Clarence McCauley, A Man of the Soil

by David Parmer

Clarence McCauley quietly passed away at the age of ninety one years on October 2, 2003. His wife, the former Mary Means had died on April 17th of the preceding year. Thus ended the unique farm family of Clarence McCauley.

At the head of McCauley Run, just over the hill from the Burnsville Dam, lies the McCauley farm, the lifetime home of Clarence McCauley, son of Jonathan Hedges and Minnie (Taggart) McCauley. Consisting of approximately 140 acres, the farm provided the sole living for Clarence, his wife Mary Means McCauley, and their six children. It was an exceptional achievement for a family to wrest their living from the soil during the mid-20th century in central West Virginia. Most farm owners in this area had other employment, either full time or part-time, to help them make ends meet. Clarence McCauley and his wife Mary were exceptions to the rule.

The McCauley farm has little flat or tillable land. Most of the farm is made up of sloping hillsides, cleared for the most-part and primarily suitable for grazing stock. The farmhouse is a two story, frame house of unknown age, with the usual farm outbuildings. Clarence McCauley was born in this house during harvest time in 1911. For the next ninety one years, except for service to his country during World War II, this house was his home.

The McCauley Farm in Winter and Summer

Jacob McCauley

Jacob McCauley, the pioneering McCauley in the Orlando area, was a Confederate veteran of the Civil War and lost a hand during that conflict. Prior to acquiring the lands of W. M. Riffle in 1866, which consisted originally of 221 acres on what would later become McCauley Run, but was first known as the “First right fork of Oil Creek,” Jacob farmed in the Roanoke area.

Jacob and his wife, the former Cynthia Rohrbough, were the parents of at least ten children: Cora who married Draper Riffle; John J. who died in infancy; Thomas Marion who married Mary Taggart; William who married Lucy Hinkle; Samuel who married Cecilia Murphy; Jonathan Hedges who married Minnie Taggart; Amos who married Anna Crawford; Idena who married John Solomon Heater; Luella who married Benjamin Hinkle; and Clara who died in infancy.

The Jacob McCauley lands at his death were divided between his children William, Amos, Luella, Hedge, and grand-daughter Eva, each of whom received approximately 65 acres on McCauley Run.

Double click on the map to the left, of the distribution of Jacob MeCauley's land.

Jonathan Hedges McCauley

Jonathan Hedges McCauley, the father of Clarence McCauley, was born on McCauley Run in 1872. His father, Jacob McCauley, was a strong adherent to Methodism. During the mid-1800s, the Methodist faith was propagated primarily by traveling Methodist preachers who visited rural West Virginians with their gospel. One of these Methodist preachers who frequented central West Virginia was Jonathan Hedges. It is believed that the father of Clarence McCauley was a namesake for Jonathan Hedges, Methodist preacher.

To the left is Hedge McCaulley, to the right is his wife Minnie Taggart.

Jonathan Hedges McCauley was known to his family and contemporaries as “Hedge” or by some as “J. H.” Hedge was married to Minnie Taggart, daughter of Patrick Taggart and Sarah Sands Taggart who were neighbors to the south of the McCauley farm. Hedge and Sarah were the parents of ten children: Eva who married Robert Brown; Opal who died in infancy; Masel who married Coleman Conley; Mildred who married Jack Weaver; Venia who married William Zinn; Brent who married Bessie Whytsell; Ercie who married John Graff; Clarence who married Mary Means; Nina who married Lester Hardesty; and Lambert, also known as “Buck,” who married Jean Johnson. Hedge supplemented the acreage he acquired from his father by purchasing the Patrick Taggart farm, which increased his farm to around 141 acres.

To the right are the children of Hedge and Minnie McCauley: Ercie, Brent, Venie, Mildred, Lambert, Nina and Clarence

Clarence Becomes Lord of the Manor

Upon his death in 1946, Hedge McCauley left his McCauley Run farm to his sons, Clarence and Lambert. Clarence bought Lambert’s interest in the McCauley Run farm after World War II when Lambert decided to move to California. Clarence then became the sole “lord of the McCauley Run manor.” Clarence was still a bachelor and was devoted only to the husbandry of the soil.

Clarence was born in 1911 and had worked on the McCauley Run farm of his father since he was old enough to carry a bucket of slop for the pigs. Clarence did take the time from farm work to complete eight years of schooling at the McCauley Run School. He knew that he wanted to be a farmer for his life’s work and that more school would simply be a waste of time, especially since his father was getting older, his older sisters had married and left home, and there were only three boys to do the heavy farm work. Clarence enjoyed the hard work of a farmer and enjoyed even more the birth of lambs, calves and colts. He enjoyed tossing grain for the chickens, building fence, cutting “filth,” and the harvesting the crops.

To the left is the Lord of the Manor.

How Long Does it Take to Hoe a Row of Corn?

Clarence’s daughter Sawahana recalls that her father liked to talk about the work on the farm during his boyhood. He was particularly fond of reminiscing about a corn field planted by his father in which it would take a whole day to hoe just one row of corn. Shawn McCauley, Clarence’s youngest son and present owner of the McCauley farm, recalls the corn hoeing a little differently. Shawn estimates that the corn field stretched about 1400 feet from the scale house to the head of a hollow. Shawn who himself hoed a few rows of corn growing up on the McCauley farm recalls that it took one-half day to hoe a row of corn one way and another half day to hoe a second row back. So, in either case, whether one row or two rows of corn were hoed in a day, blisters and tired backs prevailed by the end of the day.

Sawahana also relates that her father was not a strong believer in labor-saving devices such as hay bailers. For example, Clarence believed that haymaking should be done as it was in the old days: by building hay stacks from shocks of hay with the help of a horse.

World War II

The dream of being a lifetime farmer was interrupted for Clarence in early 1942 when Uncle Sam sent him a draft notice. However, a childhood accident affected the nature of his service. During a game of “Dare You” with his older sister Venia, Clarence had laid his right hand on a chopping block and dared her to cut off his right index finger. Neither child acknowledged the bluff of the other and as a result Clarence was left with the last digit of his right index finger dangling from a thread. Jim Duvall, a farmhand who worked for Clarence’s dad, patched the pieces together as best he could until Doc Trimble could come from Burnsville to try to salvage the finger. Although the finger was saved, the first joint healed at a right angle to the rest of the finger. As a result, the draft board in 1942 took notice of Clarence’s right hand deformity and disqualified him from service as an infantryman because it would have impaired his ability to squeeze the trigger of the M-1 rifle. He was sent to the European theater where he served in the 35th Infantry Division as a litter bearer, combat medic, and surgical technician throughout the war. He was discharged from service in December 1945 with the rank of Tech 5. Carrying memories of the horrors of the war with him, Clarence returned to the more tranquil life of a farmer on McCauley Run. During the remainder of his life, he participated in Veteran’s Day events of the American Legion post in Burnsville.

Above, left, Clarence is the first soldier on the left.
To the right: Clarence & his errant trigger finger.

Back to Life on the Farm

His father had less than two months to live when Clarence came marching home from war. When Hedge McCauley died of lung cancer in February 1946, he left the McCauley Run farm to his sons Clarence and Lambert. As mentioned above, Lambert decided on a life in California and Clarence soon was the sole owner of the McCauley Run farm.

Clarence continued to raise cattle, sheep, milk cows, hogs, and chickens and was able to squeeze a simple living from his 141 acres. He sold eggs and vegetables in Burnsville and took livestock to the market in Weston. His daughter Sawahana recalls that her dad would arise at about 5 o’clock each morning and would feed his stock before eating himself. He would then work all day with a short break for lunch, and then resume his farm work until late in the evening.

Clarence Takes a Wife

Clarence was forty three years of age when it occurred to him that he might like the idea of being married. A handsome, personable farmer, Clarence set his eyes on thirty five year old Mary Means, a lovely, intelligent lady of Burnsville who lived on a small farm in Stringtown with her parents, W. A. “Dock” and Nora Means. Mary’s parents had operated a general store and a restaurant in Orlando during the second decade of the 1900s where their first child, Mark, was born. Dock Means sold his Orlando store to J. W. “Bill” Conrad around 1922, moved to a small farm in Burnsville, and entered the trade of traveling salesman and wool buyer. Clarence had become acquainted with Dock Means as the result of the wool trade and was aware that Dock had a beautiful daughter. Dock was aware that Clarence was a hard working farmer and approved of the courtship which ensued.

Clarence took Mary for his bride in a Weston ceremony witnessed by his sister Masel and her husband Francis. For the next nearly fifty years of marriage, Clarence and Mary would compete to see who could make the best butter, according to their daughter Sawahana.

Lovely Mary is above left, her dad, Dock Means, is on the horse below left.

To the right are Malora, Mark and Marlece.

In between butter churnings, Clarence and Mary also became the parents of six children, David, who died as a child in a tragic fire around 1957, Mark, Shawn, Sawahana, and twins Malora and Marlece.

The Farm Pond

Drought is a serious problem for farmers. Livestock needs to be watered. Plants need water to produce. A fulltime farmer takes the prospect of a drought probably more seriously than a part-time farmer with outside the farm employment. After surveying his farm for a suitable spot for a farm pond, Clarence set to work to build a pond with the help of his children. Clarence’s daughter Sawahana recalls that when her father wasn’t busy with other farm chores, or when it was too wet to work in the hay, he and his children worked on the building of the farm pond. Sawahana recalls that her father frequently referred facetiously to what he called his “African backhoe” which was used in the farm pond construction, that is, a wheelbarrow, shovels, and mattocks. Sawahana recalls that she and her sisters Marlece and Malora, and younger brothers, Mark and Shawn, spent many days over a two year period building the farm pond without machinery other than wheelbarrow, shovels and mattocks. Sawahana recalls that she helped to pack the lower pond wall of dirt and rock with a sledge hammer and that the pond was built so sturdily that it holds the pressure of fifteen to eighteen feet of water without a problem.

The Produce Van

Early each Saturday morning, Clarence would load his old 1961 Apache 30 Chevy van with farm produce, butter, cottage cheese, eggs, milk, buttermilk and anything else from the farm which might be sold and would visit usual customers or any other homes that might be a market for the farm products. Prior to using the 1961 Chevy van on his rounds, Clarence used a 1951 Chevy flat bed truck as the produce wagon. Clarence made stops on Riffle Run, and up the river toward Napier and Knawl, and came back to Main Street in Burnsville and on to Copen, Bower, Gilmer Station, Orlando and many places between, to sell his produce. He would never return from his merchandising rounds until dark on Saturday evening. He could sell his goods cheaper than grocery stores and always found customers. Clarence knew that to be successful at farming it was also necessary to know how to sell what was raised. This writer, thinking that he may have taken some of his children on the selling trips, posed the question to Clarence’s son Shawn, who chuckled and said that all of the children had farm chores to do on Saturday which had to be done by the time their father returned late on Saturday evening.


Being a farmer means being a businessperson. This document represents five shares of the Kanawha Grocery Company. Farmers who provided goods owned part of the enterprise.

The Farm Store

A small building, approximately 14 x 16, built atop a cellar stands behind the McCauley farm house. Clarence operated a little store in this building for many years for the convenience of close-by neighbors and in order to make a little profit. Clarence’s son, Shawn, believes that his dad opened this store around 1947 and operated it until around 1976. The glass showcase where he kept candy is still in the building as is the scale on which he weighed salt, coffee, or sugar which he kept for sale. Clarence also sold dried beans, Clorox, laundry soap, and maybe even a little moonshine whiskey.

Problem Solving

Clarence’s daughter Sawahana also recalls that her father was eager to have his wife Mary and their children participate in decisions, as well as the work, concerning the farm. Often at the kitchen table Clarence would pose a problem involving the farm and ask his wife and children to think about the problem and to offer solutions. The McCauley children through this experience learned practical solutions to vexing farm problems. Sawahana also recalls that farming is often just pure old hard work and that she and her siblings were thoroughly acquainted with the concept.

A Major Problem Without a Solution

During the early 1970s, a major problem without a solution confronted the Clarence McCauley family. Over the hill to the east of the McCauley farm is the Little Kanawha River, just below the mouth of Riffle Run. The United States Corps of Engineers was in the process of planning for the building of the Burnsville Dam and acquiring land through either purchase or condemnation. The Corps of Engineers decided that a forty five acre parcel of the McCauley farm was needed to furnish stone for the core of the dam structure and advised Clarence that he either had to sell at their price or a condemnation proceeding would commence. Mindful that he was a full time farmer and the part of his land in question was a vital part of his farm, Clarence refused to sell. The Corps of Engineers began condemnation proceedings despite the fact that at the time Clarence was grazing twenty two head of cattle and fourteen sheep on the land they sought. Clarence eventually offered to let the Corps have the stone they wanted for free and the only thing he would ask in return would be that the Corps would use equipment to clean up the construction site and return the land to him so his animals would not be deprived of the grazing area. The Corps refused Clarence’s proposal and proceeded with the condemnation action in federal court in Charleston. Clarence sought legal advice but the high cost of legal fees caused him to try to represent himself in the proceedings. Clarence advised the court that he had “five children in school and that the loss of forty five acres would leave them in a rough situation [and] that he would have to dispose of some stock.” Words, of course, cannot be heard by a deaf ear and Clarence lost a significant portion of his farm to the Corps of Engineers. As it turned out, the Corps of Engineers never did use the rock from the McCauley farm for the dam construction which had been the gist of the condemnation suit.

The Rule of Frugality

Frugality was a watchword for Clarence McCauley. Every penny expended in the farm budget had to be justified. An example of his philosophical bent in this regard is illustrated when Clarence fell and broke his arm. Instead of seeking expensive medical treatment, Clarence and his son Shawn set the broken arm and put it in a cast of plaster of Paris. All’s well that ends well, and Clarence made a full recovery without incurring any cost except for the plaster of Paris.

The Present Day

Clarence McCauley has been dead for six years and lies next to his wife Mary in the Quickle Cemetery on the Little Kanawha River side of the McCauley farm. Upon his death, he left his farm to his youngest son Shawn. Although Shawn is not a full time farmer like his father, he does admirably well in keeping the farm much the same as it was when Clarence did his last farm chore the day he died at 91.

To the right is the Quickle Cemetery.



Comments
comment 1 by Penny
Shawn has been married to my Aunt Penny for around ten years now, i think. I'm a college student and my aunt and uncle go out of their way to help me any way they can. The McCauley farm is my home when I leave WVU. It's beautiful and very tranquil, especially in the summer. You won't find better people on the planet than the McCauleys. I am old enough to remember Clarence and Mary and they were just as good hearted as Shawn.

comment 2 by Homer Heater

My grandmother was Idena Jane McCauley. That made my father and Clarence first cousins. I grew up on Riffle Run and spent a lot of time on McCauley Run. I remember as a little boy hoeing corn on the Taggart farm. I was so hungry I thought I would surely die, so my father sent me to Mrs. Taggart's house to ask for a sandwich. It was wonderful.Thanks for a great (as usual) story.

comment 3 by Donna Gloff
According to Don Norman, "Jacob [McCauley] traveled to Hillsboro, Pocahontas County in 1862 and enlisted in Company C. 17th Virginia Cavalry. CSA. While recruiting behind enemy lines, he was arrested by Union troops in Roane County VA. In October of 1863 and was sent to Military Prison at Wheeling VA (Atheneum Prison), then to Camp Chase at Columbus, OH and then to Fort Delaware, DE. He was released after taking the Oath of Allegiance on June 20, 1865."


comment 4

to the right is Minnie (Taggart) McCauley's father, Patrick Taggart. Click on Patrick's photo to see the fine garden behind him.

























comment 5

Write your own caption for the McCauley farm photo to the right.

Lt. Commander Delis William Blake

Delis "Fisher" Blake was the youngest son of Lee and Civilla Blake. He attended the Orlando Grade School. Delis went on to Burnsville High School and after graduation in 1938 he attended Glenville State College. After graduating from GSC, Dellis taught school at the Red Lick School, just up the road from his home place. Fisher's daughter Bonnie picks up her dad's story at this point.
To the left: Ensign Delis Blake with sisters Phyllis and Mae.

by Bonnie (Blake) Delashmit

My Father, Lt. Commander Delis William Blake, United States Navy served in both WWII and the Korean conflict. My Dad was teaching school when the U.S. declared war on the axis powers. He went to Baltimore and enlisted in the Navy. After serving a short while, the Navy sent my father to Northwestern University to their War College. He graduated from there and was commissioned. His commands in the Navy were on submarines in the begining. He always said that submarine warfare was "tin can warfare one mile under water". His shipmates used to marvel how a farmboy from West Virginia had the best sea legs they'd ever seen. He never got seasick even in hurricane weather. He traveled all over the globe under water and loved the sea.

At the end of the war he was in charge of guarding the Pananma Canal and was a close friend of the Panamanian President. My father was deeply grieved when the Panamanian President was assasinated.

He met my mother while in port in New York City in 1943. Both of them said it was love at first sight. They met on a train in the city. They wrote letters to each other after he was deployed and were married in 1944. My brother Robert was born in 1946, Ronald in 1948 and Reginald in 1950. I was born in 1970. My parents were married 52 years when he passed away on October 10,1998. After WWII my parents lived in NYC for a short time and then moved to Connecticut where he and a Navy buddy opened a grocery store. My Dad and his partner didn't think the "new fangled frozen foods" were going to be very popular with the general public and didn't invest in freezers to stock it. My Dad used to say "and the rest is history". After the store closed they moved to Florida and my third brother was born. They settled in Coral Gables, a section of Miami. My Dad was in the Naval Reserve and they used to go to the Officer's Club with my brothers all the time.

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Above right: Delis Blake in high school.
Below right: Ed, Pearl, Delis and Mae, children of Lee & Civilla Blake.

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He worked for an insurance company named British American and he covered the Florida/Puerto Rico/Jamaica/Bahamas/Cuba territory. My parents had a summer home in the Bahamas that they went to every year. He was called up for service when the Korean conflict broke out and served on an aircraft carrier, which he liked a lot better than submarines. He said that this tour of duty was drastically different from WWII in that his job was more of a policeman than a soldier. But that's another story.

After Korea my parents moved to Winter Park Florida. My Dad's nephew, Pat Harkins and his wife Kathy were living there also. My Mom and Dad spent a lot of time with them.

My brothers grew up and moved away and then I was born. My father's company merged with another and he was "downsized". We moved to Mobile Alabama and a year later to Houston Texas. We moved from Houston Texas to Greensboro North Carolina when I was 4 in 1974. We moved to Jackson Mississippi in 1979 and my mother still lives there today. My father stayed in the insurance business until 1988 when he retired and bought a dry cleaners. He had a love of history especially biblical history. He read avidly and would teach adult sunday school classes at St. Mark's United Methodist Church.

My Dad loved animals and we always had a dog or a cat. He wanted me to get as much education as possible and was watching my grades very closely in college. He was extrememly proud when I finished graduate school with an M.B.A.

To the left: Delis' parents Lee and Civilla (Riffle) Blake

See the Mar '07 entry about Delis Blake's dad at Lee Blake – Orlando Lumberman & Genealogist

See the Aug '07 entry about Delis' rother Ed at Edward Rucks Blake

Another Whisky Tragedy

The Murder of Thomas Butler

by David Parmer

The headline of the Weston Independent newspaper of October 29, 1907 screamed, “ANOTHER WHISKY TRAGEDY.” Thus was announced the death of Thomas Butler, a son of Ireland, who came to America, the land of opportunity, settled in Confluence, and married a local girl.

Virgin Timber

By October 26, 1907 , the “easy” timber of central West Virginia had already been exploited. It had been cut, taken to the mill, sawed into dimension lumber or made into veneer and shipped by rail to the northern markets. However, huge tracts of timber resources in remote areas of central West Virginia were still plentiful. Large stands of virgin timber lay in pockets in Braxton, Lewis and Gilmer Counties in the Orlando area.

One such tract of virgin timber covered the hillsides of nearby Heaters Fork in Gilmer County, just over the hill from the headwaters of Posey Run, at a place known then as Rudkin.

To the left: clipping from the Weston Independent newspaper of October 29, 1907

To the right: photo of a logging operation on Clover Fork, about 10 miles east of the Rudkin operation.

Rudkin

There are many forgotten little communities in central West Virginia which saw a flicker of light long ago but which are now only distant memories. Rudkin is one such community. Situated in Gilmer County, but only a stone’s throw from the Braxton County line, about three miles north north east of Burnsville and about four miles west of Orlando, Rudkin lay just to the east of Locust Knob. Rain which falls in the Rudkin area drains into Long Shoal Run, Buffalo Creek, Heaters Fork, Slidinghill Run and Dumpling Run. A remote hilly area of narrow valleys and little tillable land this part of Gilmer County saw little meaningful development in its early history. One feature of Rudkin was nice stands of virgin poplar, oak, maple, hickory, chestnut and other hardwoods. Around the turn of the 20th century those forests were being timbered. Mills at nearby Burnsville, including Pioneer Boom and Lumber, Gowing Veneer Mill, and the Burnsville Planing Mill were all eager for raw timber. Lumber brokers such as John I. Bender of Burnsville also were ready buyers of sawn timber. The Burnsville Wagon Factory required lumber for its wagons and hickory for the automobile wheel spokes it manufactured under contract for the Ford Motor Car Company.

To the left is a recent photo of the little church that sits on Locust Knob.

Right, a map showing the area where the logging was being done in the area of Rudkin, Locust Knob and Heaters Fork on the left side and downtown Confluence /Orlando to the right.

Below to the right: the group of men is detail from a photo taken by Orlando photographer Lee Morrison of lumber camp workers on their day of rest, Sunday.

Below to the left is another group of men, taken from that same photo of lumber camp workers on Sunday.
Timbering in those days of course was done by manpower with axe and saw and the ever-present work horses. When the tracts of timber were located in remote regions, provision was made to house and feed the timberjacks or “wood hicks” which they were sometimes called. Crude huts or sleeping quarters were hastily constructed and a rudimentary dining hall was erected. Such arrangements were efficient from the standpoint of the timber company owners and a novelty for the men who cut the trees and moved them to the saw mill on site for milling. Although this writer is uncertain of the location of the Rudkin mill, the sleeping quarters and the dining hall, Fred Cosner of Burnsville who is a native of Long Shoal Run which heads on Locust Knob at Rudkin suggests that the mill would have been on Heaters Fork. His rationale for that opinion is based on the availability of water on Heaters Fork for the steam boiler which powered the milling saw. Such water flow would not have been available on Slidinghill Run nor on Schoolhouse Branch, small streams also in the area of Rudkin. This opinion jibes with the sketchy news articles which were written about the murder of Thomas Benjamin Butler.

Thomas Benjamin Butler

The origins of Thomas Benjamin Butler are vague. We do know that Butler acknowledged Ireland as his native land. The Coal and Coke Railroad which was constructed through Orlando at this time employed many Irish immigrants in the construction of the railroad and Butler may have been a railroad laborer. Employment was also brisk in the Orlando area at the turn of the 20th century in the oil and gas fields and in timber cutting and those extractive industries may have attracted the Irishman to Orlando. Again, it is but speculation what attracted Butler to Orlando. We do know for sure that in 1907 Butler was employed as a cook at the lumber camp at Rudkin and that he listed his address as “Confluence.”

The Homicide

Two local newspapers of the day reported the death of Thomas Benjamin Butler.
The Weston Independent and the Burnsville Enterprise each devoted a short column about the incident. The Weston Independent on Tuesday, October 29, 1907, reported that Butler was killed by “two drunken men” near Burnsville the previous Saturday night. The paper reported that the perpetrators were two men known as Ratliff and McCartney and they were yet to be apprehended. The Independent surmised that the two drunken men got their “stuff” from Weston. The paper revealed that the two men “struck Butler with the gun and inflicting fatal wounds, [and afterward] they went to a neighboring house and told the inmates that they had better look after Butler, and then [they] disappeared. Their victim was in a terrible condition and died a few hours later despite the presence of a physician.” The Independent, a paper opposed to free-flowing whiskey, blamed the liquor industry for the death of Thomas Butler and related that “ Butler was a total abstainer and his offense was his dislike of drunkenness about the camp. His murder is another sad blow to the claim that liquor hurts only those who drink it.”

The Burnsville Enterprise in the November 1, 1907 issue, reprinting a column from the Glenville Democrat, reported that the murder took place on Heater Fork. That paper reported that Butler had walked up Sliding Run near Rudkin and had stopped at the house of Edward Barker for a conversation. Everet Ratliff and Bert McCartney also were walking along this route and had been walking in the same direction on Heater Fork. The newspaper reported that Everet Ratliff struck Butler in the head with the butt of a shotgun. A third man, Bert McCartney, was present during the incident. The paper related that whiskey drinking had been involved and that the whiskey had probably been acquired in Burnsville. According to the news account, Ratliff, who along with McCartney and Butler, worked at the lumber camp, had just been released from jail for some minor offense. The paper reported that Thomas Butler, the victim, a resident of near Confluence, had recently been married and “was well spoken of by the people of his acquaintance.”

Thomas Benjamin Butler, Husband and Father

Gertrude Estline Skinner, the daughter of Alexander “Aley Hoss” and Sarah Eliza (Posey) Skinner, was sixteen years of age when she married Thomas Benjamin Butler in a Catholic ceremony in Clarksburg on December 26, 1904. The granddaughter of Luther and Agnes (Walton) Skinner on her father’s side, Gertrude was also the granddaughter of Benjamin and Francena Posey on her mother’s side. Butler married firmly into the one of the oldest of Orlando families. The first two years of their marriage produced two children for Tom and Gertrude (Skinner) Butler. A son Eugene was born in October of 1905 and daughter Zella arrived on April 30, 1906. By the first week of November 1907, less than three years when she was married, Gertrude Skinner Butler was a widow and her two children fatherless.

Criminal Proceedings

Since the homicide of Tom Butler occurred in Gilmer County, that county had charge of the criminal proceedings which were instituted against Everet Ratliff for the death of Butler. To this point in its history Gilmer County had conducted only two trials on a charge of murder, one of which was the trial of a slave for a murder in 1858. To say that Gilmer County had little experience in capital felony cases is an understatement. In the early 20th century most lawyers, as well as judges, had relatively little legal education and training in jurisprudence. Failure to observe correct legal procedures and to ensure fair and impartial trials was commonplace and local political considerations often impaired justice in local courts. With that backdrop, the trial of Everet Ratliff for the murder of Tom Butler began in Glenville on Friday evening November 22, 1907 before Circuit Judge Harold B. Woods. A newspaper account in the Braxton Central recounted that the trial had created quite a stir in Glenville and the court room was packed with observers. All of the evidence was given on the charge on the first day. The court adjourned the trial for jury deliberations the following day. On the second day, after argument of counsel for the defendant and the prosecuting attorney, the jury retired to deliberate the fate of Everet Ratliff. After consideration of the evidence and the law, the jury returned a verdict that Everet Ratliff was guilty of murder in the second degree and was thereupon sentenced by the court to nine years in the state penitentiary. The court stayed the sentence in order that Everet Ratliff could appeal the jury verdict to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

A search of the records of the appellate court reveals that no appeal was taken by Evert Ratliff.

Tom Butler was laid to rest in his final resting spot and his family grieved and reconciled themselves to the realization that Tom Butler was dead and that the man responsible for his death was to serve nine years in the state penitentiary for the murder.

According to the records of the West Virginia Department of Corrections, Everet Ratliff, Prisoner Number 6225, served his full sentence of nine years for the murder of Tom Butler and was discharged from the West Virginia State Penitentiary at Moundsville in 1917. After his release from prison, Ratliff lived at Marlinton, West Virginia where he died in 1941 at the age of fifty six.

Gertrude Butler, the widow of Tom Butler, eventually re-married Ezra Posey of Posey Run. They lived most of the remainder of their lives on Oil Creek at Posey Run. She died in 1974 at the home of her daughter Mildred and her son-in-law Lynn Riffle at Jane Lew. Her husband Ezra predeceased her in 1972. They are both buried in the Orlando Cemetery.

An observation about the killing in the Burnsville Enterprise was, “the general opinion is that the [killing] was the result of sudden passion aroused by the imbibing too freely from the cup that separates man from his reason and gives dominion to his baser qualities.”

The two pages below are the Law Orders, with the result of the trial of Everet Ratliff. Double click on them to enlarge them.




















Notes
1. For more on lumbering in the Confluence/Orlando area, see the Mar '07 entry Lee Blake – Orlando Lumberman
2, The temperance movement was strong in America at this time; Carrie Nation was at the height of her crusade. Posey Run newspaper columnest P. N. "Uncle Zeke" Blake reflected the temper of the times. See the Jun '07 entry Uncle Zeke’s War on Booze 

from Russell Barker, December, 2012:

Things in the story caught my interest like: Heaters Fork, logging camp, virgin timber, saw mill, Rudkin, Locust
Knob, Edward Barker, Everet Ratliff, and Bert McCartney, and also, Fred Cosner.

First of all, the map is not accurate as I read it.  Heaters Fork Run begins below the Locust Knob Church of Christ at
Rudkin.  The Rudkin School and Negro Church was farther West on Joes Run Road.  Rudkin Post Office probably sat
diagonally across the 4-corners intersection from the Church.

The four-corners intersection was the coming together of Joes Run, Heaters Fork, Long Shoal (Buffalo) and Sliding Run Roads.

Going North, on Heaters Fork Road, one probably came first to the home of Israel Alton Barker, also known as Ezra, or Id. So, that is probably where Edward Barker came from.  On down Heaters Fork was John Stewart Barker, then the eaters Fork School and a saw mill may years ago, at the mouth of School House Run (todays Topo Maps). My family called School House Run, "Ratliff Run", because that is where the Ratliff's lived, having bought land from the Barkers about 1882.  Stephen Ratliff from Bath Co VA, lived in Calhoun Co, then Braxton, dying in 1875. His wife had a sizable family to care for, oldest son, John Newton Ratliff, so Miriam bot some land over the county line ridge from Burnsville.  It seems the family changed the spelling to Radcliff.

If one were to leave Burnsville and start up Oil Creek, soon turning left onto Dumpling Run and go all the way to the county line on the ridge,  you would be ready to start down the other side on Tomblin Run.  Mick's lived on Dumpling Run.  Tomblin's lived on Tomblin Run (Tumbling Run on todays Topo maps).  I have never heard of a saw mill on Tomblin Run.

I think I understand the Ratliff person.  McCartney might have been McCarty. Edward Barker was probably ID Barker.  The Cosners lived on Long Shoal Run in the 1950, so Fred Cosner being three years younger than my father, should have had a good knowledge of local history. I found it hard to believe that there was virgin timber abound Rudkin
in 1907.

The Rose and Her Bud

by Marilyn (Cole) Posey

As Joyce Brennon chose to write cherished thoughts of her mother, I too want to share some memories of the strongest woman I had the pleasure to call, my mother. She was born Mary Lee Bee on April 4, 1935 in Orlando, WV. She was the first daughter of James Adam and Alta Mae (Blake) Bee. Grandpa built a home for his new bride and this is where my mother’s life began. The house was just across the road from her Uncle Fred and Aunt Ruby Bee’s place on Oil Creek. I remember her telling me how they had to park along the old road and walk back into the little “gully” amongst the trees with goods in hand. My grandparents first born was a son who died within a few hours of birth, but they felt the need to name him just the same. My mother always told me that her father referred to this son as “ Little Jack”. So it goes without saying why my mother came by the nickname “ Little Jackie” by her father. We used to sit and talk about how her life was as a child. “ Life as a child Marilyn, I don’t really know”. So as the years added new numbers behind our ages and more wrinkles to our faces we quietly sat down with our preverbal cup of coffee and I was then taken back in time through my mothers eyes. “ Mom and Dad loved each other very much and they worked very hard to make a good life for us”. As I mentioned in an earlier story, my grandmother had polio at the age of 15. So even as an adult some of those effects remained with her. “ I was baking biscuits standing on a chair at 5 years old.” This brings to mind a disastrous breakfast she spoke of so fondly. It seems that Grandma hadn’t been feeling to well the night before so she chose something simple for breakfast this particular morning. Cornflakes and yesterday’s biscuits! One of her sibling’s was planted at the table and waiting to be fed. Evidently this little one was hungry and a bit angry for being made to wait. The rest finally came to the table and just at the moment a spoonful of cornflakes was about to make their way to someone’s stomach, Grandma screamed, “ No!”.

Apparently the first one at the table had left a calling card in a bowl of cornflakes. It was yellow and it wasn’t bananas.

Above are Marily's (the author's) grandparents, her mother Mary Bee's parents, James Adam and Alta Mae (Blake) Bee, at the

time of their wedding.

To the left is Marilyn's mother, little Mary Bee, with her mother Alta Mae and grandfather John Adam Bee.

Not only was she a great helper to my grandmother, she worked along side her father cutting filth and working the garden. When she was twelve years old, her father had a heart attack and was confined to bed a few short days before his death.

Wanting to know more about my grandfather and learn something from someone else’s view, I paid Great Aunt Ruby Bee a visit. I asked her what kind of a man he was. She said, “Jim was a strong man honey and I don’t mean physical strength”. She went on to tell me that she was there the night he died. “ Fred and I walked up to Jim and Altie’s after supper. We talked for awhile and at one point, Fred was going back to our house. Altie asked me to stay for a bit. Me, Altie and you mom were sitting in the kitchen talking and Jim yelled..”Ruby, are you all talking about me?” I said, “ No Jim” and he said, “ Well okay then”. A few hours later he passed.

Since the Moran family knew my grandparents, Mr. Moran allowed my mother to be with her father while he was preparing him for burial. I guess my mother wanted to be with him as long as possible. My mother truly never got over that loss. With her father now gone, Grandma moved them to Gem, WV. They lived rent free in an old farmhouse in exchange for labor in the garden and canning of the vegetables. They remained there for about 3 years and them moved back to Orlando.

Below to the left, Mary Lee Bee. to the right, Harold Quniton Cole in his WW2 uniform, before he married Mary Bee.

My parents married in 1952 and moved to West Broad Street where their first child, a son, was born. A year and a half later they moved to Brush Run off Three Lick, where I was born. I believe it was the old Wilt property. In total, there were nine children born to this union. In 1957. She gave birth to my brother Ronnie. He was very ill and weighed only 2 lbs 2 oz’s. At the age of 2, my parents knew something was wrong. He couldn’t walk or speak. After numerous trips to a variety of doctors, they were forced to accept the painful truth. There would never be an “ I love you Mom and Dad”, nor would he be dancing at his first prom. His care required help form each of us. As the oldest daughter I devoted and enjoyed every moment with him. He was the “apple of my eye”. However the full time care still would remain the heaviest on my mother and would always remain her top priority. She worked outside the home, not because she wanted too, simply because it was a necessity with nine children at home. My brother needed special items for his daily care and at that time they did not have the special services they do now, such as Home Health Care. So between working a full time job, keeping up a large family and home and caring for Ronnie there wasn’t much time for her to do the little things in life that she had always wanted to do. I know of one time my mother traveled outside the state of West Virginia and it was a one day trip to Ohio. Her one small dream was to go to the mountains and spend the day just sitting and admiring the view and for that much needed time alone. However, that dream was in fact “ just a dream”, as she would never have left my brother for any period of time even if for only a day. I can honestly say, I never heard my mother complain, if she did it was silently. My mother eventually quit her job so she could care for my brother full time as his condition began to worsen with each passing day. Her entire life revolved around his life. She didn’t want people to feel sorry for him, “because I don’t want him to feel sorry for himself and feel that he is any different than any other child”.

In 2002 Ronnie developed masses of kidney stones due to his bedridden condition. While he was hospitalized, his breathing deteriorated quickly and he was placed on life support. Although my mother’s health had also gone down hill and she was suffering from severe emphysema, heart condition and poor circulation, she never once left his side. She slept in a chair by his bedside and would not accept our offers to relieve her .By the grace of God, Ronnie pulled through that ordeal and we had him with us once again. I recall many years ago as a child hearing a close family member make the statement, “You just need to put that boy in a home because he will never be more than he is now”. I thank God everyday that my mother never heard that callous remark.

To the left you can just see Ronnie and his brother Roger sitting with their Uncle Slim Cole at a family reunion is 1966.

To the right, Ronnie and Mom, Mary Lee a few years ago.

In 2006, another hospitalization for Ronnie took it’s toll on my mother and I think she knew at this time he would not be returning home again. That March 9th in 2006 will remain in my heart and on my mind forever. After he slipped into a coma, my mother leaned over and whispered into his ear..” Boppy, you need to go now. I want you to sing and dance and do the things you never got to do and your Dad is waiting on you to make your first homerun”. Almost immediately he took his last breath. I do believe in my heart that he was waiting for her to say, “ it’s okay to go and I will be with you soon enough”.

On May 10, 2007, my mother was hospitalized for lung function testing and had asked everyone to leave and return at 5:30 p.m. She passed at 5:26 p.m. At her request, both their ashes were taken to the mountains and released together. As the crisp wind blew over those massive rocks, I knew my mother was exactly where she wanted to be……...free. It has taken me many years to learn what the true meaning of strength was all about. You see, it’s not how much you can carry physically, it’s the amount of burden and pain one must bear within their heart. It takes a special person to have such a strength and that special person would be My Rose and Her Bud. As my Rose would always say……if you get the chance, I hope you’ll dance.

Michael Rush's Family & the Rush Hotel

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by David Parmer

Michael Rush was the youngest son of Andrew and Abalene Rush, immigrants from the County Roscommon. In 1892, he married Elizabeth Farrell, another child of County Roscommon immigrants. They were the parents of eight children who were born in Orlando, namely Andrew, Peter, Abalena, Anna, Helena, Gertrude, Bertha, and Marie.

To the left are Andrew and Elizabeth Rush with their two oldest children, Andrew (left) and Peter (right). A photo of Elizabeth in later years is at the end of this entry.

See the Feb '08 entry The Rushes From County Roscommon for more on Michael's parents.

See the Jan '08 entry A Summer Wedding for Elizabeth's sister's wedding. It includes a photo of the Farrell sisters in old age.

Entrepreneur

As the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad was building its track from Weston down Oil Creek around 1890, Michael Rush, the third son of Andrew and Abalena Rush, recognized the economic potential of the little town of Orlando, then known as Confluence, and began purchasing land in the village. Between 1891 and 1899 Michael Rush purchased ten different parcels of land in or around Orlando. From 1900 to 1907, he bought ten additional parcels of land. These twenty parcels of real estate were in located in Braxton County. Michael also owned land on Goosepen and Indian Fork in Lewis county, as well as approximately 400 acres in Gilmer County. By 1907, when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Coal and Coke Railroad were shuttling trains through the little town of Orlando day and night, Michael had become a successful businessman and one of the largest landowners in this little community at the mouth of Clover Fork. Judging from his real estate holdings, he was doing very well. Several of the parcels of real estate purchased by Rush were oil or gas producing properties.

Right are young Marie and Andrew Rush with Roy "Boss" Riffle at the Orlando train station. Boss Riffle's wife Idena & son Fred are in the Sept "07 entry Fred Riffle's Strawberries

The Rush Hotel

The Rush Hotel was one of the major investments made by Michael Rush in the Confluence community. The hotel was located on the northern (left) side of the street as you pass across the Oil Creek Bridge headed toward down town. The building was a two story frame building, approximately fifty feet long running with the street and forty feet deep, with porches on both floors, running across the street side of the building and across the eastern end of the building. The eastern end of the building faced toward the right of way of the West Virginia and Pittsburgh Railroad (Baltimore and Ohio ) coming down Oil Creek. The entrance to the hotel was on the eastern end of the building. The Rush Hotel was the first and finest hotel in Confluence at the time. Just as in the Dolan Hotel of Orlando, members of the Rush family worked in the hostelry.

The Rush Hotel.

Susie Stark of Weston, granddaughter of Margaret (Rush) Kraus who was the sister of Michael Rush, recalls that her grandmother told her that she prepared and sold lunches for passengers on the trains which stopped in Confluence to allow passengers to change trains and also for water and freight stops. Members of the Dolan family likewise made a living for many years selling packed lunches to train passengers. In the first decade of the 1900s, oil and gas exploration brought a boom to Confluence. The town was the nearest rail freight stop for equipment and supplies needed by the drillers and related trades. Teamsters were on the streets of Confluence everyday picking up supplies or oil and gas field workers, or bringing barrels of oil for shipment by rail. The Rush Hotel enjoyed the trade brought by the boom and prospects looked good for the Michael Rush family.

To the right is a photo taken from the Henline home on the hill south of downtown Orlando.

The Michael & Elizabeth Rush Home

The Michael Rush home in Confluence was originally the home of H. D. Mitchell and was acquired by Rush in 1891. This two story frame dwelling was located on the western side of Oil Creek and just south of the later-built Coal and Coke Railroad line. It was next to the later-built St. Michael’s Catholic Church which was erected on land conveyed to the Catholic Bishop by the heirs of Michael Rush. On the east side the Rush house was next to the original Dolan Hotel which was built approximately 1905.

Michael Rush's Death

The Burnsville Enterprise newspaper dated November, 1907 reported on the death of Michael A. Rush:

M. A. Rush Dead
A Well Known Merchant of Orlando
Died of Typhoid Fever

"The many friends throughout the county and all over the State will hear with regret of the death of Mike Rush of Orlando, at the home of his sister, Mrs. William McGann of Weston, last Friday noon. He went there a few days ago to take medical treatment when it was discovered that he had a well developed case of typhoid fever. He immediately took to bed at the home of his sister, where he died at noon Friday. He was a well known merchant of Orlando and leaves a wife and six children. His remains were brought to Orlando Saturday morning when his interment took place Sunday.”

In the early twentieth century, medicine was still a primitive art and preventive health care was practically nonexistent. Vaccinations, serums, and effective medicines were still decades away. Some diseases were common, unchecked and nearly all fatal. One of these diseases was typhoid fever and many deaths in the early 1900s were attributable to the disease. Michael, who in November 1907 had been married for only fifteen years and was but forty two years of age, fell a victim of typhoid fever. Michael Rush took ill in the first week of November 1907 and was dead by November 7th at the home of his sister Mary McGann of Weston. The angel of recovery did not visit Michael Rush. His body was returned to Orlando from the home of his sister in Weston and lay in repose at the Rush Hotel for the wake, with Mike Moran in charge of arrangements.

November 10, 1907 was a dark, cold and sad Sunday as the funeral procession for Michael A. Rush prepared to depart Orlando for St. Bridget’s Cemetery at Goosepen. Mike Moran's two-horse funeral wagon bearing the casket of the deceased paused briefly at the end of the Orlando Bridge so Lee Morrison, photographer extraordinaire of Orlando, could memorialize the solemn occasion of the death of Michael Rush, the prominent Orlando merchant and hotel keeper. Many kinsmen and friends, mounted upon their horses, arrayed in front and behind the funeral wagon and carriages bearing the Rush family, for the five mile trip to the burial ground. Michael’s oldest child Andrew was thirteen, his child, Marie, was seven months old. It was a long cold trip to the cemetery for adults and more so for young grieving children. But such is God’s will.
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A Change of Hotel Management

At the death of her husband, Elizabeth (Farrell) Rush had eight minor children to nurture, the youngest of which was not yet a year old. Elizabeth operated the hotel for a few years, but, determining it impossible to raise her children and operate a busy hotel, she made arrangements with Burgess V. Kelly to lease the hotel. Kelly operated the hotel for a short period and renamed it Hotel Kelly but he soon decided that the hotel trade was not for him and gave it up. Elizabeth then arranged for her late husband’s sisters, Margaret (Rush) Kraus and Ella (Rush) Kraus, to operate the hotel which they did for a short while.

To the right, an ad for Hotel Kelly from a Braxton County newspaper.

We know that in August 1917, the hotel was again known as the Rush Hotel. In his column in the Buzzardtown News, Uncle Zeke mentioned that Mrs. Solomon Mick of Rocky Fork who came to Orlando to shop “got lost in the city of Orlando the other day and mistook the Rush Hotel for Dock Means Store. Mrs. Mick will have to come to town a little oftener.” The Dock Means Store was in the building opposite the hotel.

The Rush Hotel remained in the ownership of the Rush family until 1933. The Michael Rush heirs sold the former Rush Hotel in Orlando to J. E. Riffle, C. M. Mick and D. S. Bennett, Trustees of Washington Lodge No. 194 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in August 1933 for the sum of $491.36 to be paid within one year. The parcel conveyed contained approximately 3968 3/4 square feet, or roughly an eighth of an acre.

The Rush Children and Memories of Orlando

Helena

“Helen” Rush, daughter of Michael and Elizabeth, married Bernard Fahey of Crooked Run. Helena and Bernard lived their married lives in Akron, Ohio and had no children. Bernard’s twin brother William also lived in Akron. William’s daughter, Anne Frey, recalls that the last time she saw Elizabeth (Farrell) Rush was at the funeral service for her Aunt Helena.

Helena (Rush) Fahey is to the right.

Gertrude & Bertha, the Twins

Robert Bramham, the son of Marie (Rush) Bramham, recalls that his Aunt Gertrude Rush frequently talked about the marvelous dances which took place in Orlando during the weekends. The top floor of the Wholesale Building owned by Mike Moran was frequently used a dance hall on weekends and undoubtedly was the site of the weekend dances.

Two photos of the twins. Double click to enlarge the photo to the left to see the patchwork quilt the girls are wrapped in.
To the right are, (L to R) Gertrude and Bertha Rush.

Elizabeth Wright, daughter of Marie (Rush) Bramham, recalls hearing conversations about Orlando among her family when she was young and recalls her aunt Bertha, known to her as “Aunt Bobbi,” talk about the “rooming house” her family owned in Orlando, and that the family was busy providing lodging to itinerant farm and oil field workers in the Orlando area.

Gertrude became a nurse and last worked in New Yourk. Bobbi worked in Clarksburg in dress shops and other retail stores.

Abelena

Abalena was a secretary. She married Peter Frederick Von Thaden from Weehawken, NJ. He was known as “Von”. His parents were immigrants: his father from Germany and his mother from Denmark. Peter was not Catholic, but on Nov 7, 1935 they were married in the Sacristy of Clarksburg’s Catholic Church

In 1936, Von and Abelena moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he worked in the Soil Conservation Program as an Accountant. Abelena worked in New Mexico as a stenographer for the Santa Fe Railroad.

On November 28, 1936, their only child, a daughter, was born in Albuquerque. They named her name is Martha Ann. She had strawberry blond hair and was the apple of her father’s eye. Martha can remember going on family picnics. She remembers her mother as knowing her own mind and she was willing to share it with others. Martha remembers her father a quiet and rather passive.


Von transferred to job in Colorado and in late 1950’s and he and Abelena retired in Melbourne, FL Abelena (Rush) Von Thaden died October 31, 1978 while she and her husband Peter were visiting relatives in WVA. She suffered a stroke. She was buried in Melbourne, Florida. Peter died of complications of Leukemia in 1983. He was buried in Melbourne next to his wife.
Above, left and right, Abalene
Left, Peter "Von" von Thaden

Marie: Love is a Carved Name

The name M A R I E .R U S H was carved deeply into the wooden steering wheel of the old Model T Ford. Tom Pumphrey was just a boy when he read the inscription. He had heard of the etched name of the young Orlando lady on the car’s steering wheel long before he saw it and he was anxious to have his first look at it. The carving was obviously done with great care and love. Many people asked to look at the mystical name embedded permanently on the steering wheel of the old car which Tom Pumphrey’s father had bought second-hand from Tom Straley in the early 1930s. Now eighty six years of age, Tom Pumphrey recalls the story well.

The Fealy farm was located at the junction of the Goosepen Road and the Three Lick Road as it came down westward off Ryan’s Hill. Ella Fealy had married Floyd Straley and the couple lived on her family’s farm. One of their children, Tom, was born in 1903. Floyd and Ella Straley bought a Model T Ford when their son Tom was a teenager. Although originally intended as a family automobile, young Tom soon found it to be a necessity for traveling to Orlando, the closest metropolis to his family’s Goosepen farm, where he spent most of his leisure time. A young lady of Orlando, Marie Rush, the daughter of Elizabeth (Farrell) Rush and the late Michael Rush, was the most beautiful thing young Tom Straley had ever seen to that point in his life and he was immediately infatuated with her. He made many a trip thereafter to Orlando.

A bashful youth, Tom, could summon up enough courage to speak with the beautiful Marie, but lacked the confidence to express his romantic interest in her. As a substitute for advising Marie of his love, Tom lovingly carved her name on the steering wheel of his car.

Elizabeth Rush, the mother of Marie and her two brothers and five sisters, had decided to move her family from Orlando to Clarksburg around 1920. Without knowing of Tom’s love for her, the beautiful Marie and her family moved to Clarksburg, far from the Goosepen farm of Tom’s youth and his heart.

Tom Straley lived the remainder of his life as a bachelor. His beautiful Marie met her future husband in Clarksburg and never returned to Orlando. Tom finally sold his old Model T with the inscription of his secret love in mellowed patina emblazoned on the steering wheel. He died in 1951 at the age of forty eight.

Elizabeth (Bramham) Wright, daughter of Marie (Rush) Bramham, when recently asked about whether her mother knew Tom Straley, her secret admirer from Goosepen, recalls that her mother used to be teased by her sisters about some boy from Orlando but she never learned his name.

Andrew Rush

John Rush, son of Andrew, says Andrew was living in Clarksburg when he was called up for service during WW I.

Pictured left and right is Andrew V. Rush.

In the 1930s and 1940s, when Andrew Rush was engaged in the insurance business in Weston, he would often find his occupation taking him through Burnsville. Andrew’s son, John, would frequently travel with his father. Andrew always made it a point to stop by the Burnsville Drug Store and say hello to Doctor Stanton Trimble who also once made Orlando his home in the early 20th century. Although Doc Trimble was a bit older than Andrew they enjoyed reminiscing about their former days in the railroad town of Orlando. John Rush, son of Andrew Rush, and grandson of Michael A. and Elizabeth Rush, recalls that his Aunt Bertha Rush, his father’s sister, worked in Clarksburg in dress shops and other retail stores after the family moved to Clarksburg.

Ann and Pete

Ann became a nurse along with her sister Gertrude. Ann died of Multiple Sclerosis at Johns Hopkins Hopsital at the age of 57.

Pete also died from Multiple Sclerosis. He died at the age of 61 in St Mary's Hopsital where his sisters had trained.

To the left is Anne, detail taken from a group picture.

To the left is Pete Rush riding a cow in Orlando, with the help of buddies. Holding the cow is Doc Henline. Behind the cow from left to right are Hob Henline, Sam Craft's son, Albert Butcher, Clyde Skinner, Dan Moran, and Sam Craft.
To the right is Uncle Pete with Andrew's son Michael.

The Widow Rush and Her Family

Leave for Clarksburg

Two of the Rush daughters, Anna and Gertrude, decided early in life that they would devote their careers to nursing. They enrolled at the St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing in Clarksburg about the time of the First World War.

In order to stay close to her daughters and to take advantage of the amenities of a larger city for her family, Elizabeth left the still booming town of Orlando. She moved in 1919 to 311 Jefferson Street in Clarksburg where she remained to the end of her life. Thus ended a thirty year connection between the Rush family and the town of Orlando.

To the left is Elizabeth (Farrell) Rush.

To the right are Andrew, Abelena, Elizabeth, Gertrude, Bertha, Helen, Marie and Peter. Ann took the photo.
Below right, Elizabeth with daughter Abelene, granddaughter Martha and great-grandson Josef.


Elizabeth sold some of the real estate holdings owned by her late husband in the Orlando area however she continued to hold other real estate and the oil and gas leases which she had executed with the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Gas Company and the Hope Natural Gas Company on about 270 acres in Braxton County and on her interest in the Farrell property on Rocky Fork which consisted of about 600 acres.

Although Elizabeth occasionally returned to Orlando for visits and stayed at the Dolan Hotel, she lived the rest of her life in Clarksburg and died in 1970 at age 98. She was buried at St. Bridget’s Cemetery.


comment 1: The St. Mary’s School of Nursing, which was affiliated with St. Mary’s Hospital, was chartered in 1905 and continued graduating nurses until 1968. It was operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Wheeling.

To the right is the St. Mary Hospital about the time the Rush sisters were there.



comment 2: The Rushes' Orlando home, which they purchased from businessman H. D. Mitchell, was later the home of Charley Knight. Later, the buildning's materials were used to build the home of Coleman and Helen (Frame) Jeffries. The home built from the materials of the Rush house is featured in the Feb '07 entry
Childhood in Orlando: Early Remembrances of Hauling Lumber.