USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 59
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To the credit of both parties to this feud, it can be truly said that neither faction gave any trouble to people outside of the feudists themselves, and but one or two individuals among them ever affil- iated with the Union Home Guard marauders, who were a standing menace to this section during the last year of the war.
Post Bellum or Development Period
Showing the Progress Made by Tazewell County Following the Civil War and Reconstruction
POST BELLUM OR DEVELOPMENT PERIOD
CHAPTER I.
COUNTY RECOVERS FROM EFFECTS OF CIVIL WAR.
The period of recovery and readjustment from the evil effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction actually began as soon as the new Constitution of Virginia was put in foree and reorganization of
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Residence built by Thomas Witten, third, in 1838. Situated four miles west of Tazewell, on Cumberland Gap and Fineastle Turnpike. Now residence of John C. St.Clair.
the county government of Tazewell was effected. And the recovery was given increased momentum when the public free sehools were recognized as a valuable asset for the county rather than a burden to the taxpayers. Despite the retardments occasioned by the war, and the heavy financial loss suffered from the freeing of 1,200 slaves in Tazewell, the wealth of the county was not seriously impaired. As soon as the war was over the farmers commenced to clear up for cultivation and grazing purposes boundaries that had T.H .- 42
( 657 )
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been left covered with virgin forest growth, and thus added largely to the area of improved lands.
The population had increased from 9,920 in 1860 to 10,701 in 1870. Although the assessed value of real estate in the county was but $1,790,425 in 1870 as against $3,104,524 in 1860, this anomal- ous condition was evidently induced by heavy increases in tax rates, and a consequent inclination on the part of the landowners to have their lands assessed as low as possible. The assessors were gen- erally in sympathy with this low assessment idea, and there was no actual depreciation in the sales values of lands in Tazewell County, resultant from the Civil War. A disposition to keep assessments low is still manifest in Tazewell, and in all the counties of Southwest Virginia. In fact, the disposition prevails in nearly all the rural sections of the State. There are several good reasons that can be assigned for this disposition of the landowners of Taze- well County, and of Southwest Virginia, to eling tenaciously to the idea of low assessments. One potent reason is, that in Tazewell, and in many sections of Southwest Virginia, a very large percentage of the improved lands have advanced in price until fancy values have been placed upon them; and at prices very far beyond their actual value for purely agricultural purposes. If they were assessed at approximately these faney values, they would cease to be paying investments. But the chief reason for a continuance of low assess- ments is the enormous increase in the cost of government. The Federal Government now spends billions where it formerly spent a few hundred millions; the State Government costs the taxpayers three or four times as much annually as it did fifteen or twenty years ago; and all local governments in Virginia-municipal, county,. and district-have increased their expenditures in like proportion. The taxpayers very reasonably apprehend that an increase in the assessed value of their real estate to its actual value would not lower the tax rates now imposed; but would serve to swell the revenues and stimulate the extravaganee and waste that prevail in the several governments they are compelled to help maintain.
As early as 1852 the people of Southwest Virginia became deeply concerned about railroads. The Virginia & Tennessee Rail- road had been chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1847, to be built from Lynchburg to the present city of Bristol, a distance of 204 miles. The route had been surveyed and the road bed was
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being graded in 1851-52. When Dr. Bickley wrote and published his history in 1852, he tried to direct the attention of the people of Tazewell to the important matter of securing railway facilities for the development of the agricultural interests and mineral and other natural resources of the county. At that time the farmers of Taze- well were not cultivating their land in a scientific way; and did
Dr. George Ben Johnston was born in the town of Tazewell, then Jeffersonville, on July 25th, 1853, and died in Richmond, Virginia, December 20th, 1916. He was descended from hardy pioneers, who were prominent as daring soldiers and distinguished citizens-the Bowens, Prestons, Floyds, and Johnstons-and who helped to prepare Southwest Virginia as an ideal home for American freemen. And he is recorded as the most noted professional man who was a native son of Tazewell. His great skill as a surgeon placed him in the front rank of his profession. He was so highly esteemed by his fellows that he was elected, without opposition, President of the "American Surgical Association," the highest and most coveted honor to which an American surgeon can aspire. His devotion to Tazewell was so intense that he kept on the mantel of his private office a bottle of rich soil procured from the old Floyd estate in Burke's Garden, which he told his friends was to be deposited in his grave when he was buried. I have been informed by his sister that his wishes were complied with.
not seem to be eager to have a railroad penetrate the county. Bick- ley said:
"Give us railroads, and let the press make known the claims of Southwestern Virginia, and the 'gee up' of the New England plow- boy will soon be heard upon our mountain sides. Our mountaineers
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will soon be seen trading in Richmond. Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Our neglected fields will bloom under the hands of scientific agriculturists, till wagons will no more be seen passing westward with men to build States on the ruins of those they have left."
During the year 1852 a number of families-some of the Wynnes, Peerys, Wittens, and others-moved from Tazewell to Missouri. Lands were then very cheap in Missouri. while such land a's the "movers" left in Tazewell was worth from forty to fifty dollars an aere. Therefore, it must have been Missouri's cheap lands and not dissatisfaction with conditions in Tazewell that caused the migrations of which Bickley complains.
In writing of the minerals. Bickley said they were "both num- erous and important-silver, iron. lead. arsenic, sulphur, salt, niter, gypsum, and large quantities of coal." Speaking of the coal he said :
"Coal exists everywhere. though wood is so plenty that it has not been used as fuel to any extent ; hence, no search has been made for it. Bituminous, and. probably. cannel coal, exist in great quan- tities. The nearest to Jeffersonville that has yet been discovered, is on the lands of G. W. G. Browne, in Poor Valley, about four and a half miles from Jeffersonville. It is thought that coal does not exist on the head branches of Clinch River, but I imagine the sup- position has no foundation. It has been found below. and in every direction around. and. no doubt. exists generally through the county. When shall we have an outlet for this coal?
Dr. Bickley had very imperfeet knowledge of the coal bearing sections of Tazewell County; but his confident expectation that these coal deposits would prove of great value and ultimately be placed in the markets of the world were well founded. An answer to his question: "When shall we have an outlet for this coal?" was made just thirty years afterward by shipments of coal from Pocahontas.
In 1871. General G. C. Wharton was representing Montgomery County in the Virginia House of Delegates. He was acquainted with the extensive deposits of coal in the Flat Top Mountain
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region ; and for the purpose of developing the coal beds of that country obtained a charter from the Legislature on March 7th, 1872, incorporating "The New River Railroad, Mining and Manu- facturing Company." The incorporators named in the act were: John B. Radford, John T. Cowan, Joseph Cloyd, James A. Walker, William T. Yancey, William Mahone, Charles W. Statham, Joseph H. Chumbley, A. H. Flannigan, Philip W. Strother, John C. Snidow, Joseph H. Hoge, William Eggleston, G. C. Wharton, Wil- liam Adair, James A. Harvey, A. A. Chapman, Robert W. Hughes, A. N. Johnston, Elbert Fowler, David E. Johnston, John A. Douglas, W. H. French, R. B. MeNutt, James M. Bailey and A. Gooch.
The charter gave the company authority "to construct, maintain, and operate a railroad from New River depot, a point on the line of the Virginia and Tennessee division of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad Company, in the county of Pulaski and State of Virginia, to such a point as may be agreed upon at or near the head-waters of Camp Creek, in the county of Mercer and State of West Virginia."
The charter also empowered the company to engage in mining coal, and iron and other ores, to acquire ownership of land for mining and manufacturing purposes, and to build branch roads for bringing out ores in certain counties of Virginia and West Virginia.
Deep interest was awakened in Tazewell by the chartering and organizing of the New River Railroad, Mining and Manufacturing Company. It gave promise of a realization of the long indulged hope that an outlet by rail would be obtained for shipment of the abundant products and minerals of the county. Schemes were promptly devised and projected by interested citizens to have a branch road built to Tazewell. But such enterprises in that day were very slow in reaching a practical form.
There was then very little capital that could be gotten in Vir- ginia for such work as was contemplated by General Wharton and his associates; and they were compelled to seek assistance from capitalists in Philadelphia and other places at the North. Certain shrewd financiers and promoters in Philadelphia in this way learned of the mineral riches of the great Flat Top coal region. They immediately sought to identify themselves with the New River Railroad, Mining and Manufacturing Company, with the intention
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of getting control of its franchises and displacing the original incorporators. Their schemes were cunningly devised and were worked out successfully. They got control of the franchises of the company and reorganized it under the name of The New River Railroad.
General William Mahone, after several years of strenuous effort, got the Virginia General Assembly to pass an act on June 17th, 1870, for merging and consolidating the Norfolk & Petersburg Rail- road Company, the Southside Railroad Company, and the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad Company into a single line, and forming it into the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad. The merging of these three roads, giving a through line from the Seaboard at Norfolk to Bristol, a distance of four hundred and eight miles, was of immense value to Southwest Virginia; but it was bitterly opposed by many citizens of this section.
At the organization of the new company, General Mahone was made president and became its active and efficient manager. He raised money by mortgages, purchased new rails from English manufacturers, paying for them with bonds of the company; and put the line in excellent condition. The rails proved to be of very inferior quality, the British manufacturers having perpetrated a base fraud upon General Mahonc. An awful financial panic came on in the United States in 1873. It so greatly reduced the earnings of the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad, that the company failed on October 1st, 1874, and on April 1st, 1875, to pay the semi- annual interest on its mortgage indebtedness.
These delinquencies caused the bondholders and other creditors to institute proceedings in the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, asking for the appointment of a receiver. Philadelphians engineered the movement, and a Philadel- phian was appointed receiver. He conducted the affairs of the com- pany until the road was sold under a decree of the court. The sale was made on the 10th of February, 1881, and Clarence M. Clark and associates, of Philadelphia, became the purchasers.
On the 9th of May, 1882, the New River Railroad Company of Virginia, the New River Railroad Company of West Virginia, and the East River Railroad Company of West Virginia were consoli- dated into the Norfolk & Western Railroad Company.
Surveys having been completed the Norfolk & Western Railroad
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Company, on the 3rd of August, 1881, commenced the construction of its New River branch line from the main line at New River Depot to Pocahontas. The grading of the road down the western banks of New River to the mouth of East River-thenee up that river to where the city of Bluefield is now located; and thence to Pocahontas-was both difficult and expensive. But the work was carried on rapidly ; and the grading and track laying were completed to Pocahontas on May 21st, 1883. The first shipment of coal from the Pocahontas mines was made on the - of June, 1883. Although the road ran but a short distance on Tazewell soil, along the northeastern border of the county and in sight of the Mercer County line, it was well understood that another line would soon be built to and down the Clinch Valley. A charter was obtained for this line on the 6th day of April, 1887; and, at a meeting of the stockholders of the Norfolk & Western Company, held subsequently, authority was given the directors of that company to consolidate the Clinch Valley extension with the Norfolk & Western. Work was begun on the Clinch Valley line on the 20th of June, 1887, and before the end of the year 1888 trains were running along the Clinch through the entire length of the county.
The whistlings of the locomotives and the rumblings of the heavily laden trains, as they moved up and down the Clinch Valley, not only brought joy and increased comforts to the inhabitants of Tazewell, but were destined to be the carriers of vast wealth to the county. Extensive developments of the Pocahontas and Flat Top coal beds brought thousands of miners and thousands of other consumers to that region, and established good markets for many farm products that previously had not been transported from the county on account of their perishable nature. Eggs, fowls, butter, fruits, vegetables, and Tazewell's famous bacon found ready sale in the coal fields. Bluefield and Pocahontas became busy hives of industry, with thousands of inhabitants.
What was known as "the boom," when men became wild with their schemes to build towns and cities, and gambled recklessly in town lots, came in 1890. The towns of Graham and Richlands in Tazewell were laid off, and their founders aspired to make them industrial centers. Things moved along nicely until the year 1893. Then came the direful panic and industrial depression that brought business disaster to every section of the Union and calamity to the
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laboring men of the country. The coal mining industry beeame stagnant throughout the United States; and it was almost discon- tinued in the Pocahontas fields and in Wise County. Norton, the boom town at the western terminus of the Clinch Valley Railroad, was turned into a deserted village; and Graham, at the eastern terminus, presented an air of desolation. The coke ovens at Poea- hontas were idle and abandoned; and it was told that calves were grazing about and hogs sleeping in the coke ovens. Many of Tazewell's farm products became valueless, except for home con- sumption. Eggs sold for five cents a dozen; navy beans for sixty- five eents a bushel; butter for ten cents a pound. and some of the farmers used it for axle grease.
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CHAPTER II.
PROSPERITY RETURNS TO TAZEWELL COUNTY.
In 1897 the rainbow of prosperity once again hovered over the Clinch Valley; and its gracious influence has remained here until the present time. A new era for the county seems to have been ushered in; and since the year 1897 Tazewell has been pro- gressing on every line. Her population, as shown by the census of 1890, had grown to 19.889, as against 12.861 in 1880. In 1900- notwithstanding the hard four years, 1893-96-the population had inereased to 23,384, and in 1910 it was 24,946. Thus, it is seen that the population of the county within a period of thirty years had increased nearly a hundred per cent. The heavy increase of the population was chiefly due to the building of railroads into the county and the development of its mineral resources.
During the twenty-two years following 1890, the wealth of Tazewell increased in greater proportion than the population. In 1890 the assessed taxable values of the county amounted to $2.015,075 of which $1,447,090 was real estate, and $567,985 was personal property. By 1912 the taxable values had grown to $7,237,566, composed of $4,713,155 real estate, $1,483,136 tangible and $1,041,275 intangible personal property. The increase in assessed taxable values in twenty-two years was over three hundred and fifty per cent. But the growth of the wealth of Tazewell County during the six years following 1912 is truly amazing. The assessed taxable values for 1918 are shown by the following table which has been kindly supplied by H. P. Brittain, county treasurer: "Assessed Taxable values, for county purposes, in Tazewell County for the year 1918.
Personal Property, Tangible and Intangible ...... $ 6,073,017.00 Real Estate. 5.065,630.00
Railroads and Electric Railways. 1,191,516.00
Telegraphs, Telephone and Express Companies .. 20,886.00
Heat, Light and Power Companies 95,390.00
Total
$12,446,439.00
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History of Tazewell County
A very large part of the assessed taxable values of the county was composed of live stock. The animals listed for taxation for county purposes were: 4.274 horses, 20.234 cattle, 14,154 sheep, 7,749 hogs, and 151 goats. A conservative estimate of the value of the live stock sold from Tazewell County in 1918, places the amount at one and a half million dollars.
Dr. Samuel Cecil Bowen has been pronounced one of the finest all-around characters Tazewell County has given birth to. He was born at the old Maiden Spring homestead on May 15th, 1881, was the son of Rees Tate and Mary Crockett Bowen, and the great-great- grandson of Lieutenant Rees Bowen, the hero of King's Mountain. Dr. Bowen obtained his academic education at Hampden-Sidney Col- lege and the Ohio State University. He graduated with distinction as Doctor of Medicine at the Virginia Medical College in 1905, was resident physician at Memorial Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, for eighteen months; and, after engaging several years in the general practice of the profession, spent three years at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary as house surgeon of that noted institution. In 1912 he located at Richmond, where he became associated with Dr. R. H. Wright as a specialist in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose, and throat. Very soon after he commenced to practice as a specialist he aroused the attention of eminent men of the profession as a skillful and successful operator; and previous to his death, which occurred Dec. 20th, 1918, had won a State-wide, and even National reputation as a specialist.
Further proof of the great increase of wealth in the county is evidenced by the increased number of banks, the large aggregate capital of these banks. and the heavy deposits they show.
There are now nine banks in the county, with an aggregate capital of $855,600. Three of these-Bank of Clinch Valley, Taze-
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well National Bank, and Farmers National Bank -- are located in the town of Tazewell; two-First National Bank of Richlands, and Richlands National Bank-are at Richlands; two-First National Bank of Pocahontas, and Bank of Pocahontas-are at Pocahontas; and two-First National Bank of Graham, and Bank of Graham- are at Graham. The sworn statement of these nine banks, pub- lished in November, 1919, showed that the aggregate deposits then amounted to the sum of $3,012,205.58.
The population of Tazewell County by the recent census is 27,840. There are no cities, but there are five substantial towns within its borders. The census of 1920 gives the population of the towns as follows: Richlands, 1,171, increase 428; Tazewell, 1,261, increase 31; North Tazewell, 626, increase 284; Pocahontas, 2,591, increase 139; Graham, 2,752, increase 835. There was an increase in the population of the county, during the decade just closed, of 2,894 souls. Of this increase, 1,717 persons were found in the five incorporated towns, and only 1,177 in the balance of the county. The increase in the wealth of the county was much greater in pro- portion than the population.
Educational conditions in the county have been greatly improved during the past twenty-five or thirty years. Previous to the intro- duction of the public free schools by the Constitution of 1870, the people of Tazewell had relied entirely upon private schools for the education of their children. That class of schools could be maintained only in the communities that were thickly populated, and where the wealthiest citizens were located. There was a meager provision made by the State for the education of indigent white children; but this provision proved of little value to the cause of popular education.
In 1852 there were but fifteen school houses in the county-all of them one-room buildings-and Bickley said they were "better suited for barns than seats of learning." Then the area of the county was much greater than at present, as it included a part of Buchanan, all of McDowell County, and a part of Bland. The census of 1850 disclosed the existence of a shameful state of illit- eracy within the bounds of Tazewell. There were but 3,311 white persons in the county over the age of twenty years, and of these 1,490 were unable to read and write. And there must have been a large number of white persons between the ages of ten and twenty
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who could not read and write. It is probable that more than fifty per cent of the white persons in the county were illiterate. The percentage. of illiteraey was reduced considerably by taking Buch- anan and MeDowell counties from Tazewell in 1858.
No marked improvement in educational conditions was observa- ble in Tazewell until about thirty years ago, when the people of Virginia beeame interested in popular education. There was first hostility, and then indifference to the public free schools. The tax- payers were reluctant to be taxed for the support of the common free schools, and many citizens refused to send their children to these schools. But the people of Virginia, ineluding those of Taze- well County, were at last awakened to the fact that the education of the masses was an essential need for the preservation of a pro- gressive civilization in the Commonwealth, and for the perpetuation of our republican form of government.
Private schools were practically abandoned, and every attempt to establish academies or colleges in the towns and communities proved futile. The entire purpose of the citizens was then directed to the upbuilding of the free school system. That this effort has been attended with great success is evidenced by what was accom- plished through the free schools in the scholastic year of 1918-19. During that scholastic year the sum of $116,517.49 was expended in Tazewell for General Control, Instruction, Operation, Mainte- nance, Auxiliary Agencies, and Improvements of school property. Of this sum $73,705.00 was paid in salaries to the teachers, and $15,109 for new buildings. There are now 73 white and 7 colored plants or school houses in the county; and for the last sehool year there were 150 white and 14 colored schools, each room being counted, technically, a school. These schools are classified as fol- lows :
Four-year High Schools, 4; Junior High Schools, 2; Graded Schools, meaning three-room and four-room, 3 white and 3 colored; Common Schools, one and two-room. 68. The number of teachers employed was 150 white and 14 colored. A school census was taken in 1915, and the school population was :- white, 7,173; colored, 693-a total of 7,899. The enrollment of pupils for the year 1917-1918 was -- white, 6,080; colorcd, 693-a total enrollment of 6,773.
That illiteraey in Tazewell County has been rapidly disappear- ing is shown in the report of the State Superintendent of Publie
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Instruction for the school year 1914-15. His report states that, according to the school eensus of 1915, Tazewell stood third among the counties having the lowest rate of illiteracy in that part of the population between 10 and 20 years of age. Illiteracy with that part of the population between 10 and 20 years old had been reduced to about one per cent. This is a splendid showing for Tazewell and is very encouraging to the friends of Popular Education. Culture has ceased to be the privilege of classes in Tazewell County.
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