Dispatch, August 7, 1889
Untitled
Moral -- AlcoholInfrastructure -- Public : Camp meetingsInfrastructure -- Public : ChurchesTourists and sportsmen -- Other recreation - FairsTourists and sportsmen -- Other recreation - Horse racingWeather -- Rain stormsFields -- Crops - Sweet potatoes : Prices
Onancock, August 6, 1889.
The great camp meeting of the northern Methodists that has been going on near Parksley station for the past ten days closed last night with the ceremony of marching around the camp-ground and singing songs of triumph in which nearly everybody present joined. In spite of the fact that it has rained every day since the meeting began, there has always been a large crowd present at all the services. On Sunday it is estimated that the crowd in attendance exceeded 5,000 souls. Before the war the northern Methodists were strong in numbers and influence in this section, but the attitude of the Church during the war and for some years afterwards lost to it many of its members and much of its influence in the Eastern Shore counties. The building of the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk railroad down this peninsula was the opportunity which this powerful religious denomination seized for regaining some of its lost ground in this section. They purchased lots and built churches at nearly all of the railway stations north of this point, and they have a flourishing church at Cape Charles and Read's Wharf, in Northampton county. Having closed the camp-meeting at Parksley, they will begin another at New Church station next Saturday, on the Virginia and Maryland line.
SOUTHERN METHODISTS.
The southern Methodists, who have heretofore held annual camp-meetings in Turlington's woods near Keller station, will not hold any this season, and it is probable that they will never hold another one in this section, as they think the day for such meetings has passed. The Good Templars, however, will hold a series of open-air mass-meetings at the Turlington camp-grounds during the present week. The meetings will begin to-day and last till Friday. Colonel George W. Carter and other noted temperance orators will deliver addresses. It is said that these meetings will have nothing to do with furthering the cause of the Prohibition candidates for the General Assembly recently nominated in this county.
FINE HORSES.
The Eastern Shore Agricultural Fair, which will begin on August 27th and continue through four days, promises to be the most successful ever held here. The exhibition of fine horses will undoubtedly surpass that of any previous fair. Many of these animals are already on the grounds and attract admiring crowds whenever they are brought out to be trained on the track. Many of these horses are of the finest strains in this country and the wonderful speed which they can make would make the people of the upland regions open their eyes in amazement. The secretary of the fair says he expects to see noted horsemen here from nearly all the leading eastern cities during the exhibition.
PERSONAL.
Rev. Oscar Littleton, presiding elder of the southern Methodist churches in the Farmville district, is visiting friends in and around Onancock, where he served as pastor years ago. The names of many boys and girls in this section show how popular he was when he abode in these parts, and the years of absence seem to have lost him no friends among these people.
The continuous rainy weather for the past month beats all previous records on the Eastern Shore. Even the oldest inhabitants say they never saw such weather before. Fortunately the country here is too flat to wash much, or else the face of the earth would have been swept away long ago. Strange to say sweet potatoes, the staple crop of Accomack, have not been materially damaged by the wet weather. Prices for this product keep up to paying figures, consequently the farmers wear smiling faces.