30 Years Ago
Week of November 3, 1994
DAHMER
Apples Not Appreciated Like They Were
Years Ago
Folk do not store away apples for winter use at the home like they did in the days of yore. Back then, it was a good food that kept a good fresh flavor until spring. Transportation, cold storage and apple pests have changed this so immensely that now fresh fruits can be obtained the entire year. Many older folks will remember when they carried apples to school for a snack during the 15 minutes recess. The noon day lunch was often topped out with an apple. The late A. Russell Pitsenbarger loved to tell how he carried apples in his long knit pull-on cap with the apples hanging down to the back of his neck when going to the Propst School. The writer’s mother, Estella Dahmer, would say, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” The writer still likes to store away winter variety of apples until July. The apples this year are rather scarce and of poor quality because they were not sprayed. The writer picked some a few weeks ago consisting of such varieties as Baldwin, Yellow Bell Flower, Staymans, Lowrie, Starking, and Johnson Fine Winter.
Former Resident Designs, Constructs Dulcimers
by Nancy Van Valkenburg
“The Herald Dispatch”
James R. Thompson wasn’t quite sure why he picked up that first dulcimer.
“It was the late ‘70s, and I saw it at a Charleston Civic Center craft show,” said Thompson, now 85 and retired from a career in television sales and service.
“I didn’t know how to play the dulcimer or even how to tune it, but I paid the man $55 and took it home.”
More than two dozen years later, the Huntington resident has turned the chance purchase into two beloved hobbies. An accomplished musician, Thompson tours the region to perform with the Tri-State Mountain Dulcimer Society, which performs about 50 concerts a year.
And he designs and constructs dulcimers of his own. He has a basement workshop in the Huntington area home he shares with his wife, Betty.
Since teaching himself the art, Thompson has created 69 of the folk instruments. Dulcimers are stringed, wooden instruments that look a little like a fiddle that’s been stretched at both ends. Dulcimer music is sweet and mellow, Thompson said.
Thompson makes sure no two of his instruments look alike. Some feature contrasting woods. One has hummingbird-shaped cutouts, and another is etched with Scottish emblems, including birds and thistles.
Thompson said he’s kept some dulcimers, given some to friends and relatives, and sold others for $200 to $550.
“I don’t do it for money,” Thompson said. Because he spends about 200 hours on each instrument, the pay for constructing instruments he sells would be $1.75 an hour, tops. And subtract from that the price of wood and dulcimer strings.
“I do it for the enjoyment,” Thompson said. “You can decide to work for a minute or two, and an hour will pass before you notice the time.”
He’s crafted dulcimers from such diverse woods as spruce, maple, cherry, walnut and Hawaiian koa, but Thompson’s favorite instruments are made from aged American chestnut, riddled with worm holes.
“The wood comes from Riverton, the place I grew up,” he said. “I remember collecting washtubs full of chestnuts as a child. After the blight hit in 1930, the worms moved in, and the trees had to come down.”
Thompson said he would never trade the worm-eaten chestnut, harvested when he was 11, for modern, unblemished wood.
“It just wouldn’t have the same character, or history, or meaning,” he said, his blue eyes twinkling. “I’ve made some of my prize pieces with American chestnut.”
Thompson said he doesn’t come from a musical background, but once he started playing the dulcimer, he began to remember country hoedown tunes from his childhood— “Turkey in the Straw” and “Wildwood Flower” among others.
When he visits public schools with the Tri-State Mountain Dulcimer Society, Thompson said, he’s amazed at how many area children have never seen a dulcimer.
“You’ll see lots of dulcimers that have been in families for generations. Maybe they’re 100 to 150 years old, and no one remembers how to play them.”
“You meet very fine people, you travel and you preserve a little piece of history. Dulcimers have added a lot of pleasure to my life.”
60 Years Ago
Week of November 5, 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.
Lincoln Re-Elected,
Loses Only 3 States
Abraham Lincoln was re-elected President of the United States 100 years ago this week by an overwhelming majority.
His victory was no surprise, but the size of the majority was. With more than 4 million men voting, Lincoln captured a popular majority of nearly 500,000 votes. In the electoral college, he carried all but three of the states—New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky.
It was a substantial vote of confidence in the war effort and in Lincoln’s determination to see the Civil War come to an end with full victory for the Union. Having been elected for his first term in 1860 with a minority of the votes cast, Lincoln could, after the 1864 election, act virtually without opposition to the war-save that from the Confederacy.
Lincoln’s victory had not always been assured. Only two months earlier, he had predicted he probably would lose the election. But things had changed in those two months.
First had come news of the victory at Mobile Bay, wiping off the Confederacy’s last Gulf port. Then had come the fall of Atlanta—one of the South’s greatest cities. Then had come Phil Sheridan’s dramatic victories in the Shenandoah Valley.
The Democrats had nominated George B. McClellan, the handsome brilliant young general whom Lincoln had cashiered, but even McClellan did not believe in the Democratic platform which declared the war a failure.
Although he didn’t campaign, Lincoln took what steps he could to help his re-election chances. Figuring (correctly) that his soldiers would support him, Lincoln tactfully suggested to General William Tecumseh Sherman in Georgia in September: “Anything you can safely do to let (your) soldiers, or any part of them, go home to vote at the state election, will be greatly in point.
Sherman’s men hailed from the Midwest—a crucial area.
In Pennsylvania, too, soldiers were furloughed to go home and vote, and Pennsylvania voted for Lincoln.
State elections in September and October showed Republican victories in Maine, Vermont, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and Lincoln’s optimism rose. By election day, he was fairly confident.
On election night, Lincoln and his staff gathered at the War Department building in Washington to see the telegraphic returns. As they came in, the victory gradually became apparent, but Lincoln showed no excitement.
At midnight, he served an oyster dinner, and the victory was all but assured. At 2 a.m., with the victory now sure, he went out into the “rainy, stormy” night and returned to the White House to listen to a group of Pennsylvanians serenading him. Speaking to them in the early morning hours, he said:
“It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity.”
Next week: From Atlanta to the Sea.
Experts Give Tips
On Turkey Hunting
The bulk of the West Virginia wild turkey population is concentrated in the eastern counties—throughout the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests and surrounding counties.
Biologists have found that turkeys tend to wander within a given locality from year to year.
When searching for a flock, remember that your quarry usually will be found in the older timber sections, especially near “flats” where the soil is rich and deep. The scratchings made by turkeys in the leafy ground cover when feeding are good indicators of their presence. Stay close to covers and gaps, the “highways” of turkey traffic.
Turkeys have noisy table manners and can be heard from afar. You can then outflank them.
Take advantage of these large birds’ reluctance to fly uphill, and hunt into that direction. When flushed, they will usually fly downhill towards you.
Turkeys eventually always return to the gaps and flats within their range. Post yourself near one of these.
But, whether you stalk or lurk, don’t worry too much about wind direction since, like most birds, turkeys have a very poor sense of smell.
Many turkey hunters will vouch for the effectiveness of “callers” or “yelpers.” The main point to remember, here, is not to overuse such instruments. Veterans at the sport recommended three clear notes, each struck at about 10-minute intervals.
70 Years Ago
Week of November 4, 1954
EDITORIAL
Those Pictures Again – – –
A couple of months ago we carried an editorial entitled “The Case of the Missing Photographer” in which we apologized to the many mothers of the county who had brought their children to town to have them photographed by a “Times” sponsored photographer who failed to show up to take the pictures.
We were interested to note from an editorial in the Moorefield Examiner recently that they had had a similar experience. The Examiner story reads as follows:
“The photographer appeared on time, was very affable, and took pictures of over a hundred babies. He also was in Romney and went to Petersburg from here. He was scheduled to appear in Franklin but didn’t show up there…
“When he didn’t appear in Franklin, the Detroit office started searching for the guy… The guy had simply gone off his rocker and lost his marbles. It developed that he was a shell-shocked Marine from the last war. He is now under the care of a psychiatrist.
“We don’t know what happened to your pictures. In the poor guy’s car, the home office people found hundreds of negatives, shoved under the seat, in the glove compartment, in the back of the car… But no one on earth can sort out the hundreds of baby shots he had from half a dozen towns.
“So, to you mothers who brushed, washed and dressed your tots for that picture, we can only offer our sincerest apologies.” A familiar story, and we expect we will be seeing more of them.
80 Years Ago
Week of October 27, 1944
FHS TOPS PETERSBURG ON MUDDY FIELD 40-0
“We dood it again.” The Franklin Hi Panthers won their second Potomac Valley Conference tilt here last Friday 40-0 on a muddy field in a constant downpour of rain. The game was called at the end of the first half on account of the weather, but was registered as a win for the Panthers.
FRANKLIN HI LIGHTS
Winning the War
The schools of America are in the war effort. Their first responsibility at any point where they can make a contribution to the winning of the war is to do so. This they have done. They have trained eight million men and women for wartime jobs in industry. They have developed nationwide rationing and regulation programs which could not have been conducted so efficiently by any other agency. They have conducted scrap and bond drives. Meanwhile the schools have continued their regular program of education for 25 million American boys and girls.
Week of November 3, 1944
CLOTHING
FOR EUROPE
WASHINGTON—The emergency collection of clothing for the people of Liberated Europe will exceed the original goal of 15,000,000 pounds, UNRRA announced.
1,200 PEOPLE
AT OPENING LOCAL PLANT
The new $50,000 Rockingham Poultry Marketing Cooperative plant in Moorefield, W. Va., held its grand opening Saturday, after having been in operation about six weeks. The plant was operated at full capacity Saturday morning until noon for the benefit of those wishing to visit it, and refreshments were served until two o’clock to about three hundred visitors.
Thomas W. Heitz, general manager of the cooperative, spoke to the poultry producers, telling them that the plant, as it was now, was set up for the processing of 10,000 broilers daily. If the producers brought in more broilers and showed the need and desire for expansion of the plant, more buildings would be built and equipment installed to take care of the need.
