Getting Together at Cousin Ruddle's Place on Posey Run

This photo of a family gathering at the home of Ruddle & Mary (Murphy) Posey on Posey Run was taken about 1905.1 Family gatherings in a small community can be pretty confusing.

"Ruddle" Posey (Andrew Newton Posey2) b. 1851 d.1935 was the son of Alfred Posey and Christina Murphy Curtis. (Their fuzzy photo appears lower, on the left.) His wife was Mary E. Murphy, daughter of Thomas and Fatima Murphy. We don't know much about them.

We can only identify four people in this photo. Ruddle and Mary (Murphy) Posey are seated in the middle of the front row with the open door in the background. Andrew J. and Ora (Riffle) Heater are the young couple standing in the front row, the second and third persons from the left. Explaining the relationships of just these four people will demonstrate how intricate the pattern of family relationships in this small community are.

Use the Kinship Chart to the right if you'd like to play along. Click on it to enlarge it.
CA = Common Ancestor
C = Child
S = Sibling
GC = Grand Child
GGC = Great Grad Child
N = Niece/Nephew
GN= Grand Niece/Nephew
GGN = Great Grand Niece/Nephew
#C = Number of Cousin (1C= First Cousin)
#R = Number of times Removed (1R = once removed)

Both Andrew and Ora are related to Ruddle, Andrew and Ora are related to each other and Ora is probably a cousin of Ruddell's wife Mary (Murphy). Ruddle, Andrew and Ora all descend from Catherine (Scott) Skinner Posey: Ora by Catherine's first husband, Alexander Skinner and Ruddle and Andrew her second husband, Edward Posey.

Here are the players' lineages:
3.Andrew “Ruddle” Posey, 2.Alfred Posey, 1.Ed & Catherine (Scott) Posey

5.Ora (Riffle) Heater, 4.MaryAnn (Skinner) Riffle, 3.Granville Skinner, 2.Alexander Skinner, 1.Alexander & Catherine (Scott) Skinner

4.Andrew Jackson Heater, 3.Sabina Posey, 2.William Patrick Posey, 1.Ed & Catherine (Scott) Posey

Sooo...
~ Ruddle and Andrew J. are first cousins once removed.
~ Ruddle and Ora are half-first cousins twice removed
~ Spouses Andrew and Ora are also cousins, half-second cousins once removed.

but wait, there's more.
~ Although we haven't been able to trace the Murphy family yet, we can be pretty sure Ruddle and his wife Mary Murphy are also cousins, as the middle name of Ruddle's mom Christina is Murphy.

And as an extra bonus, note that
~ David Parmer and I are third cousins, once removed. David is the great-grandson of Andrew Jackson and Ora (Riffle) Heater and I am the great-granddaughter of Ora's sister, Ennie Meshie (Riffle) with O.M. Stutler.

Thanks to cousin David Parmer for sharing Ruddell and Mary Posey's photo.

1. This house, by the way, burned in the 1930s while the family was at church.
2. According to Ron Skinner, Ruddell Posey's given name was Andrew Newton Posey, but he was called "Uncle Ruddle."

Comments

comment 1 Donna Gloff

Karen Smith posted the photo to the right at Nettie Gregorey's Braxton County site. She tells us they are believed to be the children of Alfred and Christina (Murphy) Curtis Posey: Amanda (Posey) Heater, Mary Posey Knight, Andrew Newton “Ruddle" Posey, Edward A. Posey, John Fontaine Posey, George Jackson Posey, Alfred Jerome Posey

Uncle Zeke From Buzzard Town

The following story and the photos come from David Parmer.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Patrick Newton Blake of Oil Creek near Posey Run, writing under the nom de plume of "Uncle Zeke" from "Buzzardtown", entertained the local communities and all of Braxton County with his humorous local news column in the Braxton Democrat. Blake was an employee of the B & O Railroad which he did for a living, but he wrote his news column for fun.

Since Blake lived on Oil Creek, his Orlando neighbors were frequent subjects of Uncle Zeke's observations. Uncle Zeke wrote that
"It was reported that with hand saw and hand axe J. L. Fox removed a couple of corns from O. P. McCord's feet big enough for knot mauls."

He also reported that
"We have been informed that someone went into Lee Ratliff's apple hole and took twenty bushels of apples, hole and all."

And quoting Luther Conrad that "the frogs must be Dutch or Irish from the jabbering they set up" Uncle Zeke replied that "Shucks, Luther, its only frog Latin. Anybody ought to understand that!"

From time to time, some readers took offense to his jokes, to which he responded "If anybody gets offended at my jokes, they don't have half as much sense as I do. And I haven't sense enough to fill the hollow of a p-ants tooth."

Over the course of his writing for the Braxton Democrat, the editor of that paper often mentioned the enjoyment that readers derived from the humorous ramblings of the Bard of Buzzardtown.

Photo in the upper right: P.N. Blake and his daughter Carrie Sharp.
Photo to the left: first three in front , left to right: his wife Loraine (Godfrey), P.N. Blake, their daughter Carrie Sharp. Others are unidentified.

Academy, Highland & Church Streets (Not to Mention Cemetery Road)

Roger Conrad provides this map of the Braxton County part of Orlando proper. Oil Creek Road into Orlando from Burnsville, turning sharply left on its way to Roanoke, has been colored dark red and the land belonging to the two churches, the white clapboard Methodist Church and the brick church that was St. Michael, are highlighted in yellow.

The area within the open triangle formed by Oil Creek Road is a bluff shown from the side in the photo below the map. The photo was taken from downtown Orlando, east of the bluff.

The big surprise to a casual visitor is that there are three named streets up on that bluff! Back in the day there seemed to be only Oil Creek and Clover Fork Roads in Orlando with actual names. Wonder how the names came about. Highland Street makes sense because it is, after all, on high land and Church Street is probably where the United Brethern Church was. But where did they get "Academy"? Was the 3 room Orlando school located there?

A nice little neighborhood thrives on that Braxton County bluff overlooking (the former) Downtown Orlando. The Skinner/Stutler cousins meet there on Labor Day Weekend. (Shown in photo below.)












P.S., while we're talking about street names, regarding Downtown Orlando (located in Lewis County, east of this Braxton County Orlando map):
A sign posted downtown declares the (only) street running off Clover Fork is named Cemetery Road. While it does go past the road to the cemetery, couldn't they have named it Dolan Street or Confluence Road? Or Oras and Edith (Skinner) Stutler Parkway?

Horsing Around With A Cow

David Parmer sends another from his collection.

Holding the cow is Doc Henline and riding the cow is Pete Rush. Behind the cow from left to right are Hob Henline, Sam Craft's son, Albert Butcher, Clyde Skinner, Dan Moran, and Sam Craft.

This photo would have been taken around 1910 or 1915.

Do you know anything more about these bad boys? Let us know what you remember of Doc Henline, Pete Rush, Sam Craft & their pals.

Burnsville Floods

The photos were taken during Burnsville's 1967 flood.

Oil Creek meets the Little Kanawha River at Burnsville. Oil Creek floods can be impressive, but nothing like the floods on the river it flows into. The Burnsville dam built by the Army Corps of Engineers has been mentioned in regard to the creation of Burnsville Lake, but its importance in flood control has been overlooked.

Following is a story of just one of the many floods that were a part of life in Burnsville and other towns on the rivers that drain West Virginia before dams. Many thanks to Pat Ridpath who published this in here e-column, Pat's Chat

"The Clarksburg Telegram on August 7, 1943 , told this graphic tale, and a copy of it was sent to me by Laura Linger Yeager of Barboursville, WV. Thank you, Laura. "

“A story of desperate, middle-of-the-night rescue work and of terrible devastation to crops and property was brought to Clarksburg last night by one of the first persons to leave Burnsville in the heart of the flood-stricken Central West Virginia region.

“The messenger is Claude R. Linger, a traveling salesman who himself helped to rescue the 85-year-old mayor of Burnsville , M. W. ‘Uncle Matt’ Hefner, and several other persons from the inundated Hefner addition to Burnsville .

“Working in pitch-dark, for all utilities had already gone out, he drove to safety the wife and children of Carlin Sizemore, who works in Charleston .

“Then he went back to bring out a second carload. This time, he had just gotten Mayor Hefner and two small daughters of O. K. McNemar, clerk of the ration board, into his car, when the rapidly rising waters came to the car doors and the machine started to float.

“Shouting for help, Linger said he struggled to get the car doors open in order to get his three passengers out again and to safety.

“C. L. Stilwell and Marvin Mealey, he went on, came to their rescue and with Stilwell carrying Mayor Hefner and the other men carrying the children, they started up the street toward higher ground.

“The entire procession, Linger said, almost drowned. Mayor Hefner had on rubber boots which filled with water and almost carried him and Stilwell under. Both Stilwell and Mealey went in over their heads before they staggered to safety with their human burdens.

“Linger, who says he can’t swim a bit, went in up to his chin and was practically exhausted when a Mr. Hamilton, a Hope Natural Gas Company employee, came up to relieve him of the child he was carrying.

“With the water now rising 12 feet an hour or faster, it was impossible to get back across the bridge to the higher section of town, and Linger didn’t get home until about noon Thursday when he crossed back by boat. He had left his truck sitting in front of his house and both it and his car, in Hefner addition, were badly damaged by being under water for 24 hours.

“Yesterday Linger was able to get a truck to bring his car to Clarksburg for overhauling.

“The last person saved in the 1:30 a.m. rescue operations, Linger declared, was Mrs. Raymond Taylor, whose husband is in the Army. The water was rising in her house when she was taken out by a group of women who sawed off some garage doors and tore a clothes line off a porch to make a raft. But just as they completed the raft, one of the only three boats available in the town that night came by and took them to safety.

“When Linger returned home by boat about noon Thursday, he was riding over telephone wires, which gives some idea of the extent to which the waters had risen.

“One of the hardiest of the flood victims was a dog owned by Victor Hyre, which swam around in the high waters all night and until the next afternoon, now and again temporarily perching on some obstacle, but soon being carried out into the water again.

“A Mrs. Smith and her son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Grover Bragg, were sleeping through the flood until someone woke them by throwing rocks onto their house. When they opened the front door to find out what was going on, the water burst in and filled the house up to the second floor landing. And there they stayed, stranded on the second floor, until the water went down

“Linger said the crop damage in Braxton County, where an unusually large amount of garden stuff was being grown this season, was huge. And at Burnsville , the loss of furniture and canned goods, the damage to buildings and cars and store stocks, was equally great.

“Many Burnsville people, Linger explained, are working in war plants and had their furniture, much of it new, stored at home.

“At Coger, Linger said, the water was high over a swinging footbridge between the post office and the railroad station. Cogar Maulsby, postmaster and storekeeper at Coger, lost two-thirds of his stock. Among the few things he saved was a new shipment of shoes, which was still unpacked. Linger estimated his loss at several thousands of dollars.

“The Burnsville postmaster, Virgil Knight, who lives four to six miles from town, saw the flood coming and hurried to town to remove all the first-class mail. The water was up to his chest as he made the last trip from the post office.

“The water almost reached the top of Burnsville ’s theater, but Linger said the theater-owner has promised a show tonight.”

"Thankfully, the new dams have made such terrible floods a thing of the past, but disasters can happen anywhere. Such tragedies seem to create heroes who forget self and go above and beyond the call of duty to help others."

Three photos of Burnsville flooded in 1967 thanks to David Parmer.
Lower left photo: Burnsville dam, constructed in the 1970s/'80s.

See also

Nov 2, '06 Telling Tales

Oct 10, '06 Orlando of the Lakes

Comment 1

In 1943 my family lived in a house in Burnsville owned by my grandfather, E. J. Cox, a Burnsville area teacher. This house was the last house on the street closest to and running parallel with Salt Lick Creek. The house was a wooden frame house, raised more than six feet off the ground. Our next door neighbors were Bill and Lilly Wine, and heading down the street lived C. S. Rucks, the Sumpter, Sizemore, John Smith, Matt Hefner and the McNemar families. I believe there were a few more houses before one would reach the Salt Lick Creek bridge. Our house had a front porch with wooden steps going down to street level. At the time of the 1943 flood my father, G. D. Parmer, was working in a war plant in Baltimore. I was going on two years old, my sister Kathryn was eight, my brother Doyle was six and my brother Ronnie was four. The flood came early in the morning and rescue boats were evacuating families. When a boat came to our house the flood waters were already onto the porch and the front steps had been washed away. My brother Doyle who was six at the time and crippled stepped to where the front porch steps had been before they were washed away and he fell into the flood waters. He was quickly fished from the water and into the boat and the rest of the family was then put in the boat and taken to safety.
- David Parmer

Comment 2

Burnsville has had flooding higher than the '43 flood. What made this one dramatic was the unusually rapid rise of the water in the night due to the heavy rains and the fact that the ground and rivers were already saturated from a heavy rain the week before. I have a couple of additional weblinks on my website. The heaviest rain was up on the Salt Lick River and, of course, the Burnsville valley has Oil Creek, Little Kanawha and Salt Lick merging into the Little Kanawha.

- Charles McNemar

Comment 3

David Hyre, now of Brockton, MA, sends a wonderful tale of Claude Linger in the Burnsville Flood. It is featured in the Nov 2, '06 entry, Telling Tales. He also sends this valuable nugget:

"... By the way, Victor Hyre's dog survived after swimming all night. His name was "Scruff', I used to play with that dog."

Orlando's Doctors

Several doctors have set up their practices in Orlando. So far we have information on Drs. Furbee, Trimble and Peck. Joy Gilchrist also names Brothers Charles and James Rusimell and Russ Meizleo as Orlando practioners.1

Dr. Gilbert Furbee, (shown at the left at Webster Springs with his wife Bessie, and their two children, Lilli Belle and Presley) was an early, possibly the first, doctor to locate and practice in Orlando. We don't know what years he was in Orlando, but it must have been near the beginning of the 20th century. We know that at the age of 32 the 1910 census finds him in Larimer County, Colorado and, according to David Parmer, by 1913 he was practicing medicine in Preston County, West Virginia. He died there in 1918 of tuberculosis at the age of 40.2

It is interesting that Dr. Stanton Trimble also practiced medicine in Colorado around 1910. (The saddle bags Dr. Trimble used in Colorado to carry his medical supplies in the Rocky Mountains are now on display in a doctor's office in Douglasville, Georgia.) Dr. Trimble returned east to practice medicine in Orlando during the late 1910s or early 1920s. I recall that Doc Trimble was my grandparents' doctor into the 1950s, and Charles McNemar knows Doc Trimble delivered his dad in 1927.

The Trimbles' two children, Stanton and Mary Elizabeth, (pictured to the right with their father) were born when he practiced in Orlando. Clora Henline, daughter of Beham and Samantha Henline, provided day care for the children.

Dr. Trimble was a member of Burnsville's IOOF and a leader in his community. He was also an inventor of sorts, having invented a tool to remove clincher tires from clincher rims on early automobiles. This invention became obsolete with the invention of the balloon tires for automobiles. Doc Trimble was also noted for the 1937 Chevrolet he drove very slowly around Burnsville and adjoining areas. Dr. Trimble practiced medicine and provided pharmacy services at the Burnsville Pharmacy until the time of his death.

Charles McNemar points us to a bio of Doc Trimble.

Dr. BenjaminWilliam Peck 's Orlando practice, even after he moved to Burnsville, is remembered warmly in an article about Masell (Parmer) Bennett in Lewis County West Virginia, Her People and Places, edited by Joy Stalnacker (pg 58). A photo and more information about Dr Peck will be added when they become available

Thanks to David Parmer for both photos and part of the research. Thanks to Charles Nemar for more research.

1. Lewis County West Virginia by Joy Gilchrist (pg 146)
2. Rootsweb family tree Gary Bond's Ancestors and Their Descendants

See also
Feb 26 '06 Smallpox in Confluence
May '06 The Last Midwife

Orlando's Priest Father Quirk

From 1884 until his death in 1937, Thomas Quirk was the pastor of St Michael's Roman Cathlic Church and two similar parishes: St Bridgit and St Bernard. Until the end of his carreer when he grudgingly allowed himself to be chaufered in autos, "he traveled his circut on horseback with vestments, sacred vessels and altar stone strapped to his back.1"

It was under Fr. Quirk's leadership that both of St. Michael's Orlando buildings were constructed. The wooden church on the hill was built in 1907 but it was hit by lightning and burned in 1915. The brick church near Oil Creek was dedicated in 1916.

Commenting on the choice of the brick church's location on the flood plain Fr. Quick said "The young generation has grown so infernally lazy that they hate to climb the smallest elevation.2"

Fr. Quirk's brother told a reporter this about the priest3.
"Monsignor Quirk was a fugitive from England because he had assisted political prisoners to escape while he was a resident of that country. He believed that the prisoners were being unjustly treated. The earldom he renounced was that of Mount Eagle. He renounced it because he would have had to renounce his church and affiliate himself with the Church of England, he once told friends, and further because 'it would only be an expense.'"

"It was on March 7, 1845, that Thomas Aquinas Quirk was born at Clonmel, Ireland. He was the son of a captain in the English army. Because his father was transferred a great deal he lived in England, Canada, India, and Australia with his parents while he was a very young child."

"The young man entered the English army where he was a cadet. At the age of 17 years he was sent to the United States in 1862 to study the warfare tactics of the Federal army. He became a member of the 69th Infantry of New York, Union army, and served in several skirmishes in the Valley of Virginia."

"After the war Father Quirk returned to England and in a short time he left the army and went to Paris where he studied for five years at St. Sulpice school for the priesthood. At the same time he attended lectures in law and medicine at the Sorbonne university."

1 Joy Gilchrest Lewis County West Virginia pg 157. 2 Donal O'Donovan The Rock From Which you Were Hewn pg 204
3. Weston Democrat September 17, 1937

upper right photo "Courtesy of Arch Ellis CollectionCWG&HL&M"
lower left photo or Fr. Quick lying in state is from http://www.wvculture.org/history/thisdayinwvhistory/0915.html

Beham Henline's Funeral

Beham Henline (1851-1912) and his wife Samantha (Skinner) lived just west of downtown Orlando, on Oil Creek across from where the parish of St. Michael built the brick church.

From David Parmer:
. . . a photo of the funeral services of Beham Henline at his residence in Orlando. Beham died in 1912. I am sorry I can't identify many of the people in the photo because my best sources died before I had an opportunity to ask them about the photo. I do however recognize some of the people in the photo. Beham's brothers, McClellan Henline and John Henline are to the right of the preacher holding the Bible. I am certain that another brother whose name I don't know is also just to the immediate right of the preacher. John Henline is the third person to the right of the preacher and his brother McClellan (Mack) is the fourth person to the right of the preacher. Mike Thomas, son in law of Beham is the fifth person to the right of the preacher. Minnie Riffle Henline, wife of V. C. Henline, son of Beham, is the lady sitting behind the young lady sitting on the first chair on the left of the photo. Tom Godfrey is one of the men sitting on the right side of the photo in front of the house."

See also
Sept. 19, '06 Samantha (Skinner) Henline's Family
Oct 3, 06 Beham Henline's Business Records

Orlando of the Lakes

Orlando is at the center of the Lakes District of West Virginia. This is not an Orlando my grandparents would have recognized; this is not an Orlando that I can easily recognize.

In the late summer when I visited as a kid, Oil Creek didn't have enough water to swim in. Even when it had rained the water, clean as it may have been, always remained the same color as the earth on its banks and not very appealing. The little brooks running out of the hollers were sparking clear, but they were just wading deep- okay only for chasing crawfish and minnows or washing the car. We did have Falls Mill. As I recall, it was a pretty long trip on the mid-20th century roads, but as the photo to the left shows, it was a wonderful place to spend the day.

When the Army Corps of Engineers remodeled central WV in the 1970s and '80s they dammed the Little Kanawha River just before it reaches Burnsville (the Burnsville Dam) and the West Fork River before it reached Weston (Stonewall Jackson Dam) and created huge breath-taking lakes & wilderness.

For more on the Army Corps of Engineer's remodleing See the Oct. 17, '06 entry The Flood of August, 1939

Now, fifteen to thirty minutes up I-79 or Oil Creek Road is Jackson Lake with its extensive wildlife preserves, recreation areas and miles of lakes, in various stages of development. Fifteen to thirty minutes to the south Burnsville Lake presents different but equally wonderful recreations.

This is how West Virginia Tourism sees this area, Lewis, Braxton, Upshur, Gilmer counties:
"In a place where tradition is a part of everyday life, the past can seem remarkably vivid. It's especially true in two Mountain Lakes locations where the 19th century lingers in the landscape and in local memory. Both are on the Civil War Discovery Trail.

"The Mountain Lakes call you with a soft voice. For flatwater fishing, sailing and motor boating. For canoe trips along the meandering Elk and Little Kanawha rivers. For trout fishing in crashing spring torrents. For world-class whitewater.

"This is the rural heartland of West Virginia, where traditions are sheltered and celebrated in dozens of community festivals all year long. The center of the Mountain State is one of West Virginia's most abundant wildlife regions Hunters will find white-tailed deer, wild turkey, waterfowl and small game, as well as expanding black bear population.

"The county seats of the region still have slow-paced, old-timey business districts where antique stores and specialty shops await your discovery. As you drive the region's country roads, you'll find nooks and hollows full of homegrown herbs and wines, crafts and yesterday's treasures. West Virginia's most famous product, glass, is also available. Masterpiece Crystal in Jane Lew is a working glass factory, and both Weston and Jane Lew have glass specialty stores and outlets."


See also
Oct. 17, '06 The Burnsville Flood of 1943

Photo top left: 45 years ago at Falls Mill: cousins Rick Hawkins and Nancy Stutler
Photo middle right:Jackson Lake today.
Map is from WV Tourism website (Orlando is in the lighter blue section, the Lakes Dstrict, in the center.)
Photo below right:Burnsville Lake

Orlando Train Wreck in the 1920s

From David Parmer:
"In the early 1920s there were several passenger trains which traveled the B&O line through Orlando and Burnsville. Apparently this was an early morning train because several of the passengers were children from Orlando who were traveling by the train to Burnsville for schooling.

"I obtained this photo from Lynn Riffle of Jane Lew. He was a passenger on the train along with his brother Tut. They were the sons of Ebert and [Tina Mae (Scarff)] Riffle. Ebert was the son of John Scott Riffle and Mary Ann Skinner Riffle. Lynn and Tut are the two boys holding lunch boxes in the foreground of the photo. Their parents are to the right in front of the overturned car.

"Lynn advised me that some of Joe Riffle's children were also on the train. Polar Henline, son of Beham and Semantha Skinner Henline, is one of the people on the left side of the photo.

"It is my understanding that there were no serious injuries to the passengers."


See
Polar Henline in Tues Oct 3, 06 entry Samantha (Skinner) Henline's Family
John Scott Riffle in Mon March 6 entry, Confluence in the Civil War

The Bear Trainer

Thanks to David Parmer for preserving, distributing and curating this photo.

One day, around 1915, the bear trainer with his two great bears came walking into Orlando along the B & O tracks thate ran beside Oil Creek, on hhis way to Charleston. It must have been quite a spectacle with the neighborhood dogs, fine hunting dogs that the were, barking and worrying the bears and the bear trainer fending them off with his trainer's stick. The trainer had a heavy Eastern European accent and the bears did tricks. We don't know how long they stayed in Orlando but we can see they they certainly drew a crowd. Lee Morrison, Orlando's professional photographer, took the photo.

Dick Skinner's Wagon Restaurant is in the background. (This photo explains why it was called the Wagon.)

On porch, l-r, Bill Foster, Nathan Parmer, George Ed Bennett

From far lt, Tom Scarff, Lloyd Skinner, a salesman or "drummer" whose name is unknown, Lawrence Dyer, the next young man is unknown, the bear trainer whose name is unknown, Mike Thomas, Coy "Frank" Henline, Charlie Skinner, Erse "Pid" Henline, E. R. "Heater" Henline.

See also:
10/3/06 Samantha (Skinner) Henline's Family
2/15/06 Dick Skinner's Restaurant -A Family Affair
2/24/06 Orlando Businesses Over the Years

The Straders of Road Run

Mae and Mary Ann Posey were the daughters of Daniel "Flukey" and Mina (Conrad) Posey. In 1907 Mary married Okey Strader from Upshur County. Ten years later her younger sister Mae married Okey's brother Linzy Strader. Both families lived on Road Run, near Mae's and Mary's parents.

Linzy and Mae (Posey) Strader lived in a log cabin on Road Run until Linzy built the new house near the first in the 1940s. They spent the rest of their lives together in that house tucked away in the holler up Road Run.
.
The photo at the right is Linzy and Mae with their granddaughter Tricia, maybe 30 years ago. They are sitting in the porch swing.

Their son Frank remembers "working hard, making do with homemade toys and wildlie for amusement, as many folks did then." Also like many folks then, after he finished high school in Burnsville he moved out of the hills to find work. In Akron, Ohio he worked for the Goodyear Aircraft Corp.

Kathy Jo Strader, the daughter-in-law of Linzy and Mae's son James and his wife Shirley, says "I married into the family in 1976. I had a good life before joining the Strader family. But I learned a lot from being able to go and visit in Orlando. My first trip up the run to visit my husband's grandma was a treat and then some and that was in 1976. I have made many trips into that hollar since then and love every time I get to go visit. There are so many memories that I could never mention all of them.

"Going and visiting "Grandma and Grandpa" and smelling the old wood stove cooking the food, pumping the water at the kitchen sink to get a drink of water, the wash pan that sat in the sink that everyone used the same water to wash up in, the toilet being out at the run's edge and going out in the middle of the night to use the restroom, the old coal stove burning in the living room to heat the 2 bedroom house that over 10 people would sleep in, and the wonderful front porch everyone gathered on to sit and chat when the meal was done.

"I remember pinto beans and cornbread for every meal and biscuits as well. I remember Grandpa asking the blessing before anyone even considered eating a bite of food and breakfast was a 7am, lunch at 12 noon, and dinner at 5pm no matter what and they did not wait on you to eat. Everyone knew the time meals were ready.

"I can remember going to bed and sleeping under 3 or 4 quilts and maybe a blanket with so much weight that you could not move once under the covers. The feather pillows and the feather tick mattresses. The good night's rest that came very easy.

Left: One of Mae's many quilts.

"I enjoyed every minute I could stay in West Virginia and see a whole different world and way of living. Where I was from there were not cook stoves that ran on wood, no coal shoveled into the stove to heat the house, no pump to get the water from for everything that needed water and then heating it on the wood stove if it needed to be hot, no sitting on the porch and rocking or swinging and enjoying everyones company, no footlong to cross to get to the house because the run was between where you parked and the house itself. Those are some of the best memories there are in life.

"We now own property in the hollar and plan to build some day but today it is just a dream for retirement."

. . . . .

Right: Linzy Strader during WWI. Linzy remained state-side during the conflict, at a base in South Carolina. Linsey was detailed to work with cavalry and draft horses and preparing them for shipment to the battlegrounds of Europe.

See also
entry for June 13, '06 Our Grandmothers' Quilts

Tricia Lynn Strader's (see her photo above with her grandparents) article You Can Go Home Again

from Heritage of Braxton County West Virginia 1995, (published by S.E. Grosse and the Braxton County Heritage Book Committee)
Mae Elizabeth Posey pg 217
Franklin Delano Strader pg 248

Samantha (Skinner) Henline's Family

Semantha/Samantha (Skinner) Henline (1853-1930) was the daughter of original settlers Alexander and Phoebe (Conrad) Skinner. Samantha and her husband Beham lived on Oil Creek across from where the brick St Michael Roman Catholic church was built in 1917. In addition to being a farmer, Beham had a business that bought and sold goods the community produced and goods the community needed.

This photo was taken around 1925. Her husband Beham had died about 1912. Most of her kids are here.
In the front row are
1) [son] Verdis "Polar" Henline
2) [grandson] Fred Henline
3) [herself] Semantha Skinner Henline
4) [grandson] Charles Henline
5) unknown
6) unknown
7) [son] Ersa "Pid" Henline
8) unknown
9) Jessie Henline (?)

on the back row standing are
10) [daughter] Margaret Henline Nixon
11) [dtr-in-law] Vada Riffle Henline
12) [daughter]Lula Henline Mitchell
13) [son] Ernest Roy "Heater" Henline
14) [granddaughter] Opal Jeffries (McCrobie)
15) [daughter] Clara Henline
16) [dtr-in-law] Minnie Riffle Henline
17)[grandson] Coleman Jeffries
18) [son-in-law] Mike Thomas


By the bye, here's a picture of Samantha's mother, Phoebe (Conrad) Skinner.

See also
Tues, Sept 19, '06 Beham Henline's Business Records
Mon, June 12, '06 William O. Skinner Went West is about one of her brothers.
Mon, Mar 6, '06 Confluence in the Civil War mentions 4 other brothers

Building Bridges

Nathan Parmer (b. 1871 in what would become Orlando) had been trained as a blacksmith, but it seems that as times changed his skills working with iron served him in new ways. He was a steel worker for the Cole & Coke railroad.

David Parmer shares this photo and tells us that
"The railroad photo was taken at Burnsville around 1905 and shows the crew building the Coal and Coke railroad trestle across the the Little Kanawha River.

"The closeup (left) of this same photo shows four of the workmen who are standing on top of the trestle. The man second from the left with hat and mustache is my great grandfather Nathan Parmer."

See also
Wed, July 12, '06 Ollie & Nathan Parmer

A Buggy Ride to Burnsville

David Parmer shares yet another wonderful old photo of Orlando Folks

"The photo was taken in Burnsville in front of the Burnsville Exchange Bank around 1915 by Cecil Thompson, a local photographer, and shows Dave Bennett of Orlando, husband of Maysel (Parmer) Bennett, and his young sister-in-law Marie Parmer who was around 12 or 13 at the time."

Marie would marry a Barnett and move into the home in downdown Orlando that Dave and Maysel had owned.

For reminders, below right is the photo of Dave and Maysel about 40 years later and below left is the photo of Marie and Maysel's parents, Nathan and Ollie (Skinner) Parmer.













Note the barber pole in the background of the buggy photo. It's in front of Dave Hyre's grandfather's barbershop. He sends the photo below which shows
"Jake Brousis working in Victor Hyre's barbershop in Burnsville , May 1924. Dating the photo was easy with two calendars on the wall. The calendar hanging over the window shade is from the Burnsville Motor Sales. The calendar to the left is from the Burnsville Exchange Bank and displays a picture of Clara Bow. Just below that calendar is a picture of Charlie Chaplin. There is a spittoon on the floor to the left of Jake's knee. In front of the large calendar and mirror, is a lighted gas lamp fixture. The sign above the smaller mirror left of Jake notifies customers that closing time is 8 P.M. Monday through Friday and 10 P.M. on Saturday. The price for a shave and haircut is rung up on the cash register at $ .40. There are three empty Coca Cola bottles on the window sill and you can even see out the window to make out a Coca Cola sign mounted on a building across the street."

See also
Wed, July 12, '06 Ollie & Nathan Parmer
Sun, Sept. 24, '06 The Last Midwife