The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1946-01-24

Gentlemen -- As has been my Gus
, tom for the past three years, | v!s-
I'd my old home town of Summer
field. and as usual found the ole
town still where it has always been
nas;lad upun hill, surrounded by
mary ko. lows. 1t was about one
= IL cet the Lexington Ridge road
fro.a SUNNI -reield and to be exact
Il va on the John Shar.kland farrI
that fist entered the State OF
;,:o. IA the year If 1876.
a. 8as now bell or 1lfty years
e;rca lslt the State of Ohio to be-
g me citizen of the State of Mary
Ind Nj horae town now is located
!, N, 1eart OF Cumberland Valley
sod is known as Funkstown, Md.
which is jest two miles from Hag-
ersscwn, Md, our county seat, and
hes population of about 10000
Esperstown is a thriving business
+ civ and is a very interesting and
beautiful place in which to We.
I have lived in my town now for
the past 80 years and have been City
Tax Collector here for the past 10
wears. We have buss service from
Funkstown to Hagerstown every 81
n-inutes from 6 a. M, till l:30 p. M,
every day.
Tho old historic Antietam creek
almost surrounds our town, and lU
miles below our town is the Burn
side Bridge which spans the Ante
tan Greek, near Sharpsburg, Md. 1t
was at this bridge that the Battle OF
the Antietam was fought during the
Civil war. and the famous Bloody
Lane leads on to this bridge.
When | was in Summerfield this
time, | had the good fortune to meet
MANY of nv old boyhood friends.
Among them was William Cuff
Craig. who is now living near Car
Isle (Berne), and Russell Osborne
who is living in Pleasant City. rms
was the first time we had met IN
fifty years, and don't let any one
tell YOU that any one of US looked
the same after those fifty years
spent apart. At least we all agreed
on that point; however, l personally
hoI;eve all three of US (barring ac-
cidents) are good for several more
wears of usefulness in our chosen
way of life.
During our stay in Summerfiled'
accompanied by my wife and grand
daughter, we were guests at the
homo of Mrs. Offa Bishop, who with
many other of our friends made our
visit a real pleasure. Very little
change has been made in Summer
field during the fifty years, with the
execution of a few new buildings
that has been erected in place OF
those that were destroyed by fire.
There is now a telephone exchange
which means a lot to the little VII
Iage. We had the pleasure of meet
inp some of the girls at the ex-
change, Mrs. James Palmer, Mrs
Inez Franklin, and Mrs. Leona
Wheatley. They all seemed very
much interested in their work ana
as is the custom of such ladies they
really know how to say Hello.
As for the stores in Summe1lelo'
we think the citizens should be
proud of them, in fact we shopped
at these stores and were able to buy
many things that could not be bought
in towns of much larger size ana
the merchandise We bought was not
of ancient vintage.
In closing | just want to recall a
dream | had when l was a small boy
about Summerfield. . thought a
pot of gold was buried at certain
tree near Summerfield. At the time
of this first dream | was not aole
to recall where the tree was located
Twenty years after | came to Mary
land. | had the same Identical dream
again, but again | could not remem-
ber Just where the tree was. AoouO
five wears later, was squirrel hunt
ing in a certain woods about Sum-
merfield, when suddenly a voice
seemed to say to me, stop and
look;" for you are right at the spot
and the tree where you dreamed the
pot of gold was buried. l did look
and as truly as | am writing these
lines, there was the tree and all the
surroundings just as | had seen IN
my two dreams.
NV heart seemed to be going
mile a minute, so | eXcavated about
the tree, but not enough to convince
one that the money was not there. 1T
is now my firm conviction, that II
Apne was to dig around that tree to
depth of three or four feet, that
dream may prove ever SO true.
According to all the circumstances
I in connection with those two dreams,
and that voice which told me to stop,
and this voice spoke to me at a time
that | had no thought of the dreams
in my mind at all, how would you
feel about this matter yourself!
Personally | believe the gold is there.
| may at some future time be able
to convince some people about Sum-
merfield that some dreams do come
true!
When we were in Caldwell we
noticed that Mrs. Nancy Mckee, who
resides at SIT North street has i'm
proved her home by painting. Well
it sure looks fine, Mrs. Mckee.