10 Years Ago
Week of January 29, 2015
County Grave Register
Is Towering Achievement
Published last summer, “Cemetery Records of Pendleton County,” represents a remarkable—and ongoing—achievement in the preservation of local history.
It also speaks to monumental dedication and heroic effort on the part of unpaid volunteers who record and verify the information by going “cemetery reading” in the fifth-largest county in the state, including outings to many of Pendleton’s more remote locales and mountain settings.
Commonly known as “the Graves Register,” this book, a unique work of reference history, is by far the best-selling work in the literary library belonging to the Pendleton County Historical Society.
The efforts of those volunteers are acknowledged in the introduction to the recently published volume: “Deep gratitude and appreciation is given to each of these loyal Pendletonians, who gave freely of their time climbing over fences, up hills, wading through creeks, briar patches, weeds, and snow, and avoiding ground hog holes to read old grave stones while enduring seasonal temperatures to assemble the material found in this book.”
The newest volume is dedicated to the memory of Jennie Hott, who announced her plan to oversee the updating of the earlier Grave Registers into a consolidated volume several years ago even though she had been diagnosed with a serious illness. That affliction claimed her on Aug. 15, 2013, about 11 months before the book’s contents were edited, corrected, indexed and then printed.
Dyer Anderson and his wife, Anne, edit the Historical Society Newsletter. In the Winter 2014 edition, he recounts Hott’s persistence: “She was determined to complete this job despite her serious illness. She periodically reported on its progress and actually sent me an email on a Grave Register item two weeks prior to her death.”
The dedication by the Historical Society notes that her inherent desire to “study and preserve family history records came to light early in 1970. She became a family history specialist through training from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and tirelessly gathered information through researching books, making phone calls and visits, copying photographs and spending countless hours on her computer.”
As new material became available, an update was published in 1980. It consisted of 140 pages and contained a print index which is invaluable in the ways it provides for ease of use and aids historical and genealogical research.
The book is as ceaseless a page turner for local history and genealogy buffs as a gripping Gillian Flynn novel is for devotees of the mystery suspense genre.
So many people can trace their ancestry back to Pendleton County that the book is like an archeological dig for those looking to find old and obscure information about family roots.
60 Years Ago
Week of January 28, 1965
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.
Peace Talks Fail
To End Civil War
Old Francis Preston Blair, Sr., had been something of a friend of both President Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Because of him, there were formal talks 100 years ago this week of bringing the two together and ending the Civil War.
The talks were conducted on the highest level and were in earnest, and there were hopes among some that they would bring peace to the divided nation. But when they were completed, peace seemed even farther away than when they started.
Blair, 73 years of age and a patriarch of the Republican Party, believed that, because of his familiarity with the two presidents and because of the South’s well-known hopes for peace, he could bring about some sort of settlement to end the slaughter on the battlefields. Therefore, shortly after 1865 began, he had gained permission from Lincoln to pass to the South and return—and he embarked upon his mission.
Soon, Blair was closeted with Davis in Richmond.
Davis would agree, he told Blair, to negotiate to bring peace “to the two countries.” That seemed a step, at least, in the right direction.
Back in Washington, Blair got a similar commitment from Lincoln. He would agree, Lincoln told Blair, to negotiate “with the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country.”
And therein—in the phrasing of their commitments—lay the hopelessness of the cause of peace.
Undaunted, Blair wet to Richmond a second time (his presence was causing quite a stir in Richmond’s newspapers) and showed Davis Lincoln’s statement. Davis then appointed a three-member Peace Commission, headed by his Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, and on January 29, the commission went to work.
That day, the three Confederates showed up at City Point below Richmond, center of the Federal arm’s activity, and were allowed passage through the Federal lines. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant spoke with them briefly, gave them good lodgings on a boat in the James River and then let them go aboard the boat to Hampton Roads near Norfolk and Fortress Monroe on the coast.
There on the boat, on February 2, they met with President Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward.
The conference never had a chance. When all the formalities had been cleared aside, the irreconcilable differences stood out like a sore thumb; they were trying to negotiate over the very issue they had been fighting for four long years. President Lincoln would negotiate only on the condition that the nation be united; President Davis would negotiate only on the condition that there be two nations.
Back to Richmond went the commissioners, and back to Washington went Lincoln and Seward, and that was that.
There was one result, however, Southerners, insulted that Lincoln would offer to negotiate on such terms, revived their fighting spirit and pledged again their resistance to the Federal government.
But even this new fervor could not last long.
Next week: Sherman enters South Carolina.
West Virginia
Has Much To Offer
As East’s
Winter Vacationland
Each year more and more people are discovering that a winter vacation in West Virginia’s snow country offers a rest, a change of pace, a wealth of beauty, and lots of fun.
Blessed with the highest average elevation east of the Mississippi River, West Virginia boasts 115 mountain peaks towering more than 4,000 feet. Three key factors—high elevation, central stuff—make West Virginia a natural when it comes to winter sports. Add to this the fact that 71 per cent of the nation’s people live within 500 miles of the Mountain State. All this means a perfect combination for either an exciting weekend holiday or a wholesome winter vacation.
Skiing, skating, tobogganing, snowballing and “ice stomping” (fishing through the ice) are all available to the visitor in the Mountain State. The colder the weather, the warmer the hospitality. For those who do not take an active part in these sports, but like to look on, several skating and skiing meets and festivities are planned during the white weather season.
The Canaan Valley, only 185 miles from Washington, D. C., is one of the most picturesque areas within the Monongahela National Forest. Weiss Knob, located near Davis, is the scene of a gala ski event—the Alpine Festival. All winter sports facilities are available, including an official 1,400-foot toboggan run. Blackwater Falls State Park will be headquarters.
Chestnut Ridge adjoins Coopers Rock State Forest near Morgantown. It features a 500-foot slope lighted for night skiing. Four lakes are available for ice skating. Lodging is available at nearby Mont Chateau State Park in the Morgantown area. Chestnut Ridge is less than a two-hour drive from Pittsburgh.
Olgebay Park, located at Wheeling, only a matter of 100 or so miles from Canton, Akron, Cleveland and Columbus, offers a full calendar of winter sports activities including a professionally operated skiing school. A 40-acre ski area provides runs from 900 feet to almost a quarter of a mile over a 20 per cent slope. An elaborate snow making system is used to supplement and improve natural snow conditions. Lodging is available in three Swiss style chalets and in the park at Wilson Lodge, in winterized cabins.
Bald Knob near Beckley is the state’s southern-most ski area, with a 3,400-foot elevation. It operates on weekends only. Lodging is available in hotels and motels at nearby Beckley and Princeton.
Snare fishing through the ice is an extremely popular sport in the upper regions of the Mountain State, notably in the Eastern Panhandle counties of Hardy, Hampshire, Grant and Pendleton, where the first freeze comes earlier and the ice lingers longer. Snare fishermen actually lasso their quarry with simple wire loops attached to long, straight poles as the fish are driven beneath holes in the thump, thump, thump of baseball “ice stomping,” a craze which enthralls hundreds of hardy sports enthusiasts. Snaring fish is legal in all of West Virginia’s streams.
Winter vacations and weekend holidays in the Mountain State are exhilarating experiences for the whole family. Far from severe, winters in West Virginia are cheery and comfortable.
Winter sports are always accessible, due to a superior system of road plowing and graveling.
80 Years Ago
Week of January 26, 1945
SNARING THRU ICE
ALLOWED FISHERMEN
CHARLESTON, W. VA.—Snaring of non-game fish through ice will be permitted sportsmen of Grant, Hardy, Pendleton and Webster counties during the remainder of January and until April 1.
MOUTH OF SENECA
The War
The war news on every front is very good, better than it has been for a long time and despite temporary setbacks, we are moving forward.
The Russian hordes are racing right to Berlin and we can’t see anything in sight to stop them. But we do hope the Americans get there first.
Judging from the rate McArthur is moving against the Japs, looks like we will soon have more sugar, rubber, brooms and gloves. We can’t give the Japs credit with making our brooms and gloves but we will stock the blame against them.
If we had a few more generals like Douglas McArthur this war would soon go to pot and our boys returning home.
Ducks
Our flock of wild ducks are with us again on their annual tourage where to “The Lord and the ducks only know and neither will tell.”
Some of them are very shy and some not quite so wild and allow you to approach pretty close to them.
Many folks have asked me, what species are they? “Derned” if I know—to me they are just ducks. If “Tubby Boggs” was here with his superior knowledge on wildlife, he could enlighten you.
Warner’s Theatre
“The Cooper Radio Troupe” of Fairmont came in last Saturday night at the solicitation of M. Warner and put on a very interesting show at the movie hall Circleville. A very large delegation of people from here, Onego, down the Fork and Riverton drove up and enjoyed the program.
Charley has the reputation and has had plenty of experience in staging good and brilliant programs.
—Yours Katinka.
COW-MOTHERED DEER HAS BECOME MOTHER
CHARLESTON, W. Va.—The former “Fawn of Turkey Knob” now has a fawn of her own.
This doe, now more than two years old, was adopted when only a few days old by two cows owned by a Grant County farmer after the little deer’s mother supposedly had been killed by dogs, according to Game Protector Harrison Shobe.
She would remain with the cows in the pasture during the day, but when the cows were driven to the barn for the night, she would follow them almost to the barn lot, then disappear into the brush to spend the night. The next morning she would rejoin them and get her breakfast. About a year ago dogs chased her off twice, but each time she eventually returned. Last year the farmer/owner of her foster mothers moved to Maryland and took the cows with him. For a few days the deer wandered around as if lost. Then she moved up the valley and took up with two cows belonging to another farmer. When the latter carried the cows to a hill pasture for the summer, the doe went with them. But when the cows returned to the valley for the winter, she remained in the hill brush, but not alone as she then had her own fawn. The latter was first seen in June, then frequently afterwards. Two or three deer from a nearby herd occasionally pay the doe and her young one a visit, says Shobe.