Fifty-Years-Ago

Thursday, November 14, 1963

From the desk of Mrs. Jane Price Sharp

Arthur Jordan was badly injured last Wednesday when he stepped into the road below Minnehaha and was hit by a car. He is reported to be recuperating satisfactory.

Good progress is being made on the road project to Stillwell. The roadbed is being put on the new bridge across Knapps Creek and creek rock is being put on the road after widening and grading.

Fatal Accidents

The number of fatal accidents in Pocahontas County has climbed alarmingly the past two weeks to a total of four. Early Tuesday morning about 1:00 –– Austin Dale Moore, 32, of Frank, died of a broken neck in a wreck on Kennison Mountain. He was the owner and driver of a 1957 Chevrolet enroute to Richwood and lost control of the car on a curve. It hit the bank and turned over several times in the highway. A passenger, Ralph Thomas Martin, was thrown out of the car. He is a patient in the hospital here but is not believed to be seriously hurt.

Last Thursday afternoon, Kent H. Ratliff, 52, of near McDowell, Virginia, was killed when his car ran off the road and into a tree stump on the Huntersville-Dunmore road. He died of a broken neck.

Bear

A young bear gave a good chase Monday in a bear hunt on Kennison Mountain. A. H. Jackson, who is 73 years old, made the kill on Blue Knob. Krellis Wimer had the first shot and hit it in a leg. The bear weighed about 175 pounds and was in fine shape. Argile Arbogast had eight dogs, some he is just training. Others in the hunt were Walter McNeill, Larry Arbogast, Jake Holland-sworth, Bill Ruckman, Lee Dean, Ronald Bruffy and “Sailor” Moore.

On Tuesday the Arbogast dogs and hunters hit the jack-pot. Walter McNeill shot this one, a big solid 400 pound male, by actual weight, in the Swago Knob country. The bear was six feet, four inches long, 10 inches between the ears and 13 inches from nose to between the ears. His front paws measured 9×5 and hind paws 10×5 inches. They took four hours to get this one. Some of the same hunters plus Bill Wimer and Elvern Totten were in on the Tuesday hunt. This fine bear will be stuffed for the Pocahontas County Historical Museum.

Also on Tuesday, Oscar Sharp’s dogs got a bear going on Black Mountain and David Hensley, of Kenova, brought this one in. It was a male weighing about 200.

Births

Born to Mr. and Mrs. George Daugherty, of Charleston, a son, Thomas Summers

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Buzzard, of Slaty Fork, a son, John Eldon

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Jimmie Anders, of Green Bank, a son, Jimmie Frank, Jr.

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hefner, of Mill Point, a daughter, Angela Carol

Deaths

Austin Dale Moore, 32, of Frank; son of the Mr. and Mrs. Ben F. Moore; burial in the Bethel Cemetery on Back Mountain near Durbin

Delbert Own Cogar, 56, of Brownsburg Road; son of Mrs. Myrtle Poage Cogar; burial in the Edray Cemetery

Lillian Alderman Gillispie Hatton, 91, of Nebraska; born in Green Bank, daughter of the late John Adam and Emley Bird Alderman; burial in The Sheridan Cemetery in Nebraska.