30 Years Ago
Week of September 16, 1993
Local Historian
To Exhibit Old
One-Room School
By Joan Ashley
Local historian and popular Pendleton Times columnist Johnny Arvin Dahmer will display a one-room school exhibit during the Treasure Mountain Festival.
“The one-room school was a common sight in Pendleton, the surrounding counties and all over the United States,” said Dahmer, seated at a teacher’s desk similar to one used by his father when he taught at the Propst School, Dahmer Community, in the 1920’s.
“The children all walked to school in all kinds of weather carrying a dinner basket or tin pail filled with homebaked bread often spread with applebutter, and pie. Cake and cookies were a special treat, depending on the wealth of the family,” Dahmer said.
The school room was heated by a large wood stove standing on a dais in the center of the room. Wood was stacked in front of the stove which was filled by the teacher or an older scholar throughout the day. “Sometimes the stove would get so hot that the floor around it would smoke a little,” Arvin said. “Then the teacher would close up the damper to slow the fire down.”
“Water was from a local source, often a spring, using the water bucket with a common dipper,” Dahmer explained.
40 Years Ago
Week of September 22, 1983
Olie Harman Reminisces About World War I
On 90th Birthday
“I wouldn’t take anything for the experience, but I wouldn’t want to go through it again,” was the way the old soldier summed up how he felt about his experiences in World War I.
William Olie Harman of Riverton is one of a rapidly declining number of Pendleton County natives who saw military service during the first world war.
One of the county’s prominent business men, Harman owned and operated a general store at Riverton for 20 years, and drove school bus for nine years. Earlier in life he worked in the lumber woods and as a carpenter, farmed for nine years and taught school for a year.
But when he reminisces about his long and useful life, his thoughts frequently return to what probably was his most exciting years—the time he spent in the AEF in France.
“I was 24 when they called me to Franklin to have a physical examination. It was in February, and I was living at Key, a community located between Riverton and Seneca Rocks, which long since has lost its post office and its identity. Snow was on the ground, but the crust was hard enough that one could walk on it. I walked to Franklin, had my physical and was back home in seven hours. That’s the way we traveled in those days, and going to Franklin, we walked across North Mountain to Ruddle and then up along the river to the county seat.”
Now 90 years of age—his birthday is today—Mr. Harman can remember going into the service as if it were yesterday. “Twenty-seven of we Pendleton County boys left Franklin by bus. After receiving basic training we left for France.
We were taken to New York where we boarded the Leviathan. That was one of the largest ships in the world at that time, a luxury liner made in Germany but which happened to be docked at New York when America entered the war. The American government confiscated her and converted the giant into a troop ship. There were 23,000 of us aboard when she left for France on October 27, 1918. It took us only six days to cross the Atlantic.
“They put me in the coffee room to make coffee. It wasn’t long before I got seasick and I have never been so sick in my life. I couldn’t stand the smell of coffee for months, and I have never drank coffee since that time.
“I had been in France seven days and I was to move up to the front line the next day when the Armistice was signed. Of course, I never got into any combat, but I did wind up in the army of occupation and they left me in France for the next seven months. I was attached to the 106th Base Hospital, which was filled with wounded American soldiers.”
Mr. Harman received his education in the old Germany Valley Schoolhouse located on the Germany Valley Road, and at several sessions of Norman School, which were sessions of classes lasting a month or so during the summer to prepare elementary school graduates to teach.
“We always walked to school which was a mile or more,” Mr. Harman recalls, “and we went in all kinds of weather. When the snow was extra deep, father, who was my teacher, frequently had to walk ahead of us and break a path.”
Had it not been for the war, Mr. Harman may have followed in his father’s footsteps as a teacher. He had taught one term before going into the service, but he never returned to the classroom after coming back from France.
Perhaps his most productive years were the 20 years from 1948 to 1968 when he was in the mercantile business. “Back in those days we always extended credit to our customers in the form of charge accounts,” Mr. Harman recalled. “I often had as much as $2,000 in credit on my books, but in all the 20 years that I ran a store, I lost less than $300 in bad accounts.”
Mr. Harman was born September 22, 1893, at Macksville, and was a son of the late Ulyssis S. and Arletta Florence Teter Harman. He was married December 21, 1921, to the former Josie E. Warner of Key. They were married at Riverton by the Rev. B.F. Spitzer.
Still in good health and possessing an extraordinary memory and clarity of thought, Mr. Harman says, “The good Lord has been good to me and I give Him credit for my long life and good health.”
DAHMER
During the Treasure Mountain Festival Johnny Arvin Dahmer had the pleasure of working in Richard Ruddle, Jr.’s old time general store, which someone called “Dick’s old time country store.” An old ledger turned up from M. K. Boggs and Co. It contained entries from the year 1928.
The first record of chestnuts sold at the store for the year was Oct. 5, 1928, to Pleas Snyder 21-1/2 lb. chestnuts, $3.22; Sallie A. Propst 29 lb. chestnuts, $4.35; Preston Propst 20-1/2 lb. chestnuts, $3.07; Johnnie Dahmer 15-1/2 lb. chestnuts, $2.32.
50 Years Ago
Week of September 20, 1973
John Champe Story
Just a Myth—Lough
A roadside historic marker located on State Route 28 six miles north of Mouth of Seneca in Pendleton County near a large rock formation reads as follows:
“Champe Rocks–Near Champe Rocks is the home and grave of Sergeant John Champe who was sent by General Washington and Major Lee to kidnap Benedict Arnold, the traitor, from within the British lines. The daring plot almost succeeded.”
“It’s all a mistake,” said Glen Lough, noted historian of Fairmont.
The John Champe of Revolutionary fame did not live and die in Pendleton County as the roadside marker proclaims. He lived for a time in Hampshire County and died of a heart attack in Marion County during a trip he took in search for a farm to purchase,” the historian remarked.
Mr. Lough was the principal speaker at a program last Friday afternoon at the Seneca Rocks School at Mouth of Seneca held for the purpose of paying tribute to one of Pendleton County’s famous men of history. The program was sponsored by the Pendleton County Historical Society as the chief historical event of the Treasure Mountain Festival.
Lough was introduced by Rev. John Ray Hinkle of Dayton, Va., who served as master of ceremonies for the program. Hinkle, who has devoted much time to historical research, referred to a book written a number of years ago by a Grant County historian, Ida Judy, entitled “John Champe.” In her book, Miss Judy says Champe Rocks in Pendleton County were named for John Champe, the war hero, who lived nearby.
There is a reference also in Morton’s History of Pendleton County to John Champe, the Revolutionary War hero, who lived near Champe Rocks in Pendleton County.
The story of Sergeant Major John Champe is a fascinating one. After General Benedict Arnold deserted the Continental Army and joined the British, General George Washington wanted to send someone to kidnap Arnold and bring him back for punishment. One of Washington’s officers, Major Lighthorse Henry Lee, suggested for the mission John Champe, a Virginian who had a record of daring unsurpassed in his command. Champe undertook the task and almost succeeded. He became one of the most famous heroes of the Revolutionary period.
In his discussion of Champe’s story at the meeting Friday, Lough said General Washington gave Champe a parcel of land in Hampshire County as a token of appreciation for the services he rendered his country.
Lough’s chief evidence that the war hero did not live in Pendleton County were two affidavits which were submitted to Congress by Champe’s widow and son for the purpose of obtaining government pensions.
Lough said the affidavits listed John Champe’s children and the names are not the same as the children of Pendleton County’s John Champe as listed in Morton’s History or Miss Judy’s book. Also, the affidavit submitted by Champ’s widow was signed by Phoebe Champe, and according to local history the wife of the Champe who lived here was Sarah.
“There can be no doubt about it,” the speaker asserted. “The John Champe who lived in Pendleton County was not the war hero.”
Four direct descendants of Pendleton County’s John Champe were present for the meeting on Friday. They were Mrs. Esther Cosher Secrest and Miss Anna Cosner, both of Scherr, Mrs. Synthia Kitsmiller of Mt. Storm, and Mrs. Gene Boggs of Mouth of Seneca.
Following the meeting, Mrs. Gene Boggs said she was quite surprised at Lough’s remarks. She said it was common knowledge among members of her family that it was their great-great-great-great-grandfather who was sent by Washington to kidnap Benedict Arnold.
Mrs. Boggs said she did not doubt the evidence that Mr. Lough produced, but she thought it was quite possible that John Champe moved from Hampshire County to Pendleton where he lived for a time. She said she knew of no grave near the Champe Rocks and that it is quite possible that he was in Marion County when he died and where he was buried.
Concerning the discrepancies between the names of John Champe’s widow and his children as listed in the affidavits produced by Lough and as listed in Miss Judy’s book and Morton’s History, Mrs. Boggs said it is possible that Morton’s History and Miss Judy’s book could have listed the names of the widow and children of a son of John Champe, possibly John Champe, Jr.
Several historians who attended the festival here last week, including Dr. Charles P. Harper of Huntington, former Marshall College professor and former member of the State Historical Commission which placed the marker at Champe Rocks, have indicated that they will do further research on the question of whether the war hero lived in Pendleton County.
70 Years Ago
Week of September 17, 1953
MOUTH OF SENECA
“The Juggler”
We were down to the Fair at Petersburg last week and enjoyed the fair and meeting our many friends. We thought their program of entertainment was very good. The association had secured some excellent talent. The lady ascending the 110 foot pole and executing many daring acts was both breathtaking and thrilling.
But the thing that caught our fancy and set our brain in a whirl was the “juggler.” He came on the stage swinging his arms and then the fun began—tossing up the balls, kitchen utensils and wearing apparel, etc. But swinging those long vicious looking knives amazed us—keeping up four at a time which none of us could do to save our lives.
To conceive of this extraordinary dexterity distracts the imagination and makes admiration breathless. Yet it seemed very simple for the performer as tho’ he had nothing to do but watch and laugh at the astonishment of the spectators. But a single error of a hair’s breadth or the smallest conceivable portion of time would have been fatal. The precision of the movement and their rapidity was like lightning.
To catch four knives in succession in less than a second and deliver them back and make them revolve around him at certain intervals like the planets in their spheres; to make them chase each other like sparkles of fire or shoot up like meteors; to throw them behind his back and twine them around his neck like ribbons and do it with all the ease, the grace and the carelessness imaginable; to follow them with his eyes as if he could fascinate ‘em.
To me this is skill, surmounting difficulty and heartily trumping over skill. You are in pain for the result and glad when it is over.
Thru this thought what can I do as well as this? Nothing! What have I been doing all my life? Have I passed my time in pouring words like water into empty sieves; rolling a stone uphill, then down again; trying to prove an argument and looking to prove an argument and looking for causes in the dark and not finding them.
I endeavor to remember all I have heard that is worthwhile and express it as neatly as I can, but instead of writing on four subjects at one time, it is as much as I can do to keep the thread of one subject clear and untangled.
I love to argue—yet with a good deal of time to practice it, it is often as much as I can do to beat my man—I never have beaten a woman in an argument.— Katinka.
