A Hero In the Hedgerows

by David Parmer

Charles Dana "Charlie" Posey hunted raccoons, rabbits, squirrels and deer on Posey Run. He loved to till the soil and see vegetables grow. He watched cowboy movies with his wife, Mildred and played cards, croquet, dominoes, and badminton with his family and friends. He loved to make home-made ice cream, apple butter, and sauces, and to go to the woods for walnuts, hickory nuts and ramps. Charlie is remembered as hard working, optimistic and full of humor. He had a penchant for breaking out in song with the romantic ballad, ‘You Are My Sunshine.” Their son Charles recalls that when the final words of the chorus of “You Are My Sunshine” were still on his father’s lips, his mother would always respond, “Oh, Charlie.”

Right: Charles Dana "Charlie" Posey and Mildred Finley
Left below: brothers Amel, Kenny and Charlie Posey.

Family

Charles Dana Posey saw his first light of day in Clarksburg in the early winter of February 1925. Born to Ezra Posey and Gertrude (Skinner) Butler Posey, he was the youngest of his family which included two brothers, Amel and Kenny, two sisters, Mildred and Mabel, a half brother, Gene Butler, and a half sister, Zella Butler. Ezra and Gertrude had a farm at Posey Run. Ezra farmed some and also worked for the railroad as a cook. Farming was marginal as far as income was concerned and the railroad work was spotty. So, Ezra went to Clarksburg for a while for work and that was where Charles was born. Later, Ezra and Gertrude moved back to Orlando when Ezra's work at Clarksburg ended.

Charles was the maternal grandson of Reverend Alexander Newton “Alley Hoss” Skinner, an early minister of the Reorganized Latter Day Saints Church of Orlando, and Sarah Eliza (Posey) Skinner, daughter of Benjamin and Francena (Robinson) Posey.

Charles Dana Posey's paternal grandparents were William Sanford Posey and Sarah Elizabeth (Riffle) Posey. William, who was known all his life by his middle name, Sanford, was the son of William Patrick Posey and Sarah (Stump) Posey. Sanford and Sarah had six children: Rozina (known as Rosie), Allie, Marshall, Ezra, Carrie, and Patrick. The oldest daughter, Rosie was married briefly to James Lough, but that marriage ended soon after the marriage and Rosie remained single the rest of her life. Rosie would frequently comment with respect to her brief marriage that her former husband "could deceive the very elect."

In 1947, Charles Dana Posey married Mildred Finley and they became parents of three children, Charles, Ronald, and Diana.

Orlando School

During the 1930’s, Charles attended the Orlando School through the eighth grade. A well liked student, Charles became even more esteemed when he was selected as the janitor of the school and had money to spend on candy and pop. In the eighth grade, Charles was a classmate of Junior Hurst, Pauline Bennett, Ruth Mick, Bud Mick, J. C. Foster, Jack Riffle, Claude “Clutch” Riffle, and Kathleen Sharp. Ruth Mick remembers Charles as a quiet, thin, blond-haired boy with a fair complexion. Charles completed the eighth grade in 1941, little knowing that in two short years he would be conscripted into the United States Army.

Uncle Sam Says, “I Want You”

In May 1943, Charles had just turned eighteen by a couple of months and the ever-vigilant draft board sent Charles a congratulatory letter advising him that he had been selected to join the largest army club in the country. After the usual efficient military screening, the army decided that Charles would make an excellent chef and he was sent to sharpen his culinary skills at the bakers’ and cooks’ school at Camp Forrest, Tennessee. In June, 1944, after becoming proficient as an army cook, Charles was sent along with the 329th Infantry Regiment to France. The 329th landed at Normandy on D Day plus 17 (June 23, 1944), and was immediately sent to the front lines to relieve the 101st Airborne Division, south of Carenton, France. In its usual characteristically “fubar” fashion, the 329th told Charles that they had enough cooks and handed him a rifle and bandolier and anointed him an infantryman even though he had been trained to make bread and cook potatoes.

Left: Charlie in uniform

Right: "From Cornrow to Hedgerow" by Keith Rocco, illustrates battle in the Normandy hedgerows.

Seventeen Days in the Hedgerows

Hedgerows were an unsettling scene to infantrymen. Not only did they provide cover for the defending German paratroops and 17th German SS Division, they also limited the use of American tanks and other armored vehicles which usually supported the infantry. The 329th encountered the dreaded hedgerows at the small French town of Culot. The “breast fire formation” used by the 329th to attack the hedgerow defenses made “sitting ducks” of the American infantrymen and the German 88’s, machine guns and mortar fire reaped huge casualties among the mostly teen-aged boys comprising the 329th. Huge losses were incurred each day and miraculously Charles made it through seventeen days before a German mortar exploded behind him, nearly ripping his left hand from his arm and leaving shrapnel throughout his back and arm. His hand dangling from his arm, attached only by skin, Charles was evacuated to the rear to a military hospital, his fighting days over.

Left: Location of the town of Culot where Charlie fought.

Right: Photos from the internet of the time and place where Charlie Posey served.

A Medical Marvel

The thick Posey skin saved Charles from a future as a man with one hand. When he was evaluated at the field hospital, the army surgeons stabilized the dangling left hand and recommended that Charles be sent back to the United States by the next medical ship for further evaluation and treatment. At this stage of the war, public opinion was being jarred by not only the massive casualties and deaths of young American men but also by the thousands of amputees returning to civilian life. The Army Medical Corps had resolved not to take the easy route and amputate but in marginal cases to make the effort to save as many limbs as possible. By August 1944, after a mere two months in Europe, Charles, the erstwhile cook and infantryman, found himself back in the United States at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D. C. where he received the first of numerous surgeries to re-attach his hand and to remove shrapnel. For the next two years at Walter Reed and at the Ashford General Hospital in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Charles became very familiar with surgical procedures and became somewhat of a medical marvel. After nearly two years of surgeries, Charles had recovered some limited use of his left hand. Although his hand was gnarled in appearance and limited in the amount of weight he could lift, twenty-one year old Charles was separated from the service in April 1946 with a certificate of disability to go with his Purple Heart.

Right: The Purple Heart

Left: Charlie's discharge papers

Life as a Civilian

Charles returned to Clarksburg resolved that his war injuries would not control his future life. In his youth, Charles had been a willing worker. When he was still barely school age, Charles had carried water to pipeline workers laying pipe through the country near his Posey Run home. Many a summer day was spent hoeing corn from daylight to dusk for neighboring farmers for twenty–five cents a day. And of course, he was a full-fledged janitor at the Orlando School when he was ten or eleven. So the inconvenience of a crippled hand did not prevent Charles upon his return to civilian life from obtaining employment with the Carnation Milk Company, and later with R. D. Wilson and the Fittro Brothers in Clarksburg as a truck driver. Subsequently, Charles attended machinist school and worked for Goldsmith and Black as a vending machine repairman. Toward the end of his career, Charles was employed by the Clarksburg Park Authority and Harrison County as a maintenance man at the Harrison County Courthouse.

Left: Mildred (Rutherford) and Charlie Posey

Words of Praise from a Son

The Honor Guard crisply cocked their M-1 rifles and fired in unison over the freshly dug grave of their departed comrade in arms. The staccato sound of the honoring discharges echoed throughout the adjacent countryside, barely disturbing the tranquility of the beautiful day. The American flag draping the casket was folded with precision by the aging honor guard veterans and presented to the deceased’s youngest son Ronald. On November 16th, 2009, Charles Dana Posey was lowered into his final resting spot in the Lumberport Lion’s Club Cemetery with full military honors. It was fitting that he died one day after Veteran’s Day 2009 closed its books on another annual remembrance of the heroes of this nation’s battles.

Charles Dana "Charlie" Posey, a son of Oil Creek, gave much to his country. He revered his family, and he made the most of his life. As his father reposed in the casket behind him, his oldest son, Charles, praised his father’s life on earth. Such loving remembrances reveal a beloved father and husband and a time well spent on earth by Charles Dana Posey.

. . . . .

Note: Many years before Charlie's parents married his mother was widowed with two infants when her husband Thomas Butler was murdered. She had been a teeage when they married, and was still a teen when she was widowed.

One Boy's View of Posey Run

As Seen by the Young Bobby Nicholson
By Bob Nicholson and David Parmer

My name is Bob Nicholson and I now live in Aromas, California. Although I have lived in Arizona and California most of my years, my eyes opened in this world on Posey Run in 1944. Or more precisely, I should say that I came to live on Posey Run when I was about six months old, after having been born at Gassaway and living briefly on Point Mountain in Webster County where my dad was a coal miner. I am the son of the late Hoy and Pearly (Stout) Nicholson. I probably am remembered on Posey Run and Orlando as Bobby Nicholson but as we get older the names of our youth fade into obscurity except to those who knew us when we were young. So remember me as either Bob or Bobby.
I have been interested in reading the stories about Orlando and particularly about Posey Run which was my home during my early years until I was fourteen years of age. The Posey Run school had already been closed and shuttered by the time I came along so I attended school at Orlando. As a result I came to know my contemporaries from the Orlando area as well.

I was fourteen years of age when my dad married Daisy Brown, daughter of Mae Brown, who was our neighbor on Posey Run. After my dad and Daisy married they moved to Phoenix, Arizona. My dad sold his farm to Harry Wilson who had lived on the Oil Creek Road near the home of Ray Fox. After my dad and Daisy moved to Arizona, I lived briefly with my mother Pearly and my step-father in Marlinton and then briefly with my aunt Mae Woods in Mogadore, Ohio before I joined my dad in Phoenix.

But, the memories I wish to share in this little story are about the folks I recall as neighbors when my family lived on Posey Run from 1944 to 1958.

The Mae Brown Family

I have mentioned Daisy Brown who married my dad and moved with him to Phoenix, Arizona in 1958. Daisy was the daughter of Mae Brown. Daisy’s dad, Thurman Brown, died in a car accident above Burnsville when Daisy was just a small child. One of Mae’s older daughters was Ruby Bee who was married to Fred "Sally" Bee and lived in Orlando. Ruby had two boys, Frank and Randall, who went to school with me in Orlando. Mae had five sons, George, Harold, Homer, Ralph, and Sherman, and besides Ruby, she had two other daughters, Daisy, who was my step-mother, and Ertha. Mae also had some older children who were considerably older than me. Their names were Ressie, Mavis, Edna, and John. Mae courted Fred Riffle for years but couldn’t seem to get Fred to “tie the knot.”

Right:Randall, Ertha and Franklin Brown

Allie and Rosie Posey

Two sisters, Allie and Rosie Posey, daughters of William Sanford and Sarah (Riffle) Posey, also were our neighbors on Posey Run. Allie had been married very briefly when she was young. Her only comment about her former husband was “He could deceive the very elect.” She had been divorced for such a long time that most people didn’t even know she had been married. I remember collecting money for flowers for the funeral for one of the sisters in the early 1950’s.

Grafton and Mary Riffle

Grafton Riffle also was a Posey Run neighbor. He was the grandson of William Taylor Riffle. Grafton’s wife Mary was from the Rocky Fork area which is just over the ridge from Posey Run. Grafton worked for the gas company.

Uncle Ordie and Lovie Nicholson

My dad’s brother, Ordie and his wife, Lovie (Sandy), also lived on Posey Run. Ordie was a coal miner as was my dad. Uncle Ordie and Aunt Lovie lived above [above means upstream] Grafton and Mary Riffle. Uncle Ordie later moved to Orlando and lived in the Worthy Hurst house on Flint Knob. I understand that he would carry a scythe from Orlando to Posey Run and cut filth and then walk back to Orlando to eat lunch and then walk back again. Uncle Ordie and Aunt Lovie didn’t have children but raised a girl named Ilonda who married one of Stanton Riffle’s boys.

Bobby Nicholson, pictured here with his 4-H Club at the Orlando School in 1956, is is the first on the left in the bottom row.

Jack Rogers

Jack Rogerslived just further up Posey Run from Uncle Ordie Nicholson. On some Saturdays my dad would cut hair in the house and sometimes Jack would come down for a haircut. On one Saturday when my dad was cutting Jack’s hair, I noticed that he had a large pistol in his coat pocket. I asked my dad about it afterward and he told me that Jack was the town cop in Burnsville.

Pat Conley

The last house on the run was the home of Pat Conley. Pat’s children were all older than me. One day I was at Pat’s haying with some of my family and others when he gave me a bag of marbles which he said had belonged to his son Lawrence who now lives around Youngstown. I think that Lawrence may have been in the Korea at the time. There was a brand new 1955 Chevy which belonged to him which was stored in the barn and was covered up with hay.

Right: Pat Conley

Hubert Riffle

The Hubert Riffle family lived on the eastern side of Oil Creek, just upstream from the home of Ray Fox. Ray’s son Carl was a classmate of mine at the Orlando school. Hubert, who was known as “Domineck,” and his wife had two children, Richard and Susie, who also were my classmates at the Orlando School. Richard liked to flex his biceps for his classmates so he was nicknamed “Sampy,” as in Sampson.

The Wilfong Family

Also on the eastern side of Oil Creek, almost straight across from the home of “Boss” Riffle who lived on the Oil Creek Road, lived the Wilfong family. There were several Wilfong children who had gone to the Orlando School, but they were all older than me. The youngest of the Wilfong children was Bob Wilfong. Most all of the Wilfong children were tall and had blonde hair.

Left: Bob Wilfong

“Boss” Riffle

“R. M. “Boss” Riffle lived in the second house toward Burnsville from the mouth of Oil Creek. “Boss” would cut our hay every year. In 1988 when I visited the Posey Run area, I visited Fred Riffle who was the son of “Boss” at the old home. I hadn’t seen him for twenty five years. We sat on the porch and talked about the olden days and watched the cars go up and down Oil Creek. As I mentioned earlier, Fred had courted Mae Brown for as long as I could remember. The night that “Boss” died, Mae came by our house at a late hour and knocked on the door and said, “Hoy, ‘Boss’ is dead.”

Right: Fred and his parents Idena and Boss Riffle

Road Run

Road Run flows into Oil Creek just above the mouth of Posey Run. For some poor excuse of a reason, the name of Road Run has been changed by the authorities in Sutton to “Happy Hollow.” I will continue to refer to it as Road Run and let the people in Sutton call it “Happy Hollow.”

When I was young I recall that the Strader, Conrad, and Flint families lived on Road Run. There may have been other families as well. Eugene Flint and Junior Strader who both lived on Road Run were my Orlando classmates.

Edith Stutler

The best peanut butter cookies I ever ate were made by Edith Stutler, the cook at the Orlando School. It would be nice if the cookie recipe were available. I’m sure that every school child from Orlando School who had the good fortune to eat one of Edith’s cookies would love to have the recipe.

[Bob, Edith's recipes were lost in the fire that destroyed the Allman house. ( Edith's daughter Jane Hawkins lived there at the time.) I'm checking with Edith's granddaughters to see if any of us have grandma's recipe.]

Right: Edith (Skinner) Stutler

Left: Marvin Brown with his mom Ruby (Beckner) Brown and his cousin Bill Beckner.

Marvin Brown

One of my best friends at the Orlando School was Marvin Brown, grandson of Bill Beckner. The Beckner family lived on Flint Knob.

Preacher England

I remember Pastor Byrl England of the U. B. Church in Orlando. His wife Irene was my Sunday School teacher. The Englands had three children who were my classmates at the Orlando School. The boy’s name was Eddie and the two girls were Sheila and Gwen.

Left: Edie and Sheila England

A Look Back

Many of the people I have mentioned in this little remembrance are deceased. My dad, Hoy Nicholson, died in 1996 at age 91. Although death has taken many of the people referenced in this offering, as I get older, most memories grow fonder. I enjoy thinking of the people I grew up with, played with, and fished with. All those memories are special to me.

Right: Bob Nicholson in Aromas, CA

Memories of Mom

by Joyce Carole Brannon

My mother, Olive (Henline) Brannon, died when I was nine years old. My older brother, Robert, was just ten years of age. Although I knew what death was, I later realized that I was really too young to comprehend the significance of her death and the change in my life that my mother’s early death would bring to me and my brother.

My mother was born in Orlando in 1914 to Amos and Charlotte (Blake) Henline. Throughout her youth, my mother’s family lived on Oil Creek, just west of Orlando. My mother attended the Posey Run School and later graduated from Burnsville High School in 1933. My mother was the oldest child in the family which included four younger brothers.

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~ To the left above are mom & daughter, Olive and Joyce.

~ To the right is mom Olive (Henline) Brannon.
~ To the left are Dad & mom, Bruce and Olive, with Robert, Joyce and ?

~ To the left below is the author Joyce Carole Brannon at age 4.

After graduating from high school, my mother met her future husband, Bruce Brannon of Vadis in Lewis County. My parents met as the result of their love of music, they fell in love and married in 1935. My brother, Robert, was born in 1936 and I arrived exactly one year, one month, one week and one day later.
My father was an elementary school teacher in Lewis County. With each new school year and a teaching assignment at a different school, we moved nearly every year to another small town in Lewis County. My mother always cheerfully managed to make every place we lived feel like home. Memories of my mother stir within me to this very day, and have throughout my life.

When I was around four years of age at one of our many homes, a robin had built a nest in a tall hollow post in a rose thicket and was rearing little baby robins. A big blacksnake became aware of the baby robins and began to climb to the nest to take the hatchlings. My mother quickly went into the house and came back with a .22 rifle and shot the snake, saving the lives of the baby robins. I thought my mother was very brave.

Again, when I was about four years of age, when my father was teaching school on very hot days, my mother would fill a half-gallon Karo syrup bucket with ice and water and allow me to take it to Daddy’s school in the afternoon. He would allow me to remain at the school and I would walk home with him after school. This made me feel very special.

One new school year, we moved closer to Weston to a house on the side of a hill where we were able to have a cow. Her name was Peggy. My mother knew I loved cats and one day brought me a white kitty which I named Snow Flake, and my brother Robert was not forgotten and he got a white dog which he named Judy. I have loved animals all my life.

I will never forget the day that I embarrassed my mother. One day my mother arranged for several ladies to visit with her. While the ladies were visiting, I ran into the house in a panic and told my mother that our dog Judy was stuck to another dog. I did not know what was happening, but our little Judy sometime later gave birth to a litter of puppies. I can’t imagine how embarrassed my mother must have been.

I also remember clearly the night my mother met the mouse. My brother Robert started to school when he was five and generously brought home to me not only chicken pox but also whooping cough during his first year in school. When my brother and I had the whooping cough, we would start “whooping” after we went to bed. Our parents would get up and come to our room to give what relief they could. One night, as my brother and I were “whooping,” my mom came to our room to care for us. As my mom came into the room, the path of a scurrying mouse fell under mom’s foot. I don’t know who was most scared ---the mouse or my mom.

My mother always made me feel special. I started to school at Polk Creek when I was six. Each day my mom would braid my hair and put ribbons at the end of my pig tails to match whatever dress I was wearing. My mother made nearly all the clothes I wore with extra care so that I would always look feminine.

To the left are dresses Olive sewed for Joyce's dolls..

My mom taught me responsibility. During World War II, my dad decided that he could not support his family on a school teacher’s salary so he decided to go to Fairfield, Ohio to work as a painter at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Unable to go with him, my dad moved us to an apartment over the Kroger Store in Weston. Although we had a 1937 Chevrolet, my mother had never learned to drive. To earn a little extra income, my mom arranged for a part-time job, on night shift, at the hospital where she could walk to work. At this time, I had a little ceramic doll which had become broken. Mom let me go to the hospital with her one evening where someone mended my doll with tape. She also let me help carry a meal tray to a patient which made me feel like a “big” girl.

Robert disobeyed our mother. After we moved to Weston, Mom enrolled my brother and me at Weston Central Grade School. My mother instructed Robert to wait for me and to bring me home with him after school on that first day. But Robert went home without me. My mom had told me if I ever got lost to look for a policeman for help. I couldn’t find a policeman. I tried to find my way home after school and went as far as I could remember but became lost. I stood on a street corner and cried until a lady came along who knew me and took me home.

I remember Christmas. Daddy came home from work in Ohio on Christmas. Robert and I decided to stay up to watch for Santa. As we were hiding, watching for Santa, we saw our parents putting out the gifts under the Christmas tree.

Shortly after Christmas, my mother told us that we were going to Ohio to be with Daddy. My mother sold the Chevy, got rid of all the furniture and bought us all tickets to Ohio on the Greyhound bus. My mother had never been out of West Virginia during her entire life, but was brave enough to set out for Ohio with two children. It was a cold winter day when we arrived in Ohio and there was snow all over the ground. We walked through streets with rows of houses until we found the right house. When my dad opened the door, I think my mother said “Surprise.”

My mother and father were both musically talented. My mother had a lovely voice. My father played the violin and also sang. When we lived in Ohio both my mother and father sang in the community choir. Each time I sort through my collection of sheet music I run across my parents’ copy of “Ave Maria,” their favorite choir song. How they loved to sing.

By the time I was seven years old, my mother had passed her love of sewing to me and had taught me to embroider, cross stitch, and crochet. My memories include my mother’s care in a crocheted yellow purse and hat she made for me and a hat and purse made from red felt. How close I felt to her.

~Here are the pretty hat and purse sets Olive made for Joyce.

~ Olive also quilted. Two examples of her quilt work are shown below.1

I remember the excitement of a planned trip to see the Barnum and Bailey circus when we were living in Ohio. My most vivid memory however was not so pleasant. To signal the bus driver that we wanted off at the next stop near the circus, my mother pulled the cord for the stop. I quickly hopped off the bus, but before my mother could get off, the bus driver shut the door in her face and took off. I was standing there all alone and frightened. Imagine my relief when I saw my mother running down the street to me from the next bus stop.

Illness often visits those we love. At the age of seven, I really didn’t understand illness. When we were still in Ohio, my mother became ill. As we waited for the bus to visit the doctor, my mother suddenly ran behind a mailbox and vomited. She was so embarrassed and apologized to me saying that she didn’t want people to think she was intoxicated. I didn’t know what she meant, but I knew my mother was very sick.

Sometime in 1946, I sensed that something serious was wrong with my mother. My brother Robert and I were assigned additional household chores. Strangely, my mother stayed at home while my father took Robert and me to church. I remember however that she would curl my hair into long curls with a curling iron before I went to church.

Much of 1946, for whatever reason, I do not remember. However, my family left Ohio, packing what few possessions we owned in a small trailer, and returned to West Virginia to live with my dad’s mother, Grandma Brannon, at Vadis in Lewis County.

This period of my mother’s life had no happy memories for me. My Grandmother Brannon lived in a four room home with another granddaughter, Betty. There was no electricity, running water, nor indoor bathroom. My father and mother, and my brother and I slept in one room of my grandmother’s house. My mother and I shared her bed and my father and my brother slept on a sleeper sofa. When my mother had to get up at night to use the potty, I helped her so my dad could sleep.

Even though I had just turned eight years of age, I sensed soon after arriving at my grandmother’s home that my mother, brother and I were not really welcome guests. My grandmother was the complete opposite of my mother in the expression of love for family. My grandmother insisted that my brother be punished for the slightest infraction of conduct and berated my mother about her reluctance to do so, going even so far to compare my mother to “Josephine”, who I later learned was my grandmother’s other daughter-in-law, and mother of my cousin Betty, and who had been committed to Weston State Hospital.

Although but eight years of age, my grandmother insisted that I wash and dry the dishes, make beds and prepare my Daddy’s breakfast. Although I couldn’t understand my grandmother’s harsh rules, I did as I was told and never questioned her authority.

My mother had surgery at the hospital in Weston. After she came home her stomach would swell and Daddy would have to take her back to the doctor to have the fluid drained. My mother wanted me to go in with her for this procedure but Daddy wouldn’t allow it. My mother’s illness was still a puzzle to me. The doctor recommended that in order for my mother to eliminate the fluid which continued to form in her, she should drink beer. On the home way from the doctor’s office, Daddy stopped at Mertz’s store to buy beer. I could sense my mother’s reluctance to be seen there, let alone to actually drink a beer.

By December my mother was staying in bed most of the time. On the last day of school before Christmas we were given a few pieces of chocolate which I loved. I loved my mother more, so I took the chocolate home to her. Although she was weak, she was able to eat the chocolate and I was so glad.

I remember that December we put up the Christmas tree in the bedroom so my mother could see it. She seemed so pleased. My mother had not eaten for some while, but on December 22 she woke and asked if she could have some pickled beans. My cousin Betty helped her eat her final, simple meal. She enjoyed them so much. The next day my mother peacefully went to sleep.

I don’t remember much about my life for some time after my mother passed away. I recall going to school each day and hoping that my mother would be there when I got home from school. I began having spells of crying for no apparent reason and migraine headaches and I had no mother to comfort me. Time passed and I came to realize that my mother was gone and would not return.

As I look back and reflect upon memories of my mother I recall a mother – daughter talk as I sat on my mother’s fragile lap during her final days. My mother told me that some day that I would have children of my own. I asked how I would know when that time had come. She sweetly replied, “Oh, you will know.” She then told me that when she was gone she wanted me to have the watch that Daddy had given her the previous Christmas. I told her that I would never get the watch because she was never going to die. It pains me now to think of how my mother, with her daughter on her lap, must have longed for more time on this earth so that she could have shared a larger part of her life and love with me.

Mom's watch is pictured to the right.

I loved my mother and have missed her so much during my life. My memories of her are most keen on each Christmas Day when tears flow. Although sixty one years have passed since my mother’s early death, I still cry for her and for what I missed and I guess I always will. But I have memories of her which are precious to me to this day, to remind me of her goodness and the love she had for me.

Double click on the page to the left to enlarge it.

Following is a poem Joyce wrote for her mom in 1956

.Memories of Mom
At the end of a long lonely day,
The sky looks dark instead of blue.
Then my heart doesn't feel very gay,
And I sit and think about you.

Although you died when I was nine,
My thoughts are still of you.
I remember all our happy times,
And all the sad ones, too.

You took me on your lap one day,
And as I looked you in the eye.
I didn't dream that you would say
That you were going to die.

I guess I was just too young
To realize just what you meant.
But now you've gone away from us,
And my saddened heart is bent.

I know we'll meet again sometime,
And until that happy day,
I'll keep these memories of you, Mom
That only death could take away.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joyce Brannon 1954

To the left is the author, Joyce Carole Brannon.

1.The appliqued quilt is called "Little Drummer Boy and Sunbonnet Sue." Olive made it around 1935 for her first child, Robert Bruce Brannon. who was born March 20, 1936. She made it all by hand from cotton fabric and embroidered around the outline of most of each figure. The top was joined by pink and the back is blue.

Joyce's mom Olive, with Olive's brothers, were making music on the front porch of Charlie Knight's store in the 1930s. See the Jun '07 entry The Buzzardtown Tongue Twisters.

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Comments

comment 1 Donna Gloff

Such an heroic woman. Shot a snake, sewed beautiful, detailed clothing for her little girl, moved herself with her children to the unknown to be with her partner and make her family whole. In the too few years she had, it seems like Olive taught her daughter how to live and love in this world. Thanks, Joyce.

I notice from the Tongue Twisters entry that Olive's mom died at the age of 40 from nephritis. Olive was 24 at the time and she herself died just eight years later.

The Buzzardtown Tongue Twisters

by David Parmer

To the left: Charlie Henline of the Buzzardtown Tongue Twisters and his sister Barbara Jean.

The crowd had

arrived early to

Frank McPherson’s wooden frame building at the western end of the Burnsville iron bridge. It was Saturday night and the building was already full of young adult couples, high school kids, and their country cousins from “up the river,” from Orlando, and Copen, and Hyre’s Run. There were far more people crowding the room than there were tables and chairs to accommodate the eager early comers. The door of the dance hall was open to Depot Street and late comers were lingering near the door looking for an opportunity to enter. .
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On the raised platform on the river side of the building, two lean and lanky young men in dark trousers and white shirts had set up their music stands and were whispering quietly with a small, thin angel-like young lady while they were looking at sheets of music. Appearing to agree on a common decision, the trio turned to face the anxious crowd. Olive, the vocalist, smiled, and looked to her brother Charlie who, tapping his toe, began strumming and fingering his guitar in a rhythmic cadenza which provided the “beat” of the tune. As Charlie neared the end of his “intro,” Olive looked to her brother James, with violin under his chin, who skillfully picked up the last note played by Charlie, and began echoing the same beat, with the same toe tapping, in slightly different notes. Charlie accompanied with subtle harmonious chords. As the crowd began to feel at one with the beat provided by the strings, Olive’s high soprano voice, crystal clear and lovely, came out of nowhere and joined the syncopated music filling the hall. Heads in the crowd swayed to and fro, dancers began taking the floor, and you could tell it was going to be a nice night of music.

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After over seventy years, Waitman Collins, now eighty-eight years of age and living in Grafton, vividly recalls, as if it were yesterday, the wonderful night of music of James, Charles and Olive Henline, who were known as the Buzzardtown Tongue Twisters.

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A Heritage of Music Making

Olive, James and Charles Henline were the first three children of Amos and Charlotte (Blake) Henline, and were born in 1914, 1918, and 1919, respectively. They enjoyed making music together during their lifetimes and entertaining friends and family- first on Posey Run, or Buzzardtown as Uncle Zeke1 called it, then in Burnsville where they moved in 1935, and later from Norfolk, Virginia to Cincinnati, Ohio.

To the left: Top row, Charlotte and Amos. middle row, Jake and Pat. Front row, Charlie, Olive and James.

Below, right: Amos' father John Columbus Henline. Click on this photo to see the detail.

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Their dad Amos Henline was born in Orlando in 1893, the son of John Columbus and Sarah (Godfrey) Henline. Amos was already fiddling at the age of 21 when an accident at work, in the veneering mill at Burnsville, took two fingers. Amos then found life-long employment at the Burnsville area operations of the Philadelphia Gas Company and its successor, The Equitable Gas Company.

The year before his accident, in 1913, Amos had married Charlotte Blake, the daughter of Charles V. and Olive (Scarff) Blake of Orlando. Amos and Charlotte began having children right away and over the next twenty three years, they became parents of Olive, James, Charles, Forrest "Jake", Claude "Pat" and Melloney. In later years younger brothers Jake and Pat joined Charlie and Jimmy on stage in Cincinnati.

Charlotte died in 1938, just before her fortieth birthday. Amos married Mable Posey and they had several more children, including Barbara Jean pictured at the top with Charlie, Olive Alice, who was born shortly after her sister Olive (Henline) Brannon died, and Belinda. .

To the left: Mable, Amos, Belinda and Olive Alice at Christmas.

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As the Bach family of Germany was noted for its musical heritage so the Blake family of Clover Fork is noted for its contribution to the musical heritage of the Oil Creek valley. One wag suggested that Blake children are born with fiddles in their hands. The Blake genes coursed through the veins of Amos and Charlotte's children and at a young age they began exhibiting a precocity for music.

~ Olive began singing with a remarkable voice at a very young age.

~ James, the next oldest child, and perhaps the most versatile of the Buzzardtown Tongue Twisters, was introduced to the violin at a very early age by his uncle Walter Blake,2 his mother’s brother, who played the fiddle from a very young age. James eventually mastered the guitar, mandolin, bass, and banjo, along with his ever-present fiddle.

~ Charles, the third child of Amos and Charlotte Henline, and recognized leader of the group, preferred the guitar, and became quite skilled in playing the instrument in his early teens.

Uncle Zeke noted as early as 1932 that the Buzzardtown Tongue Twisters entertained the Posey Run School with a musical program. That year, Charlie was thirteen and James fourteen years of age. The Buzzardtown Tongue Twisters also played for the Orlando School on several occasions and performed at dances in Burnsville. Waitman Collins remembers that the Buzzardtown Tongue Twisters would go anywhere to play their music. Eventually, the three Henline pickers and singers developed a repertoire of 262 songs, ranging over country and western, religious, Negro-related, novelty, and popular music of the day.

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Charlie's daughter Jackie (Henline) Bowser recalls that her father and her uncle James, while still teenagers, appeared on a West Virginia radio show with Homer and Jethro and fiddler Gary Blakeman. Their stepmother Mabel (Posey) Henline Eagle recalls that her stepsons James and Charlie gave performances on the radio in the Cincinnati area. Olive's daughter, Joyce Brannon, recently donated seven of her uncles’ records made in 1943 under the labels Wilcox-Gay and Philco to the West Virginia Archives and History in Charleston in order to preserve their legacy to music lovers.

From Posey Run to Burnsville

The Amos Henline family moved from Buzzardtown to Burnsville in December 1935. Charlie and Jammy were in high school and Olive married that year. It was a loss to Buzzardtown, as was noted by Uncle Zeke in his Buzzardtown News column. Uncle Zeke’s wife was the sister of Amos Henline’s mother so it also meant the loss of a nephew and his family. In addition, Uncle Zeke was sorry to see Olive move and to show his sense of loss he wrote to Olive a little poem

To Olive
There is a maid in our town,
A darling niece of mine.
She is so very blithe and gay.
Someone nicknamed her “Shine.”

She is so very kind and good,
You couldn’t help but love her.
I know you’d never if you could,
Praise someone else above her.

She is very young, and so discreet,
Most beautiful to behold.
She’s fair in form, in manner sweet,
She’s worth her weight in gold.

I hope that on judgment morn,
When all the saints shall rise,
That Olive in a spirit form
Will meet me in the skies.

Soon my days on earth will cease,
For I am growing weak.
But Olive, still you’ll be my niece
And I, your Uncle Zeke.
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Obviously touched by her Uncle Zeke’s sentiment and affection, Olive responded to Uncle Zeke’s tribute:

To My Uncle Zeke
There is a man in Buzzardtown,
Not handsome, so to speak.
For he is none other
Than my Uncle Zeke.

Some people think him funny,

And some don’t think him so.
But he seems to make friends,
So we’ll not count him slow.

I think him a jolly old fellow,
To me always the same.
And I shall always love him
As long as Zeke is his name.

I’ll remember that dear old face
And do for him all I can,
For to me he is always the same,
And is such a dear old man.

So may God bless and keep him
As good as he is today.

And may he not forget me
When he kneels down to pray.

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And now the friends of Buzzardtown
Join with me and speak,
That we shall always love him,
As long as he is Uncle Zeke.

Olive

Olive Henline graduated from Burnsville High School in 1933 and was chosen along with fellow seniors Mavis Bush, Louise Fletcher, Gwendolyn Martin and Gladys Tyo to present musical entertainment during the commencement ceremony. Olive added a sparkle to the eyes of all who knew her, was effervescent, and lit up the room with her lyrical soprano voice..

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In 1935, Olive married Bruce Brannon, a native of Gilmer County, a graduate of Glenville State Teacher’s College, a school teacher and most importantly, a musician. Bruce, while in high school, bought a violin 3 and taught himself to play by ear. After commencing college at Glenville, Bruce realized that he needed to learn the more formal aspects of music. Bruce inquired of Bertha Olsen, the college music teacher, for lessons. Miss Olsen bargained with Bruce and proposed that if he would join the college orchestra, she would give him tutorials on the violin. Eager for the opportunity, Bruce became a member of the college orchestra, and developed a love of classical music in addition to the “down home” music of the West Virginia hills.

Bruce often played with his brothers-in-law, James and Charles Henline, and Olive provided the sterling vocal arrangements in both informal family settings and at musical engagements throughout the central West Virginia area. The Henline siblings and their brother-in-law, Bruce Brannon also played under the name “BT Serenaders,” the “BT” of course standing for “Buzzardtown.”

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Olive (Henline) Brannon gave birth to two children, Robert in 1936 and Joyce Carole in 1937. A devoted mother, Olive’s life would be far too short, passing away in 1946 at the age of 32. Helen Jeffries remembers the Orlando community was much saddened by Olive’s untimely death. Olive, despite her terminal illness, managed to visit friends and relatives in the Orlando area to say her goodbyes. The name of Olive’s daughter, Joyce Carole, translates into “Joyful Song,” which is a fitting legacy to her mother.

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Left: Bruce and Olive with Joyce Carole and Robert. Click on this photo to see the detail.

Jimmy

James Henline, known as “Jimmy” to his family and friends, had health problems most of his life, and did not excel in traditional learning. Jimmy however was very adept in the field of electricity and a master of anything that had a sound board or plugged into an electrical outlet. Jimmy, at a young age, began a business in Burnsville repairing radios, and wiring homes when electricity was still in its infancy. Jimmy’s step-mother Mabel (Henline) Eagle recalls that in the 1930s Jimmy and Denver Barnett, an Orlando native living in Burnsville, rigged up a telegraph system between their respective homes in Burnsville and “dotted and dashed” each other to stay in touch. Mabel also recalls that Jimmy crafted a bass fiddle when he lived in the “Bottom” area of Burnsville but that it was unfortunately destroyed by the flood of 1943.

Right: Jimmy is playing the jew's harp with his brother, Charlie, on guitar.

In the late 1930s Jimmy left Burnsville and went to Norfolk, Virginia to work in a defense plant. He was married briefly to Wilma Dennison and when that union collapsed, Jimmy left Norfolk and went to Cincinnati to work near his brother and musical partner, Charlie. Jimmy opened a electrical business, J & J Electric, in the Cincinnati area and worked in the electrical field for the remainder of his life. Jimmy and Charlie continued their avocation of playing music in the Cincinnati area and frequently returned to their home in Burnsville with their fiddle and guitar on holidays and vacations to entertain the homefolks with music. .

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Charlie

Charlie Henline graduated from Burnsville High School in 1939. Charlie was selected by Autumn Amos as the drum major for the newly formed Burnville High School band. Charlie also played football for a rugged and successful Burnsville High School football team until a serious knee injury ended his gridiron career. Of course, this meant Charlie had more time for music. Charlie was not only a skillful guitar player but was also an excellent singer.

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To the left is Charlie as the BHS band's drum major.

To the right is Charlie's graduation picture.

Below, to the left, Charlie as an adult.

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Waitman Collins recalls that Charlie Henline, Andy Knight, Kenny Gifford and he would go out on the railroad tracks near the B & O trestle over the Little Kanawha River at night and sing songs “for the fun of it,” and would sometimes serenade Rhody Rollyson, a large lady who lived on the bank above the road near the trestle. After Rhody had been serenaded long enough, she would stand up on the porch and tell the boys that “It’s time for you bullfrogs to go home to bed.”

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Which Way To Cincinatti?

Waitman Collins also recalls that James and Charles Henline eventually settled in the Cincinnati area as a result of a mistake. Wanting to go to Charleston , they flagged a bus they thought was going to that city, but instead ended up in Cincinnati . Not having enough money to return, the brothers ended up settling permanently in the southwestern Ohio. However, Mabel Henline Eagle, Charlie’s stepmother, recalls it differently. Mabel recollects that after graduating from high school in 1939, Charlie and his friend Kenneth Gifford decided to go to Cincinnati for employment and that Jimmy joined them later when his marriage to Wilma Dennison ended.

Whatever the case, Charlie became employed by Sears Roebuck Company in Cincinnati as an appliance salesman and worked there his entire career. Of course, Charlie still played and taught others to play the guitar, and played musical engagements at social clubs, political rallies, private homes and anywhere else there was a need. Charlie often came back to West Virginia to visit family and friends in Burnsville and Orlando. Charlie’s guitar accompanied him everywhere he went and it was played every chance Charlie got to entertain a music-loving ear.

To the left, in the 1980s, Charlie is teaching a new generation of music makers. Click on this photo to see the detail.

Neither James nor Charlie Henline enjoyed good health as adults. Both brothers had several operations in their later years. Marlene Henline, wife of James, recalls that during their seven years of marriage her husband had eleven operations. Joyce Brannon was with her niece Jackie (Henline) Bowser when Charlie was entered into a nursing home after developing Alzheimer’s disease. This crippling disease however did not diminish Charlie’s love of music and he continued to play his guitar in the nursing home (when he wasn’t trying to escape) according to his niece, Joyce Brannon.

Charlie Henline died in 2001, joining his sister Olive, and his brother Jimmy who passed away in 1979. Thus came to an end the music of the Buzzardtown Tongue Twisters and BT Serenaders. Can’t you hear them singing from Charlie’s song book?

There are loved ones in the glory,
Whose dear forms you often miss;
When you close your earthly story,
Will you join them in their bliss.

Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by.
Is a better home a-waiting
In the sky, in the sky? 4

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NOTES:

~ Go to Aug '07entry B & O Freight Train Meets Amos Henline’s Cow to hear a parody penned by Charlie and recently sung by his daughter Jackie.

~ Another Orlando group was the

Cole Brothers Band.

See theFeb '07 entry The Cole Brothers Band

Footnotes
1. Uncle Zeke, the Bard of Buzzardtown, has often been the source of stories on this website. His writings have enriched the preserved the history of Orlando and the surrounding area. "Uncle Zeke" is the pen name of Patrick Newton Blake (1867-1951) born on Clover Fork, made his home near the confluence of Posey Run and Oil Creek. For more on Uncle Zeke, see entries for December '06 Trouble At Uncle Zeek's House and October '06 Uncle Zeke From Buzzard Town
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2. Walter Blake was the brother of Charlotte Blake, the first wife of Amos Henline. Walter worked for the Philadelphia Gas Company. In mid-life, Walter sustained a broken neck and for the remainder of his life wore a metal back brace with a heavy rubber band attached to the back brace which looped over Walter’s forehead in order to hold his head erect. Boys of the area, referencing the rubber band type device, called Walter “Old Slingshot.” Walter was a member of another band referred to as the “Buzzardtown Hillbillies”. Sam Bragg was also a member of that band.

3. The violin bought by Bruce Brannon while in high school is now owned by his grandson, Donald L. Lambert, Jr., who is shown to the right playing his grandfather’s fiddle.

4. These words from the song, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” were writen by Ada Habershon.

Comments
comment 1 Joyce Brannon
Joyce Brannon, daughter of Olive (Henline) Brannon, is also musically talented. As a ten year old child she rode her bicycle six miles to Hurst, Gilmer County, to take piano lessons. Joyce Carole graduated from Glenville State College with a degree in Music and is a retired teacher in Richmond, Virginia.

Joyce Brannon is pictured to the left.

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Joyce tells us that her Uncle Charlie and a companion (Waitman Collins says it was Charlie’s brother, James), flagged down a Greyhound bus which they assumed was going to Charleston. The bus driver negotiated a fare with them and accepted what money they had for the ride. There was apparently no discussion about where the bus was heading and instead of Charleston the bus ended up in Cincinnati. Thus began the Henline exodus to Cincinnati. All four Henline brothers, Jake, Pat, Charlie and Jimmy (The four brothers are pictured to the right) ended up in Cincinnati eventually. After high school, Joyce, their niece, also migrated to Cincinnati for employment, but returned shortly afterward to commence college at Glenville State.

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comment 2 Jackie (Henline) Bowser (Charlie and Idella’s daughter)

When I was young my father would sit on the bed in the bedroom I shared with my sister Darlene, singing and playing the guitar. My mother in the next room would say “Charlie, let those girls go to sleep,” to which my father would reply, “They want to hear one more song.” . . .You know who wanted one last song.

To the right is Jackie with her parents Charlie and Idella Henline. Be sure to click on this photo to catch the detail.

comment 3

Amos Henline’s cousin, Earl “Red” Henline, son of Loyd and Virginia (Slaughter) Henline, was a noted fiddle player from a young age. He played with the Sons of the Pioneers, Vaughn Monroe, and competed on Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour. Earl was also state champion fiddler of five states. Earl "Red" Henline died in 1999 in Buckhannon. His story was recently told in the Goldenseal Magazine

Red and Theresa Henline are at the left.

comment 4 Jackie (Henline) Bowser
Dear David,

Thank you for all the work you've done and all of the wonderful memories. I was one of the blessed children who had a happy child hood. You brought back that joy. By the way I do know the tune to the "Amos Henline's Cow" song. You were right that wasn't a song that was performed for anyone except family. As children we heard it over and over again. At my Dad's funeral in March, 2001 a cousin from my Mom's side of the family came up to me and said what he remembered most about visiting our home was that people were always smiling. What a joy.

Thanks again. Blessings,

Jackie (Henline) Bowser

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Comment 5 . David Parmer

The author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Joyce Carole Brannon in the writing of this article. Much of the information for this article originated with Joyce who also provided most of the photographic material. Without her encouragement and support this article would not have been possible.

Carole's photo is to the right.