20 Years Ago
Week of Sept. 26, 2002
Franklin Has
Best Tasting Water
In West Virginia
The best-tasting glass of water in West Virginia in 2002 is found in Franklin, according to the results of the Water System Taste Test held by the West Virginia Rural Water Association at its 17th annual training and technical conference, which took place in September at the Canaan Valley Resort and State Park.
Franklin’s victory in the contest was announced during the conference’s annual award banquet, which was held at the Canaan Conference Center.
Personnel from 264 member utilities in all 55 counties are recognized each year for outstanding achievements in serving customers during the annual conference and awards banquet.
SUGAR GROVE
Every surname has come into being in almost countless ways. Even the same surname came to be written in different ways. Sometimes a change was the result of a natural process. However, every surname has had in the first place a particular meaning of sorts. In Germany, this is more apparent than in America, with thousands having lost their original form and meaning.
Week of October 3, 2002
SUGAR GROVE
Sometime before 1753, brothers, Sebastian and Postel Hoover, acquired acreage in the Brandywine area. The name Hoover is believed to have been derived from the word “Hube” which originally meant “the posessor of a tract of land or small farm.” It is found in ancient Europe in the various forms of Huber, Hubere, Hueber, Hoober, Hober, Hover, Hoever, Huever, Huver and Hoover. The descendants of these various lines in America have spread to practically every state and have added greatly to the development of the nation. They have been particularly outstanding in the fields of science, statesmanship, business and engineering. They have also been characterized by their loyalty, courage, thrift, energy and piety.
Courtesy Never Costs — It Pays
By Jim Davidson
Are you a courteous person? Those truly courteous in their dealings with others will find many doors opening for them, and it’s also a sign of good breeding. However, genuine courtesy goes far beyond the obvious. It’s much more than permitting others to break in line at the cafeteria, the supermarket checkout stand, or even saying, “Here, let me get that for you.”
The other evening the phone rang at our house and a very pleasant sounding young woman was on the line attempting to enlist subscribers for a new magazine. After she introduced herself and the product she was selling, she went into her sales pitch. I listened very attentively and when she finished, I told her I had read a previous issue of her magazine and liked it, but due to some commitments in other areas, I didn’t want to subscribe at this time. She thanked me very politely and hung up the phone.
Now you may say, “What’s so unusual about this conversation with a telephone solicitor?” Well, you be the judge, but in light of what I’ve been hearing the past few years, apparently a lot of people are very rude to telephone solicitors when they call. In many cases, they yell at them, swear at them, or just slam the receiver down in their ear. I’m convinced that some people are rude by nature and extend this form of discourtesy to everyone they are around. Others feel they are being harassed and they develop a “mind set” to telephone solicitors and just turn them off. On the other hand, many people have been unduly influenced by negative comments made by their family or friends about telephone solicitors.
If you are in the habit of doing this, I want to share some thoughts with you that may cause you to change your thinking. The reasons will become obvious as you read on. In the end, I hope you will see that courtesy never costs — it pays, and here are some reasons why this is true: A lot of people who are rude never stop to realize the American free enterprise system is based on sales, and this includes sales made over the telephone. Without sales our whole economic system slows down and in time, this puts many people out of work. But you say, “If I want to buy something I will call them or go to a store.” While this is true, just stop for a moment and think about where the money you have in the bank came from. In part, it also came from sales and some of those sales were made over the telephone.
When the young woman I mentioned makes a sale, think about the chain reaction that takes place. She gets a paycheck, as do others in her company. They can take their earnings and pay house payments, car payments and utility bills. They can buy groceries, eat out once in a while, and go to a movie. God only knows what all that money will be spent for. As I say, sales keep our economic system moving and either directly or indirectly, we all benefit.
I hope the next time someone calls trying to sell you something, if you’re not by nature a courteous person, you will remember what I’ve said and be thoughtful and considerate of the salesperson’s feelings. You don’t have to yell, swear, or hang up; just very calmly and politely say, “I’m sorry, I’m not interested in what you are selling, but I appreciate your calling.” You will be amazed at what this will do for you and for the caller. My friend, it’s true; it doesn’t cost a penny to be courteous and it will pay you a tremendous dividend for your time and energy.
30 Years Ago
Week of October 1, 1992
West Virginia
Youth To Decline;
Elderly Will Increase
During the next 30 years, the number of young people in West Virginia will decline significantly, while the proportion of older citizens living in the state will increase, according to a report issued this week by researchers at West Virginia University.
Birthrate information made public recently by the West Virginia Bureau of Public Health has resulted in revised population estimates for West Virginia that show less migration out of the state and a more stable future population than previously thought.
However, these estimates also show that those people who do leave the state will cause a long-term net effect on the state’s demographic map because they won’t be bearing children here.
“Fewer people in child-bearing ages will lead initially to fewer children and then, as those children become adults—to still fewer people in child-bearing ages and then, again, fewer children,” the report says.
Based on the new birthrate information, the WVU Regional Research Institute has updated projections of the state’s population through the year 2020. They show that although the number of people will dip slightly during the next 10 years, the population will likely stabilize at its current level of 1.8 million by 2020. However, there will be large variations among counties.
LETTER TO THE
EDITOR
Pendleton Homes
Have Plumbing
Editor, the Times:
In response to a front-page article in the August 28 edition of the Elkins Inter-Mountain with the headline, “1 in 5 Pendleton County Homes Lacks Plumbing,” documentation to substantiate this claim was sought by local Extension Agent, Lorella Nelson-Mitchell. Figures available through the WVU Office of Health Services Research WV State Data Center reveal there are 4516 total housing units in Pendleton County, with 3061 units occupied and 1455 units vacant (1021 of the vacant units are for seasonal or recreational use).
While 856 units have incomplete plumbing, only 225 are occupied units, and 631 are vacant units. This gives a figure of 7.35% of the occupied units in Pendleton County having incomplete plumbing in contrast to the 19% of all housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities as quoted in the Inter-Mountain.
Complete plumbing was defined by census officials as: (1) hot and cold piped water, (2) flush toilet; and (3) bath tub or shower.
We hope these additional figures can place Pendleton County in a more respectable position with potential homeowners and businesses who might be interested in locating here. Yes, almost 23% of our housing units are used only for seasonal and recreational use. Yes, 43% of the vacant units do not have complete plumbing.
But our concern is the number of occupied units, which we refer to as “homes,” that don’t have adequate plumbing. The more detailed figures and use of census terms seem to more accurately tell the story.
Lorella Lee Nelson-Mitchell Extension Agent
60 Years Ago
Week of September 27, 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.
Lincoln Proclamation: Slaves Will Be Freed
The Civil War had a new cause 100 years ago this week.
Almost every newspaper printed an editorial about it. It was a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln on September 22. It was a turning point of the war and of American history.
The bloody battle of Antietam had brought the proclamation forth. Lincoln had considered issuing it throughout the summer and, in July, had gone so far as to draft it and read it to his Cabinet. But the matter was shelved then because of Union reverses on the battlefield. The proclamation would appear, the Cabinet feared, as an appeal for Southern slaves to rise against their masters to help a defeated Union army. Wait for a Union victory, the Cabinet advised.
Now, the Union victory had come. Not much of a victory, to be sure, but the murderous September 17th at Sharpsburg had halted Gen. Robert E. Lee’s invasion of Maryland and had driven him back into the Southland. That was enough. The proclamation was hauled out again and published.
Actually, the proclamation did very little. It announced that on January 1, 1863, another proclamation—the real Emancipation Proclamation—would be issued. At that time, all slaves in those states or parts of states at war against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward and forever free.” It did not promise to liberate the slaves in the loyal states of Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri and the then-forming state of West Virginia; it proclaimed slaves free, in fact, only in those areas where the United States lacked the power to free the slaves.
Nevertheless, the war was never the same after September 22.
The proclamation stigmatized the Confederacy as the defender of human slavery. It put France and England — then seriously considering the recognition would mean that the stigma of slavery would wash off on them, too, and Lincoln hoped, also, that the proclamation would weaken the Confederacy’s labor force, consolidate worldwide liberal opinion in his favor, please the radicals of his own country, and strengthen his war powers.
But it was greeted happily by some Liberals. It set off a storm of protest elsewhere. The Democratic party, then campaigning for the fall elections, charged it made the war one for abolution rather than for Union. In Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, Lincoln was likened to a “coward, assassin, savage, murderer of women and babies.”
But proclamation or not, the war went on—especially in the west. The Federal troops of Gen. Don Carlos Buell poured into Louisville, Ky., that week, and Buell had won his race for Louisville against Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. It was a complete success, however. Bragg, on his trip north, had attacked a Federal garrison at Munsfordsville, Ky., and captured it September 17 with 4,000 prisoners. Buell, coming up from Tennessee, had overtaken Bragg then, and it appeared as if the two armies might fight. Bragg finally pulled aside, however, and Buell shot up to Louisville.
Two days after the Munfordsville surrender, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant attacked Confederate Gen. Sterling Price at Iuka in northwestern Mississippi. Only two of Grant’s divisions managed to get into the fray, and they were repelled. That night, Price escaped from the surrounding Federal forces and moved south. The battle cost about 1,500 casualities among both armies.
Next week: Corinth.
