Upper Clover Fork Families of the 1930’s

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

by Nina Myers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Clover Fork Neighbors

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

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Comment by Charles Bennett

Emery “Possum” Skinner

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

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

When I Was a Kid . . .

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

by Nina (Smarr) Myers, 2009

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

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~ People made their own baskets and furniture.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~ Hair was curled with heated curling irons and crimpers.

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

~ There was always cuffs on trousers.

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

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

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

~ There were no blue jeans, but only overalls.

~ Either the mother or father was the family barber.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~ When saucers were called sassers?

~ When cucumbers were called cowcumbers?

~ When a garden was called a gyarden?

~ When watermelons were called watermilyuns?

~ When panthers were called painters?

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

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

~ When cartridges were called catridges?

~ When we used to tan groundhog hides for shoestrings?

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

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

~ When preachers wore stove pipe hats?

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

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

~ When people wore homeknit wool socks winter and summer?

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

~ When grown ups went to church barefooted?

~ When people roasted field squashes in hot embers?

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

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

My Early Years on Clover Fork with the Holbert Family

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by Nina Myers as told to David Parmer

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

Death of My Father

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

We Children Came to Clover Fork

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

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

Mrs. Holbert, My Foster Mother

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

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

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

A Speech Impediment

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

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

Equal Rights

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

Chores and Lessons of Life

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

A Career

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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