10 Years Ago
Week of July 18, 2013
Smoke Hole Canyon
Eyed for Conservation Campaign
A private conservation group, the Open Space Institute, is reportedly prepared to invest substantial grant funds to promote environmental preservation within a one-million-acres section of the Potomac headwaters, with a particular interest in the Smoke Hole Canyon and Lost River areas.
In the Potomac Headwaters region, about 20 percent of the land is already protected by being part of the Monongahela National Forests or through inclusion in a state park or wildlife management area.
SUGAR GROVE
Compassion Is the Glue
To Life’s Experience
Everyone has their own unique personality. One person can make a difference. Nowhere is that more evident than with the story of the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. This story began in Tacoma, WA, in the mid-1980s, and it has spread throughout the United States, to Pendleton County and to the ends of the earth.
This relay for life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, fight back against the disease and remember loved ones lost. It represents the hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that whose who face cancer will be supported and that one day cancer will be eliminated.
It is here that one can find healing, comfort and support from others who have faced cancer or who have lost a loved one to the disease. One can thank all the people who have done so much in the way of support through the personal cancer experience. One can gather together with friends, family and colleagues to laugh, cry and create lasting memories. One can thank the many team members, team leaders and Navy personnel who spend many countless volunteer hours to facilitate this event which culminates to a fun filled atmosphere of music and activities.
Cancer is indiscriminate and knows no boundaries. Compassion is the “glue” to the whole life experience. Compassion is commonly defined as a profound human emotion prompted by the pain of others. This feeling commonly gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another’s suffering. The late Loy Hively’s quote, “People will forget what you say to them, people will forget what you do for them, but they will not forget, be it good or bad, how you made them feel,” gives rise to that note of compassion.
One soon realizes that each person “falls short” daily, and somehow this is forgivable once one recognizes the good in each person. It is so important to let go of the grudges and seek to bring about a better day to those in passing, knowing full well that there is good in all, if only one takes the time to ponder this. Life is too short! There are five secrets to happiness, which is essential in the power of being positive (and many will add very importantly to the fight against cancer):
- Clear heart of all hatred;
- Clear mind of worries;
- Live simply;
- Give more, and
- Expect less.
Thanks to a reader who sent the following kindly cautions:
- Don’t judge a man by the clothes he wears. God made the one; the tailor made the other.
- Don’t judge a man by his family relations, for Cain belonged to the best family.
- Don’t judge a man by his speech, for a parrot can talk. The tongue is but an instrument of sound.
- Don’t judge a man by his failures in life, for many a man had failed, whom God later exalted to the highest place of honor.
- Don’t hit a man when he is down. Lift him up. You yourself may be down someday and need a friendly helping hand.
Each participant and volunteer can take pride in knowing that by working together, one ensures that this world is a better place, where this disease will no longer threaten the lives of loved ones or claim another year of anyone’s life. Many thanks to all the volunteers who assisted with the county having another relay for life success.
30 Years Ago
Week of July 15, 1993
Severe Drought,
Heat Sears
Pendleton County
A prolonged drought accompanied by unusually hot weather is taking its toll on the Pendleton County countryside and its residents.
The dearth of rain since April is creating major problems for farmers whose pastures are burning to a crisp and corn and other field crops are wilting under the searing summer sun.
George Hammer of Franklin, observer for the U.S. Weather Service, said today there has been only 2.59 inches of rain since April at his station a mile east of Franklin. He said 1.33 inches of rain fell in May and 1.26 inches fell in June. Even as the mid-west is experiencing the most severe flooding of the century, as of July 13, only 0.57 inch of rain had fallen at Hammer’s weather station.
“This has been the driest 10 weeks during this period of the year we have had for many years,” Hammer observed.
In addition to the lack of rain, Hammer said temperature readings this year have been unusually high with thermometer readings at or above 96 degrees in the shade on numerous days in recent weeks.
Many people are suffering both physically and psychologically from the drought and high temperatures. The extreme heat limits physical activity during the day, and the wasting crops and lawns is resulting in depression and discouragement.
50 Years Ago
Week of July 19, 1973
Pendleton Streams
Are Cleaner
John Carl Hammer, County Clean Stream chairman, and Mark Shock, co-chairman, announced that a Clean Stream Program sponsored by the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources in cooperation with the Pendleton County Court has been initiated in Pendleton County.
The program is designed to beautify the county’s streams and rivers by employing youth from the county to pick up the trash and debris that litter them.
Forty youth have been employed from Pendleton County to carry out this project.
The Clean Stream Program will run for seven weeks and it is hoped in that time the three major streams and their tributaries in the county can be cleaned of trash and litter.
Cowger Buys
Byrd’s Restaurant
Byrd’s Restaurant, one of Franklin’s long established and well known eating establishments, has changed hands and now is operating under new management.
The restaurant has been purchased by Jesse Cowger, a native of Franklin who has lived in Charlotte, N.C., for the past nine years where he was employed by the circulation department of the Charlotte Observer.
County Road
Maintenance Program Being Reduced
Pendleton County’s highway maintenance department is feeling the pinch of a new plan of distributing road maintenance funds among the counties throughout the state.
Eleven employees already have been discharged by the county office of the State Department of Highways and more will be leaving soon.
County road maintenance supervisor Lon Simmons said yesterday that the number of Department of Highways employees in Pendleton County must be reduced from 66 to 49 under the new plan.
60 Years Ago
Week of July 25, 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.
General Morgan
Captured in Ohio Raid
Brig. Gen. John H. Morgan loved guerilla fighting, and in the first two years of the Civil War, the Confederate raider had proven himself a master at pestering Yankees in Tennessee. But Morgan’s most famous raid—a breathtaking ride across the full width of Ohio—came to an abrupt end 100 years ago this week and his guerilla career came to a temporary end.
Morgan, after leading thousands of Federals on a wild chase through the Buckeye state, was captured.
Perhaps Morgan, himself, can be blamed for his capture, because he was disobeying orders when it happened. His full raid across Ohio, in fact, was done against the wishes of his commanding officer, General Braxton Bragg.
During the summer of 1863, Bragg was having his troubles in Tennessee. Having lost much of his army as re-enforcements for the Confederates at Vicksburg, Bragg decided to fall back from Tullahoma to Chattanooga, and he ordered Morgan to ride through Kentucky to throw the Yankees off balance while he withdrew his army. Morgan immediately asked to extend the raid into Ohio, but Bragg would not consent.
On July 2, Morgan and 2,460 men set out from Burkesville in southern Kentucky. Quickly, his men moved northward, skirmished at Columbia, Ky., fought at Tebb’s Bend, Ky., captured a small Federal garrison at Lebanon, Ky., and then rode on to the Ohio River at Brandenburg.
There, Morgan then took matters into his own hands. He boarded his men onto two captured steamboats and moved them across the river into Indiana. Then, with Indiana militia and Federal troops from Kentucky hot on his trail, he headed east for Ohio.
At Corydon, Ind., he overpowered a militia detachment. At Lexington, Ind., he captured 400 militia and then crossed the Ohio state line. It was July 13.
Burning bridges behind him, Morgan and his men moved toward Hamilton, Ohio, pillaging freely and impressing fresh horses. Suddenly, they turned southward and passed silently through Cincinnati’s northern suburbs under cover of night. They then turned east again, as their pursuers closed in on them in mounting numbers.
Across the state they rode at full speed until after dark. On July 18, they reached the Ohio River near Buffington Bar and Blennerhassett’s Island, just south of Parkersburg, W. Va., where Morgan had planned to escape southward from the beginning.
Next morning, as his pursuers closed in from all directions, his men started across the river but were turned back by Federal gunboats and Federal troops coming in from south, west and north.
About 300 men escaped into West Virginia that day, but many others were drowned, killed or captured. Morgan, with about half his force, failed to get across and, instead, eluded the net and headed for Pennsylvania.
Burning bridges again, his men made it 100 miles northward until July 26, near Salineville, Ohio, where 250 more of his men were captured. Later that same day near New Lisbon, Morgan and his last 364 men surrendered.
Next week: A lull.
70 Years Ago
Week of July 16, 1953
WILL DRAFT 23,000
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has issued a draft call for 23,000 men for September, the same as for July and August. All of the draftees will be assigned to the Army.
Compressor Station
At Mouth of Seneca
Goes Into Operation About August 1st
In the shadow of Seneca Rocks is a revolutionary source of power being used to transmit natural gas through the 260-mile pipeline between Charleston and Rockville.
The Seneca Compressor Station of the Atlantic Seaboard Corporation, started in 1952 and nearing completion, was pressed into service during the cold months of the past winter.
Ground-breaking for the Seneca station was on August 21, 1952. In the following months skilled workers came from all over the country. Many additional workers were recruited from the surrounding area.
In many ways the Seneca installation will prove beneficial in future years to people of the area. Besides offering limited employment opportunities, it will mean additional taxes for Pendleton county.
New Water Mains
Bring Lower Rate
Work was resumed again Monday on the new 1200 foot six-inch water main that was started last summer in Franklin. About 850 feet of pipe was laid last summer and an additional 350 feet will be laid this year.
The project is expected to be completed in about a week. “There may be some interruption of water service for a day for some people,” B. J. Aulde said, “but everything is being done to cause as little inconvenience as possible.”
A reduction in fire rates has been promised from 8th class to 7th class when the project is completed. This should reduce the insurance rates for about everybody in town. The new main will provide enough water to supply both fire engines going at full capacity as far north as Ernest Bowman’s residence.
It also will provide the north end of town with enough water for household use.
