10 Years Ago
Week of April 10, 2013
Area Youth
Flock to JAKES Event
Over 120 youth from Pendleton County and surrounding areas were treated to a fun-filled day of educational events at the 10th Annual JAKES event sponsored by the Potomac Headwaters Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF). Excitement continues to build for this annual event which sported the largest crowd ever this past Saturday. JAKES, which stands for Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship, is a program that was started by the NWTF to give kids a chance to explore the outside world and learn about natural resources. The youth can test their skills and knowledge in both indoor and outdoor learning stations.
The event was held at the Killbuck Rifleman Shooting Range in Fort Seybert.
20 Years Ago
Week of April 10, 2003
SUGAR GROVE
“Ten Secrets for Raising Sensible Successful Kids,” by Dr. Kevin Leman. The following are the “Ten Commandments of a Child.”
- “My hands are small, so please don’t expect perfection when I make a bed, draw a picture, or throw a ball. My legs are short; please slow down so I can keep up with you.
- Please take the time to explain things to me about this wonderful world, and do so willingly.
- My eyes have not seen the world as yours have, so please let me explore safely.
- My feelings are tender, so please be sensitive to my needs. Treat me as you would like to be treated.
- Please treasure me as God intended you to do, holding me accountable for my actions, giving me guidelines to live by, and disciplining me in a loving manner.
- Please go easy on the criticism, and remember you can criticize the things I do without criticizing me.
- Please give me the freedom to make decisions concerning myself, and even to fail, so I can learn from my mistakes.
- Please don’t do things over for me. That makes me feel my efforts didn’t quite measure up to your expectations.
- Mom and Dad, show me that you love each other. That’s something I need to know.
- Don’t forget to take me to Sunday School and church regularly. I enjoy learning about God, and I need to know He is my friend.”
Week of April 17, 2003
Environmental
Protection Agency Offers Tips for Lawn Care
With springtime thoughts turning to lawns and gardens, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has some tips for caring for your yard in an environmentally friendly way.
There are a number of steps homeowners can take to promote a healthy and beautiful lawn without harming the environment.
Develop Healthy Soil—Make sure your soil has the right pH balance, key nutrients and good texture.
Choose The Right Grass For Your Climate—Select grass seed that is well-suited to your climate.
Longer Is Better—Grass that is slightly long makes a strong, healthy lawn with few pest problems.
Water Early—It is time to water early in the morning if footprint impressions stay in the lawn and do not spring back.
Recycle Grass—Don’t pick up the grass clippings.
Let Your Lawn Breathe—Once a year, remove small plugs of earth to allow air and water to aerate the grass roots.
Use Manual Tools—Tools that don’t require electric or gasoline engines are especially handy for small yards or small jobs.
30 Years Ago
Week of April 15, 1993
Developing Countries
Set Vaccination Pace
The world’s richest country, the United States, lags behind the world’s poorest countries in an effort to immunize all children under age two.
It’s a paradox born out of the nearly total immunization of American kindergarten-age children in the 1970s.
“The paradox is that we ended up so successful that today many developing countries have higher vaccination levels than we do,” says Dr. William H. Foege, executive director of the task force for child survival and development at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, GA.
When global vaccinations began in 1974, barely five percent of the two-year-olds in poor countries were being vaccinated against childhood diseases. By 1991 the percentage had risen to 80. Leaders of the United Nations immunization program are now eyeing a goal of 90 percent by 2000.
In contrast, an average of only about 50 percent of American inner-city-two-year-olds are vaccinated, and the national rate for two-year-olds is about 70 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
In New York City, only about 40 percent of preschool children received all their recommended immunizations by age two in 1991. That compared with 89 percent of children under one in Algeria, 77 percent in Uganda, 76 percent in El Salvador and 70 percent in Mexico.
The gap lies between ages two and five. State laws in the United States require children to be completely immunized before they enter kindergarten. More than 99 percent of American five-year-olds are fully vaccinated.
40 Years Ago
Week of April 14, 1983
DAHMER
Today almost everyone has a watch of some make to tell the time of day, but this was not so many years ago. There was usually a clock in the home and a dinner bell to announce that dinner was ready. In the writer’s home a horn was used. In his great-grandfather’s home, a clock with wooden cogs was used. At the home of Cora and Delmar Lough at Deer Run, they have a clock about like the one mentioned which is now prized as a relic. At Joel Dahmer’s they drove wooden pegs or nails on the porch in order to tell the time by shadows when the sun shone. These pegs need to be adjusted also with the seasons of the year. Lewis Propst had a rule to let his children stop hoeing corn when the shadow of Flynn’s Knob would strike a ledge of rocks against Pine Mountain, known as the six o’clock mark. At the old Propst schoolhouse, during the wintertime when the rays of the sun struck the line fence between Jacob Mitchell’s and Charles W. Pitsenbarger’s at Charlie’s Knob, was at one time known as the eight o’clock mark.
The writer has been so tied down with his ewes at lambing time and trying to serve the Lord that right now sleep appears to be a necessity. Eleven sets of triplet lambs in a short period is enough to bring smiles and frowns. Of the 33 triplet lambs, 30 are now living.
50 Years Ago
Week of April 12, 1973
Crows Protected
By Federal Law
Last March, jays, ravens and crows were placed on the list of federally protected birds. In the Federal Register this past January, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that sport hunting of crows be regulated.
The proposal suggests that hunting seasons may not be longer than 124 days; that crows may be taken only by firearms, bow and arrow or falconry; and that hunting by airplane during the peak nesting season within a state shall be illegal.
The proposal does not change the rule which permits the killing of crows, blackbirds, cowbirds, and grackles when they are damaging agricultural crops, shade or ornamental trees, or endangering the public health.
Thus, the new proposal affords a measure of protection to the common crow and still permits sport hunting of an often maligned species of native wild bird.
Family Farmer Will
Not Become Extinct
- Don Pearlberg, director of agricultural economics for the U. S. Department of Agriculture, thinks the family farmer will never become extinct. He anticipates an agriculture of both family farms and the large-scale industrialized units. He also says that the family farm is tough competition and a very durable institution. The family farm still provides two-thirds of the nation’s farm production. On about 95 per cent of U.S. farms, the operator and his family supply most of the labor. The family farm is not a high-cost method of production, “and if we stay with the family farm and improve its efficiency,” Pearlberg said, “the amount we spend for our food can go lower.”
He noted that we now spend 16 per cent of our income for food.
60 Years Ago
Week of April 11, 1963
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.
Grant Moves South
Bypassing Vicksburg
It was in the dark of the night of April 16, 1863, 100 years ago this week that six Federal gunboats and a small fleet of transports, with coal barges lashed to their sides, eased down the Mississippi River just north of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Coming in sight of the city, the vessels picked up speed and charged headlong downstream under the Confederate guns on the Vicksburg bluffs. They were running the gauntlet of the Vicksburg defenses.
And in so doing, the vessels—commanded by Adm. David Porter—began the final and successful campaign of General Ulysses S. Grant to capture Vicksburg and cut the Confederacy in two.
Running the gauntlet at Vicksburg had long been a game of Fedearl gunboats on the Mississippi. It worked like this: the gunboats charged past the city full speed; the Confederates blasted away at the speeding gunboats, occasionally picking one off, until the vessels passed under the guns to safety farther downstream.
But now it was different. For the first time, the gunboats were accompanied by transports and barges loaded with stores and fuel. Their purpose: to get below Vicksburg to feed and service Grant’s army.
For Grant’s army was moving south of Vicksburg, too. As the Confederates opened fire on Porter’s river boats, Grant’s troops were moving down the Louisiana side of the river. Their plan: to move below Vicksburg on the western bank, cross the river on the transports, and then move north on Vicksburg itself.
Porter’s running of the gauntlet made for a spectacular night at Vicksburg. Confederate cannon boomed out; smoke poured from the steamers’ stacks; fires burst out, illuminating the river; a transport was hit and burst into flames, burning to the water’s edge in front of the city; two boats were disabled and several barges sunk.
But when dawn came, eight of the Federal vessels had gotten through the gauntlet and were safely south of Vicksburg. They quickly made contact with Grant’s men on the western bank.
Grant, himself, was listening to the gunfire that night from his headquarters boat just north of the city. His wife and children were with him, on a visit, and it must have been a satisfying moment for him. No longer were his 45,000 men digging and cursing in the Mississippi bayous and swamps; now they were marching smartly southward. No longer was he fighting floods and river currents; now he had a plan to fight Confederates. It was the beginning of the end for Vicksburg.
To make doubly sure of success in his new plan, Grant had ordered up some tactics like he had been fighting—a Yankee guerilla raid through Mississippi. On April 17, the day after the running of the gauntlet, Federal Col. Benjamin H. Grierson moved out of Memphis with three regiments of cavalry and headed into Mississippi. They rode the full length of the state, 600 miles, to Baton Rouge, La., cutting Rebel communications, eluding pursuers and throwing the state into confusion.
Monterey Livestock
Market Bought
By Staunton Man
The Highland County Livestock Market, Inc., located at Monterey, Va., has been sold to Charles W. Lawson of Staunton, Va. The purchase price was reported to be $18,000.
The market, formed in 1945, has been owned by some fifty stockholders, most of whom own only one or two shares. The purchase price embraces the five acres of land and all other physical assets, including the restaurant. Leonard Hammer of Blue Grass has been the manager for several years. George R. Swecker, also of Blue Grass, has served for some time as office manager.
“By The President of the United States of America A Proclamation”
IT WAS ON APRIL 20, 1863, that President Abraham Lincoln signed the official proclamation putting in force the Act of Congress which made West Virginia the thirty-fifth State of the Union. He “declared and proclaimed” the Act to be in effect “from and after” 60 days from the date of the Proclamation’s signing which made West Virginia’s official birthday June 20.
