Seventy-Five Years Ago

Thursday, May 22, 1947

EIGHTH GRADE GRADUATES

Mt. Lebanon

Randall Curry Cutlip, Richard Hill Cutlip, Robert Lowell Cutlip, Naomi Dean, Elba Kellison, Essie McMillion and Joann Morrison.

Jacox

Dorothy Louise Hill, Betty Mae Pritt, Karl Lee Pritt and Anita Marie Simmons.
 
FIELD NOTES

One day last week, Howard Mullens, of Willi-ams River, came in to know what kind of a big hawk it was which flew down in his chicken yard, struck a five or six pound chicken hen and then proceeded to fly away with his kill with no great effort. This happened when Howard was away on his daily school bus trip. He knew as well as I know this heavy draft bird was none other than a big golden eagle. He just wanted to check the matter with me to see if I had the same idea.

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This is the time of year when there are young, lusty eagles in the nest to be fed. This year, as in years gone by, I have seen a big eagle flying around Bucks Mountain to the west of our town. I have not the evidence, but I have had the idea these eagles nest in the wilderness country where Tea Creek heads up in Gauley Mountain. To back this up, I have the word of people on Laurel Creek who have seen the birds flying beyond Tea Creek Mountain. If I figure right, Howard Mullens’ chickens are about as near to the eagle’s nest as any other chickens.

I am a regular hand to stick by what the books say about birds and beasts and creeping things. However, my faith is a bit wavering on the book statement that when the young eagle is about ready to graduate from the nest along the last weeks of June, he is larger than he will ever be again.

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Talking about the relative size of birds, it appears the Nation’s Audubon Society is the authority for the statement that “America’s largest bird is the California condor with a wing spread of ten feet. The great golden eagle is runner-up at seven and a half feet.”

As soon as I can get around to it, I am fixing up a letter giving names where golden eagles have been measured with wing spreads of better than eight feet.

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For the sake of the record, let it be printed that the first two weeks of May were a bit on the cold order. Morning after morning, temperature as low as 20 degrees was experienced. Earlier blooming apple trees were frozen brown. How any fruit could endure such cold is a wonder, but it still looks like there will be apples, especially up in the “frostless belt” around 2,700 elevation and higher. The lilac flower is a sign to go by. If lilac buds freeze, to dry up and not open as flowers, you can forget about the fruit crop; it has gone by the board. This year the lilacs at our house were never so beautiful and sweet.

WEDDING

Mr. and Mrs. Arnot McNeill, of Marlinton, announce the marriage of their daughter, Dorothy Jewell, to Devon Johnson, son of Mr. and Mrs. T. D. Johnson, of Florence, South Carolina. The double ring ceremony was performed Thursday, May 1, 1947, at 8:30 o’clock, in Washington, D. C. at the parsonage of Rev. Elmer A. Wilcher, pastor of the North Carolina Avenue Methodist Church.

Mrs. Johnson is a graduate of Marlinton high school and for the past two years has been employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation…
 
BIRTH

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Gray Wilfong, May 14, 1947, a son.
 
DEATHS

Samuel Wilson Taylor, 37, of Dunmore, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry M. Taylor and brother of George Moffett Taylor, Mrs. Virginia Kathaleen Wilfong, Mrs. Gladys Estelle Loudermilk and Mrs. Mildred Woodrow McLaughlin. Funeral services were held in the Methodist Church at Dunmore. Burial in the Dunmore Cemetery.

Harlan S. Neel, one of Greenbrier’s progressive and most widely known farmers, succumbed to a heart ailment after only a few hours’ illness early Saturday morning, May 10, 1947, at his home at Blaker Mills. Mr. Neel was a native of Monroe county, born at Gap Mills, a son of the late Allan G. and Sue Patton Neel… He is survived by his wife Mrs. Georgia Lockridge Neel… Mr. Neel was an elder in Muddy Creek Presbyterian Church. The funeral was conducted from his late residence and the body was conveyed to Marlinton for burial in Mountain View cemetery.