Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1920-03-19
W. G. YOUNG IS
HOLDING HISOWN
Writes Old Friend at Tazewell
Recalling the Days When He
Lived Here "Tim" Back
From France Safely.

Mr;'J; B. Caudill, of this town. 70.
SelVed T, the following letter from Nh.
w. ". Young of Portland Oregon. n
iofiner citizen of Tazewell:
Fortiand, Oregon, Feb. 13. 1920.
Dear old Friend.
Your letter of Nov. 20. 1919 ro,oh
ca me Dec. the 6, and here Il 10 ovn,
TWO n'onths before l reply. BUT If ;s
not that l did not think of do;po so
many times, but owing to condition 9
over which | had no control. bovo
written but very little, other tbon to
my two daughters since that time "
Your letter sure did take me Inv
surprise. but you just know TINT 7
was glad to hear from YOU I nm nj
ways glad to hear from n friend
especially Tazewell friend. There 10
not day, but what my mind goes
pack to Tazewell, where / had 5otb
Joys and sorrows-and don't believe
That ever knew any one there that
nave not thought of them, but the
names OF some that 1 knew long aro
nave escaped my memory. l have NOT
peen as good ut remembering names
SINCE my illness in 1916, as l was be-
iofe, but it is the greater wonder
mat can remember anything after
gong through what l did. / have
often thought of you and used to sec
mention OF you in the papers some
times, but as | had seen none fo,. an
ong, asked Abe White what had
Iecome of you and he wrote me Won
were Keeping the old Yost Mill. We'll
MS neither of us are as young as we
were, and ms able to buck to hnrd
work as we could In our young davs.
l nope 1T is good, easy job for YOU.
ana one that makes you good liy
ing, which is pretty hard to do these
days owing to the enormous-and
outrageous high cost of every thing
we eat and wear, and the working
man IS pretty fortunate that can
make buckle and tongue meet ut the
end OF the mouth, and owe nothing.
AS write | am wondering how old
you are; from what has passed be-
tween US III talking, l think you are
some older than | am, tho / Judge
you 10 not look it for when 1 saw YOU
iass' could not sec any gray hairs
ana my mead IS what you might call
a silver gray, perhaps n little whittier
Inan my mothers. / was 66 the 2 of
last October, and she will be 81 tho
ISL Oh next June. She keeps remark
ably well, and while not as active on
her 1eet, as when we left Virginia 12
years ago, otherwise she has Changed
but very little.
My two daughters, that were little
girls then, are both married. Neither
OF them married rich, but they got
GOOD a No l. men. Sabra married
d. Il. Whorton, (Jack) of Roseburry,
a Dookkeeperr in the Douglas National
Bank' B:,' and has little boy, named
biiiy, that will be s years old the 25
OF June. Mary married B. B. Nc
Nance, an engineer, and has a little
son Bennie that will be year old
the 20 OF this month, and has been
walking since he was IL months old.
Botn OF the girls are in Wheeler Co.
eastern Oregon. Their husbands are
WORKING for the State Highway Com
mission. Ben is the locating Engineer
on large section Of the John Day
NlVer Highway, and they are living
at Spray, where the mercury fell to
3S degrees below zero in December
and the ice on the John Day was Id
inches thick. Sabra is coming to 600
us in April and Mary will come in
May, and then old granddad will sure
have a time with the little kids. AS
have told you about the little girls.
that l know you will remember.
must tell little about the BOYS.
Archie was in the army q little
over 20 months, and was in France
Just year. He belonged to tile 65th
Regiment, Oregon Coast Heavy ArtiI-
lery. and was in the last 70 days of
fighting when the batteries of the 65
fired fifteen thousand tons of shells
into the Germans, and he said thcy
were practically under shell fire all
that time either from the German
guns on the front, of from the air
planes overhead. This included the
great battles of St. Mihiel, and all
through the Argonne Forest, and at
Verdun, the 65 being the first allied
troops to enter that city after the
Germans retreated. 1t is said there
was hardly house in the city that
escaped damage, hundreds of them
blown to pieces. He brought back
quite number of souvenirs, among
them, his gas mask and steel helmet
that he wore and dragged in the mud
at Verdun which dried up on it. He
is railway mail clerk, and left this
morning for Baker, for the first time
in IL days, as he had to lay off on
account of spell of grip. 1 hated to
see him go as it is long hard run,
and he was still feeling wabbly. John
is now % years old, is a good look
ing guy. and the tallest man in the
family. He is fireman on the Southern
Pacific Railroad, which fires with oil
instead of coal, and they use the big
compound superheater engines, and a
fireman has to understand his busi-
ness to fire on long trains but he is
conside' ed good fireman, as all the
engineers like to get him as fireman.
Some Of his engineers let him run
the freights while they do the firing,
and some times he has been called to
run the switch engines at night. He
wanted to join the army and go over
the sea, but as the S. P. was short
on men, so many having left, they
kept him on tho railroad and he fired
on the long troop trains carrying SOL
diers, and these trains were always
given the best engineers and fireman.
/ I told him that if "IJncle Sam" had