A Girl From Gip

Sylvia (Duncan) and Lloyd Hayward Groves- Merchants of Oil Creek

The small elderly woman sits in her living room in an easy chair with her telephone and walker within easy reach. Her hair is white and her hands are feeble, but her eyes are clear and her memory is sharp. She speaks without hesitancy about her life on Oil Creek. Now nearly ninety-eight years of age, Sylvia Groves recounted the early years of her life for this writer.

Left: Sylvia (Duncan) Groves. This picture was made from a photo of Sylvia on her 90th birthday.

The Trip to Oil Creek

“In 1922, we lived about halfway between Elmira and Gip in Braxton County. My dad read in the newspaper about a farm for sale which was near Arnold in Lewis County and he bought it. There was a little bit of furniture in the house he bought. We sold all of our furniture in our Braxton County home except for whatever good stuff we had which would fit in a wagon. I don’t remember who was driving the wagon but it started out for the new farm.”

Right: the trip from Gip to Peterson Siding. They walked the first 9 miles east to the railroad, probably at Gassaway. (The present day railroad is the grey line running west of I-79.)

“Cars weren’t heard of in those days. My parents, Jesse F. Duncan and my mother Bertha, my three older sisters, Reavith, Marie, and Vonda, my brother Henry and I started walking the nine miles to the railroad stop on the old Coal and Coke line located on the Elk River at Duck. We caught the train and arrived in Orlando late at night. To go on to Arnold, we had to change trains and go up Oil Creek on the B & O line. It was a noon train so we had to spend the night in Orlando. My mother asked someone at the depot if there was a place to stay overnight. We were referred to the home of Lee Morrison, the Orlando photographer, who had a big house on the hill overlooking Orlando and that was where we spent the night. Mr. Morrison also owned a restaurant at the foot of the hill and we went there for breakfast. Since all he had was apple pie, that is what we had for breakfast. We caught the noon train and got off at Arnold and then walked back toward Peterson Siding about a mile or so to our new farm.”

Right The Morrison home, that overlooked Orlando.

A New Life in Lewis County

“My dad was a farmer, and that was how he made a living. I was the youngest in the family,” recalled Sylvia. In 1922, almost every man and woman in the Oil Creek valley was a farmer except for those who were employed by the railroad, and most of them were part-time farmers. Sylvia and her farm family lived about like every other farm family lived in the Oil Creek valley. Farm life was hard work and with little recompense, except the food which was raised for the family dinner table. Her childhood was mostly uneventful, except for the excitement generated by the B & O railroad which sliced through the Oil Creek valley on its way to Weston. Farm work usually stopped as the train rolled by, whether it was a freight train with boxcars or flatcars, or a passenger train with passengers in the cars, returning curious stares at the men and women and children in the fields doing farm chores.

School at Arnold

After moving to Lewis County, Sylvia Duncan enrolled at the nearby Arnold School. This one room country school was located a short distance up the Jacksonville Road from its intersection with the Roanoke-Orlando Road. “I received a Free School diploma,” said Sylvia, meaning that she finished eight years of school. “My first teacher was Mary Holbert, my second was Lucille Cunningham who was from Burnsville. I then had Della Holbert, Mildred Sapp, Ercel (Groves) Spencer and Ruth Duncan. Ruth Duncan was from a different set of Duncans,” said Sylvia. “We never did figure out if she was related. Ercel (Groves) Spencer was the daughter of Frank Groves.” and the sister of the man Sylvia would marry, Lloyd Hayward Groves.

Reminiscence of a Train Tragedy

Trains were always at odds with the Oil Creek valley farms. They were a nuisance to farmers whose farms were split in half by the steel railed tracks. Livestock was often crippled or killed by the trains and many three-legged dogs attested to the one-sided ferocity of animal meeting train. Several deaths of residents occurred in the Orlando area over the years by virtue of a distracted or deaf walker on the rails who was overcome by the train coming around the bend. Sylvia Groves remembers one such tragedy which occurred in the Peterson area. In 1925, Matthew Lawrence Peterson was sixteen and lived near the mouth of Red Lick at Peterson Siding. Despite admonitions from his parents, Lawrence, as he was known, and his brother made sport of jumping onto freight trains which were passing, riding a short distance and then jumping off. Lawrence had become rather “expert” at this sport and began taking his skill for granted. In March 1925, Lawrence attempted to take a short ride on a B & O freight but as he attempted to climb aboard, his hand slipped from the handle on the side of the freight. His momentum slung his legs under the train. One was sliced off by the rolling freight and the other wasn't much better. Even in the face of such a grievous injury, folks held out hope for Lawrence. Sylvia recalls that Mr. McCord, a railroad employee who lived close by, put the boy on a railroad hand car and, pumping furiously, took him into Weston to the hospital. The boy lived through the night, but died in the morning.

Right: an example of a railroad hand car.

Sylvia Marries Hayward

“Hayward was a boy from the neighborhood,” said Sylvia, “and that was how I met him. Hayward was the younger of the two sons of Frank and Leah (Gay) Groves, his brother Wilson being the oldest. Hayward had three sisters, Ercel Spencer, Mary McCord, and Madeline.”

In 1934, Sylvia was twenty three and Hayward was twenty four. They had taken a shine to each other and decided to go to Burnsville, look up Preacher Donahue at the M. P. Church South, and get married. For the next fifty years, until Hayward’s death in 1984, Sylvia and Hayward lived on Oil Creek.

Left: Burnsville's Methodist Epsicopal Church, South.

Right: Lloyd Hayward Groves and Sylvia Duncan, two years before they wed.

The Early Years

During the early years of their marriage Sylvia and Hayward rented a small house on Oil Creek from the Weston National Bank. After a while, Sarah and Hayward bought a small farm on Bear Run from Sarah Scarff and settled in. Meanwhile Hayward worked at various jobs. Hayward’s father Frank had the contract to deliver mail from Roanoke to Burnsville and he subcontracted the job to Hayward. Since this wasn’t a fulltime job, Hayward worked at various other jobs including the State Road, Louie Glass in Weston, and the Little Swiss Oil and Gas Company. Hayward also raised cattle and farmed the Bear Run farm.

Above: Hayward Groves on the job. Left is Hayward at the Little Swiss Oil and Gas Co's well on the Currence property on Bear Run. Center and Right show State Road work.

The Store Business

Over the decades several general stores operated at Peterson Siding. Traditionally, the first retail sales in a railroad community would begin with the work gangs which prepared the land and laid the tracks. The wokers' demand for milk, bakedgoods and pretty much anything edible, and other goods as well, would be met by the farmers in the area. The Keiths and the Groves family are known to have had stores at Peterson Siding.

Right: George I Groves (1870-1949) stands in the entrance of a store which was probably located at Peterson Siding in the early 1900s.

When Sylvia’s family came to the Oil Creek area in 1922 the only store in the area was owned by Hugh Keith. It was situated along the B & O railroad tracks, below the curve of the present road through Peterson Siding. Hugh was the son of Albert and Rosella Keith and the husband of the former Maggie Perrine. During the early 1920’s, Walter Foster bought the store from Keith who moved to Clarksburg. But, shortly after, the store burned.

Foster re-built it and continued serving the upper Oil Creek area. From time to time, Frank Groves helped out in Foster’s Store and learned the store trade. Around 1932, Frank decided to go into the store business. He borrowed money from a nephew who was in the United States Navy and built a small building, about twenty feet wide and thirty feet long, abutting the Roanoke -Orlando Road. Part of the building extended over a small branch coming off the hill behind the building. At this time, Frank was around sixty years of age. For the next twenty seven years, Frank served the upper Oil Creek valley as a merchant and was occasionally helped by his son Hayward and daughter-in-law Sylvia. Late in his life as he became feeble, Hayward and Sylvia moved into the house located adjacent to the store building and Hayward's parents Frank and Leah. Leah died in 1954 and Frank in 1959.

When Frank Groves died in 1959, his will provided his store business, known as Groves Store, would go to his son Hayward Groves. Since Sylvia and Hayward had been operating the store anyway, the operation barely skipped a beat. For the next twenty five years, Groves Store became synonymous with Sylvia and Hayward Groves.

Left above: Sylvia and Haward in front of their store.

Right: Hayward's dad Frank with his great grandson.

Left: Sylvia at the Veterans' Hospital.

The Oil Creek Auction

Another sideline business in which Sylvia and Hayward became involved in their later years was the auction business in the former Walnut Grove schoolhouse at the mouth of Red Lick on Oil Creek. Hayward served as auctioneer and Sylvia served delicious hot dogs to the auction clientele.

End of an Era

By 1984, many of the residents of Oil Creek were passing by Groves Store at Peterson Siding on their way to the Kroger Store in Weston. Many of the customers coming to Groves Store were those who needed credit or some items too few to justify a trip to Weston. Late night customers who needed gasoline knew all they had to do, regardless how late, was to blow the horn and a sleeping Hayward would get out of bed, put on his trousers, and pump gasoline for the appreciative customer.

In December 1984 Hayward Groves passed away. Sylvia sold what she could of the store inventory and closed the store a few months later. Today, Sylvia sits in her easy chair and recalls with vivid memory all of the Oil Creek residents who are buried in the cemetery above her home, or those who chose to be buried in Orlando. She remembers the children who came to her store and bought candy, grew to adulthood and then moved away. Many people have come and gone during Sylvia’s almost ninety-eight years. She sits in her easy chair each day and thinks of them fondly.

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Note- The Mr. McCord who tried to help young Lawrence Peterson would have been David McCord 1868-1947. He was a track foreman for the B & O. This was the McCord farm near Peterson. His daughter Virginia mentions her dad as she tells about her marriage to Luther Mitchell at Virginia McCord of Peterson's Siding

Comment by Tom Jeffries:
My dad, Coleman Jeffries, was a friend of Hayward Groves and frequently visited the Groves Store at Peterson Siding. When I was a boy growing up on Oil Creek, I usually went along because I was interested in listening to the conversations of the adults. Hayward was very colorful and used a lot of interesting expressions which I have never forgotten. An expression I remember Hayward using in referring to a particular person was that “he could lay down in the shade of a corkscrew and never be sunburned.” Another expression I heard Hayward use was that someone was “so crooked that he would have to be corkscrewed into the ground.” I attended Walnut Grove School and would visit the Groves Store to buy penny candy. Sylvia and Hayward were always very nice and I enjoyed visiting their store.

Tricia Lynn Strader and Belle Boyd, Confederate Spy

Tricia Lynn Strader with her grandparents Linzy and Mae (Posey) Strader on Road Run in the late 1970s. Tricia told about her Road Run roots in the June '08 entry You Can Go Home Again

by David Parmer
The night creatures hadn’t started their mysterious conversations. It was too early. But it was something she was looking forward to. Her grandfather, Linzy Strader, leaned forward in his easy chair and expertly spit over the porch railing into the front lawn, as if he was aiming at something. Wiping the corner of his mouth, he smiled that soft smile at his granddaughter, Tricia Lynn, and resumed his contented enjoyment of his Navy snuff in the late July afternoon. To a young girl from the city visiting her grandparents, these were magical times in the rural wonderland of Road Run. The day had been full, searching for crawdads in the run which crawled slowly past the house, gathering eggs from the hen house, smelling the freshly cut grass and chasing butterflies. Soon the crickets would be screeching their night songs and the frogs on Oil Creek at the railroad cut would be croaking their sonorous calls. This was truly the land of make-believe and it was a hard place to leave.

Tricia

It wasn’t far from the make-believe yesteryear land of Road Run of a young Tricia Lynn Strader to the make-believe land of an adult Trica Strader portraying Belle Boyd, Confederate spy, at the Belle Boyd House in Martinsburg, or performing before the rolling cameras on the movie set of Gods and Generals on the Antietam battlefield.

Right: Tricia at the Hammond mansion.

Above left: Timewarp-a photo of Tricia's grandfather Linzy (also pictured at the top of the page with his wife and granddaughter in the 1970s) in his WWI uniform ca. 1918, and a photo of his son Frank in a Civil War uniform, ca. 1990.

Left: Tony Morgan, Frank Strader and friend on the set of Stealing Lincoln's Body. Note the set lights behind.)

Tricia Lynn Strader was born in 1970, the daughter of Franklin D. and Vivian (Kuhl) Strader. Her father, a native of Orlando, attended school at Orlando and high school at Burnsville, graduating with the class of 1952. Her mother, a native of Burnsville, attended grade school at Burnsville, and high school in Delaware.

To Tricia Strader, the time of the Civil War was long ago, another time. Little did she know that her interest and the interest in Civil War re-enactments of her parents, Frank and Vivian (Kuhl) Strader, would transport her back in time and acquaint her with a certain southern belle, a spy for the soldiers in gray, and provide a life-changing experience.

Belle Boyd, Confederate Spy

The Civil War started with a bang in the spring of 1861. The waters of Bull Run ran red with the blood of boys from Virginia, as well as boys from New York and Pennsylvania.

The decisive, war-ending victory both sides had hoped for did not happen. The leaders of both the Union and the Confederacy recognized that total victory would not come easily, or quickly. In the day before telephones and other sophisticated means of communication the importance of intelligence to provide information about what the other side was up to was vital to the prospects of victory.

In 1861 Belle Boyd was a young 18 year old vivacious southern belle, a strong believer in the cause of the South. When the war started, Belle was living in the Shenandoah Valley town of Front Royal where her father operated a hotel. This area of the Old Dominion was hotly contested by both southern and northern armies and occupation of Front Royal by one army or the other seemed to change on a weekly basis.

A hotel occupied by officers and decision makers was an ideal place to learn of an army’s intentions. Belle, using sharp ears and womanly guile, learned much of the intentions of the Union armies, and carried the intelligence to southern generals, including Stonewall Jackson and the “Grey Ghost,” John Mosby. The four years of Civil War was an exciting and dangerous time for Belle Boyd, and greatly romanticized by Civil War historians. Books have been written about her and movies and plays have made her legendary.

Tricia as Belle Boyd

Tricia Strader attended high school in Delaware and graduated from Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Delaware with a B. S. in Business Administration. After college, Tricia pursued a career in the business field and in journalism. With a strong interest in history and genealogy, Tricia discovered that Belle Boyd had an ancestor with the family name of Spaur and was related on her mother’s side of the family. That knowledge and her hobby of participating in Civil War re-enactments throughout the eastern United States led Tricia in 2001 to the Belle Boyd House in Martinsburg, West Virginia, where she auditioned for and was chosen to portray the role of Belle Boyd in historical era performances. Tricia has stayed busy performing the role of Belle Boyd in performances in schools and public libraries, as well as the role of Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis,

President of the Confederacy. Tricia has also appeared in historical movies about the Civil War, Gods and Generals and No Retreat

from Destiny, and an unreleased

documentary about Mrs. Jefferson Davis.

Above Left: Belle Boyd
Left: Tricia as Belle Boyd
Above Right: Varnia Davis

Life certainly has been interesting for the young girl who made summer treks to the magical place of Road Run to visit her story-telling grandparents while they sat on their front porch on summer evenings, while the butterflies flew, the crawdad flicked its tail and moved from rock to rock and the smell of freshly cut grass was in the air. From chasing butterflies at her grandparents’ home on Road Run to having butterflies before a performance as Belle Boyd, life has been exciting for Tricia Strader.

The Korean Ice Box: The Ordeal of Bill Skinner

by David Parmer

There is an old saying, “Like father, like son,” that frequently applies to sons who follow in their father’s footsteps. Bill Skinner, son of Austin Skinner, was well aware of his father’s service in Siberia during World War I. Bill grew up in Clarksburg, but he frequently visited his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. W. O. Skinner in Orlando. Although his father served in the Great War, his father’s brothers, all of whom were younger than Austin, served their military time during the Second World War. Tales of Otto Skinner’s sons’ military service were frequently told in the Skinner household. Bill grew up expecting to serve his country as did his father and uncles.

In September 1949, twenty year old Bill Skinner was sworn into the United States Army, little knowing that in less than one year, he too, like his father, would be subjected to frigid Asian winters.
In 1950, the North Korean Army invaded South Korea and quickly pushed the surprised South Korean Army and their American allies into a small corner of the Korean peninsula known as the Pusan Perimeter. While this military debacle was taking place, Bill was stationed in Japan with the 7th Infantry Division, out of harm’s way.

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Above, left: Young Bill with a sack of apples and the rifle his great grandfather Jackson McWhorter Skinner carried through his service in the Civil War.

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Right: Bill, in 1954 in Boston, MA.

The Incheon Landing

To relieve the cornered South Korean Army and their American allies, General MacArthur devised a military plan which involved an amphibious invasion of the Korean peninsula at Incheon, nearly half-way up the western coast of Korea . Drawing upon the United States Marine Corps, the 7th Infantry forces and a scattering of other United Nations forces stationed in Japan, General MacArthur put together an amphibious landing force. Machine gunner Pfc. Bill Skinner was part of this invasion force. The Incheon landing achieved surprise and was quite successful. The American military force gained a foothold on the Korean peninsula and effectively cut off some of the North Korean Army to the south of Incheon.

Invasion of North Korea

After re-taking the South Korean capitol of Seoul, MacArthur divided the Incheon landing force into two separate forces, swinging one pincer to do battle with the North Koreans to the south and the northern pincer to swing north to deal with the North Korean Army in the north. Bill was with the northern pincer movement and during the winter of 1950 found himself at a place called the Chosin Reservoir near the Chinese border.

Boots Too Small and Freezing Cold

After World War II, the huge American military machine had been for the most part de-commissioned and had passed into a “peace-time” army. Military supplies were scarce and at the time of the Incheon landing, winter clothing for the troops were still in the planning stage on a desk in Washington, D. C. A pair of combat boots, a couple sizes too small, had been issued to Bill Skinner prior to the Incheon landing. Despite his objection to the boots, none of his size were available to the supply-strapped quartermaster, and Bill was told to “make-do.”

Bill’s father, Austin, had told his son about the Siberian winters with temperatures fifty and sixty below zero. Fighting his way north with the 7th Infantry Division, 31st Polar Bear Regiment, Bill endured cold he had never known before, and which was only believable because his father had told him about his own Siberian experience. Ill fitting boots and lack of winter clothing proved troublesome to Bill, but the worst was yet to come.

Right: To read it, click on this article announcing that Bill was MIA.

Left: archival photo of American soldiers during the Korean War

Chinese Intervention and the Surrender

Chinese forces poured into North Korea in overwhelming numbers during the winter of 1950 and overran the ill-equipped and out-numbered American troops. Cut off from retreat, and suffering from -35 F. temperatures, the ill-clad American forces surrendered. Bill was wounded by grenade fragments, unconscious because of hypothermia and had to be carried to the surrender point. His feet were frostbitten. All of his toes on his right foot and all but two on his left foot were lost. Had it not happened that maggots invaded Bill’s frost-bitten, rotting feet and ate away the rotted parts, his condition would have been far worse.

Prisoner of War and Repatriation

During Bill’s first winter in his concentration camp as a prisoner of war, over 500 of the 800 prisoners died of malnutrition, disease, or intentional execution by North Korean guards. Bill’s physical condition was perilous and the watery rice ration he was given had caused his weight to drop to around ninety pounds. Had it not been for the sharing of a dry rice ration by a Methodist missionary, Nellie Dyer, who was also a prisoner, Bill believes he may not have come home. After control of the American prisoners of war passed from North Korean hands to the Chinese, conditions became somewhat better, but were still inhumane. Bill was a prisoner of war for 889 days until he was repatriated on August 14, 1953.

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See Bill's father's war story: From Russia with Love: The Saga of Austin W. Skinner

See also an earlier article Korean War POW

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Left: Red Cross document advising of Cpl Wm. Skinner's release from the Communist prison.
Right: Bill Skinner about the time he was released.

Below: Bill Skinner's homecoming party

Today, Bill resides in Clarksburg. In 1980, he was instrumental in the formation of the West Virginia prisoner of war association known as Mountaineer Barbed Wire Chapter No 1.

From Russia with Love: The Saga of Austin W. Skinner

by David Parmer

In terms of world travel, James Bond had nothing on Austin Skinner, one of Orlando ’s “Doughboys” of World War I. Austin served his term in Russia, or more precisely, Siberia, during the Great War and after. His arsenal of weapons did not include trick fountain pens which exploded or Aston-Martin DB5 sports cars, but rather an old Springfield M1903 rifle, a bayonet, and a pack horse.

Left: Austin in Siberia.

Right: example of a Springfield M1903 Riffle.

Austin Walter Skinner

Austin Walter Skinner was the son of William Otto Skinner and Clara Oneta (Skinner) Skinner. Austin ’s father, William Otto, was the son of pioneer children Granville and Martha (Walton) Skinner. He was known throughout the Orlando area as “Otto”or “Ott.” He was a section foreman for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and a farmer. Austin ’s mother, Clara, was the daughter of Jackson and Patience (Duvall) Skinner.

Bill Skinner of Clarksburg, the son of Austin Skinner, tells us that according to his aunt Pearl Skinner, Otto came courting his grandmother Clara on a railroad handcar. Apparently, the approach worked and shortly thereafter Otto and Clara were married. Otto and Clara’s oldest child Austin was born on Clover Fork in 1896.

Left: Example of a hand car. Austin's dad came a'courting his mom on a hand car.

Right: Clara Skinner and William Skinner, Austin's parents.

Austin attended school for eight years on Clover Fork at the Locust Grove School, also known as the lower Clover Fork School. This school was about a mile from the Skinner home. Austin ’s son, Bill, also tells us that Austin ’s sister, Madge, who was stricken with polio as a child and lost both legs, attended the same school and was taken there by her brothers sitting in a wheel barrow. After his eight years of education at Locust Grove School came to an end, Austin devoted himself to working on the farm of his parents.

At twenty years of age, in 1916, Austin gave up the plow and the hoe for a campaign hat and the horse cavalry. Enlisting in the United States Army in 1916, Austin was sent to Fort Carson, Colorado to learn his military skills. After completing his military basic training, Austin was sent to the Philippine Islands which was the most distant outpost of the United States military. At that time the United States had not entered the European conflict and was still at peace. Austin was serving in the Philippines when the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917.

Above, right: Austin Skinner in his Army uniform

Left: Austin Skinner in the Phillipines

The Wolfhounds

A member of the 27th Infantry Regiment, known as the “Wolfhounds,” Pfc. Austin Skinner was stationed in the Philippine Islands in August 1918 as war was raging in Europe. When the Provisional government of Russia sued for peace with Germany and entered into a peace treaty in 1918, the American government became concerned about the security of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the vast storehouse of military supplies which had been previously shipped to Siberia. Not wanting the railroad or the supplies to fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks or the Germans, the 27th Infantry Regiment was ordered to depart Manila for Siberia aboard the U.S.S. Crook in August 1918.

It’s a long way from Orlando to the Philippines and then to Siberia, but Austin weathered the trip well, despite the torrid heat of the Philippines and the frigid cold of Siberia. Austin liked to reminisce that in the Philippines he could fry an egg on a rock and in Vladivostok the temperature was thirty five below zero.

Right: example of the WWI Victory medal, which Austin Skinner would have received.

Another American unit, the 31st Infantry Regiment known as the “Polar Bears,” was also involved in the Siberian operation. Years later, in the desolate and frigid mountains of North Korea, Austin’s son, Bill, would be a member of the “Polar Bear” Regiment which would also have to come to grips with north Asian winters.

Postcards of Siberia from Austin Skinner

In Siberia, the “Wolfhound” Regiment gained an outstanding reputation among the Allied forces, the Japanese, British, Czech and Chinese, for its prowess in marching long distances in pursuit of the Bolshevik forces and had sterling success in guarding the Trans-Siberian Railway against Bolshevik depredations.

For his exemplary service, Austin was promoted to the rank of Corporal during his Siberian deployment. After sixteen months of duty on the frozen tundra of Siberia, Austin and the “Wolfhound” Regiment were re-deployed to the Philippines.

Right: Austin Skinner's commission as a Corporal. Click on it to enlarge the image.

Life as a Civilian

After his military service was completed in 1920, Austin returned to Orlando for a little rest and recuperation, but soon found R & R boring and not very well paying and shortly secured employment at a Weston glass plant.

Austin also secured for himself a wife when in March 1921 he married Mrs. Estie (Reed) Posey. Estie was the widow of Wayne Posey, a conductor on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, who died in Weston in 1920 of typhoid fever. Wayne was the son of George J. and Minerva (Hopkins) Posey of Posey Run. Unfortunately this marriage didn’t last nor did Austin stay long in Weston.

Left: Austin with his first wife, Estie, widow of Wayne Posey.

Finding better employment in Clarksburg with the Hazel-Atlas Glass Corporation, he moved to that city. He also found another wife in Clarksburg and married the former Carrie Barnes.

Austin and Carrie became the parents of thirteen children. Austin worked the remainder of his life with Hazel-Atlas and became supervisor of the packing and shipping department.

In the latter months of 1946, Austin contracted rheumatic fever. The severity of the disease affected his heart and in February 1947, without recovering, he died of rheumatic carditis at the young age of fifty.

Left: Austin Skinner's obituary.

Below: Austin Skinner's grave marker.