10 Years Ago
Week of February 4, 2016
Ways to Celebrate February 14 Without Breaking the Bank
Coming on the heels of post holiday bills, Valentine’s Day can feel like a costly prospect. Yet, even those on a budget can enjoy a special day to remember without breaking the bank.
•Create your own greeting card.
•Cleverly wrap favorite chocolate. Chocolate is synonymous with Valentine’s Day.
•Go out for a small bite to eat.
•Purchase a rosebush. Bouquets of roses are traditional gifts for Valentine’s Day.
•Turn older jewelry new again. If you have a good amount of mismatched gold jewelry lying around, you may be able to sell it or have it melted down and turned into a beautiful new creation.
20 Years Ago
Week of January 26, 2006
Pendleton County Historical Society Receives 175-Year-Old Book
The Pendleton County Historical Society recently received a 175-year-old Pendleton Temperance Minute Book from Richard M. Hamric, Jr., Staunton, VA, who wrote, “It is time for this to be returned to its roots.” Hamrick wrote that he received the book from his Hiner and McCoy ancestors. Benjamin McCoy, first president of the organization, was his fourth great-grandfather.
The minutes, beginning January 1, 1831, are those of the Pendleton County Temperance Society which was organized in that part of Pendleton, which in 1848 became Highland County, VA. Minutes are detailed giving names of officers elected yearly which included a president, three vice-presidents, three secretaries and 12 managers.
The Society composed of both men and women grew quickly and in a year there were almost 300 members listed. At this time branch chapters were formed—one on Jackson’s River, one on the Bullpasture and another on the Black Thorn.
The minutes are recorded through 1837 at which time membership was declining.
Morton’s “History of Pendleton” tells of the Highland Sons of Temperance which was granted use of Pendleton County Courthouse in 1848. A lodge called Friends of Temperance was also active for a time but both became inactive before the Civil War.
Week of February 2, 2006
SUGAR GROVE
Beloved Old Friend, Mr. Common Sense, Passes
Common sense. Some use this phrase to refer to beliefs based upon what is believed to be knowledge held by people “in common.” It is the general consensus of what people in common would agree; that which they “sense” in common. The following allows one to reflect on the phrase and its impact on life in general.
“Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Mr. Common Sense. Mr. Sense had been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such value lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird catches the worm and that life isn’t always fair. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies and reliable parenting.
His health began to rapidly deteriorate when well intentional but overwhelming regulations were set in place.
Finally Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by two stepbrothers, My Rights and Ima Whiner.
Not many attended the funeral because so few realized he was gone.
If you still remember him, ponder about it and do something when the opportunity arises. If not, join the majority and do nothing.
30 Years Ago
Week of February 1, 1996
SUGAR GROVE
Arrival of Seed Catalogs Is Sure Sign Spring Is Near
While waiting out winter, there are many encouraging things. Groundhog Day makes us think that the brunt of winter is behind us. At least it seems to be a hopeful sign that spring is not far off. The seed catalogs are beginning to arrive. This boosts the spirits and transports the mind to those fragrant summer flower gardens and all the bountiful garden crops. So, just as the first robin heralds spring, so too the seed catalogs will brighten the darkest winter day.
Flood Damages to West Virginia Roads Estimated at $16 Million
West Virginia Division of Highways crews, with help from the National Guard and state firms hired under emergency contracts, are working throughout the state to restore flood-damaged roads.
With hundreds of secondary roads in the counties of the Eastern Panhandle, the Greenbrier Valley and other areas suffering damages ranging in estimate from a $600 slide correction to a $100,000 bridge replacement, highway officials currently place total damage repair costs at $16 million.
Evick Is Panther Player of the Week
Brian Evick, a 6’3” junior, center, has been selected as this week’s player of the week. Currently, he is the leading Panther rebounder with eight boards per game and is second leading scorer for the team with 13 points per game. Brian also leads the Panthers in field goal percentage where he hits 52% of his shots. He is a three-sport athlete. Brian played tight-end for the football team and helped lead them to a berth in the state tournament this past year. He also plays left field for the baseball team and is a three-year varsity starter.
Brian is the son of Babe and Claudia Evick of Franklin.
50 Years Ago
Week of February 5, 1976
Local Residents Study First Aid To Qualify for Rescue Squad
A small group of Pendleton County residents has been working diligently for the past several months trying to organize a rescue squad for the county.
A rescue squad is urgently needed in the county to provide emergency ambulance service as a result of the recent announcement by Brown Funeral Service that they will soon cease to provide this service.
60 Years Ago
Week of February 3, 1966
30 Inches of Snow Hits Pendleton; Zero Readings, High Winds Follow
Pendleton County residents are slowly digging out from one of the worst snow storms in living memory with snow shovels, tractors, bulldozers and anything that will move the huge drifts of white.
Twelve inches of snow and more in some areas fell here Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday morning. It joined the six inches we had left from last Wednesday which had fallen on another 12 inches of snow that the weather man deposited here January 22 to make a total snowfall of 30 inches in nine days. To top it off the wind picked up force and with zero and sub zero temperatures prevailing Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday it was impossible to keep rural roads open and Route 220 was closed north of Franklin Monday due to huge snow drifts.
A large snow blower was brought in from Randolph County and assisted in clearing the drifted snow in some of the worst places on Monday and Tuesday.
Calendar Designs Going Modern
Time was when calendar art meant an idyllic landscape or a pretty girl. No more.
Vine-covered cottages are eternally popular and girls still reign supreme in garages and barber shops. But the trend in free calendars sent out at year’s end by American firms is toward modern design and fine art.
Housewives and businessmen want calendars that blend with modern decor.
Contemporary or traditional, some 400 million calendars will be issued in the United States in 1966.
Calendars began to flourish as an advertising medium late in the 19th century. In 1879, for example, Phylis Phillips of New York issued a calendar announcing his availability as a singer of temperance songs.
The commercial calendar received major impetus from two young men, Edmund D. Osborne and Thomas D. Murphy, who ran a weekly newspaper in Red Oak, Iowa. They wanted to print a woodcut of the new county courthouse, but their limited budget would not allow it. Osborne hit upon the idea of using the picture of the courthouse on a wall calendar for 1888, and surrounding it with local advertising.
Twenty-two businessmen sponsored the calendar, and the partners printed a thousand copies. Osborne and Murphy netted $300 in the deal, and abandoned journalism in favor of calendar publishing. In a few years, Osborne, who had split from his partner, was advertising his company as the world’s foremost calendar house and offering $3,500 in prizes for original paintings.
In 1896, Herbert Huse Bigelow teamed with a printer to start Brown & Bigelow in St. Paul, Minnesota. Today, Brown & Bigelow is the world’s largest calendar manufacturer. It turns out 60 million a year.
By 1903, pretty girls were standard calendar ornaments.
The popularity of calendar girls has declined in the past decade. Presently in demand are practical calendars, especially those with large squares for jotting down appointments and notes. A kitchen calendar has a pocket at the bottom to hold trading stamps or, inevitably, bills.
Among traditional calendars, those with a religious theme remain popular.
Still holding their own too, are calendars that predict the weather for each and every day of the year.
Revenue Office Sending Spiders???
Internal Revenue officers are accustomed to receiving objects not always intended to be included with Federal tax returns. This situation was reversed in a Midwestern office. A taxpayer, in requesting an extension of time to file, wrote as follows: “As I was getting the blank forms out of a box, I was bitten by a black widow spider, and I have been too sick since to complete the return. I am not really accusing your office of sending the spider with the forms, but . . .”
70 Years Ago
Week of February 2, 1956
DAHMER
FLYNN’S KNOB ROCK
Almost fourscore years ago, a sound came rumbling down from Flynn’s Knob that sounded like the rumbling and trembling of an earthquake.
It was Mr. Lewis Propst and his cousin, Mr. Martin Propst, who had come back from the west on a visit. Both were sporty and loved to do almost any kind of hard work in order to have a hearty laugh or recreation that left an imprint on the sands of time.
One morning before cockcrowing time, these two able-bodied men in company with less than a dozen others ascended this knob on foot to one of the highest points where a large boulder was seemingly hanging on a pivot, but attached to the main cliff. But these men knew by the use of the pry or large logs as levers, and handled by these giant men, that the rock would soon be on the go.
The boulder which was broken loose from the main cliff could be compared to be about the size of the old-time log kitchen.
When this mass of rock was broken off, and ready to start down the steep hillside, a sound like the “rebel yell” was given so that all persons at the foot hills on Dry Run could get out of the way of danger. No one was hurt when the fragments of Flynn’s Knob Rock came to a standstill.
The land where this scene occurred was a heavily wooded area. Such a dashing, crashing, and smashing scene was never seen and such a tumbling and rumbling noise was never heard before or since in that area.
This huge rock was broken into many pieces along its wake or track. A few of the large pieces of the Flynn’s Knob Rock may be seen by a close look along the old Dry Run Road. —John Dahmer
