10 Years Ago
Week of June 19, 2014
Local Veterans Visit
WW Memorial
On June 7, 26 veterans from Pendleton, Grant and Mineral counties went to Washington, DC, to visit the World War II Memorial.
The veterans’ visit was sponsored by Mountain Hospice and Honor Flight, the national network which has enabled more than 100,000 veterans to visit the national memorial, which is a tribute to “the greatest generation.”
The World War II Memorial was dedicated by President George W. Bush on May 29, 2004. Honor Flight believes that “every veteran deserves to visit his or her memorial.” The nonprofit organization’s “flying season” is April through November.
20 Years Ago
Week of June 17, 2004
Topping Off
Gas Tank Is Bad
For the Environment
When the gas pump nozzle clicks off automatically, does one add a little more gas to round off dollar amount or get a little extra?”
One may be interested to learn that topping off one’s gas tank is not only bad for the environment—it’s costing one money as well.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency notes that gas station pumps are equipped with vapor recovery systems that feedback gas vapors into their tanks to prevent them from escaping into the air and contributing to air pollution. Any additional gas one tries to pump into one’s tank may be drawn into the vapor line and fed back into the station’s storage tanks. In effect, one is paying for gas that one never gets.
Vapor recovery systems do a good job of preventing vapors from entering the air. Unfortunately, they don’t catch everything. Some of the topped off tank also ends up as air pollution, which contributes to ozone.
Ozone can irritate lung airways and cause inflammation much like a sunburn. Other symptoms include wheezing, coughing, pain when taking deep breaths, and breathing difficulties during exercise or outdoor activities. People with respiratory problems are most vulnerable, but even healthy people that are active outdoors can be affected when ozone levels are high.
Even at very low levels, ground-level ozone can trigger a variety of health problems including aggravated asthma, reduced lung capacity, and increased susceptibility to respiratory illnesses like pneumonia and bronchitis.
So whether filling up one’s car for the holidays or just for regular use, don’t top off the tank. One’s health (and wallet) can’t afford it!
Week of June 24, 2004
SUGAR GROVE
Work Ethic Was Stiffer
In ‘Good Old Days’
The eight-hour day and the 40-hour week are recent inventions. Anything less than an 84-hour week and a 14-hour day would have been considered laziness by the neighbors, or considered a vacation by Mother, a generation ago. Father would rise at 5 a.m. and stir the fire so Mother could get breakfast started. From 5:30 a.m. until 8:30 a.m., Mother was free to perform her duties.
Few families worried about going hungry. The sunny, summer days were used to fill the cellar for the long, dreary winter days. By fall, the shelves were filled with jars of jellies, kraut, relish, beans, fruits, beets, pickles, apples, pumpkin, corn, peaches and pears. Every kitchen would have a crock on the back of the stove that contained buckwheat cake starter. Maple syrup and apple butter were rendered in kettles over the backyard fires. Many family delicacies were hunted diligently and often hard to find, hard to gather, and oft times difficult to prepare. Vinegar was made and also homemade soap. Cookie jars were filled with sugar cookies, ginger molasses cookies or lemon crackers, which improve when, left in a stone jar. Big pans of apple cobbler or dumplings could melt in one’s mouth.
In the day of allergies, concern for overweight, high cholesterol, one has added 20 years to one’s life span and subtracted 30 years of pleasure in being able to enjoy good food. A menu for an ordinary day might consist of the following: Breakfast –oatmeal, hot biscuits, cured ham, red-eye gravy, fried eggs, strawberry jam, butter, coffee and cream;
Lunch – homemade bread, country fried steak, green beans, applesauce, beets, gravy, mashed potatoes and roasting ears; and
Dinner – hot biscuits, honey, butter, apple pie, fried potatoes, green beans, sauerkraut, country sausage, coffee and milk.
When considering the long hours and hard work one might ask why these times are referred to as “the good old days!”
30 Years Ago
Week of June 9, 1994
30 Pendleton Students Get Vocational School Diplomas
Thirty Pendleton County students were among 72 vocational students from the Tri-County area who received diplomas at the 19th annual Diploma Night ceremony at the South Branch Vocational-Technical Center at Petersburg May 26.
DAHMER
It was not the intention of the writer to mislead the readers about John Dickinson signing the Declaration of Independence as stated in the Pendleton History Past and Present, but he did sign the United States Constitution. He was a member of the Continental Congress. He also served in the American Army attaining the rank of Brigadier General in the Delaware Militia. In 1781-1782, he was president of Delaware and in 1782-1785 was governor of Pennsylvania. John Dickinson, American political writer and statesman, was born in Talbot County, MD, November 8, 1732, and died in Wilmington, DE, on February 14, 1808.
Week of June 16, 1994
Cellular Telephone
Service Coming
To Pendleton
Cellular telephone service soon will be available to Pendleton County residents.
Using wireless broadcast technology rather than conventional telephone lines, signals are broadcast from an antenna and picked up by wireless phone receivers which are mobile.
Work was completed last week on a 150-foot-high galvanized steel cellular antenna which will serve the Pendleton County area. The antenna is located on the Sponaugle farm on Entry Mountain just west of Franklin.
The new telephone service will be provided by Cellular One of Baltimore, MD. It is expected to be in service within four weeks.
The Franklin antenna is the fourth to be constructed in the South Branch Valley between Franklin and Berkeley Springs. The local tower will tie in with one at Petersburg and others in the Eastern Panhandle.
40 Years Ago
Week of June 14, 1984
Laws Control Types
Of Work
Children May Do
Federal child labor laws pertain to children under the age of 16. Except when working for your parent or guardian on a farm owned or operated by such parent or guardian, you cannot work in a yard, pen or stall occupied by a bull, boar or stallion kept for breeding purposes, or by a sow with suckling pigs or a cow with newborn calf.
Neither can you operate a tractor over 20-pto horsepower and certain other farm machinery, although you may perform some of these jobs at age 14 if you have special training.
Youth under 14 may be employed to do any job not classified as particularly hazardous if they have the consent of parent or guardian. Check with your WVU County Extension Office for full details.
60 Years Ago
Week of June 18, 1964
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.
Siege of Petersburg
Begins In Virginia
The Civil War in Virginia took a dramatic new shift 100 years ago this week as Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee played a game of cat and mouse outside Richmond.
When the game was over, each had outsmarted the other. Grant had fooled Lee by stealing a march southward, crossing the James River and marching on Petersburg, 21 miles south of Richmond before Lee realized what was happening. Lee, in turn, outsmarted Grant when he finally learned of the Federal move; with his usual swiftness, he raced his army for Petersburg and occupied that city’s defenses before Grant could capture it.
The result was that Lee and Grant faced each other in new lines, and their fighting was far from over. Because of the move, Grant was forced to lay siege on Petersburg, a siege destined to continue until the last days of the Civil War.
Grant had decided on his bold move after his disastrous defeat at Cold Harbor. Convinced he could not crack Lee’s line through the middle, he decided to swing south and choke off Richmond’s supply line from the south.
Ordering a cavalry division to hold off Lee, Grant swung his huge army of 113,000 southward toward the James, boats arrived, bridges were thrown across, and Grant began herding his men across.
Lee soon discovered Grant had withdrawn from his Cold Harbor lines, but he did not think Grant would cross the James. Lee moved his men into new lines just southeast of Richmond where he had whipped George McClellan two years earlier and waited for what he figured would be a new assault on Richmond.
Down in Petersburg, Confederate Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard was beginning to realize what was happening. With about 2,200 men to defend Petersburg, he saw the Federals massing outside his lines; he heard reports that thousands of Federals were crossing the James; he felt the attacks on his thin line grow heavier. He sent off one message after another to Lee and to Richmond telling of his worries, but no one believed them.
Then, the Federals made a drastic error. William F. “Baldy” Smith, leading the assault on Petersburg, delayed to ponder his situation. As he did, Beauregard received his first re-enforcements on June 15. On the 16th and 17th, Smith attacked and drove Beauregard’s line back, but he failed to exert the necessary force to take the city.
Finally, on June 18, Lee understood the situation. He fired off orders, and the Army of Northern Virginia moved out sharply. Next day, Grant’s men faced the battle-hardened veterans of Lee’s army—the same Confederates they had faced at Cold Harbor. A great Federal opportunity had been muffed.
Next week: France gets a taste of war.
DAHMER
Honey bees sixty years ago were an available product to many of the elderly people or citizens of this area, because they were lovers of honey and did not take too much hard work to do in attending to them. Many farmers grew large fields of buckwheat and they were favorite haunts for the honey bees to visit, and now buckwheat is not extensively grown in this immediate area.
70 Years Ago
Week of June 17, 1954
Farm Women Clean Courthouse Toilets
The Franklin Farm Women’s Club is busily engaged in a project of redecorating and cleaning up the toilets in the Pendleton County Courthouse.
A committee, headed by Mrs. H. J. Maxwell, and including Mrs. Helen Skidmore and Mrs. Theda Mallow, has made arrangements to have the two toilets painted, and to provide waste paper baskets and new screens for the doors and windows.
The Pendleton County Court is providing the paint for the job and the Farm Women are providing the balance of the funds. Each member of the Franklin Club has been assessed $1.00 for the project, and other clubs in the county have been invited to participate.
Russell Dice has been engaged to do the painting.
Baseball Game Goes
12 Innings Sunday
It took Petersburg twelve innings Sunday afternoon to conquer a fighting Franklin baseball club in a game that saw the lead change no less than six times.
The score stood at 8 all at the end of the ninth where it remained until the last half of the twelfth, and then as the managers of the two teams were about to call the game because of darkness, Denault singled to short center field. Dolly’s hit to deep left field scored Denault giving Petersburg the run that ended the game at a score of 9-8 in favor of Petersburg.
