30 Years Ago
Week of September 7, 1995
Ancient Village Found In ‘Dig’ at Seneca Rocks
Seneca Rocks in Pendleton County is a major tourist attraction today.
But that’s nothing new. The area has been attracting people for 10,000 to 12,000 years and probably longer.
Archaeologists conducting a dig this summer in a field in front of Seneca Rocks unearthed artifacts that date back ten to twelve thousand years ago.
“This shows that people were here thousands of years ago,” exclaimed David Landis of Fresoil, Michigan, archaeologist in charge of an environmental investigation of the site.
“But that is not surprising,” Landis said. “This is a perfect location for people to gather. It is the confluence of two streams which are natural pathways for human travel, and it is the crossroads of five trails into a beautiful location. We know people were here in historic and pre-historic times, but we don’t know whether the area was occupied year round, or whether it was just a seasonal place of residence,” Landis mused. “It has been thought that this was a site for nomadic Indians, not a permanent residential site.”
The dig which began April 3 and first expected to last only three weeks, is still in progress. Shortly after the dig started, workers uncovered stone tools, pottery and animal and fish bones.
Landis told an audience of 35 or 40 persons at a meeting of the Pendleton County Historical Society August 27 that portions of three separate villages, two with palisades around them were found. These date back only to 700 or 800 years ago.
The villages were identified by post hole stains. After removing the top 12 to 15 inches of disturbed soil with a bulldozer, the workers hand-scraped the surface of the ground to reveal undisturbed soil. If a post has been in the ground, it will leave a round dark colored stain in the adjacent soil. By identifying these stains, it is possible to determine the location of structures that were there hundreds of years ago.
In the Seneca Rocks dig, more than 2,000 post hole stains were found, 1500 of which were pre-historic. Post hole stains formed elliptical patterns 30 to 40 feet long and approximately 20 feet wide. These indicate the location of a building. There were eight buildings in a cluster, and three clusters of buildings were found. Post hole stains also revealed the presence of palisades around two of the clusters.
Landis said it is his opinion that the villages were not occupied more than 35 years, partly because the patterns were so clear, indicating that they were not there long enough to have repairs or changes in location.
The archaeologist said they found fragments of pottery and that he believes they were making pottery there because they found pits in a row containing pottery fragments. He said they found no remnants of grains or vegetables such as corn or beans which would have indicated that they were cultivating food, but they did find a lot of nut shells.
Other artifacts were found in locations away from the site of the villages. A fire pit was found at one place, and a cache of 59 tool blanks at another. Many spear points were found that probably were for use on thrusting or throwing spears.
A preliminary investigation of the visitor center construction site revealed evidence that the site had been occupied by Native Americans, but no one expected the scope of what the dig has uncovered.
The dig was conducted only in areas that will be disturbed by the construction of the new visitor center and the parking lot. Other adjoining areas which undoubtedly would reveal other evidence of pre-historic occupation will not be excavated because of the cost.
SUGAR GROVE
Canning Vegetables Is Way of Life In Pendleton County
This summer has become a bookmark in our memories. Although the summer has been extremely hot, the gardens have done very well. Gardening and canning goods is not only a hobby or pastime, but a necessity and a way of life. Even though we can go to the grocery store and purchase canned products and produce, there really is nothing that tastes better than a nurtured tomato that has ripened in the sun, and ready for a sharp knife and a sprinkle of salt. How about an ear of corn that is pulled off the stalk and cooked five minutes later? Nothing tastes as good as home frozen or canned green beans. There really is no satisfaction like knowing that one has raised the produce from one’s own labor, harvested and stored for snowy days.
40 Years Ago
Week of September 12, 1985
Chinese Delegation To Study Rural Life In Pendleton County
Six members of the Soong Ching Ling Foundation in China are coming to Pendleton County September 15 for a four-day visit to study the local community.
The Soong Ching Ling Foundation is the only private foundation in China. Madame Soong Ching Ling, wife of Sun Yet Ling, was very interested in programs for women and children. The foundation, established in her memory, funds special projects for children.
The group will be in the United States for three weeks. During that time they will visit the Rockefeller and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations, and two communities, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Pendleton County.
The purpose of their trip is to learn how foundations operate in the United States and to see how American communities work together to meet the needs of their community. During their stay, they will see Pendleton Community Care, Wee School Nursery, Pendleton Nursing Home, Pendleton County Library, Woodlands Institute, Pendleton County Schools, and they will talk with the county extension agent.
The members of the group are very much interested in learning more about Americans and how they live. They will be staying in people’s homes and will be walking around town. Many of them know English, so feel free to say hello.
Organization Formed To Preserve Old Wayside Inn
The North Fork Historical Society, Inc., has been formed to preserve the old Wayside Inn located at Seneca Rocks in Pendleton County.
Located on grounds acquired by the U. S. Government near the Seneca Rocks Visitors Center, the old log house was built in the mid-1800s and according to area residents, was used as an ordinary tavern prior to and during the Civil War.
Research indicates that it has significance in the area’s transportation history, and its architecture is representative of mountain culture in the last century.
Descendants of the late William Sites, who was the first owner of the inn, and other area residents have been granted permission by the U. S. Forest Service to stabilize the structure.
The North Fork Historical and Cultural Society, Inc., has been organized and members are now being solicited.
70 Years Ago
Week of September 8, 1955
Dr. Sites Moves To New Office Building
Dr. Charles J. Sites has moved his medical offices to his new building east of the Pendleton County Bank building.
Dr. Sites began work on the new brick two-story building last winter and has just completed the structure. He moved his offices into the first story of the building August 29.
Dr. H. Byrd Teter’s dental offices are located on the second floor of the building.
EDITORIALS
Way Back Yonder – – –
On page “five” of this edition of the “Times” is a poem which gives a good description of the Town of Franklin and its residents in the year 1873. One can hardly read this poem without becoming interested in Franklin and wondering about its history prior to that date.
As a matter of fact, Franklin was already 79 years old when this poem was written. As early as December 19, 1794, an act of the Virginia Legislature designated it a town under the name of Franklin, although it had previously been known as Frankfort. However, the name of Frankfort could not be used because the legislature had designated a town by that name in Hampshire County in 1788.
The legislative act designating the town also name ten trustees. They were Joseph Arbaugh, Jacob Conrad, James Dyer, Sr., John Hopkins, Peter Hull, Joseph Johnson, William McCoy, Oliver McCoy, James Patterson and John Roberts. By another act dated Christmas day, 1800, the trustees were authorized to make and establish legal regulations for protecting property from fire, for keeping hogs from running at large, to prohibit the galloping and racing of horses in streets and alleys and preserving good order generally.
The first residents on the site which is now Franklin appear to have been Francis and George Evick who surveyed 160 acres of land on the left bank of the South Branch in 1769. George Evick built a log house on the east side of the river at the mouth of what is now known as Evick Gap, and Francis located near a spring back of the present Franklin Volunteer Fire Company building.
In June of 1788 the first county court of Pendleton met at the house of Captain Stratton at what is now Ruddle and decided to locate the county seat on the Evick farm. Within a few weeks after the action of the county court, Francis Evick laid off a town site along the foot of the ridge above his meadows covering an area of 46-1/2 acres. In contrast to the haphazard way in which many towns grow, Franklin was laid off in a methodical manner which does credit to all who had a part in it.
Shortly thereafter George Evick sold his interest in the 160 acres to Francis for 250 pounds ($833.33), and on that same day Robert Davis, the sheriff, bought the first building lot containing 1/2 acre for the sum of 5 pounds or $16.67. The population of Franklin grew steadily and by 1800 it had increased to almost 100.
In 1834, after the town had had an authorized existence of forty years, there were two stores, two tan yards, three saddlers, two carpenters, two shoemakers, two blacksmiths, one gunsmith, one tailor, one hatter, and one cabinet and chair maker. The professions were represented by two attorneys and one physician. There were also a school, a temperance and Bible society.
In 1910 Oren F. Morton wrote in his Pendleton County History that “Franklin in its present guise is one of the handsomest of the small towns of West Virginia,” a statement which applies as well today as it did in 1910.
80 Years Ago
Week of September 7, 1945
Marines Tell Pacific’s Number 1 Fish Story
Fish stories are generally tall stories, but two Marines who landed on Iheya island in the Ryukyus recently have an unusual fish story to tell—and it’s true.
Shortly after the unopposed landing on this mile-long island, dwindling food supplies prompted marine officials to permit the island’s fishermen to make a fishing jaunt inside the reef which parallels the shoreline, Staff Sgt. Bob Hillburn reports.
Once fairly out in the water, the group divided into two parties. Each pair of craft rigged up a net between them and then the swimmers, stripped to loin cloths, went over the sides.
Then—and this is the fish story part—the swimmers, by their antics actually drove the fish into the nets.
105 Years Ago
Week of September 10, 1920
TELEPHONE MEN BUILD LINE GRATIS
There is telephone service this summer at the Fresh Air Camp of Charleston’s Union Mission, and Patrick Withrow, the superintendent, has found that it doesn’t always require money to do things, if the cause is worthy and the need is great.
The Union Mission Summer Camp is located on Nonable Branch about three miles and a half outside of Charleston. It provides fresh air and fun and healthful recreation for about sixty needy youngsters who would otherwise spend the hot summer months in the city without ever a taste of the country’s green coolness.
Telephone service was one of the necessary requisites at the camp, but the camp was not within reach of any existing telephone line and building a mile or two of connecting line is an expensive project. The cost was nearly a thousand dollars—far beyond the means of the Mission.
