10 Years Ago
Week of August 27, 2015
Lutherans Have Provided Song Ministry At Manor for 40 Years
Forty years of volunteer service is quite an accomplishment for a small rural church known as St. John Lutheran Church from Moyers. The first Tuesday of each month, providing the weather cooperates, finds the gallant group singing hymns of joy for an evening hour to Pendleton Manor’s residents.
It was in 1975, when a small group, encouraged by the late Rev. S. Kullman, embarked on a volunteer journey that still exists today.
Music really does have a way of lifting spirits and bringing people together. Residents do join in, with some knowing and singing every verse by heart. It can be a strong emotional trigger with research indicating profound effects for those dealing with dementia and other memory issues, lowering blood pressure, anxiety and respiration rates and also having a calming effect. To the residents, it is a very human connection to have someone come in and sing the beloved hymns that were such a part of their younger days.
St. John Lutheran Church plans to continue this ministry under the leadership of Rev. Jason and Rev. Jess Felici, with a group of volunteers who have the same spirit of those pioneers from 1975.
30 Years Ago
Week of August 24, 1995
74 in Gnarly North Fork Bike Race
A total of 74 peddled hard for the lead Sunday at the beginning of the 24-mile Gnarly North Fork race from Franklin to Seneca Rocks in their quest for a share of the $5,000 in prize money.
Winner was Gunnar Shogran, 32, of Morgantown. He completed the course in 1:59:41, an improvement over his time of 2:07 in last year’s race.
Winner of the women’s division was Sue Haywood of Davis whose official time was 2:44:50.
The grueling race which began at 12:30 p.m. at the Franklin Town Park took riders to the top of North Mountain, a climb of 3,700 feet, and down over the side of the mountain on rough terrain.
Dr. Charles Sites Named West Virginia Rural Doctor of Year
The West Virginia State Medical Association named three award recipients last week during the association’s 128th annual meeting.
Dr. Charles J. Sites, MD, a general practitioner in Franklin, was named the Rural Physician of the Year. Dr. Sites was born at Upper Tract in Pendleton County just 10 miles from where he now practices. He received his medical degree in 1940 from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and completed his internship in general practice at The Pittsburgh Medical Center.
50 Years Ago
Week of August 21, 1975
Hanover Gals, Brandywine Men Win Softball Crowns
The Franklin slow pitch softball regular season was completed three weeks ago with Hanover winning the pennant in the women’s division with a record of 12-0 and Brandywine winning the pennant in the men’s division with a record of 12-2.
The season began May 19 and provided three months recreation for approximately 200 players and a great source of entertainment for the many fans who attended to support their favorite teams.
Soil Test Helps You Get More from Garden
A soil test will provide you with the most useful information on which to plan and manage your garden. This applies as much to a vegetable garden from which you get a good supply of nourishing crops, as it does to a lawn or flower bed which provide beauty and pleasure, according to William vanEck, extension specialist in soils.
The soil test data sheet shows the acidity of your soil, the lime required to bring it to a satisfactory condition, and the amounts of major plant food nutrients which your plants may be able to extract from the soil during the season.
Based on these values a possible fertilizer mixture which could be used to correct any deficiencies is suggested. Any fertilizer or combination of fertilizer can be used as long as they roughly provide the amounts of plant food suggested.
Poor soils are often unable to absorb rain water, hence they easily become dry and hard. Soils in good physical condition will also be able to use fertilizer more effectively in gardens.
Week of August 28, 1975
800 Spelunkers Expected Here
Approximately 800 caving enthusiasts are expected to converge upon Franklin this weekend for their annual “Old Timers Reunion.”
Thorn Spring Park will be headquarters for the spelunkers again this year as it has been for the past several years.
Although the get-together is primarily a social function given to renewing old acquaintances and relaxation, contests also will be conducted in various caving practices.
This will be the 26th year the spelunkers have held their “Old Timers Reunion” at Franklin.
60 Years Ago
Week of August 24, 1965
EDITORIALS
Bright Prospects – – –
We are impressed with the progress that our new garment industry, the Franklin Garment Company, is making. The work force is increasing steadily, now up to 41, and production is showing a corresponding improvement.
This company is making a significant contribution to the needs of Pendleton County by providing steady employment for its workers and a payroll that exceeds $2,000 per week. Not only are the workers benefitting from this new industry but so also is the local economy in general. Both are due to benefit further as employment is scheduled to increase in coming months.
We note on this page of this edition of the Times an advertisement requesting persons interested in the training program at the Franklin Garment Company to send in their names so that they may be included in future classes. We strongly urge our readers to take advantage of this opportunity to prepare themselves for employment, as working conditions at the local factory are excellent and the firm has an excellent record of providing steady employment. Also, if there are persons in the area who have had prior experience in operating commercial sewing machines, we suggest that they consider obtaining employment at the local firm for the same reasons.
We are proud of this new member of the business community of Pendleton County and we are impressed with its bright prospects of growth and expansion.
70 Years Ago
Week of August 18, 1955
Wedding on Top Of Seneca Rocks Set for 3 p.m. Sunday
A 24-year-old Methodist minister has salvaged the plans of two young mountain climbers whose fondest dreams are that they can be married on the highest peak of the Seneca Rocks, one of West Virginia’s most famous scenic attractions.
Plans for the mountain peak wedding of Roland Leavens, 24, and Doris McCartney, 23, of Bay Village, Ohio, were shaping up nicely until they began looking for a minister to perform the ceremony.
But upon asking a number of ministers to perform the ceremony, each one felt that he was not up to the climb up the 1,000-foot rock formation to the cloud enshrouded peak.
And a younger man it is who has accepted the challenge. The Reverend Rondel Browning, pastor of the Circleville Methodist Charge will perform the ceremony Sunday afternoon.
The Rev. Mr. Browning said in Circleville yesterday that although he has climbed all over the mountains of West Virginia, he has never climbed any rocks. He said that he hoped he would not hold up the wedding.
Other mountain climbers have been invited to attend the wedding, some of whom will serve as guides.
EDITORIALS
Contracts or Convicts – – –
One of the problems that is causing West Virginia’s personable new road commissioner some concern at this time is the question of whether it is cheaper to build roads with convicts or by contract. Commissioner Burl A. Sawyers is studying the question at this time because the only two prison labor projects now in progress are rapidly being completed, and before starting a new project with convict labor, he wants to be sure that it is a money saving proposition.
One of the present prison labor projects is in Jackson County where they have transformed a weed covered farm-to-market trail into one of the best tax built highways in the state. It is Route 2 between Point Pleasant and Parkersburg. The other convict camp is in Preston County where they are working on a number of small projects, all of which are almost completed.
We do not profess to know whether roads built by convict labor are an expensive luxury or a money saving proposition. We can remember, however, that one of the biggest prison labor road jobs ever undertaken in the state was construction of Route 33 between Franklin and Elkins back in the ‘30s, and that is a fine road that has stood up well and has meant a great deal to the eastern part of West Virginia.
But whether Commissioner Sawyers decides to send the convicts out on a new job or back to the “wall,” we are confident that his decision will be in the interest of obtaining for West Virginia every mile of highway possible for the money available for the purpose. And we would like to suggest that whether we build roads with convicts or by contract, in our opinion one of the most worthwhile projects that could be undertaken at this time would be the widening, straightening and rebuilding of Route 220 through West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.
This highway runs north and south parallel with Route 11 in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Route 11 is a good, straight highway, but it is handling a lot of automobiles that would utilize Route 220 if it were a modern highway. Besides providing better transportation for West Virginia’s citizens, a rebuilt, multi-lane 220 would open the door to a vast increase in our ever growing tourist business. It would provide a re-birth for the South Branch Valley.
So, Mr. Sawyers, whether you decide to use convicts or contracts, we hope you will take a look at what you could do for West Virginia via US 220.
80 Years Ago
Week of August 24, 1945
GI JOE WILL BE QUICKLY HIRED GENERAL AVERS
“Veterans formerly employed by the War Department will be rehired upon discharge with all possible speed,” Maj. Gen. James L. Collins, Commanding General, Fifth Service Command stated.
“In every case, special consideration and preferential treatment will be accorded to veterans,” Gen. Collins said.
NOTICE
Klines Shoe Shop in Circleville will be open from now on. Will do all kinds of work.
OTTO KLINE, Circleville
105 Years Ago
Week of August 27, 1920
SHORT NOTES
78 READING APPLE PAPERS for sale by Ernest Bowman & Bro.
A nice assortment of trunks, suit cases and traveling bags just received at
Ernest Bowman & Bro.
E. T. Titus, of Leesburg, Va., is here this week looking after cattle.
The Franklin and Monterey baseball teams will cross bats at Monterey on Saturday.
CIRCLEVILLE
Picking black berries seems to be the order of the day. Everybody reports a bumper crop.
Rain every day last week. Farmers say they will have to winter their grass over until next year.
Some of our people in and around Circleville attended the meetin’ over at Moat’s town Sunday and report a fine time.
M. Mauzy, the shoe man, was in our town last week shaking hands with the merchants.
Scribe No 1 has bought a new tin lizzy. He says he can go up Teter Gap a humming now.
The mail truck of Kline & Nelson that has been out of commission for about a month, we are glad to say, is able to be out again.
CRABBOTTOM
Weather is fine and quite a lot of travel thru here this week.
Leonard Hedrick has only killed 5 large rattlesnakes in the berry patch.
