10 Years Ago
Week of September 13, 2012
Navy To Be Phased Out At Sugar Grove
Commander William “Bill” Kramer of NIOC, Sugar Grove, confirmed in a Tuesday morning interview that the National Security Agency (NSA) is downsizing the US Navy presence at the base.
The phasing out of the Navy could be completed by 2016. It is a transition and the final date is not known.
SUGAR GROVE
The following are some folk healing beliefs:
- To cure hiccups, tickle one’s nose with a feather;
- Eating parched corn or parched coffee will cure stomach ailments;
- Putting a handful of salt on one’s head will cure headache;
- To stop bleeding from a wound, apply chimney soot;
- If one’s hand itches, it means a present will be given to this person;
- Raw wet tobacco will draw the venom from an insect bite.
20 Years Ago
Week of September 5, 2002
SUGAR GROVE
In the early days of this area, isolated farmers did not benefit from high prices for their production, because their markets were distant and the local general store could only pay them the established market price minus the costs of transportation. As a result of the high costs of their purchases and the low return on their sales, the settler sought to reduce his costs of living by creating substitutes for luxury goods subsistence. For example, because sugar was expensive, the maple trees were tapped and the liquid was boiled down to a syrup or maple sugar; acorns or rye were roasted and ground and used instead of imported teas; and pepper, which was extremely expensive, was replaced by the spicy stems of the nasturtium.
Apples were pared, quartered and dried; peaches, pears, cherries, blueberries and other fruits were dried for winter use; applebutter was boiled; apples were pressed into cider; and honey combs produced honey and methagin for drink.
The men were hardy hunters of deer, bear, groundhog, coon, squirrel and rabbit for a supply of meat to supplement pork. The varieties of grains were ground into flours for baking biscuits, pies and cakes.
In the fall during butchering time, hogs were slaughtered and sausage was ground and ponhaus was made from liquid remains. The lard was rendered for cooking and use in soap, candles and medicinal purposes.
Cows were tended for their milk which also brought cottage cheese, cheese, cream and butter to the table. Horses assisted in farm labor, and chickens produced eggs.
Gardens were tilled and harvested with canning processes producing a variety of table foods. Yarn from sheep and sack cloths made many clothing items.
The woods produced a variety of furniture and firewood for the cold winter months. The early settlers worked hard and were self-supporting. It was a cultural era that produced determination, honesty, hard labor, prosperity, dependability and responsibility. This last frontier has all but faded into history books.
Week of September 12, 2002
Senior Center Planned For North Fork
Construction on the North Fork Senior Center, a new facility not far from Riverton, will begin possibly as soon as this fall or next spring, the director of Pendleton Senior and Family Services, Carolyn Warner, has annouced.
The entire cost of the new building and of fully equipping it will amount to $570,000, of which about $200,000 is already in place.
SUGAR GROVE
British Responsible for Many “Catchy” Phrases
Since 9-11, the British have renewed and strengthened ties with Americans in the fight against terrorism. For centuries, the British have been the primary developers of English.
Some of the distinctive expressions have become popular in the United States. Take for instance the coined word “pooped.” Lots of people find themselves pooped at the end of a hard week.
Since the Englishmen headed toward the New World, they discovered that violent waves did most damage when they crashed against the stern, or poop, of a vessel. These turbulent waters could last for weeks. Any ship lurching out of a bad bout with nature was sure to be badly pooped…lucky to be afloat after days of pounding. When landsmen heard sailors confessing that they felt as pooped as their vessels they borrowed the expression to describe their feelings in times of total fatigue.
It is common today to see a corporation “put the screws” to a competitor. Reasons for doing so range from plans of a takeover to forcing a rival into bankruptcy. The phrase describing this action comes from an era in which torture was common practice. Jailers worthy of salary needed to learn to use thumbscrews. Fastened upon a captive whose hands were strapped to his sides, these instruments of torture were slowly tightened. A sudden and abrupt turn of a screw might make a person pass out from pain and thus be able to confess where loot was hidden. It is still an everyday practice for a wheeler-dealer of some sort to put the screws to a business or industry in order to try to get something from it.
30 Years Ago
Week of September 10, 1992
SUGAR GROVE
Telephone Party Lines Were Once Source
Of News
Remember the old telephone “party lines” with up to a dozen or so families sharing the same line? When the phone rang, you listened for your special rings. And perhaps, when things got dull, you might have just picked up your receiver to listen in on the call. This was how one kept up on the real “news” in the area from time to time. What would we do without the telephone today? It saves much time when dealing with business transactions and family ties.
50 Years Ago
Week of September 14, 1972
DAHMER
As I pen these lines my thoughts wander back when Dennis Sites owned and managed a sawmill near the mouth of Dry Run on the McCoy land. He later bought the John Albert Pitsenbarger timber and land on Dry Run. From this land the town of Franklin receives its water supply, known to the older residents as the big spring.Also on this tract of land is the Sites Cave, which attracts many spelunkers each year.
Noah Sites was foreman on this lumbering job and his brother, Titus Sites, also worked on the job. To accommodate the many workers, a bunkhouse was built beside Thorn Creek and Mrs. Titus Sites worked here sometime as chief cook.
Accident Rate in County Above National Average
For residents of Pendleton County, what are the chances of going through an entire year without having an accident of some sort?
Are people in the local area more prone to accidents or less so than those in other communities across the country?
The accident problem is of particular importance during these summer months with the number of people on vacation, driving, swimming, boating and on the move generally. The statistics show that this is an especially hazardous period.
According to the annual figures released in the last few years by the U. S. Public Health Service, following nationwide surveys, the accident rate in Pendleton County is somewhat higher than average.
Based upon the last three annual reports, the local area has been averaging 10 fatal accidents per year. Motor vehicles were the cause of five of them.
And, it is estimated, for every fatal accident there were close to 100 others that were non-fatal.
In terms of Pendleton County’s population, the toll in the local area during the period was at a rate of 144 fatalities per 100,000 people.
This was a higher rate than was reported for most other communities in the United States, an average of 56 per 100,000.
60 Years Ago
Week of September 13, 1962
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.
Maryland Battles Rage; Bragg Enters Kentucky
An Indiana soldier stretched out in the grass near Frederick, Md., to rest 100 years ago this weekend, in so doing, gave Gen. George B. McCellan a chance to end the Civil War.
It happened September 13 when Cpl. Barton W. Mitchell of Company E, 27th Indiana Regiment, happened to spot an envelope in the grass beside him. Curious, Mitchell picked it up and found inside it a paper wrapped around three cigars.
The paper was the famous “Special Orders No. 191” of Gen. Robert E. Lee, detailing the plans and locations of every division of the Confederate army in Maryland. How it got there is still unknown, but within minutes it was in the hands of an elated General McClellan, and Lee’s Maryland campaign was in deep trouble. For the order, quickly substantiated, showed that Lee had split his army; Stonewall Jackson, with half the army, had been sent back across the Potomac to capture Harper’s Ferry, while Lee waited with the rest of the army near Boonsboro and Hagerstown, preparing to invade Pennsylvania when Jackson caught up.
McClellan realized the importance of the paper; it meant he could whip Lee’s army while it was divided, mopping it up piece by piece. The trouble was that it took fast action, and McClellan could not act fast.
Next morning—and it should have been that same day—McClellan moved west against Lee. But to get at him, he had to cross a long ridge, called South Mountain, and Lee’s men controlled the passes through it. The result: the battles of South Mountain (also called Boonsboro) and Crampton’s Gap.
Gen. William B. Franklin attacked Crampton’s Gap, 12,000 Federals against 1,200 Confederates, and found the job anything but easy. The Confederates, firing from behind stone fences, held off their enemy throughout the day before an assault sent them fleeing from the pass.
Six miles northward, McClellan marched the rest of his army (leisurely, with coffee breaks, of course) to Turner’s Gap and Fox’s Gap and there ran into more Confederates. For hours, his men charged up through a blistering fire, and Federal Gen. Jesse Reno was killed, before Gen. Joe Hooker surged through and dislodged the Rebels. When the day ended, McClellan could claim a victory; he had lost 2,000 men to the Rebel’s 3,000, and the passes were his. But important time had lapsed.
During that time, Stonewall Jackson had wound up his job with honors. Acting under the orders that McClellan had found, Jackson had moved west, then south across the Potomac, circled east again, flushed 3,000 Yankees from Martinsburg (in what is now West Virginia), drove them into the garrison at Harper’s Ferry and then captured the garrison with 12,000 prisoners. Without waiting for laurels, he began moving his men back to Maryland to rejoin Lee, having been gone less than a week.
Far to the west that week, a race for Louisville began between Federal Gen. Don Carlos Buell and Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. Bragg, moving up from Tennessee, crossed the Kentucky line and made a bee line for Glasgow. Buell, finally realizing Bragg’s intentions, struck out in pursuit. On September 15, Buell’s veterans reached Bowling Green, Ky., and that same day, Bragg reached Glasgow, 25 miles to the west. The race was neck and neck.
Next week: The bloodiest day of the war.
70 Years Ago
Week of September 11, 1952
Mayor Warns Boys Who Commit Depredations
Complaints have been made to the Mayor that boys with air rifles have shot out window panes in the old Lambert house which the EUB congregation is remodeling behind the church on High Street, and Mayor Charlie Neville says parents will be held strictly responsible for damage of any nature resulting from the use of air rifles, slingshots and such like.
“As a matter of fact,” Mayor Neville said, “I am not sure but what the discharge of air rifles is against town law, and parents are requested to keep an eye on their children in this respect. Damage and destruction will not be tolerated and the law will be strictly enforced.”
