20 Years Ago
Week of January 29, 2004
Local NWTF Chapter
Receives Major Awards
Only two and a half years old and already one of Pendleton County’s fastest growing organizations, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Potomac Headwaters chapter, came away from the recent NWTF state banquet in Flatwoods with the top honors in West Virginia for the organization’s banquet in Franklin last June.
The local chapter received a handsome plaque for staging the most successful banquet in state history for the NWTF. The plaque states that the Potomac Headwaters chapter was the first in West Virginia to mount an “80 percent banquet.”
(The “80 percent” refers to a formula devised by the national organization for ranking NWTF banquets.)
The Potomac Headwaters chapter was also awarded three colored ribbons for their exceptional banquet, which consisted of food, a lively auction conducted by State Senators Walt Helmick and Mike Ross and the raffling off of numerous guns and other items.
Larry Simon, the president of the Potomac Headwaters chapter, received the plaque from Bob Farkasousky, the state director of the NWTF.
Simon said the success of the record-setting banquet was owed to the local merchants and businesses that sponsored it and generously contributed the many items auctioned away by Helmick and Ross.
This past year, the NWTF also staged the first annual JAKES event, an educational program for young hunters, and purchased 76 turkeys which were given away to needy families at Thanksgiving by the county ministerial association and the Christian Assistance Network.
30 Years Ago
Week of February 3, 1994
DAHMER
Old Timers Known
By Their
Slang Expressions
Some humorous sayings often used by the local folks who have gone on to their reward such as, By Crackety–Hendron Propst; By Gum–Alben Pitsenbarger; By George– Walter Mullenax; By Grabs–John A. Pitsenbarger; By Jolly–Jacob L. Mitchell; By Heavens–Frances (Franie) Propst; By Gosh–Mabel (Propst) Pennybacker; Aw Shaw–Will Weese; Deed and Double–A. Russell Pitsenbarger; Now Let Me Tell You–Sam Mitchell; Aw Shucks–Alva Propst.
Vehicles Should Be
Kept Clean of Salt
“Not only does winter salt corrode the undercarriage of your car, but it also mars the finish on your car’s exterior and interior,” says AAA specialist Bob Miller. “And with the weather that we have been experiencing lately, there is no doubt every car owner should consider getting his/her car washed.”
Newer car owners may have to fight a false sense of security that their cars will not be harmed by the corrosive effects of salt. Car manufacturers and dealers use rust protection as a selling tool, but car owners need to take additional steps to protect their purchases, Miller says.
It is always a good idea to wash your car as soon as possible after streets and highways have been salted during snow and ice storms. Place a piece of removable tape on the keyhole to keep water out of the lock mechanism. This will help keep the lock from freezing if the temperature should fall.
Pay special attention to the wheel wells and undercarriage. These are areas that are often forgotten, but they receive the most damage from the salt. Check lips and ledges on wheel wells and bumpers that may be hard to reach, but will hold salt and dampness.
Spot clean the areas on your interior rugs where the salt has been carried by your shoes.
40 Years Ago
Week of January 26, 1984
Frigid Blast
Hits Pendleton
A freezing rain early Tuesday morning resulting in icy roads and hazardous travel brought to an end several days of severe winter weather in Pendleton County.
The wintry blast began last Wednesday morning with a snowfall that deposited six to 10 inches of snow throughout the county. Temperatures dropped to sub-zero readings both Friday and Saturday mornings. Temperatures in various sections of the county ranged from five to 16 degrees below zero on both mornings.
DAHMER
The cold weather January 20-21-22, called the Siberian Express because it came from Siberia by way of the polar region and western Canada, pushed temperatures to a record low at Virgil Rexrode’s on the South Fork Mountain, on Friday with a low of 18 below and Saturday a whopping 24 degrees below zero were recorded. At John L. Harper’s store at Moyers the temperature stood at 20 below zero Friday, 18 below Saturday and 14 below Sunday. At Dillon S. Propst’s store at Sinnett’s Lane, 18 below Friday, 20 below Saturday and 12 degrees below zero Sunday. B-r-r-r!
Week of February 2, 1984
DAHMER
This snowy winter night of January 30 is a splendid time to look forward, also back to December 24, 1927, when seven gallons of gas cost $1.68 at Main Street Garage at Franklin. A Model T Ford car license for the year of 1928 was $13.00. Grover C. Evick bought 40 sugar cakes at 10 cents apiece on February 19, 1927. In February 1927 Eliza (Rexrode) Dahmer’s coffin cost $65.00. The Franklin District Road Fund for a day’s work on the road paid $2.00 on May 2, 1927. Here is an example of some free labor donated by the older pupils at the Dahmer School for the school year of 1926-1927—scrubbing the Dahmer Schoolhouse the first time were Verona Dahmer, Mary Snyder, Russell Blizzard, Lillie, Russell, Herbert and Alston Propst. The second time were Verona and Elvira Dahmer, Edith Mitchell, Mary and Bennie Snyder, Russell Blizzard, Alston, Herbert, Russell and Lillie Propst.
On the morning of January 24, the ice on the back roads at high elevations brought the traffic almost to a halt. Only the bravest ventured out. Bruce Moyers, by using chains on his four-wheel drive, delivered the mail on the mail routes for Mr. and Mrs. Ira Judy.
60 Years Ago
Week of February 6, 1964
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.
South Starts Drafting Men From 17 to 50
Heated debates were going on in Thomas Jefferson’s old capital building at Richmond, Va., 100 years ago this week.
The Confederate Congress, which had passed the first national draft law ever adopted in America in 1862, was in the process of adopting a new draft law that went far beyond its predecessor. The law would make all white men from 17 to 50 subject to the draft.
And although it met stiff resistance in the Southern Congress, the bill was enacted, to become effective February 17. The law later drew the comment from General Grant that the South was drafting men “from the cradle to the grave.”
Under the new law, white men from 17 to 50 were declared to be in the army for the rest of the war. Youngsters 17 and 18 and men from 45 to 50 were to register within 30 days to form reserves that would fight only within their home states.
The rest—those between 18 and 45—were to remain in the army (most already were in) for the duration.
Negroes, too, were affected. Both freed Negroes and slaves, with certain exemptions, could be called for service in hospitals, war factories or in fortifications. However, no slave owner could lose his only slave, and none lose more than one in five.
The bill provided exemptions for men in necessary work. These included top elected officials and government administrators, ministers, superintendents and physicians of insane asylums, one editor on each newspaper, one apothecary for each shop existing October 1, 1862, physicians who had practiced seven years and had attained age 30, college professors, some teachers, public printers and men personally exempted by the president or state governors.
Men who were physically unfit for the army were to work as clerks or in such militarily necessary fields as food production and railroad transportation.
The draft act was never to be a huge success. Southern governors considered it an infringement upon states’ rights, and some of them used their personal powers to exempt thousands of potential draftees. In areas of the South, there was open defiance of the act.
But the act may have stimulated a far more important development in the Southern armies during the early spring of 1864. In the Confederate armies, soldiers—realizing that their war was far from won—accepted the fact that they would fight until the matter had been decided. Despite desertions and desperate shortages in the military, the Confederate armies kept their strength during that winter, and as events were to show later, those armies still had plenty of fight in them.
Next week: Sherman’s war of destruction.
70 Years Ago
Week of January 28, 1954
EDITORIAL
WE ARE HONORED – – –
Although weather conditions in 1953 were 22 per cent dryer than in 1952, the damage caused by forest fires in West Virginia was only about one-half as much. This substantial reduction in forest fire damage is largely a result of an increased awareness by the public of the cost of forest fires and a more determined effort to suppress them.
At the beginning of the fire season last fall, The Pendleton Times published a special section on forest fire prevention. It included a number of fire prevention ads, articles on the causes and effects of forest fires written by local citizens and the winning essays in the fire prevention contests held in the Franklin and Circleville high schools.
Last week the Times received a Citation by the West Virginia Forest Fire Protective Association, the West Virginia Forest Council and the Conservation Commission for “outstanding effort and achievement in public information and education to prevent forest fires in West Virginia.”
While we are proud of this Citation we know that there are others who deserve this honor even more than we do. Connor Kelly, the local forester deserves the lion’s share of the credit, for it was he who worked up the campaign and made it a success. Those who sponsored the fire prevention ads deserve special credit because without them the special section would not have been possible. Also Dr. Thacker, Glen DePue, John Dahmer, Dave Judy, Eldon Hottinger and the others who wrote the interesting articles discussing the forest fire hazards played a major part in this cooperative effort to preserve our most precious natural resource, the beautiful forests of West Virginia.
20 Years Ago
Week of January 29, 2004
Local NWTF Chapter
Receives Major Awards
Only two and a half years old and already one of Pendleton County’s fastest growing organizations, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Potomac Headwaters chapter, came away from the recent NWTF state banquet in Flatwoods with the top honors in West Virginia for the organization’s banquet in Franklin last June.
The local chapter received a handsome plaque for staging the most successful banquet in state history for the NWTF. The plaque states that the Potomac Headwaters chapter was the first in West Virginia to mount an “80 percent banquet.”
(The “80 percent” refers to a formula devised by the national organization for ranking NWTF banquets.)
The Potomac Headwaters chapter was also awarded three colored ribbons for their exceptional banquet, which consisted of food, a lively auction conducted by State Senators Walt Helmick and Mike Ross and the raffling off of numerous guns and other items.
Larry Simon, the president of the Potomac Headwaters chapter, received the plaque from Bob Farkasousky, the state director of the NWTF.
Simon said the success of the record-setting banquet was owed to the local merchants and businesses that sponsored it and generously contributed the many items auctioned away by Helmick and Ross.
This past year, the NWTF also staged the first annual JAKES event, an educational program for young hunters, and purchased 76 turkeys which were given away to needy families at Thanksgiving by the county ministerial association and the Christian Assistance Network.
30 Years Ago
Week of February 3, 1994
DAHMER
Old Timers Known
By Their
Slang Expressions
Some humorous sayings often used by the local folks who have gone on to their reward such as, By Crackety–Hendron Propst; By Gum–Alben Pitsenbarger; By George– Walter Mullenax; By Grabs–John A. Pitsenbarger; By Jolly–Jacob L. Mitchell; By Heavens–Frances (Franie) Propst; By Gosh–Mabel (Propst) Pennybacker; Aw Shaw–Will Weese; Deed and Double–A. Russell Pitsenbarger; Now Let Me Tell You–Sam Mitchell; Aw Shucks–Alva Propst.
Vehicles Should Be
Kept Clean of Salt
“Not only does winter salt corrode the undercarriage of your car, but it also mars the finish on your car’s exterior and interior,” says AAA specialist Bob Miller. “And with the weather that we have been experiencing lately, there is no doubt every car owner should consider getting his/her car washed.”
Newer car owners may have to fight a false sense of security that their cars will not be harmed by the corrosive effects of salt. Car manufacturers and dealers use rust protection as a selling tool, but car owners need to take additional steps to protect their purchases, Miller says.
It is always a good idea to wash your car as soon as possible after streets and highways have been salted during snow and ice storms. Place a piece of removable tape on the keyhole to keep water out of the lock mechanism. This will help keep the lock from freezing if the temperature should fall.
Pay special attention to the wheel wells and undercarriage. These are areas that are often forgotten, but they receive the most damage from the salt. Check lips and ledges on wheel wells and bumpers that may be hard to reach, but will hold salt and dampness.
Spot clean the areas on your interior rugs where the salt has been carried by your shoes.
40 Years Ago
Week of January 26, 1984
Frigid Blast
Hits Pendleton
A freezing rain early Tuesday morning resulting in icy roads and hazardous travel brought to an end several days of severe winter weather in Pendleton County.
The wintry blast began last Wednesday morning with a snowfall that deposited six to 10 inches of snow throughout the county. Temperatures dropped to sub-zero readings both Friday and Saturday mornings. Temperatures in various sections of the county ranged from five to 16 degrees below zero on both mornings.
DAHMER
The cold weather January 20-21-22, called the Siberian Express because it came from Siberia by way of the polar region and western Canada, pushed temperatures to a record low at Virgil Rexrode’s on the South Fork Mountain, on Friday with a low of 18 below and Saturday a whopping 24 degrees below zero were recorded. At John L. Harper’s store at Moyers the temperature stood at 20 below zero Friday, 18 below Saturday and 14 below Sunday. At Dillon S. Propst’s store at Sinnett’s Lane, 18 below Friday, 20 below Saturday and 12 degrees below zero Sunday. B-r-r-r!
Week of February 2, 1984
DAHMER
This snowy winter night of January 30 is a splendid time to look forward, also back to December 24, 1927, when seven gallons of gas cost $1.68 at Main Street Garage at Franklin. A Model T Ford car license for the year of 1928 was $13.00. Grover C. Evick bought 40 sugar cakes at 10 cents apiece on February 19, 1927. In February 1927 Eliza (Rexrode) Dahmer’s coffin cost $65.00. The Franklin District Road Fund for a day’s work on the road paid $2.00 on May 2, 1927. Here is an example of some free labor donated by the older pupils at the Dahmer School for the school year of 1926-1927—scrubbing the Dahmer Schoolhouse the first time were Verona Dahmer, Mary Snyder, Russell Blizzard, Lillie, Russell, Herbert and Alston Propst. The second time were Verona and Elvira Dahmer, Edith Mitchell, Mary and Bennie Snyder, Russell Blizzard, Alston, Herbert, Russell and Lillie Propst.
On the morning of January 24, the ice on the back roads at high elevations brought the traffic almost to a halt. Only the bravest ventured out. Bruce Moyers, by using chains on his four-wheel drive, delivered the mail on the mail routes for Mr. and Mrs. Ira Judy.
60 Years Ago
Week of February 6, 1964
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.
South Starts Drafting Men From 17 to 50
Heated debates were going on in Thomas Jefferson’s old capital building at Richmond, Va., 100 years ago this week.
The Confederate Congress, which had passed the first national draft law ever adopted in America in 1862, was in the process of adopting a new draft law that went far beyond its predecessor. The law would make all white men from 17 to 50 subject to the draft.
And although it met stiff resistance in the Southern Congress, the bill was enacted, to become effective February 17. The law later drew the comment from General Grant that the South was drafting men “from the cradle to the grave.”
Under the new law, white men from 17 to 50 were declared to be in the army for the rest of the war. Youngsters 17 and 18 and men from 45 to 50 were to register within 30 days to form reserves that would fight only within their home states.
The rest—those between 18 and 45—were to remain in the army (most already were in) for the duration.
Negroes, too, were affected. Both freed Negroes and slaves, with certain exemptions, could be called for service in hospitals, war factories or in fortifications. However, no slave owner could lose his only slave, and none lose more than one in five.
The bill provided exemptions for men in necessary work. These included top elected officials and government administrators, ministers, superintendents and physicians of insane asylums, one editor on each newspaper, one apothecary for each shop existing October 1, 1862, physicians who had practiced seven years and had attained age 30, college professors, some teachers, public printers and men personally exempted by the president or state governors.
Men who were physically unfit for the army were to work as clerks or in such militarily necessary fields as food production and railroad transportation.
The draft act was never to be a huge success. Southern governors considered it an infringement upon states’ rights, and some of them used their personal powers to exempt thousands of potential draftees. In areas of the South, there was open defiance of the act.
But the act may have stimulated a far more important development in the Southern armies during the early spring of 1864. In the Confederate armies, soldiers—realizing that their war was far from won—accepted the fact that they would fight until the matter had been decided. Despite desertions and desperate shortages in the military, the Confederate armies kept their strength during that winter, and as events were to show later, those armies still had plenty of fight in them.
Next week: Sherman’s war of destruction.
70 Years Ago
Week of January 28, 1954
EDITORIAL
WE ARE HONORED – – –
Although weather conditions in 1953 were 22 per cent dryer than in 1952, the damage caused by forest fires in West Virginia was only about one-half as much. This substantial reduction in forest fire damage is largely a result of an increased awareness by the public of the cost of forest fires and a more determined effort to suppress them.
At the beginning of the fire season last fall, The Pendleton Times published a special section on forest fire prevention. It included a number of fire prevention ads, articles on the causes and effects of forest fires written by local citizens and the winning essays in the fire prevention contests held in the Franklin and Circleville high schools.
Last week the Times received a Citation by the West Virginia Forest Fire Protective Association, the West Virginia Forest Council and the Conservation Commission for “outstanding effort and achievement in public information and education to prevent forest fires in West Virginia.”
While we are proud of this Citation we know that there are others who deserve this honor even more than we do. Connor Kelly, the local forester deserves the lion’s share of the credit, for it was he who worked up the campaign and made it a success. Those who sponsored the fire prevention ads deserve special credit because without them the special section would not have been possible. Also Dr. Thacker, Glen DePue, John Dahmer, Dave Judy, Eldon Hottinger and the others who wrote the interesting articles discussing the forest fire hazards played a major part in this cooperative effort to preserve our most precious natural resource, the beautiful forests of West Virginia.
Week of February 4, 1954
EDITORIAL
Enforcement Problems – – –
Last Wednesday night hunting and fishing enthusiasts from the eastern part of the state gathered at Petersburg for a Conservation Commission sponsored meeting. This was one of the regular meetings that the Commission holds throughout the state to give local sportsmen an opportunity to express themselves concerning bag limits and conservation practices in general.
After discussing various problems of conservation rather extensively, a couple of questions were raised which were of unusual interest to those attending the meeting, both as sportsmen and as landowners. The first was, “Why is it that conservation officers do not enforce the law which prohibits hunting on posted land?” The second was, “May a conservation officer enter upon privately owned land and arrest the owner of the land for hunting out of season?”
Concerning the first question, it was pointed out that the law provides it is unlawful to hunt on the enclosed or unenclosed land while it is posted belonging to another, unless the hunter has the written permission of the owner. The law also provides that it is not the duty of conservation officers to enforce this law, unless asked to do so by the owner of the land.
The question of a conservation officer’s authority to arrest a landowner for hunting on his own land out of season is an old favorite among landowners. This question, of course, grows out of the feeling that when a man buys land and pays for it, it is his and he should be permitted to do with it as he pleases. However, the fact that is lost sight of here is that the state owns all wild game and fish in the state, whether on private land or not. Since the state owns the game and fish, the state can pass laws regulating hunting and fishing.
And of course officers can enforce the laws even though it may be necessary for them to go on private land to do so. The fact that landowners are seldom arrested for hunting on their land out of season indicates that they obey the law just as other sportsmen do.
Week of February 4, 1954
EDITORIAL
Enforcement Problems – – –
Last Wednesday night hunting and fishing enthusiasts from the eastern part of the state gathered at Petersburg for a Conservation Commission sponsored meeting. This was one of the regular meetings that the Commission holds throughout the state to give local sportsmen an opportunity to express themselves concerning bag limits and conservation practices in general.
After discussing various problems of conservation rather extensively, a couple of questions were raised which were of unusual interest to those attending the meeting, both as sportsmen and as landowners. The first was, “Why is it that conservation officers do not enforce the law which prohibits hunting on posted land?” The second was, “May a conservation officer enter upon privately owned land and arrest the owner of the land for hunting out of season?”
Concerning the first question, it was pointed out that the law provides it is unlawful to hunt on the enclosed or unenclosed land while it is posted belonging to another, unless the hunter has the written permission of the owner. The law also provides that it is not the duty of conservation officers to enforce this law, unless asked to do so by the owner of the land.
The question of a conservation officer’s authority to arrest a landowner for hunting on his own land out of season is an old favorite among landowners. This question, of course, grows out of the feeling that when a man buys land and pays for it, it is his and he should be permitted to do with it as he pleases. However, the fact that is lost sight of here is that the state owns all wild game and fish in the state, whether on private land or not. Since the state owns the game and fish, the state can pass laws regulating hunting and fishing.
And of course officers can enforce the laws even though it may be necessary for them to go on private land to do so. The fact that landowners are seldom arrested for hunting on their land out of season indicates that they obey the law just as other sportsmen do.
