Thursday, February 20, 1947
LOCAL MENTION
Corporal Esco C. Johnson, who after serving four and a half years in the United States Marines, is now at home with an honorable discharge. He served nineteen months overseas with the Second Marine Division. Some of this time was spent on Saipan.
Private First Class Eugene R. Dunbrack, of the United States Army, stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, has been promoted to Corporal.
Pocahontas Post, American Legion, has bought the Emma J. Dilley property, adjoining the Davis Motor Company. It will be remodeled to serve as a Legion home.
Dr. Kermit Dilley and family have moved to Marlinton, to occupy the Hospital annex as residence and offices.
Mrs. Lura M. Brill, Mrs. Mabel Hudson and Mrs. Wallace Stetler spent the weekend in Morgantown with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Edward McElwee and Sammy Brill.
WASHINGTON, D. C. – Bernice Ellen Hamed, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Faris Hamed, of Greenbank, West Virginia, came to Washington three years ago. She began as a typist with the Coast Guard Public Information Division. With an especial keenness for detail and for historical material, she has recently become one of the assistant librarians in the extensive Photographic Library which the Coast Guard maintains for the service of the public. Miss Hamed resides with her brother, Kenneth, and his family at 1030 Irving Street, N. E. Washington, D. C.
FIELD NOTES
Arlie White, of Minnehaha, caught two wildcats in Brushy Mountain last week. He found the carcass of a chunk of a deer, which appeared to have been killed by a wild cat. He set some traps. His first take was a big old mother cat; then he had a couple to pull out, and he caught a smaller one. The traps are still set.
This reminds me of an experience of the late William Kelley, an old time hunter, of Browns Mountain. Once in Marlin Mountain he came upon a chunk of a deer, so recently killed by a wild cat it was still warm. It was perfectly good meat, so he dressed and carried front and hind quarters home. The neck and head he fastened securely to the ground under an old log with a strong stake he whittled out with a hunting axe. Back he soon came with traps, and before winter was over he had caught no less than six wild cats at that one bait. The last one was the least of all, not much larger than a hunting house cat.
Paul Burr killed a big golden eagle last Saturday in Burr Valley. It had a wing spread of nearly 80 inches. The eagle had attacked and was eating on a ewe. The sheep was so badly injured it soon died. W. E. Blackhurst, the taxidermist, of Cass, will mount the bird in wingspread eagle style.
Oscar and Austin Sharp, the hunting twins, have cashed in $68 in State bounties on varmints so far this season. The first item is five head of bear, two wildcats and the balance in gray foxes.
WEDDING
Meeks – Friel
The marriage of Miss Lois Kathryn Friel, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Quincey Friel, of Clawson, and Lyle Everette Meeks, of Stony Bottom, took place at Marlinton on Thursday, February 6, 1947.
DEATHS
Frank Robert Gibson, aged 31, died Sunday morning, February 16, 1947, in Akron, Ohio, from injuries received in an automobile wreck the night before. On Thursday afternoon his body will be laid to rest in the Gibson Cemetery.
The deceased was the eldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Gibson, of Elk. He is survived by his parents, and his brothers, Fred, Stanley, Tommy and Harold; and his sister, Charmalea. During the war, Frank Robert served in the Navy.
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Spring Creek – Henry McClung, aged 67 years, died at his farm home near Spring Creek Thursday, February 13, 1947. He is survived by his wife and their six sons.
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Mrs. Katherine Thornton Syms, aged 64 years, wife of Tyler Symns, died at her home on Beaver Creek Monday morning, February 10, 1947. On Thursday afternoon, her body was laid to rest in the Beaver Creek cemetery…
The deceased was a daughter of the late James and Dickie Thornton, of Summersville. About thirty-five years ago she came to Pocahontas county as a teacher…
SOME LOCAL HISTORY
In the year 1765, Indians from the Ohio Valley raided the Mayse home a few miles from Bath Alum on the Cowpasture River, in what is now Bath County, Virginia. It was then Augusta County. Mrs. Mayse, her thirteen year old son, Joseph, a white girl whose name is now unknown, a Mrs. Sloan and her infant were carried away as prisoners.
Crossing the Warm Springs Mountain, the Indians camped on Muddy Run, about five miles northeast of Warm Springs. The second night they camped at the mouth of Little Back Creek, now Mountain Grove.
Here the boy prisoner was placed to sleep between two warriors. He was made uncomfortable by a large root of a tree. He took one of the Indians by the hand and placed it on the cause of his misery. The Indian gave the boy a softer place to sleep.
The third day, the party crossed the Alleghanies and camped on Knapps Creek, half way between Huntersville and Marlinton, now known as Kramer’s Camp.
Early on the fourth day, just after crossing Greenbrier River, at Marlin Ford, where the tannery is now, the Indians and their prisoners were overtaken by a pursuing party. The infant, a little girl of a few weeks, was dashed to death by the Indians upon the first alarm that they were being pursued.
Joseph Mayse, the young prisoner, was on a pack horse. The horse became frightened when the skirmish opened, and ran off and got tangled in some grapevines. The boy was pulled off in a thicket of nettles. The Indians were so closely pressed they had not time to turn and kill the boy.
The Indians were pursued for some distance up Indian Draft but were not overtaken.
On their return the men picked up the boy, still in the nettles near the fording and took him back to the settlement on the Cowpasture River.
The body of the little child, who had been dashed to death against a tree, was buried near where the State Road crosses Marlin Run, a few hundred yards from where the courthouse of Pocahontas County now stands. This little grave has ever been said to be that of the first English speaking white child buried west of the Alleghany Mountains.
Mrs. Mayse, Mrs. Sloan and the nameless white girl were taken to the Indian towns near Chilicothe, Ohio; a distance of about 275 miles from Marlinton by the route taken by the Indians. From thence they made their way toward Detroit.
By the aid of friendly Indians, the women received directions and finally reached Western Pennsylvania, and thence home. They were gone about fifteen months.
About nine years after his rescue from the Indians at Marlin Ford, Joseph Mayse was a soldier in the Battle of Point Pleasant October 11, 1774. He was severely wounded. His mother, on hearing where her wounded boy was being cared for, went with a led horse 215 miles and brought him home early in November…
Forty-six years after the Battle of Point Pleasant, Joseph Mayse suffered the amputation of his leg above the knee from the wound he received in battle.
Joseph Mayse, for nearly fifty years, served as a magistrate of Bath County, and was high sheriff for two terms.
He died in April 1840, in his 89th year.
