Thursday, May 5, 1949
PIONEER APPLE TREE
Nine years ago, the following was written by the late Squire Coe Beverage about the big apple tree on the Beverage place on Knapps Creek.
– – –
My home is on Knapps Creek as the records show. This property owned by the Poages, from them to the Devers and the Jordans and from them to the present owners. On this property still remains some old landmarks. Three old apple trees, one of which I wish to speak. This particular tree stood at the yard entrance and made a fine shade to the porch on the east and south.
I do not know who planted this tree but it shows a growth of about 130 years. This tree most always had apples of three varieties, Crow-eggs, Bellflowers and the other variety, the name I do not know. I think a conservative estimate of the apples this one tree has produced would be more than 2,000 bushels. This tree has been the home of many birds, and it has been entertaining sitting on my porch and watching the activity of the different kinds of birds which made their home in this mammoth apple tree. Many song birds were mothered in this good old tree.
One Sunday, about three years ago, an old blacksnake got in the apartment occupied by the starlings and after the snake was killed, four starlings were taken from the stomach of the snake…
From all I can gather, I think it is most likely Mrs. Beverage’s great-great-uncle Peter Lightner, who planted this tree. I wish I knew for certain. I know this was a productive, useful planting. If all the acts of our life produced as much fruitage as the planting of this apple tree, our country would be a haven to stay in.
Well, I must tell you more of this tree. It had grown so old as to become a menace to the safety of our residence. We have talked of taking it down, but it seemed no one liked to fell that mammoth tree, and from time to time we have waited and this morning, January 10, 1940, after some hesitation, my son, Roscoe, and Wilmer McCarty, felled the old tree with a Simon saw and a double bitted axe. It sure made me feel queer when this good old tree fell to the earth with a crash and was caressed in the beautiful and pure white snow. Mrs. Beverage had shut herself in a chamber of the residence. I look at the loneliness of the tree that still stands and it seems I can hear it say, “why have I been left?”
I should have told you earlier, but could not get the dimensions. The diameter three feet above the ground was 34 inches and the height, 48 feet…
The American Chestnut
By Carl Burgtorf
Forest Ranger
There are times when we miss an acquaintance dreadfully after he is gone. So it is with the American Chestnut which was so important in our local life and economy. The chestnut tree occupied a place which was unique among our hardwoods. Few, if any tree could compete with the chestnut in vigor of sprouting, rapidity of growth, and yield of a great variety of useful products such as high grade lumber, poles, ties, posts rails, slack cooperage, paper and fiber boards, tannin extract from bark and wood and the abundance of nuts which served as food for both animal and man.
Records indicate the total value of chestnut products produced in 1909, not including nuts, amount to over 19 million dollars, and in 1910, chestnut comprised seven percent of the total amount of hardwood timber cut. Now the remaining chestnut snags stand bare of bark or small twigs serving their most useful purpose as den trees for forest wildlife…
Varner-Herold
Mrs. George Taylor, of Charlottesville, Virginia, announces the marriage of her sister, Miss Pollyanna Herold, to Clyde L. Varner. The double ring ceremony was performed at the home of the bride in Marlinton, Saturday afternoon, April 23, 1949.
Mrs. Varner is the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Wise Herold, and the groom is the son of Mrs. Hevener Dilley, of Huntersville.
DIED
John Henry Higgins died April 11, 1949, at the home of Wilbur Shinaberry, at Campbelltown.
He was the son of the late Samuel and Rachel Sheets Higgins. He leaves to mourn his loss, his wife, Blanch Higgins, sister, Mrs. Laura Clark, and six sons and four daughters from a former marriage: Ellet, Carl, Guy, Harry, James and Daniel, and Wanda Morgan, Ethel Akers, Grace Hill and Arleen Fertig.
Funeral service was held at the Edray Church with burial in the Poage Lane cemetery.