The Mountain Eagle, 1909-07-22

1 inhabitants It has six good gen general - eral general stores over twice ez many practicing attorneys five good physicians carpenters mechan mechanics - ics mechanics farmers and all other pro professionals - fessionals professionals except loafers and tat tattlers - tlers tattlers It has a good public school building the equal of any court house and jail in the mountain three different fraternal order£ two good drug stores three good church buildings one ' of the strongest banks in the state two good hotels a lively stable a blacksmith shop and t printing office There is a telaphone sys system - tem system that penetrates almost every section of the county and puts us in direct connetion with all the outside world Wesley Banks We could not do justice to the industrial and business interest of Letcher county without a short mention of Wesley Banks The truth is Wesley Banks is the pio pioneer - neer pioneer teacher of the public schools of the county and has-done more for the common schools oj? Letch Letcher - er Letcher cojinty than any man in the profession From the beginning he is a self-made man and though now beyond forty-five his ambi ambition - tion ambition is just as high and his cour courage - age courage just as bold as when hr first entered the field May he live forever and his courage never abate A A Sergent Among the popular traveling men of Letcher county is Mr Arch A Sergent the subject of this Bketth Mr Sergent was born on Colly creek in Letcher county something over thirty years ago He prepared himself for teaching when young and followed that profession for some time Then he engaged in mer merchandising - chandising merchandising and was a success till a disastrous fire swept up -his earnings and he went on the road for the well known firm the Nor Norton - ton Norton Grocery Company of Norton Vn Mr Sergent is a son of ex exsheriff - sheriff exsheriff Wilson Sergent and a son-in-law of James H Mullins of Ovenfork He is capable and industrious and has a large con concourse - course concourse of firm friends all over the country He now resides at Ovenfork this county and has a number of bright and interesting children

when you begin to figure on the amount of coal in a single vein from eight to thirteen feet in thickness spread over at least three hundred thousand acres of land' Besides there are ever so many different veins The best coal by far is in the Boone Elkhorn Millstobe and Upper KocEjiouse regions though good judges say that white the coal is thickest in these regions it is equally fair in all other sections of the county No less than fiftv per cent of the coal area of the county is owned by foreign cor corporations - porations corporations including such big con concerns - cerns concerns as the Northern Coal & Coke Company the Mineral De De-velopement - velopement De-velopement Conpany and the Rockhouse Realty Company Other concerns own big areas but we have not tneir names at hand In the Cumberland and Black Mountain regions of the county the coal is said to be of equal value to any As yet these great coal fields are untouched and a great portion of our people stand ready to welcome the mag magic - ic magic hand of development They believe that they stand on the edge of a dawning day that will break to light and show to the world the greatest and richest coal-fields the earth has ever known At this time agriculture on a local scale is the occupation of nine-tenths of the people From a rough and rugged hill-land they are drawing succulence aud in a strick sense happy and con contented - tented contented They are nearest Anglo Anglo-Saxon - Saxon Anglo-Saxon nearest primc-ral nearest heaven and next to God The county is blessed in a thousand ways The air is sifted by eth eth-eral - eral eth-eral dews the water is as pure as that that flowed in Edenic vales There are few murders thieves and rogues no locks on the chicken coops and the latch latchstring - string latchstring to every mans door hangs on the out-side The possum and the coon the panther and the fox the rabbit and the squir squirrel - rel squirrel the turkey and the pheasant make jolly in the forest Whitesburg the county seat has the pre-eminence of being the only town in the county It is over three times a voter and to be accurate has three hundred

in what is now Letcher county came from North Carolina and Virginia and were of the very purest Anglo-Saxon They both men and women were mostly big brawny and muscular and in a foot-race a fistic combat or any other feat that requi! alertness they were the eq'j-of any It is generally beliyed that about twenty-five different named generations settled in this section These married and in intermarried - termarried intermarried along afterward until within a few years almost every everybody - body everybody became directly or indirect indirectly - ly indirectly related The same is true now a3 then From the best information we can gather Nathaniel Collins was the first County Judge and John T Williams was the first County Court Clerk They were each elected by the Justices These Justices retained their offices by virtue of having been officers of the mother counties from which the new county was formed The first court held where the county seat now is was held in a house as big as the world - under the shade of a beech tree Of course the records were poorly kept and that accounts partly for the poor data we now have Besides the late Civil War played havoc with mostof the records This article is not intended to deal very greatly with the first history of Letcher county but rather it3 purpose is to talk con concerning - cerning concerning it now Letcher county as is generally known lies at the extreme Southeastern end of the Slate and in the Appalachian highlands Originally it was covered almost entirely by virgin forests of all iinds of timber in indigenous - digenous indigenous to a hill country and in a climate like this A great per cent of the big poplars and giant black walnuts have already felt the woodman's axe and on bosom of the streams which their boughs shaded have floated away and today beyond the seas the homes of the rich are made more palatial thereby Though on al almost - most almost every hillside and along the hundreds of ridges and spurs stands millions of the hard-woods as yet almost untouched while in some sections many big poplars still stand monuments to what

nor Robert P Letcher Dough' erty White of Clay county was then the Representative in the Legislature and was very instru instru-i'mental - i'mental instru-i'mental in having tlsui county 'made and go Whitesburg the county seat was named for him The first court that convened in the county met near the mouth of Pert creek in the old Moses Adams house which is still stand standing - ing standing For some time it was un undecided - decided undecided as to where the county seat' Ehculd be located some wanting it on the ground where the first court was held but about this time Hiram Ilogg pro proposed - posed proposed to and did deed ten acres of ground to the county on the spot where the county seat now stands and so this location was chosen The first Courthouse was built in 1844 and 1845 and stood till about 1899 when it was succeeded by the present up-to-date and commodious building shown on this page For years and years after the formation of the county but little progress was made The people residing here put in a great deal of their time in fishing hunting wild bees and wild game all of which at that time was plentiful in this country They were a hardy strong and healthy peo people - ple people and could easily live without much effort Scarcely a thing was imported for private use The women manufactured with their own hands much of the clothing worn Railroads had scarcely been heard of and many of our citizens who had business at the State Capital would walk the distance People would travel fifteen or twenty miles to help their neighbors roll logs and make fences Most every house housekeeper - keeper housekeeper had his own little still still-house - house still-house whisky was almost as plentiful as the waters that run Ii the creeks and branches and it was the purest that ever dripped from a worm Strange to say it was very seldom that a man got drunk Most all the people who settled

At t!-c dawn of (real ion i-'rr Inu-k in ilc srcs i Krp things hsul lifC'i written j On hi-tory's brlgl-t pngea ! in till- i-ii: :vl ir-rHiginjj tJ" ii:" 'tii (lone Tlii-e was a upc'cial pic vision By tliia A II-wise one This wisdom anchored forth From the parapets on high And moulded shaped the matter To please its omniscent eye O'er hill and piain and dale Like lightning's rapid move It lighted on the mountains There to remain and love On the hillls of old Judea And on the plains at their feet His eye looked ever forward His creation there to greet On historic Gclgytha's hill Its features bathed in tears Stood the King of all the earth To conquer all our fears Never never in the valleys But high high upon the hills There have blessings e'er descended And that to cure human ills It was thus in Divine Creation When all things passed before He showered a thousand blessings Yes a thousand of them or more Our hills He decked in splendor 'Neath them placed wealth untold Above the purest air and water - -Worth more than gauzy gold Made our manhood full or vigor Our women pure and true And our hills were filled with virtue Yes filled through and through -

And step from off his throne When everything terrestrial Shall tremble fear and groan Above the moving squadron Decked in gorgeous frills Will come in solid phalanx The people of the hills O God thou King of Heaven Grant us this special prayer: Teach us to do our duty In all things just and fair Teachua to live in righteousness In union and in love That when our tasks are ended We may reign in peace above NEHEMIAH MARK WEBB

I were but now are not It is j likely that at this time mere than four-fifths of the county is yet uncleared and our farmers are beginning to realize the import ance of economfeing their forests To speak of the mineral wealth of Letcher county is to speak of her coal leds aione for it is very pjcae that no other mineral Biography - For the earnest

The Emblem exists to any extent in paying quantities Aside from this and reasoning from what is no news to the commercial world there is enough coal in Letcher county evclu8ive of the great beds lying all around her in other 'counties to light up the world and fire its industries for a thousand years Big talk this isn't it? Well awkward but j I