10 Years Ago
Week of July 14, 2016
Relay Just Misses
$1 Million Mark
county raises
over $27,000
for cancer research
Pendleton County Relay for Life is much closer to an awe-inspiring milestone after funds from Saturday’s annual event were tallied. American Cancer Society supporters started this year’s relay event just $21,000 shy of what most residents would have thought an insurmountable goal – $1 million. Saturday’s take was over $6,000, and funds are still coming in, reported Denise Hevener of Team USA.
The fund-raiser’s inaugural gathering was first held in 1999.
FES Students
Compete In State
Marble Tourney
Franklin Elementary School students Ryleigh Cook, Braden McCoy and Hannah Rexrode, recently competed in the 29th annual Mountain Marble Tournament held at Weston. The event was sponsored by the West Virginia Marble-Shooters’ Association.
In boy’s competition, McCoy earned fifth-place honors. Rexrode and Cook were handed thirdand seventh-place honors, respectively, in the girls’ division.
Firstand second-place finishers in both divisions earn the right to represent the state in the national contest held in Wildwood, NJ. Wildwood hosts the outdoor tournament on the beach each year and also serves as home to the National Marble Hall of Fame.
Closing Date Approaches
For Navy Base Auction
The online auction for the former Sugar Grove Navy base property is scheduled to close on Wednesday, July 20. The auction, conducted by the General Services Administration property disposal division, began on Feb. 9.
The property, referred to as Sugar Grove Station, features 105 structures, including 80 single-family homes on 122 acres of land. Operating costs for the facilities, without labor, is estimated to be $1.4 million. Amenities include a 20,000 square foot public works building with gymnasium, six-bay fire station, day-care/youth center, restaurant/club and community center. Recreational opportunities on the grounds listed are playground, swimming pool, various athletic courts and fields, as well as, fishing in the South Fork River.
Wilkins Re-Elected BOE President
surpasses
harold miller’s
long-standing tenure
After being unanimously approved for another two-year term as Pendleton County Board of Education president, J. D. Wilkins becomes the longest running holder of the position, surpassing Harold Miller who served in the same capacity from 1969 to 1978. Wilkins was first elected to serve as leader of the group in 2006.
20 Years Ago
Week of July 13, 2006
Home Designer Opens Franklin Office
Who knows?
Had Darrin Petersen, a 14-year resident of Franklin, not left Colorado’s ultra-fashionable Aspen-Vail area early in the 1990s to “go east, young man,” he might have become a rich and semi-famous residential designer to the stars.
After all, it was Petersen, when he was first launching his career as a residential designer, who designed Don Johnson’s Aspen ranch house in the late 1980s, back when Johnson was a superstar wrapping up his years as a small-screen icon in TV’s “Miami Vice.”
Facing an uncertain economy in the Rockies, Petersen decided to give the more stable East Coast a try and intended to launch his career in Boston, MA, when, instead, he discovered Pittsburgh, PA, a city he found attractive.
He quickly discovered, however, that western Pennsylvania had no interest in his California design style, which Petersen describes as “West Coast classicism.”
But he also quickly discovered that the “new money” in Morgantown, especially professionals looking to build homes in the Cheat Lake area, were not so stodgy as their peers in Pittsburgh.
That was the beginning of Petersen’s love affair with West Virginia.
A Morgantown acquaintance recommended that Petersen visit Pendleton County and Seneca Rocks because the mountains here might remind him of those “out West.”
It was on a trip to the Seneca Rocks area that also took Petersen across the mountain and into Franklin that he fell in love, in love with the town he proudly and happily calls his home.
“It is Mayberry,” Petersen says. “This is as close as you can get to that. To me, it was, especially the quintessential Norman Rockwell painting.”
“Deep down,” he continued. “I am who I am, and Franklin is what I am.
30 Years Ago
Week of July 4, 1996
Horseshoe Winners
Return for Reunion
Several residents of Pendleton County attended the first-ever state-wide reunion of winners of the prestigious Golden Horseshoe Award on June 20–West Virginia Day. Hosted by Governor Gaston Caperton, nearly 2,000 winners and their families spent a memorable day at the capitol participating in this major Homecoming ’96 event.
During the ceremony, nearly 100 people who had won the Horseshoe during World War II, but were unable to travel to Charleston to be knighted due to gas rationing at that time, were officially knighted by Caperton. The governor noted, “They look a little older than the eighth-graders, but I think they have the same heart they had that day.” Included from Pendleton County were Phyllis Kimble Frye (1944) and Browning Boggs (1946).
Others from Golden Horseshoe winners from Pendleton County attending the homecoming were Dolly Nesselrodt Collins (1938), Richard Propst (1938), Betty Lee McFarland Lippencott (1939), Irvin S. Propst (1940), Cornelia Nesselrodt McIlwaine (1941), Inga Dahmer Kile (1956), Nancy Kimble Gonshor (1957), Willis Gainer (1962), Cathy Dove (1972), Tracy Ruddle (1973), and J. P. Mowery (1982).
Butterfly House
Presented to PNH
A butterfly house has been placed in the flower bed at Pendleton Nursing Home by the members of the Potomac Valley Garden Club. Members also planted flowers to attract butterflies for the residents to enjoy.
40 Years Ago
Week of July 10, 1986
Mernie Kesner
Retires After 44 Years
In School System
The Pendleton County Board of Education at its June 18 meeting accepted the resignation of Mernie Kesner, librarian at Franklin High School. Miss Kesner has been employed in the Pendleton County school system for 44 years.
Hanover Bucks
Unfavorable Trend
Of US Shoe Industry
Motorists driving along Route 220 south of Franklin cannot help but notice the attractive Hanover Shoe factory in its pastoral setting of wooded hills and lush pastures.
Close observers in recent weeks have noticed a slight change in the scene. Employees’ cars not only fill the spacious parking areas adjacent to the factory, but they also spill out into the surrounding field, indicating increased activity at the county’s largest employer.
Motorists also may have recently noticed construction workers at the rear of the factory developing an additional parking lot. Plant manager Lester Propst said the new lot will provide much needed parking space for an additional 100 cars.
In the midst of widespread closings of shoe factories throughout the United States, because of shoe imports flooding into the states from overseas, the Hanover Shoe factory in Franklin is working overtime and putting out more shoes than ever.
In 1984 the factory turned out 3,000 pairs of shoes a day, and today it is producing 4,440 pairs a day. And in July, 1984, there were 482 people working at that plant. Today the factory is providing employment for 625 workers.
50 Years Ago
Week of July 8, 1976
Automobile Licenses Now Being Issued
In Courthouse
Most motorists now may obtain their automobile license in the Pendleton County Sheriff’s office.
Distribution of automobile licenses from the sheriff’s office began July 1, but the services available are somewhat limited by the restrictions contained in the recently enacted legislation.
One advantage of the new system Sheriff Grant Alt said, will be that any questions concerning taxes on the vehicle can be worked out in the courthouse rather than sending paperwork back and forth to Charleston.
Illinois Balloon Lands
In Hay Field Near Kline
George Hevener of Kline received an unusual Bicentennial greeting Sunday.
While walking in the hay field a mile west of Kline Sunday morning, Hevener found a balloon which had landed in the field.
The balloon bore the lettering “Plainfield, Illinois, Bicentennial Committee,” and a “Spirit of ‘76” scene.
Attached to the balloon was a postcard on which was printed “Plainfield, Ill., Bicentennial Celebration, July 4, 1976.” Also on the card was the name, Ken Hirschberg, Rt. 2, Taylor Road, Plainfield, Ill.
Hevener said he did not know when the balloon was released. He said he returned the card to Hirschberg.
Put Gas
In Metal Containers
“With the season for mowing lawns and boating trips upon us, West Virginians should be informed that federal law prohibits service station attendants from filling with gasoline any containers made of either plastic or other flammable materials,” reminds Joseph H. Mills, state labor commissioner.
According to federal regulations, gasoline may not be sold and put in anything other than a fuel tank or an approved metal container.
60 Years Ago
Week of July 7, 1966
Groundhog Hunter
Injured by Exploding 30.06 Bullet
A Fourth of July groundhog hunter narrowly escaped death in Pendleton County Monday when a 30.06 caliber bullet exploded sending fragments into his head and arm.
Leroy Skiles, 26, of Deer Run, was the victim of the unusual accident. He was hunting about a mile from his home with his uncle, Lane Dean, 65, of Brushy Run, when the accident occurred at about 4 p.m.
According to Skiles, the two men were driving along the Deer Run Road in his ‘65 Tempest when they spotted a groundhog in a field about 100 yards from the road.
They stopped the car and Dean got out and rested his 30.06 rifle across the top of the vehicle and fired at the groundhog. What happened at that instant is not entirely clear.
Apparently the bullet exploded, tearing a hole in the top of the car and sending fragments of the bullet into the car.
Fragments of the bullet tore up the back of the front seat where Skiles was sitting. One fragment cut open the back of Skiles’ head and lodged under his scalp. Two fragments struck him in his left arm between the elbow and wrist and lodged in his arm.
Skiles was treated at Rockingham Memorial Hospital at Harrisonburg and released several hours later. The fragments of the bullet were not removed.
70 Years Ago
Week of July 5, 1956
HAIL STORM
BOMBS DEER RUN
A hail and electrical storm of unprecedented severity swept through the Oak Flat-Deer Run section of Pendleton County last Saturday afternoon leaving in its wake damage to farms and grain fields described by old-timers as “the worst ever seen in this area.”
Hail stones the size of small walnuts knocked windows out of houses, beat to death turkeys that were on range and drifted in piles almost a foot deep in places.
Piles of hail several inches deep glistening in the 90 degree heat could still be seen Sunday afternoon in fence corners and in many places along the Deer Run Road.
Grain fields on many farms in the area were totally destroyed, and surface water sweeping through cornfields caused much washing and erosion.
The damage caused by the storm has been authoritatively estimated. It will run into many, many thousands of dollars.
