Home Shopping

With our traditionally rough terrain and isolated location, transportation has been a huge factor in Orlando's history. The town came to be around 1900 because of a major change in the field of transportation: the railroad. When the railroad ceased stopping for passengers in the early 1940s there was a need for other arrangments. For many of the generally cash-poor residents, an auto was not considered a sound investment. Even with a car or truck, before I-79 and the general upgrading of the roads, if you had to go in to Weston you left right after breakfast and unless you planned to eat in town, you hurried to get back for a late dinner [served at we call lunchtime today]. That is, if you owned a car of truck.

Left: Gid Skinner in the 1950s was still driving his mule and buckboard into Orlando from his place on Clover Fork.

Right: This was taken in the northwest corner of greater Orlando, in Gilmer County, in the 1930s.

by David Parmer

Turn on any television today, in any place, and you can find everything you ever dreamed of on the Home Shopping Network. Pick up your phone and place a call, or go online and place your order and in seven to ten days, you can have that genuine diamond, chain saw, or whatever it was that caught your fancy and you couldn’t live without.

Dial back the clock and leaf back through the calendar to the 1940’s and 1950’s and you can still find an older home shopping network, serving the households of Orlando, Clover Fork, and all up and down Oil Creek and Posey Run. There was no need to go to the store because the store came to you.

Oven Gold Bakery

Once a week during the early 1950’s, a van with Oven Gold Bakery emblazoned on its side made an appearance in Orlando. Not only could you buy a loaf of “store-bought” bread but there were other goodies to delight the sweet tooth waiting inside the door. Donuts, apricot-filled bars, bismarcks, and white cross buns were exotic favorites and were a change from the delicious but ordinary chocolate cakes and apple pies which usually filled the larder.

Weston Laundry and Cleaners

Another truck which made a weekly appearance in Orlando was Weston Laundry and Cleaners. In the days before polyester slacks and jackets, this dry cleaning business located in Weston was quite busy and served Orlando well. The 1950’s Orlando family dressed to go to church, to the funeral parlor, to PTA, to Weston or Burnsville to shop, to a neighbor’s house to visit, or even to Brown’s Store. Even the poorest of families made a point to dress stylishly and presented themselves in properly cleaned clothing. This writer recalls while growing up in Burnsville, the Weston Cleaners made weekly calls to Burnsville homes, as did dry cleaning companies from Glenville and Gassaway. The household which had clothing to be picked up for cleaning displayed a sign which was located in a window and visible to the dry cleaning truck driver.

W. E. Marple Company

The largest general store in Burnsville during the 1930’s through the 1950’s was the W. E. Marple Company located on Main Street. This store enjoyed a large trade with the outlying communities of Orlando, Copen, Hyre’s Run, and in the Little Kanawha River communities above and below Burnsville. Bill Wiant, grandson of W. E. Marple, advised the writer that, while a student he worked for his grandfather’s store and made deliveries of groceries and farm-related goods to customers in Orlando and on Oil Creek. Orlando residents were on the same telephone line with Burnsville and it was not a long distance call to place an order for groceries with the Burnsville store. In those days, most families were a one-automobile family at best and many wives did not drive. If the family vehicle was being used to get to a place of employment, a grocery store which delivered groceries was a valued service.

Parmer’s General Store

Another Burnsville store which delivered groceries and farm items to Orlando customers was the Parmer Store at the end of the iron bridge on Depot Street in Burnsville. This store was chock full of kegs of horseshoe nails, cattle and hog feed, salt blocks and enough fly paper to plaster the earth. Sewing notions of all kinds, such as thread, needles and fabric, were available as was a full line of similarly-appearing brown shoes and clothing preferred by farmers. E. J. Cox, the co-owner of this store, was well-known in Orlando as principal of the Orlando School and the Posey Run School, and was the owner of a farm at the mouth of McCauley Run.

Above left is Parmer's Store, Eolin Cox is to the right.

The Blue Goose Bus Line

If you needed something from a Burnsville or Weston store, Paul Knight of the Blue Goose line was always accommodating. If there was cream to take to market in Weston, again Paul Knight was your man.

Catalog Sales

Few today remember the catalog store, National Bellas Hess. Although this national merchandising store went into bankruptcy in the 1970’s, at one time it rivaled Sears & Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, and Spiegel’s as a leader in catalog sales. Shoes, prom dresses, shotguns, musical instruments, watches and whatever else could be ordered and received promptly by the Orlando shopper. According to her granddaughter, Barbara Jeffries Parmer, Bellas Hess was the catalog of choice of Clora Henline who “swore by it.”

Right: a page from the National Bellas Hess 1920 catalog

Below, left and right: Mc Ness products

Local Dealers

McNess Products
In a classified ad in the Braxton Democrat in the August 1st, 1929 issue, under “Male Help Wanted,” the McNess Company of Freeport, Illinois solicited a “reliable man to run the McNess business in Braxton County.” Suggesting earnings of $8 to $12 per day, the prospective McNess salesman did not require any “capital investment or experience.” A McNess man frequently made calls in Orlando, mostly during times of good weather, taking orders for all sorts of household goods such as baking pans and Corningware. The last two items were purchased by Helen Jeffries of Oil Creek from Mr. Curry, the McNess salesman in the 1960’s. The McNess line also included pie fillings, Jello puddings and spices.

Porter's Pain King Salve

Clora Henline of Orlando was a local salesperson for Pain King salve, a very popular ointment for scrapes, cuts and bruises, during the 1930’s. Clora kept a trunk of Pain King salve for sale for the many residents of Orlando who were regular customers. A story about Pain King salve was posted earlier on this website.

This writer when aged eleven or twelve tried his hand at selling Cloverene salve, a competitior of Pain King. Receiving a shipment in the mail of two dozen tins of the “wonderful elixir,” sales in Burnsville proved brisk and the shipment was soon sold out.

Drummers, Pack Peddlers and Salesmen

Lis Thomas
Into the early 20th century, pack peddlers scoured the hills and hollows, bringing all sorts of novelties to Orlando housewives, ranging from underclothes to razor blades, dresses and perfumes. Lis Thomas, a Syrian peddler, was perhaps the last such pack peddler who served Orlando customers during the early 1950’s.

Right: a pack peddler

“Would You Like to Own a Victrola?”
Dale Barnett recalls during the pre-Depression days in Orlando that a door to door salesman sold a victrola to his parents, Bill and Marie Barnett. Dale believes that the salesman stayed at the Dolan Hotel while he was visiting the families of Orlando and enticing them with the melodious sounds of Al Jolson. Since the victrolas were hand-cranked, there was no need of electricity to enjoy the music of the day.

Take-Out

While a teenager, this writer was sitting in the Burnsville Taxi Stand when Jimmie Doc Henline of Orlando came into the taxi stand to get a cab home. While the cab waited, Jimmie Doc ordered a half-dozen taxi stand hot dogs to take with him. While Jimmie was waiting on his hot dogs, Charlie Alkire of Clover Fork also came into the taxi stand to get a cab home. Becoming aware that Jimmie was waiting on hot dogs, Charlie also placed a “to-go” order for two 15 cent hotdogs. Since this was the late 1950’s and Chinese food was unheard of, at least to this writer, the taxi stand hot dogs were the next best thing. Jimmie and Charlie probably anticipated the enjoyment of the famous taxi stand hot dogs as they shared a taxi ride up Oil Creek.

We don't have photo of old Charlie Alkire, but to the left is Jimmie Doc Henline.
Right: As this ad suggests, Grit was a part of rural culture in the first half of the 20th century.

The Grit

The Grit was a popular newspaper in Orlando in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The classified section of the newspaper offered all sorts of things for sale. Coon hunters could buy the best dog on the continent and fox chasers could buy the fastest runners of the wily fox. Farmers could buy chicks and those in need of fancy shoes could buy patent leather.

Shop at Home and Save Days
are Long Gone

In the early part of the 20th century, private enterprise was more vigorous and there were many opportunities for the industrious person to make a living going door-to-door selling products. This was a convenience for the Orlando household without the transportation to go to Weston or Burnsville to shop. With the advent of two cars in each household and an interstate a-waiting, it is now easy to shop fifty miles away and be back home for lunch. And, with the smiling girls and smooth talking gents on the home shopping network on the television, the days of the engaging door-to door salesmen are long gone.

Fraternal Organizations

This is an introductory discussion of the fraternal organizations. We hope this incomplete overview will encourage those with more information to bring it to this "pot of stone soup."

Orlando men and women have been active in at least three fraternal organizations: the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Masons & Eastern Stars and the Knights of Pythias. Hints about Orlando's culture can be found in the meager information given below about each organization.


Independent Order of Odd Fellows
Perhaps the strongest organization was the IOOF that had an Orlando Chapter until the 1940s. The land for the IOOF building was donated by Ann Skinner daughter of Alexander and Phebe (Conrad) Skinner around the turn of the 20th century. It takes a sizable community to support fraternal organization, so it is not surprising that in the 1940s the Orlando chapter merged with the Burnsville Chapter.

David Parmer tells us about the Burnsville IOOF Chapter in the 1954. "There was a large contingent of IOOF members from Orlando who were members of the Burnsville Lodge No 252. In 1954 the Burnsville Lodge membership included W. E. Beckner, W. D. "Deck" Brown, Lawrence Dyer, Reverend England, E. L. Fox, William Fox, Worthington Hurst, C. M. Mick, Cyrus Mick, Dem Mick, J. L. Ocheltree,and Nathan Parmer. Several other members from Orlando had died. This lodge had been organized in the 1890s.
Above is a photo of the IOOF funeral of Clover Fork's George W. Bennett. Double click on it to see it in better detail.


Knights of Pythias
There is no indication that the K of P was a strong presence in Orlando, but it was represented. Dave Hyre's grandfathers were both active in the Burnsville Chapter of the Knights of Pythias. His grandfather Frank Lake lived just downstream from downtown Orlando while his grandfather Vic Hyre lived in Burnsville. Dave shares an interesting observation.

"Here's the difference between K of P and IOOF in that area as I understand.
K of P = Union,
IOOF = Confederate.
That might have carried over to early 1900's. My grandapa Vic was definitely a Unionist2. I remember him ralling about the evils of KKK activity within the county. I remember Klan rally posters into the 1960's." The Knights of Pythias have a cemetery in Burnsville but so far we have found no Orlando residents buried there.
The ribbon to the right, from the 1800s, belonged to Jimison Hyre. Dave Hyre's great-grandfather, who was a member of the Buckhannon K of P lodge.

Masons & Eastern Star
My Detroit born & raised father looked forward to attending Masonic meetings

in Burnsville with my mom's uncle, Glenn Skinner of Three Lick, whenever they were both in Orlando.

Uncle Glenn's daughter Peggy (Skinner) Morris remembers
"(Dad) belonged to the Masons and Mom belonged to the Eastern Star. I thought that you just had to get accepted into the Eastern Star to be anybody, so applied and was accepted when I was old enough. Chick and Betty (Barnett) Mick (of Orlando) and I went once in awhile while we were living in the Bainbridge, Md area."

To the left above is a photo of Peggy's folks, Glenn and Virginia (McCoy) Skinner, taken in downtown Orlando in the 1960s. For more detail double click on it.

Comments

comment 1 Dave Kuhl Ocean Springs, MS
Dave Hyre, interesting that you connect K of P to unionists and IOOF to southern sympathizers.
My ggf Christian Kuhl is buried in K of P Burnsville and he was acting company commander of Company D, 31rst VA CSA for the last two years of the war. . . . .- - Dave Kuhl – dbkuhl@bellsouth.net

Telling Tales

There's a kind of story that was common sitting on the porch of the post office or around the Sunday dinner table. It poked gentle fun at those we loved as it exaggerated the qualities of human nature we all share. These stories always had some basis in the truth and some bit of the outrageous.

Patricia (McPherson) Stutler, my Aunt Pat, used to tell this story on one of my great aunts, I can't remember which one. When Aunt Pat was maybe 12, the aunt in question asked little Patty if she would wash her dishes for a dime. Well, there was quite a stack of dirty dishes on the table and sink, but 10 cents was a lot of money, so she said, "sure!" Aunt Pat had pumped the well water, heated it on the stove, and was well into the task when the old lady opened the oven and pulled out a pile of greasy, baked-on-dirty pots and pans. Patty kept washing. Then the old lady opened a cupboard, and in it were stacks of dirty dishes! Kids didn't talk back in those days, but, as you might imagine, Aunt Pat never agreed to wash dishes for the old lady again.

To the right is a photo of Aunt Pat with her new husband Bill Stutler on their wedding day in the early 1950s. Bill Stutler was my mother's baby brother.

Dave Hyre sent the following tale told on Claude Linger2 whose exploits in the Burnsville flood of 1943, reported in the The Clarksburg Telegram, appear in the Oct '06 entry The Burnsville Flood of 1943. There are obvious discrepancies between the following tale and the newspaper report. Even if the reader doesn't believe everything printed in the news, that reader would do well to note Denzil Stillwell's comment that Grandpa Vic was not above embellishing a story.

From Dave Hyre.......Brockton, MA.
"I share the following story sent to me October 2004 from Denzil Stilwell, Glenville, WV. - - -
' I remember your grandfather Victor Hyre. I believe he ran a pool hall which was once located between the old bank building across from the Gulf filling station and Carl West's beer joint about half a block west toward the tracks. I believe he sold beer because of a story that was told in which he was involved. That story has Claude Linger assisting Vic in salvaging things as the water began flooding his place, probably during the 1943 big flood. Claude would ferry stuff by john boat over to dry land and Vic would select stuff etc. Finally Vic loaded Claude up with a few cases of beer for some reason. Claude took that load to his house (about 150 ft away just west of Vern Wiant's house) and didn't return. Vic had to swim out.

'Grandpa Vic always embellished the story about how high the water got. That said, the pool hall was on the upper floors of Victor's Barbershop. So, if he thought that the beer supply needed saving, the water was rising pretty damn high. If I had been Claude emptying out Vic's beer supply, I would have taken a break too! '"
- Dave Hyre.......Brockton, MA


This ca. 1915 photo from David Parmer's collection shows the area in Dave Hyre's story at an earlier and drier time. David Bennett and his young sister-in-law Marie Parmer are in front of the bank and Vic's barber shop can been seen just behind them. At this point it the barber shop had only one storey.

Charles McNemar shares a 1950s article about Claude Linger. Click on the thumbnail of the page on the right to see a readable copy. The article shows that Burnsville's notable Mr. Linger was no stranger to tall tales.

The photo above left of Claude Linger is taken from the newspaper article Charles found for us.
see also
2 Oct '06 entry Buggyride to Burnsville
17 Oct '06 entry The Burnsville Flood of 1943.
3 Nov '06 entry Several of Orlando's Citizens

1. Aunt Pat is Patricia McPherson who married my mother's younger brother, Billy Stutler. I don't recall which of my grandmother Edith Skinner Stutler's sisters was the clever task master, but she would have been a neighbor of Aunt Pat's, and not a relative.

Burnsville Floods

The photos were taken during Burnsville's 1967 flood.

Oil Creek meets the Little Kanawha River at Burnsville. Oil Creek floods can be impressive, but nothing like the floods on the river it flows into. The Burnsville dam built by the Army Corps of Engineers has been mentioned in regard to the creation of Burnsville Lake, but its importance in flood control has been overlooked.

Following is a story of just one of the many floods that were a part of life in Burnsville and other towns on the rivers that drain West Virginia before dams. Many thanks to Pat Ridpath who published this in here e-column, Pat's Chat

"The Clarksburg Telegram on August 7, 1943 , told this graphic tale, and a copy of it was sent to me by Laura Linger Yeager of Barboursville, WV. Thank you, Laura. "

“A story of desperate, middle-of-the-night rescue work and of terrible devastation to crops and property was brought to Clarksburg last night by one of the first persons to leave Burnsville in the heart of the flood-stricken Central West Virginia region.

“The messenger is Claude R. Linger, a traveling salesman who himself helped to rescue the 85-year-old mayor of Burnsville , M. W. ‘Uncle Matt’ Hefner, and several other persons from the inundated Hefner addition to Burnsville .

“Working in pitch-dark, for all utilities had already gone out, he drove to safety the wife and children of Carlin Sizemore, who works in Charleston .

“Then he went back to bring out a second carload. This time, he had just gotten Mayor Hefner and two small daughters of O. K. McNemar, clerk of the ration board, into his car, when the rapidly rising waters came to the car doors and the machine started to float.

“Shouting for help, Linger said he struggled to get the car doors open in order to get his three passengers out again and to safety.

“C. L. Stilwell and Marvin Mealey, he went on, came to their rescue and with Stilwell carrying Mayor Hefner and the other men carrying the children, they started up the street toward higher ground.

“The entire procession, Linger said, almost drowned. Mayor Hefner had on rubber boots which filled with water and almost carried him and Stilwell under. Both Stilwell and Mealey went in over their heads before they staggered to safety with their human burdens.

“Linger, who says he can’t swim a bit, went in up to his chin and was practically exhausted when a Mr. Hamilton, a Hope Natural Gas Company employee, came up to relieve him of the child he was carrying.

“With the water now rising 12 feet an hour or faster, it was impossible to get back across the bridge to the higher section of town, and Linger didn’t get home until about noon Thursday when he crossed back by boat. He had left his truck sitting in front of his house and both it and his car, in Hefner addition, were badly damaged by being under water for 24 hours.

“Yesterday Linger was able to get a truck to bring his car to Clarksburg for overhauling.

“The last person saved in the 1:30 a.m. rescue operations, Linger declared, was Mrs. Raymond Taylor, whose husband is in the Army. The water was rising in her house when she was taken out by a group of women who sawed off some garage doors and tore a clothes line off a porch to make a raft. But just as they completed the raft, one of the only three boats available in the town that night came by and took them to safety.

“When Linger returned home by boat about noon Thursday, he was riding over telephone wires, which gives some idea of the extent to which the waters had risen.

“One of the hardiest of the flood victims was a dog owned by Victor Hyre, which swam around in the high waters all night and until the next afternoon, now and again temporarily perching on some obstacle, but soon being carried out into the water again.

“A Mrs. Smith and her son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Grover Bragg, were sleeping through the flood until someone woke them by throwing rocks onto their house. When they opened the front door to find out what was going on, the water burst in and filled the house up to the second floor landing. And there they stayed, stranded on the second floor, until the water went down

“Linger said the crop damage in Braxton County, where an unusually large amount of garden stuff was being grown this season, was huge. And at Burnsville , the loss of furniture and canned goods, the damage to buildings and cars and store stocks, was equally great.

“Many Burnsville people, Linger explained, are working in war plants and had their furniture, much of it new, stored at home.

“At Coger, Linger said, the water was high over a swinging footbridge between the post office and the railroad station. Cogar Maulsby, postmaster and storekeeper at Coger, lost two-thirds of his stock. Among the few things he saved was a new shipment of shoes, which was still unpacked. Linger estimated his loss at several thousands of dollars.

“The Burnsville postmaster, Virgil Knight, who lives four to six miles from town, saw the flood coming and hurried to town to remove all the first-class mail. The water was up to his chest as he made the last trip from the post office.

“The water almost reached the top of Burnsville ’s theater, but Linger said the theater-owner has promised a show tonight.”

"Thankfully, the new dams have made such terrible floods a thing of the past, but disasters can happen anywhere. Such tragedies seem to create heroes who forget self and go above and beyond the call of duty to help others."

Three photos of Burnsville flooded in 1967 thanks to David Parmer.
Lower left photo: Burnsville dam, constructed in the 1970s/'80s.

See also

Nov 2, '06 Telling Tales

Oct 10, '06 Orlando of the Lakes

Comment 1

In 1943 my family lived in a house in Burnsville owned by my grandfather, E. J. Cox, a Burnsville area teacher. This house was the last house on the street closest to and running parallel with Salt Lick Creek. The house was a wooden frame house, raised more than six feet off the ground. Our next door neighbors were Bill and Lilly Wine, and heading down the street lived C. S. Rucks, the Sumpter, Sizemore, John Smith, Matt Hefner and the McNemar families. I believe there were a few more houses before one would reach the Salt Lick Creek bridge. Our house had a front porch with wooden steps going down to street level. At the time of the 1943 flood my father, G. D. Parmer, was working in a war plant in Baltimore. I was going on two years old, my sister Kathryn was eight, my brother Doyle was six and my brother Ronnie was four. The flood came early in the morning and rescue boats were evacuating families. When a boat came to our house the flood waters were already onto the porch and the front steps had been washed away. My brother Doyle who was six at the time and crippled stepped to where the front porch steps had been before they were washed away and he fell into the flood waters. He was quickly fished from the water and into the boat and the rest of the family was then put in the boat and taken to safety.
- David Parmer

Comment 2

Burnsville has had flooding higher than the '43 flood. What made this one dramatic was the unusually rapid rise of the water in the night due to the heavy rains and the fact that the ground and rivers were already saturated from a heavy rain the week before. I have a couple of additional weblinks on my website. The heaviest rain was up on the Salt Lick River and, of course, the Burnsville valley has Oil Creek, Little Kanawha and Salt Lick merging into the Little Kanawha.

- Charles McNemar

Comment 3

David Hyre, now of Brockton, MA, sends a wonderful tale of Claude Linger in the Burnsville Flood. It is featured in the Nov 2, '06 entry, Telling Tales. He also sends this valuable nugget:

"... By the way, Victor Hyre's dog survived after swimming all night. His name was "Scruff', I used to play with that dog."

A Buggy Ride to Burnsville

David Parmer shares yet another wonderful old photo of Orlando Folks

"The photo was taken in Burnsville in front of the Burnsville Exchange Bank around 1915 by Cecil Thompson, a local photographer, and shows Dave Bennett of Orlando, husband of Maysel (Parmer) Bennett, and his young sister-in-law Marie Parmer who was around 12 or 13 at the time."

Marie would marry a Barnett and move into the home in downdown Orlando that Dave and Maysel had owned.

For reminders, below right is the photo of Dave and Maysel about 40 years later and below left is the photo of Marie and Maysel's parents, Nathan and Ollie (Skinner) Parmer.













Note the barber pole in the background of the buggy photo. It's in front of Dave Hyre's grandfather's barbershop. He sends the photo below which shows
"Jake Brousis working in Victor Hyre's barbershop in Burnsville , May 1924. Dating the photo was easy with two calendars on the wall. The calendar hanging over the window shade is from the Burnsville Motor Sales. The calendar to the left is from the Burnsville Exchange Bank and displays a picture of Clara Bow. Just below that calendar is a picture of Charlie Chaplin. There is a spittoon on the floor to the left of Jake's knee. In front of the large calendar and mirror, is a lighted gas lamp fixture. The sign above the smaller mirror left of Jake notifies customers that closing time is 8 P.M. Monday through Friday and 10 P.M. on Saturday. The price for a shave and haircut is rung up on the cash register at $ .40. There are three empty Coca Cola bottles on the window sill and you can even see out the window to make out a Coca Cola sign mounted on a building across the street."

See also
Wed, July 12, '06 Ollie & Nathan Parmer
Sun, Sept. 24, '06 The Last Midwife

When the Burnsville Bruins Roared

During the late 1930s and the early '40s Burnsville High School had a remarkable football team. Several Orlando boys are in this 1939 photo of the Burnsville Bruins.

Peggy (Skinner) Morris recognizes brothers Jack (middle row, 1st on the left) and Arnold Heater (top row, 4th from the left) and Fred Kuhn (bottom row, first on the left).

David Parmer recognizes one of Ruddle Posey's1 grandsons, Leonard Lindsay who was a talented running back who, with his brothers Donnie and Paul "Chub", was a star player who helped to make the Burnsville Bruins roar.

Front row, seated, (L to R) Fred Kuhn, Harold (Red) Singleton, Louis Caplinger, Andy Knight, Jim Marple, Joe McPherson, Closs Stalnaker.
Second row, kneeling, (L to R) Jack Heater, Leonard Lindsay, Harold Barnett, Charles (Junior) Crutchfield, Paul (Chub) Lindsay, Grant Mick, Roy Godfrey.
Third row, standing, (L to R) Coach Rich McKinney, Sammy Conley, Lawrence Brown, Arnold Heater, George Collins, Lawrence Whytsell, Ed Blake, Ray Crutchfield, Charles Rucks, John Chester Brown, “Peck” Mick, Manager Jerry Heater

Thanks to Charles McNemar for sharing this photo.

1. Ruddle and Mary (Murphy) Posey lived on Posey Run. See 31 Oct '06 Getting Together at Cousin Ruddle's Place on Posey Run