10 Years Ago – Week of March 24, 2016
Writer Urges Observance of Vietnam Veterans Day
The following letter was reprinted with permission from Charles Teter of Circleville. The letter is published in recognition of the president’s proclamation of March 29 as Vietnam Veterans Day. On the state level, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed legislation declaring March 30 as Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day.
Editor, the Times:
FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
Dear Charles:
Thank you for writing. I am profoundly grateful for the sacrifices of all our veterans and their families, and I appreciate you sharing your story with me.
Through times of war and peace alike, proud patriots like you have secured more than two centuries of progress, demonstrating an unfaltering commitment to our Union. Our veterans of the Vietnam War answered the call to serve with courage and distinction, embodying the spirit of common purpose that is central to America’s character. Risking their lives, they persevered through the most brutal circumstances—braving blistering heat and torrential rain, thick jungle, and an elusive enemy. By heroically fighting to protect the ideals our country holds dear, they earned their place among the greatest generations.
On behalf of a grateful Nation, I salute you and thank you for your extraordinary dedication and sacrifice. May we always defend these who defended us, and may God continue to bless and protect all who serve.
Sincerely,
Barrack Obama
County Predator Board Holds Annual Dinner
The Pendleton County Predator Control Board held the 10th annual coyote contest drawing Saturday, March 19 at the community building in Franklin.
Participants in the contest checked in a total of 88 coyotes—29 were taken with a firearm, 33 were snared and 26 were trapped. The contest period ran from Sept. 1, 2016, to March 1.
Herman Hevener led the contest for the third year in a row with ten coyotes harvested. He was presented a game camera and 12 snares for his efforts.
Dean Alanko of Staunton, VA, trapped the most and was awarded six traps donated by the Pendleton County Trapper’s Association.
Week of March 31, 2016
‘Barnwood Builders’ Episode Filmed Here
A crew from the popular television series “Barnwood Builders” filmed an upcoming episode in Pendleton County on March 15-16. Members of the cast disassembled the last-standing log schoolhouse located in Ruddle.
The show is part of the DIY Network of programs and follows five “fun-loving” West Virginians” who salvage 19th century hand-hewn log structures and restore the wood for use in modern homes. Mark Bowe, host of the show, has operated Antique Cabins and Barns, LLC based in Lewisburg for the last 18 years. He also operates an insurance agency in White Sulphur Springs.
The cast found their way to Pendleton County via email. John Michael Jenkins, an avid fan of the show, sent a message to Bowe, about a log structure located on his farm that needed to be removed. It was a few weeks before Bowe responded, but when he did he informed Jenkins that he was definitely interested and a time was scheduled for Bowe to come inspect the structure. Within a month, the cast and crew rolled into Pendleton County, and the rest is documented history.
The structure that was dismantled has extensive historical significance to the area. It was the last-standing log schoolhouse in Pendleton County. According to local historian Richard Ruddle, the exact building date of the structure is unknown but it was some time prior to 1885. The schoolhouse was moved at least twice before it came to rest in its present location where it has stayed for the last 120 years.
The building was used until some time between 1895 and 1897, when the frame schoolhouse that is also located in the Ruddle community was constructed. Ruddle commented that according to his great-aunt, the schoolhouse was drug to the current location by either horses or oxen. He also stated that the logs were numbered which indicates that during one of the moves, the structure was taken down and reassembled.
As Jenkins watched the crew carefully remove each log he asserted, “It’s sad to see it taken down, but if we didn’t do something, it was going to fall down.” By repurposing the logs, a piece of Pendleton County’s history can live on.
20 Years Ago – Week of March 23, 2006
Franklin Dance Studio Is a Local Success Story
It isn’t greed, but it is ambition.
Yet it’s not ambition in the claw-to-the-front, get ahead-at-all-costs sense of that word.
It’s ambition in the sense of doing what one loves, what one was meant to do in life—and wanting more of it.
That is the kind of ambition that these days is a driving force in the life of Lisa Roberson, who, last September, opened Lisa’s Dance Studio on Franklin’s Main Street across from The Pill Box Pharmacy.
In just a few months, Lisa’s Dance Studio has become a local success story, one of the county seat’s most thriving enterprises.
What’s more, Roberson reports, “We have outgrown our space.”
Youngsters start streaming into the studio where they can learn ballet, tap, jazz, point and, for children in the two-to-five age group, what Roberson calls, “tot,” a combination of ballet and tap.
Shortly before Christmas, Lisa’s Dance Studio had a peak of 85 students, including adults taking the fitness class.
Soon she plans to add classes in clogging and Irish dance, which will be taught by visiting instructors and yoga classes are on tap for Thursdays.
“We have absolutely exceeded expectations,” Roberson said, “When the studio opened, I thought we’d have maybe 30-35 taking lessons, tops.”
“I didn’t think it would be like this,” she commented. “I’m so thrilled. I want to come to work. I love it that much.”
Her enthusiasm is shared by her students and by her students’ parents.
Roberson kept her active interest in the arts alive by doing the choreography for summer productions at the Smith Creek Playhouse.
There she fell under the charismatic spell of the infectiously enthusiastic community theater impresario, Mike Roberts.
It was Roberts, she said, who persistently encouraged the ex-Long Islander to follow her dream and open a dance studio in a small town in the mountain state where she came to love the familiar strains of the John Denver authored WVU anthem, “Country Roads.”
It’s not just that her dream has become reality, it’s that her ambitions, fueled by her dream, are growing, growing beyond the 15-feet by-20-feet confines of what, for the moment anyway, is the location of Lisa’s Dance Studio.
Books Are Being Sought for New Orleans Library
The New Orleans Public Library is asking for any and all hardcover and paperback books for people of all ages in an effort to restock the shelves after Hurricane Katrina. The staff will assess which titles will be designated for its collections. The rest will be distributed to destitute families or sold for library fund-raising.
30 Years Ago – Week of March 28, 1996
Sugar Grove
Goose Feather Quilts Kept You Warm On Coldest of Nights
The Depression Era found many families poor in some ways…however, they never felt that way on a cold night. They had goose feather quilts on their beds…what a treasure. They were usually handmade, mostly out of muslin or scraps of cloth sewn together. The outside didn’t really matter…what was on the inside gave it its worth—goose feathers. Families raised their own geese, so they had the “pick” of the feathers. It took a long time to accumulate sufficient feathers to make a generous half a foot or so thickness…as light as a bunch of feathers. They were unfailingly warm even on the coldest night of winter. The electric blanket or the beautiful pastel colored blankets that lay flat on the bed today do not replace the warmth and coziness of a goose-feathered quilt of those good old days.
Regulations Set for Post Office Traffic
The Franklin Town Council has adopted new traffic regulations controlling traffic at the Franklin Post Office. The new regulations require all traffic entering the post office parking lot to enter from Pine Street and to exit either on Main Street or Pine Street. Franklin Mayor Hartman said the new regulations were adopted to make entrance and exit to and from the parking lot safer and to avoid accidents.
50 Years Ago – Week of March 25, 1976
Work Begins On Franklin High Gym
The new gymnasium to be constructed at Franklin High School has been laid off and grading work is underway on the parking area located immediately west of the site of the gymnasium.
The high school gymnasium and grade school multipurpose room are two of several projects included in a package of improvements to school buildings in Pendleton County made possible by the enactment of a special school levy in 1974.
DAHMER
The mountain people used teas as spring tonics. Common spring tonics were sassafras, spicebush and sweet birch.
Sassafras has a long history of use as a beverage and tonic, but today we are told sassafras may cause harm to the body.
There was even a song used to advertise sassafras. “In the spring of the year when the blood is too thick, there is nothing so fine as sassafras tea. It tones up the liver and strengthens the heart, and to the whole system new life doth impart.”
60 Years Ago – Week of March 24, 1966
200-Year-Old Elm Was Landmark
A Franklin landmark, an old and stalwart elm tree, last week fell victim of the woodsman’s axe.
Standing on the lawn of Dr. Charles J. Sites in north Franklin, the tree had been an object of respect and affection of Franklin residents for the past hundred years.
“It was dying, Dr. Sites explained, “and it was becoming unsafe. I had it treated for several years, but we finally had to have it removed.”
The tree stood in front of the home of the late Elsie Byrd Boggs, local historian and writer. Mrs. Boggs had a strong affection for the old elm, and in 1960 she wrote the following account of it. The “heavy log house” that is mentioned in her account was her home.
THE OLD ELM
The old elm, and this is what it told me.
I am over 200 years old. My memory begins when the groves were God’s Temples and I was surrounded by many forest trees.
The Indians encircled me with their bows and arrows and the papooses played around me.
Times changed and I occasionally saw a white man and to him the activities of the Indians seemed so dangerous that a heavy log house was built near me for protection. Other types were cut but I was spared because I was said to be a perfect specimen. Much later a road was built near me. I watched the fire bricks made and burned around me for the homes being built.
After many years of quiet peace I heard the drums of war, and some of the men were killed and homes were burned.
I am getting old and have shed some of my small limbs each year. I have seen the village of Franklin grow into a thriving town.
—Elsie Byrd Boggs
70 Years Ago – Week of March 22, 1956
Want A Special License Number? Request it Now
Requests for special license numbers for the coming registration year 1956-1957 are being accepted by the Department of Motor Vehicles and will be accepted up to and including March 20, 1956, but not thereafter. Whenever possible a request should be made by post card rather than by letter or telephone. Requests made in person will be accepted in the automobile bureau of the department through March 20, 1956.
