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The Pigg River Slangwhanger, 1840

The following description appeared in The Richmond Enquirer, Richmond, Virginia, on March 21, 1840. Who knew that Chatham (which at that point was not called Chatham yet) had piazzas back then? Probably most folks simply called them porches.

Chatham did have a number of taverns in the 1800s, as Frances Hallam Hurt and other writers documented. Some of these taverns were sites of murders, fights, and other crimes.

If anyone figures out who the Pigg River slangwhanger might be, please leave a comment!

I attended our court yesterday, and, as the boys in your street would say, we had some fun. The Whigs, ever active, were out in obedience to a call . . . It was suspected they intended to speechify for the purpose of getting up a hurrah for Harrison. About 12 o’clock, it was announced at the taverns that there was to be – not a Whig meeting – but speeches delivered, and all were invited to attend.

When I reached the designated point, I found a Whig meeting organized in a piazza. . . . After a short time, I heard the voice of the great Pig[g] River slangwhanger. . . . The aforesaid slangwhanger adopted pretty much the same style of blustering, self-confidence, he used seven years ago, when he returned from Richmond a Nullifier, and met with a memorable discomfiture.

He talked very large, and loud, and boastingly – Told what great things he could do in argument, and how easily he could convince the people, if they would hear him. (Forgetting that almost every voter in the county has heard him again and again, within the last seven years, and that he has talked to them more than any three men in the county.)

He went so far as to challenge his adversaries to meet him in argument. This challenge was promptly accepted. – For this, he seemed not to be prepared: He forthwith drew back . . . . Some sharpshooting and excitement followed, but no discussion. The meeting seemed to fail . . . It produced no animation, no hurrahs among the Whigs. One of the resolutions I heard announced, was, that every Whig voter in the county, should be placed on the Whig Committee of Vigilance. This is truly a committee of the whole!

Lillie Hatcher (from Louisa Evans’ album)

The back of the photograph seems to say Lillie Hatcher, but I’m not certain. I do love the young lady’s clothing and hair!

The photograph was taken by a studio in Richmond, Virginia. I have tried to find a Lillie Hatcher in Virginia census records that would be correct age for this photo, and the closest I found was a lady born in 1873. (Of course, her name could actually have been Lillian or something else.)

Found Pictures

From time to time, I buy pictures on eBay, or find them about to be picked up by the garbage truck, or someone gives me a box that they don’t know what to do with but can’t bear to throw away.

The above picture is one such image — I’m fairly certain it is a European mountain, but don’t know which one. (I made the picture a bit more artsy, using various computer programs.)

Kidnapped Boy Returns to Whitmell (1905)

On July 3, 1902, Luther Walton, age 11, vanished from his home in Whitmell in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Luther was the son of William J. (or James W.) and Agnes Walton. Mr. Walton was a well-to-do farmer in Pittsylvania County.

Mr. Walton had an older son named Percy, aged 29, who had been raised by an aunt. Percy was the half-brother of Luther (other siblings included Lottie Lee, Bertha, Corry, John, Elsie, Herbert, and George). Percy was a “rambling man” or tramp. He came to visit his father and other family members, and when he left to ramble on, he took Luther along.

Percy was charged with abducting Luther, and newspapers far and wide carried the story of the missing Luther and Percy, and his grief-stricken mother.

In the summer of 1905, Luther showed up again in Pittsylvania County. The newspapers reported that,

“The pair traveled together about a year. The child had got a touch of hobo life and continued his wanderings alone.

“While tramping through Ohio this month he saved up enough money to buy a new suit of clothes and a railway ticked and utterly astonished everyone by turning up alone and well at home. . . .

“The parents of the child had given him up for dead years ago and were utterly surprised when he walked into his home.”

I have found no records that indicate whether Percy was ever found.

(References: The United States Census of 1900; The Daily Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia, July 5, 1902; and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri, June 9, 1905.)

Baptism in Pittsylvania County

Baptisms were often held in Pittsylvania County at the conclusion of revivals. A Rev. Mr. Lake wrote that at one baptismal held at Kentuck, Virginia in 1871, he baptized “forty-three persons — some far advanced in life — and some six or eight more will be baptized at our next meeting.” (The Christian Era, Boston, Massachusetts, August 17, 1871.) Baptisms were also often held at the conclusion of the Pentecostal Holiness camp meetings held in the summer in Dry Fork, Virginia, in the 1920s and 1930s.

Undated picture (probably mid-1900s) from the Preston B. Moses collection, courtesy the Moses family. Artistic touches added by Sarah E. Mitchell.

Bake Me a Cake, As Fast as You Can . . .

 

baking march 19 1954

Photograph dated March 19, 1954. Probably these men were photographed for an upcoming fundraiser; the man in the middle is holding a Calumet baking powder container, and the man on the right is holding a mixing bowl. But hopefully the shovel was not going to be used!

Preston Moses practiced an early form of Photoshop — he actually drew in details on the photographs! If one looks closely, many details of the men’s aprons and collars are drawn in. In other photographs, eyes or other features were adjusted or changed.  (One can either find that charming or somewhat aggravating, especially when details are obscured by the drawings.)

Photograph courtesy Pattie Moses Lilley.