20 Years Ago
Week of August 8, 2002
SUGAR GROVE
Few Tombstones
Found in County Are Inscribed in German
In spite of the fact that German was spoken in sections of Pendleton County in earlier days, surprisingly few tombstones are found inscribed in German.
In the oldest Lutheran church in West Virginia (Propst Church, 1769) and at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church at Wilfongtown, not a single tombstone is inscribed in German in either cemetery, even though their early church records are in the German language.
An examination of the surnames offers an insight into the patterns of settlement. The Propst Cemetery shows the following names: Blakemore, Bodkin, Eye, Hedrick, Hively, Mischler, Hoover, Nicholson, Plaugher, Propst and Rexrode. The markers at the 1807 St. Michael’s Lutheran Church bear the following surnames: Crummett, Dove, Eckard, Hoover, Kiser, Losh, Mitchell, Propst, Puffenbarger, Rexrode, Simmons, Smith, Snyder, Wilfong and Varner. The early names at Mt. Hope Lutheran Church, near Upper Tract, include a preponderance of the names Alt, Mallow and Schmucker. The surname perpetuation is best seen through the examination of one family line. John Michael Propst came to the area in 1748; he and his wife, Catherine, had nine children, six sons and three daughters. They married Caplingers, Rexroad, Miller, Cowger, Crummett, Eye and Huffman, all of German heritage. The third generation American and West Virginians married Havener, Eye, Propst, Mitchell and Crummett, and the fourth added the surnames Waggy, Eye, Swadley, Kizer and second cousin Propst. The regional names remain particularly significant to this day.
West Virginia
To Implement
Amber Alert Program
The West Virginia Broadcasters Association in cooperation with Gov. Bob Wise, the Office of Military Affairs and the State Emergency Alert System (EAS) committee, is in the preliminary stages of implementing the Amber Alert program.
Amber is an acronym for America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response. The program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies and broadcasters to send out an emergency alert to the public when a child has been abducted and it is believed that the child’s life is in grave danger. Most recently, the program was praised for the quick response in locating two abducted teenage girls in California. The program, with its increasing success, is now operable in 13 states.
40 Years Ago
Week of August 12, 1982
Types of Forest Roads Explained
By Kim Montooth
After working for the U.S. Forest Service for five summer seasons, you’d think I would know a little bit about most everything concerning Forest Service management. Well, the truth is, every summer I learn many new management aspects of the Forest Service.
Much of the learning doesn’t take place until one of the visitors asks a question that I really don’t have an answer to. Then it’s time for me to get out the books and start asking some questions myself.
One thing I’ve learned about from visitor’s questions is Forest Service road management. “What is the condition of the road to Spruce Knob?,” is a question asked by many visitors. When our reply is the road to Spruce Knob is a hardpack gravel road, most visitors don’t seem too pleased. It would be nice to have the road to Spruce Knob and other areas throughout the forest paved, but paved roads are very expensive.
Many of us take the roads we travel on for granted, unless they’re rough and filled with potholes. The forest road system is a great service to all. Without these roads, many areas such as Spruce Knob, Dolly Sods and Cranberry Back Country would be inaccessible to anyone but the most earnest backpackers.
The Monongahela National Forest has over 1,100 miles of roads that range from narrow temporary roads to paved ones. Many forest roads are maintained for a certain type and amount of traffic such as for logging and recreational use. On an average it costs $500 per mile to maintain these roads and that’s over half a million dollars total.
Money for new roads or the upgrading of roads comes from two sources: Forest Service projects such as timber sale or money that has been appropriated by Congress. Because the Monongahela National Forest does not cut and sell as much timber as the forests out west, there is a limited amount of money for the construction or upgrading of roads.
Another aspect of the system is that of Off-Road Vehicle Use (ORV). The use of motorized vehicles has dramatically increased. This increase in use has destroyed natural resources, endangered public safety and created conflicts between other forest users. Because of these concerns and conflicts, the Monongahela National Forest has developed seven categories of roads and trails that are open to public use.
1) Open Maintained — These roads and trails are open for public use of registered vehicles.
2) Open Not Maintained — These roads and trails are open for public use of any registered vehicles, but not maintained for public use.
3) Motorbike Route — These roads and trails are open for public use of registered two-wheeled motorcycles.
4) Snowmobile Route — These roads and trails are open for public use of snowmobiles.
5) Open Deer Season Only — These roads and trails are open for public use of any registered motor vehicle from the Friday before the gun season for antlered deer begins, remaining open to the day of the gun season.
6) Summer Closure — These roads and trails are open for public use from August 16 through April 14.
7) Special Recreation — These roads and trails are open for public use such as in developed campgrounds.
Signs are posted along forest roads to inform the public of the special regulations for the categories of roads.
60 Years Ago
Week of August 16, 1962
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.
Lee Advances in East, Kirby Smith in West
Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of all Confederate troops in Virginia, gazed through his glasses from atop Clark’s Mountain near Gordonsville, Virginia, 100 years ago this week, watching the movement of federal forces to the north.
A hot August sun beat down. Beside him, Gen. James Longstreet looked through glasses, too, at the panorama that stretched before them.
It was August 18, and as the two officers watched, the flags of federal Gen. John Pope’s army floated placidly above the tree tops some 15 miles to the north, between the Rapidan River in the foreground and the Rappahannock River off in the distance.
Shifting their glasses, the two watched as the white tops of federal army wagons moved over the rolling terrain back toward the north and the Rappahannock. Little clouds of dust arose, marking the tramp of soldiers, and, as Longstreet described it later, “presently, (the clouds) began to swell into dense columns along the rearward lines…the clouds grew thinner and thinner as they approached the river and melted into the bright haze of the afternoon sun.”
Then Lee put away his glasses, and with disappointment in his voice, turned to Longstreet. “General,” he said, “we little thought that the enemy would turn his back upon us this early in the campaign.”
To the north, between the Rapidan and Rappahannock, Pope, indeed, was turning his back on the Confederates and beating his way back across the Rappahannock.
And although his withdrawal was a disappointment to Lee, it marked one of the great changes of that summer of 1862: Lee’s change from a defensive warfare at Richmond to an offensive against the federals nearer Washington.
Lee had arrived in central Virginia from Richmond only a few days earlier and had been anxious to attack Pope at once. But before he could attack, Pope had learned of Lee’s plans. An officer of Gen. “Jeb” Stuart’s staff had been captured by Pope’s men and on his person was found a message from Lee to Stuart outlining the Confederate plans.
In fact, Stuart, himself, had nearly been captured that very morning. Surprised at a farmhouse by a federal detachment, he jumped a fence and ran into a nearby woods to escape, leaving his famous plumed hat behind as a prize memento for the federals.
At any rate, Pope wheeled his army around and pulled back behind the Rappahannock to safer ground. As he did, Lee ordered his army to cross the Rapidan and prepare for an all-out attack.
As Lee moved out against Pope in Virginia, Gen. E. Kirby Smith moved out from Knoxville, Tenn., to the north in another major Confederate offensive.
Smith headed for Cumberland Gap along the Kentucky-Virginia-Tennessee borders with 6,000 troops. Learning Cumberland Gap was heavily guarded by federals, he turned westward and slipped through Roger’s Gap into Kentucky. On the 18th, the same day that Lee and Longstreet had watched Pope’s army from the mountain top, Smith occupied the town of Barboursville.
A Confederate army again was on Kentucky soil.
Next week: Lincoln and Horace Greely.
70 Years Ago
Week of August 14, 1952
The Mountaineer
Gardener
By County Agent
JOHN HAMMER
To prune or not to prune—that is the question, or at least it’s the question I’ve been asked many times the past few weeks. Most of the questions have concerned tomatoes, sweet corn and sweet potatoes—with a few questions on beans.
I realize that it’s now a little late for any of you to change your pruning methods for the year, but I’d like to give you the best information I have on the problem and perhaps you can keep it in mind for next year.
Tomatoes—If tomatoes are not staked, do not sucker. Unstaked tomatoes, however, should have been given plenty of room. They should have been set at least four feet by five feet and five feet by five feet would have been better.
If your tomatoes are trained to a stake, remove all suckers until the plant reaches the top foot of the stake. For most tomatoes, the stake when driven should stand about five feet above the ground. Pruning of the lower leaves of staked tomatoes is not a good practice unless they are diseased.
Sweet Corn—On sweet corn, let the suckers grow. Records show that if suckers are removed, the yield will not be increased and it may be reduced. Most of the newer hybrids are sucker freely so just let them go.
Sweet Potatoes—There’s nothing gained by clipping sweet potato vines except to get them out of your way and you may decrease the root size if the vines are clipped severely.
If you do not like the long vines, I’d suggest that next year you grow one of the bush varieties such as Georgia Bunch or Porto Rico Bunch and always plant them on light soil that has not been heavily manured. Too much nitrogen makes big tops and few roots.
Beans—The clipping of bean vines such as half runner beans and limas may not decrease the first picking materially but it will reduce later pickings. It’s usually not a good practice.
OPEN OFFICE SUPPLY AND PRINTING PLANT
Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Ashenfelter have purchased the property now occupied by South Branch Maytag company opposite Ruddle’s Meat market, and will install a job printing plant and office supply center which will be opened sometime late in the fall. The Maytag people will move into the Sites Federated store building which they recently purchased, and where a line of furniture will be carried along with the leading makers of electrical appliances which they have been handling.
The dwelling behind the store will be remodeled by the new owners and Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Cline and sons will occupy one of the apartments while the Ashenfelters will move from the Warner house behind the Franklin Cut-Rate into the apartment over the present Maytag store.
