Tricia Lynn Strader and Belle Boyd, Confederate Spy

Tricia Lynn Strader with her grandparents Linzy and Mae (Posey) Strader on Road Run in the late 1970s. Tricia told about her Road Run roots in the June '08 entry You Can Go Home Again

by David Parmer
The night creatures hadn’t started their mysterious conversations. It was too early. But it was something she was looking forward to. Her grandfather, Linzy Strader, leaned forward in his easy chair and expertly spit over the porch railing into the front lawn, as if he was aiming at something. Wiping the corner of his mouth, he smiled that soft smile at his granddaughter, Tricia Lynn, and resumed his contented enjoyment of his Navy snuff in the late July afternoon. To a young girl from the city visiting her grandparents, these were magical times in the rural wonderland of Road Run. The day had been full, searching for crawdads in the run which crawled slowly past the house, gathering eggs from the hen house, smelling the freshly cut grass and chasing butterflies. Soon the crickets would be screeching their night songs and the frogs on Oil Creek at the railroad cut would be croaking their sonorous calls. This was truly the land of make-believe and it was a hard place to leave.

Tricia

It wasn’t far from the make-believe yesteryear land of Road Run of a young Tricia Lynn Strader to the make-believe land of an adult Trica Strader portraying Belle Boyd, Confederate spy, at the Belle Boyd House in Martinsburg, or performing before the rolling cameras on the movie set of Gods and Generals on the Antietam battlefield.

Right: Tricia at the Hammond mansion.

Above left: Timewarp-a photo of Tricia's grandfather Linzy (also pictured at the top of the page with his wife and granddaughter in the 1970s) in his WWI uniform ca. 1918, and a photo of his son Frank in a Civil War uniform, ca. 1990.

Left: Tony Morgan, Frank Strader and friend on the set of Stealing Lincoln's Body. Note the set lights behind.)

Tricia Lynn Strader was born in 1970, the daughter of Franklin D. and Vivian (Kuhl) Strader. Her father, a native of Orlando, attended school at Orlando and high school at Burnsville, graduating with the class of 1952. Her mother, a native of Burnsville, attended grade school at Burnsville, and high school in Delaware.

To Tricia Strader, the time of the Civil War was long ago, another time. Little did she know that her interest and the interest in Civil War re-enactments of her parents, Frank and Vivian (Kuhl) Strader, would transport her back in time and acquaint her with a certain southern belle, a spy for the soldiers in gray, and provide a life-changing experience.

Belle Boyd, Confederate Spy

The Civil War started with a bang in the spring of 1861. The waters of Bull Run ran red with the blood of boys from Virginia, as well as boys from New York and Pennsylvania.

The decisive, war-ending victory both sides had hoped for did not happen. The leaders of both the Union and the Confederacy recognized that total victory would not come easily, or quickly. In the day before telephones and other sophisticated means of communication the importance of intelligence to provide information about what the other side was up to was vital to the prospects of victory.

In 1861 Belle Boyd was a young 18 year old vivacious southern belle, a strong believer in the cause of the South. When the war started, Belle was living in the Shenandoah Valley town of Front Royal where her father operated a hotel. This area of the Old Dominion was hotly contested by both southern and northern armies and occupation of Front Royal by one army or the other seemed to change on a weekly basis.

A hotel occupied by officers and decision makers was an ideal place to learn of an army’s intentions. Belle, using sharp ears and womanly guile, learned much of the intentions of the Union armies, and carried the intelligence to southern generals, including Stonewall Jackson and the “Grey Ghost,” John Mosby. The four years of Civil War was an exciting and dangerous time for Belle Boyd, and greatly romanticized by Civil War historians. Books have been written about her and movies and plays have made her legendary.

Tricia as Belle Boyd

Tricia Strader attended high school in Delaware and graduated from Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Delaware with a B. S. in Business Administration. After college, Tricia pursued a career in the business field and in journalism. With a strong interest in history and genealogy, Tricia discovered that Belle Boyd had an ancestor with the family name of Spaur and was related on her mother’s side of the family. That knowledge and her hobby of participating in Civil War re-enactments throughout the eastern United States led Tricia in 2001 to the Belle Boyd House in Martinsburg, West Virginia, where she auditioned for and was chosen to portray the role of Belle Boyd in historical era performances. Tricia has stayed busy performing the role of Belle Boyd in performances in schools and public libraries, as well as the role of Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis,

President of the Confederacy. Tricia has also appeared in historical movies about the Civil War, Gods and Generals and No Retreat

from Destiny, and an unreleased

documentary about Mrs. Jefferson Davis.

Above Left: Belle Boyd
Left: Tricia as Belle Boyd
Above Right: Varnia Davis

Life certainly has been interesting for the young girl who made summer treks to the magical place of Road Run to visit her story-telling grandparents while they sat on their front porch on summer evenings, while the butterflies flew, the crawdad flicked its tail and moved from rock to rock and the smell of freshly cut grass was in the air. From chasing butterflies at her grandparents’ home on Road Run to having butterflies before a performance as Belle Boyd, life has been exciting for Tricia Strader.

Sir John the Goali

The Charleston Gazette Sunday Magazine of March 20, 1955 set the tone: “Austrian hockey fans are nuts about the wild, colorful West Virginian they’ve dubbed "Sir John the Goali.” It isn’t often that an Orlando boy gets a headline in the “State Newspaper,” but this headline was truly unique because it proclaimed the hockey skills of a lad who grew up in Orlando on the banks of Oil Creek. The headline continued, “Allman’s jolting play and jesting antics make this Lewis County native a big hit.” “Impossible,” you say?

Thanks to Charles McNemar for the article to right. Its text is transcribed at the bottom of this entry.

John Allman

John Allman was born in 1933 with the assistance of Doctor Peck in Orlando, the son of Everette and Nina (Wooddell) Allman. He is the grandson of Gaver H. and Mishie (Mills) Allman and John V. and Daisie (Bennett) Wooddell.
October 27, 2007

See the entry on Gaver Hamilton Allman

Asthma and Theophylline

John’s father Everette, an employee of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and Nina (Wooddell) Allman who were married in 1932 enjoyed only four years of wedded bliss before Everett succumbed to his life-long battle with asthma and the toxic effects of theophylline, a drug used to treat the disease.

Extracting chemicals from tea leaves, German scientists developed the drug theophylline as a treatment for chronic pulmonary diseases. Everette Allman was afflicted with asthma as a child and every treatment and change of climate was tried to arrest the progression of the dreadful disease. In the course of treatment, he was put on a regimen of the new drug theophylline. Unfortunately, every dose of the experimental and untested drug given to him to relieve his asthmatic symptoms, was, in effect, a poison and hastened his death at the age of twenty nine.

Left: John Allman with his dad Everett at Seneca Rocks

Life with His Grandparents

Upon the passing of his father, John lived in Orlando with his grandparents, Gaver and Misha (Mills) Allman until he was nine years of age. Gaver Allman was the long-time telegrapher and railroad depot agent at Orlando Junction. The Allmans lived on the hill behind the Dolan Hotel in Orlando. John loved his doting grandfather with whom he fished and hunted. He attended Orlando Grade School through the fourth grade. During his Orlando school years, John counted John Michael Moran and “Buddy” Hurst as his closest friends, and the “apple of his eye” was Jane Conley, daughter of Pat and Emma Conley.

Orlando School 1939 Known Identities of Group Photo
Front row: Franklin Strader, Jane Conley, Patsy Morrison, Mildred Morrison, Anna Skinner, Ivy Strader, Pat Blake.
Second Row: unknown, unknown, a Parker boy, Maynard McCauley, a Mick boy, unknown
Third Row: Clifford Strader, Lee Paul Moran, unknown, unknown, unknown, John Allman, John Michael Moran
Fourth Row: All identities unknown.
Teacher at Rear: Freeda Mick (White) of Burnsville who ended her teaching career at Parkersburg.

A Move to Pittsburgh

In 1942, John’s widowed mother Nina (Wooddell) Allman married Pennsylvanian James Walther, a Pittsburgh resident and our yet-to-be skating wizard left the home of his Orlando grandparents and moved to Pittsburgh to live with his mother and step-father.

John Learns to Skate

As old-time Orlando residents know, ice skating was never a common recreational activity on wintry frozen Oil Creek. Accordingly, John didn’t know the difference between a hockey stick and Charley Knight’s crutch when he lived in Orlando. However, after his move to Pittsburgh, that deficit was soon to change. John and his family lived in an apartment building in Duquesne Gardens where Tom Stevenson, a professional hockey player and goalie and an erstwhile professional baseball player, was a neighbor. At the time, Stevenson had been injured in a hockey game and was rehabilitating his injured knee. To remain ice worthy while at home, he would flood the alley behind the apartment building with water which, in winter, quickly turned to ice and into an impromptu skating rink. Stevenson loaned his curious young friend, John Allman, his extra pair of ice skates and John took to ice like a duck takes to water. Bitten by the ice skating craze, John couldn’t get enough of the winter sport. At an early age, he began skating for hockey teams in amateur Pittsburgh leagues. (As an interesting sidebar, among the other amateur skaters on Pittsburgh rinks at this time was a future professional football player by the name of John Unitas.) The ice skating native of Orlando continued to skate during his high school days at Schenley High School in Pittsburgh where he graduated in 1952.

A Call from Uncle Sam

After graduating from high school, John received a call from Uncle Sam who sent him on an all-expense paid vacation with the United States Army to Austria. The majestic Austrian Alps were very cold in winter and there was plenty of ice everywhere. Winter and ice hockey were synonymous terms in Austria and Austrians were crazy about both. So too was Orlando native and U. S. Army corporal John Allman.

Salzburg, Austria

Sir John, the Goalie

Allman quickly took advantage of the schedules of Austrian hockey teams who played night games. This allowed John to exchange his olive drab fatigues for the colorful uniform and pads of a hockey goalie for the Salzburger Eislau Verein. The Orlando-born hockey wizard soon found success and fame in Salzburg. A skillful and flamboyant goalie, John was admired by the hockey smart Austrian fans which enjoyed his impromptu Indian war dance with his tomahawk-like hockey stick, a display which was purposely designed to fire up the crowd. The fervent Austrian fans soon dubbed the Orlando ice skating wizard as “Sir John the Goali” and made his remaining military service time in Austria very enjoyable.

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Return to Civilian Life

After his military service, John returned to Pittsburgh and enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh where he graduated in 1964. However, John never forgot his Orlando roots. Just as he did when he was in elementary and high school in Pittsburgh, John spent his summers in the Oil Creek valley home of his grandparents, Gaver and Mishie Allman. He continued calling Orlando his home during the summer after he enrolled in college and enjoyed fishing on quiet evenings in Oil Creek with his grandfather Gaver, playing baseball at Falls Mill, and hunting during fall and winter vacations with his friend, Popeye (Gerald) Puffenbaker.

John’s grandfather Gaver died in 1961 and his grandmother Mishie in 1970.

Another Generation of Hockey Players

While John was carrying out highly responsible duties throughout the world and the United States as an engineer with Pittsburgh area firms which specialized in modernizing steel plants, “Sir John the Goali” was also raising another generation of hockey players.

The makeshift ice rink behind the Pittsburgh apartment building which brought Orlando’s John Allman into acquaintance with the sport of ice hockey helped to spawn a new set of Allman hockey wizards. Inspired by his love of the game, his sons Brad Hamilton Allman, varsity goaltender and Terry James Allman, varsity defenseman, both played hockey for Baldwin High School, which was the state champion team of Pennsylvania in 1975. His son, John Everette became the varsity goaltender on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania hockey team.

Above left: Brad Hamilton
Right: Terry James Allman
Left: John Everett Allman

John Allman has traveled far and led an interesting life, but he has never forgotten his Orlando roots and life in the quiet Oil Creek valley, of fishing in Oil Creek, hunting on Clover Fork, and baseball at Falls Mill. Recently on a vacation to Tennessee, John and his wife detoured on the way south on Interstate 79 through Orlando country and did the same on their way back north after the vacation. The land of our youth always seems to beckon and to draw another glance from those who left. His grandparents, Gaver and Mishie Allman, who lie buried in the Orlando Cemetery, were extremely proud of their grandson John. They felt a special responsibility to see the son of their son who died young to be a success in life. They succeeded handsomely.

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Text of the Newspaper clipping at the top of this entry

The Gazette's Magazine Section, March 20, 1955

Austrian hockey fans are nuts about the wild, colorful West Virginian They've Dubbed Sir John
THIS happens fewer than two times (on an average) in a game when John Allman is defending the goaL The score being made against him here was one of only two in a game with a team that rated an eight-goal edge. Allman's team won. 3-2. Allman's jolting play and jesting antics make this Lewis County native a big hit

SALZBURG, Austria—The hockey team representing Salzburg this season has enjoyed unexpected success, and the primary reason is a 21-year-old American soldier who never had an opportunity to play the game during the twelve years Jie lived in Orlando, W. Va. Cpl. John Allman. grandson of Mr. and Mrs. G. H. Allman and Mr. and Mrs. J. V. Woodell of Orlando, has been so effective and colorful as a goalie for the Salzburger Eislau Verein that Austrian fans and teammates call him "Sir John."

Allman finds the language barrier no problem. "I use sign language or. just shout -anything
that 'comes into my mind.. But they seem to understand. The only word I've learned is schuse,
which means shoot." After the games, fans always crowd Allman to congratulate him "They pat me on the back and yell. All I can do is say. 'bitte shayn,' which means thank you." In one of these after-the-game sessions, a group of youngsters started calling Allman "Sir John." The name stuck; even the clerk at the hotel where the players congregate uses the [title].

John is especially popular with Austrian fans because of his peculiar (to. them) brand of goaltending and colorful antics. In describing one. play, the largest of Salzburg's newspapers wrote, "All nine players and the whole audience were looking for the puck until 'Goali' Allman
calmly opened his gloved fist to Two U. S. Army soldiers on duty in Austria are responsible for-this article on fellow GI John Allman. Sgt. Edwin J. Salzman, a reporter on the Boston Globe before entering the Army, wrote the story, which is accompanied by the photographs of Baird E. Daniels, formerly a photographer on the Decatur Herald and Reyiew.

Allman intentionally stirs up the crowd. "Whenever we score, I do a wild Indian war dance around the cage—using my stick for a tomahawk. "If I catch the puck, I hide it for a while. The fans groan in disillusionment, thinking the opposition has scored a goal. I then show them the puck. They holler, 'Bravo der Ami'." John has shocked several opposing wingmen by sending them flying 'with hip checks when they enter the area in front of the net.

"They are not used to aggressive goaltending," Allman claims. "The Europeans seem never to have seen a netminder shouting instructions to his defensemen. Some of them are even surprised when I jump on a loose puck in front of the net."

Allman wouldn't be playing for the local team if an Austrian who works for the Army in Salzburg
didn't look like Bill Downey, "a guy I used to play against in Pittsburgh," where Altaian's parents
now live. "I told this Slim Steindl that he resembled Downey. It turned out that Steindl used to play for the Salzburg team. He said they needed a 'goali'. "They wanted me to try out. Much to my surprise I found that a Canadian, Duke MacDonald was coaching the team. He was impressed with the way I used the glove and kept me."

In the club's opening game of the season against a Yugoslavian sextet, Allman — with only three
days of practice — replaced veteran Karl Prenner in the Salzburg nets at the start of the third period," "We were losing by a goal," Allman recalls. "The coach demanded that I go into the cage. As I skated onto the ice, the crowd was cheering."

"The Yugoslavs were pressing for insurance goals, I turned them back. They fell back, and
we took over and won." Allman's style of goaltending amazed the Austrian fans. They rarely see a "goali" catch the puck or leave the cage to cut down the shooting angle. After the game, the spectators crowded around Allman. "They were amazed that I don't wear chest protection. They kept feeling my chest to make sure," John explained. Allmn feels that he deserves a bruise if he is unable to stop the puck with his gloves, leg pads or stick. "If I were playing hockey in the States, you'd better believe I'd wear protection —and plenty of it," he added.

Allman's supreme test was the third game of the season against Villach, Austria, supposedly the
toughest team in the country. The Villachers were presumed eight goals better than Salzburg.
John set them back with only two goals and a 3-2 defeat. Almost 2,000 fans in the
packed outdoor arena saw Allman block 40 shots, many on power plays and breakaways.
Fans are charged eight schillings admission (about 32 cents), but a great many enter under the
fences and don't pay at all. Allman plans to play the entire season if military duties do not interfere. He is especially eager to face the top teams of Germany. Prenner, the old goalie whom John replaced, has a new position as chief rooter. "He even lets us practice with his puck," John jokes. Prenner, a Salzburg favorite for yearsv has the official title of assistant coach, but his lone duty consists of sending replacements onto the ice at MacDonald's signal.

Allman, who is 5* 10%" and weighs 185, started playing hockey at 14 in Pittsburgh. - Tommy Stevenson, who later played with Atlantic City in the Eastern League and is how trainer for the Pittsburgh Hornets, taught John how to play.

Sir John's plans after separation? "I'm going to go to —anyplace they can use a goalie with international experience."

Gaver Hamilton Allman: Telegrapher and Freight Agent

by David Parmer

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Gaver Allman, master telegrapher, was a resident of Orlando for over fifty years, a period spanning the heyday and the decline of Orlando as an important railroad town in central West Virginia. A native of near French Creek in Upshur County, Gaver was born in 1883.

According to his grandson, John Allman, Gaver was fourteen years old when he was befriended by a telegrapher at Frenchton and was taught the art of telegraphy. A fast learner, Gaver soon became adept at telegraphy and applied for a job as a telegrapher with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Although railroad rules required that employees be at least sixteen years old to be employed by the railroad, Gaver added a couple of years to his age and was hired as an “extra.” Youthful Gaver soon had nearly steady employment with the B & O line.
Gaver Goes to Cowen
Around 1902, an opening for a telegrapher came up for the Cowen station. Looking for full-time status as a railroad telegrapher, Gaver successfully bid for the job and took up residence in the Webster County town. In addition to a full-time position with the B & O Railroad, Gaver also found a wife in Cowen when he married Misha Mills.

right: Mishie (Mills) Allman ca. 1910

Misha Mills was a native of Webster County who attended Salem College and studied music. Misha is remembered by Helen Jeffries as a nice looking woman, always well dressed and very pleasant. She played the piano for the Mt. Zion Church for many years. In 1906, Gaver and Misha became the parents of their first child, Forrest.

"Orlando Calling"
In 1906, an opening for telegrapher, depot operator and freight agent at Orlando was announced. The Orlando depot at that time was a “union” depot, meaning that it was owned and operated co-operatively by the Coal and Coke Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The employee selected to be the telegrapher and to operate the depot would be employed by both railroads. Each railroad would pay one-half of the salary of the employee and the employee would answer equally to each railroad. Gaver, who had become a respected employee of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Cowen, bid on the position at Orlando, met the qualifications and requirements of each railroad, and was employed. Thus began the long association of Gaver Allman and his wife Misha with the town of Orlando.

left: the Orlando Depot, where Gaver and his sons worked

Orlando: An Important Railroad Town
For the readers of this story who were not living or were too young to remember the Orlando Depot, its importance to Orlando cannot be overstated. Up to eight passenger trains per day stopped at Orlando. Freight trains also made daily stops there to drop off and pick up freight. Coal trains rumbled through town at all hours of the day and night. All steam locomotives stopped for water at the two water towers at each end of the town. Tanker cars picked up oil produced in the Orlando area. Lumber was shipped by flat car. Cattle and other livestock were shipped by cattle car. Oil and gas well equipment was freighted into the depot. The Orlando merchants received their supplies of barbed wire, cattle feed, hardware, food, furniture, and farm related equipment by rail. Residents of Orlando, Goosepen, Rocky Fork, Indian Fork, Butchers Fork, Copley, Aspinall, Clover Fork, Knawls Creek, Fleshers Run and other parts of southwestern Lewis County and northern Braxton County relied upon the Orlando junction depot for their daily needs.

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With such a large volume of railroad related business in Orlando during its heyday, it was critical that a competent manager have charge of the Orlando Depot and make it run smoothly. Gaver Allman, in his early 20’s, became the man in charge at the Orlando Depot as telegrapher, freight agent, and expediter of railroad business. He became a well-respected man in the community of Orlando from his first day on the job.

above right: On the east side of Conrad's (Brown's, Burgett's) store, looking west with the depot on the right, An 18 foot corn stalk grown by Gaver Allman. Look closely to see 6 ft 8 in tall Pate Conrad standing beside the stalk.

below right: the Allmans in Florida, 4th of July, 1928

Gaver: A Man of the Church
The Allman family became faithful members of the Orlando Mt. Zion Methodist Church, a relationship which would last their lifetimes. Gaver served as the Superintendent of the Sunday school for many years and helped in the revivals at the church. John Allman, the grandson of Gaver and Misha Allman, recalls that revivals at the Mt. Zion church were regular occurrences during the summers in Orlando. John also remembers that Daisy Blake, one of the congregants at the Methodist Church, was saved during every revival and that Daisy certainly should have achieved sainthood.

The Allmans' First Orlando Home
When Gaver and Misha Allman made their abode in Orlando they first lived in a house located beside the later built St. Michael’s Catholic Church. This house would later become known as the Rush Hotel, and would also later serve as a dwelling place for other former Orlando citizens such as Oley Ocheltree and Charlie Knight.

The Allmans' Second and Final Orlando Home

The 2nd house is marked in the photo to the left, taken from the Rumisill-Fury Addition, which is the hill across Oil Creek, where the UB Church and the Orlando School was.

In 1914, the Allmans bought a dwelling from James P. Kennedy, a former Orlando merchant who was moving to New Mexico. The frame house was situated on the hill above what would later become the Charlie Knight store and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The Allmans in 1919 bought an adjoining lot from Maggie Kraus. Gaver and Misha Allman made significant improvements to the house purchased from Kennedy. John Allman recalls that the six square columns on the new porch addition to the house were made of Pacific Coast cedar from Spokane, Washington.

The Allman house had a gabled roof and seven rooms, including three large bedrooms and a smaller bedroom. The house had a large attic and an attached washhouse, beneath which was a spring house. The washhouse consisted of three rooms and used natural gas to power a washing machine, gas lights, and a gas stove for heating water. The house was electrified in the late 1940s by the Allmans’ widowed daughter-in-law’s new husband. The house included a double fireplace serving a parlor and sitting room. Down the hill from the house, the Allman’s built a double, hollow brick three car garage and a chicken house and coal house.

An interesting feature of the Allman house was the brick sidewalk which led from the house to the outdoor privy. The brick for the privy sidewalk was salvaged from the platform of the Orlando Depot which was dismantled in 1941.

A Defective Fireplace Hearth
John Allman also recalls that the fireplace in the hearth was plagued with a crack which was never properly repaired and which frequently resulted in hot embers dropping into the wooden foundation below the hearth resulting in house fires. John recalls at least three fires which occurred while his grandparents lived in the home, one of which he extinguished. A later fire was doused by Ed McNemar, a neighbor. John doesn’t recall how the third fire was extinguished. In order to put out the hearth-related fires it was necessary to go beneath the house and douse the fire with water.

In the 1960’s, after Gaver’s death, and while Misha was aged and in a long term care facility at Hopemont in Preston County, Gaver’s oldest son, Forrest, sold the Allman house to Oscar "Junior" and Jane (Stutler) Hawkins, Jr. Unfortunately for the Hawkins family, the former Allman home again caught fire in the late 1960s and burned to the ground. John Allman believes that the defective hearth was probably to blame.

Forrest Allman
Gaver and Misha Allman had two children, Forrest who was born in Cowen before the Allmans moved to Orlando, and Everett who was born in Orlando. Forrest and Everett both attended the Orlando School. Forrest later attended Burnsville High School and graduated with the class of 1925. After graduation, he worked for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and for a period in the early 1930s, worked the second “trick” at the Orlando Depot, following his father who worked the first shift. Forrest’s younger brother finished the work day by working the third shift. Forrest later secured a position with the Western Maryland Railroad and worked until his retirement as depot operator at Parsons, in Tucker County. .

Forrest Allman at 33 is to the left, Forrest in school is to the right, above.

Evertt Allman is below, left.

Everett Allman
The second and youngest son Everett was plagued from his youth with chronic respiratory problems. So severe was the condition and grave the outlook for his health that Gaver requested a leave of absence from his employer so the family could move to a healthier climate for his young son. The Allmans lived in Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, and Florida for short periods, but to no avail. Everett was treated for his respiratory problem with a new drug named theophylline. Despite these efforts, Everett ’s health continued to decline and he developed other complications as well. Years later, health agencies determined that the drug theophylline was toxic and caused irreversible problems with the liver and kidneys. As the result of this medical error, Everett died in 1939, at the age of twenty nine, leaving a young widow, the former Nora Wooddell, and a young three-old-son, John. Young John lived with his grandparents at Orlando for a few years but returned to his mother after her re-marriage. However, he continued to spend his summers with his grandparents in Orlando.

right: Everett and Nora's son John , his new baby and the new great- grandparents Gaver and Michie.

Gaver: The Fisherman
In his leisure time, Gaver was an avid hunter and fisherman. Helen (Frame) Jeffries recalls that she often saw him, with fishing pole in hand, headed toward the Oil Creek fishing holes in the evenings. Uncle Zeke, the writer of the Buzzardtown News column in the Braxton Democrat, often made note of the various fishermen who haunted Oil Creek between Orlando and Burnsville, and Gaver Allman was a frequently mentioned angler.

Gaver’s 1951 Chevrolet
Tom Jeffries, an automobile aficionado who grew up in Orlando, recalls that Gaver Allman owned a black 1951 Chevrolet two door sedan, Deluxe model. Tom remembers that Gaver would frequently drive his Chevrolet to the ford in Oil Creek in front of the Henline homeplace to wash his car. Tom remembered the Allman automobile was always clean and remarked that Gaver was always fastidious about the condition of his automobile.

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After Gaver's death Misha frequently asked Sallie Bee to drive her to Weston in Gaver’s automobile so she could shop. Misha was known to be careful with her money, and would pay Sallie only twenty five cents for his trouble, or so he said.

(Sallie and Ruby (Brown) Bee lived in a two-story house at the first railroad crossing west of Orlando.) .
right: Gaver and Mishie on their 50th wedding anniversary
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After Gaver’s death in 1961 at age 78, Misha remained in Orlando until she was afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. She then went to live in Parsons with her son Forrest for a period and lived the last seven years of her life at Hopemont care facility in Terra Alta. Mishie died in 1970 at age 88. .

Gaver Allman, master telegrapher and station operator, and his wife, Misha, joined their son Everett, in the Orlando Cemetery upon their deaths. Although their old home is now ashes and part of the earth, and the Orlando Depot is but a memory, the continuing presence of Gaver and Misha Allman in Orlando is marked by a impressive monument in the cemetery on the hill overlooking their adopted town.

_ …. . . _ . _ . .

The Morse code at the top says “Orlando Calling.”

The Morse code at the end says, “The End.”

Comments
comment from Dale Barnett
When I was growing up in Orlando, I used to go to the depot and watch Gaver Allman send messages by telegraph. These were the days before electricity so the electrical power to send telegraphic messages was created by means of an electrochemical reaction which utilized a copper cathode, a zinc cathode and copper sulfate crystals suspended in a large glass jar filled with acid.
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comments from John Allman
My grandfather Gaver Allman and my father Everett Allman were telegraphers. My uncle Forrest Allman was also a telegrapher. When I was young, my grandfather arranged for me to learn telegraphy from Okey Lewis, the railroad telegrapher at the Burnsville Depot.

My grandparents, Gaver and Misha Allman, raised large gardens and was self-sufficient in vegetable produce. My grandfather took pride in his gardens and once raised corn that was over eighteen feet tall.

When my grandfather moved his family to Phoenix, Arizona, in search of a healthy climate for my father Everett who had respiratory problems, he bought property in Phoenix. In 1952, my grandfather sold this property which is in downtown Phoenix. It is now the location of the First National Bank of Phoenix.

My grandfather rented one of the stalls in his garage to Worthy Hurst for $1.50 per month. (See a photo of Worthington and Genevieve "Tom" (Skinner) Hurst with their family in the Mar '07 entry about their son Worthington Hurst Jr. who was killed in World War II.)

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Above is John Allman, on the left with father Evertt Allman and on the right with grandfather Gaver Allman, at Seneca Rocks, about 1938.
What/where is Seneca Rocks, WV? A place of extraordinary beauty, great rock climbing.