20 Years Ago
Week of December 4, 2003
Courthouse To Be
Featured on Christmas Greeting Card
A photograph of the Pendleton County Courthouse will be used this year on a seasonal card which will be distributed by a state agency, the Courthouse Facilities Improvement Authority.
That agency’s annual Christmas season’s greetings card is widely distributed in West Virginia, especially among government agencies in each of the 55 counties.
The decision to use a wintry image of the county courthouse was made by Chris Richmond, a CFIA officer, who has visited the local courthouse on past occasions and considers it one of the state’s most attractive centers of county government.
Specifically, Richmond asked Shelly Kile, the executive director of the Pendleton County Economic and Community Development Authority, to help her find a wintry scene of the pretty courthouse.
“It’s wonderful,” Kile said. “It’s great publicity for Pendleton County.”
30 Years Ago
Week of December 2, 1993
Play it Safe —
Choose a Fresh Xmas Tree and Keep it that Way
Choosing a real Christmas tree can be fun for the whole family.
The West Virginia University Extension Service suggests a few simple steps to follow when selecting and caring for that tree.
First, do a freshness test. Gently grasp a branch between your thumb and forefinger and pull it toward you. Very few needles should come off in your hand if the tree is fresh. Take a look at the ground and around the tree. You shouldn’t see an excessive amount of green needles on the ground. Some interior loss of brown needles is normal, however, and will occur over the lifetime of the tree.
Once you’ve chosen your tree, make a fresh, straight cut across the base of the trunk, about a half-inch up from the original cut. Place the tree in a stand that holds two or more quarts of water.
The most important thing to remember about caring for a real tree is to add water to the tree daily. Never let your tree stand go dry.
A seal of dried soap will form over the cut stump if the water drops below the base of the tree. This seal will prevent the tree from absorbing water later when the tree stand is refilled. If a seal does form, you’ll need to make another fresh cut.
A tree will absorb as much as a gallon of water in the first 24 hours and one or more quarts a day thereafter. Water is important because it keeps the needles from drying and the boughs from drooping.
Take care to keep your tree away from heat and draft sources, such as fireplaces, radiators and television sets. Test your light cords and connections before hanging them on the tree to make sure they’re in good working order. Don’t use cords with cracked insulation or broken or empty sockets. Also, be sure to unplug lights before you go to bed or leave the house.
Week of December 16, 1993
SUGAR GROVE
Ever since Saint Francis of Assisi celebrated Mass at a specially constructed manger in 1223 in Italy, nativity scenes have been an important part of Christmas celebrations. By the eighteenth century, building a model crib, or prassepio, became a tradition which spread rapidly in both church and home observations of the season. The people who made the cribs were known as figuarari and the figures they produced were named pastori. This custom has spread from Europe to America and Africa and throughout the world and continues to be a meaningful part of the Christmas observance.
50 Years Ago
Week of December 6, 1973
Warmth
No Problem for Deer
Whose Woods Are These . . .
(A Weekly column of Wilderness Lore by The Woodlands and Whitewater Institute Staff, Spruce Knob Mountain)
With the arrival of winter here on Spruce Knob, complete with plunging temperatures and white landscapes, the question of warmth and how to produce and maintain it becomes a vital issue to all animals including man. In many cases the generation of heat and its efficient retention by man and beast alike, produces more than comfort, and is the difference between life and death. One only has to read Jack London’s short story, “To Build A Fire,” to see the fatal consequences the lack of heat in a harsh winter environment can have on one man.
After thinking about the various ways man goes about keeping himself warm when he goes out on a cold winter’s day, one may well wonder how in the world our old friend the white-tailed deer keeps from freezing to death. It would appear that the deer trots around in the snow and wind of winter with little to protect him. Actually, the mechanisms a deer uses to keep warm are very effective and serve as excellent protection through the coldest of winters.
In the early fall of each year the deer begins to lose its thin summer coat. The new coat which replaces it is darker, almost a blue color. The deer are mechanisms now said to “be in the blue” but they certainly are not blue with cold. The new winter coat is thicker, composed of long crinkly hairs with many air pockets. This new coat acts as a very efficient insulator, retaining much of the heat generated by the deer’s body. During especially cold weather the deer are able to loft their coats. This lofting increases the amount of air in the coat and it becomes an even better insulator.
That the deer’s coat is an effective insulator can be graphically seen after a light dusting snow. The deer’s coat is covered with tiny snow particles. If much heat were escaping through the deer’s coat, these snow particles would melt on contact.
The dark quality of the deer’s winter coat also plays a part in keeping a deer warm on sunny but cold winter days. Dark objects tend to absorb more light and heat than light objects. Thus on a sunny day a deer’s coat is partially heated by the sun.
Man has copied the air insulating principle used in the deer’s coat for the retention of heat. Two examples which come to mind are home fiberglass insulation and down parkas. In these times of fuel shortage, man might also do well to look at nature’s ways of producing energy and heat, one of which is the white-tailed deer’s dark coat.
60 Years Ago
Week of December 12, 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.
Lincoln Gives Views
On Reconstruction
The two presidents—Abraham Lincoln of the United States and Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States—addressed their respective congresses 100 years ago this week, and their words and attitudes showed clearly how the Civil War was going.
The one—President Lincoln—spoke in bitter denunciations of Northern leaders in confessions of grave defeats at Vicksburg, Gettysburg and Chattanooga, and in little hope of peace.
The two messages were given the same day—December 8—to the two congresses that had just opened. In the light of history, President Lincoln’s proved the more important.
Lincoln reviewed with satisfaction the progress of the war and then embarked on the peace that would follow. In so doing, he outlined in clear terms his fundamental policy toward reconstruction.
He announced that on that same day, he would issue a proclamation of general amnesty for “all persons who have, directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion.” The proclamation was duly issued and although it contained many exceptions, it promised full pardon and restoration of rights to Southerners who would take an oath of loyalty to the United States.
Next, Lincoln suggested a method of which loyal governments could be re-established within the states of the Confederacy. Under this plan, when loyal residents of a Southern state numbering not less than one-tenth of those voting in the 1860 presidential election—established a Republican government, that government “would be recognized as the true government of the state.”
Finally, the President made crystal clear that he would stand by his Emancipation Proclamation, under this plan.
Davis’ message urged one major policy: a recommendation that the Confederate conscription laws be changed to abolish the practice of Southerners hiring substitutes to serve in the military. He also urged congressional action to halt inflation.
But much of Davis’ message was criticism: criticism of the Confederate troops who had fled from Missionary Ridge; criticism of England’s policy of neutrality, and, most of all, criticism of the North.
He said Northern treatment of Confederate prisoners of war was one of “revolting inhumanity”; he criticized devastation of Southern farms by invading Federal armies. Northerners, he said, “refuse even to listen to proposals between us . . . We now know that the only reliable hope for peace is in the vigor of our resistance.”
Neither message was an entire success. Lincoln’s reconstruction policy was criticized as too favorable for the South by some, too harsh for the South by others. Davis’ speech was followed the next day by another speech in Congress in which Henry Foote blamed Davis for keeping “unworthy and incompetent men in command.”
Next week: Joe Johnston Gets Bragg’s Command.
70 Years Ago
Week of December 3, 1953
The Mountaineer
Gardener
by JOHN HAMMER
Proper home curing of pork products is essential for a high-quality meat supply, points out John W. Hammer, County Agent.
Butchering should be done on a day when the carcass can be chilled out thoroughly—to 36-40 degrees F., John explains.
“The sugar-cure mixture used by 4-H club members in the “Fattening Pig” project is a bit milder than some cures,” John says, “but it will produce a less salty and a more palatable product, provided it is applied carefully. The ingredients are 6 pounds of salt, 2 pounds of sugar (white or brown), and 2 ounces of saltpeter to approximately 100 pounds of pork.”
Here are the directions for curing by the 4-H formula:
Mix the salt, sugar, and saltpeter thoroughly. Weigh your first ham and then weigh three-fourths of an ounce of curing mixture for each pound of ham. For example, if the ham weighs 16 pounds, weigh out three-fourths of mixture for each of those 16 pounds—or 12 ounces. Pour the mixture into a large pan and lay the ham on top of it. Rub the mixture into all surfaces of the ham, poke some into the hock, and finish by patting all the remainder of the 12 ounces onto the lean side of the ham. Lay the ham on a table, taking care not to shake the curing mixture off the meat.
Seven days later, weigh out one-fourth ounce of curing mixture for each pound of ham, or 4 ounces for a 16-pound ham. Put the ham and the 4 ounces of mixture in the pan and repeat the rubbing and patting process, using the “new” 4 ounces of mixture and all that remained of the original 12 ounces on the ham.
Then seven days later (2 weeks after the first salting), again rub the ham with any cure remaining on the meat plus a second and final one-fourth ounce of mixture for each pound of ham.
Keep the meat in a cold place (36 to 40 degrees F. is the goal) throughout the curing period and keep it there 3 days per pound—thus, a 16-pound ham is kept in cure 48 days from the time the first portion of the mixture is rubbed on. Since this curing method uses a little less salt than some of the more familiar recipes, a little more curing time (13 days per pound) is allowed, John stresses. This extra time gives the salt a better chance to work its way uniformly through the meat, bones and joints.
Cure all joints (hams, shoulders, and picnic shoulders) in the same way, but keep all joints in cure at least 25 days for the salt to get into the shanks and bones.
Bacon can be cured with the same mixture as for hams—but less mixture should be used per pound. Most dry-cured bacon is over-cured and the surface lean is thus hardened or “burned” with the salt, John cautions.
Weigh out three-fourths of an ounce of mixture for each pound of bacon in a strip. Rub the mixture on all sides, ends, and edges, and spread the remainder evenly over the lean surface. Pile these cold, salted strips on top of each other, skin down, and let cure in a cold place for 2 weeks. Do not rub again and do not add more cure. Bacon strips which measure more than 2 inches in thickness may be left in the cure 3 weeks but will not need more than three-fourths of an ounce of curing mixture per pound, fresh weight.
A cool cellar, above the freezing temperature, is the best place for storing. After the cure is completed, brush the salt from the meat and allow the meat to soak in cold water, hams and shoulders 3 hours, bacon 30 minutes. Thoroughly scrub the soaked meat and string it for the smoke house. Hang it in the smoke house and allow it to dry over night.
