An Orlando Patriarch

David Newton Godfrey:
Early Orlando Patriarch

by David Parmer

His tombstone in the Orlando Cemetery silently testifies to his longevity: 1835-1912. His many descendants are further testimony to his memory in the Oil Creek valley. During his early years, David Newton Godfrey was known as “Newt” or “Newton.” However, he usually signed his name as “D. N. Godfrey.” By whatever name, David Newton Godfrey was a respected and well-known member of the early community in the Oil Creek Valley.

Newt came to Oil Creek when, just before the Civil War, he married Mary Jane, the daughter of Alexander and Phoebe (Conrad) Skinner.

Several of the Godfrey clan married into Oil Creek and Little Kanawha families.

~ Newt's Aunt Mary Godfrey married George Duvall. They settled at the headwaters of Oil Creek. Their granddaughter Patience married Alexander and Phoebe Skinner's son Jackson McWhorter Skinner.

~ Newt's cousin Samuel Godfrey married a grand-daughter of Alexander and Phoebe Skinner (also Newt's wife Mary Jane's niece) Elizabeth Ann Skinner.

~ Newt's cousin Robert Godfrey married Susanna Smith and they settled in the Burnsville area. Their eleven children included Samuel, who settled in the Burnsville area and was the father of Manderville, Commodore, Walter, and Lloyd. Another son was Elijah, who married and raised his family in Gilmer County.

.~ Newt’s older sister Christina (Curtis) Murphy had married Mary Jane’s uncle Alfred Posey when Newt was five years old. Newt and Mary Jane set to farming next to Alfred and Christina, according to the 1870 census.

Left: D.N. and Mary Jane (Skinner) Godfrey.

Right: Newt's sister Christina (Curtis) Murphy who married Alfred Posey.

D.N. Godfrey’s Origins

David Newton Godfrey grew up in the Hackers Creek area. His parents had come to the Hackers Creek area with their pioneer parents. Newt’s mother, Jane Mitchell, was the daughter of English-born preacher and church founder John William Mitchell and his wife Catherine Teter. Several of Jane’s brothers and nephews were also preachers in the Methodist Protestant Church which her dad had helped to form.

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Newt’s father John Newton Godfrey came to the Hackers Creek area with his parents from Hardy County, the area from which most of Hackers Creek’s pioneers hailed. John Newton Godfrey's brothers and sisters

Jane brought to her marriage to John Newton Godfrey three daughters by her earlier marriage to Alexander Curtis. Together Jane and J. N. Godfrey had four boys.

Besides Newt and his sister Christina, only one other sibling stayed in the area. Their brother William Jackson Godfrey married Sarah McCord and they lived in the Roanoke area.

The other four of the seven siblings went west: two of the sisters and one brother. Emily, Susannah and Michael migrated to the little farm community of Prairie in Hancock County, Illinois, near the Mississippi River. Sisters Emily and Susannah Curtis married Rohrboughs. Emily, born around 1820 married George Rohrbaugh, born about 1792 and Susannah, born around 1823 married George’s son Adam Rohrbaugh, born around 1828. Their young brother Michael Godfrey was in Hancock County in 1850, according to that year’s census.

A second brother also migrated west. Edward Jasper Godfrey settled in the railroad town of El Reno, in the center of Oklahoma.

Right: this portrait was found when the Godfrey/Bee house was dismantled in 2008. It is unidentifed.

An Interesting Post Card

In November 1909, Newt received a postcard from his niece May (Rohrbaugh) Miller in Quincy, Illinois, not far from Hancock County. May was the daughter of Susannah (Curtis) Rohrbaugh. The postcard had a photograph of Newt’s sister Susannah sitting in front of their brother Michael. We know the man in the photo is Michael because Michael was born in 1835, which would have made him 74 in 1909 and written on the front of the photo is “Taken Aug 22, 1909. Mother 87, Uncle 74.”

The transcription of the message of the postal card is as follows:
“Dear Uncle and family,
Here is the photo you have heard about. Am so sorry they are poorly finished, yet the features are very natural. Mother appreciated the token of love you sent her. My uncles wish you could come see us. Mother is in her natural health. Gets out driving on nice days. When you can find time write her a long letter. She loves to hear from her loved ones. She dreads the dreary days of winter, is so shut in. Give her love and regards to all the friends and relatives. She joins with me in wishing you joy and success.
Lovingly, May A. Miller”

Triple Cousins and Aunt Grandma:

The Children of D. N. & Mary Jane (Skinner) Godfrey

Newt and Mary Jane became parents of eight children, seven of whom lived to adulthood. Their progeny are woven into the fabric of the Orlando community, particularly the Skinners and Poseys, also the Henlines and Heaters.

Permilia married her triple cousin Robert L. Skinner. They were first cousins through Alexander & Phoebe Skinner, first cousins once removed through John N. and Jane Godfrey and second cousins through Alexander and Catherine (Scott) Skinner.

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Sarah married first Elias E. Clark who died of consumption (tuberculosis) after only five years of marriage. Sarah then married John C. Henline, brother of Beham Henline.
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Malinda married Isaac Fox when they were in their 20s. When she was 44 she married George Marsh who was 32.
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Thomas J. married Bridget Heater.

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Laurena married P. N. “Newt” Blake, perhaps better known as “Uncle Zeke”. .

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Left above: Permilla (Godfrey) Skinner

Left middle: Malinda (Godfrey) Fox Marsh.

Left below: Lorena (Godfrey) Blake.

Right: Their brother Tom Godfrey.

Maletus married his first cousin Estella Henline, but died just five years later, in 1902, from fever, at the age of 32. Estella was the daughter of Beham and Semantha (Skinner) Henline. Semantha (Skinner) Henline and Meletus’ mother Mary Jane (Skinner) Godfrey were sisters, both daughters of Alexander Skinner and Phebe (Conrad) Skinner. Maletus and Estella "Esty" had two children, Harry Godfrey and Sophia (Godfrey) Jarvis. When she was young, Sophia was aware of a confusing family relationship since her paternal grandmother Mary Jane, was also her maternal great aunt. In order to cover all the familial bases, young Sophia addressed Mary Jane Godfrey as “Aunt Grandma.” Esty went on to marry Syrian immigrant Mike Thomas and raised a large family.

Lena, “Duck” married John Bee. They had four children before they divorced.

Oil Creek and Three Lick Farms

In 1875, Newt bought a parcel of 83 acres on Oil Creek from land speculator George I. Arnold of Weston. Also in 1875, Newt bought 30 acres from his father–in-law Alexander Skinner. These parcels were located in the area of the former first railroad crossing west of Orlando on the road to Burnsville and onto the ridge separating Posey Run from Three Lick. Newt Godfrey built a fine two-story house on this parcel near the railroad crossing. Newt farmed his land until his death in 1912. The farm remained in the Godfrey family for nearly another 100 years. Fred “Sally” Bee, grandson of Newt and Mary Jane, owned the land until his death in 1980 and his widow, Ruby, continued that ownership until her death in 2008.

Left: the house that D. N. Godfrey built, shortly before it was dismantled in 2008.

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In 1890, Newt bought another 44 acre parcel from George I. Arnold. This additional acreage consisted of land on both the Oil Creek and Three Lick watersheds, and was partially in Braxton County and partially in Lewis County and adjoined the farm of Pat Moran. Within a year, Newt conveyed this 44 acre parcel to his daughter Malinda and his son Thomas but later re-acquired the property. Newt then conveyed the property to Lena Bee, his youngest daughter and wife of John Bee.

Above: the home that Newt Godfrey built on Posey Run 125 years ago was torn down in 2008.

Ruby Bee, the widow of Newt’s grandson, was the last person to live there. She died in 2008.

Thanks to Margret Ann Wilson Willey of Burnsville for these photos of the homeplace.

The present owner dismantled the two story farm house in 2008 and all that is left of structures on the Godfrey farm is an old log granary which is well over one hundred years old. An interesting aspect of the old Godfrey home is that many people assumed that the house was a log house which had been covered with siding. However, the 2008 demolition of the home showed that it not built of logs, but was instead a framed house. As Orlando historians are aware, in 1875 the Burns brothers were operating a large band saw mill in Burnsville, then known as Lumberport. and house builders from the near country side were transporting sawn lumber to nearby building sites, many using wagons, also built in Burnsville by the Bodkin, Fidler, and Corbett (later Rudkin) manufactory, known as the “Star” or the “Burnsville” wagon. Since we know that Mt. Zion Methodist Church was built with trees cut from Alexander Skinner’s land and transported by George Jackson Posey by wagon from Burnsville to be milled, it is highly likely that Newt Godfrey also built his new home in 1875 with old growth lumber from his land, milled at the Burnsville saw mill.

Right: D. N. Godfrey's hewn log granery

Comment by Burlen Henline

When I was a young boy, I lived in Doddridge County with my parents, Frank and Audrey Henline. Every summer I looked forward to coming to Orlando to visit my grandmother, Semantha Henline, my Uncle Heaterhuck Henline, my Aunt Clora Henline and my cousin Opal Jeffries who lived across Oil Creek from the family of Tom Godfrey. Tom was the son of Newt and Mary Jane Godfrey.

Tom had a potato patch down Oil Creek near the home of Newt Henline and he and his wife Biddie [Biddie is a nickname for Bridgit -ed] would walk down to the potato patch, with hoes over their shoulders, during evenings to hoe weeds. Tom would frequently stop to talk to me and was always very friendly. From time to time Tom would tell me about his children, most of whom had moved away for employment. Tom had a son Edward who lived in Parkersburg. I recall that Tom pronounced Edward’s name as “Edderd” and that he lived “way out on the border.” Referring perhaps to another of his children, I forget the name, Tom proudly announced that he was “walking on clouds in California.”

Our Grandfathers' Tory Rebellion

by Donna Gloff

Including Hyre, Mace, Rohrbaugh, Crites, Borer, Brake, Osborn & Others

It would be difficult to find someone from Orlando who is not descended from a veteran or patriot of the American Revolution. That makes it all the more interesting to learn that in 1781, six years into the Revolutionary War and a year and a half before it was finished, a number of our pioneer forefathers rebelled against the high taxation and conscription demands of the continental government and formed a Tory unit, to fight with the British against the Continental Army.

The Beginnings of an Insurrection

It was a desperate time for our infant republic, and the demands on the citizens were back-breaking. In April of 1781, a John Claypool and several of his pioneer neighbors along the Lost River, east of our forefathers on South Fork of the Potomac, had had enough and when the tax collector arrived they refused. They hoisted a Union Jack and "Drank to King George the third's Health and Damnation to Congress." By the time authorities arrived, forty or fifty men had made their way to Claypool's on the Lost River.

Above left: The Union Jack

Right: a sketch of typical Colonial militia, engaged in battle. The troops that marched on Torys included Army regulars and militia like these.

Those pioneers surrendered, but word spread anyway and 150 or more men rode to join the insurrection. These were not just pioneer farmers. Deserters from the Colonial army and English soldiers escaped from POW camps helped to swell the numbers. This growing band of Torys had centered on the West Branch of the Potomac, at Brake's mill, about 15 miles north of Moorefield.

Our Grandfathers

Several of our German immigrant forefathers who had settled on the West Branch joined the fray here. We know about them because of a document they signed: a petition for clemency. According to Richard K. MacMaster in The History of Hardy County, 1786 - 1986, found at Buzz Perry's website, http://www.perrybrake.com/ClaypoolRebellion.pdf,

"Another group of petitioners also asked for executive clemency, adding that they 'have been instrumental in detecting and bringing in some of the principal Comspirators to Justice.' Enough evidence against them convinced the Grand Jury, nevertheless, to indict them for treason and insurrection. The signers of this petition included Samuel Lourie from Lost River. The rest lived on the South Fork or the South Branch. Jacob Brake, whose name headed the petition, Jacob House, John Mitchell, Jeremiah Osborn, and Adam Rodebaugh lived on the South Fork or in the vicinity of Moorefield in Michael Stump's district. Michael Algire, Charles Borah or Borrer, John Casner, Jacob Crites, Leonard Hier, John Mace, Henry Rodebaugh, Jacob Pickle, Adam Wease, Sr., Adam Wease, Jr., John Wease, and Jacob Yeazle were all in John Wilson's district on Mill Creek in present Grant County. Jacob Hier, Isaac Mace, and Thomas Stacey were in Job Welton's district in the vicinity of Petersburg."

Most of the twenty-five South Branch pioneers who signed this petition have descendants throughout central West Virginia, including the Oil Creek area. Some of their descendants are named Riffle, Morrison, Hyre and Hyer, McCauley, Strader, Mick, Mace, Skinner and Heater.

The Petition for Clemency

[This petition was written as one paragraph, with extremely long sentences. Line breaks have been added to make reading easier. -ed]
"Humbly Sheweth,
That your Petitioners living in an obscure and remote corner of the State are precluded from every intelligence of the state affairs either by public papers or from the information of men of credit and veracity, and at the same infested by the wicked emissaries or pretended emissaries of the British who travel through all parts of the frontiers and by misrepresentations and false news poisoned the minds of the ignorant and credulous settlers.

That your petitioners from narrow and confined notions and attached too strongly to their interests conceived the Act for laying the enormous tax of eighty pounds paper money on every 100 pounds of their property, rated in specie and a bounty for the recruits of the Continental Army, and the law subjecting them at the same time to be drafted for the said service and the further Act for clothing the Army as unjust and oppressive after paying such a high tax on their assessed property.

And those wicked and designing men by their artful insinuations and false intelligence industriously propagated to delude and seduce your petitioners, too readily prevailed on them to oppose the execution of the said Acts and take up arms in defense of what those wretches called their liberty and property.

But your petitioners humbly shew that they never concerted or conspired the destruction of Government or the hurt of any individual, further than to defend themselves when attacked or compelled to yield obedience to those laws;

and when your petitioners were made sensible of their error by the gentlemen from the adjacent counties who marched a body of men sufficient to have put all the disobedient and deluded crew to the sword, but, from motives of humanity and prudence attempted the more mild method of argument to dispel the delusion and bring them back to their duty,

your petitioners, ready to receive information and open to correction, readily gave up their arms and engaged to deliver themselves to justice and submit to the laws of their country when called for, which they have since done and stood their trial in the County Court of Hampshire,

and were by that Court adjudged to stand a further trial before a Special Court of Oyer and Terminer appointed to meet at the Court House on the 10th day of July last,

but the gentlemen nominated as Judges by the Honorable Board failing to attend, the prosecution was postponed;

and your petitioners were then informed by a proclamation under the hand of the County Lieutenant that the Executive, ever prone to adopt the most lenient measures to penitent offenders, offered pardon and indemnity to all those concerned in the late insurrection, if they would return to their duty and behave as good citizens in future.

And your Petitioners impressed with a deep sense of the gracious intentions of your Excellency and the Honorable Board towards the ignorant and deluded were encouraged to sue for pardon; and that the same act of grace might be extended towards them since they humbly conceive their conduct has been more consonant to the duty of good citizens, who conscious that they have transgressed against the laws of their country readily delivered themselves to Justice and a trial by their peers to suffer the punishment due to their crimes though committed through ignorance and misguided zeal.

Whereas those who have availed themselves of the said proclamation, the equally guilty, did not come in until their safety was insured to them by promise of pardon, wherefore you petitioners humbly hope from the known clemency of your Excellency, and that governs the Councils of the Honorable Board, that they will be graciously pleased to pardon their past offenses and include in the Act of Indemnity so mercifully held out to offenders under the like circumstances and they engage on the faith of honest citizens to act a true and faithful part to the State in future if they are released from further prosecution and restored to the privileges of other citizens; which your petitioner John Claypole is more encouraged to expect from a letter of General Morgan to your said petitioner wherein he promises to procure his pardon on his returning to his allegiance and becoming a good citizen, this he humbly conceives his behavior has, since he was convinced by his error and freed from those mistaken prejudices that seduced him from his duty, wherefore in deep contrition for their past misconduct and sincere promise of conducting themselves as good citizens for the time to come they humbly pray pardon, and that the Honorable Board will save their innocent wives and children from ruin and misery, which they must necessarily be involved, for the crimes of their deluded husband and parents. And your petitioners will pray...

Petitions were bound over for Jury in November. All of the men were pardoned. Several of the men went on to fight against the British in the Colonial Army.

Our Pioneer Grandfathers

Who Signed the Petition for Cemency
with some information about their relationship to the Oil Creek watershed.

Leonard Hier b. 1727 in Benkin, Switz. D. 1786, Hardy Co. VA Descendants: all the Hyers and Hyres
John Mace b. 1711, s/o Henry and Ann (Petty) Mace, father of Eva Mace Descendants of Frank & Eva (Mace) Riffle
John Rorebaugh m. Barbara Reger, d/o Anthony Reger Descendants: all the McCauleys in the area, a few Micks, Skinners and Heaters
Jacob Brake b. abt 1730 in Germany Descendants: Lee Morrison, among others

A few of the Orlando descendants of the Claypool Rebellion: John Scott Riffle b. 1845 (descendant of John Mace), Lee Morrison b. 1867 (descendant of John Brake), Elizabeth (Wine) Blake b. 1866 (descendant of John Mace). Jonathan "Hedge" McCauley b. 1871 (descendant of Anthony Reger), Everett Allman, 1907 (descendent of Leonard Hyre). Doris Jean Blake b. abt 1933 (descendant of John Mace).

Some of the participants as yet unidentified as related to Oil Creek folks
Michael Algier
Isaac Brake b. abt 1760, s/o Jacob, m. Roseanna Almon, moved to Ohio.
Charles Borer
Jacob Crites b. 1752 in Bucks Co, PA, d. 1837, Hardy County, m. Elizabeth Henkle
Adam Rohenbough one of 3 sons of Johann Adam Rodenbaugh & Maria Barbara Fischer
Henry Rodenbough one of 3 sons of Johann Adam Rodenbaugh & Maria Barbara Fischer
Martin Rodenbaugh one of 3 sons of Johann Adam Rodenbaugh & Maria Barbara Fischer
George Sites
Thomas Stacey
Adam Wease
Adam Wease, Jr.
John Wease,
Jacob Yeazle
John Mitchell This doesn’t seem to be our Mitchell line.
Jeremiah Ozburn
Josia Ozburn
George Peck
Jacob Pickle
Jacob House
Samuel Louri
John Casner

. . . . .

Note: for more information see http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~hyde/brake/ToryUprising.html and
http://www.perrybrake.com/ClaypoolRebellion.pdf and Kercheval, Samuel. History of the Valley of Virginia, 1833.

Note: If your roots pass through Orlando and if you have questions about your ancestors, we'll do our best to help you with your search. Send your questions to orlandowestvirginia@yahoo.com.

Note: Among the ancestors of the Oil Creek community are at least two grandfathers who came to the Colonies with His Majesty King George III’s armies. Peter Shields and Henry Church were both English soldiers who became Prisoners of War. Church served out his time as a POW and married a Quaker girl, Shields gave his allegiance to the new Americans and joined their army.

Right: a British soldier

Tragedy on Dumpling Run

Many thanks to Ressie Wilson and her daughter Margret Willey of Burnsville for their assistance with this story. Also providing information for the story was Harry Vankirk of Clarington, Ohio, Mabel Wine of Weston, and Jim Godfrey of Weston. The late Jean Vankirk, the foster child of Ollie Vankirk, related the events of the tragic day to her foster sister, Ressie Wilson.

Dumpling Run is the first creek that empties into Oil Creek just before it meets the Little Kanawha at Burnsville.

Left: Ollie (Mollithan) Vankirk

Right: The story from Clarksburg Telegram June 22, 1937. Double click on each page of the article to enlarge it. Here is an excerpt:
"A missing housewife is believed drowned and damage of more than $100,000 is reported. . . . The missing housewife is Mrs. Ollie Vankirk, 52, who was last seen in the door of the barn at the family home on Dumpling Run, near Burnsville, when the storm broke about 5 p.m.. Mrs. Vankirk, witnesses said, disappeared when the barn was washed from its foundation beside the run and collapsed as it struck a nearby tree. . .
"The railroad bridge between Burnsville and Orlando was washed out and it was said by a track foreman that trains would not run in that section for at least three days. He said the tracks had been loosened by the water.
"The county bridge across Oil Creek at Orlando was washed out against the railroad tracks and C. W. Knight reported four feet of water in his store there.
"The Posey Run school was washed from its foundation and turned completely around.
"Garages and other businesses were washed out along Dumpling Run, it was reported."

by David Parmer

Storm clouds had been building throughout the day. Even though it was daytime, it was dark as evening. Thunder was rolling with the sound of potato wagons on a hard rock road. Lightning was illuminating the sky and casting eerie shadows in the narrow Dumpling Run valley.

Livestock on the several farms located on the run were fidgeting with each roll of thunder or crack of lightning. The rain came slowly at first, cooling the hot baked ground, but soon became steady and heavy. Before long the rain was beating down on the tar paper roofs of the houses on Dumpling Run. Kerosene lamps which had been lit to cope with the dark seemed to struggle and their flickering became pronounced as the heavy rain caused drafts to flow through the cracks in the doors and the gaps in the floorboards. The normally placid Dumpling Run began to flow swiftly and water crept up the banks of the confined creek. Ollie Vankirk and her barely school-aged foster daughter Jean sat hunched at their kitchen table. Despite the smell of bread baking in the stove, unease filled the tiny house perched on the bank of the run. Forty-four year old Ollie was worried about their milk cow which was tied up in the barn by the creek. This June 21st of 1937 was dark and it was hard to see the creek although it was easy to notice the roar of the water growing louder and louder. The roar was becoming ominous. Ollie’s husband Homer was not at home. He had left on foot earlier in the day to visit a doctor in Sutton, twenty-four miles away. No one was home to help Ollie in this time of peril.

Left: Ollie and Ressie with their home-made flower arrangements on Decoration Day at Stringtown in Burnsville during the 1920’s. They were on their way to the Quickle Cemetery to decorate graves.

Ollie and Homer Vankirk

Ollie and her husband were tenant farmers on the Frank Crutchfield farms which adjoined on Dumpling Run. In exchange for keeping the farm clean of brush and tall grass and taking care of the owner’s cattle, Ollie and Homer lived rent-free on the Crutchfield farm. This was a period of hard-times throughout the country and especially in Braxton County. The Vankirks were lucky to have a roof over their heads for there were many homeless people living in lean-tos along railroad tracks. Although the house provided no modern amenities, the Vankirk family had a place to sleep and the farm provided the rest of the necessities of life. However, Homer suffered from poor health. Although he was only fifty-one years of age, he was plagued with heart disease which limited his ability to handle the heavy work of a farm. Fortunately for him, Ollie was strong and a good helpmate so they were managing to get by. According to Ressie Wilson, her foster mother, Ollie Vankirk, was always lending a helping hand to her neighbors and strangers alike and provided care for other foster children. Ollie was soft-spoken and caring. She had many friends.

A Crisis in the Barn

Ollie became alarmed as she saw the water rapidly rise into the barn and heard the loud mooing of the cow. The water was rising unbelievably fast as she struggled to open the barn door against the current of water. Struggling through the water-filled barn, she finally reached and untied the terrified cow. It was difficult to turn the cow in the swift water which was already up to its haunches. The water kept rising as if a year’s worth of rain had been dumped all at once in Dumpling Run. After righting the cow, and starting it toward the barn door, Ollie was struggling, but losing, her battle with the deluge of water between her and safety. Who can say what she should have done? Some speculate that if Ollie had held on the cow’s tail, she would have reached safety. Unfortunately, Ollie didn’t, and she lost her battle with the raging water.

Aftermath

Unaware of the crisis on Dumpling Run, Homer Vankirk had taken refuge from the driving rain in a barn somewhere between Sutton and Burnsville and spent the night there. Arriving home the next day, he learned that his helpmate had been lost to the water but her body had not yet been found. It would be more than a week before the lifeless body of Ollie Vankirk would be found about a mile below Burnsville near the home of Foss Heater. Had it not happened that her long hair became tangled and ensnared on a tree branch, her body may have met the same fate of other flood victims on the Little Kanawha River who were never found.
The melodious bell of St. Paul’s Methodist Church in Burnsville rang out to announce the funeral of Ollie Vankirk. The church was full of friends, family and curiosity-seekers, who were saddened by the death of their neighbor. She was laid to rest in the Quickle Cemetery above Burnsville. Today, the cemetery is a pleasant place to visit and has a beautiful view of the Burnsville Dam and the impounded waters of the Little Kanawha River.

.Left: Ressie (Vankirk) Willson and her sister Jean Vankirk

Less than two years after his wife was laid to rest in a beautiful spot, Homer Vankirk died of heart disease at the home of his foster daughter, Mrs. Ressie Wilson, on Oil Creek. He, too, shares a spot in this picturesque burial ground. Ollie and Homer lie peacefully together and time, in its passage, has softened the horror of the flash flood of Dumpling Run of 1937.

The home of Ollie and Homer Vankirk on Dumpling Run was taken for construction of I-79 as it descends into Burnsville. The farm is still owned by the Crutchfield family.

below: Ollie's death certificate

Just Over the Bridge

Plans are in progress for a new bridge in Orlando. It will be the third bridge on record. Left: Earl "Bill" Mollahan posed on the current bridge in 1939. Right: Bill on the first recorded bridge. For a better view of the first bridge, Below on the right is the 1907 funeral procession of Michael Rush.

Pat (Morrison) Reckart recently visited her family's property in Orlando. She shares with us memories of the Orlando bridge and the folks she knew growing up here in the late 1940s.


by Pat Reckart

I went to Orlando, the little community where I spent all my growing up years. As I walked over the bridge it brought back many memories, some good and some not so good, I remember me and my friends would stand on the bridge and spit down into the water, and if it cracked, your boy friend loved you, I don’t know if we even had a boy friend, but someone told us to do it, so we did. Now when I see the bridge it is very old and in dire need of some repairs.

Oh I wonder how many footsteps have gone over the bridge, to many to count. It makes me think of all the people that I remember living in Orlando during those years, I’m going to try to remember all I can. I will start with the people that lived up by the cemetery.
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First was Layton Riffle and his wife Bertha and their children, Freda, Ronald, Betty, (Betty and I have been friends since 5th grade) there was Doris and then Buddy.

Patsy's schoolmates included kids from Three Lick, Road Run, McCauley Run etc., in addition to

the children who lived around the town of Orlando. The Orlando students are highlighted:

Top row: Virginia, daughter of Frank & Nina Skinner and the author Patsy Morrison.

2nd row: Bob Gibson

3rd row: Anna Louise Skinner, Virginia's sister and Frank & Nina's daughter

Bottom row: Betty Riffle, Ernestine McNemar and Mildred Morrison

Bill Barnett (our Sunday school teacher) his wife Marie and the children Dale and Betty.
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Left: Dale Barnett in 1932 holding dog Ted and baby sister Betty Jean.

Right: Edith & Oras Stutler's daughters Jane, Mary, Juanita and Virginia on a bad hair day around 1940.

Right, below: John Allman in the 1950s with his grandparents Gaver and Misha (Mills) Allman and John's infant son.
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Then up the hollow lived the Frank Skinner family and his wife Nina. Their children were Charles, Mary Alice, Virginia, Louise, and Edna.

Lee Skinner was Frank's brother, His place was next to Oil Creek. He had built his small home, it looked like a shack really, on tall stilts, so his home would be above any Oil Creek flood.

Then I remember Web Goodwin. He was married to Lucille Bennett. They had a lot of kids I don’t know their names.

Next was Oras and Edith Stutler. The kids I knew were Jane and Bill and their granddaughter Jackie.

Next was Mr. and Mrs Allman and Johnnie in the summer time.

Up on the hill behind them were Lynn and Mildred Riffle and son.

One store in Orlando was Charlie Knight's store and his wife was Mary. They lived in the old Rush house next to the Catholic church.

In the apartment over the store John and Lonie Gibson lived and their kids were John Jr. and Bob and Jimmie.

The other store was own by Bill Conrad and he had a sister Hallie.

Left: Pals Earse Posey and Erza "Pid" Henline in the early 1900s.

Right: John, Jimmy and Bob Gibson with the Conrad store behind them.

Up on the hill behind the store Earse and Winnie Posey lived and the kids I remember were Elwood, Edward, and Kenny. They had some girls but I don’t know their names.

Around the hill was Arch Riffle and his family.

Then next to them lived Ed McNemar and his wife was Necie and their girls were Ernstine and Lulabelle.

Over on the hill across from the store lived Myrtle Morrison and her family, who were Dick, Emogene, Mildred (who has been my best friend ever since were babies) then there was Bud and Eugene.

We lived behind the Catholic Church and our family was my grandparents Tom and Bridget Godfrey and my Mom Nellie Morrison, my brother Jimmie my sister Margie and me Patsy, and later my brother and sister Larry and Nancy Casto.
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Left: Clora Henline with Buck and Opal in the 1930s
Right: Arden Thomas in the CCCs in the 1930s
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Across the creek lived the Henlines: Clora Henline, her children Opal Jeffries and Colman "Buck" Jeffries, and her uncle Heaterhuck. Her Uncle Pid Henline. who lived on Three Lick, often visited them.

On the hill lived Arden Thomas and his wife Tiny their kids were Jetta, Judy, Phil, Carol and later Michael. .

On down the road Newt and Virgie Henline lived.
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Now we will go on the hill beside the school house. Mike and Margurite Moran lived and their kids John, Lee Paul, Joe Eddie and Rose Angela.
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In the house by the Morans' was the parsonage for the U.B. Church with Charles and his wife Naomi Parrish and their son Eugene.
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Left: Mike and Margurite (Sweeney) Moran with baby John, in the 1930s.