Copied from the History of Lawrence and Jefferson Davis County, by Eddie Mikell, all rights reserved. Now available on CD and hard copy. E-mail mikell@virginia.edu for purchasing information. April 4, 1889 Did you hear the speech? There was a large crowd in town yesterday. Mr. A. Cohn visited Brookhaven The Board of Supervisors were in session last Tuesday. O. E. Watts keeps the finest cigars and tobacco's in town. Mr. J. M. Polk of Blountville, was in town last Monday and gave us a pleasant call. "Uncle" Jimmy Butler and Mr. W. H. Butler and family were in town last Sunday. Mr. Nettleton, representing the Dr. Harter Medicine Co., of St. Louis, was in town last Tuesday. Rev. R. B. Downer, of Mt. Carmel, preached a fine sermon in the Presbyterian church last Sunday night. Mr. Leon Israel, representing E. Feibleman & Co., wholesale groceries, of New Orleans, was in town last Monday. Mr. J. C. Burkett, of Blountville, was in town last Monday and gave a pleasant call. Col. Harry Tracy, the celebrated Alliance Lecturer, spoke here yesterday to a large and attentive audience. BLOUNTVILLE DOTS Ed Lawrence County Press: I see some dots from other sections of our county in the Press, but none from this part of the vineyard; so I thought a few dots from Blountville might perhaps interest some of the readers of your part. Blountville embraces a territory of some eight or ten miles square, embracing that portion of the county lying between Mt. Carmel, Silver Creek, Bourham, Oakvale and Wilksburg. This portion of the county is drained principally by the two White Sands - Big White Sand on the west and Little White Sand on the east: Green's creek drains the extreme eastern portion of this territory. This protion of the county will compare favorably with any other portion of the county in the way of general improvement and intelligence. We have some of the best farmers in this section that the county affords, and some of the finest farming lands in the county. Then we have other advantages, such as mills, schools, churches, and shops of different kinds, such as blacksmiths, wagon shops, etc., etc. Then we have some very enterprising merchants in Blountville, viz: J. S. Bozeman and the Berry Bros firm. Drs. Banks, Parker and Brill are the leading physicians or our county. Peace and prosperity seems to prevail in our midst, though we have some courts once in a while just for the sake of variety; not from necessity, and we think our citizens had better learn to settle their own affairs outside of the courts. The farmers seem to be on the alert looking ahead for better times and striving to get out of debt. One thing remarkable concerning the farmers is, they are doing away with their old creek bottoms and are clearing their pine lands. They say that it pays better to fertilize pine land than it does bottom land. There is being a large amount of Commercial Fertillizer used by the farmers this year, and the farm work is being pushed ahead with vigor, all things taken together things assume a favorable shape just now. By the way, I like to forgot to tell you about our new church and house, though the house is not finished. The people living between Bethany, Anitoch, Ebenezer and Society Hill being very inconveniently situated to churches, decided that we would come together and build a house and organize a church, which we have partly done. We have organized Clear Spring Baptist church, and have got the house partly built and expect to finish it at an early date. We extend a cordial invitation to the editor and the readers of the Press to come out and see what a nice time we have out here in the backwoods. We meet at present one the second Sunday in every month and if we change the time we will inform you of it. If this misses that dreadful wastebasket perhaps I will write again. J. P.