Beaver, 1889

To the Editors of the Recorder:

I spent last week in the Richwood and Beaver Lick neighborhoods.  . . .

The “Griffith Boys” own a fine farm adjoining the town of Beaver.  They are thrifty, industrious farmers and were for many years in fine hogs.  They are all married now but one, and madam rumor says he soon will be, because he is building a new house.

 

Just opposite the Griffith farm is the “Suddeth place,” where J. C. Hughes lives.  For many years, Mr. H. was a fancier and raiser of fine cattle and sheep.  He now devotes much of his time to handling tobacco.  His house sits back from the road in the midst of a forest of White Oak and Walnut.  I called there but he was not at home.  The place, however, was not deserted, for a red squirrel sat on the comb of the roof, cutting a walnut, while two or three others played around the porch, keeping guard as it were.

I staid some time in Beaver, because it is a good place to see the neighboring farmers.  Beaver is the fabled town under the hill.  You come upon it unawares and if not careful, will pass through without knowing that you have been there.  For all that it is a town of small proportions in size only.  It is a good business point, as is evidenced by the fact that John Sleet has grown rich there and with his brothers is still doing a good business at the old stand.  Beaver used to be known as a hard town, and it did have a criminal record which was rather unsavory.  That was in the days when whiskey was sold there and before a Methodist Chapel was built just out of town.  Local option and Methodism have done their work and Beaver sets an example today which other towns in the county would do well to follow.  I met a Mr. Polly here who told me that he used to write for the Recorder occasionally.  He says he has given up versification and turned his attention to blacksmithing, because the latter yields more substantial returns.

From Beaver I went over on Mudlick, into the very heart of the country which grows the “Mudlick Toughs” of recent notoriety.  I expected to meet a hard set, but was agreeably disappointed.  The land here is very much broken, and the roads miserable, but with these exceptions I find this neighborhood in no wise different from other parts of the county, except, perhaps the people give the stranger here a more hearty welcome to their blazing wood fires and well supplied tables.  So after a full investigation I am constrained to think them “more sinned against than sinning,” and while here I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Dempsey. 

from the Boone County Recorder, December 4, 1889