Upper Clover Fork Families of the 1930’s

The high, rolling fields of upper Clover Fork seem a world away from the craggy, uneven terrain of Oil Creek. Clover Fork moves westward from the higher lands nearly to Walkersville in Lewis County toward its confluence with Oil Creek where downtown Orlando is/was located. At the eastern edge of Clover Fork's reaches, the community is pulled toward Walkersville. Walkersville's pull decreases and Orlando's increases as Clover Fork flows west.
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Nina Myers' accounting of the Upper Clover Fork community in the 1930s reflects this pull to the outside world. A very few of Nina's neighbors came from the Skinner/Poseys, Riffles, Williamses and Blakes who settled the Oil Creek area in the early 1800s or the Godfreys, McCauleys, Gays, Coles and others who came shortly afterward. Many of the fine families Nina speaks of have roots in the late 1700s settlements in Doddridge, Harrison and Lewis Counties and unlike the Orlando communities farther downstream, many of Nina's Clover Fork neighbors had only been in the area for a couple generations.

by Nina Myers

Before memories start to fade, it is always a good idea to put down in writing, information that may be important to later generations about the “olden days.” Growing up on upper Clover Fork in the A. B. and Margaret Etta Holbert household, I got to meet most of our neighbors. Mr. and Mrs. Holbert were very sociable and attended the local Mt. Hope Methodist Church which served the upper Clover Fork, Abram’s Run, and Barbecue Run area. Mr. and Mrs. Holbert also were very interested in the local schools and attended mostly all of the school activities. Since Mr. Holbert was a farmer, he also interacted with the neighboring farmers on matters pertaining to common agricultural pursuits. This commonality of interests resulted in visits from the other farmers and visits to their homes as well. Consequently, there weren’t many of our neighbors I didn’t meet. This sketch will mention people I recall from the “olden days.”

Above, left: Nina (Smarr) Myers
Above, right: Margaret Etta (Cunningham) and Abia Holbert.
Below, left: a present day photo of the house and farm of Emery and Forence (Cayton) Skinner in the 1930s. It was built by one of the Carney families in the mid 1800s.

Charles Emery "Possum" and Florence (Cayton) Skinner lived at the old Carney place on upper Clover Fork. I recall when someone asked Mrs. Skinner the names of her children. She replied, “They all begin with the letter ‘L’: Lena, Lola, Lula, Lane, and Newton.” A few years after Newton was born, there were more additions to the Skinner family: Tom, Rose, Alice and little Emery. Mrs. Skinner was also asked about the birth date of one of her children, and she replied, “Apple butter time.” Florence, the daughter of Mortimore and Rosetta (Fleming) Cayton, died in 1959. Emery died in 1970. He was the son of Thomas and Ellen (Riffle) Skinner. They are both buried in the Casto Cemetery on Pigeonroost.

Rufus Elijah and Anna (Williams) Maxson lived on the Ed Cunningham farm. Elijah, a native of Doddridge County, was both a farmer and a railroader who died in 1950 in Harrison County. Anna was the daughter of Parley and Muriel Williams of Lewis County.

Lane and June (Leavitt) Skinner lived below the upper Clover Fork School house. Lane was the son of Charles Emery and Florence (Cayton) Skinner. June was the daughter of Newman and Dora (Tucker) Leavitt. Lane and June had no children. Lane died in 2000. Lane was a carpenter and a farmer.

Up the hollow, to the left of the upper Clover Fork School house, lived Odie “Rhube” Hyer and his two sisters, Ida and Emma. Odie did farm work for A. B. Holbert. He died in 1958 and is buried in Long Point Cemetery. Records show their folks, John D. and Prudie Hyre, had lived in Orlando, RFD Route 2, Braxton County.

Ed and Lettie (Gay) Cosner lived at the top of the hill on Chapman Road. Ed was a blacksmith. After their home burned, they re-modeled their barn and lived in it. Their children were Woodrow, Franklin and Pearl. Eddie was the son of Alonzo and Birdie (Singleton) Cosner. Ed died in 1973 and Lettie died in 1983. They are buried in the Jacksonville Cemetery.

A family of musicians, the Ray and Nora (Blake) Hall family, lived below Emery Skinner’s farm, in a home owned by Erma Cosner. Ray was the son of Strange and Hestaline (Riffle) Hall and Nora was the daughter of John Jackson "Jack" and Ella Blake. The entire family played music. Among the children, Edna and Lawrence, known as “Bud,” played the banjo, Delis played the harmonica, and Mary played the guitar. My foster mother, Mrs. Holbert sent me to the Hall house each Saturday morning to take banjo lessons from Edna. Unfortunately, I only learned which end of the banjo to hold.

The John Murriner family lived just over the hill from the Mount Hope Methodist Church on Barbeque Run. At age 49, John was married to Isa McCartney who was 32. They had two children: Edward, who became an official with the State Forestry Division in Charleston and James who was a minister in Kentucky. When John Murriner was a young boy and going to school at the upper Clover Fork School, his family lived in a small house on the Traylor place. John's parents were Newton and Molly (Rohrbaugh) Murriner.

Left: John Murriner.
Right: Perry Vawter and his nephew Paul Vawter.

Perry Vawter also lived at the top of Barbeque Run. A life-long bachelor, he died in 1958. He resided at the I.O.O.F. Home in Elkins at the time of his death. He is buried in the Casto Cemetery on Pigeonroost. His nephew, Paul, who was the son of George and Belle Vawter, lived further down the hill on Barbeque.

Reid Hopkins lived with his uncle, Charlie Craig, and grandmother, Susan Swecker, in the first house on Abrams Run as you go down the hill from Clover Fork. He was married to the former Mae Myers who was a graduate of Burnsville High School with the class of 1924. She died in 1982 and Reid died the following year. Reid’s and Mae’s daughter, Mardelle Foreman is a good friend. Her children, Joyce, Bobby and Billy, were students of Barbara Parmer at Bruceton Grade School in Bruceton Mills in the late 1960’s. Barbara is an Orlando native and wife of David Parmer, a writer for the Orlando web page.

Left, above: Reid Hopkins and his daughter Mardell (Hopkins) Foreman.
Left, below: Lucille Traylor
Right, Below: Madeline Traylor with her husband Vorris Scott

Vaiden Traylor, his wife Burla (Daugherty) Traylor and daughters Madeline and Lucille lived on Clover Fork on the Traylor farm. Burla died in 1953 and Vaiden passed away in 1969. Lucille, now deceased, was a teacher at the upper Clover Fork School and later in Harrison County. Madeline is married to Vorris Scott and still lives on the Traylor farm, a short distance below the Holbert farm on Clover Fork.

I have fond memories of my neighbors on Clover Fork when I was a young girl. They were honorable, friendly and decent people. It was my privilege to have known them. I hope mere mention of their names in this reminiscence may strike a happy chord of nostalgia in their descendants or relatives. Of course, the people of Clover Fork I hold most dear is my foster family, the A. B. Holbert family and their extended family. Stories about them, Willy and Mary Cunningham and their son Charley McIntosh, Ed Cunningham, and A. B. and Margaret Etta Holbert, have previously been published on this web page. I am pleased to have the opportunity to praise the good folk of Clover Fork.

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Clover Fork Neighbors

Edna Hall, who was the daughter of Roy and Nora (Blake) Hall, and gave banjo lessons to Nina (Smarr) Myers when Nina was a young girl, married Ottis L. Scott, and lived near the foot of Arnold Hill in the Oil Creek watershed. Edna and her husband, O. L., provided care for Harry Myers during his latter years, and in exchange for their agreement to give him care during his old age and care for his cats, Harry gave Edna and O. L. his small farm at the foot of Arnold Hill. Edna’s brother Delis lived across the road in a small house, as did her sister Mary. Edna died in 1995 and her husband died a few months afterward. They both were buried at Long Point Cemetery.

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Comment by Charles Bennett

Emery “Possum” Skinner

lived about one and a half miles above my home on Clover Fork. He worked for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and also did a little farming. I would frequently see Emery and his collie dog when he walked past our home on his way to Brown’s Store in Orlando with a basket of eggs to sell.

Emery was a good friend of Vaiden Traylor who lived on upper Clover Fork. They were both Democrats and Emery took Vaiden to the polls on Election Day. Emery "Possum" was also a friend to his neighbor "Bunk" Blake. Uncle Zeke reported in 1936 that Bunk Blake was making sugar scoops made out of tin cans and “Possum” Skinner was one of his "sales agents."

A Clover Fork School Report

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by David Parmer

In the latter years of the 1800s, education was still a rather novel undertaking in central West Virginia. There were no mandatory school laws at the time and many families frankly did not see the need for much in the way of formal education. Around the end of the 1800s, Lewis County undertook an extensive school building program in rural areas in order to provide basic education to rural students.

The Upper Clover Fork School

One of the schools built by Lewis County in the latter years of the 1800’s was the school on upper Clover Fork, about eight miles east of Orlando, near the mouth of Chapman Run. An earlier school serving this same area burned, and an interim school was held in the house of Langdon Traylor which was under construction. The date of construction of the school building which was to be the last of the schools on upper Clover Fork is unknown. We do know however that the land for the school was acquired from Willy Cunningham in 1899. The school building was of frame construction and was twenty feet wide by twenty nine feet long, according to Joe Wine.

Robert T. Crawford

In the school year 1913-1914, the Clover Fork School was headed by Robert T. Crawford as teacher and principal. Crawford was a native of Collins Settlement District. His ancestral family pioneered Cap Run, a tributary of the West Fork River, just north of Walkersville at Emmert. He received his teaching certificate in 1913 by examination when he was seventeen years of age and a student at Abram’s Run School. The Clover Fork School was his first teaching assignment.

Crawford, who later was superintendent of schools for Lewis County and Dean at Glenville State College, was a firm believer in keeping the community aware of the conduct of the school under his charge. In 1913, Crawford sent a report of his school on Clover Fork to the Weston Independent newspaper which was published on November 25, 1913. He reported,

“The following is a report of the Clover Fork School for the month ending November 7th. Number of pupils enrolled: boys 11, girls, 10, total 21. Average daily attendance: boys 10, girls, 9, total 19. Per cent of daily attendance: boys, 98, girls, 92; average, 95. The following students were neither absent nor tardy: Archie and Eddie Cosner, Patrick Carney, Thomas and Eugene Kelley, Fred Holbert, John Murriner, Okey Carter, Charles McIntosh, Margaret Carney, Mary Holbert and Lorena Kelley. Both patrons and students seem to be interested in the welfare of the school.”

Some of the Upper Clover Fork students who were neither absent or tardy from school in October, 1913: Patrick Carney, Fred Holbert, John Murriner, Charles McIntosh, Margaret Carney, Mary Holbert. (ed. note: Mr. Crawford listed all the boys, and then the girls.)

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The Students

Archie and Eddie Cosner were sons of Alonzo and Birdie (Singleton) Cosner. Archie married Virginia Wade of Burnsville and worked for the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Baltimore. Archie owned a fifty acre farm in Dundalk, Maryland. I visited the Cosner family in Dundalk in 1951 and rode on Archie’s tractor as he plowed the black soil of the Dundalk farm. Archie died in 1997.

Patrick and Margaret Carney, brother and sister, were the children of James and Catherine (Kate) Moran Carney. Patrick was a long-time resident of Clarksburg and worked for the Feeney Roofing Company of Clarksburg. This roofing company was owned by Jimmie Feeney, an Orlando native. Patrick died in 1985. Margaret Carney married John Dolan, Jr. of Clarksburg late in life. She was a resident of Weston at her death in 1995.

Fred Holbert and his sister Mary were the children of Abia and Margaret Etta Holbert who owned a nice farm on Clover Fork near Mount Hope Church. Mary’s first year in school was the first year that Mr. Crawford taught school. Fred was one of the earliest Orlando natives to graduate from a four year college. He received a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University in 1928. Mary married Russell Ellyson, a teacher and native of Gilmer County. Mary was attended Glenville State College. She wrote and published several books and she and her husband traveled the western hemisphere before settling at Morgantown.

Upper Clover Fork School in 1914-1915, the year after Mr. Crawford's report
Front Row: Della Holbert, front row on left. Girls in striped dresses, second row Lena Skinner, front row on left Lula Skinner, front row to Lula’s left is Lola Skinner. Girl in checked dress in second row is Mary Holbert. Boy in suspenders in second row is Charley McIntosh. To his right is Robert Holbert. Boy in third row on right is Fred Holbert. In back row on left is John Murriner. All others are unknown.

Thomas Kelley, his brother Eugene, and their sister Lorena were the children of James P. and Agnes Kelley of Clover Fork.

John Murriner was the son of Newton and Mary (Rohrbaugh) Murriner. This farming family lived on upper Clover Fork.

Charles McIntosh was the son of George and Mary (Lyons) McIntosh. Charles lost his mother when he was young and was placed in an orphanage in Charleston, along with his younger brother. When he was six years of age, he was placed in the custody of William J. Cunningham and Mary Weaver Cunningham, a childless couple of upper Clover Fork, who raised him as a son until his adulthood. Charles later resided in Walkersville and was a teacher in Lewis County at the time of his death in 1958. In his early teaching career, Charles returned to the upper Clover Fork School as its teacher and gained admiration during a Lewis County 4-H gathering with the imaginative symbol for his school: a flag emblazoned with a clover leaf mounted on a pitch fork. Charles married his teacher’s, Robert T. Crawford’s, sister Lena Crawford.

The Pocket Watch

When Robert T. Crawford successfully passed his teaching examination and became a full-fledged teacher, his father, Robert Willey Crawford, gave his seventeen year old son a new pocket watch. The pocket watch was dutifully carried throughout Robert’s teaching career. The watch was then given to Robert’s daughter, Mary Crawford Clawsey. The cherished watch however fell victim to a house burglary a few years later and the sentimental keepsake was lost forever.

Closure

Closure came to the Clover Fork School at an unknown date in the early 1950’s. The students of the school area were transported to the lower Clover Fork School , known as Locust Grove, which still had a few years left before consolidation also took that school from the community at the end of the school year in 1961. In 1964, the Lewis County Board of Education sold the old Clover Fork School at auction to Joe Wine, a Burnsville native, for the sum of six dollars and fifty cents. Joe was married to the former Ava Craig, a native of the upper Clover Fork area. Joe and Ava lived on Chapman Run in the early years of their marriage and then moved to Ohio for employment. After Joe’s successful bid for the old school building, Joe moved the school building three-tenths of a mile up Chapman Run near the site of their former home which had burned while they lived in Ohio. Joe and Ava added rooms onto the school building and reside there today.

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Comment by John Carney

I note the mention of the Kelly children who went to school at the upper Clover Fork School. The Carney family is related to them through their mother Agnes Kelly. The Kelly family left Clover Fork before 1920 and joined the migration to the Detroit area and all contact with them was lost. For years, I searched for the Kelly family in connection with my genealogical research to no avail. I assumed that I would never be successful in locating the family. A few years ago, I received a note from a lady in San Diego, California who had noticed my genealogical posting on the internet about the Kelly family. She sent me an obituary of a Father Kelly, a Catholic priest, and an obituary of his sister. The obituaries mentioned the deaths of each and that the bodies were sent to Detroit for burial. I contacted the funeral home in California mentioned in the obituaries, appropriately named the “Good Body Mortuary,” and was referred to the O’Brien Funeral Home in Detroit. The funeral director at the Detroit funeral home remembered the Kelly family well and gave me telephone numbers of members of the Kelly family. I am pleased to report that the Kelly family I had been searching for was found.

Charley McIntosh: Country Teacher

by David Parner

In April of 1910 Charley McIntosh was a five year old boy living with his parents George and Mary (Lyons) McIntosh and six brothers and sisters on Sang Run in the Maryland panhandle, about 40 miles east of Morgantown. Charley was the middle child. His dad George worked in a saw mill. In March of 1912 Charley was in an orphanage in Charleston, West Virginia waiting for a stranger to take him to his new family.

A Train Trip to Charleston

Edward Cunningham nervously waited on the Coal and Coke passenger train at the Chapman stop. It was Thursday, March 7, 1912. Although it was a just short distance from his nearby farm, he had arrived by foot at the stop much too early for the 10:16 a.m. train to Charleston. The month of March was still very much winter in 1912 and he had dressed warmly for the season and for the six hour trip in the unheated passenger car he would ride. It would be too late after his arrival in Charleston to take care of the purpose of his trip that day so that business would have to wait until Friday. The train schedule for the return trip from Charleston on Friday called for a 3:35 departure, with a scheduled arrival at Chapman at eleven o’clock in the evening.

Willie and Mary Cunningham

Willie Cunningham was 43 years of age in 1912 and his wife Mary (Weaver) Cunningham was one year younger. They were married relatively late in life in 1908 when Willie was 39 and Mary was 38. They had built their home around 1910 on the old Enoch Cunningham farm. Willie owned and operated the productive farm on Clover Fork before he was married and, although not wealthy, was "a man of means," as the people of the time would say. After four years of married life, no children had blessed their threshold. The days and nights on the Cunningham farm must have been too quiet and both Willie and Mary earnestly desired a child to make a little noise.

The Children’s Home Society of West Virginia

In the first decade of the 1900s, Reverend D. W. Comstock, a retired minister who had been a Superintendent of the Children’s Home Society of Arkansas, established a similar institution in West Virginia. The goal of the children’s home was to find suitable homes for children who were orphaned or who were placed in the home by courts or county commissions for adoption. Through the generosity of Henry Gassaway Davis, the President of the Coal and Coke Railroad, the West Virginia Children’s Home Society was able to buy a large house at 1118 Washington Street in Charleston which was enlarged to serve as an orphanage for children until they could be placed with suitable families for adoption.

A Formal Application

Prospective adoptive parents had to pass the Children’s Home Society's rigorous evaluation in order to become eligible to adopt a child. The criteria required that the prospective adopting parents be “God-fearing, Sabbath-observing and Church-going people, financially able to school and provide for the child, sufficiently intelligent to know how a child should be raised, own their own home and be well recommended as being above qualified by three or more reliable persons.”

Willie and Mary Cunningham were approved to be adoptive parents and in early March 1912, they received notification that six-year-old Charles Edward McIntosh had been designated for adoption by them.

When Edward Cunningham arrived at the Davis Child Shelter of the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia, which today is the location of the parking lot for the Clay Center in Charleston, he met with Superintendent Reverend N. O. Sowers and took care of the remaining paperwork necessary to take Charley to his new home. Young Charley was called to the Superintendent’s office to meet his new uncle. Aware that he was to be placed with the Cunningham family, Charley took a nickel from his pocket and handed it to the Superintendent and asked him to “please give this nickel to my brother,” (who was to remain in the orphanage.)

A Peculiarity of Law

A peculiarity of West Virginia law in 1912 provided that even though natural parents had turned custody of a child over to an agency such as the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia, the custodial parents could not officially adopt the child without written consent of the natural parents. Charley’s parents had never signed the consent form for the formal adoption of their son Charley by another family. Nevertheless, the custodial transfer of Charley was made by the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia to Willie and Mary Cunningham.

A New Beginning

Young Charley adapted well to his new home and his new parents doted on him. His uncle Edward Cunningham and his aunt Etta Holbert were also very pleased with the new addition to the Cunningham family. Edward remarked after arriving at his brother’s home on Clover Fork that “Charley was indeed a Cunningham because he gave away his last nickel.”

Charley was the same age as the Holbert children who lived on the adjoining farm and he blended in well with his new cousins. All of the Holbert children and Charley attended the upper Clover Fork School for the next several years.

Charley McIntosh is wearing suspenders in the center. Robert Holbert is at his right side, Mary Holbert is on his left and Della Holbert is in the white dress to the far left side of this Upper Clover Fork school photo.

Walkersville High School

After finishing eight years at the Upper Clover Fork School, Charley entered the newly created Walkersville High School. Like his cousin, Robert Holbert, he commuted to school in Walkersville from the Cunningham farm on the back of a horse. The first class of seven graduates of the new high school graduated in 1923. Charley graduated from Walkersville High School the following year. His wife to be, Lena Crawford, graduated from the same school in 1925.

A Life in Education

In 1924, West Virginia law for the licensing of teachers was quite unlike the requirements of today. An annual teacher’s examination was held generally in the month of April. To be eligible to sit for the examination, the applicant had to have proof of at least eight units of high school work over a two year period and sixteen semester hours of college work obtained over at least eighteen weeks. If the applicant passed the examination, the state department of education issued a teaching license. In order to renew and maintain the license, the teacher was required to attend summer school each year thereafter and obtain at least six hours of college credit.

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Left above: Charley with his adoptive parents Willy and Mary Cunningham.

Left below: Charles McIntosh

Charley probably attended Glenville State Teachers College to earn the required college credits to become eligible to sit for the teacher’s examination. We know that he passed the examination because he was employed by the Collins Settlement Board of Education to teach at the Roanoke School for the school year 1925-1926. During the next twenty two years, Charley taught at various schools in Collins Settlement District including the Upper Clover Fork School, Roanoke Grade School, Walkersville Grade School, Ireland Grade School and the Upper Glady School at Duffy. He served as principal at the Roanoke, Walkersville, and Ireland schools. Charley’s wife, the former Lena Crawford, was also a teacher in Lewis County, where she taught at Abram’s Run School and Walkersville Grade School.

When Charley was the principal at the Roanoke School, several of his students who finished the eight grades at Roanoke went on to high school at Burnsville. This was possible because the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train schedule was timed in such a way that students arrived in Burnsville in time for class in the morning and the evening train got them home at a reasonable hour. Some fathers of the students were also employees of the railroad and were entitled to free family passes, so the commute was cost-free.

Nina (Smarr) Myers recalls when Charley taught at the Upper Clover Fork School, he acquired admirers for the innovative school logo which he fashioned for a Lewis County 4-H gathering at Jackson ’s Mill. Attaching a large poster of a clover leaf to a pitch fork, he preceded the Upper Clover Fork 4-H students into the assembly. We also have it on good authority that Charley was very adept on getting the attention of a misbehaving or inattentive boy in the classroom with a well-aimed chalk eraser.

Charley and Lena's Boy

Charley married Lena Crawford on December 19, 1925. Lena was the daughter of Charley’s first teacher, Robert Crawford, at the Upper Clover Fork School when he first came to live with his parents, Willie and Mary Cunningham.

Left: Charles Crawford Mcintosh

Charley and Lena had one child, a son named Charles Crawford McIntosh. Their son was an intellectual prodigy and graduated from Walkersville High School at the age of thirteen and from Glenville State College at the age of sixteen. He then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and received a B. S. degree from that institution in 1951. He also later graduated from the New York Medical College in 1960 and established a medical practice in Teaneck, New Jersey.

According to the descendents of Charlie's sister Jessie Marie (McIntosh) Belcher, six of the seven McIntosh children found each other and were reunited as adults: William, Wesley, Charles, Jessie, John and George. Only their sister Nettie was missing.

Death Visits

Charley’s Clover Fork parents, Willy Cunningham and Mary Cunningham, died in 1943 and 1944 respectively. They were buried in the Long Point Cemetery in Walkersville. Edward Cunningham, who brought Charley to Clover Fork from the orphanage in Charleston, died in 1943. On Saturday morning, January 18, 1958, Charley suffered a fatal heart attack and died at the young age of fifty-two years. He was buried in the Long Point Cemetery beside his Clover Fork parents, Willy and Mary Cunningham.

When I Was a Kid . . .

Two Orlando residents, Nina (Smarr) Myers and P. N. "Newt" Blake, aka Uncle Zeke, remember how it was when they were young. Nina remembers Orlando in the late 1930s and the 1940s. Then Newt Blake/Uncle Zeke, who was in her foster parents' generation, looks back still farther, to the last decades of the 1800s.

by Nina (Smarr) Myers, 2009

My formative years were Clover Fork made, in the Holbert home on upper Clover Fork. My foster parents were Abia and Margaret Etta (Cunningham) Holbert, both of whom were born in the decade following the Civil War, My foster parents were in their sixties when I first came to their home in 1935, and in most respects, they were brought up with few farm or household conveniences which began appearing later in rural West Virginia after 1900. I often reminisced with my foster parents about the “olden days.” I experienced some of the “olden” days myself since I am now in my mid-80’s. The other day, I was speaking with a cousin in Webster County about the “olden days.” During the conversation, we enjoyed harkening back to the days of yesteryear and I thought I might share some of those memories with the Orlando web page.
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Left: Nina Smarr
Right: Nina's foster parents Abia and Margaret Etta (Cunningham) Holbert

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~ People made their own baskets and furniture.

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~ Shoe soles were made of leather. When a hole was worn in the sole, a temporary patch would be made of cardboard until the shoes could be re-soled.

~ When shirts were worn out, the buttons were also removed so they could be re-used.

~ When men or women wanted to appear “stylish,” shirt sleeves would be turned up at the cuff. A person would be really avant-garde if he or she rolled the sleeves up to the elbow.

Right, above: an egg basket woven by Burt Blake, son of

Right, below: A Prince Albert tobacco can like the ones that women cut and bent into circles to use as hair rollers.

~ All shirts were long-sleeved. Summer shirts would be of lighter weight and winter shirts were usually woolen. There were no short-sleeved shirts.

~ Clothes were changed about once a week and coincided with the weekly baths, which often consisted of a “sponge” bath.

~ Hair curlers were made of strips cut from Prince Albert cans which were rolled and covered with cloth.

~ Hair was curled with heated curling irons and crimpers.

~ Much of the clothing worn was made from feed sacks.

~ There was always cuffs on trousers.

~ All underwear went to the ankles. There was no short underwear. For toilet convenience, “union suits” came about.

~ Men wore suspenders, not belts, which were also called galluses or braces.

~ Women wore garters to hold up their stockings and men wore them to hold up their socks.

~ There were no blue jeans, but only overalls.

~ Either the mother or father was the family barber.

~ There was usually a “lay” dentist in the neighborhood who could pull a tooth when needed.

~ Some meals consisted only of cornbread, mush or corncakes and milk.

~ When the cow went “dry” there was no milk until after the calf was born.

~ Meat was rarely on the dinner table, unless it was pork, rabbit, squirrel, or groundhog.

~ Apples and beans were dried and used during the winter time.

~ Families did not use sugar but used molasses or honey instead.

Above, right: dried apples and strings of dried green beans

Below, right: a feather bed in a ticking made of fabric designed for that purpose.

~ Flies would be chased out of the house through open doors with towels so a meal could be eaten without flies bothering the table.

~ Sears Roebuck catalogs were used as toilet paper in the outhouses.

~ Ice would form on the water buckets inside the house overnight during the winter.

~ Straw ticks and feather beds were used on the beds. Early mattresses were made by penitentiary workers.

~ Radios had batteries. Only a few programs, such as the “Lone Ranger” and the news would be listened to in order to preserve the life of the battery.

Click on the picture to the right to pull up a collection of Lone Ranger radio recordings.

~ Pencils were sharpened by pocket knives which preserved the life of the pencil.

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By P. N. Blake, writing in his newspaper column as Uncle Zeke, ca. 1930s:

Do You Remember?
~ When the evening meal was composed of mush and milk?

~ When us men folk wore our shirts open up the back?

~ The days of hoop-skirts, sun bonnets, bustles, bangs and hair rats?

~ When a young man felt bigger than Jack Dempsey when he had on a paper collar, a pair of green topped fine boots, a brass watch, and a Japanese silk protruding from the hip pocket of his new homespun pants?

~ When saucers were called sassers?

~ When cucumbers were called cowcumbers?

~ When a garden was called a gyarden?

~ When watermelons were called watermilyuns?

~ When panthers were called painters?

~ When people scoured the woods in search of knots to make knot mauls?

~ When we used boot jacks to pull our boots off?

~ When cartridges were called catridges?

~ When we used to tan groundhog hides for shoestrings?

~ When Dad Heater and Jim Posey wore deer skins moccasins?

~ When people would go ten miles to a revival meeting?

~ When preachers wore stove pipe hats?

~ When just a few folks could afford a clock and cooking stove?

~ When our grandmothers and grandfathers were full of the old time religion?

~ When people wore homeknit wool socks winter and summer?

~ When Tom Conley went to school on Three Lick Run?

~ When grown ups went to church barefooted?

~ When people roasted field squashes in hot embers?

~ When small children were afraid to go to bed after hearing some ghost stories?

~ When people walked five miles to have a law suit?

My Early Years on Clover Fork with the Holbert Family

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by Nina Myers as told to David Parmer

It isn’t easy to lose a parent. Today there are many social welfare agencies that provide help and assistance to families that suffer the loss of a wage-earning parent. There are agencies that provide food stamps, rent assistance, free medical care, coupons for milk, payment for utilities, child care assistance, free lunches and textbooks at school, free transportation to school, vouchers for clothing and of course money, either in the form of welfare checks or social security checks. It is difficult today, visibly, to discern a child who is supported by his parents and a child who is supported solely by social welfare agencies.
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Left: Nina Smarr
Below, right: Abia and Margaret Etta (Cunningham) Holbert

Death of My Father

Social welfare agencies were unheard of not that many years ago. In the 1930’s, my father, who was employed as the head sawyer in a stave mill in Marshall County, was killed in a traffic accident. As was the case with most families during the Depression, families lived from hand to mouth, without savings or resources to tide them over in case of a turn of fortune. The loss of a wage earning parent was catastrophic to most families, as it was with mine.

We Children Came to Clover Fork

After my father’s death, my mother and her four children, including me, came to Abram’s Run, to the home of my mother’s sister, Lucy Craig. In the 1930’s reality stared my young widowed mother with four young children coldly in the face. “Farming children out” was not uncommon in those days and many children not fortunate enough to be placed with a family who loved them frequently ended up in an orphanage. My siblings and I were among the fortunate. I found a loving home with Abia and Margaret Etta Holbert on Clover Fork, my brother Clell found a warm foster home with Pres and Jessie Bragg on Clover Fork, my brother Clifford made his home with Ralph and Audra Hall on Abram’s Run and my brother Lubert found a happy home with Vaden and Burla Traylor on Clover Fork. My sister Annabelle remained with my mother and was raised in the home of my mother and her new husband, Orville Sapp.

Left: Margaret Etta and Abia with grandchildren Angela and Helen Ellyson
Below right: portrait of Etta Holbert made from photo at left.

Mrs. Holbert, My Foster Mother

My years at Farmview Farm, the home of Abia and Margaret Etta (Cunningham) Holbert, were unforgettable years for me. My foster father was a good man and a good father, very interested in securing for me a successful place in life, and I was indeed fortunate to have been a member of his family and home. But the focus of this remembrance is my foster mother, Mrs. Holbert, whom I consider my first “teacher” in life and without whom my life would have been far less rewarding.

Mrs. Holbert was the daughter of Enoch and Mary (Kiley) Cunningham, a farm family of Clover Fork, whose farm was at the railroad tunnel near Chapman. Born in 1873, Mrs. Holbert received four years of education in a log school house on Abram’s Run. Despite this meager education, she never stopped learning until her death. She was 62 years old when I arrived at her home on Clover Fork in 1935.

From the start of my relationship with Mrs. Holbert, I was made to feel a part of her family. Her four natural children and her step daughter were all adults and had left home and had successful careers. She may have still had that maternal yearning which is perhaps why she received me so warmly and sought to make sure that my life would be secure and productive as she would have for a child of her own.

A Speech Impediment

Mrs. Holbert was born with a cleft palate which resulted in a speech impediment. Her speech was somewhat slurred and difficult for strangers to comprehend. Her parents had been philosophical about the speech problem and felt that the handicap would make her a “better girl.” Although I don’t necessarily agree that a physical handicap makes one a “better person,” I would agree that Mrs. Holbert was a wonderful person and role model. Whether it was because of her handicap or simply because of a natural gift of life, I cannot say, but her kindness and thoughtfulness were ever manifest in her dealings with people.

Although Mrs. Holbert shied away from public speaking herself, she always encouraged me to participate in school activities involving public speaking, whether it were plays at school or participation in school or public activities where communication was important. I particularly recall an occasion of a school play at Walkersville High School one rainy night when the Clover Fork hill was slippery and muddy from an incessant rain. I had stayed at school to prepare for the play and I was fearful that Mr. and Mrs. Holbert would not be able to make it to the play because of the horrible road conditions. Despite the inclement weather and worse road conditions, I was much relieved and honored when someone brought Fred Holbert’s Stetson hat backstage which was to be a prop in the play, which meant that my foster parents braved the elements to attend the play.

Equal Rights

When I was growing up, it was a given that women were not deemed entitled to have real estate or automobiles titled in their names, and that women “took the back seat” with regard to situations which were considered a “man’s right.” Mrs. Holbert encouraged me to think otherwise as she did herself. She had lived a goodly portion of her life being unable to vote or to be considered fit to hold a public office. She did not agree with that attitude and urged me not to accept the “backseat” in life. Looking back, I clearly see that Mrs. Holbert was a woman “ahead of the times” and a woman of vision.

Chores and Lessons of Life

Mrs. Holbert taught me many lessons of life while we did household chores. She would discuss with me lessons of morality while we plucked chickens or canned vegetables. Not only did the lessons make the jobs go faster, but the lessons were more meaningful as they blended with the chores. She discussed issues of modesty, manners, and the importance of clear communication with those we have to deal with in life. We recited poetry, or I discussed my school homework which she always made sure that I had prepared. I particularly recall that she cautioned me not to hang out ladies undergarments on the clothes line to dry when men folk were about the farm because it would be immodest. Never did a chore time pass without some valuable lesson of life being imparted to me by Mrs. Holbert and for that I am ever-grateful.

A Career

Abia and Margaret Etta Holbert were huge believers in education, and they encouraged me to look to a career in education. Some careers would have been more easily attained. Nurses training at the time involved less time, as did secretarial school, but Mrs. Holbert felt that education and teaching would be a more meaningful career for me in the long run and encouraged me in that direction. Today as a retired teacher with a satisfying career behind me in education I am ever so grateful that Mrs. Holbert was my advisor and mentor in my early life.
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Left: Margaret Etta with son Robert's family in Nebraska
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Mr. Holbert died in 1943 and Mrs. Holbert passed away in 1950. I am quite proud to say that I am the foster daughter of Margaret Etta and Abia Holbert of Clover Fork.

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Father’s Day 1982
In Memory of Abia B. Holbert
By Nina Smarr Craig

We think of our fathers in this valley below
Who toiled to keep families together.
They worked with their hands from morning til night,
No matter what kind of weather.

Their word was their honor, each neighbor their friend,
Who they helped through sickness and health.
They had enough of God’s blessings in store;
Not one of them searching for wealth.

We sat on a bench at the table
And doubled or tripled in bed.
There was always room for everyone
And each of us amply fed.

Our Dad’s had their worries as we know now,
But they silently went on their way
And taught all us children honesty and truth
And knew the reverence to pray.

We respected the church, the older folk,
The teacher, the school and such.
What we learned from our Dads no words can explain;
By a good example was the way we were trained.

They never saw New York or Paris
Or yearned for the bright city lights;
Orlando, Clover Fork was home;
Their jobs, their family, their life.

We’re scattered now all over the world,
The offspring of these great men.
We hope we have left an impression somewhere
As they did for us back then.

We thank God today for the Dad we had,
With memories so precious and rare.
We could search the world over and never could find
A Dad like ours anywhere.

The Murder of a Red Lick Bachelor

by David Parmer

An Aging Bachelor

He was a bachelor, confirmed and dedicated, and a farmer, self-sufficient in all respects. His closest friend was his faithful dog whose name is now unknown. In 1904, a person’s needs were few, and wants were even less, especially for a bachelor, whose only responsibility was a canine. Charles W. Traylor was born in 1837; in October 1904 he was sixty-seven years old and he had farmed his land, which drained partly into Red Lick and partly into Clover Fork, for over forty years.

Right: Charles Taylor and his best friend

The Coal and Coke Railroad

Clover Fork was a tranquil place in 1904, or had been before the Coal and Coke Railroad decided to locate its rail line through the valley on its way to Orlando and then on to Charleston. The clang of a sledge hammer on railroad spikes was jarring to the peace of the valley. The ribbons of steel being laid on stone ballast looked out of place on the bank above Clover Fork, especially as sheep, cows and horses grazed the flanks of the road of steel. Farmers whose farms adjoined the railroad tracks had not yet thought about the change about to come into their pattern of their lives and the lives of the livestock which would now have to cross the tracks in search of water from Clover Fork.

Work on the tunnel identified as the Jacksonville Tunnel No. 10 was slowly progressing through the hill on the Cunningham farm near Charles Traylor’s humble abode which was at the head of the Red Lick side of the hill, and many strangers were seen coming and going along the railroad right of way. An occasional boom could be heard as dynamite was used to blast the rock in the tunnel which was slowly creeping its way through 1888 feet of bed rock.

"My Money Is Under the Flour Barrel"

One of Charles Traylor’s closest friends was his nephew, Vaden Traylor. Vaden was farming part of the same farm which had been in the Traylor family from before 1860. He was the son of Lang and Eliza (Cunningham) Traylor, daughter of John J. and Lucy (Craig) Cunningham who were also long-time residents of the Clover Fork area. With many newcomers in the area and suspicious-looking strangers who were working on the Coal and Coke Railroad project, Charles confided to his nephew that he was concerned that one of these strangers might try to rob him. Charles also revealed to Vaden that he had hidden his money under the flour barrel in his home and that he trusted it would be a safe hiding place.

Left: an article published in the Weston Democrat.

Right: example of flour barrel.

October 5, 1904

October 5th, 1904 was a Wednesday, a normal working day for a Red Lick farmer who was in the midst of fall harvest. According to Charles Bennett, who today lives about two miles from the Charles Traylor farm of 1904, and whose family has lived on Clover Fork for over one hundred fifty years, the tale of October 5, 1904 was told often when Charles was growing up on Clover Fork. Nina (Smarr) Myers also remembers the tales which were told during her youth on Clover Fork when she was coming to maturity in the household of her foster parents, Abia and Etta (Cunningham) Holbert, close neighbors of Charles Traylor. Madeline Scott, a ninety year old, lifetime resident of Clover Fork, is the grand-niece of Charles Traylor, granddaughter of Lang Traylor, and daughter of Vaden and Burla (Daugherty) Traylor and recalls mention of the tragedy when she was growing up on Clover Fork. Bits and pieces of the tales sewn together give us a semblance of a reconstruction of the events of that day which took the life of Red Lick bachelor.

Right: Madeline (Traylor) Scott with her husband Vorris

Charles Traylor was working in the loft of his barn. It is likely that he was putting hay or grain of some sort just harvested in the barn loft. His faithful dog as always was on duty in or about the residence. It isn’t unusual for a dog to bark in a rural environment. Rabbits, groundhogs, snakes or other small game or vermin can attract the attention of a trusty guard dog and be the object of its bark. Perhaps Charles heard his dog bark and thought it was nothing to be concerned about as he worked in the loft. However, the sound of a fired pistol certainly was not expected, nor the yelp of a shot dog. When the yelp of his dog was heard, Charles, no doubt, rushed to the opening of the loft and saw the perpetrator. Without an eye-witness, we can only speculate that the dog’s killer saw Charles and fired at him, and unfortunately hit his mark. Charles was found dead of a gunshot wounds in the barnyard, beneath the loft opening.

Left: portrait of Charles Trayor made from the photo at the top of the page.

An Unsolved Murder

The official cause of the death of Charles Traylor by the Lewis County coroner was “murder.” In the early 1900’s, there were no state police in West Virginia. The only law enforcement available to the rural areas of Lewis County lay in the jurisdiction of the Sheriff of Lewis County. The year of the murder was an election year and October was the month before the general election. A sheriff is an elected official who usually politicks the month before an election. Whether the sitting sheriff made an effort to make a diligent investigation of the murder of Charles Traylor, we will never know. We do know that no one was ever arrested for the murder of Charles Traylor and the murder of the Red Lick bachelor was never solved.

It is generally believed that the Sheriff of Lewis County questioned a worker on the tunnel project, a man who had not been to work, or was late coming to work on the day of the murder but no charges were filed against him

The Money was There

After his uncle was laid to rest, Vaden Traylor went to his uncle’s home, and mindful of his previous conversation with Charles about the hiding place for his money, moved the flour barrel and found the stash undisturbed.

Lost to the Ages

Today, Charles Traylor lies buried in the Jacksonville Cemetery and the circumstances of his death are lost to the ages. Without question, his killer is also dead but his dastardly deed went unpunished. His identity likewise is lost to the ages.

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Comment 1 by Charles Bennett
When I was growing up on Clover Fork, I heard stories about the murder of Charles Traylor who had a farm on the Orlando side of the Clover Fork railroad tunnel. My uncle Joe Bennett and my grandmother Edna Bennett frequently spoke of the terrible act and how unsettling it was on the neighborhood. My uncle Joe reminisced that Vaden Traylor who was a nephew of the murdered man took to carrying an old pistol around with him for protection wherever he went. The only trouble was, he kept losing his pistol, and he spent a considerable amount of time looking for it.

Comment 2 by David Parmer
A perusal of the 1860 census records of the area of the Charles Traylor farm is useful to ascertain the nearby neighbors of Charles Traylor. The following appear to have lived close to the farm of Charles Traylor in 1860: Washington Groves , Henry Cosner, Susan Cosner, Luther Skinner, and Thomas Posey.

Comment 3 by David Parmer
The 1860 census of Lewis County reveals the following census information about the Traylor family. It is noted that the census taker misspelled the family name as “Trailer.” For purposes of this comment, the family name will be spelled correctly.

Name Age Occupation

Traylor, Charles 23 Farmer
Traylor, Fieln (?) 60 Farmer
Traylor, Julia 45
Traylor, Sarah 24
Traylor, Martia 19
Traylor, Bruce L. 18
Traylor, Emily N. 13
Traylor, Thomas L. 11
Traylor, Erzurum R. 7
Traylor, Joseph 1
Eliza Rigmy 49

It is also noted that the person listed as “Fieln” Traylor, presumably is the father of Charles Chesterfield Traylor and Julia is his wife and mother of Charles. The census taker or the compiler placed a question mark after the spelling of “Fieln’s” name, indicating some uncertainty about the spelling. To further add to the confusion of the name, there is a grave marker in the Jacksonville Cemetery in the area where the Traylor family is buried for “C. Traylor,” born in 1799 and died in 1861. This likely is the father of Charles Traylor and husband of Julia. Julia died in 1891. On her death certificate, her place of birth was listed as Franklin County, Virginia. Her spouse was listed as William C. “ Taylor,” another misspelling.

Relevant information from the Jacksonville Cemetery is as follows:

Traylor, C. 1799-1861
Traylor, Julia w/o W. C. 1814-1891
Traylor, Bruce, s/o W. C. and J. A. Died 8/12/1875 Aged 32y 8m 16d
Rigney, Eliza Died 3/12/1876 Aged 63y1m6d
Traylor, Ezra Runner,s/o W.C and J.A. Died 7/20/1876 Aged 25y9m22d
Traylor, Joseph 1858-1896
Traylor, Charles W. 4/23-1837 – 10/5/1904
Traylor, Langdon T. 1849-1917
Traylor, Eliza A, Cunningham 1860-1948

The Holbert Children on Clover Fork

Abia Holbert was one of the first of many young men to come to the Confluence (later Orlando) area, beginning about the turn of the 20th century and marry a local girl, becoming part of the fabric of the community. The young men came to find work as the industrial revolution rolled in on locomotive wheels. Abia came down from Marion County, in the Fairmont area. His first wife Pearlie Summers died, leaving him with a daughter, Lenna. He married a local girl, Margaret Etta Cunningham who was the granddaughter of Bulltown area pioneers Jesse and Mary Cunningham. Abia and Etta had four more children, Fred, Mary, Della and Robert. Abia and Etta also had a foster daughter, Nina Smarr, who is the only present survivor.

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by David Parmer

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The life of Abia and Margaret Etta (Cunningham) Holbert was the subject of the Jan 4, '08 entry The Holberts of Clover Fork. Here are stories of their six children.

Lenna

Lenna Holbert was a school teacher until she married in 1928 at age 32, Reverend Ellis Rittenhouse, a widower twenty four years her senior. Lenna and Ellis had one child, a son named Charles, who was born in Wheeling in 1937.

Fred

Fred Holbert, the second child of Abia and Etta Holbert, graduated from West Virginia University in 1928 and became a teacher of Vocational Agriculture at Buckhannon-Upshur High School. After teaching at the Upshur County school for six years, Fred became the agricultural agent for Gilmer County. After serving two years as agent, Fred died at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore of complications from surgery at the age of thirty two.

Mary

Mary Holbert married Russell Ellyson of Gilmer County in 1926. Mary had taught school, at, among other places, the upper Clover Fork school which she had attended as a child. Mary was the author of three books, one of which, Mud and Money, is a book about the oil and gas exploration business in turn of the century Gilmer County. Mary’s husband Russell was State Rehabilitation Director and also an advisor for the United States Department of Agriculture. Russell and Mary traveled to and lived in South America and Central America in connection with Russell’s employment as an agricultural advisor.

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Sisters Mary and Della, on Della's wedding day.

From the left: Ray Harris, brother of the groom, the groom Stanley Harris. (He was later the principal at the School for the Deaf and Blind at Romney and Registrar at West Virginia University) the bride Della (Holbert) Harris and the bride's sister, author Mary (Holbert) Ellyson.

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Della

The youngest daughter, Della taught school before she married at the age of 27. On June 9, 1935 she married Stanley Harris at Farmview, the Holbert farm on Clover Fork. Their wedding photo holds several memories. One of the memories is about flowers in the picture. Della’s older sister, Mary, who had done the planning for the wedding, suddenly realized that the flower arrangements had not been picked up. They had been prepared in Weston and shipped to Orlando. A flying trip to Orlando was necessary to get the flowers to the wedding on time. Ray Harris, brother of the groom and the gentleman at the left of the photo, taught botany and math at Shepherd College where I was one of his students in the early 1960’s.

Robert

Robert Holbert, the youngest Holbert child, taught at Brier Point School and Roanoke School in Lewis County and also was the Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Lewis County. Later, Robert became a member of management with the Goodyear Tire Corporation in Akron and later in Lincoln, Nebraska. Robert married Lois Brown of Ireland, West Virginia, the daughter of Oren Dixon “Dick” and Angela (O’Dell) Brown. (Dick was a teacher and farmer in southern Collins Settlement District.)

Left: Allan and his wife Sue, Louise, Angela and Fred.
Right: part-time farm boys Fred and Allan Holbert

Robert and Lois had four children: Allan, Louise, Angela and Fred. Like so many grandchildren of Orlando, now spread across the country, Fred remembers the summers he and his brother Allan spent at the Holbert farm on Clover Fork. As did all kids of that day, they delighted in roaming the hills of the Clover Fork valley. The boys never forgot Orlando, and it seems Orlando didn’t forget them either. In November of 1959 Jessie Bragg wrote in the Orlando column for the Braxton Democrat:

“Allan B. Holbert, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Holbert, a student at the Columbia University graduate school of journalism, wins a $1000 scholarship. Allan graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1956 and has been the managing editor of the Nebraska Education News. He is the grandson of the late Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Holbert of Orlando, Route 2.”

Left: The Doghouse Dozen Minus a Few, a band organized by Fred and Allan when they were in high school in the Lincoln, Nebraska in the early 1950’s. Allan would go on to become a journalist and jazz musician in Lincoln, Nebraska and his brother Fred would become a professor at the University of Nebraska.
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Nina

Nina Smarr, daughter of William Clarence and Dorothy (Harris) Smarr, became the foster daughter of Abia and Etta Cunningham as the result of the death of her father in a traffic accident in 1931. Nina graduated from Walkersville High School in 1942. She attended Glenville State College and became a teacher in the Lewis County Schools. Nina married Lawrence Craig and is the mother of two children from this union: Ronnie Craig and Dottie Starr. After the death of Lawrence and remaining a widow for a few years, Nina married Lydle Myers who is also now deceased."Nina, now retired, lives at Crawford, near Walkersville. This writer wishes to express his thanks to Nina, a great lover of history, for her help with this story.