Orlando, West Virginia

Miss Thomas

2011-12-21T07:42:00.017-05:00

Virginia Thomas Funkhouser

by David Parmer and Philip Thomas

After I completed my trying third grade experience at Burnsville Grade School in 1951, I thought that the rest of elementary school would be a piece of cake. Miss Georgia Haymond, my venerable third grade teacher, would brook no nonsense or senseless chatter from the roomful of testy students, and had a thick maple paddle to back up her short stature. I came to know the business-end of that well-worn paddle on quite a few occasions, as did most of the boys in her class, and a few of the girls as well.

Needless to say, I was glad to move on to the fourth grade.

I was hoping to be able to sit in the same fourth grade chair that Sue Knight, a cute blonde haired girl on whom I had a secret crush, had sat in. The only problem was- I didn’t know what chair she had sat in. But, being only a fourth grader, a school-boy crush only lasted until the next cute girl passed by. So, in the fall of 1951, I moved on to the fourth grade, only one year to go before I could enter the fifth grade and move to the second floor of the Burnsville school building. What an accomplishment that would be! But first, I had the fourth grade to contend with.

Left: the author David Parmer

Right: Virginia (Thomas) Funkhouser

An Astonishing Sight

She stood military erect beside the teacher’s desk at the front of the room, quietly observing the hordes of bare-footed boys and an equal number of girls who were trying their best to ignore the “smelly” boys. Her hair was coal-black, her lips a bright red, and a lighter shade of red adorned her high cheek bones, a contrast to her olive toned complexion. She wore a dress of a type I had never seen before which must have come from New York or some far-off place. Made of a black silky material, the dress displayed colorful swirls of flowers, almost hypnotic to a fourth grade boy. A wide red leather belt matched her bright red high-heeled shoes. Truly, this fourth grader had never seen a truly chic person, which was of course a word I had never heard of before. The other students appeared to be equally mesmerized by the colorful apparition standing beside the desk in the front of the room. This was my memorable introduction to Miss Thomas, my fourth grade teacher.

The fourth grade room at Burnsville Grade School was a large room, filled with stationary desks, securely fastened to the floor. A large gas burning stove stood in the middle of the room, entirely adequate to heat the room beyond need during the months of winter. Approximately 42 desks surrounded the stove and most all of the desks were filled with urchins, still rambunctious from summer vacation. It took all of about sixty seconds for this wild bunch to be broken, tamed, and put securely in their place, never again to act the rogue, or to test the patience of Miss Thomas. Only once did this writer test her resolve to be the absolute ruler of her domain. A math test containing fifty division problems involving dollars and cents was distributed during the first weeks of class. Since I was a fair math student, I finished the assignment quickly and with the utmost confidence that I had gotten all fifty of the questions correctly answered. I strode to the teacher’s desk, the first to finish the test, and handed it to the unblinking, unimpressed and stoic Miss Thomas. Smugness, you might say, quickly changed to doom when Miss Thomas just as confidently strode to my desk and handed me my test, marked with a big red “O.” No, that was not for “Outstanding” but rather because out of fifty questions, I had gotten zero correct. Her admonition was that if I were dividing dollars and cents, the quotient must include a dollar sign, and, in forgetting this important detail, all of my answers were incorrect. I quickly learned that when Miss Thomas acted, there was to be no reaction other than to express remorse in a silent, non-demonstrative way. I forget just exactly what my ill-timed response was, but I do remember that it was followed by a quick trip to the cloak room and a painful introduction to the fourth grade paddle. After school that day, I sullenly made my way home, thinking about the story I was going to tell my mother about my unjust punishment. After relating to her my tale of woe, much to my surprise, I received another paddling because I had received a paddling at school. Thus, I learned the moral of the story. If you get a paddling at school, don’t say a thing about it at home, because there is always more of that where that came from.

The Rest of the School Year

It’s always good to learn an early lesson, and even better not to repeat the same mistake twice. The expression, “once burned, twice shy” is probably apropos and the remainder of my fourth grade year was uneventful, at least in the sense that I encountered no further tragedies of discipline. I remained enamored of her coal black hair, red lips and red rouged cheeks, and particularly of her dazzling dresses. At the end of that school year, Miss Thomas left Burnsville to teach in northern Virginia. I am sure that when school opened the next school year, the students at her Virginia school were as dazzled as I had been the year before.

A Sequel

A couple of years ago, I called Miss Thomas (now Mrs. Funkhouser) about a story I had been researching about the Henline family of Orlando. She was very pleasant. Her memory was vivid and her recollection of me as her student was very surprising, particularly since her memory of my scholarship was flattering. She never mentioned the math test, or its tragic aftermath. I never raised the subject either. The conversation ended with me having a renewed sense of my worth, particularly since Miss Thomas said it.

Right: Marshal and Virginia (Thomas) Funkhouser at their home in Florida.

Sadly, I was informed a few days ago that Virginia (Thomas) Funkhouser had passed away. Not only had she

been my favorite fourth grade teacher, but she was also my wife’s cousin, so my fealty is owed. Often this writer writes “tongue-in-cheek” and actually as my fourth grade experience evolved from a rocky beginning as the school year ended I was sorry that she would not be my teacher when I climbed the long stairs to the fifth grade classroom to be the student of another icon of Burnsville school history – Mr. Harry Wiant.

A Tribute to Miss Thomas

Philip Thomas, a nephew of Miss Thomas and a former Orlando student who moved to Belington to finish school, forwarded the following biographical tribute to Virginia Thomas Funkhouser which was distributed at her funeral in Alexandria, Virginia.

VIRGINIA KATRINE THOMAS FUNKHOUSER

Virginia Funkhouser was born Virginia Katrine Thomas on March 17, 1917 in Orlando, Braxton County, West Virginia, daughter of Mike and Estelle (Henline) Thomas. Virginia was the youngest of 8 siblings: Harry Gofrey, Sofia Jarvis, Tom

Thomas, Bill Thomas, Owen Thomas, Marie Thomas, and Arden Thomas (all deceased). She had 20 nieces and nephews.

Left: Mike Thomas

Right: Estie Thomas, Margaret Nixon (sisters) and Marie Thomas, Virginia (Thomas) Funkhouser and Sophia Jarvis (daughters of Estie Thomas

Virginia’s father, Mike Thomas, emigrated to the United States from Turkey in 1904. He and his brothers settled in the bus

tling railroad town of Orlando, West Virginia where Mike started out as a pack peddler and later worked in a restaurant. In 1905 he married Estelle Henline, a widow with 2 children. Together they had 6 more children, of which Virginia was the youngest. As a young child, she was known as Kate, short for her middle name, Katrine. During their time in Orlando, her mother was introduced to and joined the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The family later moved to Alton, Upshur County, West Virginia, where Mike opened a pool hall. Mike Thomas died at age 52 in 1925 when Virginia was only 7 years old. During her childhood years, Virginia and her brother, Arden, operated a paper route together. She also had her own AVON route by age 11. The Thomas family moved again to Copen, Braxton County, West Virginia. In her early school years, she walked 4 miles each way along a railroad track from Copen to her school and back. From the first day she went to school and set foot in a classroom, she knew immediately that she wanted to become a school teacher. So at an early age, she set her sights on getting a formal education in order to reach that goal. She graduated from Burnsville High School. Her brothers spent many years working for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. At age 16, Virginia was given some fabric by her uncle Lewis Thomas and sewed dresses for herself and for her sister, Marie, both made without a printed pattern.

Since her family was unable to meet college expenses, Virginia found a way to borrow $100 to start her freshman year at Glenville State College in nearby Glenville, WV. She earned enough education credits in her first year to receive an interim teaching certificate. In 1941, she used that certificate to land her first teaching job at Squires School, a one room schoolhouse in Gem, WV where she taught 16 students at multiple grade levels. She taught during the school year and studied at college over several summers to complete her Bachelor of Science degree at Glenville State College, Glenville, WV in 1946. While at college, she also waited tables at a boarding house in exchange for meals. After teaching one year at Squires School, 1941-42, she went on to 2 years at Hutchinson School in Gem, WV (1942-43-44), then 7 years at Burnsville, WV Graded School from 1944 to 1951.

In Copen, she used a horse to carry children across a creek to get to school. She talked to local officials about the need for a bridge across that creek, and was so convincing that crews were there the very next day making plans for the bridge. A bridge soon was built to accommodate both children and adults.

She met her future husband, Marshall Funkhouser, from south central Virginia. They were secretly married on December 28, 1950 at the home of Marshall’s aunt Seville in Fairfax County, VA without her mother’s knowledge. At first, her mother didn’t care for Mr. Funkhouser; however, that changed as he frequently took her out for ice cream and on other errands. Together, Mr. and Mrs. Funkhouser owned several horses which were stabled and groomed as racing horses near the Charles Town, West Virginia Race Track. Virginia went back to her hometown of Orlando, WV where she was baptized and became a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Shortly thereafter, following a professor’s recommendation, she and Marshall moved in 1951 to northern Virginia and resided in southern Fairfax County, VA. They later moved to Alexandria, where in September 1951 she started her 31 year career as an educator with the City of Alexandria school system while her husband continued his career with the Virginia Electric Power Company. They were each other’s constant companions in over 45 years of marriage beforeMr. Funkh ouser passed away in 1996 in Naples, Florida at their second home where they enjoyed the area and spending time with friends.

She was an avid walker, and upon her retirement, she enjoyed walking in her Alexandria neighborhood every day as the weather and her health would allow. She was well known in her neighborhood by those walks and by chatting with passersby as she tended to her property. She loved to garden, and was known to grow some of the best tomatoes and green peppers on Russell Road in Alexandria.

From 1951, Mrs. Funkhouser was an active member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ. She was a member of this church in Washington, DC and instrumental in founding a new mission and congregation in Springfield, VA. She wanted the best for the children, and saw to it through her benevolent financing that new carpeting and curtains were installed in all the children’s church school classrooms, and that a wonderful playground was provided for the children to have a safe and fun place to play. She was a strong supporter of a children’s Peace Pavilion, initiated by her church denomination at its International Headquarters in Independence, Missouri.

Virginia was a leader and promoter of a nationwide children’s reading program called Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), for many years headed up by Lynda Johnson Robb, who frequently visited schools in the Alexandria school system. In 1991, Mrs. Funkhouser was awarded the Distinguished National Service Award by the RIF Foundation. In 1981, as principal of the James K. Polk Elementary School, she played a part in the production of a National RIF movie. She served as co-President of RIF for Northern Virginia in 1986-87, and remained active as the chairperson for the Alexandria area RIF program for many more years. Virginia even traveled to the White House to represent the interests of that group/foundation before the President of the United States. The nonprofit RIF program helps more than 13 million children across the nation to read with the assistance of more than 120,000 volunteers. Mrs. Funkhouser was passionate in her desire that all children learn to read. It was her gift to them, one that remains with each person throughout his/her life.

Mrs. Funkhouser always stressed the value of getting a good education. Through the years she became quite fond of her church-sponsored college, Graceland University, located in Lamoni, Iowa, between Kansas City and Des Moines. She and Marshall generously supported Graceland, to the point of establishing a scholarship fund in both her and Marshall’s name, a scholarship which continues even today.

Mrs. Funkhouser’s career as an educator in the City of Alexandria began in 1951 as elementary teacher at Mt. Vernon Elementary School, under the leadership of Principal Beatrice Franklin, a pillar among her elementary school peers. Knowing the value of an advanced degree, while teaching during the school year, she used her summers to complete a Master’s Degree at the George Peabody College for Teachers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1955. After four years at Mt. Vernon as a teacher, upon receiving her Master’s, she was promoted to Assistant Principal. The superintendent of the Alexandria Schools, Mr. T.C. Williams, soon recognized Mrs. Funkhouser’s talents and skills, and made the most of her expertise by shifting her to other schools where a strong, energetic leader was needed.

In 1956, Mrs. Funkhouser became Assistant Principal at MacArthur Elementary School. She moved to Minnie Howard Elementary School as Assistant Principal in 1957-58. She then transferred to Prince Street Elementary School as Principal (1958-Feb 60). From Feb. 1960 to 1967, she was Principal at Robert E. Lee Elementary School on Washington Street, near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. From there, she went to Charles Barrett Elementary School as Principal for 6 years (1968-1973). And in 1973, she transferred to James K. Polk Elementary School where she was Principal for 9 years from 1973 to 1982. Several of her teachers from the earlier schools transferred to Polk to continue their professional association with Virginia. Each time she moved to a new school, it was at the request of Mr. T.C. Williams because he had such faith and trust in Virginia’s leadership and management skills to get the best results, from both teachers and students. She was noted for being able to “straighten out” some of the problems being experienced at schools around the Alexandria school system. While she was principal she led the school through the period of desegregating schools and bussing. She was always known as a dedicated, hard worker, revered by her staff. She would regularly get to school quite early, and stay late most days. She established an excellent reputation by demonstrating her leadership in elementary education, both in teaching and in principal positions at several schools in Alexandria. She was a hard taskmaster, but she inspired teachers and students alike, gaining recognition as a superior educator for the Alexandria community.

Mrs. Funkhouser was invited to join Delta Kappa Gamma, an international professional honor society of women educators with over 150,000 members that promotes professional and personal growth of its members and excellence in education. She enjoyed participating in, and supporting, its several functions for many years.

She was truly admired by all who knew her. Well after her retirement from Polk Elementary School and the Alexandria school system in 1982 she continued to be in the forefront of organizations promoting excellence in education, and maintained her contact and close friendships with many of her teachers, secretaries, other principals, and even superintendents in the school system. She often invited her friends to visit at her home where she enjoyed preparing lunch for them. Perhaps her most favorite dish was crab cakes, for which she was always a popular cook. She was also known for being a “sharp” dresser. For many years after retiring, she maintained her membership in and attended the meetings of the Alexandria Retired Teachers Association.

Virginia was such a lover of good books. She especially enjoyed good children’s books, and she considered herself quite privileged to be a close personal friend to Cheryl Barnes, another Alexandria resident who is an accomplished author of children’s books, many of which are in Virginia’s home library. Virginia thoroughly enjoyed Cheryl’s books and would often give them as gifts to young children who were very special to her.

Virginia was an avid Washington Redskins Football Team fan, and together with Marshall, for many years they would attend all of the Redskins home games. They took pride in having a pair of those “hard to come by” Season Tickets, which offered an excellent view of the field at the 45 yard line on the home team’s side. They’ve held that pair of tickets for over 50 years! She even became good friends with Joe Theismann, the once-star quarterback for the Redskins, who accepted her invitation to come visit her and her students at Polk Elementary School on more than one occasion. She always cherished the “number 7” autographed jersey which Joe personally gave to her, proudly displaying it on the wall of the family room in her Alexandria home.

Her leadership and support of education gained her many friendships with persons in leadership positions at the city, state, and national levels. Often she received invitations to attend special banquets in both Washington, DC and northern Virginia. For many years she received Christmas cards and letters from U.S. Senators as well as the President of the United States.

Though she claimed to be shy, others would recount that she was never bashful, never hesitating to make her views well known. There was no doubt where she stood on just about any issue that you might want to discuss with her. She had a keen sense of humor. Professionally and personally, she was an inspiration to all. She will long be remembered as a highly respected leader in the Alexandria school system.

Mrs. Funkhouser left a legacy of high principles, and stressed the need for studying hard and doing well in school in order to succeed in life. She was admired, respected, and loved by so many people whose lives she touched along her own pathway of life. Many people have had success and been enriched in their own lives by being touched somewhere along the way by Virginia Funkhouser.

Orlando Community Reunion

2011-07-31T08:56:00.015-04:00

The 5th annual Orlando Community Reunion will be held on

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

beginning at 10:00 a.m.

The reunion will be held in the same location as last year,

in the large field beyond the Post Office on Cemetery Road.

Plenty of Parking!

Their will also be signs posted.

This is a covered dish affair.

So please bring a lawn chair, your beverage of choice, a covered dish

and lots of memories of the “good ole’ days”.

Once again we will hold the “ penny a vote” King and Queen challenge.

Your candidates this year will be…For Queen, Betty Mitchell and Sue Wymer Posey. The King candidates are Darrell Skinner and Bob Mitchell. If you cannot attend the reunion and wish to cast your “ penny a vote”, contact those individuals directly. There will be voting cans at the registration table the day of the reunion and you may vote there as well.

Let us once again show these folks our support and help to make this a special day for them. All votes must

be turned in by 1:30 p.m. to allow ample time to tally the results. The crowning will take place @ approximately 2:30. The 2010 King and Queen, Bill Beckner and Ethel Doyle will crown the 2011 King and Queen. Winners for the Chinese Auction will be drawn following the crowning of the 2011 King and Queen.

Entertainment for this year’s reunion will be provided by “ Old Glory”. This group consists of Larry Gay, Donald Gay and Eugene Blake. All of these gentlemen have ties to Orlando and we are confident that they will receive a “ down home welcome”. They play a variety of music such as, the 50’s, country and gospel.

There will be door prize drawings throughout the day, so please remember to sign in at the registration table in order to be included in the drawings. There will be games such as corn hole and horseshoes available, etc. under the direction of Nycole Wymer.

The Orlando Reunion Committee will also be selling our cookbooks we printed last year. If your recipe was not included, it was merely because we did not receive it in time. All proceeds from the sale of cookbooks, King/Queen

, Chinese Auction will benefit the 2012 reunion. We want to once again, take this opportunity to say thank you to all attendees and their families for helping to make all the previous reunions so successful. We could not accomplish this without

your attendance and continued support. So thank you again and we are looking forward to seeing

you there.

There will be no alcohol or drugs permitted at this event.

Thank you,

Orlando Community Reunion Officers/Board Members

. . . . . .

Minutes of the 5th Orlando Community Reunion, held Sept 3, 2011

Orlando Holds 5th Community Reunion

The 5th Orlando Community Reunion was held on September 3rd, 2011 in Orlando, WV. President Marilyn Posey welcomed the crowd and then read a list of those who, with Orlando ties, had passed since last year’s reunion. Those names were, Michael Wymer Sr., Jacob Persinger, Donna Skinner, Carol Lou Mick, Veon Singleton, Dawson Lee Skinner, Susan Catherine Blake Gould, Bernice Skinner Mick Blake, Betty Riffle Stout, Ruth Conrad and Kim Huffman. Pres. Posey and board member Charlie Cole sang, “ Who Will Sing For Me”, in honor and memory of those individuals. Mr. Bob Mitchell ( Oil Creek Methodist Church) then delivered the invocation for all in attendance. The pledge was led by our Lewis County House of Delegate representative, Mrs. Peggy Donaldson Smith of Weston. Mina Strader Luzader of the Orlando Methodist Church gave the blessing before the noon meal. We were honored to have television coverage this year from WBOY-Tv in Clarksburg, WV. Pres. Posey outlined the days events which included Chinese Auction, Games, Door Prize drawings, 50/50 raffle, Auction and the annual crowning of the Orlando Community Reunion King/Queen. Mr./Mrs. Raymond Posey, made and donated home-made apple butter to the organization to sell. Delegate Smith donated a beautiful red blanket embossed with Orlando, WV. for the auction. Mrs. Sandy Burgett Conrad also donated a large red vase and mug as auction items. Mrs. Wilma Beckner made and donated many items she had hand-painted, some with the early pictures of Orlando. Several were used for auction items. Pres. Posey introduced the current King and Queen, Bill Beckner and Ethel Doyle and announced the candidates for the 2011 King/Queen. They were Bob Mitchell, Darrell Skinner, Betty Mitchell and Sue Wymer Posey. Each candidate was furnished with a container located at the registration table. All attendees had the opportunity, throughout the day, to vote for their choice of King and Queen. Board member Ann Willey, once again compiled a take home pamphlet containing stories taken from the website, orlandostonesoup.blogspot.com. This site was designed and is owned by Donna Gloff of Michigan who has family ties to Orlando. Please visit the site and read the collection of stories and view very early photos of Orlando and it’s people. Entertainment was provided by “ Old Glory”. This group consists of Larry Gay, his brother Donald Gay and Eugene Blake. All of these gentleman have ties to Orlando also. Pres. Posey and board member Charlie Cole once again sang the song they had written about Orlando a few years ago called “ Take Me Back”, which will be recorded at a later date. At approximately 2:30 p.m. the votes were tallied and President Posey announced the 2011 Orlando Community Reunion King and Queen.

The King was Darrell Skinner and Queen Betty Mitchell. They were crowned by last years royalty. In 2009, Raymond Posey and Ruth Gay were crowned as the first King and Queen of the Orlando Community Reunion.
It was a scramble to disburse all the door prizes that had been donated in order to draw the winning tickets for the 50/50 and the Chinese Auction. The last event of the day was the auction. Board member Charlie Cole served as the auctioneer. Funds raised, donated etc. are utilized for the next years reunion, as well as, helping those in need. In the past, the organization worked with a local church in assisting a family after they had lost their home and belongings in a tragic fire. We also sponsored 4 children, attending Burnsville Grade School, for the Christmas holidays. We are a non-profit organization and desire the attendees and the general public to know that we have fundraisers throughout the year to enable us to help those in need, as well as, sponsor the next years reunion. Those attending the 2011 reunion were: Larry Gay, Donald Gay, Bob Mitchell, Wayne Eagle (TN), Anna Skinner Baker(FL.), Bobbie Skinner Miller, Delegate Peggy Donaldson Smith, 2011 King Darrell Skinner, Sue Wymer Posey, 2009 King Raymond Posey, 2009 Queen Ruth Gay, Ralph Miller, Effie Blake, Eugene Blake, Casey Blake, Forrest McNemar, Millie McNemar, Sondra Dean, Jim Dean, 2011 Queen Betty Mitchell, Claudette Gannon, Randy Strader, Carol Strader (OH), Carl Bee, Rena Bee, Larry Knight, Rose Caltrider(TN), Toni Wymer, George Blake, Barbara Jeffries Parmer, David Parmer, Helen Jeffries, Beverly Perrine, Dale Barnett, 2010 King Bill Beckner (MI), Neal Beckner(OH), Joan Stilner, 2010 Queen Ethel Doyle, Shirley Heater, Deandra Short, Ernie Posey, Don Brown, Sue Brown, Mina Luzader, Sue Kearns, Frank Strader, John Burgett, Junior Strader, Tom Jeffries, Andrew Jeffries, Robert Jeffries, Casper Cutright, Treagan Cutright, Ryan Wentzel, Tisha Cutright, Patty Radabaugh, Patsy Reckhart, Jack Dean, Nathan Lewis, Michelle Smith, Donna McClain, Skip Heater, Peggy Blankenship Heater, Brittany Blake, Jean Skinner Bean, Dick Bean, Jack Skinner, Bob Skinner, Gary Riffle, Tammy Heater McDonald, Tom Rooney, Bob Fletcher, Barbara Fletcher, John Jeffries, Charles Jeffries, Janet Riffle, Don Riffle, Sharon Jeffries, Jean Lantz, Barbara Nelson, Becky Conley, Jarod Conley, Carol Skinner, Kelly Arbogast, Hank Tenney, Orville Skinner, Charles Skinner, Edna Skinner, Carla Mick Conley, Charlie, Jan Morgan, Anna Crim, Christina Crim, Jerry Posey, Vickie Posey, Roger Parker, Cecil Mick, Kylie Rowan, Codey Rowan, Kyran Rowan, Terra Rowan, Melanie Conrad, Brenda Dobbins, Braedan Pullin, Bruce Riffle, Timmy Pasternak, Jeremy Pasternak, Avis Capak (OH) , Richard Skinner (CO), Sonny Wymer, Dochie Wymer, Nycole Wymer, Ann Willey, Jerry Wilson, Dana Ramey, Peggy Ramey, Charlie Cole and Marilyn Posey. The 2012 Orlando Community Reunion will be held on Saturday of Labor Day weekend at the same location. A big thank you to all who participated, attended or aided us in anyway to make this years reunion a huge success. With your continued attendance and support…we will see you next year!

Rosa Kuhl's Obituary

2011-07-08T07:57:00.014-04:00

Rosa Kuhl Benecke(1870 – 1930)
The Braxton Democrat 1930

Transcribed by Lila Powers

It is with deep sorrow that I write of the death of my sister, Rosa H. Kuhl Martin Tenny Benecke, daughter of Christian and Emsey E. Kuhl, who lived for many years at Burnsville, West Virginia and who lie buried in the Burnsville cemetery. Rosa was born August 13, 1870, near old Dekalb, Gilmer county, West Virginia. She grew to womanhood near Cedarville, Gilmer County. On Christmas day, 1890, she was married to “Chub” Martin [Lonzo M. Martin], of Cedarville. To them were born two children, Ada and Badgie. Mr. Martin died September 17, 1893. Badgie died January 27, 1894. Rosa then broke up housekeeping, brought Ada to live with her grandfather Kuhl, and she went out and taught several schools in Webster county, West Virginia. On August 13, 1898 she married Prof. Fielding Tenny of Weston, Lewis county, West Virginia. To this union was born one girl, Mabel Tenny, October 28, 1901. Mr. Tenny died on May 19, 1911 of pneumonia. Again Rosa broke up housekeeping and returned to her father’s home at Burnsville, where she stayed a year with her father and mother, who were now getting very feeble, and needed her badly.

In November, 1913, as we were again going to Florida, Rosa and Mabel, father and mother, came with us. We had brought Ada with us the first trip we came to Florida, and she had married J. C. Enright, of Titusville, and has lived there ever since. A short time after arriving at Titusville, Rosa met and married Mr. Henry Benecke, a German, who upon graduating from a German college in Germany, had come to America and established

a 160 acre homestead in Florida on Merritt Island in Brevard county. Their home was surrounded with Banana Creek, which came up to their lawn and was 300 yards across in front of their door.

Rosa was surrounded by fruits and flowers and vegetables the whole year ‘round, game fish in abundance, birds and all the beauties of nature and the love and adoration of the most wonderful husband any woman could hope to have, with music, literature, and cars and boats. They could go anywhere they pleased by land or water, which they often did, and Rosa remarked on her death bed that her seventeen years in Florida had seeme

d like a sweet short dream. Their combined generosity knew no bounds. While not known as rich people, they always had something to give. The island on which th

ey lived was entered by homesteaders since she went there, and no one ever left their door without something. They gave fruit and game, fish, vegetables, honey, clothing and often money to all the needy, and to the rich visitors and tourists

they gave fruits and flowers, music and entertainment.

Rosa died January 29, 1930 of that dreaded disease for which there seems to be no cure, cancer of the uterus. Had she lived until August 13th, she would have been 60 years old. One who did not know, would have guessed her age at half that number of years, she was so cheerful and girlish looking. She made a profession of religion early in life and joined the Southern Methodist church and lived her profession every day.

She leaves two daughters, Mrs. Ada Enright, of Titusville, Florida, and Miss Mabel Tenny, who was bor

n in Sutton, West Virginia, to mourn her death. Also a most devoted husband, two sisters, one brother and a number of nieces and nephews in West Virginia; two aunts, Mrs. J. E. Morris, of Sutton, West Virginia, and Mrs. Perry Piercy, of Cartersville, Virginia. Such are the few points in the life of one who made no pretensions to be rich or good or set herself for a model for anyone—just lived and worked and loved and gave. “Blessed are the dead who d

ie in the Lord.”

by Rosa’s Sister, Mrs. Cornelia N. Brooks

The Reverend Christian Kuhl's Obituary

2011-07-08T07:56:00.032-04:00

Obituary, Nov. 21, 1918
The Braxton Democrat

Transcribed by Lila Powers

Rev. Christian Kuhl, son of Henry and Catherine Kuhl, was born near Baltimore, Md., October 19, 1839, and departed this life at the home of his daughter, Mrs. C. N. Brooks, October 25, 1918, at 3:30 o’clock a.m. having been sick but nine and one-half days, of paralysis.

He was 79 years and 6 days of age at the time of his death, and his going was that of peace and ease. “The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness.” Prov. 16: 31. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord.” Lev. 19: 32.

Left: Christian Kuhl

Right: Emsey Heater

He was united in marriage to Emsey E. Heater October 28, 1866. To this union were born six children, two boys and four girls. The youngest girl (Martha R.) preceded him to the Spirit Land January 5, 1879, at the age of six years. He leaves to mourn their loss a loving, devoted wife, five children, eight grandchildren, two brothers, one sister, two half sisters and one half brother, and many friends and acquaintances who have loved and revered him for many years. Their children are: Mrs. Cornelia N. Brooks, of Burnsville, W. Va.; Mrs. Addie Nicholson, of Hettie, W. Va.; Mrs. Rosa H. Benecke, of Titusville, Fla.; Luther J. Kuhl, of Frametown, W. Va.; and Robert F. Kuhl, of Clarksburg, W. Va.

He was a man of strong convictions and would stand up for what he thought was right, and would endure all kinds of hardships for its furtherance. He was true to the principles of his convictions. He was a Confederate soldier during the late civil war, having enlisted at Glenville, W. Va. In Company D, Thirty-first Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, under Captain John E. Mitchell, on May 31, 1861, and served the cause for which he fought faithfully, bravely and heroically. He was four times wounded, the last time seriously, on March 25, 1865, in the charge of Ft. Steadman, having been shot in the right shoulder. He was then captured and sent to Lincoln hospital in Washington City, and was there when Lee surrendered, and did not get home until June 1, 1865. He was distinguished in service, having been promoted to the rank of orderly sergeant for meritorious conduct. He was always at his post of duty, was never absent without leave, and was never punished for any offense during the entire war.

Brother Kuhl was converted to the religion of Jesus Christ when about 21 years of age and joined the M. F. Church, South, in 1866. He was a very active church worker. He was licensed to exhort in 1866, was licensed a local preacher in 1888; and was ordained a local deacon September 18, 1892, by Bishop J. C. Keener at Clarksburg, Va. He preached until November 16, 1901, eighty-one sermons. He always helped to support the Gospel and helped his pastors with their revivals. He administered the ordinance of baptism to quite a number of persons, both children and adults, and filled the place of class leader, Sunday-school superintendent, etc., and also married quite a number of couples.

Above, left: Emsey with daughter Cornelia

Above, right: Christian and Emsey (Heater) Kuhl

Below, left: Christian Kuhl’s Family
. . . Front row (L-R): Christian Kuhl, Emsey Ellen Heater Kuhl, Hezekiah Stout, and Rebecca Kuhl Stout.
. . . Second row (L-R): Luther J. Kuhl, Robert F. Kuhl, Rosa H. Kuhl, Lewis Brooks.
. . . Third row (L-R): Elisha A Nicholson, Laura Addie Kuhl Nicholson, Cornelia Kuhl Brooks.
Photo is from Dave Kuhl’s Collection.

He was a farmer by occupation, but had bookselling and colportage as side lines. He would raise his yearly crop, then he would go out and sell books of various kinds. He was colporteur for the American Tract Society and sold $1,116.86 worth of books and distributed $161.18 free. He also supplied many destitute families with cheap Bibles and Testaments from the American Bible Society.

Brother Kuhl was very earnest in his home religion. Shortly after he was married he and his faithful companion set up their family altar and continued it as long as they kept house to themselves. Night and morning would they have prayer, and they led all of their children to be professors of religion, and when the parents were away from home, the children would each take their turn conducting the family worship.

Brother Kuhl marked hymn No. 605 in his church hymnal, saying the words fit him, dated June 5, 1910:

We may say of him:

“Servant of God, well done!

Thy glorious warfare’s past;

The battle’s fought, the race is won,

And thou art crowned at last.”

“Nobly thy course is run,

Splendor is round it.

Bravely thy fight is won,

Victory crowned it.”

“In thy warfare of heaven,

Grown old and hoary,

Thou’rt like the summer sun

Shrouded in glory.”

“I cannot say, and will not say,

That he is dead; he is just away!

With a cheery smile, and a wave of the hand,

He has wandered into an unknown land.

Think of him faring on, as dear

In the love of there as the love of here.”

The above was taken from an obituary written and read at the funeral service of the deceased in the home of his daughter by his pastor, Rev. U. S. G. Allen.

We wish you to publish the above in the Braxton Democrat.

Mrs. Emsey E. Kuhl

To Make an Example of Them

2011-06-18T15:06:00.037-04:00

by Lila Powers

What Happened

Henry Kuhl’s son, Christian, wrote in his memoirs (written in 1911) that, “On the 31st day of May, 1861, there arose a cry. The Abolitionists are coming over from Ohio and elsewhere from the North to invade Virginia (now West Virginia), overrunning our country, destroying property, compelling our men to enlist, taking horses, cattle, arms, ammunitions, and insulting mothers and wives where the men had fled or refugeed. This was too strong a proposition for freemen to sit still and cross arms in a chair and do nothing, or to take sides with. I, with many of my fellow citizens of Gilmer County, gathered all available arms and ammunitions, which in the main consisted of a squirrel rifle, a few rounds of ammunition, sometimes a dirk knife, a revolver, or old fashioned revolver then known by the name of Pepper boxes.”1 These citizens organized a company of infantry volunteers, which afterward became Company D of the 31st Regiment Virginia Volunteer Infantry.

Left, Henry Kuhl and his first wife, Catherine Yeagle. Catherine died in 1854 at the age of 50. Henry and Catherine and several children came to America from the Rheinland.

Right: Henry's second wife, Elizabeth Skidmore.
Right, below: examples of pepper box revolvers

A couple of months later (on or about the first day of August, 1861), a boy around 15 or 16 years old dressed as a Union soldier came to Henry Kuhl’s home. Henry Kuhl, Conrad Kuhl, Hamilton Windon, and John Conrad were out working in Henry’s field when Henry’s wife, Elizabeth, came out to tell the men that the boy had been at the house again. The boy had come to the house the previous day as well. Elizabeth said she had given the boy food, and he was leaving the farm. Two of the men went after him, and brought him back to the field where they confronted him. The details of what actually happened on that summer day in 1861 are unclear, but before the day had ended, the boy had been mortally wounded.

Left, above and right:
These are recent photos of the former Kuhl farm where the event unfolded. They were provided by Marilyn (Cole) Posey. Identified are
1. where the house stood
2. where the boy was killed
3. the stone grave where the boy was found.

Left, below: a map of 3 central WV counties, Braxton, Gilmer and Lewis, illustrating the approximate location of the Kuhl farm.

During the same period in 1861, Companies B, C, and H of the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (O.V.I.) were in the Glenville area looking for “rebels”. Corporal Adams of Company C was shot and seriously wounded there by a “bushwhacker” on the 21st of July. “The whole regiment came out, but failed to discover the rebel after diligent search.”11 The fact that the boy arrived at Henry Kuhl’s farm around this time must have caused some concern, especially when the boy said he was looking for secessionists, good horses, and guns. Two of Henry’s sons were Confederate soldiers, so the men knew they could expect to be treated as the enemy if this i
nformation were to reach the Union soldiers. A Federal Confiscation Act was about to be approved that would authorize the military to take property from Confederate sympathizers.15 These farmers were not secessionists or rebels, but Union soldiers would most likely not find that believable. Recent news of the brutal killing of a local citizen, Thomas Stout, by a Union soldier who had mistaken him for a rebel12, strengthened the farmers’ resolve to be cautious. The War was upon them, and the dangers were real. If they were to let the boy go, what kind of information could he take back to the Union soldiers? Sadly and tragically, the circumstances of the times compelled the men in Henry Kuhl’s field to act in the belief that they were defending their lives and property.

Henry Kuhl’s neighbor, Frederick Gerwig who was loyal to the Union side of the Civil War, testified eight months later at a military tribunal in Charleston, Virginia: “James Putnam had told that Henry Kuhl and Hamilton W. Windon (prisoner) were the two men who killed the boy. Then I and two of my brothers, Mathias and Jake Gerwig, and my father and Daniel Engle went out and looked.”2 Gerwig described how they all made a secretive trip to the boy’s burial site on or near Henry’s farm. They went in the middle of the night in order to avoid being seen. It is doubtful that any of these men had the authority or skill to inspect the site. Gerwig said they dug up and examined the body, which must have destroyed evidence. “. . . the neck bone was all washed away and we could not tell anything hardly.”2

Questions

Sometime after the Gerwigs and Engle examined the body, all men who had been in Henry Kuhl’s field that day (except John Conrad) were brought before Justice of the Peace, William Corley, in Sutton where they were charged with murder. John Conrad had fled from the farm, and was not captured for the trials. It is not clear who reported the boy’s death to the authorities. Why had the military taken control of the prisoners? Why were these men denied the right to a trial by jury? Henry and his son, Conrad, were civilians. Why were they tried and sentenced by a military tribunal? This was 1861, but martial law was not imposed until 1863.13 Why were the trials held in Charleston, far from Sutton? And why were some of the key witnesses not present at the trials? Elizabeth Kuhl had been a witness to what had happened at the house while the men were out working in the field. Two of the children, Henry Jr. (age 17) and Rebecca (age 14) may have also been present. What had provoked the men to go after the boy that day? Had there been some kind of conflict at the house? Were these three witnesses given an opportunity to testify? They were not present at the trials.

Henry Kuhl, his son Conrad, and Hamilton Windon may not have been informed of their legal rights through legal counsel while they were incarcerated. In 1866, the U. S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that military tribunals used to try civilians in any jurisdiction where the civil courts were functioning were unconstitutional.3 Although the ruling came too late to help Henry and his son, it does question the legality of military tribunals in civilian cases during the Civil War. “The guaranty of trial by jury contained in the Constitution was intended for a state of war, as well as a state of peace, and is equally binding upon rulers and people at all times and under all circumstances. . . . A citizen not connected with the military service and a resident in a State where the courts are open and in the proper exercise or their jurisdiction cannot, even when the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is suspended, be tried, convicted, or sentenced otherwise than by the ordinary courts of law.”3 John D. Sutton, in his “History of Braxton County and Central West Virginia” noted that “throughout the war the courts were open, and their authority was respected.”4 He mentions several cases in which citizens were detained by Federal military authorities, and when applied to civil authorities, were released.4

After the Military Commission tried and sentenced the three men in Charleston, Henry Kuhl and Hamilton Windon were executed by public hanging on May 9, 1862 in Sutton, Virginia. Henry’s son, Conrad, was sentenced to be “kept at hard labor, with ball and chain attached to the left ankle, during the war”.2

Those Involved

Who were the individuals involved in this Civil War tragedy—the victim, the accused, the witnesses, the judges? What were their actions and responses in all of this?

“Casper Presler”: Very little is known about the boy whose name might have been Casper Presler. Frederick Gerwig, witness for the prosecution at Henry Kuhl’s trial, stated, “I supposed the boy to be a soldier. The old man [Henry Kuhl] said the boy belonged to Captain Moore’s Company. Capt. Moore was of the 10th Regt. O.V.I. . . . The name of the deceased was not known. He wrote it on a slate at my father’s house as Casper Presler, that he said was his name. He looked like a likely boy. He looked like he might have been fifteen or sixteen years old.”2 Searches through the soldier lists of this regiment as well as the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, did not find a Casper Presler. Conrad Kuhl, witness at Hamilton Windon’s trial, stated “the boy was uniformed like a United States soldier. I did not know his name.”2 Hamilton Windon, witness at Conrad Kuhl’s trial, said, “The boy was a German boy. The old man [Henry Kuhl] talked to him in German.”2 The record of the Military Commission states that the boy was “one of the soldiers of the United States Army whose name is unknown”2. Apparently there had never been an investigation to determine the identity of the boy. His identity was ignored and made irrelevant. The evidence does not seem to support the claim that he was a soldier, which would mean the case should have been tried in a civil court.13 If the boy had been a soldier, where are the military records of his service and his death?

Henry Kuhl: Henry pleaded guilty to the charge of murder. John Morrison, Union soldier, Co. F, 10th Infantry Regiment Virginia 5, witness for the prosecution in Henry Kuhl’s case, stated that he was present when Henry confessed to the Justice of the Peace in Sutton. Morrison said that Henry first denied killing the boy, but later confessed. No written record of this was mentioned in the trial record. Such a record must have existed. We are left wondering why Henry changed his plea. Was he pressured? Was some kind of deal made?

Right: Henry Kuhl

Hamilton W. Windon: Windon pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder. By his own admission, he witnessed the death of the boy soldier, but he said Henry Kuhl killed the boy. Windon was not provided with any kind of defense, but John Morrison and Frederick Gerwig were both witnesses for the prosecution. Henry Kuhl’s son, Conrad, served as witness for the defense, but would have been considered a hostile witness in a normal trial. Conrad said, “Windon and my father (Henry Kuhl) told me afterward that they had killed the boy. . . . The way they told me was that Windon gave the first lick and my father (Henry Kuhl) the second.”2 Windon was tried as a civilian, yet military records show that he was a Confederate soldier, who had enlisted as a Private in Company D, 31st Virginia Regiment Volunteers5. After the trials, Judge Advocate General Cornine responded to the actions of the Military Commission by writing: “Some of these men belonged to the army at the time the crime was committed. This circumstance has given me trouble, but careful investigation and reflection have brought me to the conclusion that the Military Commission had ample justification to try them.”2

John Conrad: The 1860 Federal Census for Braxton County, Virginia, shows a 17-year-old John Conrad living on a farm as one of Christopher Conrad’s children. The 1880 Federal Census shows a John S. Conrad living in Braxton County, and his birth year is 1843, which would have made him a 17 year old youth in 1861. The 1880 record indicates that he was a farm laborer, divorced, and housing three boarders. Was this the John Conrad who fled the farm and escaped the trials? Additional research would be required to answer this question.

Conrad Kuhl: Conrad’s trial was the last case to be tried by the Commission. He pleaded not guilty. He was provided with two witnesses for the prosecution, and none for his defense. The testimony of these two men, however, may have saved Conrad’s life. Union soldier, Private Ezekiel Marple’s testimony was especially helpful. When the Judge Advocate ordered Marple to state what kind of a character the prisoner had in Braxton County, Marple replied, “The people in and about Sutton who know the prisoner say that he is a quiet and peaceable man, that there is not a stain upon his character, and that he is very much afraid of his father who is a very hard man.”2 The other witness, Hamilton W. Windon, testified that Henry Kuhl killed the boy, and Conrad Kuhl had no part in it other than going up on the hill to act as a lookout to see if anyone was coming to the farm.

James Putnam: The testimony of Frederick Gerwig provided hearsay evidence that James Putnam had reported the boy’s death. Gerwig, stated, “It was reported that one James Putnam had told that Henry Kuhl and Hamilton W. Windon (prisoner) were the two men who killed the boy.”2 Elsewhere in the court proceedings, Gerwig said, “Hamilton W. Windon told James Putnam about killing the boy and Putnam let it out.”2 James Putnam enlisted in Company D, Virginia 31st Infantry Regiment on May 31, 1861, and served the Confederacy5 along with two of Henry Kuhl’s sons, Christian and John, who were also in Company D. Putnam was not present during the court proceedings, and was probably with Company D on the battlefield. Was Gerwig’s claim based on fact or rumor?

Frederick Gerwig: Gerwig, a farmer living half a mile from Henry Kuhl’s farm, said he had known Henry for 20 to 23 years. Both men were born in Germany, immigrated to the United States, and settled in Braxton County as neighbors. Gerwig provided damaging testimony against both Henry and Hamilton Windon at their trials. Gerwig does not appear to have enlisted for military service on either side of the Civil War, but indicated in his testimony that he was a Union supporter.

William L. Corley: Corley was Deputy Sheriff of Braxton County when he enlisted in the Confederate Army, Company C, 9th Battalion Infantry Regiment Virginia on May 18, 1861.5 The trial record shows that “Justice Corley in Sutton, Virginia” heard the statements of the men arraigned for the murder of the boy. On May 1, 1862, Corley transferred out of the 9th Regiment and into Company C, 25th Infantry Regiment Virginia.5 This transfer occurred only nine days before Henry Kuhl and Hamilton Windon were executed in Sutton.

John Morrison: Morrison had been Sheriff of Braxton County for a number of years. At the beginning of the Civil War, the Confederate guerilla company known as the “Moccasin Rangers” came to Morrison’s 300 acre farm, burned his home and drove off all his cattle and horses.4 After that, Morrison enlisted at the age of 44 as a Union Private in Company F, 10th Virginia Infantry.6 He served as witness for the prosecution against both Henry Kuhl and Hamilton Windon.

Ezekiel Marple: Marple was a Private in the Union Army, Company A, 10th Regiment, West Virginia Infantry.7 He was 39 years old at the time of the trial, where he served as witness for the prosecution in Conrad Kuhl’s case. As mentioned above, Marple’s testimony probably saved Conrad’s life. According to the 1860 Federal Census, Marple was a farmer with a large family. He died May 21, 1869, only 7 years after the trial.8

Hugh Ewing: Colonel Ewing, President of the Military Commission, was educated at the United States Military Academy, and became a lawyer. Long after the trials, on March 13, 1865, Ewing was promoted to Brevet Major-General “for gallant and meritorious service during the war.”5 His military training may have predisposed him to accept military tribunal justice, a form alien to common law, which provides for trial by jury and the presumption of innocence. In his letter to the Provost Marshal who was in charge of the three prisoners prior to the trials, he ordered the Marshal “to confine, under heavy chains, in the securest dungeon you have in your control, Henry Kuhl, Hamilton W. Windon, and Conrad Kuhl, and to keep them until you are otherwise ordered by proper authority.”9

Above, right: Colonel Hugh Ewing.
Below, right: Colonel George Crook.

George Crook: Crook graduated at West Point in 1852. He was commissioned an officer in Company S, Ohio 36th Infantry Regiment on Sept. 23, 1861.5 He was a member of the Military Commission in Charleston along with Hugh Ewing. Colonel Crook was known for his severe treatment of civilians during the Civil War. He typically followed a no-prisoners policy.16 When his troops encountered heavy guerilla resistance north of Sutton, Braxton County, Virginia in January, 1862, he responded by burning citizens’ houses and towns along his march.16 In one of his reports dated May 24, 1862, he wrote, concerning civilians who shot and wounded some of his soldiers, “The houses which can be fully identified as having been fired from will be burned, and if I can capture any of the parties engaged they will be hung in the street as an example to all such assassins.”10

General Jacob D. Cox: Cox, a lawyer, commanded Union troops in the Kanawha Valley that occupied Charleston, Virginia. In his May 24, 1862 letter to Col. George Crook, he writes, “Your retaliation upon the citizens who fired on your wounded will be approved.”10

Right: General Jacob D. Cox
Right, below: Major General John Fremont

Major General John Fremont: Fremont likewise thought it appropriate to carry out public executions of civilians to make an example of them so that others would know what to expect if they were to fire at Union soldiers. In his General Orders No. 17, dated April 25, 1862, he gave the same order for both Henry Kuhl and Hamilton Windon, stating for each case, “The finding and sentence in the above case are approved and confirmed, and to the end that just example may be made, the sentence will be carried into effect at Suttonville, Braxton Co., Virginia, on Friday, the 9th day of May, 1862, between the hours of 12 M. and 1 P. M.”2 The two men were then moved from Charleston, Virginia, and taken through the wilderness, probably in chains, by Union troops under the command of Colonel George Crook to Sutton where they were publicly executed by hanging.

In Conclusion

What did this effort to make an example of the men through public hanging accomplish? It is difficult to say what effect it had on the population as a whole. It may have intensified resentments in some of the people. It is known to have humiliated innocent members of the Kuhl family. To this day, the location of Henry Kuhl’s grave is unknown, and legends abound. In 1897, following the last public hanging in West Virginia, the body of prisoner John Morgan was placed in a pauper’s coffin, his remains were sent to the home of his wife and were buried on her father’s farm.14 Could Henry’s resting place exist in some secluded area of his farm? Time heals, generations pass, and Society evolves. By the end of the 19th Century, the barbaric spectacle of public executions had been abolished in the state of West Virginia.

Endnotes
1. Memoirs of Christian Kuhl, written in 1911, edited by historian, Roy B. Cook, Charleston, WV., Lila V. Powers collection of family papers.

2. Proceedings of a Military Commission Convened at Charleston, Virginia, March 31-April 3, 1862 in Record Group 153, Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General, file # II-832, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

3. Ex Parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866), Syllabus Supreme Court of the United States, digital copy, Cornell University Law School.

4. John D. Sutton, History of Braxton County and Central West Virginia, McClain Printing Company, Parsons, WV, 1919, p. 191.

5. U. S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009.

6. American Civil War Soldiers [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 1999.

7. U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2007.

8. Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans, 1879-1903 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2007.

9. Union Provost Marshal’s File-Citizens, Two or More Names (Entry 465) in Record Group 109, War Department Collection of Confederate Records, File #885, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

10. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.; Series 1 – Volume 12 (Part 1), Chapter XXIV, p. 807.

11. Lawrence Wilson, Itinerary of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1864, The Neale Publishing Company, New York, 1907, p. 51.

12. Jacob Heater, “Some Civil War Reminiscences”, The Braxton Democrat, March 4, 1920. [Reprinted at orlandostonesoup.blogspot.com]

13. Two websites that refer to the Sept. 15, 1863 Congressionally-authorized martial law: [www.usconstitution.net/consttop_mlaw.html] and [www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/]

14. Stan Bumgardner and Christine Kreiser, “ ‘Thy Brother’s Blood’: Capital Punishment in West Virginia”, West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. IX, No 4 and Vol. X, No. 1, March 1996. [www.wvculture.org/history]

15. The First Confiscation Act, Chap. LX.—An Act to Confiscate Property used for Insurrectionary Purposes, August 6, 1861. U.S., Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations of the United States of America, Vol. 12 (Boston, 1863), p. 319.

16. Kenneth W. Noe, “Exterminating Savages”, The Civil War in Appalachia, Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1997, pp. 115-116.

. . . . .

Notes

a. To the right is Henry Kuhl's (spelled "Cool" here) land grant for his property at the head of Butcher's Run, which is illustrated above. Click oh the image to open a larger copy of the document.

b. Henry Kuhl's farm at the head of Butcher's Run is a 40 mile ride from Orlando; much closer "as the crow flies." However. many of his descendents settled in the Orlando area. Henry Kuhl's grandson Henry Kuhl/Cole was in the Three Lick area and Henry Kuhl's son Christian Kuhl's farm was at the tip of Gilmer County where it meets Braxton and Lewis Counties.

c. The photograph of Henry and Catherine (Yeagle) Kuhl and of Elizabeth (Skidmore) Kuhl were taken from the Wilt/James/Brewer/Kuhl family tree belonging to jnnfbl91, a descendent of Conrad "Koanard" Kuhl who was imprisoned for the duration of the war for his part in killing the young Union man.

From Ireland to Tulley Ridge: The Tulley Family

2011-01-05T07:56:00.014-05:00

by David Parmer

Bridget Flyn Tulley

The old lady of Erin quietly passed away at her home on Tulley Ridge near Orlando in her 95th year. Her time ended so quietly it was almost that she just ceased to exist, rather than die. She had last seen the green hills of Galway in her native Ireland over seventy years before she took her last breath on earth.
Bridget Flyn Tulley came to America around 1848 with her husband John Tulley, her sons, Patrick and John, and her daughter, Bridget. She brought fifteen more children into life after her arrival in America. She had weathered the travails of famine in her native country, the raging waters of the north Atlantic, and the uncertainties of a new land, including Civil War. She had seen illness and some of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren die while young. She had seen daughters marry and sons leave home for other, more promising parts of the country, never to be seen again. She had lived a full and productive life and a life of faith.

Right: the gravestone of Bridget (Flyn) and John Tulley.

Father Thomas Quirk sprinkled the holy water at the door of the church the evening before the vigil and reception of her mortal remains. At her funeral service the following morning the venerable parish priest offered up his prayer for the dead, as he had for her husband John, fifteen years before. Bridget Flyn Tulley, born on the soil of Ireland, was laid to rest in St. Bridget’s, the quiet Goosepen cemetery of her namesake, on a cold day in November 1911, joining her husband who had died in 1896.

This story is about how the Tulley family came to Lewis County and the Orlando area. A second installment of the story, to come later, will discuss the venerable life of Martin P. “Sandy” Tulley of Tulley Ridge.

The Western Maryland Hills

Most of the Irish immigrants to America were farmers. However, the Gaelic tillers of the soil were versatile when it came to making a living. In Ireland, as well as being farmers, they were roof thatchers, peat cutters, blacksmiths, carpenters and stonecutters, in addition to holding many other occupations. Above all, most of the natives of Ireland who came to America were poor. Since most productive land was not available to those without the money to buy it, even in a land rich country such as America, many of the Irish immigrants migrated to areas of cheap land which had been passed over by those settlers seeking richer land to the west. In the mid-1800’s, western Maryland was an area in which land could be bought cheaply since it was steep, hilly, and freezing cold in the winter. Consequently, many Irish men and women were drawn there by economic necessity.

Because the well-watered steep, hilly terrain was in many ways similar to the land they had left in Ireland, Irish immigrants who arrived in summer to this land felt at home and immediately began clearing the steep hills of the virgin timber. However, not all of the immigrant Irishmen chose farming. Many found work building the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad which was snaking westward from Baltimore or digging the great canal being built from Washington, D. C. to the west.

The stay of many Irish immigrants in western Maryland was brief. One feature of western Maryland quite unlike Ireland was the long, harsh winter climate. Deep snows, sub-zero temperatures and freezing rains were for the most part unknown in Ireland and the Irish immigrants had trouble adjusting to those unforgiving conditions. As a result, many Irish families began to look for opportunities in other areas.

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

In the early 1850’s the Virginia General Assembly approved the building of an insane asylum in the Lewis County town of Weston. The lunatic asylum, to be built of quarried sandstone, was to be one of the largest buildings in the United States and construction began in the late 1850’s. The promise of long term jobs in a milder climate than that of the wilds of western Maryland led the Tulley and closely- associated Moran families, as well as other Irish families, to abandon their farms in the Old Line State and move to the New Dominion. The lure of jobs which would last for several years in the building of a gigantic sandstone building led many of the Irish of Garrett County, Maryland to change their professions from farming to stonemasonry and leave for Lewis County, Virginia. Also, land was as cheap in Lewis County as it was in Garrett County, and perhaps, most importantly, large land speculators were willing to sell to the industrious Irish on a payment plan.

Left, above: the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston.
Left, below: George Jackson Arnold

George Jackson Arnold, Lewis County Land Broker

One of the early land speculators of Lewis County was George Jackson Arnold. The Arnold and Jackson families were early prominent settlers in Lewis County. Astute politicians with political connections in Richmond, the Arnold and Jackson families were granted thousands of acres in Lewis County by the politicians in the Virginia legislature. At the time, the Commonwealth was still land rich in terms of acreage, especially in the western counties which settlers were passing over on their way to the more fertile and tillable soils of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa.

Left: George Jackson Arnold

George Jackson Arnold was born of wealthy parents in 1816 in Collins Settlement District. An early teacher, Arnold soon became acutely aware that the law was the profession which promised greater financial rewards. By 1848, Arnold had become a lawyer and was serving as the Prosecuting Attorney of Lewis County and would later become a legislator in Richmond. With his political connections, Arnold acquired numerous land grants in his home county but the only problem was to find buyers for the hilly lands. The authorization of the construction of the Lunatic Asylum in Weston was heaven-sent as far as the sale of parcels from the land grants was concerned. Poor Irish immigrants flocked to Weston to work on the construction of the Asylum and were in need of land to resume farming when the stonemasonry work on the Asylum was finished. Many Irish immigrants were also employed in the construction of the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike and were similarly interested in owning land which could be bought cheaply. Since the Irish were without ready money to buy land outright, Arnold astutely sold parcels from his land grants to the Irish on a contract calling for a down payment and periodic payments thereafter. As soon as the purchase price for the land was completely paid, Arnold would then issue a deed for the land. If the payments were not completely made, Arnold could keep what had been paid without obligation to the original purchaser, and then sell the land to someone else. Although his methods may be seen as somewhat exploitative, Arnold had what the Irish wanted, and was willing to sell the land on terms the buyers could afford to pay.

The Tulley Family of Lewis County
Michael Tulley and Sarah “Sally” Tulley,
Their Other Sons, Michael and Martin, and
Their Daughters Margaret and Catherine

Other members of the Tulley family from Roscommon County, Ireland came to America at the same time as Bridget (Flyn) Tulley and John Tulley, whose deaths are reported above. Michael Tulley and his wife Sarah “Sally” Tulley, the parents of John Tulley and parents-in-law of Bridget (Flyn) Tulley, were among those immigrants. In addition to their son John, Michael and Sarah Tulley also came to America with two other sons, Michael and Martin, their youngest daughter Margaret, and their oldest daughter Catherine who had married Patrick Moran while still living in Ireland. Catherine was widowed in 1855 shortly after arriving in America and later remarried Michael Farrell.

The records of immigration to America are replete with immigrants by the name of Tulley (also spelled Tully) and it is therefore difficult to determine the exact date of the arrival of Orlando’s Tulley family to America. Tulley is a common Irish surname as are the Christian names of John, Michael, Martin, Catherine and Sarah.

The earliest official record of a Tulley living in Lewis County which could be found by this writer was a record of marriage in 1852 of Margaret Tulley (the sister-in-law of Bridget (Flyn) Tulley) to Michael Feeney. Other records indicate that in 1856 Michael Tulley married Bridget Broadrick and in 1857 Mary Tulley married Thomas Gafney.

Records also show that Michael and Sarah Tulley were living in the Westernport, Maryland area in the late 1840’s because they were enumerated there in the 1850 census and living next door to their daughter Catherine and her husband Patrick Moran. Also living in the Moran household was Margaret Tulley, the daughter of Michael and Sarah Tulley and sister of Catherine (Tulley) Moran. So, between 1850 and 1852, the year Margaret Tulley became betrothed to Michael Feeney, the Tulley family had relocated to Lewis County.

In 1867, George Jackson Arnold deeded 184 acres to John Tulley, husband of Bridget (Flyn) Tulley, and 43 acres to Martin Tulley on the head of Ben’s Run. John and Martin were both sons of Michael and Sarah Tulley. At the time John bought his land, he had been a resident of Lewis County for at least ten years because he had filed papers for citizenship in Lewis County in 1857. One might assume that he had been paying for his land by installments during this interim period before he acquired his deed. The Moran, Sweeney, and Feeney families, all allied with the Tulley family by marriage, also acquired land in the nearby countryside around this same time.

1860 Census

The 1860 census of Lewis County reveals that John Tulley, the son of Michael and Sarah “Sally” Tulley, was working as a laborer on the asylum in Weston. He was 40 years of age, as was his wife, the former Bridget Flynn. Of their five children, Patrick, aged 12, Bridget, aged 16 and John Jr., aged 9, were shown as being born in Ireland. Their two younger children, James, aged 2 and William, one month old, were born in Virginia.

John’s older brother Michael, aged 45, and married to the former Bridget Broadrick, was also listed as a laborer in Weston. He lived close to his niece, Mary and her husband Thomas Gafney, and their daughter Ellen. Mary was the daughter of John Tulley. Thomas was also a laborer on the asylum construction.

Martin Tulley, the younger brother of John and Michael, could not be found in the 1860 census, and must have been overlooked by the census enumerator because we know he owned land on Tulley Ridge as early as 1857.

In 1860,John, Michael, and Martin’s widowed mother, Sarah, also known as “Sally,” were living on John’s farm on Tulley Ridge, near Sally’s daughter Margaret and her son-in-law Michael Feeney, and their three children Thomas, John and Patrick, all under the age of 7 and born in Virginia. Other Irish families living nearby were John Nestor, John Gallagher, Cecilia McNeal, James McNeal, Michael Nihan, Daniel Ford, Owen Mobely, Michael Loghan, Thomas Cuff, Michael McDonald, John Gallighan, Michael Rush, Michael Dolan, Stephen Cox, and James McLaughlin.

1870 Census

By 1870, the Civil War was over and the construction of the asylum in Weston had been essentially completed. The Irish stonemasons and laborers involved in the construction of the asylum had returned to farming, many owning farms near Orlando. In addition to the Tulley family and their related families of Morans, Feeneys and Gafneys, other Irish families had flocked to the Three Lick and Indian Fork areas. Scattered among the native Skinners, Henlines, Riffles, and Blakes were many more Irish families which had come to the area since the 1860 census was taken. Last names of these Irish families were Hussey, Wallace, Hopkins, Welsh, Mellet, Plunkett, McGann, Gilooley, Mulvaney, Duvana, Dolan, Keegan, Nolan, Doonan, King, Berren, Hart, Reynolds, Kelly, Mullady, Copley, Collins, Murphy, Cummins, Rafferty, Kinney, Murray, Finnerty, Gavin, White, Hayden, McAnany, Ryan, Malia, Bohen, Harlow, Carroll, Fitzpatrick, Cayden, Rush, Loughen, Faley, Quinn, Farrell, and Sweeney. From this partial listing of the Irish families living near Orlando during the 1870’s it is obvious that the Tulley family did not lack for the brotherhood of fellow Catholics.

Abandonment of the Soil

The children of Irish immigrants were quick to learn that there were better ways of making a living than farming which is dependent on the vagaries of the weather and the voracious appetites of insects. The cold, snow, and freezing rain of winter, the heat and drought of summer, and the incessant insects and plant diseases caused crops to fail. Livestock could mysteriously fall lame, die or become infected with tuberculosis. Foxes, possums and weasels in search of a meal could kill an entire poultry flock overnight. The ever present tax collector was always on the door step and exercised no sympathy for farmers stricken with bad luck. Many an Irish mother cried at the sound of “Sold” at the tax sales on the courthouse steps.
As a consequence of the testy tribulations of farming, many of the second generation Tulley children who settled Tulley Ridge in the 1870’s abandoned rural life and tilling the soil as a means of earning a living. Of the large Tulley family who settled on Tulley Ridge, by the early 1900’s only Sandy Tulley remained, his male siblings having taken up city life as an alternative to the uncertain and back-breaking life of a farmer.

Right: M.P. (Sandy) Tulley, Elizabeth (Greene) Tulley, Marguerite and Mary, Charlie, Genevieve and Joe.

Coley and Leona Heater

2010-10-27T08:22:00.016-04:00

by Marcia (Heater) Conrad

When Coleman Albert Heater and Leona Beatrice Riffle married in 1938, times were tough. The country was still suffering from the Great Depression; there was little money and no jobs. Odds were definitely against them, but they were both determined and determination can move mountains.

Left: Leona and Coleman in 1965.
Right, below: Coleman "Coley" Heater in 1970.
Left, below: Leona with son-in-law Dave Conrad, 1980.

Coley

Coleman (Coley) was born in 1905 at Cowen, the son of Lorenzo Dow and Sarah (Wimer) Heater. He was the seventh child of this union, with three to come after him. In addition, Lorenzo Dow had six grown children by his first marriage to Emily Cox. Coley was one of two red-haired sons. He had a ruddy complexion and cornflower blue eyes which he passed to all of his progeny. As he was both a gentle man and a gentleman, he always had something good to say about everyone. He laughed a lot and found humor in everyday living.

Leona

Coley met Leona Riffle while visiting his sister and her husband, Daisy and Charlie Blake on Clover Fork. Leona was the fourth daughter and sixth child of Newton and Virginia (Riffle) Riffle. We’ve all heard the adage that opposites attract, and so it must have been with Coley and Leona. Leona was born on December 31, 1916 just an hour before midnight. She often quipped that if she’d been born an hour later she would have been a whole year younger. Her hair was black and her dark brown eyes were bright and flashing. She was solemn and fierce, and no one wanted to incur the wrath of Leona. Nicknamed “Pooch” for some unknown reason—at least not one that she ever told her children—Leona was both domineering and condescending. In spite of their differences, Leona and Coley developed a relationship and understanding that served them until he preceded her in death in 1985.

Ben’s Run

In 1938, while the country was still floundering in the Great Depression, Coley and Leona married and moved to a log house and thirty acres that Coley had purchased a few years earlier from Nancy McCray. He paid for the property with some money earned from selling livestock and doing farm work for the family. The property was located on Ben’s Run. Making their home with the newlyweds were Coley’s mother, Sarah (Wimer) Heater, and his older sister, “Birdie” and her three children. And, of course, it wasn’t long before the pitter-patter of little feet found its way to the two story log cabin. Coleman and Leona had five children: Erma Lou, Earl Thomas, Brenda Sue, Sarah Bell, and Marcia Louise.
Right: map shows Orlando at the bottom, Oil Creek's tributaries in gold and Ben's Run in red at the top.
Left: Heater girls in 1953.

The Blake – Wiant House

The family lived in their little log house until 1956. With oldest daughter Erma off in Huntington, Leona, Coley and the four remaining children moved to the Edna Wiant property about a half mile away. The house was much bigger, and had a special added feature—electricity. The family got their first television set and was one of the first families on Ben’s Run to have one. On Saturday nights, the house would be filled with friends and neighbors who came to watch such treats at the Lawrence Welk show and Saturday Night Wrestling.

Prosperity never lived at the Heater household, but the children never lacked for anything they needed. They were fastidiously clean; Leona scrubbed the clothes on a washboard and used a wringer washer. A talented seamstress, Leona created attractive clothing for her daughters. In fact, she could look at a sketch in a magazine and fashion a dress from the picture. Some of the cloth came from feed sacks, and a treadle machine that belonged to her mother-in-law saw the family through those childhood years. Years later, Leona got an electric machine and was thrilled at the all the new and fancy things she could do.

Parental Goals

Different as they were, Coley and Leona agreed on one thing—what they wanted for their children—all of whom who were as different as their parents. To be respectful and respectable, to have good work ethics and good moral values were the goals they had for their children and to this end they worked together throughout their lifetimes. They never faltered in their determination to educate and nurture their children. Coley always believed in teaching the children to think outside the box. Disagreement with his opinion was fine, as long as the children could justify their thinking. In fact, he enjoyed the banter and opinions of his children. However, Leona was always right, and no one, not even Coley, dared disagree too much with her.

Left: Erma. Earl, Brenda and puppy.

Politics

Although both were staunch Democrats, Coley could be persuaded to vote across party lines; Leona would have died before she would have voted Republican. Son Earl recalls that once, when Coley was working in the coal mines in Pennsylvania, he was given money by the company to vote Republican. He took the money, then voted a straight Democrat ticket, saying that his vote was not for sale.

Lye Soap

Living so far from town, the family made use of all the aspects of farm life for necessities. One such necessity was laundry detergent. After the hogs were butchered and the meat was cured and put away, Leona, assisted by her children when they were old enough, would render the fat for both lard and for lye soap.

Right: lye soap cooling in the pot.

Cooked outside in a big black kettle, the soap took hours of labor-intensive stirring. Leona’s recipe was as follows: Use about 30 pounds of lard, four gallons of water and seven or eight cans of Red Devil Lye. Heat the lard until melted. While the lard melts, pour the lye slowly into the cold water—never pour the water into the lye. The water will become hot. Let it cool until the lye water and the melted lard are about the same temperature and then pour the lye water into the lard. Be prepared to stir for a long time until the mixture starts to become creamy and begins to thicken. Pour into pans and cover with a cloth for 24 hours, then cut into bars. This soap can be used for anything from bathing dirty children to washing clothes.

Author’s Note: In the early 1990s, I was a librarian in Orange, Texas. One day a local professor and naturalist called the library wanting a recipe for lye soap. I couldn’t find one, so I did the next best thing: I called my mother, Leona Heater, and asked for her recipe, which of course, she gave me. I passed it along and the professor made his lye soap, dubbing it Marcia’s Mother’s Lye Soap. While Leona made lye soap in the early years out of necessity, he wanted to make it just to prove he could have been a pioneer! My sister Brenda and I also demonstrated how to make made lye soap at Fort New Salem in Salem, West Virginia.

Butchering Time on Ben’s Run

As one might expect, being so far away from town and so short of money, the family couldn’t run to the store for meat for supper. Yet meat was a staple on the Heater table. Every year, the family raised several hogs to be butchered in the fall, usually around Thanksgiving. Butchering time was a busy time, as well as a social gathering. Many friends and relatives showed up to help slaughter, cut up and process the hogs. During hog-killing time, there was usually a Tulley or two, several more Heaters, and various other neighbors came to lend a hand. While the womenfolk cooked and baked to feed the help, the men would heat tubs of water outside. The hogs would be split wide open and dipped in the boiling water. When the hogs came out of the water, the men would scrape the hair off the hide. Every piece of the hog was used for something. The feet were pickled in a big stone jar; the fat was used for cracklings and rendered for lard and soap. Even the tail was a treat for Leona, and the children got to play with the inflated bladder. The cut-up meat was cured with salt or sugar for preservation since freezers were rare appliances in those mid-century country homes.

Coley was the neighborhood meat-cutter. Many neighbors called upon him during hot-butchering and deer season to cut up the meat and he was always glad to lend a hand.

Education

Neither Coley nor Leona had much formal education; however both were keenly intelligent. Leona had finished only the eighth grade and Coley had less formal education than that. Coley took several months worth of adult education classes at Ben’s Run School sometime after World War II. Both were voracious readers. Coley could devour a Zane Grey book and always thought his children should read “the Good Book.” Leona liked romance and movie magazines. When their children were assigned a book to read at school, they read it too. Consequently, they developed a vocabulary beyond their level of education. Once I encountered the name “Jose” in something I was reading. My mother told me that the word was actually pronounced “Hos-ay.” I was impressed when I went to school the next day and was the only one who knew how to pronounce that word.

Coley could calculate in his head better than most people could with a machine. He could tell you how much lumber was needed to complete a project without using a pencil and paper. He could determine how much he needed to plant in order to produce a certain amount of harvest. He always knew to the penny how much was in his checking account without ever balancing the checkbook or using a calculator.

Because they had not had the advantage of education themselves, they set a good education as a priority for each of their children. There were always books in the house, some courtesy of Ernestine Tulley, a neighbor and good friend, who also made it her mission to oversee the Heater children’s education. Getting an education while living in a remote area of Lewis county wasn’t an easy mission, but it never occurred to Coley and Leona that it couldn’t be done, despite the fact that their children often tried their resolve.

My oldest sister, Erma, recalls that one day when she was in second grade, she started off to school as usual. However, it was a beautiful day and she decided that she would enjoy staying home more than going to school, so she turned herself around and went back home. When she got home, Leona met her in the front yard and asked “What are you doing home?” Erma replied that she thought that the day was too pretty to go to school. Needless to say, Leona didn’t agree, and since Erma was a smart little girl, she knew not to challenge her mother too much. She didn’t try skipping school again. Her parents’ resolve to keep her in school paid off handsomely. She has traveled the world and worked in many professional areas.

Earl Thomas, the only boy in the Heater tribe, decided that he didn’t need to finish high school. He came home one day, all of his books in tow, saying that he’d decided to quit school. He didn’t like his teachers, they didn’t like him, and he didn’t need an education, he averred. Leona calmly said that if he didn’t get on the bus the next morning willingly, she would switch him all the way to the bus stop—and she would have done just that. Of course, Earl was on the bus the next day and finished high school. He is today a college graduate, retired from the military with more than twenty years of service, and the father of two military daughters.

I admit that I too tried Mom’s patience. Once while I was in second grade, I decided that I was too ill to go to school. I don’t recall what my ailment was supposed to have been, but my mother patiently listened while her youngest told her about all the ailments that precluded her presence at school that day and she allowed me to stay home. After awhile, I decided that I felt better, and that I should go out to play. Mom saw things differently. Sentenced to stay in bed all day, deprived of tv, radio, books, and toys, I soon decided that staying home wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I never missed another day of school. I guess I turned out to be my mother’s pride and joy and her biggest disappointment—I am after all, in my mother’s words “only a teacher.” She had wanted me to become a nurse and I disappointed her tremendously by going into the education field.

Left: Coley with the author.

All of the Heater children attended Ben’s Run School, about a half mile away from their home. Of course, there was no bus service to Ben’s Run and they walked through rain, snow, heat, and cold, but they always made it to school. The four oldest of the Heater children attended Ben’s Run for grades 1-8. The youngest went to Ben’s Run for grades 1-6. When they were old enough to go to high school, they walked from their home to Heath’s store at the junction of Goosepen Road and Indian Fork Road to catch the bus for the sixteen-mile-ride to Weston to High School.

Once someone asked Coley why he spent so much time and money educating girls—they would only get married and have babies anyway, so why bother. Without even thinking, he replied “Well, maybe that’s so, but maybe they’ll know more about how to take care of those babies.” While all of the Heater girls had children, they also became career women. Oldest daughter Erma has worked in the medical field, the legal field, and the hotel industry, as well as accompanying husband, Bo Bounds, for two stints in Saudi Arabia. Brenda and Sarah are both semi-retired nurses, and youngest daughter Marcia is a teacher, although she has also been a librarian and a museum docent.

Right: Leona and Coley's children, 2004.
Left: Leona and Coley's grandchildren, 2004.

While Coleman and Leona both wanted great things for their brood, they were determined that their children would be respectful and respectable. Their children were taught the value of hard work and always had to help with the work around the farm. Hoeing corn and planting potatoes were among the chores the children were taught to do at an early age. Certainly the girls had to help in the kitchen and around the house, learning to cook and can the vegetables and fruits that saw the family through long winters and tough times.

Along with hard work, though, there was time to play. Coley and Leona were always up for a baseball game with their children; pitching horseshoes, badminton, and tag were also forms of recreation on the farm.

Discipline was largely Leona’s forte, and “spare the rod and spoil the child” was definitely her mantra. Once when Earl was a youngster, he, like most young boys, liked to play cowboys and Indians. His horse was Leona’s beautiful and much-loved snowball bush. She warned him many times to stay out of the bush, but, boys being boys, he once again rode the supple branches of the snowball bush into the badlands of his imagination. When Leona discovered her bush was again being used a horse, she got a switch prepared to use on her son. He decided that he could outrun her. He took off down the dirt road and jumped into the deep watering hole in the creek, laughing all the way, thinking he had avoided his mother’s wrath. He didn’t count on Leona’s determination, however; she waded right into the water hole with him. The snowball bush recovered, and so did Earl.

The End of the Line

As they say, all good things must end. Coleman succumbed to cancer in 1985. At the time of his death, in addition to five children and their spouses, he was adored by fifteen grandchildren. More than 300 people signed the guest register at his funeral, and he was missed by countless people in Lewis, Braxton, and Gilmer counties. I never knew anyone who ever had a problem with my father. He was a man who would never have turned his back on a neighbor or a stranger.

Leona outlived her beloved Coley by more than twenty years. She died in 2005, only weeks short of her 90th birthday. Now there was another generation, as sixteen great-grandchildren said goodbye to “Grandma Pooch.”

A Photo, Film and Bio of Christian Kuhl (1839-1918)

2010-10-21T08:15:00.026-04:00

by David Kuhl

To the right is Christian Kuhl displaying his blood stained and bullet riddled CSA battle jacket at Gettysburg in 1913.

This picture of Christian Kuhl is preserved by the Library of Congress. The picture was located by a total stranger who saw the name in reverse on the glass plate and searched for Christian on the Internet. He found where I had published Christian’s Civil War memoirs written in 1911, he e-mailed a link to the image. My second cousin, Lila Powers, who is also a great grandchild of Christian, observed that this 97 year old image is so clear that you can see the individual hairs on Christian’s wrist. Readers are encouraged to pull up the original photo.

The Film

Above is a video of Christian Kuhl wearing his Civil War uniform at Gettysburg in 1913. It shows Christian wearing his CSA battle jacket. Note the bullet hole in the right shoulder at the point of the shoulder. Also note the bullet hole (large tear) in the center of the back. This video is from

near the end of the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War. Thanks to my youngest son James Christian Kuhl for locating this video.

Down the left side are scenes of four of the battles in which Christian took part:

top: Pickett's Charge, depicted by contemporary artist

Don Troiani

second: Battle of Petersburg

third: an aerial view of the Battle of Fort Stedman

bottom: Siltington Hill, where the Battle of McDowell took place, as it looks today.
.

In 1913, the State of Pennsylvania and the US Government sponsored the 50 year reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg which was fought in July 1863. 50,000 soldiers who fought on both sides attended. Christian’s unit served in Pickett’s Charge. The still picture and the video were both produced in 1913. The video continues with the 75th anniversary in 1938.

Christian was wearing this jacket on March 25, 1865 during the Battle of Petersburg when he was shot and captured. According to records preserved by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the US Army surgeon who treated Christian stated that Christian’s wounds consisted of “a mini ball entering at the head of the humorous and exiting near the first dorsal – a severe flesh wound”. Christian was taken to City Point, VA (now Hopewell) then placed aboard the hospital steamer the State of Maine for a trip down the James River and then up the Potomac River to Washington, D.C. where he was treated at Lincoln Army Hospital. He signed the Oath of Allegiance on June 10 and was released on June 14, 1865. The siege of Petersburg had degraded to trench warfare.

The Biography

As acting company commander of Company D of the 31st Virginia Infantry Regiment CSA, “The Gilmer Rifles”, 24 year old First Sergeant Christian Kuhl had been ordered to take Fort Stedman. He led his men across three lines of entrenched federal troops and took the fort. When promised support did not arrive, he was attempting to lead his men back to CSA lines

when he was shot and captured. This was the last of his four wounds suffered during the war and the last of the 33 battles which he fought in the war.

A description of Christian’s wounds is also published in the regimental history series for the 31rst Virginia Infantry Regiment CSA. These books were published in Lynchburg, VA. A copy is available in the Biloxi, MS library.

Christian told his grandchildren about his wounds and wanted them to be sure that they understood that he was shot while he was charging and that he was not shot in the back while running away.

On May 31, 1861, 21-year old Christian and his 19-year old brother John went to Glenville where they enlisted under Methodist Minister John Elam Mitchell in the CSA. Did they know what they were getting into? Or were they just caught up in the moment and perhaps just getting away from home? Both paid dearly for this decision.

Christian's younger brother John, serving in the same CSA company, was mortally wounded at the Battle of McDowell on May 8, 1862. His father Henry Kuhl was hung by the Yankees on May 9, 1862. Two brothers, William and Henry, served the Union during the Civil War. Christian told his oldest daughter that he lost his father, a brother and everything he owned during the war. After the war, Christian and his brother Conrad, with others, built the Methodist Church, Jobs Temple using hand hewn logs. This church is on the National Register of Historic Buildings, is still in use and is located near the intersection of Job Run and the Little Kanawha River 9.5 miles west of Glenville, WV on Route 5.

According to his family Bible and family tradition, Christian was born October 19, 1839 in Baltimore, MD a few weeks after his family arrived from Prussia (now Germany).
There is some question about when the family arrived and from where with different information being stated by different researchers.

After the war, Christian was licensed to preach and was ordained in the Methodist Church. He also farmed and sold books to earn a living. He and his wife Emsey (Heater) Kuhl had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood and three of whom have living descendants.

According to the family Bible, Christian died October 25, 1918 at age 79, in Burnsville, WV from the Spanish flu. He and his wife Emsey (Heater) Kuhl are buried in the K of P Cemetery in Burnsville.

One grandson was killed in WW II. A grandson of his brother Conrad and a son of his half-brother George were also killed in WW II. Their names are all immortalized on the Veterans Memorial in Charleston, WV.
.

Kuhl Family History on Line

Many other relatives fought in WW II and subsequent wars. One of our goals as a family is to ensure that each of our war heroes is honored with a biography on the West Virginia Veterans' Memorial site.

We are also building a family website

Outlines of the family are provided at:

Henry Kuhl (1802-1862)

Henry J. Kuhl/Cole (1846-1919)

Henry Harrison Kuhl/Cole (1860-1926)

Mariah (Kuhl) Rutherford (1862-1936) #26

Alice (Kuhl) Rutherford (1857-1947) #28
Descendants of Rebecca Kuhl Stout (1849-1928) are currently not displayed on that website. I have a copy of the previous website where they were displayed if you want to see it.

The Kuhl Family Today

We are also collecting e-mail addresses for a free family newsletter by e-mail. The newsletter will be distributed using the bcc feature to protect your address from spam.

The Kuhl family has held an annual reunion in Glenville, WV in August every year since 1938 with the exception of two war years when gasoline was rationed.

Christian’s CSA jacket was donated to Beauvoir, a CSA museum in Biloxi, MS and the last home of Christian Kuhl’s old commander in chief, Jefferson Davis. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage to Beauvoir and the jacket has not been located. After Katrina, 2500 artifacts were taken to Jackson, MS for preservation. However, the jacket is still missing.

If you have questions about the Kuhl family, contact me:
Dave Kuhl
210 Glen Eagles Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564-9041
e-mail: dbkuhl@bellsouth.net

A Farmer on Three Lick

2010-10-15T12:20:00.016-04:00

by John Vincent Carney

“John Brice was a prince of a fellow and remained one of my favorite buddies for years and years. He was a young good looking, strong boned Irishman with a hearty laugh and a shiny gold tooth up front.”
. . . . -from the John Kilker Carney Manuscript Kilker—page 8

John Patrick Brice was born 24th Mar 1891 in Braxton Co. W.Va. He was the youngest of 13 children born to Irish immigrants John and Mary Ellen (McFadden) Brice who had been born in County Donegal.

John was orphaned at the age of 6 or 7. His parents both died from tuberculosis, his father at age 43 and his mother a year later at the age of 31. The two youngest of the couple’s children, John Patrick and his brother Michael Vincent remained in Orlando but the older eleven children went to New York to someone who knew the family. They were raised under the family name of Brislin and not Brice.

Right, above: John Patrick Brice
Left: brothers John Patrick, Michael Vincent, Charles and James

John's brother Michael Vincent was adopted by Michael and Margaret Gallagher while John Patrick found a home with James F. Carney. The 1900 census shows John Patrick living with the family of Ellen Carney, widow of Patrick Carney, with their son James F., 29 and single, listed as head of household. Later John P. Brice was living with James F. Carney and his wife Catherine Lorena (Moran) and their children.

My father was one of James F. and Lorena (Moran) Carney’s children. His name was, like myself, John V. Carney (1908-1981). John P. Brice was a big help to this Carney family; he was somewhat older than the children of James F. and Lorena.

Michael V. Brice’s records indicate that he was a railroad engineer at the time he married and his death record stated his occupation as “plumber.” As far as we know, John remained in farming.

John P. Brice was drafted to serve in the First World War on June 5th 1917 at the age of 27. Lee Paul Moran, son of Orlando mortician and businessman Mike Moran, recalls seeing John in military uniform in a photo which was displayed in the Brice living room on Three Lick. John was proud of his military service and was a member of the American Legion until his death.

In 1920 at the age of 30 John married another child of Irish immigrants, 33 year old milliner (maker of ladies’ hats) Celia Tully. Celia was the daughter of John and Margaret (McNeal) Tully. Celia was also the great aunt of Mike Moran, Orlando mortician and businessman.

Left: the marriage certificate of John and Celia (Tully) Brice.
Right: Examples of fashionable hats in 1920.
Click on these graphics to enlarge them.

I can remember my dad taking us back to see John and Ceclia Brice on their farm. John Brice tried to show me how to milk a cow, what an experience for city boy of only 10 years old or so from Clarksburg.

John Patrick Brice died on Christmas Eve, 1972 in Weston.

. . . . .

Note1:
Children of John and Mary Ellen (McFadden) Brice
1. James Brislin
2. Margaret Brislin
3. Patrick Brislin born in 1861 in Pennsylvania
4. Hannah Brislin born in 1864 in Pennsylvania
5. Mary Brislin born in 1867 in Pennsylvania
6. Katie Brislin born in 1868 in Pennsylvania
7. Charles Brislin born in 1872 in Pennsylvania
8. Nellie Brislin born in 1874 in Pennsylvania
9. Michael Brislin born in 1876 in Pennsylvania
10. Annie Brislin born in 1879 in Pennsylvania
11. Thomas Brislin born in 1880 in Pennsylvania
12. Michael Vincent Brice born in 1887 in Braxton Co. W.Va. and died 1962 in Richwood, W.Va.
13. John Patrick Brice born in 1891 in Braxton Co. W.Va. and died 1972 in Weston , Lewis Co.W.Va

. . . . .

Comment by Bob Pumphrey
The story about John Brice brought back memories of yesteryear and my efforts to obtain my driver’s license. Growing up on Three Lick in a family without an automobile did not afford me many opportunities to practice the “black arts” of parking between parallel lines, signaling left turns, and following the directions of a fearsome state policeman. Needless to say, my fantasies of operating a motorized vehicle were far above my skills to do so, especially for a country boy trying to navigate the busy streets of Weston. My first three efforts to obtain my driver’s license were attempted in an old ¾ ton cattle truck, complete with cattle racks, which belonged to Jimmy Feeney. Somehow, the old cattle truck, which I think was an old 1949 Chevrolet, had been disoriented by all of the old stubborn cattle which Jimmy Feeney had hauled to market. The truck just wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do and bucked me at every turn. The state policeman, I’m sure, enjoyed a good laugh as he related to the other state policemen, the tale of the country bumpkin who was trying to tame an old cattle truck. Giving up after my third failure with Jimmy Feeney’s cattle truck, I somehow was able to convince John Brice to let me try again, this time in his smaller compact 1950 Ford automobile. John was reluctant to let me try my fourth effort in his relatively new Ford, probably because he had heard from Jimmy Feeney that I had already failed the test three times. But kind John gave in and with much trepidation took me to Weston to the State Police station to try again. Before the test, I noticed John speaking privately with the state police examiner, and pointing in my direction. I couldn’t tell whether the state policeman was laughing or not, which was probably a good thing, because I was nervous enough the way it was. At any rate, my fourth effort was a charm and I finally passed my driver’s test in 1952. Looking back, I always wondered whether John Brice told the state policeman to be lenient with me on the driver’s test, because I was persistent and would harass both John and the state policeman forever more unless I passed. It was a relief for all three of us that I finally passed my driver’s test, and many thanks to John Brice.

. . . . .

Comment by Tom Jeffries
I read the interesting story about John Brice by John Carney. The Comment by Bob Pumphrey to the John Brice story also attracted my attention, particularly the mention of John Brice’s automobile. Although I was quite young at the time, I always had a great interest in automobiles around the Orlando area and remember Mr. Brice’s Ford very well. I believe his automobile was a black 1951 Ford Coupe. The Coupe was distinguished from the Tudor Sedan by having a single small rear side window, as opposed to the longer roll down window and wing window on the Tudor. The names “Coupe” and “Tudor” were marketing names used by the Ford Motor Company. The 1951 Ford Coupe was very similar to the 1949 and 1950 model, but had double “bullets” made in the grill. I thought that was so cool when I was young. I still like the 1951 models better than the others of similar look.

Mr. Brice kept his Ford in a garage across from his house and drove it sparingly, except to town and to church in Orlando. I remember him hauling his push lawn mower to St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Orlando to mow the lawn. Mr. Brice kept his car very clean and I considered it as one of the most beautiful and well kept cars in Orlando. I don’t know whatever became of the car after the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Brice, but I always hoped that the person who got the car took good care of it. It was a beautiful car.

Comment by Bob Skinner (son of Glen and Virginia (McCoy) Skinner)
You are correct about John Brice's car. He and Celia were our neighbors on Grass Run when I was a small boy. Mom and Dad used to play cards with them on Saturday nights. Before the '51 he had a Model A that I barely remember. He kept it in the barn below the house that Martin Posey ended up buying when we were in school at Walnut Grove. That is where Goldie and Raymond Posey lived. I think Sonny Wymer and Dosie Posey live there now. At least they did last time I was back there with Mom for her 75th high school reunion. I think that was in '99. Our old house and all the buildings had been torn down. It was so sad Mom would not get out of the car

An interesting side note is that my Aunt Audrey (uncle Junior McCoy-Mom's brother) and John Brice had a fender bender not far from the house where the Brice's moved. I think it was Aunt Audrey's fault if I remember correctly. She had a lead foot. Now the funny part. Aunt Audrey was pregnant at the time, and unbeknown to her that Mrs Brice's name was Celia, she named the baby girl in her tummy Celia. That has always been a laugh in our family.

Thomas Quirk Remembered part 2

2010-10-13T07:58:00.019-04:00

Jim Mullooly, cousin to many of Orlando's Irish, has done extensive research on Fr. Thomas Aquinas Quirk. This is the second of two articles in The Catholic Spirit published by the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in 2002.
Part 1 of this review of Thomas Quirk’s life discussed his early years in southern Ireland, his service in the Union Army during the Civil War, his studies for the clergy in Paris and his return to America to serve as a missionary.

After studying in Paris, he came to the Diocese of Wheeling and Charleston, to serve under Bishop Richard Whalen. Here he finished his studies for ordination and taught at St. Vincent Seminary. After that he was assigned to serve as a priest in the rural areas from Parkersburg.
by Jim Mullooly

It was on September 12, 1872 that Bishop Richard Whalen, having tested the young Father Thomas Quirk in the outback of Parkersburg, assigned him to a more remote frontier. Here he built two churches and literally built up the Catholic Church where only a handful of Catholics existed. Centered at Guyandotte and the newly established city of Huntington, Thomas Quirk was the bishop’s man to lay the foundation in all respects. This included opening a school with himself as sole teacher for several years. The school drew many Protestants. The few Catholic schools in the diocese at the time were of quality and were often the only educational institution available. In Father Quirk’s case, his particular skills could meet the needs of advance students aspiring to further college training.

Right above: Ordination portrait of Father Thomas Quirk.
Right: Msgr. Thomas Quirk and Bishop Swint
View these photos and many other items clearly at the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston website

He made his home with a prominent Catholic family, the Carrolls, and turned a cornfield into a substantial frame church and attached school at 20th Street and Seventh Avenue, after saying mass for a few months in a shanty near the C & O roundhouse.

Labors In the Vineyard

The opening of the state to industry and settlement had several disadvantages. In the decades after the Civil War, work building the railroads, harvesting lumber and coal and later gas and oil, brought in droves of settlers, many of them Catholic immigrants. There were countless industrial accidents associated with harsh employment conditions and a cheaper labor pool. Also the railroads, the river pack boats, in particular, brought outside contagions such as small pox, yellow fever, typhoid. The diocese at that time excluded the eastern panhandle of West Virginia but extended down to include the southwestern corner of Virginia. Father Quirk held faculties, at their request, for three dioceses, that of Kentucky, Ohio and his own. Constantly called to travel up the Tug, down the Sandy up to Point Pleasant and crossing the Ohio in a skiff to reach the outback of Gallipolis, he anointed people dying of those illnesses and injuries. Once he donned a rubber suit given by the attending physician to minister to the dying victim of yellow fever. “I had a chance to see the ‘black bile’ associated with that disease” he reported in his Diocesan History. It was during these years, riding up and down the steep hills of the region that the largely Protestant community, comparing him to the circuit riding preachers of the previous generation, titled him the “Little Padre of the Hills.”

Huntington was prone to flooding and he noted a section that the cyclical floods never touched. He undertook to build a newer, more substantial church there (1883) and out of his own pocket place the necessary down payments and contracts. The new bishop, John J. Kain, transferred him shortly thereafter to the Sandfork area of central West Virginia. He was responsible for three missionsof St Patrick's Church in Weston, St. Bernard’s on Loveberry Ridge, St Bridget's on Goosepen Road and St. Michael's in the Confluence/Orlando area. At first Father Quirk was not pleased.

Appeals to the Archbishop

Father Quirk appealed his assignment to the then archbishop of Baltimore arguing that it was a demotion, rather than a promotion, and that he was personally responsible for a period of the finances of the new church he had built in Huntington. There was ill-feelings between the bishop and Father Quirk, probably due to the fact that Bishop Kain identified him as the probable leader for a petition drive to replace Bishop Whalen with a local priest of the Wheeling Diocese, rather than an outsider, so that Whalen’s policies could continue uninterrupted. There was a sense of the bishop taking this personally and “retaliating” against the six signatories of the “Round Robin” petition (wherein the signatures encircled the text and no one signed first.) At the very least there was a clash of philosophy if not personality. This was only the first of several causes requiring the archbishop’s mediation between Father Quirk and Bishop Kain. His reluctance to move was also due to his connections in the area, particularly to several orphans he had taken under his wing.

Right, above: Bishop Whalen
Right, below: Bishop Kain

However, always faithful to the virtue of obedience, especially relating to the church, her moved to the Sandfork area, arriving on September 12, 1884, with orphans and students in tow. Had the 1890 U.S. Census not been destroyed by fire, we would have been able to recover the names of these children. He stayed with Thomas White on Loveberry Hill until a proper rectory could be built next to St. Bernard’s. Over the years he would seek permission to absent himself a few days to return to Huntington to visit with his erstwhile congregants and the Carroll family.

A Family Man

His interest in orphans would continue over time, placing many from St. John’s Children’s Home (then “Orphanage”) of Wheeling with families in his parish. We often note his sending extra money that he came by, for the support of these Wheeling orphans. He always requested the strictest anonymity when doing so. Some orphans he would reserve for himself, i.e. Henry Gill, Vincent Felton, Joe Ahern, Julia Benton and others unknown to us. He raised all of these mentioned, providing whatever secondary schooling was needed such as sending Julia to DeSales Heights on Parkersburg. Henry Gill married neighbor William McCudden’s daughter and moved to Pittsburgh. However his wife Ellen died suddenly on a visit home in 1911. Vincent Felton eventually moved to New Jersey and would return in later years with his wife to pass time with Father Quirk. Julia married Thomas V. Craft and raised a family in Weston. Father Quirk could be seen riding into Weston along Camden Avenue to have Sunday dinner with Julia, her husband and children. He would always bring a sack of candy.

“Feed My Sheep”

Father Quirk saw himself as a spiritual “caterer” breaking the bread of life in the wilderness for those who had none. Assigned to Sandfork area by the hand of Providence, he refused all opportunities to leave, to “advancement.” This was his true portion, his calling, feeding this particular community, being the hand of Christ in this wilderness. His habit of daily prayer, fasting often, frequent recognition for his need for redemption, his mindful service to all who sought him out, prepared him for the healing work associated with him. Those still alive today who knew him characterize him above all as a healer, a true mediator for God’s grace and healing love. There are continuing reports of breast cancer, skin diseases, goiters in his lifetime and speedy recovery from difficult medical procedures and other healings after his death. His powerful gentleness and convinced faith mediated local disputes and matters of conscience, even applying the unguent of God’s love to community traumas originating in economic, industrial and political assaults.

Right: Bishop Donohue

Bishop Donohue, successor to Bishop Kain, especially relied upon his keen insight and diagnostic ability, his sensitivity and compassion when he would send him out to minister to what we would deem today impaired clergy. His ministry there was full of support and encouragement for his fellow presbyters, but painfully direct when indicated. He was a man of strong opinions, often right, but escaping the mire of self-righteousness and ultimately taking his stand in Pascal’s dictum, “The heart has its reason that Reason knows not.” For years he was a member of the bishop’s Priests Council whose function was continuing evaluation of newly ordained clergy, in areas of theology and pastoral response. This earned him the respect of emerging clergy over the years. At the diocesan retreats the clergy would gather round him like chicks to a mother hen, feeding on every word.

Day to Day

An observer, climbing up Loveberry Hill “on a genial spring day”, as Father Quirk would term it, and in memory’s eternal present, in the late afternoon would quickly note the distinction of a farmer banging on an old tin bucket to gather various critters for feeding. On closer inspection, even in work clothes, he wears the white linen choker of his vocation. Neighbors in need, not members of the congregation, might have just left the rectory with sugar, flour, some money and a blessing from him. Earlier still, he may have gone over to the nearby schoolhouse to visit with and encourage the students. Some would stop by later for some milk and cookies, legendary treats of the long time housekeeper, Annie Doonan. They would have no doubt interrupted her baking of the upcoming Sunday’s hosts in a large double-sided iron held over the wood-fired stove. Later in the evening there would be visitors, friends, congregants gathering on the front porch discussing with Father Quirk the local news and the current events of that time gleaned from, perhaps, the Cincinnati Intelligencer, a gift subscription from his brother Patrick.
Nearby, hear the first cry of the ever-returning whippoorwill.

Jim Mullooly had the privilege of portraying Father Quirk as a living history character. Each year on the Sunday afternoon closest to September 12, there is a liturgy celebrating Father Quirk’s life at St Bernard’s with 60-80 persons in attendance.

Father Thomas Quirk Remembered, part 1

2010-10-03T11:12:00.032-04:00

by Jim Mullooly

In deepest night, in that final hour when myriads of stars in the Milky Way manifest God’s promise to Abraham’s spiritual progeny now and forever, a nineteen year old stood watch somewhere in the great Valley of Virginia, scene of recent Civil War skirmishes, battles, indeed slaughters. He fingered a windfall apple in his pocket. It was too soon to release its crisp goodness, a certain clue in the stillness of the night to those abroad to his presence on the outskirts of camp. Nonetheless, he anticipated the dawn and his relief.

Right: Thomas Aquinas Quirk's 1870 ordination portrait.
Left: Fr. Thomas Quirk and is horse Barney
Left, below: Detail from photo of Fr. Quirk with his horse Barney.

Lewis County’s last resident living Civil War veteran (Union) died peacefully at 2:45 P.M. September 12, 1937, fifty-three years to the day of his arrival in central West Virginia. He was surrounded by his brother Patrick, nephews Tom and Howard, loving friends, neighbors and parishioners. The Right Reverend Monsignor Thomas Aquinas Quirk (pronounced "Kerk") was 93 and the onset of pneumonia following a severe fall on the day of his last Mass, one week previous, was simply too much for him to bear. He had been a priest in the diocese West Virginia for 67 years, actively so until his final illness,

He was a soldier, scholar, priest, editor, educator, practical farmer, oil boom enthusiast, historian for the diocese, seer-like prognosticator. Often associated with the Barry Fitzgerald-like posed photo in 1934, with his horse Barney, the man behind the image is more extraordinary still. As we view the reality of a lifetime, he is beyond ordinary measurements of greatness.

Beginnings

Thomas Quirk was born in the famine years in Ireland on his father’s 95-acre farm in the townland of Ballyhimock. Thomas Quirk’s story of emigration to the New World, joining the Union Army’s 69th New York Volunteer Infantry Company A, (“Irish Brigade”), experience of skirmish and horror of battle with it, especially in the Army of the Potomac in the “Great Valley of Virginia,” acquisition of citizenship as just recompense for service, was ultimately that of thousands of young Irish men of the period. These men, some with families, discovered a new world of opportunity, pride of ownership and other perhaps less tangible measures of success, but all contributing to America’s growth following divisive civil conflict. For the Irish in particular, there was immense opportunity, particularly in rural America, to develop talents of animal husbandry, prosperous crop cultivation, participation in trade and market economy, which were impossible to express under the British regime in Ireland.

Right, above: Thomas Quirk's family home in Ireland

Right: Ballyhimock

These two photos and more can be found at the website of the Diocese of Wheeling and Charleston.

Many of the Irish Brigade members acquiring the arts of war returned to Ireland to participate in the unsuccessful Fenian Rising in 1867. It was his own brother, Patrick, who reported the story of Father Quirk returning to Ireland after the American Civil War, “springing” a Fenian prisoner from jail, forever making him persona non gratis in his homeland.

Thomas Quirk alluded to a few skirmishes for his part of the war as a lowly adjutant, but never spoke about his battle experience. However, in his history of the Wheeling Diocese, completed in 1925 and serialized in the West Virginia edition of the (Pittsburg) Catholic Reporter, in describing the fear and familiarity of imminent death American soldiers in World War I battlefields lived with, one vividly senses that he was drawing from his own experience as a soldier. He describes “… that anguish of soul, that biting apprehension of death, the tremors that will visit the bravest heart during the lone night watches—the most priceless jewels of a soldier’s experience.”

Left: Tools of the trade- Fr. Quirk's chalice and paten.

The mournful cry of the whippoorwill at early light on the carnage fields of the war gave voice, for many, to their grieving, but the devoted male bird is noted for nurturing its young and infusing new life. All his life Thomas Quirk would attend to the first cry of the whippoorwill, not only as a predictor of weather, but, perhaps, as a symbol of his transforming war experiences, calling him to the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church as well as continuing renewal of his commitment to compassionate service for those living out the victories and defeats of that war throughout the new state of West Virginia.

Education

Thus it was, upon his discharge from the war, he went to France to study for the priesthood at the Irish College and St. Sulpice Seminary- Alma mater of many Roman Catholic priests of the Irish Diaspora. This Seminary at Issy in the Parisian suburbs specialized in training of priest for the mission fields in piety, learning and physical exercise.

Left: The Irish College in Paris
Right: St Sulpice in the suburbs of Paris.

He took classes for his own interest at the nearby Sorbonne in medicine and law. The Sulpicians trained their missionaries to be as self-sufficient as possible in frontier regions, endowing them with many practical tools that would be needed where various institutions as yet did not exist or were very remote. At the seminary itself, he was particularly interested in mathematics and physics, completing extra summer studies in these fields. He studied also with some of the finest theologians and philosophers in Europe, then on the faculty of the seminary. His earlier education was of the “prep school” variety where he honed his Latin, Greek, and probably also modern European languages such as French and German. (He would readily quote Schiller in German in a letter to Bishop Donahue, considerately translating for the good Bishop.)

To this day you will find wills and other documents drawn up and witnessed by Thomas Quirk for his parishioners. He wrote impeccable deeds and wills. Protestants and Catholics alike sought him out for medical, legal and pending business decisions. At the time he was in France medically the French were on the frontier of the body/mind nexus. (Freud studied in Paris before developing his science of the mind) Many healings have been attributed to Father Quirk’s recommendations over the years. He kept on hand a variety of European homeopathic medicines as well as various herbal remedies. He was out vaccinating people against smallpox in the state’s last great scare at the turn of the last century.

Answering the appeal for seminarians from Bishop Whelan, newly appointed first Bishop of West Virginia, Thomas Quirk responded shortly before his completion at St. Sulpice. The plan was to complete any needed education at St, Vincent’s, the diocesan Seminary in Wheeling and be part of the next ordination class. He arrived in Wheeling in September of 1869.

A Young Priest

Father Quirk celebrated his first mass in the old cathedral Wheeling on September 1, 1870. He remained in Wheeling with other priests to minister to the Greater Cathedral parish. The following spring, May of 1871, along with Father Anthony Schleicher, he was assigned to St Francis Xavier Parish in Parkersburg and it outlaying missions in Wood, Jackson, Wirt and Calhoun counties.
.

Right: Fr, Quirk in the doorway, 1905-1913

German and Irish immigrants had completed work on the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike (routes 33 and 47 today). The workers settled on lands along the road and required the Church’s ministrations. As a young curate (priest) he was mentored by one of the great priests of the diocese, Father Henry Parke. At some point Father Parke departed for France on the bishop’s work and left the actual running of the parish to the young assistants, who eliminated debt and collected parish dues with consistency.

During this time Father Quirk was the actual editor and chief contributor of West Virginia’s first diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Messenger. This newspaper was started by Father Parke and nominally edited by Wood County businessman Henry O’Brien. Its stated mission was “to counter anti-Catholic bigotry and positively promote the views of the universal church in the United States.”

An Educator

Father Quirk was always an active and enthusiastic educator, beginning with St Vincent’s Seminary, continuing such when he was in Huntington, where he established a school and was the only teacher. At Loveberry near Sand Fork he established a second school. He published articles and debates in the Catholic Messenger which were picked up by the Catholic Press throughout the country, earned him the praise of the Catholic polemicist Orestes A. Brownson as the “brightest young priest in America” in the 1870s. Years later, writing in his history of the Diocese of Wheeling his concerns are strangely contemporary:
“The present penchant for luxurious, palatial schoolhouses, guiding and prompting both the state and parochial boards of education, is but the reprehensible mania for universal extravagance, common in our current hour and must die out. The systems of education, not the houses, are most in need of improvement and advance. Educational fads and follies have fairly drowned out the young idea. It shoots no more for it is kiln-dried in the pod.” (1924)

Left: The school at Loveberry Hill

Further research confirms Father Quirk’s natural affinity for education. A late life portrait of Blessed Edmund Rice, lay founder of the Irish Christian Brothers, a teaching order, by common consent of those still living who remember him, bears an uncanny resemblance to our Father Quirk in later years. Catherine Rice, Father Quirk’s mother, was second cousin to the well-known educator and nurturer of orphans. It is also to be noted that Lord Monteagle (a Spring-Rice) one of the “good” landlords of the 1846 potato famine, was some family connection. Two separate reports indicate Thomas Quirk was twice offered the lordship of Monteagle, but declined because of his Catholicism among other reasons. This title, in later tines, was passed every few years to cousins collateral due to lack of direct heir. This Lord Monteagle was British Chancellor of the Exchequer in the late 1830s and one speculates that Father Quirk’s educational opportunities in the British school system (where he was a cadet in the sense of our ROTC) was promoted by the Rice connections. Several older priests in the diocese remarked upon his peculiar Latin pronunciation. Could he have the legacy of the British Public Schools Latin with its closer to the original Latin pronunciation rather than the more modern Italianate mode of speech?

Sand Fork and Oil Creek

At the age of 39 Father Thomas Quirk came to central West Virginia. He moved into the rectory Loveberry Hill, in the Sand Fork watershed, and he served three churches: St Bernard located there, St. Bridgit, located on Goosepen Road and St. Michael, first located south of Clover Fork toward Knawls Creek and later in Confluence/Orlando.

Over the years Father Quirk was assisted in his three church assignment by a number of priests, including Father Mueller, Father Swint, Father Mark Krause and Father James Tierney.

Right above the interior of St Bridgit

Left above: St Bernard with the rectory where Fr. Quirk lived behind it.
Left: Fr. Quirk with his assistant Mark Krause.

Right: St Michael at Knawl Creek
.

From the Ordo

The Ordo is the liturgical calendar used by priests. It provides each day’s scripture readings plus other information such as feast days to be celebrated and instructions for the priests. We are fortunate to have in the diocesan archives in Wheeling Father Quirk’s ordo and daily instructions for masses and other services for 1898, 1900,1903 and 1905. Father Quirk often used the alternately blank pages in these as a diary. Sometimes he would write out daily happenings and thoughts in more expansive form on blank paper regular foolscap. In these more expansive diaries his sensitivity to the weather, raising and nurturing his own sheep, his extraordinary agricultural gifts from eons of descent from farming people in Ireland, was a certain connection with the people of his congregations and in those communities. In many ways he was deeply one with them.

In these diaries Father Quirk would jot down events ( Boer War, presidential campaigns) weather, sick calls and Mass attendance at the three churches in his care “The wine froze in the chalice this morning.” (1903) he wrote when a particular cold spell affected the dilapidated Civil War era structure full of wind and cold. He related on March 28, 1900, “My bees were actively at work on the peach trees that are just now in full bloom. In the evening it rained heavy showers. As I write 11 p.m, it is raining still and threatens to rain through the night. 72 degrees without a fire. If it does not turn cool there will be an abundance of peaches. The grass is growing fast and the wheat looks very well.”

He prayed to St. Anthony the Finder (Padua) to bring success to the oil well drilled in the Loveberry Ridge property in the late summer, early fall of 1900. His hope was to acquire profit, along with everyone else, in West Virginia at that time to build a new, solid church. The well was a dry hole for oil but one week later. One mile down the hill, the great Copley well No. 1 brought in the greatest gusher of that age. Indirectly the Irish and German owners of the oil lands of that well and others contributed to the construction of the present St Bernard’s Church in 1910.

A New Year

It was toward midnight New Years Eve, 1900, watching for the year 19-1, that he left us these thoughts, some of which he would expand into a formal lecture and eventually an article published in church journals. These musings jotted in the end pages of the 1900 ordo speak to us this very day.

“Monday 31st misty and very sloppy- 70 degrees. It grew windy but not cold toward evening. Mud is deep now. It is clouded and warm as I write- almost 12 a.m. And now the old year is gone and the old 19th century is ended.- goodbye! goodbye! A new year and a new age opens. I name this XXth century the century of magnificent promise. My natal century was rich in many things. But boasted much beyond its performance. It brought back popular liberty and with that, as ever a rejuvenesence of Catholicism. The century just opened must witness many, many revolutions- the greatest of these a social revolution, now a great desideratum. Courage you XXth century men! We have prepared the arena for you and when we are sleeping in the cold clay all alone and all forgotten, your battle will be raging and your shouts of victory ringing joyously.
Welcome, 1901 A.D. –Thomas Quirk.”

The Padre Meets the James Gang

2010-09-22T07:44:00.010-04:00

Jim Mullooly, cousin to many of Orlando's Irish, has done extensive research on Fr. Thomas Aquinas Quirk. Jim even portrays Fr. Quirk in Living History enactments. The following story is taken from an article he wrote in 2004 for The Catholic Spirit, a publication of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

The missionary Fr. Thomas Quirk came from his service in the developing town of Huntington, WV in 1884 to serve the area which included St Michael's at Knawls and later Orlando. In Huntington he had built a church, where he presided over mass. and a school, where he taught. From his time in Huntington, the following is a story he loved to tell.

by Jim Mullooly

When Fr. Quirk was in his early 30's, sometime during the first week of September, 1875, there was a Methodist Church conference in Huntington and many strangers were about. Father Quirk, one day at school recess, caught sight of some fine looking horses that several well dressed men had hitched near the church and school. He hurried over, got down in the street to examine the steeds, expressing his admiration for a particular sorrel, a blooded, spirited animal, only heeding his owner, and wisely declined the owner’s suggestion to trot him down the street.

Right, above: detail from Thomas Quirk's ordination portrait.
Left: Some of the James Gang

In the course of the conversation, the owner of this admirable horse asked him how much he would give for it, if for sale. “$800” was Father Quirk’s immediate reply, “but I’d have to rob a bank for that kind of money.” Previously he had given these men directions to the Huntington National Bank, not but a block away.

An hour later school was disrupted by shots fired and shouts. He sent to ask what “all the hubbub was about,” as he put it. Later he discovered that the “gentlemen” were none other than Jesse James and his brother Frank, who had just robbed the bank described. He always enjoyed recounting the story on himself but added, characteristically, “the James boys were good boys, but just started wrong.”

Port McLaughlin

2010-09-15T06:54:00.005-04:00

by David Parmer

His name was “Port McLaughlin,” no more do I know
A life of toil was his, it shows
In worn-out shoes and scruffy clothes.
A smile unused to cameras, gnarled hands, his life’s testament;
Stoic countenance on his deep-lined face, his feet from labor bent.
Newt Godfrey was a close, dear friend, but Newt is dead and gone.
No one is left to shed some light and tell us ‘til the dawn
An interesting yarn ‘bout Port McLaughlin.

Comment by Pat Reckart

My mother, Nellie (Godfrey) Hopkins, told me that when she was about two years old she recalls Port McLaughlin coming to visit her parents, Tom and Bridget Godfrey, in Orlando. At the time (around 1918), my mother and her parents lived beside St. Michael’s Church. Port would stay with them for several months at a time. My mother assumed that Port had no home and that he was thankful for the hospitality of the Godfrey home.

A Tragic End with Barely a Beginning

2010-08-29T12:07:00.018-04:00

by David Parmer

Sam Marchio drove slowly along the Goosepen Road, gripping the steering wheel tightly with both hands, oblivious of the tranquil farm scenes which presented themselves around each curve in the road. The hardworking farmers of southern Lewis County kept their farms in tip-top condition but Mr. Marchio, a Physical Education teacher of Weston High School, wasn’t thinking about the haying which was going on, the cattle grazing along the hillsides, or the corn growing in the bottom-land. He did not notice the farmers standing in their fields looking at the strange car coming down their road. A sad duty was in store for him this September day in 1952. It was a duty he dreaded to fulfill. Just how do you tell a mother that her only child, a beautiful, seemingly healthy daughter, who left for school that morning without a care in the world, died suddenly at his school? The eighteen miles to Goosepen were the longest miles Mr. Marchio had ever driven, but the hardest part of the journey would not be begin until he reached the Clarence and Hetty (Nye) Finster home on Goosepen where Carolyn Sue and her mother, Mary Poffenbarger, made their home.

Mary (Beall) Poffenbarger

Mary (Beall) Poffenbarger was the daughter of Newton "N. H." Beall and Clara (McCullough) Beall of Route 1, Orlando. For many years, Newton and Clara operated a country store and post office at Aspinall, a pick-up point on the Orlando mail route. Newton’s father, Charles Henderson Beall, had operated this store and a grist mill for many years before turning the business over to his son Newton.

Born in 1915, Mary was the only child of Newton and Clara Beall to survive to adulthood. She was quite familiar with tragic untimely deaths because her mother Clara died of tuberculosis in 1918 when Mary was just three years of age and her father Newton died four years later in 1924 when she was just seven. Orphaned at an early age in 1924, Mary was fortunate to have been a student of Edna Wiant, the teacher of the Ben’s Run School.

Edna Wiant

When Mary Beall’s widowed father died in 1924, Edna Wiant was an unmarried school teacher, living with her foster parents, John and Mary Blake on Ben’s Run. Edna, who was also orphaned at a very young age, was noted for forming fond attachments with her students. Recognizing the need for a child to have a nurturing parent, Edna took the orphaned Mary into her home and became her de facto mother. The Blake home on Bens Run was a large, commodious two story farm house with plenty of room for the Blakes, their foster daughter Edna, and this new foster daughter, Mary Beall. Consequently, until adulthood, Mary Beall lived with her foster mother, Edna Wiant, on Ben’s Run.

In 1937, when Mary was 22 years of age, she met and married Wade Poffenbarger of Tucker County. Unfortunately for Mary, her marriage was a brief because Mr. Poffenbarger was not the settling-down type and he soon flew the coop, never to be heard of again, when he was informed that Mary was with child. Mary, who had been orphaned at a young age, with a child on the way, now was abandoned by a faithless husband almost before the ink was dry on the marriage certificate. Edna Wiant welcomed her foster daughter back to her home to await the birth of her child. A daughter, Carolyn Sue Poffenbarger was born on August 6, 1938.

Edna, with her strong maternal instinct, took a shine to Carolyn and treated her as if she were a child of her own, as she had done with Carolyn’s mother. A child can never have enough love so the love of two mothers served Carolyn well in her formative years. Some recall that Carolyn was fortunate to have had not one but two mothers. When Carolyn was born, Mrs. Blake, Edna’s foster mother, was still living, and between Mrs. Blake, Edna Wiant, and her mother Mary Poffenbarger, she felt well-loved and was a smiling and happy child.

The Years Following

Velma Heath, a neighbor on Ben’s Run, recalls Carolyn Sue as a “good, pretty little girl, mindful and happy.” A good student at the Ben’s Run School, Carolyn Sue, who would be known primarily as “Sue,” to her peers, undoubtedly brightened the one room school, and was a girl of promise to her teachers.

Mr. and Mrs. Blake passed away and in 1946, Edna Wiant married Frank McPherson and moved to Burnsville. Carolyn Sue’s mother Mary found a position in the home of Clarence and Hetty Finster on Goosepen caring for the children of Mr. and Mrs. Finster. Mary and Carolyn Sue were not forgotten however by their dear friend, Edna (Wiant) McPherson, and their familial relationship continued with frequent visits and shopping trips. Mary and Carolyn Sue had moved into the Finster home and were living there when Carolyn Sue started to school at Weston High School. During the second week of school in September 1952, Carolyn happily boarded the yellow school bus for the long trip to Weston High School and her freshman classes.

The day was hot. The early days of September probably always seemed hot to students of un-air-conditioned schools in central West Virginia. Many students were still thinking of their summer’s vacation, as the warm air wafted into the open windows of their classrooms, making sleepy students sleepier. On this September 10th, Carolyn was in a physical education class on the football field when she started feeling ill. Since it was a hot, muggy day, it was common for a student to be affected by the heat, so no one was alarmed. Allowed to sit on the bleachers while the class participated in physical activities, Carolyn began to feel worse and complained of a headache to her Phys Ed teacher, Sam Marchio. Thinking that a headache indicated the need of an aspirin, Carolyn was given aspirin, but soon was in greater distress. At 2:50 p.m. on September 10th, 1952, Carolyn Sue Poffenbarger collapsed and died.

Stoicism

Stunned by the tragic news carried to her by Mr. Marchio, and aware that she would never again see the smiling face of her daughter Carolyn Sue again, Mary took the loss of her daughter in a stoical manner. She had suffered the loss of her own parents at an early age, had been abandoned by her husband and the father of her child, and now fate had given her another cruel blow.

Mary Poffenbarger died in 1989, thirty seven years after the death of her only child and the searing visit by Mr. Marchio. Those who knew Mary well say that she never talked about her daughter Carolyn Sue but they all say her stoic silence about the loss of her only child masked an inner pain that lesser souls could not bear. Since Mary never mentioned her loss, others never broached the subject, and future condolences were never uttered. Some pain is best left in silence and best handled that way and that is the course Mary Poffenbarger followed with respect to her loss. When Carolyn Sue was laid to rest in the Pumphrey Cemetery, the matter was closed.

The Mystery Remains

Doctor T. M. Snyder, a Weston physician, pronounced the cause of death of Carolyn as “undetermined.” That four-syllable word was carefully written on the death certificate by Orlando funeral director Mike Moran in 1952 and remains the official verdict of death to this day.
Given the great advances in medicine in recent years, the cause of death of Carolyn Sue Poffenbarger could probably now be made, but at best, it would be conjecture, and it now seems pointless to hypothesize. In the early 1950’s many death certificates were unclear regarding the cause of death of a decedent and this was just another of the many such cases. Her caring neighbors decided that Carolyn Sue must have succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage. Whatever the cause, the mystery remains. The shining girl of promise was buried in the Pumphrey Cemetery, to be joined later by her dear friend, Edna Wiant McPherson in 1967 and her mother, Mary Poffenbarger in 1989.

To enlarge the above death certificate, please click on it.

. . . . .

Comment 1 Carolyn Sue and her mother lived north of the Oil Creek watershed but on Orlando's RFD Route 1 at both the Blake/Wiant home on Ben's Run and the Fenster home on Indian Run. School kids who lived north of Orlando, on Oil Creek, Three Lick, Grass Run, Indian Fork, etc. went to school in Weston.

Comment 2 by Bob Pumphrey
This story was great and brought back lots of memories. It is my recollection that Mary and Carolyn Sue Poffenbarger were living on Ben's Run when Carolyn Sue died. Her mother Mary was babysitting during the day for Clarence and Hettie Finster. Clarence was the school bus driver and drove the bus from the Ben's Run area up Goosepen into Weston. When Clarence got home in the evening, he would pick Mary Poffenbarger up at his house and continue to drive the bus to Ben's Run and then let Carolyn Sue and her mother off the bus. A few days after Carolyn Sue was buried, Clarence and Hettie asked Mary to live with them and continue babysitting. From that time Mary Poffenbarger lived with the Finsters.
I further recall that Clarence Finster told me that the morning Carolyn Sue died. she mentioned to Clarence when she got on the bus that she had a headache. Clarence offered to take her back home but Carlyn Sue declined the offer.
Carolyn Sue's wake was held at the house on Ben's Run and Mike Moran, the Orlando undertaker, was in charge. Many people were there.
Comment 3 by June Nixon Henry
I just finished reading the story of Sue Poffenbarger and tears are running down my face. It brought back the memory of that day that my Mom called me and asked me to go over to City Hospital to see Edna and Mary. There was no way I could describe the grief of those two. What comfort could I give them only just to be there? So glad you told their story. When Mary went to live with the Finsters she certainly channeled her grief into caring for their mentally disabled daughter. Thanks for telling the story.

Sixty Years of Learning

2010-08-12T18:58:00.037-04:00

at Ben’s Run School

by Marcia (Heater) Conrad

Today

Today, it is quite easy to get in your automobile on Ben’s Run and drive to the intersection of the Indian Fork Road. A right turn at the intersection will take you in just ten or fifteen minutes to the location of the former Goosepen School. Or, if you choose to turn left at the intersection of the Indian Fork Road, a few minutes will take you past the locations of the former Pine Run School and the Butchers Fork School. One might say that these three school locations in the modern age are nothing but a “stone’s throw away” from each other. But today these schools are no more. There are no sounds of a hand bell ringing, games at recess on the playground, or the sight of kids walking home from school.

Yesterday

At the turn of the 20th century and for nearly sixty years, the now-abandoned one room schools in southern Courthouse District of Lewis County were bee hives of activity during the school year. Most nearby families were large, with many children close in age. Education was a prized commodity to these families, their teachers were respected, and most children were eager to learn. During that time, roads were dirt, and because automobiles were non-existent early-on, and rare even later, the primary transportation was shoe leather or bare feet, especially for children. In the winter time or in times of rainy weather, the dirt roads became impassable. What is now a short journey by automobile, was an impossible trek a hundred years ago. Because of the still-primitive nature of transportation in by-gone years, one room schools dotted southern Lewis County, and Ben’s Run was the location of one such school.

Right: Down the right side are photos of Ben's Run students. The oldest photo, at the top, appears to be from about 1910. The next was taken in 1915. The boy at the far left of the photo, wearing a dark jacket, is the author's father Coleman Heater. The next two photos are from the 1940s, the next appears to be from the 1950s and the last photo appears to be from the early 1960s.

Ben’s Run Schoolhouse

The small, picturesque, one room school on Ben’s Run was built around the turn of the 20th century. It is believed that the school began educating the youth of the area around 1906. Approximately 400 square feet, the wood frame building still stands on the former Bob McCray property.

When built, the school had no electricity and had none for many years. Large windows on both sides of the building admitted natural lighting. To supplement the natural light, coal-oil lights were used on darker days. In the 1950’s, Thomas Edison’s invention (electric lights) finally came to the Ben’s Run School, and for the waning years of the school, students studied with incandescent lights.

Central heating, however, would never find its way to the Ben’s Run School. Heat was always provided by a pot-bellied stove which was positioned in the center of the one room of the school. On coldest of days, students moved their desks as close to the stove as possible to take advantage of the heat. Occasionally, the stove would be overloaded with coal which resulted in a white hot stove. Fortunately, no accidents occurred when the stove was burning too hot. Of course, there was no state fire marshal in those days, or all of the schools would have been discontinued during the winter months because of the fire hazard.

Students took turns in making sure the stove provided heat during the winter months. For keeping the stove burning, putting out the flag in the morning, bringing in the initial supply of the day’s water, and sweeping the floors of the school, a student was paid a stipend. In the early 1950s, the student who did the janitor work received $12 a month, but by the late 1950s, the monthly amount was $16.00 per month, a handsome sum for the day. After school, the designated student janitor would bring in the flag. Needless to say, students were eager to try their hands at fire-building, dusting erasers and washing the black board, and pushing a broom.

Hot lunch was another modern day amenity which was not available at Ben’s Run. Although some larger schools in the area, such as Orlando and Walnut Grove, did have a hot lunch program provided with paid cooks, the Ben’s Run students either brought their lunch from home or walked home for the noon-time meal. Water was available from a ceramic cooler with a built-in spigot. The water was generously furnished by the McCray farm next door to the school. Each student brought a drinking cup to school and the cups were stored in the cloak room.

The school’s bathroom facilities were very familiar to the students of the school, since all were familiar with the ubiquitous outhouse. In later years, two two-hole outhouses provided the sanitary facilities for the school. While real toilet paper was available during these latter years, during the early years of the school, last year’s Sears Roebuck catalog was probably the toilet paper of choice in the outhouses.

The Ben’s Run School served students from the 1st through the 8th grade. Pre-school programs were not then available, although many students started school when barely five years of age. Since the nearest high school was in Weston, and parents were responsible for transportation for their students to high school, many students who finished the 8th grade could continue attending the Ben’s Run School until they were 16 years of age, at which time they could legally quit school. Bus transportation to Weston High School was not provided until the 1950’s.

Teachers of the Ben’s Run School

The very earliest teachers of the Ben’s Run School are unknown since Lewis County did not keep records of the numerous teachers of the smaller schools in the county. The earliest students of the school are long since deceased and there is little in the way of information available to us to identify the teachers. Some of the latter year teachers of the Ben’s Run School are remembered below.

Mrs. Mick
Perhaps, the earliest teacher of the school in present recollection is a Mrs. Mick. No first name of this teacher is known, nor would one hazard a guess as to the first name of a teacher named Mick. The numerous branches and generations of the Solomon and Mary (Lawman) Mick family of nearby Rocky Fork and the C. C. and Martha (Lawman) Mick family of nearby Dumpling Run provided many male and female teachers to the early one room schools of the southern Lewis County, northern Braxton County, and Gilmer County, anyone of whom could have been the Ben’s Run teacher.

Left, above: believed to be Mrs. Mick.

Left: Edna Wiant

Edna Wiant
Edna Wiant was the daughter of Perry Wiant and Mary (Henline) Wiant, residents of the Indian Fork area. Orphaned as a young girl, she became the foster daughter of John Thomas Blake and Mary Ellen (Thompson) Blake, a childless couple, farmers on Ben’s Run. Edna taught at the Ben’s Run School from 1920 to 1925. The author’s father, Coleman Heater, reminisced that he was a student of Miss Wiant and that there was not much difference in his age and her age. Coleman was somewhat smitten with his teacher and had a “crush” on her, but a teacher was the teacher and a student was the student. Helen Jeffries, a friend of Edna’s however, recalls that Edna was also smitten with “Coley” and but for the devotion of Edna to her foster parents, Edna and “Coley” might have married.

This writer also recalls her father remembering taking a spelling test from Miss Wiant during his school days and was asked to spell the word “snow.” Laughing, Coleman said he spelled it with a “c” instead of an “s.” Remaining friends and neighbors most of their lives, Coleman and Edna frequently recalled the failed spelling word with humor well into their “golden years.” Edna, late in life, married Frank McPherson of Burnsville. She died in 1966 and was buried in the Pumphrey Cemetery.

Abalene “Tib” Feeney
Giving instruction to students at the Ben’s Run School in 1931 was Abalene “Tib” Feeney. Named for her maternal grandmother, Abalene Rush, she was the daughter of Patrick Feeney and Bridget (Rush) Feeney of Orlando. Miss Feeney taught at the Ben’s Run School for three or four years. In 1944 she married Charles Harris. They resided in Richmond, Virginia at the time of her death around 1985. Velma Heath, who is aged 84 and lives in the former Rosie and Billy Riffle farm on Ben’s Run, recalls “Tib” Feeney as the most beloved of all the teachers at the Ben’s Run School. Miss Feeney was also the “teacher on horseback” since she saddled up her horse each morning and rode it to her Ben’s Run School.

Mildred Riley
Mildred Riley was another early teacher at the Ben’s Run School. Miss Riley taught at the Ben’s Run School during 1937-1938. Velma Heath recalls that the first paddling she ever got in school was administered by Miss Riley. The daughter of James Riley and Dora (Hutchinson) Riley, she was born in Weston in 1917. During World War II, she served in the Women’s Army Corps. She married John Garton of Alum Bridge in 1948. She died in 1969 and was buried at St. Boniface.

Mary Tulley
The daughter of Orlando residents Martin Tulley and Elizabeth (Green) Tulley, Miss Tulley was an early teacher of the Ben’s Run School which was located just across the hill from her home on Tulley’s Ridge. Mary was teaching at the Ben’s Run School in the early 1940’s when she became ill with tuberculosis. She died at the age of 44 in 1943 and was buried at St. Bridget’s on Goosepen.

Left: Mary Tulley

Lloyd Smith
Lloyd Smith is reported to have been a teacher at the Ben’s Run School during the mid-1930’s but little else is known about him. Velma Heath, a present-day resident of Ben’s Run, was a student of Mr. Smith. Velma recalls that Mr. Smith was a quiet man and that he did not participate in playground activities with his students. Velma believes that Mr. Smith was from Jane Lew or Lost Creek.

Zoe Swecker
Perhaps the most prominent of all the teachers of the Ben’s Run School was Zoe Swecker, a native of Canoe Run. Miss Swecker also taught at the nearby Pine Run School. A teacher at Ben’s Run probably in the late 1930s, she returned to college and received both a Master’s and Doctor of Philosophy Degrees, the latter from the University of Chicago. Dr. Swecker was a career history teacher at Clarion University in Pennsylvania. She was quite well-known amongst the nation’s historians and was a member of several historical organizations.

Thomas Byrne
Residing for a while in Orlando in the former Mrs. Ollie Blake home on Flint Knob near the Orlando School, a teacher named Thomas Byrne taught at the Ben’s Run School prior to 1943. Described as being chronically in a hurry, he was also described as being chronically late. Apparently suffering from a sleep disorder, Mr. Byrne would often fall into a deep sleep during school time. Seizing a golden opportunity, some of his students would quietly gather their books and return to their homes during Mr. Byrne’s naps. Upon awakening from his untimely period of sleep he would find few, if any, students in the classroom. Mr. Byrne, the son of Joseph Byrne and Mary (Doonen) Bryne of Lewis County, was married to the former Mary Gissy. He lived for the most part in the Copley area.

Frank Stoneking
Frank Stoneking taught for many years in country schools throughout Lewis County, including the Ben’s Run School from1943-1945. He is perhaps as well known for his restaurant, “Stoneking’s,” which was located across the old U. S. Route 19 at Roanoke from DeGarmo’s Skating Rink, later known as Rose’s Skating Rink. His son Billy was later a teacher and coach at Walkersville High School.

Mary Walsh
Mary Walsh was a single lady and made her home with her sister in Weston. She commuted to the Ben’s Run School with her colleague, Ronald Farnsworth, who was the teacher at the nearby Pine Run School. Velma Heath recalls Miss Walsh as a “very nice lady.” Miss Walsh taught at the Ben’s Run School from 1945 to 1957. For many community children, Mary Walsh was the only teacher they ever had. During her tenure at Ben’s Run, the windows of the school on one side of the building were removed and boarded over. She also presided over the planting of pine trees around the school building which are now huge and over-grown in relation to their location to the former school building. Among the students who helped plant the pine trees were Erma Heater, Earl Heater, Brenda Heater, Orie Lee Heater, Jim Heater, Clarence Heath and Alton Heath Jr. Former students recall that Miss Walsh was not a great believer in testing and that she assessed the progress of her students by interaction with them in the classroom. Miss Walsh often walked with her students to neighboring Goosepen School for ball games. Occasionally during cold weather, Miss Walsh would arrange for a neighbor to make hot chocolate for her students. She retired from teaching after her years at Ben’s Run.

Left above: Mary Walsh

Left: Ronald Farnsworth

Ronald Farnsworth
Mr. Farnsworth replaced Miss Walsh after her retirement. This writer recalls Mr. Farnsworth as a very quiet man who spoke so softly that his students often had difficulty hearing him. He was a very caring teacher who kept tabs on his former students long after he retired from teaching. He taught at Ben’s Run from 1957 to 1959. Velma Heath recalls random acts of kindness by Mr. Farnsworth who was known to buy clothing for needy students. He would also take the time to visit the homes of his students and talk to the parents about their children’s progress in school. Velma also recalls that Mr. Farnsworth had the peculiar habit of crossing his arms and slapping his shoulders during conversations with others.

Dorothy Wilfong
Dorothy (Persinger) Wilfong was a Burnsville native and graduated from Burnsville High School in 1930. Mrs. Wilfong was one of the many teachers in central West Virginia who taught school on a certificate for many years before getting an actual college degree. She graduated from Glenville State College in 1962. Mrs. Wilfong was married to Basil Wilfong of Linn in Gilmer County. Mrs. Wilfong replaced Mr. Farnsworth as the teacher of the Ben’s Run School. Rather than drive the long distance on country roads, in times of bad weather, she often spent the night with the Heater family. She taught the school for two years from 1959 to 1961.

Left: Dorothy (Persinger) Wilfong
Left, below: Juanita (McClain) Warner

Juanita (McClain) Warner
Mrs. Warner taught the Ben’s Run School during the 1961-1962 school year. A native of Crawford, Mrs. Warner was married to French Warner, a native of Knawl’s Creek. Mrs. Warner was later a teacher at Walkersville, and she also served as a substitute teacher after her retirement. The family moved to Morgantown while their son was a student at West Virginia University. Her son, Gene, achieved a high executive position with the Exxon Corporation. Some years later, Mrs. Warner’s husband, French, operated a taxi service in Weston.

Helena McCudden and the Last Years of the Ben’s Run School
In 1962, Helena McCudden became the final teacher of the Ben’s Run School. This veteran of the teaching profession had taught at many rural schools in Lewis County, including the nearby Pine Run School. A slight woman with firey hair, she was a strict disciplinarian, a magnificent teacher, and a wonderful friend to her students. She told them what she thought they could achieve in the future, and her expectations were high. Even after she sent them on to high school at Weston, she kept up with them.

This writer (Marcia Heater Conrad) was a student of Miss McCudden. After completing the sixth grade, Miss McCudden insisted to my parents (Mr. and Mrs. Coleman Heater) that I be sent to Weston Junior High School for my 7th and 8th grades, rather than remain at Ben’s Run. Although apprehensive (perhaps more like ‘scared to death’) and over my protests, my parents complied with her wishes and I was off to Weston Junior High School for my 7th grade. I recall being embarrassed when my English teacher announced to the entire class that they would have to “make allowances for our friend from the country.” No allowances were necessary, however, because my teachers at Ben’s Run had given me an excellent education and it was soon apparent that I was more advanced academically than the other students in my class. Miss McCudden inspired me to become a teacher, and I use some of her techniques in my classroom today. Although some would call those methods outdated, they are just as effective as they were all those years ago.

Left: Helena McCudden

Miss McCudden was still at the helm at Ben’s Run when the school doors were closed for good and the bell rang for the last time at the last one-room school in Lewis County. Elementary students from Ben’s Run were bused to Roanoke and those above the sixth grade, were taken to Weston to junior high. Miss McCudden ended her teaching career at Weston Central Elementary.

Having spent years in a classroom on both sides of the desk, I can truthfully say that the education I received at Ben’s Run has served me well. In so many ways we were family; older students looked out for and helped the younger ones. There was no bullying and no discrimination. Ben’s Run students are spread far and wide and found in many occupations, but we all have special memories of our little one-room school.

. . . . .

Comment by David Parmer
Bob Pumphrey recalls that when he attended the Three Lick School in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Christmas time was always a great occasion at his school. The Three Lick School was located just over the hill from the head of Ben’s Run, and by the way the crow flies it is but a short distance. The older boys in the Three Lick School were familiar with most everybody who lived on Three Lick, Ben’s Run, Goosepen, and Pine Run, as well as the entire Orlando area. On the final day of instruction at the Three Lick School prior to the Christmas vacation, the school children were all excited about the pending holiday and also in expectation that Santa Claus would pay the school a visit and perhaps leave a few treats for the kids. Bob recalls that Santa Claus did not come by sleigh pulled by reindeer, or even a pick-up truck, but came walking up the road to the school. Bob recalls that Santa had a bag-full of treats for the school children. Bob remembers that Mr. Claus did a great job convincing the younger children that he, in fact, was Santa Claus. Bob, however, was one of the older boys in the school, and together with the other older students, determined that Santa Claus was none other than Coley Heater of Ben’s Run, the father of the author of the story about the Ben’s Run School.

Comment fr0m Marcia (Heater) Conrad:

Although Three Lick School closed before I started school at Ben's Run, it does not surprise me that my father would assume the role of Santa Claus for the school. He was a great friend of Ernestine Tully, who taught for sometime at Three Lick; he would also have had friends and relatives at the school, and, most importantly, he loved bringing joy to children. He was Santa Claus at Ben's Run for as long as I can remember and at Finster Chapel on Goosepen where we attended church. While he might have fooled the students at Three Lick, he could not fool his own children--we always knew how special he was.

Skunk Oil

2010-07-25T13:00:00.014-04:00

A Home Remedy

Flora (Heater) Maynard Pulfrey of Port Charlotte, Florida is the great-granddaughter of Lorenzo Dow Heater (1848-1923) and Emily (Cox) Heater (1854-1888). Although Flora grew up in Burnsville, her paternal grandparents lived on Route 2, Orlando in the Indian Fork area.

Flora sends us a story of yesteryear and a home remedy for colds and lung congestion.

by Flora (Heater) Pulfrey

Medicine – Skunk Oil

for Colds and Lung Congestion

Sometimes a farmer discovered a den of skunks on his farm. The skunks were dug out of their den and killed for their hides which were worth about $1.50 to $2.00 each.

When the skunks were skinned, some of the carcasses had the scent glands removed, after which, several skinned skunk carcasses were placed in a oven roaster and roasted until very well done. Some people ate the roasted skunk meat and other house wives discarded the roasted carcasses. During the roasting process the oil contained in the skunk fat melted and was collected in the bottom of the roaster pan. This skunk oil was then poured into a jar and could be kept indefinitely without any preservatives. When children had congestion in their lungs, mother spread the skunk oil all over the sick child’s chest and then usually covered it with a piece of cotton flannel. It was presumed that the skunk oil cured the congestion in the child’s lungs.

This was a very common and widespread medical treatment in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Flora tells us that the same skunk recipe for a lung congestion remedy was also used in South Dakota which is the home state of her husband. Flora thinks the skunk poultice remedy also aided in the prevention of the spreading of colds because the smell kept other potential victims out of range.

Above, left: Flora (Heater) Pulfrey]

Below, right: Clora Henline

Comment on Skunk Oil
Helen Jeffries remembers that when one of her children was heavily congested with a cold in the late 1940’s, her mother-in-law, Clora Henline, gave her a jar of skunk oil and instructed her to apply the skunk oil to her child’s chest and cover it with flannel. To demonstrate variations on the” skunk oil cure,” Helen also recalls that her friend Lura (Barnett) Williams was visiting her brother Bill Barnett in Orlando and arrived with a cold. Bill gave her a cup of “skunk oil tea” which he guaranteed would break up the congestion.

2010 Orlando Community Reunion

2010-07-23T08:01:00.029-04:00

2010 Orlando Community Reunion
Saturday, Sept. 4

. . . . . 10 a.m. . . . Gates open!

. . . . . 12 noon . .. Covered dish picnic
. . . . . 1-3 p.m. . . .Music by
. . . . . . . . . . . The Smokehouse Pickers

. . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Door Prize Drawings throughout the day

. . . . . 2:30 p.m. Awards &
. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . Crowning of the King & Queen

Candidates who demonstrate Orlando’s Best

Queen..Helen Jeffries or Ethel Doyle.
King...Bob Mitchell or Bill Beckner
King and Queen will be determined by the old "penny a vote".
Cans will be at the registration table. proceeds go toward the 2011 Reunion.
Vote early, vote often!
Poll closes at 1:30.
If you wish to vote ahead of time, you may contact the candidates themselves.

. . . . . .
. . . You Should Bring:
a a covered dish

a lawn chairs

a beverages of choice

a lots of memories.
Table service (paper & plastic ware) and good company will be provided.
No Alcohol on the Premises.

. Fundraisers for the Reunion:
~ Orlando Reunion Cookbook
, , , , , We need YOUR recipes, recipes, recipes!
, , , , ,Your mom’s recipes, your grandma’s recipes, your grandpa’s recipes.
, , , , , (We’ll include their photo if you provide one.)
, , , , , Deadline Aug 2, 2010.
Mail them to Orlando Community Reunion, P.O. Box 74, Orlando, WV 26412
or email them to mposey525@aol.com,
QUESTIONS? Call Marilyn Posey at (304)

~ Commemorative Reunion Votives this year feature the Reunion Committee’s new “Heart of WV” logo. Available at the registration table for a $2.00 donation.

~ 50-50 Chances
Available until 10 minutes before the drawing . . . .

..Location

With thanks to Jarred Mace who owns the property, the Reunion field is north of the Post Office, between Cemetery Road and Oil Creek. There is lots of parking space. Follow the signs. . .

. . . signed,
2010 Orlando Reunion Officers & Board Members

Marilyn Posey-President
Dochie Wymer-Vice-President

Peggy Posey Ramey-Secretary/Treasurer

Sonny Wymer

Charlie Cole

Jerry Wilson

Ann Willey

Nycole Wymer

Alta Jo Keith and Her Autograph Book

2010-07-19T13:00:00.046-04:00

by David Parmer

When you are sitting on the front porch on a summer evening, with dinner over and the chores of the day all done, the sun starting to fall below the green-leafy hillside, the waning hours softened by a soft breeze wafting across the banister, and the rabbit cautiously munching the green shoots at the edge of the creek, what gives more pleasure than an autograph book from long ago lying on your lap, with amusing little poems leaping out at you, calling back memories of long ago. It makes no matter that the autograph book belonged to a long-dead mother. The memory of her, sitting on the porch, leafing through her autograph book, makes her seem almost alive.
Autograph books now are relics of the past, given scant attention by today’s youth, who are absorbed in cars, Ipods, television, texting, and playing phone tag with friends. But to the generations of a hundred years ago, owning an autograph book and asking a friend or classmate to render a little verse between the leather-bound covers, was special. As the song goes, “those were the days, my friend.”

Right, above: a page from Alta's autograph book.

Left: Alta Jo Keith McCord
Right, below: Alta Jo Keith

Alta Jo (Keith) McCord (1912-1995)

Alta Jo Keith was born in 1912, the fifth of seven children, to Hugh Keith and Maggie (Perrine) Keith. Her siblings were Ruth, Eva, Helen, Rudie, Oliver and Woodrow. Alta’s sister Ruth married Audie Cosner of Jacksonville Ridge and Eva wed Thurl Nestor of Spencer. Both sisters and their families eventually moved to Ohio. Alta’s brother Rudie, and his wife, Thelma lived in Ohio. Alta’s younger brother, Oliver, married a Greenbrier County girl, Kathryn “Kitty” Hughes; another brother, Woodrow and his wife, Violet, lived in Akron; and her sister Helen, the youngest of the family, married Harold McCort, also an Ohioan.

At age 29, Alta married Louis McCord with whom she remained for 54 years until her death in 1995. They became the parents of two sons, Louis and Kenneth. Alta’s niece, Cherry Wautot, poignantly remembers that her aunt and uncle were “not just married, but soul bound.”

Left: Maggie Perrine Keith, Alta's mother
Right, below: The Keith home on Oil Creek

Alta, also known as “Shorty” because of her short stature, was only around 10 years of age when her parents separated. Her father, Hugh, left Oil Creek for Clarksburg where he operated a restaurant and store. The marital discord in the Keith family made life difficult for the children, as well as for their mother Maggie. Perhaps because of this discord, the Keith children became quite close and remained so during their entire lives, and, according to her niece Cherry Wautot, Alta was “the glue which held them together.” “She was a marker in many people’s lives,” said Cherry, “the sweetest and kindest person I have ever known. She was full of love and kindness toward other people and had a smile which would light up any room.”

A page from Alta's autograph book

Alta’s Autograph Book

Alta was quite sentimental about her family and friends and held them close her entire life. When she was around 20 years of age, Alta found a new friend – an autograph book. She loved to have people write notes in her book and she carried it with her almost everywhere from 1932 until around 1940. Still single at the time and living with Ornie Gay, Alta listed in her book the names of neighbors, childhood friends with whom she attended the Walnut Grove School, and co-worshipers at the Oil Creek Methodist Church. This story will give the readers a first-hand look at Alta’s autograph book and acquaint them with those who obliged Alta by writing a ditty in her book.

Kitty

“Remember well and bear in mind,

a true good friend is hard to find.”

Kitty wrote a number of amusing verses in her sister-in-law’s autograph book. Kitty was Kathryn Hughes Keith, the wife of Alta’s younger brother, Oliver, whose nickname was “Buck”. Kitty met Oliver when he was enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps and assigned to Kitty’s home county, Greenbrier, during the mid-1930s. Kitty and Oliver visited his old home place as frequently as possible in the 1930’s, in the days before they had an automobile. In those days, train travel was very convenient. Kitty and Oliver could catch a west-bound train on the C & O Railroad to Charleston and transfer to an Orlando-bound train on the B & O Railroad. Another transfer on the Oil Creek branch of the B & O would bring them right to Alta’s front door. Kitty was close friend to Alta, as close as a sister and they truly enjoyed each other’s company. Oliver and Kitty visited Oil Creek frequently over the years and stayed in touch by letter, as true friends do. Oliver died at age 91 in 2005. Kitty lived a few years longer and died in January 2009.

Above left: Buck and Kitty with their first car, a '49 Ford
Left: Oliver "Buck" Keith

Ventrue Damon Fox

“I like honey and you like cheese,

I will give you a kiss and you give me a squeeze.”

Every community usually has a person with an unusual name and the Peterson Siding community’s contribution was Ventrue Damon Fox. The son of Willam Earsey Fox and Rena (Perrine) Fox, Ventrue was born in Centralia in 1917. Centralia was then a bustling lumber town in east central Braxton County near Sutton, and Ventrue’s father was a laborer in the saw mill town. By 1930, the family was living in Weston. During World War II, Ventrue was in the Army and stationed for a time in Donora, Pennsylvania. He married the former Frances Pauline Beall who was born at Orlando but in 1944 was living in Reedy in Roane County. After the war, Ventrue worked as a railroader and died in Winchester, Virginia in 1978.

Virginia McCord
“Within this book so pure and white,

let none but friends presume to write.”

Another autograph book contributor was Virginia McCord, the daughter of David F. McCord and Annie (Myers) McCord. Three years older than Alta, Virginia was Alta’s life-long friend.
Virginia graduated from Burnsville High School in 1929 and was one of the “Roanoke Train Gang.” During the late 1920’s, the Baltimore and Ohio train schedule on the Oil Creek branch included an early train and a late train which made rail travel an ideal way for the young scholars of Roanoke and Oil Creek to attend both high school and grade school at Burnsville. Adopting a play-on-words with “chain gang,” the youthful students of the upper Oil Creek valley, as well as the village of Roanoke, became the “train gang.” Virginia was also known to her friends in Burnsville and on Oil Creek as “Vi.”

Left: top: Eleanore Arnold. left to right: Virginia McCord, Margaret Riffle, Pauline Scarff, Freda Groves.

In 1944 Virginia married Luther Mitchell, an Oil Creek lad and son of Robert Lee and Necie (Skinner) Mitchell. The Buckhannon nuptials were conducted by her brother, Reverend Ralph McCord, another member of the “Roanoke Train Gang” who also attended Burnsville High School. Virgnia’s and Luther’s married life was lived mostly in the Oil Creek area of their birth. She remained a close friend and neighbor of her sister-in-law, Alta, until Alta’s death in 1995. In the mind’s eye, it is easy to see Alta and Virginia sitting during summer evenings on Alta’s front porch, reminiscing about the “olden days” mentioned in Alta’s autograph book.

Virginia’s husband, Luther, died in 1985 at age 64. She died in 1990 at the age of 91 and was

survived by four children, Robert, Tom, Gary, and Wanda. One son, Steve, predeceased her.

Albert Perrine
“In your garden of affection, plant a forget-me-not to bloom for me.”

A native of Ben’s Run, just over the hill from Tulley’s Ridge, Albert Perrine was son of Bartlett Perrine and Genevieve Keith Perrine. Albert’s mother was the daughter of A. J. and Rosellah Keith. Albert’s father was a farmer and also dug coal from a coal bank on his Ben’s Run farm which he sold to households in the Orlando area.

Left: Albert and Mary Perrine.

In addition to being Alta’s contemporary, Albert was also her first cousin. Genevieve, Albert’s mother, and Hugh, Alta’s father, were the two oldest children of A. J. Keith and Rosellah (Kelly) Keith.

Although Albert’s full inscription into Alta’s autograph book reflected a life which appeared to be dedicated to the teaching profession, World War II changed what appeared to be a foregone conclusion for Albert, as it did with many of his contemporaries. After his service in the United States Navy during the war, he lived in Glassport, Pennsylvania, Ocala, Florida, and Chesterland, Ohio. He worked as a sales representative and as a security guard. He and his wife Mary did not have children. He died at the age of 90 in 2001 in Ohio and was buried in Glassport, Pennsylvania. Alta’s son Kenneth recalls that Albert had been an inveterate rock collector during his life and had traveled extensively building his collection.

Everett Andrew Puffenbarger

“When you are washing dishes and mad as you can be,

just squeeze your old dish rag, and think you’re squeezing E. A. P.”

“He was a musicmaker,” according to Alta’s son Kenneth, speaking of Everett Puffenbarger. “He played for hours with Ira Gay, Bud Gay and Ira Hall.” Everett, born in Illinois, was the son of West Virginia natives, Albert Puffenbarger and Reta (Wanstreet) Puffenbarger. Everett’s paternal grandparents were George Harvey Puffenbarger and Rosanna (Keener) Puffenbarger, an Oil Creek farm family.

Left:Evert Andrew Puffenbarger.

Gailord (Gaylord) Keith
“Violets are red, roses are pink;

you are the best looking girl on the creek, I think.”

Gailord was a youthful 17 years old when he penned the little ditty to his first cousin, Alta, in 1934. The son of Red Lick farmers George and Alice (Cosner) Keith, Gailord was the brother of Harold and Leonard “Lindy” Keith. His father George was a younger brother of Hugh Keith (Alta’s father) and Genevieve Keith Perrine (Mrs. Bartlett Perrine). Gailord apparently was never quite sure how to spell his name and it was sometimes spelled “Gaylord,” as it was with his obituary when he died in 1972 at age 55 while he was at work at the Goodyear plant in Akron. He married the former Evelyn Pearl Myers in August 1944 in Phenix City, Alabama when he was in United States Army stationed at nearby Camp Gordon, Georgia.

Herald Keith

“Dear Alta, I hope you live forever and I never die.”

Unfortunately of course, the rules of mortality deigned Herald’s little note to his cousin, Alta, never to come true. In 1980, at the age of 64, he died in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The oldest of the Keith brothers, he served his country, as did his brothers, during World War II.

Leonard “Lindy” Keith

“Lives of great men all remind us we must choose our wine with care,
And departing, leave behind little tots with curly hair.”

Besides being an outstanding baseball player during his teenage years on Oil Creek, Alta’s cousin “Lindy” Keith was quite adept at transforming a Longfellow thought to adorn Alta’s autograph book in order to provide un-Longfellow-like levity. A popular young man during his youth, Lindy, in 1939, married Frances Wooddell, daughter of John Wooddell and Daisy Bennett Wooddell. T. R. Rector, the minister of the Burnsville M. E. Church, South, performed the ceremony, but it is uncertain where the wedding took place since the pastor’s church had burned down, along with a substantial portion of the Burnsville business district, during the preceding month.

Left: Leonard “Lindy” Keith with unidentfied child.

Waylaid by World War II, during which the three Keith brothers, Gaylord, Lindy and Harold, all served, Lindy began a career with the B & O Railroad in central West Virginia after the war. At this time, labor unrest in the coal industry caused substantial uncertainty to the coal-hauling business of the railroad and a railroad career seemed problematic. While on vacation in South Carolina in 1950, Lindy and his wife Frances were visiting with her sister and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. P. D. Scott. His brother-in-law suggested to Lindy that he apply for a position with the nuclear Savannah River plant in South Carolina. Lindy was the 665th person hired out of nearly 25,000 who worked to construct the facility. He made the plant operations his career and worked there for the next 28 and ½ years. Lindy passed away about 10 years ago in Augusta, Georgia.

Charles Willard Keith

“Spring time has come, and our cares from winter is free.
When on others you are thinking, will you sometimes think of me?”

Charles Willard Keith was the youngest of the four sons of George and Alice (Cosner) Keith and the first to die. Willard, as he was known, was but 10 years of age when he penned in youthful hand the thoughtful rhyme to his older cousin. He also urged her to remember the “duck dinner” which they had shared sometime before. Although details are scarce, Willard married after World War II and was working in Ohio when he died as the result of an automobile accident. It is reported that he was the father of two small daughters at the time of his death.

Bertie Ratliff

“Forget you? No, I never will, as long as I can whistle;
I might as well forget to yell, when I step upon a thistle.”

Bertie was Alta’s Oil Creek neighbor. The daughter of David and Elizabeth (Kelly) Helmick, Bertie was born in 1889 in Orlando, which was then known as Confluence. In 1904, she married railroad section hand Andrew Richard Ratliff, the son of William and Elizabeth (Gay) Ratliff. Andrew’s maternal grandparents were Oil Creek pioneers, Andrew W. and Martha Gay. Bertie and her husband Andrew were the parents of Gladys, Gail and Eugene who were classmates of Alta at the Walnut Grove School.

Bertie’s husband, Andrew, died in 1955 and she remarried James Eakle of Clarksburg in 1956. Another long term of married life escaped her, however, since she died the following year. She was buried in the Jacksonville Cemetery.

Eugene Ratliff
“Down in the alley, written on a tree;
2 little words, ‘remember me.’”

Eugene Ratliff was the youngest of Bertie and Andrew Richard Ratliff’s three children. Gladys, the oldest, married Romie Starett of Clarksburg who later worked for Weber’s Dairy in Weston. We know little about the middle child, Gail, except that he died in 1972. We are not certain of Eugene’s life beyond Oil Creek except that he served in the United States Army during World War II and died in 1972. He is buried beside his brother Gail and brother -in-law Romie at the Masonic Cemetery in Weston. Eugene was 12 years old when he wrote the little poem for Alta’s autograph book.

Ruth “Rufus” Helmick
“Love is but a little thing; beauty is a blossom;
If you want your finger bit, point it at a possum.
Remember me until you see a board walk.”

A close friend of Alta and a school mate at Walnut Grove School was Ruth Helmick. Known as “Rufus” to her friend “Alti,” Ruth was the daughter of Rosa Helmick and Jacob Edwin “Ed” Helmick. Ruth’s father operated a saw mill near the mouth of Red Lick which washed away during a flood in the early 1930’s. Delma Jean Skinner, a present resident of Peterson Siding, recalls a concrete structure which sat in the small meadow near the Walnut Grove School which apparently was a remnant of the mill.

Left: Ruth Helmick

According to her granddaughter, Elaine Diaz, Ruth, after completing her schooling at Walnut Grove, passed the state test for a teaching certificate and taught school briefly. In 1933, Ruth married Dana Grove, son of George Grove and Daisy (Wellen) Grove. Three children were born of the marriage, Donald, Elaine and Delores. Tragically, Ruth died of tuberculosis in 1940 at the age of 30. She was buried at Brier Point Cemetery, near the present Stonewall Jackson Lake.

Rosa Helmick
“Remember the cat, remember the kitten;
Remember that boy that gave you the mittens.”

The mother of Ruth (Helmick) Grove and the wife of Jacob “Ed” Helmick, Rosa came to the Oil Creek community during the 1920’s when her husband located a sawmill near the mouth of Red Lick. Rosa was the daughter of Darius Helmick and Louise (Godfrey) Helmick. The family moved to Weston where Rosa died in 1946 at the age of 66.

George P.
“When I am dead and gone to rest
Sit on my grave and laugh your best.”
“Yours until the Atlantic dries up.”

George P. closed his little rhyme to Alta with the words “Class of 1936.” It is believed that this notation references the Sunday school class of Oil Creek Chapel of which Alta was the secretary. As part of her role as secretary for the Chapel, Alta maintained the Sunday School Record Book. A perusal of the school roll at Oil Creek Chapel does not reflect any person who could possibly have been the “George P.” in Alta’s book. The identity of “George P.,” therefore appears to be lost for the ages, unless some reader can provide a clue to his identity.

Mrs. Elmer Perrine (Edna (Workman) Perrine)
“Dear Alta, I wish you a long and happy life.”

This September 1930 note to Alta was perhaps appropriate for the times. The Great Depression had stifled the optimism of the Gay 20’s and prosperity for the average person seemed out of reach. “A long and happy life” was perhaps the foremost thought in the mind of Mrs. Elmer Perrine as she wrote her note in Alta’s autograph book. Mrs. Perrine was the former Edna Workman, daughter of Ezra Workman and Mamie Sandy Workman. Her paternal grandparents were Shelton R. Workman and Margaret Agnes Skinner Workman. Margaret, known as Agnes, was the granddaughter of Alexander Skinner and Phebe Conrad Skinner. Their daughter Edna was married to Alta’s cousin, Elmer Perrine, the oldest of the children of Bartley Perrine and Genevieve Keith Perrine of Ben’s Run.

Left: Edna (Workman) Perrine

Ada Grove
“If you want to have Heavenly joy,
Think more of the Lord and less of the boys.”

Ada Grove was the 7th of 8 children of George I. Grove and Daisy (Wellen) Grove and a long time friend of Alta Keith McCord. Born in 1912, she married Wallace Watson, a Weston merchant, in 1940. He died in 1959 and she re-married Odrie M. Kelley of Brownsville, Fayette Co., PA in 1960. Odrie died in 1968 and Ada died in 1998.

Left: Ada Grove

George Keith
“When in some lonely spot you sit and sight some friend to see,
Recall your thought of last we met and kindly think of me.”

Alta’s Uncle George Keith was married to the former Alice Cosner. They were the parents of Alta’s first cousins, Leonard, Herald, Gailord and Willard.

Thelma McCord
“I love you little, I love you big,
I love you like a little pig.”

Thelma was the daughter of David F. McCord and Annie (Myers) McCord and was a first cousin of Alta’s future husband, Louis. In 1946, Thelma married William Boyles of Toledo, Ohio when she was 34 and he was 65.

Right: Thelma (McCord) and William Boyles.
Left: John and Pauline (Gay) Norton.

Pauline Julia Gay
“When you are washing dishes just as mad as you can be,
Squeeze your dear old dish rag, and think you’re squeezing me.”

Pauline Gay was another of the close friends of Alta. Born in 1916, to John Gay and Bessie Wooddell Gay, Pauline was 17 when she wrote her little poem for Alta. Pauline first married Walter Foster, son of Francis and Marshia Grove Foster in 1942. Later she married John Norton and lived in Milpitas, California.

Matt Gay
“’East is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet,’
That little brown-eyed boy that stays around so much, well, I hope you learn about men from him.”

Matt Gay was the son of Earl C. Gay and Catherine “Kate” Matthews Gay. Matt was the grandson of B. F. Matthews and Clara Bird Matthews of Orlando and Andrew W. Gay and Landonia Summers Gay of Oil Creek. Matt’s mother Kate died in 1922 and his father remarried Ornie Strader of Crawford. Our autograph book keeper, Alta, lived with the Earl and Ornie Gay family during her early years. Ornie Gay was the sister of Olita Strader who was a teacher of the Walnut Grove School.

Matt, the autograph book scrivener, grew up in the home of his grandfather Andrew W. Gay and his parents Earl and Kate Gay, and later his step-mother Ornie Gay. Matt served in the United States Navy during World War II.

Left: Matt Gay

Ornie (Strader) Gay

“To be really serious, I am so glad you are making your home with me.”

Ornie Strader married the widower Earl Gay in 1925. Earl was the son of Andrew W. Gay, Jr. and Landonia Summers Gay, early settlers of the Oil Creek valley. Ornie was the daughter of Nicholas Strader and Rosie Lanham Strader of the Crawford area and had been a teacher prior to her marriage to Earl. Joan Post of Baltimore recalls when her father started the first grade in the Crawford area, his teacher was Ornie Strader. During his first day of school, he arrived with a large cud of tobacco in his cheek. Ornie told him that if he gave up the tobacco habit she would reward him at the end of the school year. Joan’s father gave up his habit. After Earl’s death, Ornie married Archie Clarence McCord, a widower, who had been married to Earl’s sister, Dana. Ornie died in 1992.

Left: Bill and Thelma (McCord) Boyles
Right: Ornie (Strader) Gay

Dee
“When you get married and your husband gets cross,
Just pick up the poker and show him who is boss.”

This amusing rhyme was written by a hand of a youngster in 1933, and simply signed “Dee.” This writer is unsure of the further identity of the young poet. It is however quite apparent that he was an early advocate of the empowerment of women.

Opal
“I love you great, I love you mighty.
I wish your pajamas were close to my nighty.
Now don’t be alarmed and be misled,
I mean on a clothes line instead of a bed.”
“In your drug store of affection, count me as a pill.”

This is another unknown poet who was quite inventive with rhyme. This little ditty was written in 1940.

H. L. F.
“Sure as the lion goes under the log,
I will choose you for my possum dog.”

Maybe the next night’s hunt was on the mind of “H. L. F.” when he scribbled this little poem to Alta and she was no doubt honored to be dubbed the “possum dog” to lead the chase. The identity of this intrepid hunter is unknown.

Eva
“Remember the nite you had to get up to let us in,
The way we arrived it was a sin,
Come up and see me sometime when you “kin.”

Although the writer is not absolutely certain, but after an exhaustive search of the residents in the Oil Creek area during the days of Alta's youth, the only "Eva" the writer could find is Eva Keith, Alta's sister.

Left: Eva Keith

Mr. X. Y. Z.
“Here’s to the gates of Heaven, here’s to the depths of Hell,
Darn a boy who’ll kiss a girl, then go and tell.”

Mr. X. Y. Z. noted that he was at “Edith’s Home” at the time he wrote this 1936 admonishment of the boy who tells. Perhaps the “Edith” whose home is referenced is Edith Groves who wrote the next little truism.

Edith Groves
“Fall down stairs, break your neck,
Fall from Heaven like a dove.
But never fall in love.”

Edith Groves wrote this little note of caution to Alta in 1936. Edith was the daughter of Wilson Groves and May (Hersman) Groves of Oil Creek and the granddaughter of Francis Marion Groves and Leah (Gay) Groves. Edith apparently disregarded her own advice to Alta because she married two years later to Gerald Donaldson.

Right Ada, Hazel and Edith Grove, Edith Keith

Helen Keith
“When I am dead and gone to rest, hop on my grave and laugh your best;
When I am dead and in my grave, ‘member the girl who couldn’t behave.”

Alta’s sister, Helen Keith, was born in 1917, was the youngest of the Keith family, and enjoyed fun and frivolity. Helen spent most of her life in the Columbus, Ohio area and was married to Harold McCort. She died in 1996.

M. P.
“Remember well and bear in mind,
A rooster’s tail sticks out behind.”

A little barnyard humor was the gist of this little ditty by Mabel Puffenbarger, Alta’s school mate at Walnut Grove School. Mabel lived most of her life in the Akron area and worked for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office as a tax collector. Mabel died in 2000 and was buried in the Peterson Community Cemetery. She never married.

“Jerry”
“I had a little cat, I fed her on tin cans
When the little kittens came, they came in Ford Sedans.”

Alta often took her autograph book to church and in October 1933, her female friend “Jerry” wrote this amusing little joke of the time. There were many jokes about the Ford automobiles of the 1930’s such as a Ford came in any color you wanted as long as it was black. The writer is unsure of the identity of “Jerry.”

Dorothy Peterson

“The little boy stood on the burning deck, eating peanuts by the peck,
The flame flew up and burnt his chin, but he kept poking the peanuts in.”
“Yours till the egg plants hatch spring chickens”

Dorothy Peterson was the daughter of Charles Peterson and Emeline Smith Peterson of Oil Creek. In 1934, she married Napier native Walter Currence, a coal miner, who was killed in a slate fall at the Weston State Hospital coal mine. She re-married Silbert Harley Workman of Weston. Dorothy was Alta’s classmate and long-time friend.

Alta and siblings: Ruth Eva, Rudy, Alta, Oliver, Woodrow, Helen

for Alta
A parting word, here we tender
To our Alta, a note, we send her.
Oil Creek bred, and life-time long,
Many friends, indeed a throng,
Enjoyed her laughter, all her days
Adieu, we bid her, her life be praised.

. . . . .

Comment from Darrell Groves

"Kelley" and Aunt Ada lived in Brownsville, PA when they were first married. He was a mechanic for the B&O Railroad and worked in the roundhouse there. They lived in an apartment in Brownsville which had been the Brownsville Brewing Company. It was a great apartment except for the aroma of days gone bye. They were use to the smell, but visitors experienced a distasteful sensual experience that did not smell like beer at all.

Right: the Brownsville Brewing Company building

Comment from Flora (Heater) Pulfrey of Port Charlotte Florida:
“I keep reading articles on the Orlando site and think they are great. It is one of the best sites I have seen on the Internet. I am recommending it to my [genealogy] group. It is good reading even if you don’t have relatives in that area. What surprised me is how many people have roots in Orlando. You would think it was a large place.”

Right: Flora "Betty" (Heater) Pulfrey

Orlando Home Cooking

2010-07-18T14:56:00.013-04:00

NOTICE

There have always been fine country cooks in Orlando. The Reunion Committee is celebrating them with a cookbook. Have you any recipes passed down to you that you would like to include in this heirloom cookbook? Contact Marilyn Posey at 1 (304) 853- 2368 or mposey525@aol.com. Call soon, as the deadline is the end of July.

from Jackie (Witzgall) Holbrook

Jackie (Witzgall) Holbrook is a granddaughter of Edith (Skinner) Stutler. Edith was one of those fine country cooks, but she is particularly remembered for her cooking because she was the cook at Orlando’s three room school house in the 1950s and ‘60s.

Jackie shares with us four of Edith’s recipes. Edith wasn’t raised with written recipes. Like all country cooks, it was a handful of this and a pinch of that. However, the following two desert recipes, peanut butter cookies and apple raisin bar, probably were for school cooks, from the government. The third recipe for biscuits she measured out for her daughters. The fourth is recipe for the mixture to sugar-cure a ham.

Left: Edith (Skinner) Stutler

Right: Jackie (Witzgall) Holbrook

Edith’s Recipes

Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs well beaten
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups sifted flour
2 tsp soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Cream the shortening thoroughly. Add sugar gradually then the beaten eggs and peanut butter.
Sift flour, soda and salt. Add gradually to the wet mixture, mixing well.
Shape into balls the size of walnuts. Flatten with fork, bake until brown. 400 degrees. Makes 100 cookies.

Apple Raisin Bar
2 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp. soda (baking soda)
1 cup rolled oats

Melt butter and blend all together. Put half in greased pan. Pat down.Put in the following filling

2 cups applesauce
1 cup raisins
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup nuts

Cover with the rest of the crumb mixture and bake in a 300 F. oven for 30 to 45 minutes. Cool and cut into squares.

Above right Edith as a young woman

Right: Edith just come in from milking on a winter morning

Biscuits
1 ½ tsp salt
2 Tbs Baking Powder
1/3 cup Shortening (Crisco)
2 cups Flour
1 ¼ cups Buttermilk (this would have been fresh from the butter churn.)
Edith’s recipe doesn’t include instructions on how to mix or form the biscuits or the temperature and cooking time for them.

Mixture to Sugar-Cure a Ham
1 pint salt (that’s 2 cups)
½ pint brown sugar (that’s 1 cup)
1 Tbs black pepper
¼ tsp saltpeter
1 tsp red pepper
¼ tsp Borax

According to Edith’s grandson Bill Beckner, the mixture is rubbed and packed on the fresh ham. The coated ham is slipped into a feed sack and hung in the meat house. When the juices quit dripping from the ham, the ham is cured. Note that this is not a smoked ham. It is a sugar-cured ham. Although folks in Orlando speak of smoked ham, we have yet to find someone who remembers hams being smoked.

Left: Edith (in green) with some of her grandchildren and greatgrandchildren during a visit to Detroit in the late 1960s.

Comment by Sonny and Dochie Wymer about Orlando Cook Vada Gay
Sonny Wymer recalls that he went to school at the Orlando School from the first to the third grade. He thinks because of overcrowding at Orlando, the Braxton County Board of Education mandated that students who lived in Lewis County would not be allowed to continue attending the Braxton County Orlando School. He and other Lewis County students who had been attending Orlando were then sent to the nearby Walnut Grove School at Peterson Siding by the short yellow bus which looked like a “cheese box.” At that time the Oil Creek road was unpaved and mostly mud. Sonny says, “ I did more walking to school than riding because the bus simply wouldn’t go through the mud.”

Sonny remembers well the school lunches at Walnut Grove School. “Vada Gay was the school cook and she made the best ever mac and cheese.” Her peanut butter cookies were “yum, yum.”
Sonny’s wife Dochie also attended the Walnut Grove School and recalls that Icie Skinner made the best boiled and browned potatoes. “I can still taste it after all these years.”
Sonny recalls that the school lunches at Walnut Grove School were “all good and there was plenty of it.”

Comment about Orlando Cook Icie (Gay) Skinner
Delma Jean (Foster) Skinner of Peterson Siding recalls that her mother-in-law Icie (Gay) Skinner was a cook at the Walnut Grove School for six or seven years during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

“She was just a good all-around cook,” recalls Delma Jean. “Her pies would melt in your mouth. She made all kinds of pies: raisin, pumpkin, berry, and apple; they were so good.” Delma Jean also recalls Wanda Gay telling her that Icie’s potato soup was the “best she ever tasted, and try as hard as she could and as many times as she could, she just never could make it like Icie’s.”

Delma Jean also recalls that she and her sister-in-law Mary Skinner (Wine) would go over to the Walnut Grove School after lunch was over and help Icie wash dishes and clean up the kitchen.
Icie and her husband, Delmer Skinner, lived on Rag Run.

Right: Icie (Gay) Skinner

. . . . .

Note: Edith (Skinner) Stutler was the great granddaughter of Alexander and Fibi (Conrad) Skinner, Daniel and Margaret (Shields) Conrad, George T. and Mary (Godfrey) Duvall, George and Patience (Blake) Mathews, Isaac and Mary (Sponaugle) Bennett and other pioneers of what is now central West Virginia.

Right: Alexander and Fibi (Conrad) Skinner

Note: Another Edith (Skinner) Stutler food entry is at http://orlandostonesoup.blogspot.com/2006/09/funeral-pie.html

A Teacher’s Memory Book

2010-06-16T08:50:00.028-04:00

by David Parmer

Left: Olita Strader – Teacher at the Walnut Grove School near Peterson Siding

It was just a simple booklet, given by a caring teacher at the end of the school year, but to Terry Blake it was a treasure. Terry had never had a book inscribed with his name before, and besides that, it had the photo of Terry’s Walnut Grove teacher, “Miss Olita,” adorning the front inside cover. The school memory book was taken home by Terry and carefully placed in his secret hiding box. The treasured booklet would be extricated by Terry from its secret place from time to time over the years so that he could gaze upon the photo of “Miss Olita” and see his name, “Terry Blake,” emblazoned (at least in Terry’s mind) in the dedicatory place.

Walnut Grove School

It was 1924 and the Walnut Grove School serving the Peterson Siding community was full of school children. The residents of Oil Creek near Peterson Siding were mostly all subsistence farmers, with some railroaders filling out the slate. There were no luxuries and besides a few marbles, school children, and especially Terry Blake, son of Martha (Posey) and Joseph Blake, had few “treasures.” But now Terry had a memory book with his teacher’s photo and his name written in it. And it was personally given to him by “Miss Olita.”

Olita Strader

Olita Strader was one of the many dedicated school teachers serving in the Oil Creek area during the early part of the 20th century. Although her first name was “Edna,” no one ever referred to her by that name, and instead she was known to her family, friends and acquaintances as “Olita.” To her students, she encouraged the use of “Miss Olita.”

Born to Nicholas and Rosie (Lanham) Strader at Wildcat in 1901, Miss Olita was born to be a teacher, in a family of teachers. The fourth of nine children, Olita attended graded school at Roanoke and, after having exhausted all of the local schooling available to her, prior to 1920, Olita enrolled in Glenville Normal School at Glenville where she earned her teaching certificate.

By 1924, Olita would have been 23 years of age. Whether Walnut Grove was her first teaching assignment we cannot be certain. Memories have faded or died and records are non-existent except for a few mementoes such as Terry Blake’s memory book which provide a record of the students who attended Miss Oita’s school at Walnut Grove.

Miss Olita’s Students at Walnut Grove

Terry Blake

Terry Blake has already been introduced above to the reader. As mentioned, he was the son of Joseph Franklin and Martha (Posey) Blake. In 1924, Terry was listed by “Miss Olita” as a “Beginner – Second” in his Memory Book. Presumably this meant that he was in the second grade. Unfortunately, Terry did not advance much academically because he was afflicted with a speech impediment, as well as mental retardation, and today would be identified as a “Special Needs” student. As he grew older, his physical growth did not keep pace with his age, and he was a very small person after reaching adulthood. To provide him with a sense of security, his mother always accompanied him wherever he went in order to assure that he would not get lost on his short travels away from home. He was however, adept at riding a bicycle which he rode near to his home on Red Lick, a short distance from the Walnut Grove School.. Terry never married and lived his entire life on Red Lick with his sister Ellie and his mother upon whom he was totally dependent.

Violet Blake

In 1924, Violet Blake, sister of Terry, was one of “Miss Olita’s" oldest students. Today, it would almost be unheard of that a seventeen year old would still be attending grade school. However, in 1924, it was quite common that students of that age remained in school as eighth grade students. There was no high school to attend, and with the help an older reliable student for the younger children, teachers would often tailor class work to include post-eighth grade instruction for the older student.

Right, above: Terry Blake

Left: Walnut Grove School near Peterson on Oil Creek

In 1928, when she was twenty-one years of age, Violet married James Townsend, son of Albert Townsend. They lived their married life on Route 2, Weston, until Violet died in 1967 at age fifty-eight. She was buried in the Mitchell Cemetery on Clover Fork.

Oliver, Woodrow and Helen Keith

Oliver, Woodrow and Helen Keith, the three youngest children of Hugh Keith and Margaret “Maggie” Perrine Keith attended the Walnut Grove School in 1924. The four older Keith children, Ruth, Eva, Rudy and Alta had already completed their eight years of schooling and their help was needed on the farm. The Keith family was long associated with the Peterson Siding area. Hugh, the son of Albert and Rosella (Kelley) Keith, operated a general store for several years after he and Maggie were married in 1905. Sometime around 1922, marital bliss ended in the Keith family and Hugh moved to Clarksburg and opened a restaurant. The Peterson Siding Store was sold to Walter Foster and Maggie and her seven children continued to reside at the Keith home a short distance up Red Lick.

Oliver was born in 1914 and attended the Walnut Grove School through the 8th grade. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps during the 1930’s and served in Greenbrier County where he met his wife. Oliver lived much of his life in Greenbrier County and for many years was manager of a large dairy farm until he developed an allergy to cattle dander. Oliver later worked for the Radford Arsenal in Virginia and for the Department of Highways. He died in 2005.

Oliver’s brother Woodrow was about a year younger. Like his older brother, Woodrow attended Walnut Grove School through the 8th grade and would have been around a third grade student during Miss Olita’s 1924 term. Woodrow served in the United States Army during World War II and after the farm bought a farm near Akron, Ohio. A part-time farmer, Woodrow also worked as an assembler in a plant which manufactured devices used in the space industry. He died at the age of 79 in 1995.

Right above: Oliver Keith

Left: Woodrow Keith

Helen, the youngest of the Keith children, like so many other Oil Creek natives, migrated to Ohio for employment when she was old enough to work. Helen worked in the food and lodging industries at various places in the Columbus area where she died in 1996 at the age of 78. Her married name was McCort.

An interesting historical note about the Keith children is that their great-grandfather John J. Keith (1823-1890) was a veteran of the Mexican War. He is buried in the Keith Cemetery on Red Lick.

Frank, Norman and Henry Ables

Frank, Norman and Henry Ables were sons of Jackson and Eliza (Riffle) Ables, and were born in 1908, 1912, and 1913 respectively. Although their normal residence was on Butchers Fork, during the 1924 school year the Ables brothers were living on Bear Run with their Aunt Fannie Riffle Atkinson (their mother’s sister) and her husband Philip Sheridan Atkinson. At the time Fannie and Philip were in their late 40’s and had a young daughter named Mary. Frank, Norman, and Henry were old enough to do farm chores for their aunt and uncle before and after school, an arrangement which was mutually beneficial.

Frank, the oldest of the three Ables children attending the Walnut Grove School in 1924, married Grace Deletha Posey, the daughter of Martha (Riffle) Posey and “Jack Sam” Posey, a noted hunter of ground hogs who was frequently mentioned in the writings of Uncle Zeke in the Buzzardtown News. Frank worked during his lifetime as a coal miner. He died in 1998 at age 89 and was buried in the Jacksonville Cemetery.

Norman Ables was a farmer and lived most of his life on Butchers Fork, Vandalia, and in the Indian Fork area. He married Ruth Neal, the daughter of Fletcher Neal and Mary Radcliff Neal. Norman served in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the 1930’s in Pocahontas County and was engaged mostly in the building of roads and the planting of trees. Norman died in 1976 at age 64, and was buried in the Harrison Grove Cemetery near Copley.

Henry Ables, the middle in age of the Ables children attending the Walnut Grove School in 1924 was the first to pass away. Henry married the former Mamie Townsend, the daughter of Albert and Virginia Barnett Townsend. Henry and Mamie lived in the Three Lick area. Their children, three decades later, would also attend the Walnut Grove School which their father attended in 1924. Henry was barely 39 years of age when he died in 1948. He was buried in the Jacksonville Cemetery.

Five Puffenbarger Children:

Harry, Lillie, Nellie, Mabel, and Madeline

The Puffenbarger children who attended Walnut Grove School in 1924 were not all siblings. Sisters Mabel and Madeline were the children of Wilbert Puffenbarger and Vera Gay Puffenbarger. Harry M. Puffenbarger and his sisters Lillie and Nellie were the children of the late Roy Puffenbarger and Blanche Ables Puffenbarger. Harry was living with his uncle Addison Puffenbarger on Bear Run and Lillie and Nellie were living with their mother Blanche who later remarried Lloyd Riffle. The fathers of the Puffenbarger children were brothers and were the sons of Joshua Puffenbarger and Louisa Varner Puffenbarger.

Right: Madeline Puffenbarger
Right below: Mabel Puffenbarger

Mabel Puffenbarger never married and lived most of her adult life in the Akron, Ohio area. She was an employee of the Summit County, Ohio Sheriff’s Office for many years and worked as a tax collector. She died in 2000 and was buried at Peterson Siding. Her sister Madeline, who also never married, lived for many years with her elderly cousin Frank Groves at Peterson Siding. After Frank died, she lived with Sylvia and Hayward Groves at Peterson Siding for many years. Late in life, she moved to Akron and lived with Frank’s daughter, Ersel Groves Spencer. Madeline was residing in a nursing home in Ohio when she paased away in August of 2010.
Harry Puffenbarger was raised by his bachelor uncle Addison Puffenbarger on Bear Run after the death of his father Roy in 1922 at the age of 30. Harry followed his uncle into the carpentry and home-building trade, as had many of the Puffenbarger family. An example of the still-existing carpentry handiwork of Addison and his nephew, Harry, is the former J. W. “Bill” Conrad store building in Orlando, now owned by the Burgett family. Around 1930, Harry and his Uncle Addison dismantled the original J. W. “Bill” Conrad Store in Orlando and rebuilt the store in its current location. Harry married Martha Florence Radcliff of Gilmer County in 1941 but they soon separated. He lived at Peterson Siding and died in 1992. Harry’s sister Lillie married Martin Posey and his sister Nellie never married.

Clarence and Mabel Perkey

Clarence and Mabel Perkey were the children of Hayden D. Perkey and his wife Grace Bailey Perkey. Hayden had been a planing mill employee and worked in the busy Braxton County lumber industry during the early 1900’s. He later worked as a carpenter and farmer. Mabel Perkey was twelve years of age when she was a student of Miss Olita at the Walnut Grove School in 1924. After becoming of age, she began work in Clarksburg where she met her future husband Luther Johnson. They married in 1934.

Mabel’s older brother, Clarence, left the Walnut Grove School and Peterson Siding at an early age to work in the coal mines near Boomer, West Virginia. A mere three years after he sat attentively in the Walnut Grove School, he was dead of typhoid fever which he contracted while working for the Boomer Coal and Coke Company. His remains were returned before Christmas in 1927 to the Peterson Siding Cemetery on the hill overlooking the Walnut Grove School.

Not long after their son and brother, Clarence, was laid to rest in the Peterson Village Cemetery, the Perkey family left the upper Oil Creek valley and moved to McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where Hayden found employment.

Floda Hoover

Floda Hoover was the daughter of Clyde and May Peterson Hoover and the granddaughter of Charles Henry and Emeline Smith Peterson with whom she made her home. Her mother’s family was long connected with the Peterson Siding village which was named for her family. In 1924, Floda was an eleven year old student of Miss Olita, and lived close to the Walnut Grove School. Two of her classmates in Miss Olita’s classroom were her close-in-age aunts, Lora and Dorothy Peterson. Since Floda was familiar with the Puffenbarger name, she married the Arthur Puffenbarger, the son of George Harvery Puffenbarger and Rosa Keener Puffenbarger. Arthur was the first cousin of her five Puffenbarger classmates at Walnut Grove School.

Dorothy and Lora Peterson

The daughter of Charles Peterson and Emeline Smith Peterson, Dorothy was twenty-one years of age when she married Walter Currence in 1934. Five short years later she would be a widow with two young children, Delcie and Wilda, when her husband was killed in a slate fall at the Weston State Hospital coal mine. She remarried in 1940 to Silbert Harley Workman of Weston. They became the parents of eight children, all of whose names began with the letter “S” and with a middle name which began with the letter “H.” Dorothy passed away in 1990 and is buried in the Machpelah Cemetery in Weston. Dorothy’s daughter by her first marriage, Delcie, was a frequent visitor to Peterson Siding during her youth and recalls that Sylvia Groves was her Sunday School teacher. Delcie, now a resident of Florida, recalls how she loved to visit the Oil Creek area and how much she misses it.

Lora Peterson was three years older than her sister Dorothy. Dorothy’s and Lora’s older sister Charlotte had married a Connellsville, Pennsylvania native, John Wiltrout, and during a visit with her sister, Lora met her future husband, David Bates, who was also from Connellsville. After their marriages, Lora and Charlotte made Pennsylvania their permanent home.

Stanton and Lena Gay

Lloyd Stanton Gay was the son of Lloyd Glen Gay and Laura (Wellen) Gay. Afflicted with polio when he was young, Stanton had some mobility problems when he was young. After his Walnut Grove school days ended, he took up farming on the family farm. Tragically, an unknown heart ailment proved his end and he died in 1941 at the age of twenty-seven. Like his Walnut Grove School classmate, Clarence Perkey, who died of typhoid while working in the Kanawha coal fields fourteen years prior, Stanton reposes in the Peterson Village Cemetery, not far from his classmate, Clarence.

Stanton’s sister, Lena Gay, was a nine year old student of Miss Olita in 1924. Lena remained single during her lifetime and continued to live on upper Oil Creek. Doris Nicholas of Dunbar recalls pleasant visits with Lena at her home over the years.

Herbert Fox

Herbert Fox was the son of Howard Reese Fox and Elizabeth (Posey) Fox. In 1924, he was fourteen years old, two years younger than his older brother Harley. Herbert began farming for a living after his Walnut Grove school days ended and at age twenty-one married Marnie Elizabeth Taylor Sims. Herbert’s last known address was Jane Lew.

Martha Brooks and Charles Brooks

Mary Summers, a kindly woman in her mid-60's who lived at Peterson Siding, was the daughter of Adam Summers and Mary Corathers Summers and a half-sister of Charles Peterson of Peterson Siding. In 1924 Mary took in as foster children a brother and sister, Charles and Martha Brooks, both of whom were enrolled at the Walnut Grove School. The family origin of Charles, who was afflicted with dwarfism, and his sister Martha is unknown and little is known of their life after Walnut Grove. Their foster mother, Mary Summers, eventually moved away from Peterson Siding and into Homewood where she died in 1940 at the age of 82.

The Class Roll is Complete

This completes the class roll of Walnut Grove School of 1924. Nearly ninety years have passed and all of the students of Miss Olita have since died. Few family members of the students still remain in the upper Oil Creek valley and the descendants for the most part have moved away to other sections of the country and have done well. Children of today know little of the struggles of their forebears to make ends meet for the simple things to keep body and soul together. No government programs existed to help educate school children with special needs or to provide support for them if their parents died or became disabled. There were no luxuries in the homes of the families of Peterson Siding and their livings were eked from the soil and from the sweat of the brows of the families. The compassion of neighbors to take in orphans and needy children has mostly been forgotten in the pages of time. Miss Olita, who took from a meager salary the wherewithal to buy each of her students a memory book, was long remembered by her students, and needs to be remembered still, by chronicles such as this one.

Miss Olita

It is unknown how long Miss Olita taught at the Walnut Grove School. We do know that she married Karl Post in 1928 when she was twenty-seven years of age and that she gave up her teaching career in order to raise three sons. Tragedy however struck her life when her husband died suddenly in 1936, in the midst of the Depression, leaving her a widow with three children to support. She returned to what she knew best – teaching. She re-enrolled at Glenville State Teachers College to renew her teaching certificate and in 1941 she returned to teaching at the Roanoke School and later at Jane Lew. After touching the lives of many more youngsters with selfless devotion, she retired because of poor health in 1966 and died in 1982.

Right: Olita (Strader) Post with her husband Karl Post

She lies in the serene Mitchell Cemetery, overlooking the picturesque Stonewall Jackson Lake at Roanoke, beside her husband Karl who died many years before her. Many of the students she taught at Walnut Grove School and at the Roanoke School also are at rest in this immaculately kept burial ground. Miss Olita’s son Bill wrote, “Doing for others – that was a way of life for the Strader family, and Olita was no exception.” No better epitaph could mark the stone which lies above her head.

. . . .

Note on the Puffenbarger Family
In the early 1900’s, four sons of Joshua Puffenbarger and Louisa (Varner) Puffenbarger of the Churchville area of Lewis County became residents of the upper Oil Creek valley. Addison, Wilbert, James Roy and George Harvey Puffenbarger found farms in the Peterson Siding and Bear Run areas and raised families there. Addison however remained single and never married although he did help raise the sons of his late brother, James Roy, who died young.

Joshua Puffenbarger (1841-1924) was born in Pendleton County, the son of German-born Henry Puffenbarger and Ireland-born Fanny (Stone) Puffenbarger. Henry was the son of Peter Puffenbarger and the former Sarah Pickle. Henry’s sister Charlotte married Adam Grogg of Highland County. Charlotte’s and Adam’s son, Samuel Grogg, married Margaret Lantz. Their son, Lee Grogg and his wife, the former Mary Montana Tracy, were the great-grandparents of this writer.

Note on the photo to the right:

Left to right is Terry Blake, with Jim Townsend and Jennings Roosevelt Blake

Comment 1 by Terri Bohl

While investigating my grandfather's family I was very pleased to come across your blog!

I am the granddaughter of the Herbert Fox mentioned in this article. Just to complete what you have listed, I thought I'd add to your information.

Grandpa passed away in Jane Lew on 2/6/88. His wife (my grandma) passed away in St. Louisville, Ohio, on 5/30/94. They had one son, Herbert Blaine (my dad) who is still living.

Great Grandma's full name was Laura Elizabeth Posey.

Thank you for this piece of the puzzle I've been trying to sort out...so many records were destroyed in a courthouse fire that it's been difficult and every little bit counts!