Evening star., 1936-02-09

H6RG.J
the outside to aSsend up to said room,
which shall be place Of holding court.
THE whole to be completed and
finished within one month from
the date hereof. The said building to
be erected on the plantation Of An
drew Heath"
The new court house was first occu-
pied October 81, It'll 1t must have
been a chilly day because on October
80 the court issued further order for
the erection of a stone chimney in the
center of the structure with two fire.
places in the gaol and one in the court
room upstairs and it is further ordered
that the building be chunked and
plastered."
Even these heating arrangements
seem to have been insufficient during
the memorable Winter of 1777-78,
which brought so much misery to the
Patriot Army at Valley Forge, and the
court ordered also IAN iron pipe stove"
for the goal In the following yea-
the court directed that they have a
pair of stocks, whipping post and pill
ory erected in the courtyard"
The ducking stool was said to be at
the edge of the river a considerable
distance away.
Yohogania County gave early atten-
ton to alcohol control and the court
fixed rigid prices to be charged by
keepers of taverns. Here is part of
the schedule: Whisky, half pint,
2 shillings; whisky, made into toddy,
shillings. 6 pence; beer "a luxury on
the frontier. per quart, 2 shillings, 8
pence; hot breakfast, shillings: din
ner. shiIlings; supper, 3 shil!ings;
lodging, with clean sheets. l shilling,
pence: stabling with hay and fod-
der. shillings."
| A few years later alcohol became
/ big issue in the valley of the Mononge-
| hela. Rye was one of the principle
crops. The grain could not be mar
keted advantageously but when con-
verted into mash and distilled into
"old Monongahela rye whisky" it was
in tremendous demand. Nearly every
settler erected a still and the region
became famous for its smooth
favored "rye."
WHEN the Federal Government was
w established. Alexander Hamilton,
looking about for revenue to bolster
up the National Treasury, devised
"soak-the-rich" plan to lay an excise
on the prosperous farmer-distillers.
The citizens of the old Yohogania
resented the Governments idea, and
the world knows the result. The first
| insurrection against the Federal au-
thority that fared up and the center
of the trouble was right at the aban-
doned court house on the Heath PLAN
| tation. The defiance of the law was
| continued until an army of nearly
10000 men marched over the noun
tains and encamped in the Valley OF
the Monongahela.
Mrs Frank F. Sumney. active in the
patriotic work of the D. A. R, is Sec
retary of the Yohogania Court House
Association. Recalling the stirring
history of the region where the Colony
of Virginia held sway, Mrs. Sumney
said:
1T is to this almost forgotten past
| that our association aims to build a
shrine that will invite the attention
of those who have recently come TO
our shores for equality and justice.
and that they may, through the me-
dium of this memorial, learn to know
that in the founding of our Nation
men aimed to see that justice would
be a permanent institution. Many
features of interest will be the rebuilt
pillories, stocks, whipping post and
ducking stool. 1t is to be hoped that
it will breathe the justice of past
generations, even if those forms Of
punishment have long since gone the
way of the ox-cart, the whale oil
lamps and the spinning wheel. They
served the period. Ours is crusade
for better citizenship"