Edgefield advertiser. (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, January 31, 1912, Page THREE, Image 4
Round Trip Excursion Rates
Via Augusta, Ga.,-Via Southern
Railway-Premier Carrier of the
South.
Account Aviation Exhibitions, Au
gusta, Ga., January 10, 26, Februa
ry 14, 23, March 13 and 29, 1912,
by the Aviation Schools, the South
ern Railway announces low round
trip tickets to Augusta on the above
dates, good returning the third d- 7
from, and including date of sale.
For further information, call on
ticket agents, or,
John L. Meek, AGPA.,
Atlanta, Ga.
Frank L Jenkins, TPA.,
Augusta, Ga.
Mrs. Jones-No wunder she looks
tired; she's up most all night with a
sick baby.
Mr. Jones-What's the matter with
her husband?
Mrs JoneB-He's busy all the time
trying to get an eight-hour day for
workmen.
Oldi?Soldier Tortured.
For ye?rs I suffered unspeakable
torture from indigestion, constipa
tion and liver trouble, wrote A K
Smith, a war veteran at Erie, Pa.,
"but Dr. King's New Life Pills
fixed rae all right. They're simply
great." Try them for any stomach,
liver or kidne}' trouble. Only 25c at
Penn & Holstein's W E Lynch &
Co., B Timmons.
DECIDED NOT TO OPEN IT.
Caller-I was thinking about open'
ira drug store in this neighborhood.
I J you think one is needed around
here?
Resident-Great idea. There's no
place within ten blocks where a man
can buy stamps or see the city direc
tory.
PUBLIC DRAY,
I defire to notify the public that
I am LOW runninga public dray and
solicit a share of their patronat e
Rates reasonable, satisfaction guar
anteed. Orders can be left for me
at the store of Dorn & Mims
M. Abney Parks.
NOT UP TO DATE
Tom-You are the only girl I ever
loved.
Tessie-My, but you're missing a
lot of fun.
For Sale.
House o nd adjoininglot of 3acres near
public square. Orchard,garden,good
well, pasture, barn, buggy house
and other outbuildings. House
piped for acetzlyene gas. For price
and terms apply to W. A. Byrd at
Edgefield or
W. A. Strom,
Pleasant Lane, S. C.
(DILI OE(M
o/r T//s QJL? o/esoo/y WAA
TO BUILD an automobile road
from the Missouri river to the
mouth of the Columbia, follow
ing the route of the o)d Ore
gon Trail, ls the ambitious pro
ject that has received the Indorse
ment of automobile clubs, good roads
associations and men prominent in
state and national affairs. As yet the
project is little more than a dream
but lt ls of the kind of dreams that
come true.
Although the old Oregon Trail start
ed at Independence, Mo., and proper
ly terminated at The Dalles, Ore., lt ls
planned to start Its successor (to be
known as the Pioneer Way) at St.
Louis, and to continue lt on to the
south of the Columbia, a total dis
tance of approximately 2,500 miles.
When completed, lt will be unsur
passed among the world's highways
In its historic associations, and in the
variety, beauty and su6llmity of the
natural scenery along the way. It
will traverse or enter seven states,
cross the roof of the continent at an
elevation of 7,450 feet, and finally de
scend to sea level. It will pass through
the wheat and corn fields of Kansas
and Nebraska, cross the high plains
of Wyoming, traverse the newly irri
gated lands of Idaho, and give a
glimpse of the famous "Inland Em
pire" of eastern Oregon.
From St. Louis, the Pioneer Way
will follow the Missouri to Independ
ence. Thence U win go up the Little
Blue rlYer, reaching the Piatte at
Grand Island. For 650 miles lt will
follow the Platte and Sweetwater, to
South Pass-that hardly perceptible
crossing of the Rocky mountains, 7,
450 feet above the sea. For 100 miles
the route lies over an almost level
plateau, 7,000 feet and more in height.
On this long stretch, with snowy
mountains in sight for much of the
way on both the north and the south,
far from centers of population, in a
region absolutely uninhabited and un
inhabitable, the old Oregon Trail is
just tho ?sanio today as it was 50 years
figo, with the exception that the thou
sands who then traversed it have dis
appeared, and that it has relapsed
into its primeval solitude. Mile after
mlle of the roadbed is as distinctly
outlined as ever, worn by the wheels
of tens of thousands of prairie schoon
ers and the hoofs of millions of draft
animals and pack animals to a depth
of from two to fl*tecn feet, and to a
width of anywhere from twelve to one
hundred feet.
Then Green river is crossed, with
its rocks and palisades. Farther on ls
the ford of Bear river, after which
that stream is followed for forty miles
to Soda Springs, 1,170 miles from In
dependence. Here the later Califor
nia Trail turned off to the southwest.
The road to Oregon continued on to
the Raft river, where the old Califor
nia Trail-the one followed by the
forty-niners-diverged to the south.
Then down the Snake river ran the
road to Oregon. This will be the
most picturesque and beautiful long
stretch of the Pioneer Way-Just as
lt waa the most difficult part of the
Oregon Trail. Past American falls.
Twin falls, Shoshone falls (called the
Niagara of the weBt), Upper an<1 Low
er Salmon falls, down Boise river, up
the seemingly Impossible face of the
Blue mountains, through the pleasant
glades of great pine forests, across a
dust-cursed desert, and and at last to
the broad Columbia. Where the trail
first strikes it, the Columbia ls a mlle
wide; but lt soon reaches the remark
able chasm known as the Dalles,
where lt is pent between rock walls
from 190 to 200 feet wide, and where
no plummet has ever sounded ita
depth. Here is literally a "river
turned on edge."
Pleads for the Old Tra?'.
Present day Interest in the Oregon
Trail is attributed solely to the ef
forts of Ezra Meeker of Puyallup,
Wash., who for five years has devoted
himself to a unique campaign to se
cure the speedy marking and ultimate
boulevardlng of the old highway. He
went to Oregon in 1852, when he be
came a prominent figure among the
pioneers, and made and lost several
fortunes. On January 28, 1906, he
started on what he calls his Oregon
Trail Monument Expedition. As an
object lesson to the '*st majority,
who know prairie schooners and "bull
teams" only through the medium of
books and pictures, he drives a team
of red oxen, hitched to an old-fash
Mm?
r
loned prairie schooner. ?n His first
expedition, he traversed every mile of
the trail to Independence, then con
tinged OD to New York city, and final
ly to Washington, reaching the na
tional capital November 29. 1907. |t
was his intention to ask congress at
{hat time to appropriate funds to
make of the Oregon trail a national
highway; but frOffl this he was dis
suaded by President Roosevelt, who
advised him to content himself with
the comparatively modest request for
an appropriation sufficient to place
monuments and markers along the
route.
Meeker spent the winter of 1909-10
campaigning through California, in
the endeavor to arouse the interest
and secure the co-operation of the
people of that state. He has addressed
more than 100,000 school children,"
hundreds of public meetings in town
halls, churches, schoolhouses and pub
lic squares, and thousands of street
corner crowds. Furthermore, he has
secured the erection of 22 monuments
to mark the trail, has inscribed 24
boulders and erected many wooden
posts. He has ascertained that 700
monuments will be necessary to
adequately mark the entire route,
and that the approximate cost will be
about $85,000. Through bia efforts
bills were Introduced In both the Six
tieth and Sixty-first congresses, pro
viding for the appropriation of f50,000
for the marking of the trail; out these
.bills never came up for acticr^
The Oregon and the Santa Fe
Trails both started at Independence,
Mo. For 41 miles they were Identical,
but where the town of Gardner how
Btands the Santa Fe Trail bore off to
the southwest, and the newer route
turned to the northwest. At the point
of separation a sign board indicated
the northern route, with the simple le
gend, "Road to Oregon." It followed
the direction of the Kansas and Little'
Blue rivers to the Platte, reaching
that stream near Grand Island. It fol
lowed the Platte and Sweetwater for
a distance of 650 miles, to South Pass
-that hardly perceptible crossing of
the Rockies, 950 miles from the Mis
souri river. Green river was crossed,
and then came Fort Bridger, 1,070
miles from Independence. Sixty miles
farther on was the ford of Bear river,
which was followed for 40 miles, to
Soda Springs, 1,170 miles from the
starting point. Here the later Caliror-'
nia Trail turned off to the southwest
The road to Oregon continued on to
Fort Hall, 1,288 miles from Independ
ence, at the first crossing of the Snake
river. Forty-five miles farther west,
at the Raft river, the old California
Trail diverged to the south-the trail
followed by the "Forty Xlners," but
later abandoned in favor of the bet
ter road that left the main trail at
Soda Springs. Then down the Snake
valley, across the Blue mountains,
through the valley of the Umatilla,
treked the pioneers. The distance*1
from the Missouri river to Fort Van
couver was 2,020 miles, and to the
mouth of the Columbia 2,134 miles.
In 1849 occurred the great migra
tion-the historic march of the "For
ty-Niners" to the gold fields of Cali
fornia. Crowds began gathering
along the Misosurl early In April, and
by the last of that month lt was esti
mated that 20,000 people were en
camped waiting for the grass to grow
sufficiently to Insure pasturage for
live stock. The procession started
about the first of May, and by the
first of June there was a straggling
caravan a thousand miles long mov
ing westward. Then the cholera epi
demic that had broken out on the At
lantic seaboard reached Independence
and spread throughout the moving
host. Not less than 5,000 emigrants
fell victims to the plague that year
and were buried on the plains, be
tween the Missouri river and Fort
Laramie; but 25,000 reached Califor
nia over the Oregon and California
Trail In spite of plague, famine and
all the hardships and perils incident
to the passing of so great a host
through a wild, unproductive and hos
tile country. Another outbreak of
the plague in 1852 carried off an equal
number of emigrants that year.
The Oregon and California Trails
constituted the principal highways be
tween the east and west until the
driving of the spike of gold at Pro
montory Point, Utah, in 1869, marked
the completion of the first Pacific
railroad.
$30.00 IN
Fncouraged by the success of last year's corn contest and in
order to give additional stimulus to the production of corn in the
county, The (?Sdgejfctf ^kttf?tt will conduct another corn con
test this year.
FIRST PRIZE
Fifteen dollars ingold will be given the Edge
field county farmer who grows the greatest
number of bushels of corn on i acre of land
during the year 19 ii.
SECOND PRIZE -
Ten dollars in gold coin will be given the
farmer in Edgefield county who grows the sec
ond largest number of bushels of corn "on one
acre during the y^?r 1 Q? 7..
THIRD PRIZE
Five dollars in gold coin will be given th?
Farmer in Edgerield county who grows the
largest number ot bushels of corn on one acre
during the year 1912.
The foregoing prizes are offered unconditionally and
without embarrassing or complicated restrictions. The
contestants can plant their corn when they please, fertilize
it as they please and cultivate by whatever system they
please.
ONLY ONE REQUIREMENT IS MADE: The
acre must be in one continuous plot of ground and not
composed of two or more rieh spots selected from differ
ent parts of the farm. The area planted must NOT be
less than one acre.
The rules for measurement of the land and corn next fall will be more rigid than in the past contests
fcnd will not only be printed on the judge's certificate, but will be published in several issues of the
paper, so that everybody can read them and become familiar with them. ..
--Who'll Win the Gold This Year
Prizes Awarded at the County Fair
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Going to Paint?
? 1 P??M|
~- I
If it's the house, barn, fence, kitchen floor, walls
or anything else, we will gladly tell you what kind to
use, quantity required, the cost, and how it should be
applied. We have
ACMEQUALITY
Paints, Enamels, Stains and Varnishes for refinishing
any shabby surface-indoors or outdoors.
Glad to show colors and offer advice whether you
decide to paint or not. '_
^3