“Blowing Rock Breezes” from the Watauga
Democrat, Boone, N.C, Thursday, October
29, 1914
After an absence of a little over three months, your
correspondent is happy to be back “at the old stand” reporting for Watauga’s good
weekly, but by no means “weakly” paper, and he “makes his bow” to the audience
before him, hoping that they, one and all, have had a pleasant and profitable
summer.
Returning too late in the season to witness the exodus of
visitors, which grand parade usually takes place in early September, owning to
the opening of the schools, your correspondent was pleased to find quite a
number of the cottages and bungalows lighted up at night, showing that the
lingerers were with us yet, among them artists waiting for the splendid
autumnal tinting of the forests when Dame Nature, a wonderful artist herself,
paints the most beautiful pictures ever seen with the bluest skies, the grayest
cliffs, the brownest grass, the most vivid coloring of the forests which, not even
our most noted visiting artists having a nation wide reputation can copy.
Among the “loiters” upon the mountain are the Edwards of
Washington, the Boughers of St. Louis, the Perkeys of New York, the Mackays of
Raleigh, the Stringfellows of Anniston, the Millers of Winston and several well
known individuals who love Blowing Rock and remain with us until the Storm King
and his hosts of “fighting men” attack the summit of the Blue Ridge and drive
the down-country folks to the shelter of their homes in the milder clime and
more balmy atmosphere than old Watauga can afford for the six months between
ruddy October and flowery May.
The Ingle House, Grand View House and Watauga Inn, popular
all-the-year-‘round hostelries, have their quota of “lingerers,” among those at
the last named hotel the following: Mrs. Bessie Patterson who has, for the
winter, closed her charming bungalow “Hidden Water,” the Indian name there for
the both unspellable and unpronounceable to the ordinary mortal not an
authority on Indian names, Mrs. Patterson to spend the Winter in Baltimore and
other Southern cities; Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Stringfellow, who, having closed
“Chetola,” their beautiful home here, are stopping for awhile at the village
Inn before leaving for their winter’s sojourn in New York City; Mrs. Miller and
her three charming daughters, the Misses Margaret, Catherine, and Antoinette,
who spent the season at Green park and have been at the Inn during the Autumn
before returning to their home in Winston-Salem; Mrs. Guyot, whose husband was
the noted historian and scientist whose books were studied by many a student a
generation ago and her nieces the Misses Tucker of New York, who with their
Aunt have been at the Watauga since spring, perfectly charmed with this
beautiful region, if possible the most beautiful in the “Land of the Sky;”
Prof. John S. Williams, who with Miss Hayes of the A.T.S. are teachers of the
Public School here, Miss Hayes is also a guest of the Inn.
Dr. Brooks has returned from a short visit to Greensboro and
is ready for medical duty, though we all hope to keep well.
The Brass Band of this town is doing admirably, and
delighted the audience gathered to hear Mr. Doughton speak at the school house
last week, your correspondent, noting the vast improvement between their
“struggling” days in early Summer and their present masterful rendering of
difficult musical compositions, patriotic airs, sacred songs and plantation
melodies given with skill and pleasing harmony not usually attributed to the
amateur bands of our small towns. The boys have shown what talent and zeal can
do when guided by a master like Prof. Harbin of Statesville and his teaching
put into practice by the boys of our town.
Considerable building is going on here, among others an
alteration to the dwelling owned by Mr. Henry C. Hayes, our prosperous merchant
and authority on Bee Culture, Mr. J. Lee Hays, well-known builder and
contractor in charge of the work; while Mr. W.L. Crisp, our big-hearted citizen
is building a house on Ransom street; Mr. Dock Hartley putting up a dwelling
near the Reformed Church on the Goforth Road, other construction work to be
done in the near future by our popular builders, Messrs E.B. Ward, John
Benfield, Joseph White, LeRoy Bollinger and others.
Mr. LeRoy Bollinger, beside being scout master of our camp
of Boy Scouts, organized the season by Mrs. W.W. Stringfellow, has instituted a
much needed industry—the making of all kinds of furniture from our native
woods—a business which Mr. A.G. Peoples has found profitable, having the honor
of being Blowing Rock’s pioneer in that line, his father, for years having
manufactured furniture and curios at Roan Mountain, Tenn., the work of Mr. J.L.
Kincaid of Dearfield, this county, not to be overlooked, for, as Mr. Elliott
Dangerfield testified, “Kincaid was an artist.”
The friends of Mrs. George E. Coffey, wife of our popular
townsman and plumber, will be glad to know that she is recovering from a severe
attack of illness, thanks to our good local medical adviser and Dr. Jones,
consulting physician, who under the instruction of the Great Physician have
helped bring her thus far on the road to recovery, thanks due mainly to the
“giver of all good and perfect gifts,” health one among the greatest, the very
greatest “charity.”
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