Childhood in Orlando: Early Remembrances of Hauling Lumber

by Tom Jeffries

The first home that I can remember growing up in Orlando was a small house that stood on the hill above the Samantha Henline homeplace on the western side of Oil Creek The house belonged to my great uncle “Polar” Henline who had moved to Parkersburg.

I can remember the house having a coal stove in the living room and a gas heater in the dining room. Of course, the kitchen had a wood stove on which my mother cooked. Later, the wood stove was replaced by a gas stove bought at the Earse Posey sale. There was no heat in the bedrooms.

In the mid 1940s my father, Coleman Jeffries, bought a farm on Oil Creek from my great aunt Margaret Nixon. My dad also owned the land on which the old Rush Hotel building sat which was formerly the residence of Charlie Knight. I can remember going to the old hotel building after the flood of 1950 with my mother and my Aunt Opal (Jeffries) McCrobie to clean up the lower floors. There was about an inch of mud on the floors. It was quite a nasty job. I think I was more in the way than a help.

About 1951 my father decided to tear down the Rush Hotel building and salvage the building materials to build a new home on the Oil Creek farm which he had bought from his aunt Margaret Nixon. It was located about two miles up Oil Creek from Orlando. Of course, not only would the old hotel have to be torn down but also the building materials would have to be moved two miles to the new home site.

At the top is Tom Jeffries with his younger brother John.
Below that is the Rush Hotel.

To the right is the ford at the Semantha Henline homeplace where Oil Creek could be crossed by wagon. (Click of the photo of the Henline house to enlarge it.) See this house in the 1912 photo in an Oct '06 entry, Beham Henline's Funeral

My father did not own a truck but he did have a team of horses. He also owned a somewhat serviceable, but long obsolete, horse-drawn freight wagon. The wagon was much in need of repairs and, after a particularly difficult repair on the front axle the wagon, was ready to haul.

On many Saturday mornings, Dad, my brother John, aged six, and I, aged seven, loaded the bed of the wagon with 2x8s, 2x10s, and 2x12s salvaged from the demolition and started on the trip to the farm. I’m not sure how long the trip took in the slow moving wagon, but it seemed like an awfully long time to sit on the hard seat of the wagon. Dad wouldn’t let us walk if we got tired of sitting. He must have been afraid we would have been hit by a speeding car! As everyone will remember, the Oil Creek road was always in disrepair and hardly fit for automobiles.

The road which passed through our new farm from the Three Lick Bridge on toward Roanoke was just in the process of being built along the old B & O right of way. I recall being curious about all of the construction equipment and the earthmoving that was taking place.

In due time we would arrive at the farm, unload the lumber, allow the horses to feed and water, and return to Orlando. We would then eat lunch, load another stack of lumber, and repeat the trip. As I recall, we could make about two trips per day.

Dad often had trouble with wheels of the old freight wagon. The wheels tended to shrink in the summer heat allowing the steel tires to become loose on the wooden wheels. I remember on one trip about halfway to the farm one of the rear wheels came off. Dad had to unhook the horses, jack up the wagon, replace the tire and secure it to the wheel with wire. We made it to the farm moving very slowly. Before returning to Orlando, Dad allowed the wagon to soak its wheels in Oil Creek for a couple of hours to expand the wood. I can remember him doing this often. Sometimes he would roll the wagon into the deep water at the ford in front of the Henline house in Orlando and allow the wheels to soak overnight.

Above right is Coleman Jeffries with his horse team and June and Billy Nixon. Click on this photo to enlarge it.

To the left is a freight wagon.

Below right is Uncle Heater.

Another problem Dad encountered with the wagon was a loosening problem with the metal hub which fitted over the wooden part of the front axle. Normally a fitting like this is a shrink fit. In other words the metal is heated until it is red hot and then is driven onto the wooden axle. When cooled, it would shrink to a tight fit. However, on our wagon the wooden axle was worn and undersized so the normal remedy of a shrink fit would not work. My dad consulted his Uncle Heaterhuck Henline about the problem and as usual Uncle Heaterhuck had an answer. He told dad to soak burlap in tar and wrap the axle with the soaked burlap and then do the shrink fit process. It worked like a charm. Dad was very impressed with Uncle Heaterhuck’s common sense and mechanical knowledge.

See a Dec '06 entry, My Great-Uncle Heater Henline

After Dad bought a 1951 Chevrolet truck in 1954, and renewed his expired driver’s license, we could make many more trips a day. Still, the building activity went slowly. It was not until the fall of 1955 that we moved into our new home on Oil Creek. My father and mother lived in that small but comfortable home until 1993. Our family has many fond memories of growing up on the farm that we cherish to this day. The farm was sold and the house we built was torn down and replaced by a modern log home.

Above is the is that small but comfortable home on Oil Creek that Coleman Jeffries built.

As a side bar, the freight wagon used to haul the lumber up the Oil Creek Road was retired and stored in Uncle Homer Mitchell’s barn on Clover Fork. The wagon bed was stored under Uncle Homer’s grainery. When Uncle Homer died and his estate auction sale took place, Dad sold the wagon at the sale.

Comments

Comment 1

David Parmer was asked, "I didn't know Oil Creek could be forded anywhere in Orlando, certainly not downstream from downtown."

His response: "Yes, there was a ford in Oil Creek behind the Catholic Church which went to the south side of Oil Creek. There were deeper holes of water just above and just below the ford."

The Cars of Orlando

Tom Jeffries is my brother in law of forty four years. Tom is younger than I am by about four years or so, was a 1962 graduate of Weston High School and was in the United States Air Force when I married his sister, Barbara. From the time I have known Tom he has been “car crazy”, with an avid interest in anything with wheels. Apparently Tom was afflicted with this condition from about the time he was able to walk and it has continued until this day. Tom never met a car salesman he didn’t like as you can tell from his article about the cars of Orlando . -David Parmer

To the left is Tom with one of his loves in Hawaii where he was stationed.


By Tom Jeffries
I have had a love of cars all of my life which started in my childhood. I always had eyes for the cars in Orlando that belonged to our neighbors and I remember them vividly even today.

The first car I can remember riding in was a 1936 or 1937 Chevrolet owned by my Uncle Charles McCrobie. It was a brown four door sedan. In 1949 he traded for a black 1949 Chevrolet Deluxe four door sedan. Uncle Charles used to park his car off of the road in the lot next to the Nina Mathews residence. In 1950 a flood came to Oil Creek and got well into the car. Uncle Charles had the car towed to Burnsville to be dried out and repaired. In the process of being towed the chain jumped off the tow vehicle , flipped back and broke out the windshield. I wasn’t present to hear what was said. He later owned a blue 1953 Chevrolet sedan and a 1957 Chevrolet sedan. The 1957 Chevrolet was an aqua green and white Bel Air.

Doc Henline owned what I believe was a brown early 1950s Chevrolet truck and a 1954 Mainline four door sedan. In 1958 he traded for a 1958 Edsel. The Edsel was a V-8 with lots of power. He promptly backed it over the rails of the railroad track as he was backing out of his driveway. No doubt there was major excitement until it was extricated from the tracks.

After the Mathews family moved Cecil Skinner moved to their former house. Somehow there appeared a 1949 blue on blue Oldsmobile 88 coupe next to the house. I cannot remember the car ever being licensed or driven! I do remember that it was a Rocket V-8 which is considered by many to be the first muscle car. I really wanted to see it run.

In 1954, Worthington Hurst bought a new green on green 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air. He built a garage on the left side of the road which went to the Orlando School to house it. The garage is long gone as is the car.

Arden Thomas lived in the house which was adjacent to the school. In 1953 he bought a new Plymouth , black in color. I didn’t think too much of Plymouths.

This is Charles Cole's auto, with two of his boys, Slim (Alvin) and Harold Q. The picture was taken at their home on Three Lick in the late '20s or early '30s.

When Burl England moved to Orlando he owned a black 1951 or 1952 Packard four door sedan. He also had a Model A Ford Tudor which I think was also black. I was impressed by both of the cars but I never looked at them up close.

Nellie Casto never had a car but there was an old car that sat behind her house that was stripped for parts and later pushed into Oil Creek behind her house to help retard erosion of the creek bank. I think it was a Model A.

Mike Moran owned several vehicles that I remember. The first was a 1946 Ford Sedan. I believe it was red. He also owned a pickup truck and a long black funeral car that was kept in the red building on the left before you crossed the bridge into downtown Orlando . In the spring of 1949 Mr. Moran bought a new red Ford Tudor sedan. It was bright and shiny as it glinted in the sun as I stared at it from across Oil Creek. I was four years old.

Tom Jeffries, left, about the time Mike Moran brought home his shiny red Ford Tudor.

Deck Brown liked Buicks and owned a few over the years. The one that I remember most was a two tone green 1953 Buick Super. I rode in the car once or twice and it sure did ride smoothly. That Buick had Dynaflo! He also owned a flat bed ton and a half truck that was used around the store to deliver feed and so forth. I never saw Mr. Brown drive the truck. Ford, his son, drove the truck. The truck was an early 1950s green Chevrolet.

Mr Gave Allman owned a 1951 or 1952 black Chevrolet that he kept in immaculate condition. It was kept in a garage just down from his house. The garage was built into the hillside with block and was located on the road that went to the Stutler house. I remember him bringing the car down to Oil Creek in front of the Henline house to wash it on many occasions.

I remember Oras Stutler owned a 1941 or 1946 Chevrolet two door sedan. It was hard to tell the difference between a 1941 and a 1946 as they were so similar.

To the right are Oras and Edith (Skinner) Stutler next to Oil Creek, downstream near Burnsville. Their grandson Neil Beckner is near the back of the car. For most of their lives Oras and Edith did not have a vehicle.

Layton Riffle owned a beautiful 1955 Oldsmobile 88 Tu-tone blue, I believe. It was a real nice riding car. Once around 1960 there came a flood while I was in Burnsville that flooded Dumpling Run. Layton gave me a ride home by way of Heaters and Walkersville. It was a really nice ride from a really nice man.

Presley Bragg had several vehicles that I recall. He owned the first Jeep that I ever saw which he used to deliver mail. I believe it was red with a white hard top. It had to be a late 1940s or very early 1950s model. He also owned a green 1953 Buick Super as well and a red Chevrolet sedan at one time, He also owned a 1953 Ford cattle truck that was a light blue color. He kept it in the barn across from his house. He built a concrete block garage to house his fleet next to his house. Later he owned a 1961 Buick that he used to pick me up when I was hitchhiking.

In 1954 my father Coleman Jeffries bought a 1951 Chevrolet in Summersville. It was a three quarter ton, light blue in color and rode like a road wagon ! But it would haul all the lumber that you could put on it. When Dad brought it home he had to get Burt Skinner to drive it home for him because his driver’s license had expired years before! It remained parked for a month until Dad got his license. In 1957 I went with him to Feeney Chevrolet in Weston to take delivery on a new 1957 Chevrolet one half ton! What an improvement in ride and power as well as looks. I learned to drive in that Chevy truck.

He may not have known how to drive at the time, but to the right are Tom's dad, Coleman Jeffries, and Coleman's cousin Tom Thomas posing proudly next to a snazzy auto.

There are many other cars and trucks that I recall as a child and a teenager from Orlando that I will save for a later date. My lifelong love of automobiles began as a young child in Orlando and continues until today. I have owned over two hundred fifty vehicles in my life. Talk about an expensive addiction!

Comments
Comment 1 Steve Barnett
My grandparents never drove a car. My grandfather Bill Barnett supposedly traded a horse for a Model T as a young man. He and some friends went for a ride out into the country. As my great aunt Lura told the story he lost control of the car and ended up running the car up a large tree that curved out in a u-shape. He left the car where it stopped and never drove again.

Comment 2 Donna Gloff
I've always wondered how folks could leave old rusted out eyesores littering the beautiful WV landscape. I recently learned that my own grandfather contributed to the blight! I understand that when my grandfather, Oras Stutler, was a young man was a wild one. One of his exploits resuted in his '46 Chevy being wrecked in Oil Creek, and he just left it there! In his defense, I want to point out that in later years grandpa did a lot to beautify Orlando by demolishing several abandoned buildings downtown, including Mike Moran's offices and the Charlie Knight store. At the right is a stock photo of a '46 Chevy sedan. Maybe grandpa's looked like this.

Comment 3- David Parmer
Heaterhuck Henline’s first and only car was a 1924 Overland . Heaterhuck was proud of his Overland but rarely drove it. He came to conclude that there were “enough fool people in the world and he didn’t want to add to the number.” Uncle Zeke, chiding Heaterhuck, reported to all the people in Orlando and Braxton County in his Braxton Democrat column that “E. R. Henline is the proud owner of a brand new Overland . He says he is just a little afraid of it at present but he calculates having it de-horned just as soon as the weather gets cool.”
To the left is Heaterhuck Henline's 1924 Overland512

Helen Frame's Story

Thanks to David Parmer for the information and photographs.

To the left is Helen (Frame) Jeffries and to the right is her mother, Nellie Grace Wymer at the age of 16.

The story of Helen Frame and her path to Orlando best begins with her mother Nellie Grace Wymer who was born in Jane Lew.

Nellie was a teacher and also worked for a Weston newspaper. She married Cecil Stewart who was killed in a railroad accident in Weston in 1911, three months before their first child was born. This first child, a girl, was named Cecil after her father.

Later Nellie married Charles Frame, who was living in Clarksburg. They had three children, Wanza, James and then Helen, who came along in 1921.

Sadly, Nellie contracted tuberculosis. The family moved to Florida for Nellie's health, but she died at age 36 when Helen was only five years of age. Helen's dad kept the children he could best care for and, as dads often had and have to do, found relatives to take in the others.

Helen was placed in the care of her aunt Sarah (Frame) Cole of Gillespie, Braxton County. Sarah and her husband Herbert Cole were of the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints. Herbert was an Elder in the church. Little Helen was only with her aunt and uncle a short time when her Aunt Sarah's health began a decline. Elder Herbert Cole knew the Henline family from visiting the RLDS Mission 1930 in Orlando. He knew the Henline home would be a good place for Helen to grow up.

Kind people do kind deeds. Helen was raised by the Henline family in Orlando. And she married a Henline boy, Coleman Jeffries, son on of Clora Henline and Ed Jeffries. See the entry dated Jan '07 Clora Henline

Above left all of Nellie Wymer's kids, Cecil Stewart, James, Helen and Wanza Frame, pose for the camera at their Aunt Sarah and Uncle Herbert's house.

To the right are Coleman and Helen (Frame) Jeffries just a few years ago with their daughter Barbara, son-in-law David Parmer and grandson.

Double click on the photos to see them in greater detail.

Clora Henline

Clora Heline's granddaughter's husband, David Parmer shares the following.

Clora Henline (1881-1957), daughter of Beham and Semantha (Skinner) Henline, was Oil Creek born and raised and that is where she raied her children Coleman and Opal.

Clora and Ed Jeffries were the parents of two children, Coleman Jeffries and Opal (Jeffries) McCrobie. Ed and Clora never married. The two children, Coleman and Opal, lived off and on with both parents, with their dad in Burnsville and their mother in Orlando , but always considered Orlando their home.

According to family tradition, Ed Jeffries owned the Central Hotel at one time, a hardware and livery supplies store in Burnsville. Ed Jeffries’ first wife died around 1901. He was single for about 5 years and during this period was courting Clora. Clora continually refused to marry Ed. He then remarried but he and his second wife had been separated for 10 or 15 years at the time of his death and she was living in Kentucky.

Like most of Semantha (Skinner) Henline's family Clora belonged to Mission 1930 of the Re-organized Church of Latter Day Saints that her uncle William Otto Skinner established in Orlando and her kids belonged to congregation's youth group.

Above left is Clora with her children Coleman and Opal. To the right is visiting RLDS Elder Newton with several of Semantha (Skinner) Henline's family, including Clora in the center back. The photo at the bottom to the right shows Clora with Coleman's daughter Barbara.

Clora had an interesting professional life. In her early years she provided day care for Dr. Stanton and Callie Trimble's two children, Stanton and Mary Elizabeth. To the left is Callie Trimble with daughter Mary Elizabeth.

Family tradition also tells us that Clora later operated a restaurant in partnership with her niece's, Ollie (Skinner) Parmer's, husband Nathan Parmer (See July '06 entry Ollie and Nathan Parmer and Oct '06 entry Building Bridges.)

The restaurant was located just south of the depot at Orlando, just downstream from the eastern stone pier of the bridge on the Coal and Coke line. Apparently they had a falling out and Clora ended up suing Nathan in court over the dispute. Later Clora's brother-in-law, Mike Thomas, would operate a pool hall in that building. ( see Nov '06 entry Mike Thomas' Family)

Lis Thomas, A Syrian Peddler

Fading tattoos of camels, St. Sophia and minarets adorned the left arm of Louis “Lis” Thomas and captured the rapt attention of five year old Tom Jeffries, as he sat listening to Lis tell his tales so strange and wonderful.

Tom Jeffries with his kid brother. John.

Lis was a stooped, swarthy, thin man of medium height, with a hooked nose with flaring nostrils set in a wide face, smelling of strong tobacco, road dirt and sweat. He was spotted coming up the railroad tracks, hunched under the weight of his sixty pound pack of goods by members of the Henline family who were lounging on the front porch under a majestic elm tree.

Departing the cindery tracks and carefully stepping across the foot bridge over Oil Creek, Lis quickened his steps as he came closer to the inviting shade of the porch and the tall elm tree. It was summer and he had walked a long way that day and he needed the rest and the chance to sell a few goods. The Henline family were the inlaws of his deceased older brother, Mike Thomas, who also came to America as a peddler from his native Syria , and Lis considered them friends.

Lis was an intriguing sight for Tom, who, although half afraid, was anxious to look at the Syrian peddler and listen to his strange voice, full of funny pronunciations of common words. After exchanging greetings and talking awhile with Opal, Clora and Heater, Lis, dragging on his Camel cigarette, talked of the merits of Turkish blended tobacco but wide-eyed young Tom, not interested in this adult matter, was dying for the chance to look into the large pack of goods resting beside the porch.

Lis Thomas was born in that portion of the Middle East known as Syria , but under the rule of the Sultan of Turkey. Today we call this area Lebanon, a land of Maronite Christians, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and Druze, and full of as much violence as there is religion. The family of Lis Thomas was Maronite Christian, a minority in a mostly Muslim country and the frequent target of deadly violence by the hated Turks and the equally despised Muslims. Violence was not all one-sided in this part of the world, and blood feuds and vendettas were daily occurrences. It was long reported by family members that the murder of a revered uncle of Lis and Mike Thomas had brought them to America on the trail of the knife wielding murderer. Failing in their quest to avenge their uncle’s death because the assailant had returned to Syria while the avengers were on their way to America, the Thomas brothers found the opportunities of America too inviting to risk the return to Syria to exact revenge. But these were things Lis Thomas did not reveal to the ears of young Tom, nor the women, but only to the men folk of the Henline family.

Lis, in his peculiar speech, explained his tattoos to Tom, who was eager to hear the tale of the camels, and about the minarets, and St. Sophias. Those same icons Tom could see on the package of cigarettes Lis twirled in his large fingered hand. Tom thought how exciting it was to have someone this exotic to talk to him, as if he were a grown man. He would dream of camels, of minarets and of St Sophias tonight.





Comments
Comment 1 Donna Gloff
Costumes to the left were worn by Maronite Christians in Lebanon in the late 1800s about the time the Thomas brothers were leaving their homeland.

Orlando From Henline Hill

From David Parmer:
"This is Orlando as it was seen about 1920 from Henline Hill looking toward the Catholic Church. The structure beside the church I believe was the Rush Hotel. I'm not quite sure about that. At any rate my father-in-law Coleman Jeffries bought that lot and buildings, tore the buildings down in the early 1950s and used some of the lumber to build his house on Oil Creek. There was also a mantel piece from the old hotel building which was used in my in-laws' house.

"The Charlie Knight Store is the large building in the right center of the photo although he was a later owner of the store.

"The Skinner cemetery is in the top center of the photo. Note the cleared fields at the top of the large hill. Heater Henline told me that crops of wheat and other grains were grown at the top of that hill. When it was harvested and put into small shocks it would be taken off the hill by a system of wires on which the shocks would be hung and the shocks would slide down the wire to the bottom of the hill. Also note the large tree in the cemetery. I'm sure that is the large oak tree still standing in the middle of the cemetery. And note the cemetery has not expanded toward the top of the hill as it is now."