20 Years Ago
Week of April 29, 2004
Rescue Squads
Answer 800 Calls
At Pendleton County Emergency Rescue’s 28th annual banquet, volunteers from across the county were recognized for their selfless dedication to the community and to their neighbors.
Across the county, PCER responded to 800 calls in the year 2003-04, traveled a total of 52,934 miles and logged a total of 6,640 man hours.
Breaking these numbers down on a community basis, Franklin responded to 443 calls, traveled 30,298 and 8,765 miles and logged 1,458 hours.
The South Fork Rescue Squad answered 133 calls, traveled 9,563 miles and put in 1,067 man hours. Upper Tract responded to 79 calls, traveled 4,308 miles and logged 633 man hours.
A total of 333 patients were taken to Rockingham Memorial Hospital, while 293 were transported to Grant Memorial Hospital.
The number of miles traveled this past year was 52,934 as compared to 54,538 in 2002-03 and 49,450 in 2001-02. The number of man hours this past year decreased to 6,640 from 6,701 in 2002-03.
The number of man hours logged in 2001-02 was 6,159.
30 Years Ago
Week of April 28, 1994
Hunting Ground
Woman Setting Record With Sheep
Amanda Judy of the Hunting Ground likes her sheep. Her 30 ewes have had four sets of triplets and one set of quadruplets. Several have died but she still has 53 lambs out of her 30 ewes.
Franklin High School
Has First
Social Studies Fair
Franklin High School students grades 7-12, participated in the school’s first Social Studies Fair on April 6. Projects were judged in four areas of competition: the project’s theme, a written abstract, a visual display, and an oral presentation.
SUGAR GROVE
Little Things Make
Living in the Country Worthwhile
Some things in the country never seem to change. Take for instance the croaking sound of frogs in the marshy areas. Or the birth of calves and lambs as they frolic in their new surroundings. Cats raising their kittens in the barns where the swallows busily flit around their mud nests and surprise us with a string of chicks trailing behind them. Little girls quickly become mothers to a favorite doll, and little boys still make the “motor” sound as they push around their toy trucks. Plants still produce the same eye-catching blossoms and the birds still sing the same songs. The redbird’s call means “time to go fishing” and the red bud bloom heralds “corn planting time.” In a world of fabulous inventions and “better” ways, some things never truly change. Oh, living in the country is magnificent!
40 Years Ago
Week of April 12, 1984
Col. Luther E. Lambert Retires After 28 Years
In US Air Force
had distinguished service
A Pendleton County man, who rose to the rank of colonel in the United States Air Force and compiled a record of distinguished service to the Air Force and the nation, was honored March 23 at a retirement ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.
Colonel Luther E. Lambert, deputy commander for resources, 76th Airlift Division, separated from the service after more than 28 years of service to the armed forces of the nation.
Colonel Lambert is a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Luther H. Lambert of Franklin. His sister, Mrs. Alda Judy, and her husband, Biser Judy of Upper Tract, attended the ceremony.
Hammer Promoted
In D.C. Fire Department
Gary Hammer, formerly of Franklin, was recently promoted to the rank of battalion fire chief in the District of Columbia Fire Department.
Hammer is a 21-year veteran of the department. He is assigned to the fire chief’s staff as Metro Liaisons Officer and is responsible for developing firefighting tactics and evolutions for emergencies that may arise in Washington’s Rapid Rail Transit System. His duties also include planning disaster drills in the subway system, and he co-authored the fire department’s Mass Casualty Plan of Operations and the Standard Operating Procedure for Metro incidents in 1982.
Hammer is a 1960 graduate of Franklin High School.
50 Years Ago
Week of April 25, 1974
Sugar Grove
Ruritan Club Organized
A new Ruritan Club was chartered at Sugar Grove Sunday night with 37 persons attending the evening meal and organizational meeting. The new club, sponsored by the Franklin Ruritans, joins four other Ruritan clubs in Pendleton County and twenty in the Upper West Virginia Ruritan District.
Officers of the new club are Buddy Keplinger, president; Virgil Homan, vice president; Jimmy Rexrode, secretary; Bobby Bodkin, treasurer; David Wilfong, three year director; Charles J. Eckard, two year director; and Dick Mitchell, one year director.
Ground Is Broken for Nursing Home Here
The beginning of construction of a nursing home in Franklin was celebrated last Friday afternoon with a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of the facility on Maple Avenue.
The nursing home will be a 60-bed facility with 18,100 square feet of floor space. It will be constructed on a five-acre parcel of real estate purchased from the Blizzard family at a cost of $50,000.
60 Years Ago
Week of April 23, 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.
New Faces Appear
On Virginia Front
New names—names that already had or soon would become historic—began appearing on the rosters of the Federal and Confederate armies in Virginia 100 years ago this week as they prepared for a final onslaught that would decide the Civil War. In the Federal Army of the Potomac, there were 33-year-old Phil Sheridan, just appointed as head of Grant’s cavalry, and 34-year-old G. Kemble Warren, who had just taken over the Federal army’s V Corps.
In the Confederate armies that were converging in Virginia, the new faces belonged to men who already had made their make in the war: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, who had commanded in the bombardment of Fort Sumter at the outbreak of the war, and Gen. James Longstreet, just back from a winter in the mountains of eastern Tennessee.
Sheridan, like Grant, had made a name for himself in the Western campaigns and now had come East to finish up the war. His appointment had been suggested by Henry Halleck, and Grant had agreed readily. The appointment meant that at last the Federals in Virginia would have a cavalry leader who could measure up to the Confederacy’s daring and adventurous “Jeb” Stuart.
Warren, a hero of Gettysburg, was one of several commanders appointed in April in the Federal army. Among others was Winfield Scott Hancock, freshly recovered from a Gettysburg wound, now commanding the II Corps. Perhaps most important was Franz Sigel who became head of the Department of West Virginia with orders to move up the Shenandoah Valley.
Longstreet had been ordered back to Virginia early in April when Gen. R. E. Lee had concluded, after much study, that the brunt of the spring campaigning would come in Virginia and Georgia—not in Tennessee. Throughout the winter, Longstreet had been up in the mountains where he had gone after the battles at Chattanooga and Knoxville.
Beauregard came up from South Carolina to take over the Confederacy’s Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia, and again he found himself in one of the hottest spots of the war. Within months, he and Lee would be together again fighting to defend Richmond.
And as April came to an end, Lee found himself in command of most of his old team, the team that had whipped a long succession of Federal generals. Now they were ready to take on the greatest general the Union had found—Grant.
Next week: Grant orders the advance.
Farmers Market to Be Established in Pendleton; Will Aid Farm Income
Representatives of the State Department of Agriculture announced here last Thursday night that a Farmers Market will be established in Pendleton County about the middle of June.
The announcement was made at a meeting of approximately 35 farmers, businessmen and agriculture department representatives held in the county court house in Franklin.
70 Years Ago
Week of April 22, 1954
3-Year-Old Child
Lost 2 Days; Found
In Allegheny Mountains
Little three-year-old Shirley Alberta Sherman was found about 9:30 Tuesday morning after wandering lost in the rugged terrain of the Allegheny Mountains near Mouth of Seneca for 46 hours.
Searching parties in which over 400 persons from Pendleton, Grant, Hardy and Randolph counties participated, had combed the woods over an area of several miles surrounding the home of her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Ola Sites, in search of the little girl who wandered away from the house just before noon on Easter morning.
What began for Mrs. Goldie Sherman, of Kingwood, as a pleasant Easter visit with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ola Sites, who live about two miles off Route 28 six miles north of Mouth of Seneca, turned into two agonizing days of worry and waiting, with relief coming only after the tot was found by Edwin Dolly, a neighbor of Mr. Sites.
Apparently in good condition, the child was found lying on the bank of Reed Run approximately 1-1/4 miles north of the Sites home. She was immediately taken to the Veach-Townsend Clinic in Petersburg where a physician said she had a few scratches and that her feet were swollen, but otherwise she was all right.
Dolly, who lives about four miles from the Sites home, was on his way to the Sites property to join in the search when he found the child. He was not in a searching party at the time.
The widespread search began Sunday afternoon after Shirley’s family was unsuccessful in their attempt to find the child. State police and local authorities were notified and neighbors came in to volunteer their services. Searching parties began to form which worked around the clock until the child was finally located two days later.
Bloodhounds were secured Sunday night from a Virginia prison camp near Edom, Va., but because of the large number of people who had milled around the area, the hounds were unable to pick up the little girl’s trail.
The Franklin Volunteer Fire Company pumped out a deep well near the Sites home Monday morning. Also joining in the search were the Petersburg and Moorefield Fire Companies.
Corporal Adams of the Petersburg State Police Detachment secured a helicopter from the U. S. Coast Guard Air Station, Elizabeth City, N. C., but it did not arrive until Tuesday morning about the time the child was found. A request for National Guardsmen by Corporal Webley of Franklin was cancelled Tuesday morning.
Sheriff Leo Skidmore said that the little girl was wearing only a thin dress and shoes and socks when she wandered off. Although temperatures dropped into the mid 40s early Monday morning, danger of exposure was not too great as the mercury climbed to near 80 Tuesday.
Skidmore said that searching parties had covered the area where the child was found on Monday, but since the terrain is so rough she could easily have been missed.
Sheriff Skidmore said that he would like to express appreciation to everyone who cooperated in the search and made it possible to find the child alive.
Trash Dumps
In River Gap
Are Drawing
Numerous Complaints
One of the most popular recreational areas in the county and a long-time favorite fishing spot recently has been turned into a common garbage dump.
The area along the northern bank of the South Branch River where it enters into River Gap about one and one-half miles north of Franklin has in the past few years been transformed from one of the county’s most popular playgrounds into a roadside eyesore.
The dump is just above the small iron bridge which crosses Trout Run. The cans and junk, which have washed from this junk, litter the bed of Trout Run from the bridge to the point where it empties into the river.
