10 Years Ago
Week of March 13, 2014
SUGAR GROVE
Irish Blessings
Synonymous
With March 17
St. Patrick: He’s the reason it’s easy to be green. Some of St. Patrick’s life remains a mystery. Patrick was born to a wealthy family near the end of the fourth century. His father was a deacon of the church. When Patrick was 16, he was taken prisoner by Irish raiders attacking his family’s British estate. The raiders took the teenager to Ireland, where he spent the next six years working in captivity as a shepherd. It was during this time that he turned to religion and became a devout Christian. Finally, Patrick escaped Ireland, only to return later as a missionary. He incorporated objects familiar to the Irish people into his teachings about the basics of the Christian religion. The shamrock, a small green plant was supposedly used to explain the Christian concept of the Holy Trinity (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit). Thus, the three-leaf shamrock and the color green are very popular items used in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
St. Patrick died on March 17 around 460 A.D. He was later recognized as a Roman Catholic saint. His legacy is celebrated every March 17 by people all over the world.
Interest Spiking
In Back Yard Chickens
Rural areas, many suburbs and even some urban areas are experiencing a huge spike in interest in backyard poultry, and one doesn’t have to be a farmer to enjoy the benefits of fresh, “home-grown” eggs. According to Back Yard Chickens.com, three to four hens can supply one to two dozen eggs per week, enough for an average family.
In response to the growing interest in starting and maintaining a backyard poultry flock, Southern States is sponsoring a “Backyard Chickens 101” educational event.
The local events are intended not only for the home flock newbies and wanna-be’s, but for experienced poultry raisers and hobby farmers, as well. Programs will include poultry information, seminars on getting started and tips from experienced producers on bird health and safety as well as local regulations.
Visit the website at www.southernstates.com/chick-days for more information.
The company also offers PoultryPal, a free mobile app for iPhone and Android users with information and support for backyard chicken enthusiasts. The app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.
20 Years Ago
Week of March 11, 2004
Field Is Welcome
Sight for Pilot
A Sweizer 1-38C glider made an emergency landing in John Heavner’s field in Upper Tract on Monday at 11:15 a.m. Piloted by Paul Rehm of Sterling, VA, the glider had taken off from Petersburg airport at 9:00 that morning.
Rehm had taken the glider to a height of 20,000 feet when the heavy cloud cover below began to block his path back to the ground and forced him to land. He went into a steep, 1,500-foot-per-minute dive.
After leveling out, he lacked sufficient altitude for a return trip to Petersburg. He circled the Upper Tract area for a time, looking for a good place to land and spied Heavner’s plowed field.
He made a clean landing and the glider sustained no damage.
Rehm is an experienced pilot and an outstanding member of the Soaring Society of America. He arranged for a trailer to take the glider back to Petersburg. Rehm noted that unusually high air turbulence here attracts dozens of glider pilots to this area each year to train.
Ingredients
In Spit Tobacco Told
A carcinogen is a substance that causes cancer. Spit tobacco contains 28 known carcinogens. These include formaldehyde, nickel, polonium-210, and nitrosamines. Dip, or moist snuff, has the highest levels of nitrosamines—up to 100 times the level lawfully permitted in regulated products like bacon or beer.
According to the American Cancer Society, spit tobacco users are 50 times more likely than non-users to contract cancers of the cheek, gums and inner surface of the lips.
Here’s how spit tobacco causes oral cancer. As tissue cells in these areas divide in an attempt to form a barrier against the tobacco, they are exposed to carcinogenic agents and can become cancerous. Pinpointing how long a spit tobacco user can chew or dip before getting oral cancer is difficult to do since it is impossible to predict when and if cells will become cancerous. Consequently, spit tobacco users risk oral cancer every time they use. Spit tobacco can also cause other types of cancers. Exposure to tobacco juice can induce cancers of the esophagus, larynx, stomach, pancreas, and prostate.
60 Years Ago
Week of March 19, 1964
100 YEARS AGO
By LON K. SAVAGE
Editor’s Note—The following is one of a series of articles on the Civil War. Each weekly installment covers events which occurred exactly 100 years ago.
Command in West
Given to Sherman
Ulysses S. Grant, promoted a week earlier to the command of all Federal armies in the Civil War, made his first important decision in that job 100 years ago this week: he gave his old job—commanding the armies in the West—to William Tecumseh Sherman.
Grant traveled all the way from Washington back to Nashville, Tenn., to see that this change of command went smoothly, and he ordered Sherman to come from Memphis to Nashville to meet him.
The two soldiers, fast friends now, met each other with a deep understanding that had grown up between them in their service during the war.
Grant explained his plan to his friend. Sherman would take over the army at Chattanooga, facing the Confederate army of Joseph E. Johnston, then quartered in northern Georgia around Dalton.
Grant, himself, would keep his headquarters near, or with the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. Gen. George Gordon Meade commanded that army, but since Grant was his superior and would stay close to Meade, it was obvious that most of that army’s movements would be under Grant’s commands.
And along the Virginia coast east of Richmond, Gen. Benjamin F. Butler commanded a smaller army.
Grant’s plan, as usual, was quite simple and fitted perfectly into his philosophy that you “find out where your enemy is, get at him as soon as you can and strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.”
Grant’s enemy was Robert E. Lee in Virginia, and Grant would “get at him” as soon as he could by moving on Richmond. He would use Meade’s and Butler’s armies. Sherman’s enemy was Joseph E. Johnston, and he, Sherman, would “get at him” by moving into Georgia.
As Sherman put it later, Grant “was to go for Lee, and I was to go for Joe Johnston.”
But Grant was to call the signals for the whole operation, and it was this central command that was new in the policies shaping up for the Federal military machine.
In addition, the whole Federal military machine was to follow Grant’s tactics of all-out-war—of hammering, hammering, hammering, relentlessly and perpetually until victory came.
When it came time for the two men to part, they still had not resolved all matters, and Sherman rode Grant’s train northward as they continued talking. Finally, he debarked and headed south again, as Grant rode on to Washington.
Grant now had a half million men under his command, and all were being aimed in a single direction: at the enemy.
Next week: The Red River campaign.
70 Years Ago
Week of March 18, 1954
EDITORIALS
Family Farms – – –
We have often heard it said that it is harder to buy a farm in Pendleton County than anywhere else in this section of the country. One reason that farms are so seldom for sale here is that there seems to be a strong desire to keep the farm in the family and to pass it down from father to son, generation after generation.
A good example of this practice is the Martha Keister farm that Walter Simpson recently acquired. This farm was part of a large homestead that Fredrick Keister settled on in the 1700s. Since that time it has never been out of the Keister family. It has passed down through six generations from Fredrick Keister to John D; to George; to John D; to Elmer; to Martha. And Mr. Simmons says that he probably would never have gotten it if his mother had not been a Keister.
A Helping Hand– – –
Every day we hear of the distress, need, or adversity of one of our fellow citizens. Sometimes the need is close at home, sometimes it is at a far distant point. No matter where, each of us has an impulse to help—an impulse as old as the human heart.
But as individuals we frequently can do little. No one of us can afford to make a sizeable contribution to every person whose trouble or plight appeals to us. All of us banded together, however, each giving what he can afford, will save lives, restore health, or bring comfort and happiness to many in distress.
Through the American Red Cross each of us may make his contribution easily and efficiently.
By joining the Red Cross we are helping to restore the shattered home of a disaster victim; to give emergency help to the family of a serviceman; to provide lifesaving and health restoring blood for the ill and injured; to brighten the weary hours of a hospital patient; to help save and revive a drowning child.
Chartered by Congress and charged with important and specific responsibilities, the Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of stricken or troubled men and women and children each day for more than 70 years.
Only the participation of all of us makes that neighborly service possible. Let all of us take advantage of this opportunity to serve our fellow men.
Pendleton County
Native Is 107
Mrs. Susan May, who was born in Pendleton County, 107 years ago last Thursday, says, “When you get married, forsake all others.”
That is the advice Mrs. May had for the Cumberland Evening Times who interviewed her last Wednesday on the eve of her 107th birthday at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. Julia Lewis, on Williams Road in Cumberland.
All records of her family kept in a Bible were destroyed when their home in Hardy County burned years ago, but the family attests to Mrs. May being 107.
When interviewed, Mrs. May, who is just slightly hard of hearing, answered that she was born in this county and when she was a young girl her family moved to Moorefield.
Mrs. May listed before this when questioned, the members of her family of 11 brothers and sisters.
When asked, “Were you the youngest of the family?” she pertly answered.
“Well, I’m the last.”
Of the Civil War, she said:
“Brother Mark was a rebel. He followed a band. One time his band played ‘Dixie’ in front of our house (in Moorefield).”
“Brother John was a Yankee. He was an officer. Father was too old. He couldn’t keep up with them.”
(Her father joined the Yankee troops in the Civil War, but due to his age, could not stand the rigors of the field.)
When asked if she saw Civil War battles, she remarked:
“No I didn’t, but I saw men take the wounded off the battlefield, each side.” (both Confederate and Union).
On her main advice to “youngsters,” she is firm in her conviction about the marriage ties, — “When you get married, forsake all others.”
And Mrs. May doesn’t think women should vote.
“I voted the Republican ticket,” she said. But she could not remember the president for whom she voted.
However, she said, “I don’t see any difference in the presidents.”
The children are uppermost in her mind. During the conversation with her a bus stopped outside the house on Williams Road and Mrs. May remarked:
“That’s Eileen.”
Seconds later in came a child. About 15 minutes passed, and another bus passed the house. Mrs. May said:
“That’s the Catholic bus.”
Sure enough, it was the St. Mary’s School bus going out Williams Road.
Two years ago, Mrs. May underwent an appendectomy at the age of 105 and recovered remarkably, although she hasn’t felt quite as good as she did, previously to the operation.
Her doctor has had her on a diet for the past five years, with her food consisting mainly of eggs, milk and toast.
For the past two weeks, Mrs. May has been ill and hasn’t been able to eat her regular quantities of food, making her a little weak.
However, she can sit up and walk a little. Prior to two weeks ago, she was able to get around fairly well.
Besides the Lewis family looking after her are Mrs. May Weese and her child, Millie Ann, who live in an upstairs apartment.
Mrs. May, while she is not feeling up to par, still maintains a keen outlook on life despite the fact she is 107 years old.
