10 Years Ago
Week of September 12, 2013
SUGAR GROVE
Message in a Bottle Sparks New Friendships
Sunday was a calm and serene day, much too beautiful to spend on morbid thoughts. The sky was an autumn blue with a few clouds drifting along. Crickets and grasshoppers were singing their melodies while hidden in the weeds. Canning and freezing vegetables has allowed the housewife to be quite busy lately.
There is a story to share, and it is quite fitting now that summer is coming to a close in a few short weeks. It is as if the famous author, Nicholas Sparks wrote in his book, “Message in a Bottle.” “If you discovered something that made you tighten inside, you had better try to learn more about it.” That’s what happened to Bob and Judy Grimm this past June as they were vacationing at Nags Head, N.C. A favorite pastime for the two is to search for shells. Besides the shells, they spotted two bottles containing messages. They turned one in to the ranger station and kept the second one. Curiosity got the best of them, and upon opening the message in the bottle, they emailed the Simmons family immediately to alert them of their find.
Now it’s time to back up a little to get the beginning of this story. James LeRoy Simmons had retired from his plumbing career to enjoy life. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He always enjoyed coming to Pendleton County, where he grew up. Quite often, he would return home with bottles. As a family, they would enjoy annual vacations on the Outer Banks, N.C. In 2012, Jim passed away. Their June 2013 vacation rolled around, and it occurred to the family members that it would be fun to use some of Jim’s bottles to send messages out to sea. It would be an experiment, which would be different and fun, and which included the grandchildren, as well.
So, eight bottles were chosen, and each sat down to write a message that stated where they were from, where they were vacationing, an email address and telling a little about Jim and how they thought this would be nice to do in his memory. The Outer Banks Pier was where these eight bottles were tossed out to sea for the current to take them to who knows where.
So, imagine the excitement the Simmons family experienced when the email arrived from Bob and Judy Grimm, stating that they had found two bottles. (The purpose of this project was for persons to find the bottles and contact the sender.) After emailing and sharing family information, the two parties decided it was time to meet each other.
Late last month on a Sunday afternoon, they met in Harrisonburg, VA. Of course there were hugs, laughter, much conversation and a photo opportunity. What clearly was quite an unusual meeting was the family connection that existed. Judy’s aunt, Glenna, married Hobart Simmons, and it is through him that the families are connected. The odds of these two families connecting were in part due to luck or fate…or perhaps Jim had something to do with this! How else does something like this happen? Bob so aptly stated, “I almost feel like this was meant to happen.” Whichever way one interprets this strange way to bring the two families together, the message in the bottle sure brought about a lot of excitement and a new family friendship.
(Some tidbits to add to this unusual story are that the first recorded messages in bottles were released around 310 B.C. by a Greek philosopher named Theophrastus. It was part of an experiment to show that the Mediterranean Sea was formed by the inflowing of the Atlantic Ocean. This certainly is a fun activity to do as a family project. It can also be a way to inform the receiver of dire circumstances, such as being shipwrekced, or dealing with war activities.)
20 Years Ago
Week of September 11, 2003
Tips Suggested
For Making Farm Ponds Better Fisheries
By Kevin Yokum
Quality farm ponds are in high demand, but many times pond owners try to transition their ponds into super fisheries too quickly. As a result, the ponds never achieve full potential and the owner’s management goals whether it be a trophy bass water or a pond where you catch a fish every cast, are never met.
Largemouth bass and bluegill are the two most popular farm pond fish. When properly balanced, these two species can thrive together producing both great sportfishing and delicious table fare.
Most folks build a pond and expect the fishing to automatically be superb. In an attempt to speed up the pond establishment, pond owners often transfer fish from another body of water into their pond. While this may provide a little short term excitement, sooner than later the balance of the pond will be out of whack. The instability will mean that either too many of one fish species (bluegill) or not enough of another (bass) are present in the pond. The result usually leads to lots of small bass in the pond, and once the pond is unbalanced, it is difficult to correct.
If a pond is started with the correct proportion of forage fish to sportfish, then it will provide good fishing for many years to come. In addition, the pond will be self-sustaining. The forage population will renew itself every year to feed the sportfish, and in turn, the sportfish will keep the forage population in check so it doesn’t get over populated.
By starting with a balanced population, you are ensuring that your pond will have great fishing for the longest possible duration.
30 Years Ago
Week of September 9, 1993
DAHMER
Road Wagon Seat,
Rickety, Brings $70
At Moyers Auction
The auction sales attracted wide attention Saturday, with the Black family sale of 496 acres, and the estate of Nellie Vandevander’s personal property and the real estate high bid of $45,000.00. The personal property of the Curtis Moyers estate was a humdinger with 312 registering Saturday and 76 on Monday. Garry Propst and Dee Dee Alt were the auctioneers. A small road wagon made by Garry Propst’s grandfather, Charlie Propst, sold for $550.00, and Garry is the proud owner. A few other prices—road wagon seat (rickety) $70.00; old cupboard $710.00; Coca-Cola pop machine $190.00; horse shoeing box $35.00; 2 iron kettles $70.00 and $115.00; Oliver bottom plow $35.00; road wagon running gear $110.00; New Holland hay baler $775.00; 2 fans–snuff advertisement $31.00; one snuff fan $17.50; cream can $75.00; Tiger chewing tobacco lunch pail $35.00; wooden candy bucket $30.00; very small wooden table $520.00; glass pitcher and six glasses $100.00; old Kentucky muzzleloader $300.00; Model 12 Winchester $400.00; Marlin 24C $180.00; Model 97 Winchester $220.00; single shot $180.00. These items were just a few of many articles sold on Saturday. The following is Monday prices—a little worn bear $90.00; gray old jug $47.50; gray color jug $25.00; swing churn $160.00; little Maytag can $26.00; coffee pot blue and white ware $105.00; school-child dinner pail $24.00; wooden colburns spice box $150.00, etc.
Robert Lambert, who married the late John Fultz’s daughter, Ruby, had an experience he soon will not forget, when he was struck by lightning in his house, striking him on the shoulder, running down his hip and leg. He was still feeling the effects on Sunday. His daughter, Roberta, was laying on a bed and a hole was burnt in the cover. Luckily the house which is near Blue Grass, VA, did not burn.
50 Years Ago
Week of September 13, 1973
Falconry,
A New ‘Old’ Sport
One of the new features of this year’s Treasure Mountain Festival is the falconry demonstration to be conducted Friday afternoon at Champe Rocks and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons one mile south of Franklin.
Hawks or falcons are used to hunt game, the type of game depending on the type of bird used. Hawks indigenous to West Virginia hunt rodents and rabbits in their natural state, but some falcons hunt other birds and various kinds of animals.
Good Day’s Hunt—
6 Groundhogs
and
33 Rattlesnakes
“We had a good day,” said Harley Raines of Franklin as he and his son, Stanley, returned from an afternoon in the woods.
“We killed 33 rattlesnakes and six groundhogs.”
The Raines men spent last Saturday visiting their old home place on Timber Ridge, now owned by Keith Lambert.
They were walking through the woods when a rattler lying under a large flat rock “rattled at us.”
“We wiggled the rock a little with a pole and out came a 41-inch yellow rattler which we killed,” Raines said. “While we’re working on the yellow one, a 40-inch black rattler came after us and we then turned our attention on him.” Both had nine rattlers and a button.
The men continued to pry up the rock, and little rattlers about 12 inches in length began coming out. At last count there were 31 little ones in addition to the two mean ones.
60 Years Ago
Week of September 19, 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.
27,000 Soldiers Fall
At Chickamauga
Confederate soldiers waded across the creek during the first minutes of daylight and spread out for battle. From off to the right, Federal troops came running and shooting, and the bloody Battle of Chickamauga — “the Great Battle of the West” — was on.
It was September 19, 100 years ago this week, and the scene was along Chickamauga Creek, 10 miles south of Chattanooga in Georgia. In the brush and trees around the creek were 70,000 Confederates and 60,000 Federals, but when the battle ended two days later, 4,000 of them were dead; 23,000 more were wounded (many of those died later), and 6,700 more were missing. In all, one-third of those who fought became casualties.
The contest was between the armies of Federal General William S. Rosecrans and Confederate General Braxton Bragg, two old enemies in the Tennessee campaigns. But when it came to fighting, the battle resolved itself to a duel between Federal General George H. Thomas, a Virginia native, and Confederate General James Longstreet, who had arrived at the battle the preceding day with 13,000 troops from Virginia.
Bragg had started the battle with an order of attack September 18, hoping to hit the left side of the Union line, at its northern end, turning the Federal army away from Chattanooga into deep South territory and liquidating it there.
So the Confederates came across the creek, moving in a westerly direction, only to find they were hitting the Union line below its northern end. In the confusion that followed, Thomas attacked, and the battle spread up and down the creek, and along Missionary Ridge, parallel to and just west of the creek.
Bragg hurled brigade after brigade into the Union left against Thomas, but none of them—not even Bedford Forrest’s “horse infantry”—could crack the line. All day, the assault raged on the left as the dead piled up and Thomas yielded slowly. Rosecrans, meanwhile, moved more and more of his men to the left to help Thomas.
Next day, Bragg resumed his onslaught against the Union left. Rosecrans sent more of his men from his right and center to Thomas’ aid until Thomas commanded two-thirds of Rosecrans’ army. Then, without warning, Longstreet struck Rosecrans where it hurt the most—the center.
All that morning, Longstreet had prepared his attack, and about noon, his men slammed into the weakened Union center with a sledge-hammer blow.
The Federal line crumbled, and Longstreet swept through. Eight brigades of Confederates swarmed through the hole, capturing prisoners and equipment and cutting the Federal army in two. Longstreet then wheeled his army to the right and began rolling up the Union line toward Thomas. Rosecrans, himself, was swept back by the Federal retreat and headed for Chattanooga figuring the day was lost.
But back on the Union left, Thomas, thereafter known as “the Rock of Chickamauga,” held on. Seeing the catastrophe to his right, he pulled his men together, rallied men farther down the line, and formed them all into a horse shoe position. Stoutly, his men held on, fighting with bayonets and clubs, until Longstreet’s attack began slowing down.
The re-enforcements—Gordon Granger’s 4,000 men—arrived to help Thomas and to turn back Longstreet’s last attack of the day. Granger, who had been ordered to stay in the rear, disobeyed those orders in hurrying to Thomas’ rescue. Evening came, and the Federal army was saved.
Next week: Rosecrans digs in.
