Thursday, October 23, 1947
The last meeting was over to the University to attend the annual meeting of the West Virginia Newspaper Council. This gathering gives opportunity to Dr. P. I. Reed to report on progress of the School of Journalism. Also, for council members to be exhibits of what wear and tear newspaper life can do to people. This may be in the interest of fair play to aspiring young journalists, but certainly the exhibit of some of us relics is not exactly inspiring. I reckon it is a kind of a slow poison existence after all.
There are clinics in which subjects relating to the craft are discussed; and dinners and lunches and banquets – after all social-ability is the magic link in the ring.
The first go was the lunch of the local club of a great international civic club. A part of the ritual is the salute to the flag. Snapping to attention, it was all out and over before notice was taken of the fact that Old Glory had come up missing and only the Union Jack of Great Britain drooped from the standard. A friend fiercely whispered, had the spirit of ’76 gone by the board in Pocahontas county? I could only truthfully, weakly reply, we all had mistaken it for Stars and Bars of the Southern Confederacy.
In the so called clinics, I got picked on as an outstanding example on how a country newspaper should not be conducted. I can only weakly explain the fact I have gotten by until this good day only through the mercies of heaven…
This meeting of the Newspaper Council marked my completion of 51 years in the newspaper craft. They gave me a certificate. On like occasion, J. Alfred Taylor remarked he had started in on a weekly wage of $2.75 and after 50 years of it, he still made that much some weeks.
Thinking the matter over, I recall Slidell Brown once told me what a colored man had remarked about financial depressions. He said he had come through the last panic as a minister, and if another depression did come, he was none too good to go back to preaching!
So, if time in her flight did turn backward, I merely record here the shameful confession that I would be none too good to try the part of a country editor again, even if it is no contented place, like Uncle Bobby said about the Battle of Gettysburg…
THE GREENBRIER VALLEY
Continued…
The bass, by the way, have had an interesting history. When the forests were cut, floods came, and with them pollution from sawmills, tanneries and other industrial plants. New roads opened up the country, and the fishermen, in ever increasing numbers, gathered for the sport.
The inevitable happened – the fish population began to suffer.
The decrease has been a headache for fish technicians, and they have tried many things to restore the bass. A few years ago, noticing that a forage fish, natural food of bass, were in short numbers, they tried introducing minnows of various species. This has seemed to work pretty well, and fishermen tell me that bass are coming back in the Greenbrier. Perhaps man, working with nature to restore the food balance has found the answer to the problem.
One of the glories of the main stream is the tributaries. To mention only a few of them, one thinks immediately of Deer Creek, Sitlington Creek, Knapps Creek, Cloverlick, Spice Run, Spring Creek and Howards Creek. Each one has been a favorite among fishermen, and unspoiled by waters from coal mines and other developments. Along each, the rhododendron grows, and wild flowers grow in profusion…
To be continued…
WEDDINGS
On Friday night, October 10, 1947, Robert Daniel McCutcheon and Miss Ruth McCollam Blackhurst were married in the Cass Presbyterian church. The officiating minister was Rev. Harry Blackhurst, grandfather of the bride. A musical program was presented by Mrs. B. B. Breitenhirt, Mrs. Aubrey Ferguson and Mrs. Frank Johnson…
The bride is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Allan Blackhurst… The groom is a son of Mrs. L. C. McCutcheon… He served three years in the Navy.
– – –
Miss Jolene Isabelle McLaughlin and Clarence Thurmond Fitzwater, son of T. T. Fitzwater, of Slaty Fork, were married September 30, 1947 at 7 p.m. at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred McLaughlin at Cass. Rev. B. B. Breitenhirt officiated under an arch of pine, asters and snapdragons with lighted candles on either side of the arch. Before the service Mrs. M. W. Ralston sang, “Always” and “I Love You Truly” accompanied by Mrs. P. F. Long…
BIRTHS
Born to Mr. and Mrs. June Bussard, of Huntersville, on Sunday, October 19, 1947, a girl.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Crowley, of Green Bank, Thursday, October 16, 1947, a girl.
DEATHS
Edward F. McLaughlin, aged 76 years, died at his home in Marlinton, early Wednesday morning, October 15, 1947.
On Friday afternoon the funeral was held from the Marlinton Presbyterian Church by his pastor, Rev. Roger P. Melton. Interment was in the McLaughlin Family Cemetery near the Courthouse. The pallbearers were Senator Fred Allen, Kerth Nottingham, J. M. Bear, Dewey Stemple, J. E. Hamrick and Mack Brooks.
Mr. McLaughlin was a son of the late George H. and Rhuhama Wiley McLaughlin. He married Margaret Clementine Mann, who preceded her husband in May 1946. Their sons are Claude, of Lewisburg, member of the House of Delegates from Greenbrier County; Archie Gray, of Fairmont, with the Farm Bureau Insurance Division; Frank P., of Marlinton, with the State Board of Control; and daughters, Mrs. Glenna Morris, of Huntington, and Margaret, at home…
The deceased was one of the leading citizens of Pocahontas County. He was a farmer and stockman, active in business affairs until the last weeks of his life…
– – –
Page Barlow, aged 39 years, was killed in an automobile accident at Hun-tersville Friday night, October 17, 1947. The funeral service was held on Monday afternoon with burial in the family plot in Edray Cemetery.
The deceased was a son of the late John E. and Morella Smith Barlow. His surviving sisters are Mrs. Frank Young and Mrs. Thomas Bokoski; his brothers are Clarence, Fred and Henry Barlow. He was a soldier of the last war…
– – –
Harry McLaughlin, aged 12 years, son of Mrs. Olive McLaughlin, of Cass, was drowned on Sunday evening, October 19, 1947, in Greenbrier River. He slipped and fell from the pier of the bridge at Cass. His body was laid in the Wanless Cemetery on Tuesday afternoon.
