10 Years Ago
Week of September 29, 2016
Fire Departments Water Ball Field
After several serious injuries were incurred during a recent middle school football game held at Slusher Field, area fire departments united on Sunday to water down the playing field at Pendleton County Middle/High School. The playing surface has become increasingly hardened in recent weeks due to lack of moisture.
Fire departments participating in the watering project included Franklin, South Fork and Upper Tract.
Dahmer Revisited
by Tom Blair
September was a good month to live in Dahmer.
In September, the roadsides and stream banks turned golden. Monarch butterflies moved among the goldenrod and the yellow ironweed, bestowing their blessing on the proud sunflowers and the humble sneeze weed. The skies filled with flocks of birds drifting lazily southward.
For residents of the community, September was a busy time. People dug potatoes, made hay, cut wood and trucked livestock to market. The Elbert Fleisher family invited neighbors to help raid their beehives, escaping with generous containers of honey perfumed by white clover.
At one time, money grew on trees in Dahmer. The hillsides were covered with bountiful chestnut orchards yielding a crop that could be turned into credit at local stores. During a four-week period in 1928, John Dahmer turned in 1,058 pounds of chestnuts at the store of M.K. Boggs. Prices at that time ranged from 15 cents per pound at the beginning of the season to eight cents at the end. In today’s money, those prices would have brought the equivalent of about $2,000 to Mr. Dahmer.
The American Chestnut Blight hit at the worst possible time (in the middle of the Depression) and left a hole in the economy that was hard to fill. It also left a visible hole in many hillsides and invisible space in many hearts. Anyone who ever witnessed the grandeur of a chestnut tree, with lush foliage or up to a million leaves springing from a single trunk, never forgot the experience.
But life carried on and, in September, the families in Dahmer would start making vinegar. Most vinegar was made from apples, but in 1978, the Dahmer letter shared a secret recipe for making vinegar from whey. Johnny Arvin Dahmer vouched for it himself, swearing that it came from “a reliable lady on the North Fork” and had been used for many generations. The recipe called for placing beans into the whey to start the fermentation.
The recipe was very exacting. There had to be precisely nine beans, no more and no less. Each of the beans had to be given a name, and not just any name would do.
The beans had to be named after the nine meanest people in the neighborhood.
20 Years Ago
Week of September 28, 2006
Community Bands Together for New Fence At Circleville School
Earlier this year, two North Fork residents, Dave Sponaugle and Jimmy Bennett, had an idea for a needed improvement to the grounds of Circleville’s educational complex, which encompasses the elementary school, the playground, the Harold K. Michael Community Building and the restored Circleville High School building.
Sponaugle and Bennett wanted a strip of good vinyl fence, a fence that would have longevity and help with maintenance in the educational complex area opposite the CHS building.
By June 13, the fence was up and labor donated by members of the North Fork community.
50 Years Ago
Week of September 30, 1976
Then and Now—Going Places… Getting Things Done
Though much has changed in America over the past 200 years, much has remained the same. The basic needs for food, shelter, transportation, and clothing are much the same today as they were two centuries ago.
But while the basic needs of Americans have remained the same, the way we satisfy those needs has been changed decisively by harnessing energy from sources other than human and animal muscle.
These “new” sources of energy—oil, gas, coal, and nuclear power—pose new problems, at the same time that they assure a better life for Americans. Many of our fossil fuel resources will run out in time, and we must find replacements for them. Obtaining or using certain fuels degrades the countryside or pollutes the environment. Most immediately, we face the danger of excessive reliance on foreign energy supplies, a danger whose consequences were demonstrated by the oil embargo of 1973-1974 and the subsequent drastic price increases for imported oil.
If we are to solve the problems which confront us today, we must make use of the same ingenuity which characterized the first two hundred years of our nation’s growth.
Then as now, the country depends on energy to move its wheels and to power its factories. The horse-powered Conestoga wagon and stagecoach helped to conquer the wilderness and open the West. Today electricity and high-octane fuels provide the energy for homes, farms and factories. Our national welfare and economic health depend upon abundant, reliable supplies of these newer forms of energy.
60 Years Ago
Week of September 29, 1966
1966 Is Banner Year For Pendleton 4-H Clubs
The year 1966 has been a banner year for 4-H club work in Pendleton County. Boys and girls and their 4-H clubs have made history in a variety of ways.
Pendleton County 4-H’ers have made history in numbers—1966 enrollment is at an all-time high. A total of 482 boys and girls belong to 19 clubs throughout the county. The surge in enrollment has resulted from the organization of four new clubs during the year. They are Fort Upper Tract, Monon Raiders, Timber Ridge Officers, and Ruddle Ruralites.
Pendleton County 4-H’ers have made history in the number attending camp—186 attended county camp, 92 of whom attended older camp, and 94 attended younger camp. Eleven 4-H’ers attended Older 4-H Members Conference at Jackson’s Mill.
Pendleton County 4-H’ers made history with their exhibits at Tri-County Fair—winning 264 blue ribbons, 58 red ribbons and 5 white ribbons.
Pendleton County 4-H’ers made history at the State Livestock Round-up at Jackson’s Mill—with 9 entries in the livestock show.
The foregoing are some of the accomplishments of Pendleton County 4-H’ers during 1966. Credit for this outstanding work goes to 4-H club members and their parents, 4-H leaders and 4-H supporters.
Area Receives More Rain
Light showers this week are continuing to bring relief from one of the most severe droughts that has hit this area for a generation.
George O. Hammer, Franklin observer for the U.S. Weather Bureau, today reported that .89 inches of rain had fallen in Franklin this week by 7:30 Wednesday morning. Daily rainfall this week has been as follows: Monday .14 inches, Tuesday .13 inches, Wednesday morning .56 inches.
A total of 6.23 inches of rain had fallen at the local weather station this month. Only one day did more than one inch of rain fall. That was September 14 when 2.36 inches fell.
WVU Adopts Emblem For Anniversary
MORGANTOWN—An official emblem for West Virginia University’s 100th Anniversary year beginning February 7, 1967, and a theme around which the major events of the year will be planned, were released today by the 100th Anniversary Office in Morgantown. The seal, in gold, blue, and white, is the creation of Prof. Benjamin Freedman of the Division of Art; the theme was contributed by Dr. Ruel E. Foster of the department of English.
The seal contains the words, “West Virginia University, 100 years, 1867-1967,” in blue, on a white circle. Inside this, against a gold field, is a blue, free-hand drawing, representing historic Woodburn Circle on the university’s downtown campus in the foreground, and the new, modern towers on the Evansdale and Medical Center campuses in the distance.
The theme, “Through Changing Knowledge to Enduring Wisdom,” represents a basic conviction of those who have planned the celebration thus far.
70 Years Ago
Week of October 4, 1956
C. L. Hevener In County After Absence of 69 Years
Charles Lee Hevener, 88, is back in Pendleton County visiting friends and relatives after an absence of 69 years.
Mr. Hevener left the county when he was 19 and has spent most of the time in California, although he has lived for short periods in Ohio, Minnesota, Montana, Washington and Oregon.
“I like the hills. This is the best country I have been in yet,” Mr. Hevener told a Times reporter as he was recounting his travels. “I’m glad to get back to the east. I get awfully tired of the fog and cold weather of California,” Mr. Hevener said in utter disregard of the claims of the California Chamber of Commerce.
This is the first time he has been back in Pendleton County since he left when he was 19 years old. He was born at what was then known as “Sweedlin Hill” near Fort Seybert on April 12, 1868. He is a brother of Clarence Hevener of Keezletown, Va., and an uncle of Casper Cowger of Franklin.
In discussing his plans for the future, Mr. Hevener said that he had become a “rock hound” (prospector), and that he is going to spend a little time looking around the hills of Pendleton County.
EDITORIALS
Darkness and Danger – – –
Autumn is here in many-splendored glory. The hills are a riot of color. Nights are crisp and cool—and it is good to be alive and in these West Virginia hills.
Days are growing shorter and the nights are growing longer. And this very thing poses a problem in traffic.
It is at this season that we must again start seriously considering the problem of darkness in its relation to traffic dangers and traffic deaths. West Virginia State Police cite national statistics to show that the traffic death rate is three times as high in night traffic as during the daytime.
So, it behooves all of us to use some extra care both in driving and walking. Otherwise a fellow stands a good chance to meet sudden death in the dark. Yes, it is as tragic as that.
the most dangerous period of the entire 24-hour day is a three-hour stretch from 5 o’clock in the evening until 8 o’clock. That’s the time when twilight comes on, making light conditions very tricky—and darkness finally clamps down. It is also the rush hour in cities and towns, the home-going time for the workers.
Pedestrians cause highway tragedies too. You can’t pin all the blame on the motorists. So, if we are to overcome the handicap of darkness, pedestrians, and drivers alike, must share the responsibility for everybody’s safety.
Let’s work together.
Moyers Answers Emergency Call— Gives Pint of Blood
FORT EUSTIS, Va.—Specialist Third Class Alfred B. Moyers, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lester B. Moyers of Moyers, was one of 18 soldiers who recently answered an emergency call at Fort Eustis, Va., by donating a pint of blood for an injured woman in the post hospital.
Specialist Moyers is regularly assigned with Company D of the 159th Transportation Battalion. He entered the Army in December 1954 and received basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C.
Harper 1st in State In Livestock Judging
Joe Harper, Circleville High School sophomore, made the highest individual score in the state in the livestock judging contest held last Friday and Saturday during the annual West Virginia Vocational Agriculture Judging Contest at Morgantown.
Harper, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Bardon Harper of Mouth of Seneca, won out over 200 boys from 40 different high schools throughout West Virginia.
Circleville High School had judging teams that participated in dairy, poultry and livestock judging contests.
Representing the Circleville school were Danny Smith, Jack Bland, Kenneth Harper, Wade Teter, Bobby Barkley, Norman Teter, Donald Ketterman, Joe Harper, Richard Warner and Neil Dove. They were accompanied to Morgantown by their instructor, Byrl Law.
