10 Years Ago
Week of July 11, 2013
SUGAR GROVE
‘Essence Peddlers’
Are Common this Year
Many polecats have been sighted in the Sugar Grove community. They have been around since the beginning of the year, and many of them have been seen dead in the road. The unmistakable odor draws into homes and cars. Some say, “think coffee” to lessen the olfactory senses.
Polecat is a name applied to skunks in America. They are noted by the ability to emit a pungent fluid to ward off predators when bothered. Other names for skunk or polecat include wood polecat, essence peddler, phew cat, honeycat, stink cat and petunia. Even the obscure names foumart and fitch are old terms for polecat.
The word skunk has Native American roots. Since the skunk’s spray can travel about 12 feet, the Massachusetts Indians called the animal segonku, meaning “he who squirts.” The word has been Anglicized to skunk and made easier to pronounce.
Were one to have a dream about a skunk, it has been said the skunk symbolizes that one is driving away or turning people off. A “skunk egg” is another name for an onion. There is no doubt in one’s mind that if one was to eat a potent skunk egg, one will drive people away!
Widely used in folk remedies has been skunk fat or grease. Coughs were sometimes treated by taking a dose of skunk grease. People would rub the grease on their knees and feet to relieve rheumatism.
It was Abraham Lincoln who supposedly coined the phrase, “What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.” There are numerous other sayings related to this topic.
Skunks will certainly be around for a long while. They aim their squirt for the eyes, so stay clear.
Smith Gathers 110 Pounds of Pop Tops
For Shriners
Shane Smith of Seneca Rocks started something special five years ago. He started collecting can tabs after being told that Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown saves the tabs and gives them to Ronald McDonald House, also in Morgantown. The tabs are used toward expenses.
40 Years Ago
Week of July 14, 1983
High’s Convenience Store To Open Here
A new family convenience store will open in Franklin Saturday, according to District Supervisor Jack Testerman of Mt. Jackson, VA. The store is located on Routes 220 and 33 in north Franklin.
The High’s Store in Franklin is one of 15 new stores Capitol Milk Producers of Laurel, Md., plans to open this year. The only convenience chain owned by dairy farmers, the cooperative now operates some 360 stores in West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Occupying 2400 square feet of floor space, the Franklin store will sell basic convenience store items specializing in milk and 21 flavors of ice cream. Other items include a small line of groceries, fresh deli sandwiches and automotive supplies.
Livestock Sales
Top $52 Million
The total value of livestock sold through West Virginia livestock auction markets increased in 1982, according to Agriculture Commissioner Gus R. Douglass. He said that figures provided by the markets indicated they sold 172,220 cattle and calves; 27,734 hogs; 51,326 sheep and lambs; 4,193 horses and mules; and 3,142 goats. The sales totaled over $52.1 million, an increase of $4.5 million over 1981.
60 Years Ago
Week of July 18, 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.
New Yorkers Rebel Against Draft Law
Thousands of Federal troops, who had hurried from New York City to fight in the Battle of Gettysburg, hurried back to New York 100 years ago this week to quell a new rebellion. New York was in the throes of its own little Civil War—a rebellion of the people against a hated new law—the Union draft law.
The New York draft riots of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, July 13 through 15, equaled in ferocity some of the Civil War’s smaller battles.
The working people of New York, many of them natives of foreign countries, had been prepared to resist the draft. They had heard speeches from respected national leaders calling the draft law unconstitutional. Several city newspapers had blasted at the draft with all their editorial fury. Especially hateful to them was a provision allowing those who could afford it to buy draft exemption for $300. Stories circulated that army deserters were organizing the people to take violent action if the draft were to begin.
And the draft, sure enough, began. It started Saturday, July 11, when a blindfolded man in downtown New York reached into a revolving drum and began picking names of the drafted.
Next day, Sunday, the names were published—1,200 of them, and the people seethed in anger.
Monday morning, workers gathered in vacant lots with clubs and pieces of iron. A mob headed downtown from Central Park, tore up railroad tracks, burst into the Provost Marshall’s office and sent the employees—in the midst of drafting more men—fleeing for their lives. They wrecked the place, poured turpentine on the floor and fought off firemen as the flames burned the building and spread to adjoining buildings.
For the next three days, riots went unchecked. “To hell with the draft and the war!” shouted the rioters. On Monday, they burned a tavern, an asylum for Negro children, an arsenal, shops and homes. On Tuesday, criminals joined them and began looting homes. The mayor’s home was ransacked. A hotel was destroyed. The Weehawken Ferry house burned. A gas house, a shipyard, a factory and a police station were attacked. Hundreds were killed.
The rioters turned on Negroes in the city, chased them down, beat some of them to death and burned many of their homes.
Order finally was restored on Wednesday. Civil authorities promised to suspend the draft law. Troops, who had been at Gettysburg, returned to the city to enforce law and order.
But months later, when New York’s draft records were in, they told a story. Of 292,441 men whose names were called for the draft, only 9,880 actually entered the army.
Next week: Morgan Rides in Ohio.
70 Years Ago
Week of July 9, 1953
Spelunkers From
Three States Explore
New Recesses Deadly Schoolhouse Cave
Eleven cave-explorers, including three women, entered Schoolhouse Cave in the Riverton section Sunday to explore the unknown reaches of the deep pit.
The party from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania expected to remain inside at least 15 hours and possibly 30 hours. Each carried 25 pounds of equipment. They began the descent at 8:30 a.m.
Miss Jean Schlegel of Morrisville, Pa., only non-climbing member of the party, remained on guard at the jumping off place inside the cave mouth to keep in touch with them by portable telephone.
Pittsburgh Paper
Has County Story
The following article appeared in the Pittsburgh Press on June 27. It was written by Gilbert Love, a columnist for the Press and mailed here by R. H. Cummings, owner of the Penn-Lincoln Motel of Oakdale, Pa.
BIG MOUNTAIN
by
Gilbert Love
FRANKLIN, W. Va.—Here’s an idea for a weekend trip . . .
Southwest of Pittsburgh, only a few hours from home, you can drive on excellent roads across the tops of mountains that are higher than anything in Pennsylvania. You’ll see woodlands rolling away to the horizon and masses of mountain laurel and rhododendron close at hand.
The air is clear in this upland region and the southern sun is hot. But when you stop for the night at an inn or motel in a mountain valley you’d better have a blanket for your bed.
If you like the idea, here are the details . . .
Take Route 51 to Uniontown and continue south on 119. At Morgantown, W. Va., take Route 7 south to Reedsville and turn south on Route 92. This state highway will take you through Arthurdale, once famous, then almost directly south to Belington, W. Va.
Take 250 to Elkins which is an attractive town with some good motels and restaurants. You’re now about 135 miles from Pittsburgh.
Turn east on Route 33 and you almost immediately enter Monongahela National Forest, which covers a vast mountainous area along the eastern border of West Virginia.
You’ll see a turn-off to the Stuart Recreation Area. If you pay 50 cents and go in, you’ll find picnic spots, a swimming hole with bathhouses, trails and camping sites. Taking off from the Recreation Area is Stuart Memorial Drive, which loops across the tops of mountains as much as 4000 feet above sea level, then rejoins Route 33.
The highway itself is spectacular enough to satisfy most persons. It runs over a series of ridges cresting 3000 to 3600 feet and providing really breath-taking views. It also passes Seneca Rocks. . . a great grey palisade which is said to be one of the largest masses of bare rocks in the East.
When you come to this little town of Franklin you’re really in the South although you’re still in West Virginia. It’s a rather quaint place and you might enjoy stopping for the night at one of the plain but satisfactory motels or at an old home that takes guests.
If you want to make a leisurely trip, you can turn north here on Route 220, which goes through some attractive mountain valleys. You could leave it at Cumberland and take Route 40, the old National Road, to Uniontown, and 51 home from there.
For a slightly longer trip, continue on Route 33 from Franklin to Harrisonburg, Va., and take Route 11 north through the Shenandoah Valley. At Winchester take 522 north into Pennsylvania and the detour to the Turnpike.
There are good motels and hotels all along the valley and up into Pennsylvania. This extended journey would be about 500 miles.
Me, I’m going on down South.
First Plastic Car
Built by Chevrolet
FLINT, June 30.—The American Automobile industry’s first production sports car with a plastic laminated fiberglass body was completed here today as the first Chevrolet Corvette came off the line of the Chevrolet Flint Assembly Plant.
- H. Keating, Chevrolet general manager, announced that the factory list of the Corvette would be $3,250.00 including a 1953 Powerglide automatic transmission as standard equipment.
Thus, in one day, Chevrolet answered the two top questions most often asked by some four million people who have seen two experimental models of the Corvette at the GM Motoramas and other special events at which it has been shown since January. They wanted most of all to know when Chevrolet would start production and how much the Corvette would cost.
“This occasion is historic in the industry,” Keating said. “The Corvette has been brought into production on schedule in less than 12 months from designer’s dream to tested reality.
“The engineers want to keep on testing these first cars for a few thousand more miles, but it may be most important to Chevrolet’s future plans to learn the amazing flexibility that is demonstrated here in working out new design ideas in plastics.”
The Corvette assembly line, its bins filled with all the nuts and washers and fasteners and trim pieces necessary for continuing production, has been set up in a separate building at the Flint Assembly plant.
The Corvette’s 50-a-month schedule compares with more than 7,700 a day, which Chevrolet builds in steel in all its 27 manufacturing and assembly plants in 20 cities, in 10 states strategically scattered for most efficient car and truck distribution throughout the country.
Keating revealed that production will build up from this small beginning to the 50-a-month rate, and added:
“We expect to complete our original schedule of 300 Corvettes in this model year, and start getting 1,000 plastic bodies a month for the 1954 production of the Corvette.”
This new type American sports car is only 33 inches high. It is powered with a stepped-up Chevrolet 1953 “Blue Flame” engine, and 1953 Powerglide automatic transmission. The production Corvette, like the show cars that have been on tour, is a two-seater painted white, with a red cockpit, and other trim in red and chrome. It is 70 inches wide, 167 inches long on a 102 inch wheelbase, and has a curb weight of approximately 2900 pounds.
