shadows are long with men, and may
not have many years more to live.
hope my old friends may see this
and write to me, Tor | know not
where they are"
The Old Plank Road.
The old letter writer pays tribute
to his onetimc employer, Montra-
vile Patton, who, he says, was as
full of energy as he was of humanity
and justice, and in this no living man
excelled him. He was greatly inter
cstcd in this new machinery driven
by steam, and with it he cut the oak
planks, three inches thick, twelve
inches wide and twelve feet long, that
made tho fifteen miles of plank road
that ran through Ashcville. man
aged Mr. Patton's store for series
of years and left Ashcvillc in 1856.
Well ! remember the morning ] left.
Mr.. Patton and his family came to
the store to wish me God speed, and