Clell Smarr: Happy Days on Clover Fork

by David Parmer

The Clover Fork Road was a dusty country road in the summer of 1942 when Clell Smarr came to live with Presley and Jessie (Riffle) Bragg. In the winter all the dust of the road dissolved into mud and the busy summer traffic slowed considerably. Bleak was a good description of the wintry road and also the future of ten year old Clell Smarr. The Depression had taken the starch out of the country and out of many of its citizens. Prospects were dim for most people. Misfortune visited Clell very early in life. Clell’s father, William Clarence Smarr, had been killed in a traffic accident in Marshall County on Christmas Eve in 1931. At the time of his father’s death, Clell’s mother, Dorothy, had four young children and was pregnant with Clell. Dorothy attempted to feed her family by working as a housekeeper, but cleaning house and trying to nurture five young children was not an easy task. As an infant, Clell was fed with milk mixed with strained oatmeal which his mother obtained from Depression era breadlines. The struggle to survive was too much for Clell’s harried mother. Penniless and without means of support, Dorothy and her five children found their way to Abram’s Run and the farm of her sister and her husband, Lucy and Dencil Craig. Lucy and Dencil could do little for them. Until Clell was ten years of age, his home was a converted chicken house on the Craig farm. In 1935, Clell’s mother Dorothy married Orville Sapp who lived two farms away from the Craig farm. Although he married their mother, Mr. Sapp did not want the responsibility of her sons so they remained in the converted chicken coop. Dorothy’s daughter Nina found a home with the Holbert family on upper Clover Fork and Mr. Sapp allowed Anna Belle to live on the Sapp farm since she was old enough to contribute household chores.

Right above: Clell Smarr

Left above: Presley and Jessie (Riffle) Bragg's wedding photo

Right below: Pres Bragg and Champion

In 1942, Presley Bragg was the rural mail carrier on upper Clover Fork and became aware of the Smarr children who were living in the chicken hut. Childless after eight years of marriage, Pres and his wife, Jessie, sought and was granted permission by Dorothy Sapp to become the foster parents of her son Clell. Thus Clell came to know the dusty road of Clover Fork and the home of Presley and Jessie Bragg. Clell’s brother Lubert found a home with Vaden Traylor on Clover Fork and his brother Clifford found room and board with Ralph and Audrey Hall of Abrams Run.

A New Home

Clell Smarr well remembers coming to live at the Bragg home on Clover Fork, about two and a half miles above Orlando. Not only was it a new home for Clell but it was in fact new, having just been built for Pres and Jessie Bragg by Charlie Pritt. Pres had ordered the plans from Sears and Roebuck. Coming from an erstwhile chicken coop to a brand new home was like heaven to Clell and the ten year old was starstruck by the comparative opulence.

Left: The home at Orlando where the Braggs moved in 1945.

Right: The home on Clover Fork where Clell came to live in 1942. It was built by Charlie Pritt. from a plan from the Sears and Roebuck Catalog.

Clell remembers the physical warmth of the Bragg home, which, unlike his former home, was airtight against the winter chill. He also found that his foster parents were kind and generous and were glad that he had become a part of their life. Clell recalls that Jessie was particularly proud of the fact that Clell’s red hair matched her own. The first of many trips on which Clell accompanied Jessie was to the barber shop in Weston where Clell received his first “store bought” haircut, ironically by a red-headed barber who presented Clell with a pencil at the end of the ordeal.

Right: Clell with Margaret "Dimples" who was born to Jessie and Pres in 1942.

Left below: Clell with his sister Nina.

Continuing Ties and the Days of Song

His new foster parents were considerate in allowing Clell to remain in touch with his natural family. Clell frequently visited his mother on Abrams Run on weekends and on weekdays and his siblings visited with Clell at the Bragg home. On occasion, Pres and Jessie included Clell’s siblings in social and educational activities. In August 1942, the Braggs took Clell and his older sister Nina to an Upshur County Sing in Buckhannon where Clell and Nina participated in the sing sponsored by Fairmont radio station WMMN. Nina had earlier graduated from Walkersville High School and in September enrolled at Glenville State Teachers College. Appropriately, Clell remembers that the proceeds from the sing were to go to a charity to help orphans. A couple of months later, the Braggs, Blanche (Bleigh) Burkhammer, the Locust Grove teacher, and Clell attended a radio gang at Burnsville.

A New School

Clell attended his first year in school on Abrams Run. For his next three years of school, Clell walked from the Craig farm on Abrams Run to the Upper Clover Fork School. His teacher during his time at the Upper Clover Fork School was Lucille Traylor, the daughter of Vaden and Burla Traylor who also lived on Clover Fork. Miss Traylor was a thoughtful and caring teacher. During his days at the Upper Clover Fork School, Clell remembers eating his lunch with classmates in a teepee made of railroad ties. Fortunately, the teepee was well constructed and never collapsed on them. Now, living a few miles lower on Clover Fork with the Bragg family, Clell attended the Locust Grove School at the mouth of Meadow Run beginning the 1942-1943 school year. His teacher during his first year at Locust Grove was Blanche (Bleigh) Burkhammer, an excellent and long time teacher at the school. Clell’s teacher during his second year was Thomas Byrne who seemed perpetually in need of sleep. Virginia McCoy Skinner was Clell’s teacher his final two years at Locust Grove.

Left: Clell's brothers Lubert and Clifford
Right: Bee Heater, who took Clell to the Horseshoe competition

During his final year at Locust Grove, Clell remembers being taken to Weston by Bee Heater to take the West Virginia Golden Horseshoe Test. (The Golden Horseshoe is a symbol of scholastic achievement for 8th graders who excell in the study of West Virginia.) Although he was unsuccessful in winning the prized award, Clell was appreciative of the opportunity. Some of his classmates at Locust Grove whom Clell remembers were Bill Skinner and Hayward Skinner, Louise and Virginia Heater and Rosemary Riffle. Clell remembers being enamored with Rosemary.

After finishing the eighth grade at Locust Grove, Clell entered high school at Burnsville in 1946. Although Clell was no bigger than a mite during his freshman year, he played football at Burnsville. He recalls that his early football initiation was having the air knocked out of him when he was tackled. Clell survived the season and attended the season ending football banquet at Burnsville High School along with his Orlando neighbors Bill Stutler and Charley Knight.

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The Blake Ladies

Clell also remembers the Blake ladies who lived in the first hollow on Clover Fork who chewed tobacco, smoked old clay pipes and raised hundreds of turkeys. Rosie Blake and her granddaughter Christine would occasionally offer Clell a chew of tobacco which they raised on their secluded farm. So incessant was their smoking, the ladies carried tobacco pouches on the end of their staffs which they used to tend the turkeys. As Clell remembers, the ladies spent the entire day outside with the roaming turkeys so that they would not fall prey to predators, both four-legged and two-legged. Christine was also a student at Locust Grove School, was powerfully built and was considerably larger than Clell. After school, they would walk down the Clover Fork Road together and given the substantial differences in their size, Christine would frequently offer to carry Clell’s books.

Memorable Moments

A Frightful Scene

Clell had not lived with the Braggs on Clover Fork very long when he witnessed a terrible accident. During World War II, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was quite busy hauling war material and many trains went up and down Clover Fork. The Bragg home was located close to the railroad. Phebe (Posey) Riffle had recently married George "Short" Riffle who had been drafted and was stationed for training in the State of Georgia. Phebe anxiously looked forward to the letters from her Army husband which she would pick up at the Orlando post office. In late October 1942, she received a letter from her husband and was deeply engrossed in reading it as she was walking the railroad tracks to her home above the Bragg place. On this day, Clell was standing on the front porch of home of Charlie Pritt who lived above the Bragg home and was watching Phebe as she walked in the direction of Pritt’s house. Not hearing the approaching freight train coming from behind, Phebe was struck, cartwheeled by the large wheel of the train and suffered grievous injuries. Her right arm was torn from the shoulder and she was thrown unconscious to the ground with a concussion and other serious injuries. Phebe was taken to the Weston City Hospital and was initially given little hope to live, however miraculously, she survived.

Hey Clell, the War is Over
World War II seemed to last a lifetime. Men were away in the military and many lives were changed. Even as a bare teenager, Clell was keenly aware of the war in Europe and the Pacific. In August 1945, while on the hill above the Bragg home bringing the cows in for milking, he heard Jessie’s booming voice coming from the valley below. “Hey Clell, the war is over,” were the memorable words he clearly heard, announcing the end of hostilities in the Pacific.

Lassoing Fish
Clell remembers Jessie Bragg as an excellent fish catcher. When Clell moved to the fisherman’s paradise of Clover Fork, Jessie showed him how to lasso fish by crawling out onto willow limbs hanging over the fish laden pools of water, looping a wire around the fish and flipping them out of the water. Clell remembers that the first time he tried this acrobatic trick, the willow limb broke and he ended up swimming with the fishes.

Riding a Cow Cross County
As every Orlando resident is aware, Clover Fork forms the boundary between Braxton and Lewis County. The Pres and Jessie Bragg farm was partly in Braxton County and partly in Lewis County. When Clell began living with Pres and Jessie Bragg he would ride their milk cow occasionally across Clover Fork. Clell recalls that he would sometimes brag to strangers or the unsuspecting that he “had ridden a cow all the way from one county to another.” This boastful exploit often drew a look of incredulity from the listener.

Seventeen Horse Fill
Clell still remembers stories of his new environment. When he was a youngster living with the Braggs on Clover Fork, he learned of a site along the railroad right of way on Clover Fork near the home of Vaden Traylor which had a storied past. At this site, seventeen horses died from exhaustion during the building of the railroad in 1905 and were dragged into the fill and buried. Thereafter, the spot was known by railroaders and people in the neighborhood as “Seventeen Horse Fill.”

Champion and Two Cent Stamps
Pres Bragg was the mail carrier for Orlando, Route 2. This route traveled up Clover Fork and then over the hill onto the waters of Knawls Creek, down the Little Kanawha River, up Riffle’s Run, over the hill onto and down Road Run, and back to Orlando. Clell would sometimes accompany Pres on his mail route riding on the back of “Champion,” the trusty horse which Pres used during bad weather when a motorized vehicle was impractical to use. Clell remembers on many occasions having to ford Clover Fork in high waters on the back of the trusty steed. He also remembers that the postage stamp for a letter at that time was sold for two cents, an outstanding bargain considering the difficulty in delivering the mail.

Red Drawers
Clell also learned some interesting peccadilloes of his neighbors. He recalls Charlie Pritt telling him that when a lady who lived in the neighborhood wanted Charlie to pay her a visit she would hang red drawers out on a clothes line with the washing. It goes without saying that Clell never passed the house thereafter without scrutinizing the clothes hanging on her clothes line.

Prepare for a Famine
Another interesting memory about his neighbors involved Maje and Sylvia Knight who lived in the large two story farm house above the Bragg home on Clover Fork. Mrs. Knight was a very religious person and was very observant of scriptural teachings and prophesies. In her study of the Bible, Mrs. Knight discerned that the holy book contained a warning of a coming famine and that the whole world would starve. To prepare for the coming famine, Mrs. Knight began a whirlwind campaign of stockpiling food. Clell was visiting the Knight farm one day and Mrs. Knight began fervently explaining the coming famine to Clell. Mrs. Knight asked Clell to come into the Knight home and see how she had prepared for the holocaust. Clell was amazed to find that every room in the house, with the exception of the Knight’s bedroom, was full of food. There were pickled eggs, crocks of sauerkraut, canned tomatoes, canned green beans, canned meat, and canned food of every description filling each room of the house. In addition the cellar house was overflowing. Clell recalls that as small as he was, he still had to walk sideways to go from one room to another. Clell was shell shocked at the amount of food which Mrs. Knight had preserved to tide her over the supposed famine. Fortunately, Mrs. Knight died in 1971 without the need of the horde of food.

Clell Returns Home

After completing his freshman year of high school at Burnsville, Clell’s mother persuaded her husband, Mr. Sapp, that her son was now big enough to help on the Sapp farm on Abrams Run, and that he could dig potatoes, hoe corn, and put up hay. After some consideration, Mr. Sapp recognized that Clell would more than pay for his keep, and agreed that Clell would be welcome to live on Mr. Sapp’s farm in exchange for farm labor. Then 16 years of age, Clell reluctantly left the only true home he had ever known and moved his belongings to the Sapp farm on Abrams Run.

Right: Mary Sapp, Dorothy Sapp, Clell Smarr

Right below: Dorothy, Annabell, Clell, Clifford, Lubert (face hidden) and Nina.

High School and the Military

Clell fulfilled his farm labor obligation to Mr. Sapp as agreed and also completed his high school education at nearby Walkersville High School in 1950. After graduating from high school, Clell joined the United States Air Force and made it his career, retiring after 20 years service. His final years were served at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. as a Congressional escort, a job which required Clell to conduct tours of world-wide bases for members of the government and Congress. Clell retired as a Tech Sergeant (E-6).

Retirement

After his career in the military, Clell returned to West Virginia and went into the real estate business in Barbour County. Clell was living in Belington during the great flood of 1985 and suffered great property losses as did thousands of people in the Tygart River Valley. Clell now lives in retirement in Flagler County, Florida and does community service work with troubled juveniles who have been assigned to create and maintain vegetable gardens as part of their probation.

Happy Days on Clover Fork

Clell recalls his days on Clover Fork as the happiest days of his life, for the lessons of life he learned, and the opportunities he was given that helped him become successful. To Jessie and Presley Bragg, he is eternally grateful.

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Comments:
Right: Maje and Sylvia Knight lived in the house that once belonged to John and Agnes (Kilker) Carney and later by Charles Emery "Possum" and Florence (Cayton) Skinner. Today (right) it looks like this.

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

by David Parmer

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

Left: Austin in Siberia.

Right: example of a Springfield M1903 Riffle.

Austin Walter Skinner

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

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

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

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

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

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

Above, right: Austin Skinner in his Army uniform

Left: Austin Skinner in the Phillipines

The Wolfhounds

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

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

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

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

Postcards of Siberia from Austin Skinner

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

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

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

Life as a Civilian

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

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

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

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

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

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

Left: Austin Skinner's obituary.

Below: Austin Skinner's grave marker.

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."

A Clover Fork School Report

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by David Parmer

In the latter years of the 1800s, education was still a rather novel undertaking in central West Virginia. There were no mandatory school laws at the time and many families frankly did not see the need for much in the way of formal education. Around the end of the 1800s, Lewis County undertook an extensive school building program in rural areas in order to provide basic education to rural students.

The Upper Clover Fork School

One of the schools built by Lewis County in the latter years of the 1800’s was the school on upper Clover Fork, about eight miles east of Orlando, near the mouth of Chapman Run. An earlier school serving this same area burned, and an interim school was held in the house of Langdon Traylor which was under construction. The date of construction of the school building which was to be the last of the schools on upper Clover Fork is unknown. We do know however that the land for the school was acquired from Willy Cunningham in 1899. The school building was of frame construction and was twenty feet wide by twenty nine feet long, according to Joe Wine.

Robert T. Crawford

In the school year 1913-1914, the Clover Fork School was headed by Robert T. Crawford as teacher and principal. Crawford was a native of Collins Settlement District. His ancestral family pioneered Cap Run, a tributary of the West Fork River, just north of Walkersville at Emmert. He received his teaching certificate in 1913 by examination when he was seventeen years of age and a student at Abram’s Run School. The Clover Fork School was his first teaching assignment.

Crawford, who later was superintendent of schools for Lewis County and Dean at Glenville State College, was a firm believer in keeping the community aware of the conduct of the school under his charge. In 1913, Crawford sent a report of his school on Clover Fork to the Weston Independent newspaper which was published on November 25, 1913. He reported,

“The following is a report of the Clover Fork School for the month ending November 7th. Number of pupils enrolled: boys 11, girls, 10, total 21. Average daily attendance: boys 10, girls, 9, total 19. Per cent of daily attendance: boys, 98, girls, 92; average, 95. The following students were neither absent nor tardy: Archie and Eddie Cosner, Patrick Carney, Thomas and Eugene Kelley, Fred Holbert, John Murriner, Okey Carter, Charles McIntosh, Margaret Carney, Mary Holbert and Lorena Kelley. Both patrons and students seem to be interested in the welfare of the school.”

Some of the Upper Clover Fork students who were neither absent or tardy from school in October, 1913: Patrick Carney, Fred Holbert, John Murriner, Charles McIntosh, Margaret Carney, Mary Holbert. (ed. note: Mr. Crawford listed all the boys, and then the girls.)

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The Students

Archie and Eddie Cosner were sons of Alonzo and Birdie (Singleton) Cosner. Archie married Virginia Wade of Burnsville and worked for the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Baltimore. Archie owned a fifty acre farm in Dundalk, Maryland. I visited the Cosner family in Dundalk in 1951 and rode on Archie’s tractor as he plowed the black soil of the Dundalk farm. Archie died in 1997.

Patrick and Margaret Carney, brother and sister, were the children of James and Catherine (Kate) Moran Carney. Patrick was a long-time resident of Clarksburg and worked for the Feeney Roofing Company of Clarksburg. This roofing company was owned by Jimmie Feeney, an Orlando native. Patrick died in 1985. Margaret Carney married John Dolan, Jr. of Clarksburg late in life. She was a resident of Weston at her death in 1995.

Fred Holbert and his sister Mary were the children of Abia and Margaret Etta Holbert who owned a nice farm on Clover Fork near Mount Hope Church. Mary’s first year in school was the first year that Mr. Crawford taught school. Fred was one of the earliest Orlando natives to graduate from a four year college. He received a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University in 1928. Mary married Russell Ellyson, a teacher and native of Gilmer County. Mary was attended Glenville State College. She wrote and published several books and she and her husband traveled the western hemisphere before settling at Morgantown.

Upper Clover Fork School in 1914-1915, the year after Mr. Crawford's report
Front Row: Della Holbert, front row on left. Girls in striped dresses, second row Lena Skinner, front row on left Lula Skinner, front row to Lula’s left is Lola Skinner. Girl in checked dress in second row is Mary Holbert. Boy in suspenders in second row is Charley McIntosh. To his right is Robert Holbert. Boy in third row on right is Fred Holbert. In back row on left is John Murriner. All others are unknown.

Thomas Kelley, his brother Eugene, and their sister Lorena were the children of James P. and Agnes Kelley of Clover Fork.

John Murriner was the son of Newton and Mary (Rohrbaugh) Murriner. This farming family lived on upper Clover Fork.

Charles McIntosh was the son of George and Mary (Lyons) McIntosh. Charles lost his mother when he was young and was placed in an orphanage in Charleston, along with his younger brother. When he was six years of age, he was placed in the custody of William J. Cunningham and Mary Weaver Cunningham, a childless couple of upper Clover Fork, who raised him as a son until his adulthood. Charles later resided in Walkersville and was a teacher in Lewis County at the time of his death in 1958. In his early teaching career, Charles returned to the upper Clover Fork School as its teacher and gained admiration during a Lewis County 4-H gathering with the imaginative symbol for his school: a flag emblazoned with a clover leaf mounted on a pitch fork. Charles married his teacher’s, Robert T. Crawford’s, sister Lena Crawford.

The Pocket Watch

When Robert T. Crawford successfully passed his teaching examination and became a full-fledged teacher, his father, Robert Willey Crawford, gave his seventeen year old son a new pocket watch. The pocket watch was dutifully carried throughout Robert’s teaching career. The watch was then given to Robert’s daughter, Mary Crawford Clawsey. The cherished watch however fell victim to a house burglary a few years later and the sentimental keepsake was lost forever.

Closure

Closure came to the Clover Fork School at an unknown date in the early 1950’s. The students of the school area were transported to the lower Clover Fork School , known as Locust Grove, which still had a few years left before consolidation also took that school from the community at the end of the school year in 1961. In 1964, the Lewis County Board of Education sold the old Clover Fork School at auction to Joe Wine, a Burnsville native, for the sum of six dollars and fifty cents. Joe was married to the former Ava Craig, a native of the upper Clover Fork area. Joe and Ava lived on Chapman Run in the early years of their marriage and then moved to Ohio for employment. After Joe’s successful bid for the old school building, Joe moved the school building three-tenths of a mile up Chapman Run near the site of their former home which had burned while they lived in Ohio. Joe and Ava added rooms onto the school building and reside there today.

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Comment by John Carney

I note the mention of the Kelly children who went to school at the upper Clover Fork School. The Carney family is related to them through their mother Agnes Kelly. The Kelly family left Clover Fork before 1920 and joined the migration to the Detroit area and all contact with them was lost. For years, I searched for the Kelly family in connection with my genealogical research to no avail. I assumed that I would never be successful in locating the family. A few years ago, I received a note from a lady in San Diego, California who had noticed my genealogical posting on the internet about the Kelly family. She sent me an obituary of a Father Kelly, a Catholic priest, and an obituary of his sister. The obituaries mentioned the deaths of each and that the bodies were sent to Detroit for burial. I contacted the funeral home in California mentioned in the obituaries, appropriately named the “Good Body Mortuary,” and was referred to the O’Brien Funeral Home in Detroit. The funeral director at the Detroit funeral home remembered the Kelly family well and gave me telephone numbers of members of the Kelly family. I am pleased to report that the Kelly family I had been searching for was found.

Charley McIntosh: Country Teacher

by David Parner

In April of 1910 Charley McIntosh was a five year old boy living with his parents George and Mary (Lyons) McIntosh and six brothers and sisters on Sang Run in the Maryland panhandle, about 40 miles east of Morgantown. Charley was the middle child. His dad George worked in a saw mill. In March of 1912 Charley was in an orphanage in Charleston, West Virginia waiting for a stranger to take him to his new family.

A Train Trip to Charleston

Edward Cunningham nervously waited on the Coal and Coke passenger train at the Chapman stop. It was Thursday, March 7, 1912. Although it was a just short distance from his nearby farm, he had arrived by foot at the stop much too early for the 10:16 a.m. train to Charleston. The month of March was still very much winter in 1912 and he had dressed warmly for the season and for the six hour trip in the unheated passenger car he would ride. It would be too late after his arrival in Charleston to take care of the purpose of his trip that day so that business would have to wait until Friday. The train schedule for the return trip from Charleston on Friday called for a 3:35 departure, with a scheduled arrival at Chapman at eleven o’clock in the evening.

Willie and Mary Cunningham

Willie Cunningham was 43 years of age in 1912 and his wife Mary (Weaver) Cunningham was one year younger. They were married relatively late in life in 1908 when Willie was 39 and Mary was 38. They had built their home around 1910 on the old Enoch Cunningham farm. Willie owned and operated the productive farm on Clover Fork before he was married and, although not wealthy, was "a man of means," as the people of the time would say. After four years of married life, no children had blessed their threshold. The days and nights on the Cunningham farm must have been too quiet and both Willie and Mary earnestly desired a child to make a little noise.

The Children’s Home Society of West Virginia

In the first decade of the 1900s, Reverend D. W. Comstock, a retired minister who had been a Superintendent of the Children’s Home Society of Arkansas, established a similar institution in West Virginia. The goal of the children’s home was to find suitable homes for children who were orphaned or who were placed in the home by courts or county commissions for adoption. Through the generosity of Henry Gassaway Davis, the President of the Coal and Coke Railroad, the West Virginia Children’s Home Society was able to buy a large house at 1118 Washington Street in Charleston which was enlarged to serve as an orphanage for children until they could be placed with suitable families for adoption.

A Formal Application

Prospective adoptive parents had to pass the Children’s Home Society's rigorous evaluation in order to become eligible to adopt a child. The criteria required that the prospective adopting parents be “God-fearing, Sabbath-observing and Church-going people, financially able to school and provide for the child, sufficiently intelligent to know how a child should be raised, own their own home and be well recommended as being above qualified by three or more reliable persons.”

Willie and Mary Cunningham were approved to be adoptive parents and in early March 1912, they received notification that six-year-old Charles Edward McIntosh had been designated for adoption by them.

When Edward Cunningham arrived at the Davis Child Shelter of the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia, which today is the location of the parking lot for the Clay Center in Charleston, he met with Superintendent Reverend N. O. Sowers and took care of the remaining paperwork necessary to take Charley to his new home. Young Charley was called to the Superintendent’s office to meet his new uncle. Aware that he was to be placed with the Cunningham family, Charley took a nickel from his pocket and handed it to the Superintendent and asked him to “please give this nickel to my brother,” (who was to remain in the orphanage.)

A Peculiarity of Law

A peculiarity of West Virginia law in 1912 provided that even though natural parents had turned custody of a child over to an agency such as the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia, the custodial parents could not officially adopt the child without written consent of the natural parents. Charley’s parents had never signed the consent form for the formal adoption of their son Charley by another family. Nevertheless, the custodial transfer of Charley was made by the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia to Willie and Mary Cunningham.

A New Beginning

Young Charley adapted well to his new home and his new parents doted on him. His uncle Edward Cunningham and his aunt Etta Holbert were also very pleased with the new addition to the Cunningham family. Edward remarked after arriving at his brother’s home on Clover Fork that “Charley was indeed a Cunningham because he gave away his last nickel.”

Charley was the same age as the Holbert children who lived on the adjoining farm and he blended in well with his new cousins. All of the Holbert children and Charley attended the upper Clover Fork School for the next several years.

Charley McIntosh is wearing suspenders in the center. Robert Holbert is at his right side, Mary Holbert is on his left and Della Holbert is in the white dress to the far left side of this Upper Clover Fork school photo.

Walkersville High School

After finishing eight years at the Upper Clover Fork School, Charley entered the newly created Walkersville High School. Like his cousin, Robert Holbert, he commuted to school in Walkersville from the Cunningham farm on the back of a horse. The first class of seven graduates of the new high school graduated in 1923. Charley graduated from Walkersville High School the following year. His wife to be, Lena Crawford, graduated from the same school in 1925.

A Life in Education

In 1924, West Virginia law for the licensing of teachers was quite unlike the requirements of today. An annual teacher’s examination was held generally in the month of April. To be eligible to sit for the examination, the applicant had to have proof of at least eight units of high school work over a two year period and sixteen semester hours of college work obtained over at least eighteen weeks. If the applicant passed the examination, the state department of education issued a teaching license. In order to renew and maintain the license, the teacher was required to attend summer school each year thereafter and obtain at least six hours of college credit.

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Left above: Charley with his adoptive parents Willy and Mary Cunningham.

Left below: Charles McIntosh

Charley probably attended Glenville State Teachers College to earn the required college credits to become eligible to sit for the teacher’s examination. We know that he passed the examination because he was employed by the Collins Settlement Board of Education to teach at the Roanoke School for the school year 1925-1926. During the next twenty two years, Charley taught at various schools in Collins Settlement District including the Upper Clover Fork School, Roanoke Grade School, Walkersville Grade School, Ireland Grade School and the Upper Glady School at Duffy. He served as principal at the Roanoke, Walkersville, and Ireland schools. Charley’s wife, the former Lena Crawford, was also a teacher in Lewis County, where she taught at Abram’s Run School and Walkersville Grade School.

When Charley was the principal at the Roanoke School, several of his students who finished the eight grades at Roanoke went on to high school at Burnsville. This was possible because the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train schedule was timed in such a way that students arrived in Burnsville in time for class in the morning and the evening train got them home at a reasonable hour. Some fathers of the students were also employees of the railroad and were entitled to free family passes, so the commute was cost-free.

Nina (Smarr) Myers recalls when Charley taught at the Upper Clover Fork School, he acquired admirers for the innovative school logo which he fashioned for a Lewis County 4-H gathering at Jackson ’s Mill. Attaching a large poster of a clover leaf to a pitch fork, he preceded the Upper Clover Fork 4-H students into the assembly. We also have it on good authority that Charley was very adept on getting the attention of a misbehaving or inattentive boy in the classroom with a well-aimed chalk eraser.

Charley and Lena's Boy

Charley married Lena Crawford on December 19, 1925. Lena was the daughter of Charley’s first teacher, Robert Crawford, at the Upper Clover Fork School when he first came to live with his parents, Willie and Mary Cunningham.

Left: Charles Crawford Mcintosh

Charley and Lena had one child, a son named Charles Crawford McIntosh. Their son was an intellectual prodigy and graduated from Walkersville High School at the age of thirteen and from Glenville State College at the age of sixteen. He then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and received a B. S. degree from that institution in 1951. He also later graduated from the New York Medical College in 1960 and established a medical practice in Teaneck, New Jersey.

According to the descendents of Charlie's sister Jessie Marie (McIntosh) Belcher, six of the seven McIntosh children found each other and were reunited as adults: William, Wesley, Charles, Jessie, John and George. Only their sister Nettie was missing.

Death Visits

Charley’s Clover Fork parents, Willy Cunningham and Mary Cunningham, died in 1943 and 1944 respectively. They were buried in the Long Point Cemetery in Walkersville. Edward Cunningham, who brought Charley to Clover Fork from the orphanage in Charleston, died in 1943. On Saturday morning, January 18, 1958, Charley suffered a fatal heart attack and died at the young age of fifty-two years. He was buried in the Long Point Cemetery beside his Clover Fork parents, Willy and Mary Cunningham.