When I Was a Kid . . .

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

by Nina (Smarr) Myers, 2009

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

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~ People made their own baskets and furniture.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~ Hair was curled with heated curling irons and crimpers.

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

~ There was always cuffs on trousers.

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

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

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

~ There were no blue jeans, but only overalls.

~ Either the mother or father was the family barber.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~ When saucers were called sassers?

~ When cucumbers were called cowcumbers?

~ When a garden was called a gyarden?

~ When watermelons were called watermilyuns?

~ When panthers were called painters?

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

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

~ When cartridges were called catridges?

~ When we used to tan groundhog hides for shoestrings?

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

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

~ When preachers wore stove pipe hats?

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

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

~ When people wore homeknit wool socks winter and summer?

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

~ When grown ups went to church barefooted?

~ When people roasted field squashes in hot embers?

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

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

My Early Years on Clover Fork with the Holbert Family

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by Nina Myers as told to David Parmer

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

Death of My Father

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

We Children Came to Clover Fork

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

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

Mrs. Holbert, My Foster Mother

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

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

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

A Speech Impediment

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

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

Equal Rights

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

Chores and Lessons of Life

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

A Career

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Holbert Children on Clover Fork

Abia Holbert was one of the first of many young men to come to the Confluence (later Orlando) area, beginning about the turn of the 20th century and marry a local girl, becoming part of the fabric of the community. The young men came to find work as the industrial revolution rolled in on locomotive wheels. Abia came down from Marion County, in the Fairmont area. His first wife Pearlie Summers died, leaving him with a daughter, Lenna. He married a local girl, Margaret Etta Cunningham who was the granddaughter of Bulltown area pioneers Jesse and Mary Cunningham. Abia and Etta had four more children, Fred, Mary, Della and Robert. Abia and Etta also had a foster daughter, Nina Smarr, who is the only present survivor.

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by David Parmer

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The life of Abia and Margaret Etta (Cunningham) Holbert was the subject of the Jan 4, '08 entry The Holberts of Clover Fork. Here are stories of their six children.

Lenna

Lenna Holbert was a school teacher until she married in 1928 at age 32, Reverend Ellis Rittenhouse, a widower twenty four years her senior. Lenna and Ellis had one child, a son named Charles, who was born in Wheeling in 1937.

Fred

Fred Holbert, the second child of Abia and Etta Holbert, graduated from West Virginia University in 1928 and became a teacher of Vocational Agriculture at Buckhannon-Upshur High School. After teaching at the Upshur County school for six years, Fred became the agricultural agent for Gilmer County. After serving two years as agent, Fred died at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore of complications from surgery at the age of thirty two.

Mary

Mary Holbert married Russell Ellyson of Gilmer County in 1926. Mary had taught school, at, among other places, the upper Clover Fork school which she had attended as a child. Mary was the author of three books, one of which, Mud and Money, is a book about the oil and gas exploration business in turn of the century Gilmer County. Mary’s husband Russell was State Rehabilitation Director and also an advisor for the United States Department of Agriculture. Russell and Mary traveled to and lived in South America and Central America in connection with Russell’s employment as an agricultural advisor.

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Sisters Mary and Della, on Della's wedding day.

From the left: Ray Harris, brother of the groom, the groom Stanley Harris. (He was later the principal at the School for the Deaf and Blind at Romney and Registrar at West Virginia University) the bride Della (Holbert) Harris and the bride's sister, author Mary (Holbert) Ellyson.

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Della

The youngest daughter, Della taught school before she married at the age of 27. On June 9, 1935 she married Stanley Harris at Farmview, the Holbert farm on Clover Fork. Their wedding photo holds several memories. One of the memories is about flowers in the picture. Della’s older sister, Mary, who had done the planning for the wedding, suddenly realized that the flower arrangements had not been picked up. They had been prepared in Weston and shipped to Orlando. A flying trip to Orlando was necessary to get the flowers to the wedding on time. Ray Harris, brother of the groom and the gentleman at the left of the photo, taught botany and math at Shepherd College where I was one of his students in the early 1960’s.

Robert

Robert Holbert, the youngest Holbert child, taught at Brier Point School and Roanoke School in Lewis County and also was the Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Lewis County. Later, Robert became a member of management with the Goodyear Tire Corporation in Akron and later in Lincoln, Nebraska. Robert married Lois Brown of Ireland, West Virginia, the daughter of Oren Dixon “Dick” and Angela (O’Dell) Brown. (Dick was a teacher and farmer in southern Collins Settlement District.)

Left: Allan and his wife Sue, Louise, Angela and Fred.
Right: part-time farm boys Fred and Allan Holbert

Robert and Lois had four children: Allan, Louise, Angela and Fred. Like so many grandchildren of Orlando, now spread across the country, Fred remembers the summers he and his brother Allan spent at the Holbert farm on Clover Fork. As did all kids of that day, they delighted in roaming the hills of the Clover Fork valley. The boys never forgot Orlando, and it seems Orlando didn’t forget them either. In November of 1959 Jessie Bragg wrote in the Orlando column for the Braxton Democrat:

“Allan B. Holbert, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Holbert, a student at the Columbia University graduate school of journalism, wins a $1000 scholarship. Allan graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1956 and has been the managing editor of the Nebraska Education News. He is the grandson of the late Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Holbert of Orlando, Route 2.”

Left: The Doghouse Dozen Minus a Few, a band organized by Fred and Allan when they were in high school in the Lincoln, Nebraska in the early 1950’s. Allan would go on to become a journalist and jazz musician in Lincoln, Nebraska and his brother Fred would become a professor at the University of Nebraska.
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Nina

Nina Smarr, daughter of William Clarence and Dorothy (Harris) Smarr, became the foster daughter of Abia and Etta Cunningham as the result of the death of her father in a traffic accident in 1931. Nina graduated from Walkersville High School in 1942. She attended Glenville State College and became a teacher in the Lewis County Schools. Nina married Lawrence Craig and is the mother of two children from this union: Ronnie Craig and Dottie Starr. After the death of Lawrence and remaining a widow for a few years, Nina married Lydle Myers who is also now deceased."Nina, now retired, lives at Crawford, near Walkersville. This writer wishes to express his thanks to Nina, a great lover of history, for her help with this story.

The Holberts of Clover Fork

by David Parmer

Prologue

In 1965, this writer attended an auction at an auction house in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Prior to the beginning of the sale, a box of books which was to be sold caught my eye. The box contained a 1928 high school yearbook from Parkersburg High School; a book containing a list of all the Masonic lodges in West Virginia and the members of each lodge, also from 1928; a 1939 high school yearbook of Charleston High School; a 1928 year book from West Virginia University; and miscellaneous other old books. As I leafed through the West Virginia University yearbook, I was greeted by the photo of a studious-looking young man wearing a bow tie with his home town listed as “Orlando, West Virginia.” The name “Fred Holbert” was unfamiliar to me and I didn’t connect the name with Orlando because this Burnsville boy thought Orlando was only comprised of families named Blake, Riffle, Skinner, Posey and Henline. To solve the mystery of this Holbert boy who somehow sneaked into Orlando while the Blakes, Riffles, Skinners, Poseys and Henlines weren’t looking, I carried that box of books home that evening after the auctioneer’s gavel fell, and carried it over the years to Morgantown, Pittsburgh, and finally to Hinton, West Virginia. Some forty odd years later, I have solved the Holbert riddle, and now I’m going to write a little story about the A. B. Holbert family of Clover Fork.

Right: Fred Holbert

Left: Fred Holbert's obituary and a photo of him. Click on the article to enlarge it.

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More on Fred Holbert

Despite shelving the 1928 West Virginia University yearbook and forgetting it for years, the name “Fred Holbert” never left the back of my mind. I was sure that some day a reason would come forth to reactivate a desire to find an answer to the enigma. In the late 1970’s, the local dry cleaner owner advised me that she had a daughter who was attending law school at West Virginia University and was looking for a summer job as a law clerk. Thus, I met Mary Carol Holbert, a very bright and promising legal scholar, who I knew would go a long way in the legal profession. Not only did I have the privilege of employing an outstanding law clerk for the summer, but because of her family name, my latent interest in Fred Holbert was once again activated. Giving some thought as to the best way to determine the whereabouts of Fred Holbert, I settled on contacting someone who I hoped could help me out. Vada Kidd, a lifelong farm wife, widow of Frank Kidd, and news writer of the Orlando News in the Braxton Democrat, seemed to be the right person to contact. As it turned out, Mrs. Kidd knew the Holbert family quite well, and their respective farms were not far apart. Mrs. Kidd advised that Fred Holbert died young, in the late 1930’s, and that he had been a county extension agent. So, with little effort, the question of many years was answered, and again the “back burner” was the repository for further investigation of the Holbert story.

Renewed Interest

For the past couple of years, this writer has chronicled many stories about the Blakes, Riffles, Skinners, Henlines, and Poseys of the Oil Creek valley. A few weeks ago, I was reading an Orlando news column written by Jessie Bragg for the Braxton Democrat in November, 1959. Mrs. Bragg wrote,

. . . . . Allan B. Holbert, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Holbert, a student at

. . . . . the Columbia University graduate school of journalism, wins a $1000 scholarship.

. . . . . Allan graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1956

. . . . . and has been the managing editor of the Nebraska Education News.

. . . . . He is the grandson of the late Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Holbert of Orlando, Route 2.

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A few days later as I was researching a story about Bud Hamilton, I was reading the December 28, 1934 Buzzardtown News and ran across this item by Uncle Zeke.

. . . . . Odie Hyre and Biah Holbert of near Jacksonville were in town

. . . . . Tuesday of last week and delivered a dressed hog to one of the needy.

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Such a memorable act of kindness and charity during the depths of the Depression must have brightened the Christmas holiday in that Orlando home!!

I had previously concluded to write a little story about the Holbert family of Clover Fork for the Orlando web page and had been building a file of notes to use for reference. The more I read about the Holbert family, the more impressed I was about this family which placed Christian principles and a love of education as their pole stars and followed them throughout life.

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Abia B. Holbert
and Family

Abia B. Holbert was born in Marion County in 1872, the son of A. S. and Mary (Moore) Holbert. In 1895, he married Pearlie Summers who lived but a short time after their marriage. One child, a daughter Lenna, was born of this brief marriage.

John Whiston, the great-grandson of Abia Holbert reports that Abia came to the Clover Fork area with a saw mill to cut timber around the turn of the 20th century. Based upon a deed dated 1900 from A. S. Holbert to his son for one hundred acres of land on Clover Fork, it would appear that Abia Holbert’s father had made an earlier appearance on Clover Fork, perhaps with the saw mill referenced by Abia’s great-grandson, John Whiston. We can speculate that Abia may have been part of his father’s saw mill crew although we cannot be certain. In the 1900 federal census report for Lewis County, Abia was living as a boarder in the home of William R. Boggs on Clover Fork. Based upon the census numeration assigned to the Boggs household, it appears that Abia was living at this time in the same area where he lived for the remainder of his life. According to Nina (Smarr) Myers, the Boggs farm was “across the hill from the farm Mr. Holbert would later own.” It was presumably at this time that Abia met his future second wife who lived in the Clover Fork area on a nearby farm.

Marriage and Employment

In 1901, Abia married his second wife, Margaret Etta Cunningham, daughter of Enoch and Mary (Kiley) Cunningham, a prominent farm family of Clover Fork. The Cunningham family from which Enoch was descended was a pioneering family of the Bulltown area of Braxton County and owners of thousands of acres of fertile ground.

In addition to the saw mill work which brought Abia to the Clover Fork area, his great-grandson John Whiston tells us that Abia also worked in the oil and gas fields of central West Virginia as a teamster and that his great-grandfather reputedly could make a horse do his bidding without difficulty. After the oil and gas boom subsided, Abia reverted to husbandry of the land for his living.

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Right: Mary Etta (Cunningham) Holbert

Left: Mary (Kiley) Cunningham

During this second marriage, Abia and Etta became the parents of four children, Fred Kiley, Mary Elizabeth, Della, and Robert, all of whom were born on Clover Fork.

The Holbert Children and Their Education

The Holbert children attended their first school at the upper Clover Fork School. As the children completed their elementary education with no close-by high school, Abia decided that his children would go to high school and that he would not send them away to board at another home. According to Nina (Smarr) Myers, Abia’s foster daughter, during the high school years of the first four Holbert children, the family left the farm during the school term and moved to Buckhannon where Abia worked as a carpenter while his children attended school at Buckhannon High School. After school concluded in the spring, the family would move back to Clover Fork and resume farming until the new school year started in the fall. According to Nina (Smarr) Myers, Abia Holbert was a great believer in education and would frequently visit local schools. This interest in education led to his being elected to the Lewis County Board of Education where he served as president in the late 1930’s.

Lenna, Abia’s child of his first marriage, graduated from Buckhannon High School. The next two Holbert children, Fred and Mary, also graduated from the same high school. Della, the fourth of Abia’s children, attended Buckhannon High School until her senior year when she transferred to Jane Lew High School where her oldest sister Lenna had begun teaching. Della graduated from Jane Lew High School. By the time Robert, the youngest Holbert child, reached high school age, a school had been built at nearby Walkersville. Robert rode his horse to school in Walkersville each day from the family farm. Robert was the only Holbert sibling to graduate from Walkersville High School.

After their graduation from high school, all of the Holbert children graduated from college, an exceptional achievement for a rural farm family in the early 20th century. All became teachers for at least for some part of their careers.

Nina Smarr - Foster Child

In the early decades of the 20th century, there were frequent informal arrangements regarding the care of children who had lost their parents. Countless families in the Orlando area reared children who had been orphaned or whose parents, because of economic conditions, were unable to provide adequate care for their children. Eight-year-old Nina Smarr unfortunately lost her father, William Clarence Smarr, in 1931 to a car accident. In 1935, Nina became the foster daughter of Abia and Etta Crawford, and lived at the Clover Fork farm. Nina graduated from Walkersville High School, attended and graduated from Glenville State College, and became a teacher in the Lewis County Schools. Nina, now retired, lives at Crawford, near Walkersville. This writer wishes to express his thanks to Nina, a great lover of history, for her help with this story.

Farmview Farm

A life-long farmer, Abia farmed over two hundred fifty acres on the very upper reaches of Clover Fork. The farm included the route of the old turnpike which was the principal route of north-south travel in central West Virginia for nearly a hundred years. The Holbert farm was formed by a merger of other lands acquired by Abia and Etta from his father, A. S. Holbert (113 acres), her father, Enoch Cunningham (85 acres), J. D. Hyre (5 acres) and Jacob Bragg (74 acres). As part of the “Farming for Better Living” program, participating farmers were required to choose a name for their farms. Because the Holbert farm was situated at a high elevation, it provided a view of several miles in all directions which encompassed many adjoining farms. Consequently, their farm was called “Farmview Farm.”

According to Nina (Smarr) Myers, Abia’s cash crops primarily were turkeys, beef, eggs, and cream. The cream was taken to the railroad stop at Chapman, and later to Walkersville for shipment, and was marketed in Fairmont. The eggs were generally marketed in nearby Walkersville. Nina recalls the task of washing each egg before it was placed in the carton to be delivered to the retailer. Since the turkeys and beefs were sold as cash commodities, neither customarily appeared on the Holbert dinner table. Nina recalls however that there was always plenty of chicken and pork at dinner time. She also recalls the daunting boredom of plucking the feathers of all the poultry which was either slaughtered for immediate use, for canning or for sale. To pass the time, Nina recalls that she and her foster mother Etta Holbert would recite poetry while they worked.

Recalling Abia’s Christmas gift of a dressed hog to a needy Orlando family referenced above, I inquired if Mr. Holbert made a practice of such largesse. Although unaware of that particular act of charity, Nina was aware that her foster father would frequently deliver sacks of flour or meal to families in need in the area.

Nina described her foster father as a “man of few words, except when it came to praying.” A pious and religious man, Abia was a trustee of the Mt. Hope Methodist Church. When called upon in church to give a prayer, Abia usually made a “lasting” impression, especially when judged by the length of the prayer. Nina also recalls on one occasion when she was working outside, she heard strange ghost-like sounds. Tracking the source of the sounds, she discovered that Abia was praying in the half-filled silo. The sound of the prayer was amplified by the silo and resonated throughout the area.

The Farmhouse of Farmview Farm

The farmhouse of Farmview Farm is an elegant, well proportioned two story frame dwelling now owned by John Whiston, a great-grandson of Abia Holbert. The original Holbert farmhouse was located across the road and up a hollow from the present home. John Whiston states that around 1910 Abia sent logs from the farm by rail, probably to Burnsville, where they were milled into lumber, returned by rail to Chapman, and then transported to the building site. According to Nina Myers, after the lumber was milled it was seasoned on the farm before use. Fred Holbert, Abia’s grandson, of Lincoln, Nebraska, recalls that family legend maintains that his grandfather acted as the primary contractor and worked with two or three carpenters in the construction of the house. The original slate roof on the home was replaced around 1982. Some of the same oak wainscoting found in the home is also found in the Mt. Hope Methodist Church which was built on a third of an acre donated by Abia and was likely milled at the same time as the wood work in the home.

Today, eighty acres of the original acreage and the farmhouse of Farmview Farm remain in Holbert family ownership. The remainder of the original acreage is now owned by the Hardrock Land Company which is an entity comprised of Mack Worrell, Mike Ross and Ike Morris, present day oil and gas barons of central West Virginia.

Education Pays

In a group photo taken in the 1930’s at Farmview Farm of the Holbert and Cunningham families of Clover Fork, seventeen of the family members shown became teachers. That generation and the following generations include members who became college professors, doctors, lawyers, a National Public Radio correspondent, journalists, and other successful business people or highly placed public servants. The public and private achievements of this family are too broad to give individual mention in this narrative. Suffice it to say, Abia and Etta Holbert of Clover Fork had a vision that to succeed in life, the first step must be taken in the classroom. Clearly, that vision was rewarded.

Left: an article writen by Fred Holbert. To enlarge it, click on the article.