Thursday, January 18, 1945
Our Army and Navy Boys
Mrs. Neal Beverage has received word that her nephew, Lieutenant Hanson Sharp, who was serving with the Medical Corps overseas, was killed in action on December 21.
Private Charles D. Cassell, ammunition bearer, son of Mrs. Grace E. Cassell, of Cass, and Private First Class LeRoy Burner, rifleman, son of Mrs. Nannie Burner, of Durbin, are members of the 239th Polar Bear Regiment, which recently shattered the vitals of the vaunted Gothic Line. This regiment is a part of the 85th “Custer Division.” This regiment landed in Italy from North Africa on last March 15 and went into action the next day… The Polar Bears got their name in the first World War, when they fought in waist deep snow along the 400 mile front between Archangel and Lenigrad in Russia.
Fred G. Wade was up from Seebert last Friday. He has three sons in the armed service of the United States. Fred, Jr. is in France; Robert is in the Philippines and Leo is stationed at Portsmouth, Virginia.
Serving in Italy, as one of a specially trained WAC company, Miss Daisy C. Criser, of Marlinton, has been promoted to the grade of Corporal. She is the niece of Mrs. E. F. McLaughlin and a sister of Mrs. Marion Burr, of Marlinton.
Private First Class Clarence H. McComb, of Marlinton, who is serving in the 80th Infantry Division, has been awarded the Combat Badge for exemplary conduct in action against the enemy.
George T. Gum, of the United States Navy, serving in the South Pacific, had the good luck one day recently of meeting with an old friend, Leroy “Pete” Spitzer, a former resident of Marlinton. They had not seen each other for several years.
Mrs. Ratie L. Huff, of Marlinton, has learned that her son, Private Norval L. Huff, of the Infantry, has landed safely in Italy.
ALL HANDS FORM CARRYING PARTY
With the 8th Infantry Division, Germany – For eight days, the officers and men of headquarters company carried in supplies on their backs under fire and carried out the wounded to keep the First Bn. of the 28th Inf. Reg. in the position they had been ordered to hold.
Although torn by constant counterattacks, the companies clung to that key salient in the gloomy Hurtgen Forest. Supply and evacuation were the sorest problems. The one approach lay across an open draw, which was blasted night and day by enemy fire. Only men on foot could bridge that draw.
Every possible man in the C. P. was organized into a carrying party. Rations and water, ammunition and equipment were transported on vehicles to the rear C. P. There the carrying party took over the supplies. The porters stumbled through the darkness to the edge of the draw. They slid down along an almost vertical bank, crossed the shell-lit hill, and climbed up the other side. Coming back, they bore the litters of the wounded.
Everything the battalion received during those hectic days was carried in by these parties, and every wounded man was evacuated.
FIELD NOTES
Olus Underwood, over on Beaver Creek, has made good time on the foxes. The last week or two, he laid out seven head of greys. He used just an ordinary farm run of dog, which has developed a taste for chasing foxes. Last Friday, Mr. Underwood was out on the flats and ridges at the foot of the big Beaver Lick, not far from the home of William Crigger. He found the track of a big wild cat. Soon he came to the still warm body of a fawn, which the cat had killed and partly eaten. The dog gave the cat a chase for about fifteen minutes but lost it and came back.
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Early in the winter my friend, J. W. Carpenter, of Spruce Flat, let me know this would be a winter of deep snows and many of them. The exact number of snows for the winter is twenty-three; the depth of each to vary with the elevation. Our first snow fell November 7th, so there will be a snow for every day between that day and the 30th of the month – 23 in all.
A big doe deer kind of disrupted proceedings for a time on Harry Cochran’s log job up on Alleghany Mountain in the Lury Draft one day last week. Okey McClain was riding a horse and Harry was driving a team up a skidding road, when a big deer jumped out a nearby tree top and made off with a lot of speed and some noise through the woods. The horses broke too. Okey went over backwards into the deep snow. Harry’s team hung up on a tree, with a horse on either side.
Old Time Auction
Twenty years ago, the sale bill of auction advertised in Waterford County was going the rounds of the press. It was printed in the Times, as Fred Galford, of Williams River, clipped it out. The other day he came to town and brought in the clipping. Here is the wording of the bill:
“Having sold my farm as I am leaving for Oregon Territory by ox team, I will offer on March 1, 1849, all my personal property, to wit:
“All ox teams except two teams, Buck and Ben and Tom and Jerry; 2 milk cows; 1 gray mare and colt; 1 pair oxen and yoke; 1 baby yoke; 5 ox carts; 1 iron foot of poplar weather boards; plow with wood mole board; 700 to 1,000 three-foot clap boards; 1,500 ten-foot fence rails; 60 gallon soap kettle; 85 sugar troughs made of white ash timber; 10 gallons of maple syrup; 2 spinning wheels; 30 pounds of mutton tallow; one large loom made by Jerry Wilson; 300 rolls; 100 split hoop; 100 empty barrels; 52 gallon barrel of Johnson Miller Whiskey, 7 years old ; 20 gallon of apple brandy; 40 gallon copper still; lot of reel hooks; lot of oak tanned leather; 2 handle hooks; 3 scythes and cradles; 1 dozen wooden pitchforks; one-half interest in tan yard; 32 calibre rifle; bullet mold and powder horn; rifle made by Ben Miller; 50 gallons soft soap; hams, bacon and lard; 40 gallons of sorghum molasses; 6 head of fox hounds, all soft mouthed except one…”
“Terms of sale, cash in hand, or note to draw 4 percent interest with Bob McConnell as surety.
“My home is two miles south of Versailles on the McCouns-Perry pike. Sale begins at 8 o’clock a.m. Plenty to drink and eat.
“J. R. Moss”