10 Years Ago
Week of July 19, 2012
SUGAR GROVE
Self-Gratification
Is the Best Gratification
More than anything else, folk just want to matter a little more. That’s why kids play instruments, sports or perform in plays. They know they won’t be professional entertainers or athletes. Adults are the same. They too run marathons, join civic organizations, play ball, run for local office, do charity work and are active in churches. They know they will never be presidents or champions. What one does sometimes is fun and rewarding, but there is a larger purpose involved as a sense of gratification and meaning that a job status can never provide.
While a self-gratification is the best gratification, it makes a huge difference when other people recognize achievements and efforts. That’s where each one of us can play a huge role. Go to a neighbor’s kid’s game. Go to the local plays and fairs. Check out the livestock and all of the produce. Tell a school board member how much of what he/she has done is appreciated. Tell the youth director of the church how much of a difference he/she is making in the lives of children. Step up to the plate and cheer, congratulate and praise. Help to have a greater meaning in the lives of others.
One’s emotional thermostat can definitely be regulated. If all is well, one can be light-hearted, laughing easily and be good company for others. Everyone and everything is at peace. Being warm and friendly can set off the day for others, at work, at home, at school and church. It is within one’s power to become an emotional thermostat wherever one chooses to go. Walking into a room with a cheery hello, a compliment, an offer of kindness, or giving a smile does make a difference.
This past week’s aftermath of the derecho storm was probably one of the best classroom opportunities. The storm of the century left fallen trees, loss of electricity and telephone service, roads blocked and property damage. Yes, there was pain and a lot of inconvenience, but as things moved towards normalcy, many lessons were presented.
As in every situation, some folk did more than others. How quickly life can change because of a storm.
So, the classroom lesson of the storm is that each one can help people know they matter. It’s fun and can help make one feel emotionally high, and at the same time, have a huge sense of self-gratification. Indeed, it can be very rewarding.
20 Years Ago
Week of July 11, 2002
SUGAR GROVE
Early Medicinal
Products Were Literally A Bitter Pill to Swallow
Any unpleasant news may be called a bitter pill to swallow. This expression was once painfully literal. For centuries, a physician’s pellet for use in sickness has been known as a pill. Honey and spices were about all that doctors had with which to mask the disagreeable components. The cinchona, taken from the bark of a New World tree, was effective in fighting malaria, but the quinine it contained was extremely bitter. Before medications were coated, cinchona pellets caused any disagreeable thing to be termed a bitter pill to swallow.
Pioneer families traveled very little in their lifetime because they were limited by poor mountainous roads. Solomon Henckel, son of the famous Reverend Paul Henckel and brother of Ambrose, who established the early German printery at New Market, VA, established an apothecary shop at New Market, VA, and sold medicines as early as 1795. Solomon, who did his apprenticeship under Dr. Samuel Jackson of Philadelphia, PA, had a large medical practice. Many folk from Pendleton County traveled over the mountains to seek his help. His apothecary shop dispensed a variety of medicines with printed German or English directions for his patient’s use. Among the large assortment of prepared medicines available were Eye-Water, Horse Liniment, Vermifuge, Rheumatic Tincture, Oleum Senecae, Antibilious Pills and his famous Caraway or Liver Pills, which are still available on the patent medicine market. Solomon had four sons, Samuel, Silon, Solon and Siram, who attended the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania and who joined the medical field. Several local residents remember a Noah Blakemore who made salves, pills and other medicines at Sugar Grove. He had a widely scattered clientele for his “All-Purpose” liniment, “Pain-King” salve, Spring Tonic and Blood Builder. There were two general patterns which were evident: cures and treatments which were once part of those which were handed down verbally from generation to generation by way of oral tradition. These were considered sound and were once believed by both the public and physicians alike.
Week of July 18, 2002
SUGAR GROVE
It was common belief among the Pennsylvania Germans of this county that a person was made up of three parts—the flesh, the life of the flesh and the soul. The opinion was that if a part of the body was cut off, the life remained until the part decayed naturally. Whatever happened to a separated part of the body also happened to the whole body sympathetically. Many folk recall the remedy for asthma and croup as being a sure cure. The version was that a person would stand facing toward the sunrise and up against a door or wall. A peg was driven into the door just above the top of the head…some hair driven in with it; the person would outgrow the asthma when they grew beyond the peg. Wearing a stocking worn around the throat after having been taken off the foot and turned inside out would cure a sore throat. Tiny children who had whooping cough were placed in the hopper at Mitchell’s and Kaiser’s Mills. The same was done for children who were “slow talkers” and didn’t start speaking at the proper age or had a speech impediment. To cure croup, bear grease taken orally, groundhog grease with pepper and nutmeg in it, or skunk grease which was best rubbed on the chest, was most effective. These practices were simply followed as it was handed down from past generations. At this period of time, the county was limited to poor road conditions, so naturally the folk remedies were used by elderly residents, since doctors lived a distance away.
Poultry Producers
Allowed to Construct On-Farm Composters
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has approved a special cost-share project for poultry producers to install on-farm composters in the Potomac Valley to protect water quality and reduce the risk of spreading Avian Influenza.
Only producers who used a rendering facility to dispose of their dead birds are eligible for cost-sharing under AMA.
30 Years Ago
Week of July 16, 1992
DAHMER
Pendletonian
Killed 437 Deer,
40 Bears, Panther
March 4, 1927, George W. Sponaugle, father of Green J. Sponaugle, stated, “I have killed 437 deer all told; thirty to forty bears and one panther. Most of these were killed with my muzzle loading rifle. I tell you it was a good one. About 1867 I think, I then moved to the Sinks where game was more plentiful. My mother’s maiden name was Minerva Fleisher, a cousin of the late Captain Solomon Fleisher. I guess we got our size from that side of the house.” George had a brother, Adam, living in the Sinks. There were 11 children, all large and strong. His father, William Sponaugle, was a great hunter. He killed over 1800 deer and about 300 bears in his lifetime. He lived on the Hunting Ground.
60 Years Ago
Week of July 19, 1962
100 YEARS AGO
Halleck Takes Charge
Of Federal Armies
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.
Ulysses S. Grant arrived at the federal encampment at Corinth, Miss., 100 years ago this week, somewhat puzzled.
He had received a wire from his superior, Gen. Henry W. Halleck, four days earlier ordering him from Memphis to Corinth. A bit mystified, Grant wired back asking if he should bring his staff. Halleck answered that Grant could judge that for himself, but his new headquarters would be at Corinth. And Grant set out immediately.
It was explained when Grant arrived at Corinth July 15. Halleck had been ordered to Washington to take command of all the federal armies. At long last, a replacement had been found for the unsuccessful commander-in-chief, George B. McClellan.
And with that, President Abraham Lincoln was rewarding “Old Brains” Halleck, the man old Winfield Scott had wanted in the top job the previous autumn. Halleck alone among the nation’s top generals, had had a successful coampaign, even if he didn’t conduct it. It was under his command in the West that Grant had captured Forts Henry and Donelson. And Halleck, himself, had besieged Corinth for 60 days and called it a victory, even if the besieged Confederate army under Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard had slipped away intact.
Now, Halleck was going East, and ostensibly Grant would replace him in the West. But after two days with Halleck at Corinth, Grant reported Halleck “was very uncommunicative, and gave me no information as to what I had been called to Corinth for.” Then Halleck left for Washington, and Grant was in command by inheritance if not by official action.
Halleck’s appointment was one of a series of major personnel changes in the armies of the Civil War that summer.
Down at Tupelo, Miss., General Braxton Bragg had taken command of the Confederacy’s largest army in the west—the army that had fought at Shiloh, then retreated from Corinth. Bragg had inherited the command from Beauregard in late June when Beauregard, without telling Richmond, had gotten a “certificate of ill health” and retired to Bladon Springs, a resort above Mobile, leaving Bragg in command. When President Jefferson Davis was informed of the change, he was so angry he relieved Beauregard of command and placed Bragg in permanent charge.
Meanwhile, another event occurred that week at Vicksburg, the Confederacy’s last stronghold on the Mississippi River, to encourage the South.
On July 15, the day Grant arrived at Corinth, a home-made ironclad named the “Arkansas” emerged from the Yazoo River and began floating down the Mississippi to help in the defense of Vicksburg.
Under the command of Capt. Isaac Newton Brown, a former federal navy lieutenant, the Confederate vessel ran downriver into the midst of two federal fleets of more than 30 sloops and other vessels. Firing in every direction, the “Arkansas” successfully battled them all off before running safely under the Confederate guns at Vicksburg. Later in the month, the “Arkansas” would successfully drive off both federal fleets in an attack on Vicksburg, and the South would have another hero in Isaac Brown.
Next week: The Slave question again.
County 4-H Camp
Is Biggest in History
The Cherokee tribe won the week-long competition last week at the largest 4-H Camp ever held in Pendleton County. A total of 148 4-H members and 15 leaders participated in the camp which was held Monday through Friday at Thorn Spring Park.
Too Many Prizes
Perplex Firemen
Most people have trouble winning prizes, but the Franklin Volunteer Fire Company has more than they want.
At the conclusion of their recent carnival, they still had on hand a large supply of nice prizes which is tieing up money they need for other purposes.
Chief Willie Flinn said today that their excess of prizes may work to the advantage of the people of the county. Flinn said the fire company decided to hold a lawn party August 4 for the purpose of getting rid of the prizes.
The lawn party will be held on the carnival grounds, and the prizes will be distributed to winners of bingo games, ball pitch, fish pond, etc., which will be conducted during the lawn party.
Flinn said the biggest prize of all will be a pony which will be given away as a gate prize at the lawn party.
