Evening star., 1936-03-17
Ve Tells of Hiseys Drinking Stree Before Fatal Shooting
200 Years of Calm in Blue Ridge Hollo,v Broken
As ResettIement Workmen Erect Ne,u Village
Modern Cottages Replace
Squatter Shacks-COst
to Be Near $500, 900.
Trim, Tract of Farming
Land to Go With
Each House.

Each House.
This Is the third OF q series Of
sir articles on the progress OF
Resettlement Administration prof.
ects in Maryland and Virginia.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
It's 200 years from Corbin Hollow
to Glen Mary.
Back in the deep, dark pockets Of
the Blue Ridge Mountains-now parts
Of the Shenandoah National Park-a
few years ago mixers used to stumble
on ragged, hungry families housed in
windowless, tumbledoWn shanties and
representing about the limit of desti-
tuition at which human life could be
sustained.
Today. in a relatively fertile glen
traversed by swift creek at the foot
Of the mountains, picturesque viii
lage Of small farms is being erected by
Rural Resettlement Administration
workmen. 1t Is the first of six such
settlements projecte. for the people of
the hollows.
The scene today is desolate enough
20 skeleton cottages against the back
ground of the sere fields and barren
mountainsides of late Winter. 1t is
difficult to project it in the imagina-
ton as corresponding to the model of
Virginia Eden displayed in the Office
Of L. Ferdinand Zerkle, the manager
in charge. at Luray. But clapboards,
green grass and trees in leaf may be
expected to do wonders.
These cottages will have electric
lights and bath tubs. There will be
barns, hog pens and poultry houses.
There will be fruit trees and level plots
to till for gardens. Into the settle
ment will move the folks from the
hills, their scanty worldly goods
| bundled on their backs. It's hard to
picture the greatness of the transition
without knowing them as tLey were
five years ago.
Henry VIII to Roosevelt.
It's only 10 or Is miles. at the most,
from the remoter hollows to Glen
Mary. but in the dimension Of time 1t
is the distance between Henry the
Eighth to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Glen Mayor Ida Valley as it ap-
pears on the maps-is frankly expert
mental. The Resettlement Admins
tration Is feeling its way cautiously
! on a project which, when all fts units
are completed, is expected to cost
almost 100000. Nobody knows how
these mountaineers are going to react
to meted land, to bath tubs and the
rest of the accessories of civilization.
It Is not that their freedom loving
mountain souls are going to revolt over
New Deal Standardization. No greater
bunk ever was fed to the American
public than the movie picture Of the
mountaineer as the supreme indi-
vidualist-at least so far as many
people Of the Shenandoah National
Park area are concerned. They didn't
seek the lonely Blue Ridge pockets for
the sake of leading their own lives in
their own way. They were tossed
there in the economic shuttle gener-
ations ago and haven't been able to
get out. The worst difficulty the Ma
ational Park Service has had to date
has been to keep some of them from
begging along the Skyiand Drive.
But can the year 1850 be fitted into
the year 1896? The mountaineers
differ widely among themselves in
initiative. adaptability and intelli-
gence. Some are fairly enterprisins
and actually have succeeded in max
ing adjustments in the outside world.
Some are probably hopeless. It has
not been decided whether the most
| primitive of them-notably the dere-
| licts of Corbin Hollow-will be moved
into one of the new settlements or
not. The people for whom the Glen
Mary settlement Is being built are
among the best elements in the hills,
who are likely to succeed. Some Of
/ them Ire not mountaineers at all,
| but tenant farmers, who find them
selves without homes because OF the
park.
Descendants Of Settlers.
The people of the remote hollows
are descendants of some Of the first
white families in Virginia. At the
time the National Parks Service
stepped into the picture they were
without schools and illiterate. They
spoke an archaic tongue-the tongue
of the English peasantry in the days
Of Elizabeth. In at least one hollow
nobody ever had seen an American
flag or heard the Lords Prayer. They
were almost entirely cut OF from
civilization. Their destitution was
unbelievable. Time had stood still
for three centuries.
These people were, for the most
part, squatters. The mountain land
was the property of absentee mining
and lumber companies. or Of lowland
farmers, who used it for grazing. It
was essentially worthless, except for
scenery. The owners had no par
ticular objection to the mountaineers
and allowed them to keep their desti-
| tute cabins and garden plots.
In order to set up the national park
1t was necessary for the State Of vir-
ginia to acquire the land and present
it to the National Government. 1t
could not be passed over with a clear
title while encumbered with the highly
tenuous "squatters' rights" Besides
the National Parks Service didn't want
these people-some Of them highly
| antagonistic and some of them pro-
fessional beggars-on its hands.
A year ago the State started clear
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