10 Years Ago
Week of October 31, 2013
SUGAR GROVE
It’s Time for a
Pot of Soup
To Be Brewing
The last of autumn’s leaves are falling from the trees. The unseasonably icy breeze, too chilly for even the most ardent of walkers to be out and about, scatters them along the roadway. At times, the leaves appear to be dancing up and down the roadways, as if they were scattering to the dance of the melancholy tunes of autumn. It was this wind that made it very clear that summer is no longer. With that in mind, it’s time for a pot of soup to be brewing on the stove to help one adjust to the changing temperatures.
Week of November 7, 2013
SUGAR GROVE
November Is Not
Melancholy, But Cozy
November is not a melancholy month, but a cozy month to move indoors and enjoy the comforts of a warm fire, a fuzzy blanket at night and the inviting fragrance of homemade soups.
It is a month of many celebrations, beginning with Veterans Day, which highlights those members of the armed forces who are far away from home and who would give anything to be home for the Thanksgiving holiday. It is a day set aside to honor all those who have served to protect America. Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day to honor all veterans who fought in the various wars.
40 Years Ago
Week of November 3, 1983
Many Towns Claim
“Capital of World’ Title
By Boris Weintraub
In Castorville, Calif., they have a saying: anything you can do with potatoes, you can do with artichokes, and you can do it better. Castorville is the artichoke capital of the world.
In Vidalia, Ga., Dick Walden says that when his wife bakes Vidalia sweet onions, he sometimes thinks that she has secretly sprinkled sugar on them, so sweet and mild are they. Vidalia is the sweet onion capital of the world.
In Jay, Okla., youngsters protect the secret locations of their wild huckleberry patches so they’ll have a steady supply to sell to Kelly’s IGA, which makes huckleberry preserves. Jay is the huckleberry capital of the world.
There are towns like this all over the United States, all with the title of “something-or-other capital of the world.” There is nothing official about such designations; they are self-awarded, and other towns would probably quibble about some of them.
But often they play a major part in establishing a town’s identity, in recognizing a unique crop, and in promoting tourism, too.
The way capital status is confirmed varies widely. Jay began calling itself the huckleberry capital 16 years ago when it launched an annual huckleberry festival. Until then, the berry had been popular in the town of 3,000 but was rarely eaten elsewhere.
A town can get to be a capital in a serendipitous way. Take the case of St. Johnsbury, Vt., the maple capital of the world. It earned its status because a local grocer was broke.
Tradition has it that George Cary, representing a wholesale grocer, called upon a St. Johnsbury retailer to settle an account back in 1898. The local man had no cash, so he paid with 1,500 pounds of maple sugar he happened to have.
Still, it’s easy to win such a title, harder to keep it. Hope, Ark., population 10,300, is the watermelon capital of the world because it grows them so big. Ivan Bright produced a 200-pound watermelon.
Last year, that distinction passed to a grower in Bigsby, Okla., who produced a 219-pounder.
Things aren’t so hopeful in Hopkins, Minn., formerly the raspberry capital of the world. That was in the days when, as Clint Blomquist, 79, curator of the Hopkins Historical Society, recalls, “We’d ship raspberries out by the freight car load, and we had to import people for 40 or 50 miles away in season to pick berries.
50 Years Ago
Week of November 1, 1973
Rev. Middleswarth Ends 15 Years Ministry Here
will go to ohio
Pastor William Middleswarth of Sugar Grove has resigned as pastor of the South Fork Lutheran Parish to accept a call issued by St. Paul Lutheran Church of Pomeroy, Ohio. He will be installed Sunday.
The Rev. Mr. Middleswarth has been pastor of the South Fork Parish for 15 years, having been installed March 30, 1958. His parish here included four churches, St. Michael, Trinity, Calvary and Martin Luther, all located in the Brandywine-Sugar Grove area.
Lions Buy Vision Tester For Pendleton Schools
A vision tester for use in the Pendleton County schools was presented to the Pendleton County Health Department by the Franklin Lions Club at its regular meeting Monday night.
The machine was presented by Dr. John R. Harman, chairman of the club’s sight conservation committee, to Mrs. Kitie Mitchell, county health nurse.
60 Years Ago
Week of November 7, 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.
Bragg Splits Army
In Blow at Knoxville
General Braxton Bragg, the Confederate whose army had whipped the Yanks at Chickamauga Creek a month earlier, made one of the costliest errors of his career 100 years ago this week.
In a bold move that would prove to be catastrophic, Bragg split his huge army of 55,000. He sent Gen. James Longstreet with 15,000 men chasing off to Knoxville, Tenn., while he, Bragg, waited with the remainder of his men in their long-held position south of Chattanooga.
Bragg had reasons for his move. His army held what he considered an impregnable position on the heights overlooking Chattanooga. His men could watch as Federal Gen. Ulysses S. Grant worked to organize his army within the city.
Bragg knew Grant could not storm the Confederate fortifications on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge with his present strength. Bragg also knew that 12,000 more Federal troops under Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside were scattered near Knoxville, and that these men could come to Grant’s aid. Further, Bragg knew that Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman was marching from Memphis with still another army of Federal troops to help Grant.
Bragg’s idea was this: to send Longstreet to Knoxville, 110 miles away, to destroy Burnside quickly. Longstreet then could return to Chattanooga, if necessary, before Grant was ready for battle.
Longstreet, a veteran of most of the war’s great battles, agreed to the proposition reluctantly. He asked only that Bragg pull back and entrench himself more strongly south of Chattanooga; he also asked that Bragg give him 20,000—rather than 15,000—troops to make the march to Knoxville. Bragg declined both requests.
On November 4, Longstreet set out and ran into problems immediately. His troop trains were a day late in getting organized at Tyner, Tenn., just east of Chattanooga. Longstreet’s men arrived at Sweetwater, 50 miles to the northeast, on the sixth, seventh and eighth, and then had to waste a day and a half foraging for food.
Next, Longstreet found that plans to cross the Holston River had been fouled, and he wasted further time preparing for the crossing. Nothing seemed to be going right.
At Knoxville, meanwhile, Burnside began pulling his 12,000 troops in from the countryside and concentrating them nearer the city. This would force Longstreet to make a longer march and face a stronger enemy. Then Burnside waited.
Meanwhile, Sherman was coming ever closer to Chattanooga, and the situation there would be changed radically with his arrival.
Next week: Sherman arrives.
Historic Bell
Adorns Fire Hall
called pioneers to
worship 150 years ago
The Fire Hall in Franklin is a unique structure.
It is probably the only fire hall in the area that can boast a bell.
Almost certainly it is the only one that has a bell that dates back to the beginning of the 19th century.
Although the bell was just recently installed on the Fire Hall, the story of the bell goes back almost to the beginning of the town of Franklin.
It was first used on the old Union Church, the first church building to be constructed in the town.
According to Mrs. C. W. Neville, the Union Church was built by Campbell Masters on a 2-1/2 acre lot deeded by Francis Evick, Jr., in 1809 to be used for church, school and cemetery. The church was located on Back Street between the residential properties now owned by Mrs. Otis Dyer and C. W. Neville.
The building was a Union Church used by all denominations and was supplied by circuit riders. It was used as a hospital by the Union Army following the Battle of McDowell, and several soldiers who died there are buried in the Mount Hiser Cemetery on the hill near the Franklin Grade School.
After the Union Church was torn down, the bell was used on school houses in town until the present school buildings were erected. Mrs. Mason Boggs was sufficiently interested in the bell to store it at the Franklin Hotel when it was no longer needed, and more recently it has been kept in the E. Bowman & Bro., store.
Since the bell was used on the first church in Franklin, the United Church Women of Pendleton County became interested in it and adopted a Centennial project of providing a fitting place for its display. They decided that it should be hung on the Fire Hall in Franklin because that is the only community owned building in the town.
A committee was appointed to solicit funds to build a belfry and attend to other arrangements. The committee was composed of Miss Elizabeth Boggs, president of the United Church Women, Mrs. C. W. Neville of the Methodist Church, Mrs. J. McClure Anderson of the Presbyterian Church, Mrs. Virgil Rexrode of the Lutheran Church and Mrs. Mahlon Lambert of the Evangelical United Brethren Church.
When it became necessary to remodel the Fire Hall recently to make its use more efficient, the Church Women took advantage of the opportunity to install the bell.
President Jeff Bowman of the Fire Company explained that it was necessary to remodel the Fire Hall because it had only one door large enough for use by a truck, and three trucks are kept in the hall. Bowman said it was difficult and time consuming to get all three vehicles through the one door, and in order to provide efficient service, it was necessary to install two more large doors. Installation of three 11×11-foot overhead doors was completed several weeks ago.
While the firemen were installing the doors on the Fire Hall, the Church Women engaged W. C. Simmons to construct a belfry modeled as nearly as possible after the original belfry on the Union Church. It was installed on the Fire Hall under the supervision of Raymond Hammer.
When the remodeling of the Fire Hall was completed several weeks ago, the firemen had not only a more efficient building, but also the best sounding bell in the whole area.
Local Agent Is President Of State Group
Mrs. Harriet W. McCoy, Pendleton County home demonstration agent, was elected president of the Women Extension Workers of West Virginia during the annual conference of West Virginia University extension workers last week at Jackson’s Mill.
Some 200 Cooperative Extension Service workers from throughout West Virginia attended the four-day conference.
70 Years Ago
Week of November 5, 1953
EDITORIALS
ON MOUNTAINEERS – – –
The mighty Mountaineer football team of West Virginia University seems headed for the first undefeated and untied season in the school’s history. The reason for the success of the squad this year is the ability of Coach Art Lewis to obtain players. In former years, out-of-state schools skimmed off the cream of our players, but all of this has been changed by “Pappy” Lewis.
The publicity that the football squad has received this year is worth a million dollars to the school—and to the state. This season’s record should be sufficient proof to the rest of the nation that we mountaineers are still a sturdy, fighting stock. We will have more good seasons if we can just keep West Virginians on West Virginia teams.
