40 Years Ago
Week of November 25, 1982
Former City Dweller Finds Hunting
Rewarding Experience
By: Raymond Blum
The Hunting Tradition
It is at this time of the year when many of our thoughts turn to the hunting season. While we are all out under the pretense of providing meat for the table, I think it safe to say that most hunters get the most pleasure not from the kill, but from the many side benefits that the hunt provides.
Since I was city raised, there was no such thing as a hunting tradition in our family. In fact, just the opposite was true. Hunting was frowned upon and was considered a sport for people with a blood lust. I’m afraid that this thought is still prevalent and can be seen in the form of the many anti-hunting campaigns active today. Since many of my friends and family are still city dwellers, I usually have to justify my stance as a hunter, even though it is usually a waste of time and energy. By the very fact that I defend myself and the sport seems to indicate wrongdoing to my friends.
I have found that hunting provides me with the excuse to go into the woods and just sit down; any other time of the year I would either be hiking to a particular destination or have a job to do. There just wouldn’t be time to sit and watch. I’ve also found that a sunrise is the perfect way to start a day. This simple act sets my mood and makes each day a little more enjoyable.
For me, the greatest joy comes from the wildlife around me. The sounds seem to be the most enthusiastic in the 20 minutes or so before the sun actually rises above the hill.
So, no, as a child I did not hunt. It just wasn’t practical as a resident of Chicago. Perhaps my city friends are just a little jealous of my ability to roam the land with such freedom. Maybe they are trying to justify or defend their means of existence by condemning mine by saying that hunting has no place in a modern society. For me, this time of year is a rewarding and soul searching experience. I only wish they could understand.
50 Years Ago
Week of November 16, 1972
Turkeys Are Nervous Birds — Why Not?
It’s Thanksgiving Time
Turkeys are nervous all year round, not just during the holiday season.
In fact, the big birds are thrown into a tizzy just by someone opening their cage door. And a really big shock—a paper fluttering in the wind—may cause them to dash hysterically to a corner of their pen and pile up in a fatal crush.
But enough turkeys have survived the real and imagined hazards of their brief lives—24 weeks is the average—to make 1972 a record year.
The Department of Agriculture estimates production this year at 128.4 million birds, up 7 percent from 1971. Minnesota, California, and North Carolina are the leading producers.
Beautiful But Dumb
The lot of a turkey grower is not a happy one. An experienced and exasperated farmer explained why: “Turkeys are beautiful to look at, fragile as an orchid, and stupid beyond belief.”
While drinking water, a young tom may become hypnotized by the movements of his own head and drink on until he drowns. Turkeys left in the rain have been known to look upward to see what’s falling and drown themselves.
Others caught in the rain may wander aimlessly and catch pneumonia simply because they can’t find the poultry house door.
Female turkeys never have learned to squat when laying eggs. Unlike a chicken hen, they stand upright, letting the eggs drop an average of 10 inches. The breakage problem is tremendous.
One tolerant man, who has raised turkeys for 40 years, claims they sometimes show intelligence. “I’ve seen them get into single file, surround a snake, and peck it to death,” he said.
Turkey farmers use a great assortment of antibiotics and vitamins to keep their delicate charges in good health. A gobbler suffering from mud fever, or blue comb, responds nicely to terramycin. Some growers give their flocks tranquilizers to ease their constant tension.
A Massachussetts farmer installed electric heating pads on the floor of his brooder house so the poults would not get cold feet. In Virginia, some turkeys are fed wild violet buds, a delicacy reported to give the meat a finer grain and flavor.
The days are almost gone when a few turkeys strutted around a barnyard, scratching for their food along with chickens. Then a prize tom would survive long beyond the allotted 24 weeks of modern birds. When he met his ultimate fate, his drumsticks usually were stringy and, as one farm wife recalled, “tough as bull’s ears.”
60 Years Ago
Week of November 22, 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.
Lee, Burnside, Grant Take New Positions
In every theater of the Civil War, troops were on the move into new positions for a winter of hard fighting.
The names of now famous generals—Lee, Grant, Burnside, Bragg, Sumner, Sherman, Rosencrans and Pemberton—were on everyone’s lips as the shifts took place. New names appeared too.
One near forgotten name—that of Joe Johnston—reappeared in the news that week as the Confederate hero returned to duty, having recovered from his wound at Seven Pines.
Another familiar name popped up again when James Alexander Seddon, the pre-war Virginia Congressman, was named as the new Secretary of War for the Confederacy.
New towns and cities began appearing in the headlines, names that soon would be the scenes of massive bloodshed: Fredericksburg, Murfreesboro and Vicksburg.
It was a tremendous scramble of troops hither and yon, as the lines for the winter’s fighting were drawn. Briefly, it went like this:
Heavy-bearded Braxton Bragg made one of the major movements with his Confederate army in Tennessee. For Bragg, after his retreat from Kentucky, had marshalled his forces at Knoxville and had watched as his new opponent—Federal Gen. William S. Rosencrans—had assembled his troops at Nashville.
Now, as November began drawing to an end, Bragg started his men westward across the state toward Rosencrans. When the move had ended, Bragg’s army had new headquarters at Murfreesboro, less than 50 miles from Rosencrans. It was a matter of time before the two would fight.
In northern Mississippi, Ulysses S. Grant, too, was on the move. With his eyes on Vicksburg, Grant slowly pushed his huge Federal army down the state beyond Holly Spring, with Oxford just ahead of them. As he moved, his subordinate, William Tecumseh Sherman, moved more troops overland from Memphis to join his boss. Ahead of them, Confederate Gen. J. C. Pemberton slowly pulled back.
In Virginia, events were transpiring of even more importance to the governments at Washington and Richmond. Half way between the two capitals, across the Rappahannock River from the little city of Fredericksburg, the veteran Army of the Potomac moved, 100,000 strong, into position under the new command of Gen. Ambrose Burnside.
On the morning of November 24, Gen. Edwin V. Sumner of Burnside’s army demanded Fredericksburg’s surrender. That afternoon, a division of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia moved in to defend the city, and the demand was refused. There, too, it was only a matter of time before an engagement would be fought.
At Richmond, meanwhile, Joe Johnston showed up ready to fight and soon received his orders. He was to go West to command the troops of both Generals Bragg and Pemberton. While Johnston was in Richmond, he saw George Wythe Randolph, who had just resigned in a huff as the Confederacy’s Secretary of War. Before Johnston left for the West, Randolph had been replaced by the thin, black-haired lawyer, Seddon.
Next week: Lincoln Proposes a new Emancipation Plan.
Radio Active Fallout
Will Be Measured
In Pendleton
Arrangements are now being made to measure radio active fallout in Pendleton County, A. D. Brown, county director of civil and defense mobilization, said here today.
Brown said an effort is being made to set up 16 or 18 monitoring stations throughout the county to be used in measuring the amount of fallout in this area.
“We hope to have a class organized within the next two weeks to teach people to operate and repair the monitoring devices,” the county director of civil and defense mobilization said.
“The recent Cuban crisis pointed up the need for a stepped-up civilian defense program for the country,” Brown asserted.
In addition to the installation of fallout monitoring stations in the county, steps are being taken to organize medical self-help training for the public and to utilize caves as possible fallout shelters.
The purpose of the medical self-help program is to provide training to the public to enable people to take care of sick and injured persons in the event of an enemy attack when doctors are not available. Brown said he hoped a class to provide training in medical self-help training could be organized in the near future.
“We are in the process of getting permission to use caves in various sections of the county as fallout shelters,” Brown reported. “The caves would be stocked with food, water and medical supplies.”
Caves to be included in the program are Trout Cave, Kenny Simmons Cave and Sinnett Cave in the Franklin area, and Seneca Caverns, School House Cave and Stratosphere Balloon Cave in the North Fork area.
Rabbit Fever
Not As Dangerous
As Some Believe
Many people fear tularemia or “rabbit fever,” and much has been written which might scare off prospective hunters. Actually, only a very small percentage of this rather rare disease in persons results from rabbit hunting, flies constituting the greater menace in areas where the sickness is common.
Ticks also carry tularemia, and many game animals and birds besides the cottontail can be infected. However, a person can eat a well-cooked rabbit or other beast which had tularemia, without risk. The main precaution to be taken by the hunter is to make sure that he has no open cuts or wounds when cleaning game of any kind.
70 Years Ago
Week of November 20, 1952
17 LEAVE
TOMORROW FOR
INDUCTION POINT
Seventeen Pendleton county men will leave tomorrow morning at 8:30 o’clock by chartered bus for Fairmont, where they will be inducted into the service, it has been announced by Mrs. John C. Harman, clerk to the Selective Service board here.
They are Emory Harlan Wilfong, Harry Junior Grogg and Herman Strobel Simmons, all of Sugar Grove; Herald Richard Rexrode of Deer Run; Delbert Shreve of Cabins; Jesse Tingler, Jr., of Cherry Grove; Ralph Cody Riggleman of Camp Springs, Md.; Harlan Venton Kimble and Obed Ray Kimble of Upper Tract; Leon Vance of Riverton; Bruce Teter of Teterton; Roy Lee Holloway of Elkins; Isaac Lee Teter of East Chicago, Ind.; Delbert Eugene Propst and Herald O’Neill Pitsenbarger of Brandywine; Robert Lee Thompson of Franklin; and Luther Guy Bennett of Circleville.
Servicemen Making News Around World
Norman O. Koontz, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Koontz of Moyers and Henry M. Pitsenbarger, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Pitsenbarger, also of Moyers, are completing their AF basic airmen indoctrination course at Lackland Air Force Base, Tex., the “Gateway to the Air Force.”
Captain Leslie H. Wilfong, son of Campbell Wilfong of Franklin has recently graduated from the Procurement course of the Quartermaster school at Fort Lee, Va.
KOREA, JAPAN—Army Sgt. Arnold L. Halterman of Franklin, son of Mrs. Iva Halterman (father deceased), Staunton, Va., recently reenlisted in the Army for three years at Kobe, Japan. He is a veteran of seven years and five months of Army service.
Pvt. Brooks C. Vandevander is the son of Mrs. Mary E. Vandevander (father deceased) of Franklin. He arrived in Korea and has been serving with the 7th Infantry in Korea.
