Thursday, December 31, 1914
The postoffice at Marlinton handled 444 bags of mail matter during the week ending December 26th. This was the Christmas mail, considered an emergency in the postal affairs. In addition to the heavy mail, the money order business is just about doubled during the month of December.
BIG RUSSIAN BATTLE
Saturday night after Christmas some members of the Russian colony employed at the Tannery at his place engaged in a battle. The result of the conflict is that two men, desperately wounded, lie in the Marlinton hospital and two prisoners are in jail.
Yacob Cheeze is charged with cutting the two men, and Yusif Posnak is implicated as having used an axe to break down the door…
The fracas seems to have been the result of a general Christmas drunk.
BEAVER CREEK
We are having lots of cold weather. Cutting timber and skidding logs is the order of the day.
We had a nice, quiet time here Christmas. Our boys were all on their good behavior.
Sunday morning was the coldest morning we have had, being about 30 degrees below McComb’s store.
GREENBANK
Cold, colder, coldest! 13 below zero on the morning of the 26th, and 18 below on the morning of the 27th.
Many of our people anticipated a mild winter as the hay crop was a short one – believing in the old adage that the winter would be mild to suit the crop.
Mrs. J. R. Warwick treated some of her friends to a nice watermelon on December 27 – late for melon.
BETHEL
Fine winter weather with about 12 inches of snow.
W. A. Dilley was at Marlinton one day last week with a load of hogs for C. K. Moore for the local market.
Harmon Shrader from Cheat Mountain, a professional tong hooker and ratchet setter, is home to spend Christmas with his parents.
Strickler Hoover was deputized by Santa Claus to distribute presents on Browns Mountain and vicinity.
Ed McLauglin and others of Browns Creek and tributaries, have finished shucking and shipping turkeys and are auditing their returns from the Philadelphia markets.
Dr. Jordan is thinking of getting himself an airoplane [sp] to carry the mail from Frost to Huntersville. The Dr. is “right out there” when it comes to new inventions for transporting mail.
SUNSET
Old Santa Claus has not been seen much in this part. The weather has been so cold I think he has froze to death.
Miss Elsie Adkison has returned to her home at Buckeye for ten days’ vacation from her school at this place.
The wood chopping at Mrs. Alice Barnett’s was very well attended and quite a nice lot of wood was cut.
Those who attended the party at Wise Herold’s from Sunset were Misses Blanche, Elsie and Mary Pritchard, Enid Harper, Hazel Cleek, Georgia Lockridge, Anna Lee Ervine; Messrs. Neal and Walter Pritchard, Ward Harper and Newt Lockridge.
BUCKEYE
We experienced another cold snap. 12, 16 and 18 degrees below zero at Buckeye, Sunday morning, December 27th, was so cold the fire would hardly burn, and eight inches of snow on the ground.
Some of the young folks went up to Marlinton Saturday night to the picture show and got their fingers, ears and toes frost bit.
Mrs. Lou Kee gave a turkey dinner Sunday to her friends and neighbors.
Lanty Cole, of Swago, killed two hogs, thirteen months old; one weighed 580 pounds and the other 570 pounds. Baxter can’t beat that.
OAK GROVE
Sunday morning was the coldest of the winter so far, 19 degrees below zero.
Mrs. Lanty Ryder is quite ill at this time. Dr. L. H. Moomau, attending physician.
Wm. A. Arbogast and Arthur Sutton are cutting logs for Jesse Warwick.
What about a high school in the Greenbank district, it is badly needed and the new year so near at hand bids fair to be a banner year along all business lines. Why not get busy and build the coming year, let others who have boys and girls to educate get up and say something.
ONOTO
Everybody enjoyed a happy Christmas in this part and have been filled to the brim with turkey, chicken and other good things to eat.
Several of our people took advantage of the fine sleighing snow and took a hay ride to the Christmas tree at Green Hill Christmas night. The tree was in honor of the school.
John, Theodore and Ed Moore and Charles Richardson were here Saturday rabbit hunting.
Mrs. Baxter gave a supper to about twenty of the young people on Christmas Eve and a fine dinner to the older people on Tuesday.
Amos Beverage lost a fine horse Monday.
The community was shocked to hear of the death of Mrs. Fletcher Dilley, which occurred at her home in Greenbrier county. Her remains were buried at the Cochran graveyard Wednesday.
DUNMORE
And still it continues cold.
The little child of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Rhea, of Frost, died Tuesday night, aged two years.
Locky Gragg has a very sick child with pneumonia.
The Christmas tree at Dunmore was a grand success and a very large crowd attended. Old John Barley Corn got ashamed and did not come out. Old Santa Claus was not very well but made the children whoop it up for a while.