Thursday, May 17, 1923
A big snowstorm came to Pocahontas last Wednesday and Thursday, with unusually low temperatures. With the exception of places along Greenbrier River, peaches, plums and cherries were killed and apples, too, except late blooming trees. An inch or two of snow at Marlinton, but on Cheat and Elk there was eight and ten inches. On Gauley, there was sixteen inches of snow. A party of bear hunters was caught in camp on Gauley, and times were only tolerable for them.
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I sometimes think that it would be well for us farmers to junk the calendars and almanacks about the house and take to watching the moon. And we could do it, too, if it were not for the notes that we are carrying in the bank that have to be renewed promptly.
What we want is to get some official whose business it is to watch the moon and the signs of the zodiac. You hear a lot about new fangled officials such as prohibition officers, sealers of weights and measure, truant cops and the like. What we need is a county astronomer who will ride around with a portable telescope and a Jacob staff and figure on the time to plant, reap and sow…
All winter long the farmer prayed for snow. It was with feelings of anguish that he watched his wheat fields lying exposed to the freezing and the thawing and he knew full well that when the days lengthened that a wheat field would look like old Tige with mange, and it was even so. But on Wednesday, May 9th, came a snow. Thunder the day before and snow the next day and a frost the next day. Tuesday night about nine o’clock there came a chill in the air. In some of the gardens there were tomato plants in bloom. The gardeners got busy. Some lifted the tomato crop and brought it into the kitchen. Some put boxes over them and bed clothes on top of the boxes. And others, of the kismet class, went to bed and covered themselves up and left the tomatoes to their fate. Wednesday there was a high wind and a driving snow. By one o’clock p.m. the storm had got so bad that I could not stay in the house any longer, and I got my old mackinaw coat and worked in the woods until about dark, and I cannot remember when I ever experienced a greater exultation over the storm than I did that day, or a more agreeable rest before the fire that evening, or a better night’s sleep and that is making a virtue out of necessity…
SOME HISTORY
A friend writes us the following facts about the late James E. A. Gibbs, inventor of the sewing machine, and at one time a resident of Pocahontas County. Some weeks ago a paper, which had been read before the Woman’s Club, was published in the Times. Exceptions were taken to some statements therein concerning Mr. Gibbs.
Mr. Gibbs did not have a large family, only four daughters. Only one child was born when he left Marlins Bottom in 1854. He was 25 years old when he lived at Marlins Bottom, staying there but 18 months…
As for the place he lived at the time he invented the sewing machine, Mr. Gibbs in a published interview in the Staunton Vindicator, said he lived at what is now Seebert on a farm owned by Col. John H. Ruckman. The post office was Millpoint…
Mr. Gibbs was building a residence for Col. Ruckman on his farm across the river from Seebert when he made his first and greatest invention. Mr. Ruckman backed him with $5,000 for its development…
He went to Boston to have his model made and to interest capital in manufacturing his machine.
Mr. Gibbs met Mr. Wilcox in the winter of 1857. His place of business was in Masonic Hall, Philadelphia, and he was on the lookout for a good investment. He was so much pleased with the patent and model that he immediately invested $15,000 for the development of the machine. Mr. Gibbs moved his family to Philadelphia. After a year it was decided to move the business to Providence, R.I. with the main office in New York. Here it has been ever since, and it still pays the family dividends.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs preferred to live in the country, and they decided to return to the Little Levels of Pocahontas. In the fall of 1859, they bought the farm on which Seebert now stands from Col. Ruckman…
In 1861, Mr. Gibbs refugeed with his family to his old home at Raphine, Va. There he bought the farm on which he died, just forty years afterwards…
One who was a lifelong friend of Mr. Gibbs, while standing by his casket, said, “Yes, he was a successful man and made money, but it never made a fool of him.”
WEDDING
Married at Raywood, May 7, 1923, Miss Elizabeth Baker and Edward F. Riggleman. The bride is a daughter of Jonas Baker, of Highland County.
BIRTHS
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Harry Thomas, May 11, a daughter.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Clawson Underwood, on Beaver Creek, May 13, a son.