10 Years Ago
Week of June 6, 2013
Manchin,
Dept. of Defense Brass
Visit Navy Base
by Joan Ashley
Sen. Joe Manchin “not speaking for anyone else,” considers the Sugar Grove Navy Base a wonderful site for a “wounded warrior” or military rehabilitation facility.
“It’s my personal evaluation this unbelievably beautiful site would provide great value as a transition base for those wounded in service to their country in their progression back into private life,” Manchin told high level military personnel and local political business leaders who toured the base Friday to discuss efforts at finding a new tenant for the facility.
“Hopefully we can keep it open, if not, it will close Oct. 15, 2015, but that’s not our intention, and we don’t want to let it happen if we can help it.
The base, manned by 192 active duty personnel, employs 122 civilians.
The 51 Navy-connected students at Brandywine Elementary School, the closest to the base, total 38.64 percent of that student body. Throughout the school system, 10.06 percent of the students have parents employed at the base.
20 Years Ago
Week of May 29, 2003
Tips Listed
To Reduce Stress
How often does one intend to do something but ends up putting it off another day, or indefinitely? If procrastinating is a routine practice, it’s a pattern that can be changed, like any pattern or habit.
Cyndi Seidler, author, columnist and organizing expert, suggests that procrastination is the primary cause leading to stress. She offers six tips in getting things done:
- Make a list of all the activities one is currently putting off that one strongly wants to complete. Prioritize these and write a deadline date next to them. Mark the calendar with these deadlines, and incorporate the “due” tasks into one’s daily to-do-list. Make the decision to do the task that day.
- Structure the day to get small tasks done and out of the way quickly. Control one’s activities using a routine agenda. Be flexible, but be firm in one’s commitment to carrying out scheduled activities.
- Set clear goals of what one wants to achieve. Make one’s action plans align with these goals, and focus on one commitment at a time.
- Get organized, especially with finding ways to manage regular affairs such as bill paying, handling mail, returning calls, and so on.
- Make decisions to keep reasonably active on one’s goals. Do this by identifying the purpose for the activity and establishing a good estimate for accomplishing them.
- Identify procrastinating patterns and examine them. Imagine going through the steps to doing something, particularly the things one has put off. This productive stimulation helps bring about change.
Week of June 5, 2003
The Bear Facts —
They’re Moving In
On May 24, Lester Harper, who lives up on the Thorn Creek Road, went to the hospital.
He got out three days later and returned home to find his house in an absolute state of disarray.
Food was strewn throughout the house and into the front yard. A TV stand was destroyed and so were a cabinet and refrigerator.
A recliner chair had been chewed up—by a bear that broke into his house through a window.
Local DNR officers advised Harper to find a safe haven in which to stay until the bear could be trapped, so Harper, after cleaning up the mess left behind by the bear, stayed in Franklin.
That same Saturday night, however, the bear came back and “did the same thing again,” as officer Greg Chambers put it.
The refrigerator had been hauled out of the house and temporarily, into the yard.
But the determined bear “drug it down the hill a few yards and chewed out the insulation,” said Chambers.
The culvert trap used by officer Chuck Waggy was “tied up,” Chambers said, and couldn’t be set and baited with doughnuts until Sunday afternoon.
On Monday afternoon, DNR officers found the offending animal in the trap, and they promptly removed it from the county.
Chambers said he and fellow officers are “pretty sure” they got the right bear since there have been no more incidents at Harper’s house.
“It’s a male bear, two- to three-years old, that 98 percent of the time gets into trouble,” said Chambers.
Chambers also reported that David Townsend, shot a 200-pound bear on the evening of May 18, when the animal was trying to break into his home through a glass door.
West Virginia —
An International
Tourist Destination
by
Governor Bob Wise
This week I announced some numbers that point to a trend that is becoming very clear. West Virginia is quickly becoming an international tourist destination with a reputation for hospitality, adventure and value.
The numbers stand out as a bright spot in the otherwise lean economic times we are experiencing. In 2001, 22.3 million people visited West Virginia for leisure. Last year, 22.9 million travelers took their vacations in the Mountain State. As more people discover the treasures of our state and tell their friends and family, those numbers are sure to increase even more. As more people choose to visit West Virginia, they also are staying longer, enjoying a wider variety of activities on spending more money.
West Virginia has benefited from a recent increase in car travel and close-to-home vacations. Located within a day’s drive of most of the East Coast, our wonderful recreation and relaxation opportunities are almost as accessible to folks from Philadelphia or Charlotte as they are to those of us in Morgantown or Beckley. We have taken advantage of this proximity by focusing on highway travelers; our world-class Welcome Centers, which greeted a record 4.3 million guests last year, showcase the attractions, products and friendly people that visitors will find during their stay in our state.
We are working hard to give our guests even more than they expect. One might come to West Virginia expecting thrilling whitewater rafting, and our outfitters’ expeditions won’t disappoint. What might surprise the first-time visitor, however, is the opportunity to get out of the boat and enjoy an elegant meal at a world-class restaurant within a few hours, or to get up early the next day for a round of golf at one of the nation’s premier courses.
More people than ever before took their vacations here last year. This year, as we celebrate such varied milestones as the 25th anniversary of New River Gorge State Park and the 70th year of Wheeling radio station WWVA’s Jamboree USA, we will again greet old friends with new adventures and new ones with a warmth that will compel them to return year after year. West Virginia is one of America’s best-kept secrets and the word is spreading.
30 Years Ago
Week of June 3, 1993
SUGAR GROVE
Flags Mark
Soldiers’ Graves
At Sugar Grove
Flags fluttered in the breeze at the Sugar Grove Cemetery this Memorial weekend. The VFW placed a flag by each courageous soldier’s gravesite. Many memories linger for those who fought for our freedom. Gertrude Mitchell recalls tales of the Civil War era at the Mitchell mill. A number of Yankee soldiers arrived at the Mitchell household early one morning. They aroused Mrs. Benjamin Mitchell from bed and ordered her to make a breakfast of pancakes in her linsey petticoat — she was not allowed to even dress! The Union camp was across the river, along the late Jake Mitchell farm bottom. The soldiers would take fence rails to keep fire at the camp. Gertrude recounts how the Mitchells and Puffenbargers held their sympathies with the south while the Wilfongs had theirs with the north. Her grandfather Wilfong was cook for the camp. One evening, he decided to fix rice for the soldiers. In time, the iron kettle overflowed with rice.
60 Years Ago
Week of June 13, 1963
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 Enters Maryland; Vicksburg in Agony
The Civil War raged on two fronts 100 years ago this week, moving swiftly toward what would become the war’s turning point: the battle of Gettysburg in the East and the simultaneous fall of Vicksburg in the West.
In Virginia, General Robert E. Lee’s army of 80,000 swept rapidly northwestward, heading for a fateful invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Lee’s men outdistanced their enemy, smashed into the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester and captured it from the Federals and then moved on to the north.
But if the Confederates were happy over Lee’s successes, their happiness was stilled by the events in Mississippi. There, Federal General Ulysses S. Grant tightened his grip around the trapped Confederate city of Vicksburg until his trenches were at places within 100 yards of the Confederate lines. Inside the city, Confederate General John Pemberton looked on in dismay as the city’s starving inhabitants began eating mules, then cats and finally rats to keep alive.
Lee’s movements met success at every turn as his army stretched itself out through the Virginia farmland toward Maryland. On June 9, Lee’s opponent, “Fighting Joe” Hooker, sent a band of cavalrymen across the Rappahannock River. They surprised Lee’s cavalry commander, “Jeb” Stuart, and caused a fierce skirmish at Brandy Station, but Stuart finally sent the Federals scurrying back across the river.
Next day, Richard Ewell, commanding one of Lee’s corps, moved swiftly through the Blue Ridge to the northwest, attacked Winchester on the 14th and thoroughly routed Federal Gen. Robert Milroy, capturing both troops and the town. Next day, his men moved on to Martinsburg, W.Va., and began splashing across the Potomac into Maryland.
Hooker, meanwhile, began moving northwestward too, trying to stay between Lee’s army and Washington. He received a typically humorous instruction from President Lincoln: “If the head of Lee’s army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the plank road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break him?”
No, Hooker had to admit, he could not without running too great a risk. Instead, he slipped northwestward toward a town called Gettysburg.
At Vicksburg, the war was misery. Federal shells rained on the city day and night, and women and children moved into caves for their protection. Water, as well as food, was in short supply.
Outside the city, Confederate troops manned their defenses under a burning sun, living in dug-outs, continually ducking Federal shells, slowly losing strength simply for lack of food. Ammunition, too, was running out. The Federal siege inched closer to the city each day—so close that Federals and Confederates often spoke to each other across the lines at night.
The Vicksburg Confederates had only one hope: that Gen. Joseph E. Johnston dilly-dallied, and gradually those in Vicksburg began to realize that their last hope was dimming. The end for Vicksburg appeared near.
Next week: West Virginia Becomes a State.
70 Years Ago
Week of June 4, 1953
10 Years Ago
Week of June 6, 2013
Manchin,
Dept. of Defense Brass
Visit Navy Base
by Joan Ashley
Sen. Joe Manchin “not speaking for anyone else,” considers the Sugar Grove Navy Base a wonderful site for a “wounded warrior” or military rehabilitation facility.
“It’s my personal evaluation this unbelievably beautiful site would provide great value as a transition base for those wounded in service to their country in their progression back into private life,” Manchin told high level military personnel and local political business leaders who toured the base Friday to discuss efforts at finding a new tenant for the facility.
“Hopefully we can keep it open, if not, it will close Oct. 15, 2015, but that’s not our intention, and we don’t want to let it happen if we can help it.
The base, manned by 192 active duty personnel, employs 122 civilians.
The 51 Navy-connected students at Brandywine Elementary School, the closest to the base, total 38.64 percent of that student body. Throughout the school system, 10.06 percent of the students have parents employed at the base.
20 Years Ago
Week of May 29, 2003
Tips Listed
To Reduce Stress
How often does one intend to do something but ends up putting it off another day, or indefinitely? If procrastinating is a routine practice, it’s a pattern that can be changed, like any pattern or habit.
Cyndi Seidler, author, columnist and organizing expert, suggests that procrastination is the primary cause leading to stress. She offers six tips in getting things done:
- Make a list of all the activities one is currently putting off that one strongly wants to complete. Prioritize these and write a deadline date next to them. Mark the calendar with these deadlines, and incorporate the “due” tasks into one’s daily to-do-list. Make the decision to do the task that day.
- Structure the day to get small tasks done and out of the way quickly. Control one’s activities using a routine agenda. Be flexible, but be firm in one’s commitment to carrying out scheduled activities.
- Set clear goals of what one wants to achieve. Make one’s action plans align with these goals, and focus on one commitment at a time.
- Get organized, especially with finding ways to manage regular affairs such as bill paying, handling mail, returning calls, and so on.
- Make decisions to keep reasonably active on one’s goals. Do this by identifying the purpose for the activity and establishing a good estimate for accomplishing them.
- Identify procrastinating patterns and examine them. Imagine going through the steps to doing something, particularly the things one has put off. This productive stimulation helps bring about change.
Week of June 5, 2003
The Bear Facts —
They’re Moving In
On May 24, Lester Harper, who lives up on the Thorn Creek Road, went to the hospital.
He got out three days later and returned home to find his house in an absolute state of disarray.
Food was strewn throughout the house and into the front yard. A TV stand was destroyed and so were a cabinet and refrigerator.
A recliner chair had been chewed up—by a bear that broke into his house through a window.
Local DNR officers advised Harper to find a safe haven in which to stay until the bear could be trapped, so Harper, after cleaning up the mess left behind by the bear, stayed in Franklin.
That same Saturday night, however, the bear came back and “did the same thing again,” as officer Greg Chambers put it.
The refrigerator had been hauled out of the house and temporarily, into the yard.
But the determined bear “drug it down the hill a few yards and chewed out the insulation,” said Chambers.
The culvert trap used by officer Chuck Waggy was “tied up,” Chambers said, and couldn’t be set and baited with doughnuts until Sunday afternoon.
On Monday afternoon, DNR officers found the offending animal in the trap, and they promptly removed it from the county.
Chambers said he and fellow officers are “pretty sure” they got the right bear since there have been no more incidents at Harper’s house.
“It’s a male bear, two- to three-years old, that 98 percent of the time gets into trouble,” said Chambers.
Chambers also reported that David Townsend, shot a 200-pound bear on the evening of May 18, when the animal was trying to break into his home through a glass door.
West Virginia —
An International
Tourist Destination
by
Governor Bob Wise
This week I announced some numbers that point to a trend that is becoming very clear. West Virginia is quickly becoming an international tourist destination with a reputation for hospitality, adventure and value.
The numbers stand out as a bright spot in the otherwise lean economic times we are experiencing. In 2001, 22.3 million people visited West Virginia for leisure. Last year, 22.9 million travelers took their vacations in the Mountain State. As more people discover the treasures of our state and tell their friends and family, those numbers are sure to increase even more. As more people choose to visit West Virginia, they also are staying longer, enjoying a wider variety of activities on spending more money.
West Virginia has benefited from a recent increase in car travel and close-to-home vacations. Located within a day’s drive of most of the East Coast, our wonderful recreation and relaxation opportunities are almost as accessible to folks from Philadelphia or Charlotte as they are to those of us in Morgantown or Beckley. We have taken advantage of this proximity by focusing on highway travelers; our world-class Welcome Centers, which greeted a record 4.3 million guests last year, showcase the attractions, products and friendly people that visitors will find during their stay in our state.
We are working hard to give our guests even more than they expect. One might come to West Virginia expecting thrilling whitewater rafting, and our outfitters’ expeditions won’t disappoint. What might surprise the first-time visitor, however, is the opportunity to get out of the boat and enjoy an elegant meal at a world-class restaurant within a few hours, or to get up early the next day for a round of golf at one of the nation’s premier courses.
More people than ever before took their vacations here last year. This year, as we celebrate such varied milestones as the 25th anniversary of New River Gorge State Park and the 70th year of Wheeling radio station WWVA’s Jamboree USA, we will again greet old friends with new adventures and new ones with a warmth that will compel them to return year after year. West Virginia is one of America’s best-kept secrets and the word is spreading.
30 Years Ago
Week of June 3, 1993
SUGAR GROVE
Flags Mark
Soldiers’ Graves
At Sugar Grove
Flags fluttered in the breeze at the Sugar Grove Cemetery this Memorial weekend. The VFW placed a flag by each courageous soldier’s gravesite. Many memories linger for those who fought for our freedom. Gertrude Mitchell recalls tales of the Civil War era at the Mitchell mill. A number of Yankee soldiers arrived at the Mitchell household early one morning. They aroused Mrs. Benjamin Mitchell from bed and ordered her to make a breakfast of pancakes in her linsey petticoat — she was not allowed to even dress! The Union camp was across the river, along the late Jake Mitchell farm bottom. The soldiers would take fence rails to keep fire at the camp. Gertrude recounts how the Mitchells and Puffenbargers held their sympathies with the south while the Wilfongs had theirs with the north. Her grandfather Wilfong was cook for the camp. One evening, he decided to fix rice for the soldiers. In time, the iron kettle overflowed with rice.
60 Years Ago
Week of June 13, 1963
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 Enters Maryland; Vicksburg in Agony
The Civil War raged on two fronts 100 years ago this week, moving swiftly toward what would become the war’s turning point: the battle of Gettysburg in the East and the simultaneous fall of Vicksburg in the West.
In Virginia, General Robert E. Lee’s army of 80,000 swept rapidly northwestward, heading for a fateful invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Lee’s men outdistanced their enemy, smashed into the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester and captured it from the Federals and then moved on to the north.
But if the Confederates were happy over Lee’s successes, their happiness was stilled by the events in Mississippi. There, Federal General Ulysses S. Grant tightened his grip around the trapped Confederate city of Vicksburg until his trenches were at places within 100 yards of the Confederate lines. Inside the city, Confederate General John Pemberton looked on in dismay as the city’s starving inhabitants began eating mules, then cats and finally rats to keep alive.
Lee’s movements met success at every turn as his army stretched itself out through the Virginia farmland toward Maryland. On June 9, Lee’s opponent, “Fighting Joe” Hooker, sent a band of cavalrymen across the Rappahannock River. They surprised Lee’s cavalry commander, “Jeb” Stuart, and caused a fierce skirmish at Brandy Station, but Stuart finally sent the Federals scurrying back across the river.
Next day, Richard Ewell, commanding one of Lee’s corps, moved swiftly through the Blue Ridge to the northwest, attacked Winchester on the 14th and thoroughly routed Federal Gen. Robert Milroy, capturing both troops and the town. Next day, his men moved on to Martinsburg, W.Va., and began splashing across the Potomac into Maryland.
Hooker, meanwhile, began moving northwestward too, trying to stay between Lee’s army and Washington. He received a typically humorous instruction from President Lincoln: “If the head of Lee’s army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the plank road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break him?”
No, Hooker had to admit, he could not without running too great a risk. Instead, he slipped northwestward toward a town called Gettysburg.
At Vicksburg, the war was misery. Federal shells rained on the city day and night, and women and children moved into caves for their protection. Water, as well as food, was in short supply.
Outside the city, Confederate troops manned their defenses under a burning sun, living in dug-outs, continually ducking Federal shells, slowly losing strength simply for lack of food. Ammunition, too, was running out. The Federal siege inched closer to the city each day—so close that Federals and Confederates often spoke to each other across the lines at night.
The Vicksburg Confederates had only one hope: that Gen. Joseph E. Johnston dilly-dallied, and gradually those in Vicksburg began to realize that their last hope was dimming. The end for Vicksburg appeared near.
Next week: West Virginia Becomes a State.