50 Years Ago
Week of October 10, 1974
Man on the Move,
Virgil Byrde Has Walked 60,000 Miles in 16 Years
Walking is a lost art for most people, but not for Virgil Byrde.
He has been on the road for the past 16 years, constantly moving from place to place, and always by foot.
Byrde says he has been in every state in the continental United States except North Dakota and Wisconsin, and he estimates that he has walked a total of 60,000 miles.
Byrde stopped last week on the Reed Hammer place five miles east of Franklin and pitched his camp in the woods just off Route 33. He was on his way south for the winter.
Byrde supports himself by making toys out of twigs and sticks and selling them and bartering them for food. His line is quite extensive and has a strong appeal for children.
Some of the names he has given to toys he makes are Tickle Box, Ha! Ha! Ha! (a guitar made out of an old detergent jug, nylon fishing line and a stick. Whammy-O (sling shot). Pitch N’ Doodle, Spin N’ Doodle, bow and arrow and many others.
He makes bean shooters by hollowing out the center of elderberry canes, and he says forked hemlock branches make the best sling shots.
Byrde says he can carry enough provisions on his back to last him two weeks. His diet consists primarily of beans and gravy and biscuits which he bakes on a stick which he holds over a fire.
His camp is made of sticks and poles which he gathers up in the woods and covers with a small piece of plastic.
He said he learned the art of traveling light while serving in the U. S. Air Force in the Far East during World War II.
Byrde has broken camp and resumed his trek southward.
Circleville Man Reports Seeing Mountain Lion
Charles Warner of Circleville reported today that he saw a mountain lion near his residence last week. He said the big animal was about five or six feet long, had a long tail and was brown in color.
Warner said the big animal came down off the mountain and ran through his garden then went back up the mountain. The tracks left in the dirt measure four inches across and five inches long, he said.
Warner, who operates a service station a mile south of Circleville, said he has seen mountain lions in captivity and that he got a good look at this animal and he is sure it is a mountain lion.
60 Years Ago
Week of October 8, 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.
Grant Extends Line, Threatens Richmond
Richmond, the capitol of the Confederacy, learned to live with crisis early in the Civil War, but a crisis occurred 100 years ago this week to make the veterans uneasy.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s huge Federal army that had been pounding all summer against Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederates around Petersburg moved almost into Richmond. John B. Jones, the Confederate War clerk in Richmond, took note of Grant’s move in his diary in early October and commented unhappily: “It is enough to make one tremble for Richmond.”
When Grant had consolidated his army in the new position, his line extended all the way from Richmond, south across the Jones and Appomattox rivers and around Petersburg—35 miles in all.
Since the famous Battle of the Crater that summer, Grant had given up attacking Lee’s front at Petersburg. Instead, his army slowly stretched itself to each side, encircling Lee’s from the east. Day by day that summer, his army had edged south-eastward below Petersburg—away from Richmond, forcing Lee to stretch his line farther and farther—thinner and thinner.
Then, as September came to a close, Grant sent two corps northward, across the Appomattox and James rivers until they were just east of Richmond. There, while Lee worried about his line at Petersburg, they struck straight for the heart of the capitol city.
First they stormed and captured the powerful Confederate Fort Harrison, just outside the city. They followed that with an attack on Fort Gilmer, even closer to the city, but were repulsed. Next, they sent a reconnaissance that reached the city’s inner line before it was halted.
Lee, like Richmond, had become accustomed to crisis, and he quickly set up a new defense. He crossed the James, himself, and took personal command of the situation, often exposing himself to gunfire.
In and around the city, officers, factories and farms were cleared of able-bodied men who were sent to hold the lines. Every man from 17 to 55 was required to have a pass to walk the streets, and many of these—despite their passes—found themselves hustled off to fight or face arrest.
On October 7, Lee was extended his line to ward off the new threat when his men came upon a Federal division and attacked. The Federals fell back with heavy loss. Then the Confederates attacked the Federals in entrenchments: this time the Southerners were driven back.
Gradually, the fighting died down again, and Richmond still was in Confederate hands.
But war clerk Jones noted an important fact in his diary that October day: “It would seem that we have lost ground; that our forts, etc., have been captured and held . . . and that both the right and left wings of Grant have been advanced . . .”
70 Years Ago
Week of October 14, 1954
What Is A
Local Forest Protector?
What is a local forest protector? Is he a farmer, or one of the town folk? Is he a young man, or older one? Does he get paid for fighting fire? What are his duties and responsibilities? What authority does he have?
Perhaps you have seen the LOCAL FOREST PROTECTOR signs along the highway, or maybe right next door at your neighbor’s house. You knew that he fought forest fires, but what do you know of his commission? Let’s take a closer look at the man behind the signs, and see just what a local forest protector is.
In Pendleton County there are 53 Protectors who are commissioned by the State of West Virginia Conservation Commission, Division of Forestry. These men are local volunteers serving with the County Forester in the state fire suppression organization. In plain words they are your neighbors who are helping keep West Virginia green.
Among the 53 protectors we have town folk, farmers, school bus drivers, mail men, bulldozer operators, loggers, truck drivers and mill workers. The ages of our protectors range from 20 to 70, many with more than 20 years service to the state. These men receive no pay, except when they are fighting fire, for which they receive 40¢ an hour.
The duties of a protector are concerned with assisting state officers in supervising the fire crews. The responsibilities of a protector include the care of the men under him, and the complete charge of a fire in this area.
Each fire is the direct responsibility of one or more protectors. Because of this the state officer is left free for call on other fires that may need immediate action, or to give assistance on large fires.
The authority of a protector on duty as a state officer is to summon men to fight fire; make emergency food purchase orders; to submit the payroll of his men for payment; plan the attack of a fire, and execute it in a manner which will not make him subject to legal action.
The next time you pass a local forest protector sign in your neighborhood, stop in and meet the man behind the sign—your neighbor, and our local forest protector.
Pendleton County
Forest Protectors
The following men are commissioned by the State of West Virginia as Local Forest Protectors in Pendleton County.
Brandywine—Spencer Evick, Carl Nesselrodt, Terry L. Swadley, T. J. Clayton.
Cave—L. L. Mullenax.
Cherry Grove—I. E. Murphy, Ray Sponaugle.
Deer Run—D. J. Lambert.
Doe Hill, Virginia—R. W. McQuain, W. R. Propst, Gordon Wimer.
Fame—Olin Adamson.
Fort Seybert—Charles F. Nesselrodt, Guy Shreve.
Franklin—Whitney Mitchell, Tom Hartman, Curtis Caton, Henry Caton, Otto E. Caton, Fred Evick, Herman Hartman, Odwith Lambert, Denver Pennington, Albert Simmons, Clevie Dowdy, Fred L. Propst, J. L. Rexrode, Kenneth Sponaugle, Robert P. Hartman, Elmer C. Propst, Ira Ruddle, Robert F. Raines.
Kline—David Mallow, Abraham Crites, James J. Heavener, Andrew Mitchell.
Rough Run—S. L. Kesner.
Moyers—Jesse E. Moyers, Roy E. Moyers.
Mozer—John R. Greenawalt, Fred Mallow, Charles Mallow.
Ruddle—Fred Vandevander, Carson Waggy.
Riverton—Fred G. Bennett, Elmer C. Bodkin, Martin Propst, Luther Simmons.
Teterton—F. M. Biby, Hurl Raines.
80 Years Ago
Week of September 29, 1944
WHITE GROUNDHOG CAUGHT
CHARLESTON, W. Va.—Two white groundhogs are reported in Grant county. One recently was captured alive by Elijah Allen and Edgar Nelson, according to County Game Protector Shobe. After being kept on exhibition for a few days, the animal was released. Robert Day of Arthur, informed the protectors that a white groundhog is denning on his farm and may be seen almost daily feeding in a clover patch.
SQUIRREL CAUSES BLACKOUT
CHARLESTON, W. Va.—How a fox squirrel recently caused a blackout in the Wood Hall section of Marshall county was described in report to the Conservation Commission from Game Protector Herbert J. Moore. All electric power suddenly went off, he said, and the trouble was reported to the power company. Investigation revealed that a fox squirrel had climbed a pole and tried to jump from one wire to another, causing a short circuit and electrocuting himself.
83RD DIVISION
NOW IN FRANCE
The 83rd Infantry Division—the outfit that took St. Malo and its fortress “Citadel”—was officially taken off the secret list with the announcement that they were fighting in France.
Arriving on the continent from the rocky, rainy mountains of Wales, the 83rd tasted fire near Carentan and later assisted in the drive east of Perier.
121ST AND 529TH END THREE-WEEK DESERT WARFARE
A blazing sun that turned their desert “battle ground” into a torturous inferno failed to stymie or even slow down the effectiveness of anti-aircraft fire during the three-week maneuvers on the Mojave Desert intelligence reports indicates.
Morale among Blue army soldiers was high despite the heat, which reached 125 degrees in the sun (there was no shade). The men worked hard to dig effective positions in the parched desert sand.
Week of October 6, 1944
MILKWEED POD CHAMP
William Edward (Eddie) Simpson, 7-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Simpson of Clarksburg, Route 3, and a student in the second grade of Carlisle school, set what is believed to be a “junior champ” record by picking eight bushels of milkweed pods at his grandfather’s farm last Saturday as his contribution to the local milkweed pod collection campaign.
Young Simpson picked the pods in Pendleton county, on the farm of Hendrin Waggy, his grandfather, near Franklin, and spent about six hours at the job. Miss Elsie Jefferson, teacher at the Carlisle school, said the collection was the largest turned in at the school.
The milkweed pods are collected for the government, which used the floss as insulating material.
EACH COUNTY GETS SHARE OF BOBWHITES
CHARLESTON, W. Va.—The stocking of 5,000 Bob White quail, with every county in the state receiving a share, is underway. Executive director Jack Shipman of the Conservation Commission has announced.
Purchased from a dealer in Little Rock, Ark., the birds are being shipped directly to county game protectors for release in their respective counties.
Quail usually are released in the spring instead of the fall, said Game Technician, W. R. DeGarmo, although there are arguments on both sides. In the present case, the technician explained, the dealer was unable to keep the birds until spring and facilities at the State Game Farm were inadequate for keeping them there through the winter, thus the decision for releasing them now.
