Local News from the Aug. 22, 1907 Issue of the Watauga Democrat

“Local News” from the Aug. 22, 1907, issue of the Watauga Democrat.

Fine weather at present. The hay crop is all up, and a finer lot was never harvested in the county.

The Confederate reunion will convene in Boone on Thursday, Sept. 17^th.

Married on last Sunday, Linney Barnes to Miss Maude Bumgarner of Howard’s Creek.

Prof. Matheson of Durham is spending a few days in town with his sister, Mrs. Frank A. Linney.

Some cleaning up around the bank building has very much improved the appearance of that popular business house.

R.M. Greene is making some nice improvements on his dwelling by adding a new dining room and kitchen thereto.

Many of the public schools of Watauga are now in session, and the attendance is uniformly good.

Wanted: To buy a good grazing farm in Watauga county. Write or apply to J.C. Walters, Shull’s Mills, N.C.

Joseph Cook has moved his engine from Meat Camp to East Boone, and will soon be ready to go to dressing lumber, cutting shingles, etc.

Glad to see R.F.D. Inspector Plumber in town this week. He goes from here to Blowing Rock to look over some new routes that have been petitioned for.

Prof. Reid, who opened school on Flat Top on last Monday, has moved his family to Boone, where they will remain during the session. Glad to have them.

The fact that the Farmers’ Institutes in Watauga county are growing in interest each year is most encouraging, and shows that our tillers of the soil are determined to get out of the old ruts in their vocations by improving their methods of farming.

Mr. George Hardin of Jonesboro, Tenn., and Mr. Hardin Epps, his nephew, of the same town, are visiting relatives in Watauga and Ashe counties.

The County Superintendent requests us to state that he has not received any registers for the public schools, but hopes to get them this week. He will send them out as soon as he gets them.

James Watts, who has been in the standing army for more than two years, stationed at Ft. Caswell, N.C., is spending a short furlough with relatives in Watauga.

The trustees of Walnut Grove Institute have condemned in the strongest terms the habits of cigarette smoking, card playing, and kindred vices by the pupils of that institute. Good for them.

J.W. McGhee, N.N. Colvard, and Ben Hodges are at Mountain City, Tenn., working on the large brick school building that is now being erected in that hustling little city.

Hon. R.Z. Linney will address the people of Watauga at the court house in Boone the last Saturday in August at 1 p.m. on the Appalachian Park Bill. The ladies as well as the men are invited to attend.

Notice is hereby given to the road overseers of Boone township that they are required to work out their respective sections of road by the first Monday in September or they will be reported to court.—T.L. Critcher, Chairman of Road Supervisors.

The cloing exercises of the First Half session of the Girl’s Department of the Lees-McRay Institute for the year 1907 will take place on Friday night, Aug. 23^rd. To these exercises the good people of Watauga re cordially invited.

With the great oil prospects on Cove Creek and vicinity, the macadam road from Lenoir to Blowing Rock almost a certainty and a railroad from Mountain City, Tenn., to Boone within our reach, the good peole of Watauga have much reason for rejoicing.

W.E. Shipley of Valle Crucis, who has handled more than 3,000 head of sheep this season, returned last week from a buying expedition in Buncombe and other counties and now has a flock of more than 300 head of fine sheep on his pretty valley farm.

The base ball players of Blowing Rock and Cool Springs met on the Blowing Rock Diamond last Saturday in a match game. The game resulted in 12 to 0 in favor of Cool Springs. The same teams will play on the Blowing Rock diamond next Saturday.

We are much pleased to know that Miss Jennie Matthews of Mecklenburg county has been added to the Training School faculty. She is a graduate of two or three of our North Carolina colleges and has taken a post-graduate course at Chevy Chase College, Washington City. The regular faculty were all re-elected and the prospects are good for a fine opening Sept. 3^rd.

Dr. Ballard, who, for some time, has been in the mercantile business at Silver Stone, this county, was arrested for obtaining goods under false pretense, taken to Jefferson for trial and brought back to Boone and released on bond for his appearance at trial early on October. Attys. W.R. Lovill and J.C. Fletcher appeared for him.

The Rev. Hugh A. Dobbin will preach his first sermons as a minister of God on Sunday, August 25^th at Church of the Holy Cross at 11 a.m. and St. John’s church at 3 p.m. Mr. Dobbin, who has spent a number of years doing faithful work as a layman at Valle Crucis, is too well known in Watauga to need an introduction, but all rejoice with him in his advancement to the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church and bid him God speed in his new life work.

Miss Creelman of Saluda College was one of the pleasant callers at our office on Monday. She is here in the interest of Skyland Institute at Blowing Rock, and informs us that the school will be open on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 1907. Miss Andrews of Highland College, Ky., has been chosen as principal, and the faculty will be composed of four teachers and a matron. The school has been discontinued for the past two years and many of its former patrons and friends will be glad to know that its doors are again open to the boys and girls of the county.

Through the courtesy of its author Shepherd M. Dugger, the revised edition of “The Balsam Groves of the Grandfather” is on our des. It has not yet been our pleasure to peruse its interesting pages in full and note its superiority over the first edition, but we are safe in saying that it is a great improvement and should be in the library of every lover of the hills and dells of Western North Carolina. Mr. Dugger has expended quite a sum of money on this new edition, and the people at large, especially those in Watauga and adjacent counties, should purchase it at the very low price of $1.25. Splendid binding, good print, and lovely engravings go to add to the popularity of the handsome book.

Mr. Greene, general agent for the Swift 1904 Clothes Washer Co., with Mr. G.C. Winkler, sub-agent, were in town Tuesday in the interest of his business. Washing was done at different homes, ours and number, and, to say the least, we were enough pleased with the labor-saving device to purchase one without question. It does its work easily, quickly, and without damage to the garments. In fact, we had our only one-dollar bill washed with a tub of soiled clothes, and when it emerged from the tub and wringer it was clean, crisp and had the appearance of just issued from the U.S. Treasury. The washer is a decided success in our opinion, and should be in the homes of all our people.

Mr. N.L. Mast was in town Monday and told us that the Oil Company will begin boreing on his property early in the next month. The lumber for the derricks and 150 cords of wood have been ordered t the site decided upon for the first well, and experts from different oil-producing sections of the United States are satisfied that oil will be found in great quantities. The amount of land desired by the company has not yet been quite secured in that section, but options are still being taken almost daily. Calvin J. Cottrell is taking options for the same company in the vicinity of Boone, and is succeeding very well indeed. Why it is that any man would fail to give this company a chance to develop the hidden wealth on their property we are unable to say, and we are pleased to state that the little prejudice that has been existing among our people in this county against the oil company is rapidly subsiding and the options are again being taken right along in the Cove Creek section.