Thursday, October 30, 1947
MILL BURNS
The big sawmill of the Republic Lumber Company near the tannery in Marlinton burned up early last Saturday morning. The heavy loss is partly covered by insurance. It is not known how the fire started. Prompt response by firemen saved all the lumber on the big mill yard. Work has already begun to clear up the ruins for another mill.
LIONS
All broke out to be of public service, the Marlinton Lions Club lined up with Rotary, Masons and other organizations of the town in underwriting its part of prize money for the Marlinton Halloween party for Friday nigh.
Another good act reported at the meeting last Thursday night was the purchase of two Christmas remembrances for servicemen through the Red Cross.
Each year during deer season many hunters come into Pocahontas who have not taken the precaution to secure rooms in advance. They are out in the cold though many a householder has vacant rooms they would be glad to let out at a reasonable price. The club makes no guarantee either for rooms or roomers, but is glad, as an act of public service, to be the go-between. Rooms may be listed with J. E. Hamrick, Secretary.
THE GREENBRIER VALLEY
Continued…
Below Durbin, once a mighty lumber center, the Greenbrier flows just at the foot of the Cheat Range known as “Back Allegheny.” Higher and higher the spruce clad peaks rise, until they climax at Bald Knob, 4,824 feet above the sea. This is one of the great wilderness regions of the state.
The village of Cass owes its existence to lumber. It was built to serve the great sawmill, once the state’s largest, and still an extensive operation. When the American Museum of Natural History in New York wished to prepare a habitat exhibit displaying the eastern wild turkey, it concluded that the birds of Pocahontas county might be of the purest strain to be found in the country. Workers were sent to Cass, collections were made, and visitors to New York may see, today, the magnificent group of turkeys which is one of the Museum’ s prize exhibits.
While still in Pocahontas county, the Greenbrier passes Seneca State Forest, the town of Marlinton and Watoga State Park.
I cannot pass by Marlinton without mention of the Prices, Cal and his brother, the late Andy, who have, for years, been my mentors on Pocahontas and its lore. Someday I should like to edit a book made up of the outdoor wisdom and charming and humorous writings of these two editors of The Pocahontas Times, a county newspaper which is local, personal journalism at its best.
In the valley east of the Greenbrier, there was once a forest of white pine remnants of which still stand. This timber could best be gotten to the mill by driving it down the streams, and since the native loggers were not experienced in river driving, lumbermen from faraway New Brunswick were imported. These men had driven logs on fabulous northern rivers, the Miramichi and the Restigouche, and they took the white pine to Ronceverte on the bosom of the spring freshets. Some of them stayed in the valley – one to marry my father’s sister…
To be continued…
FIELD NOTES
About equally divided between Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties, a six-thousand acre wild turkey and other game sanctuary has been established between Riders Gap and Neola, in the Anthony Country. This is cooperative endeavor between the State Conservation Commission and National Forest Service. It is supported by Pittman-Robertson program for game restoration. The idea is for a wild turkey refuge, but no hunting of any kind will be permitted. The resident managers are Fred Trainer and Dennis Dean…
– – –
Howard Mullins lives near the Meadows on Williams River, near the mouth of Big Laurel Creek. Hereabouts the bears come out in the open for a few hundred yards to cross Williams River as they pass to and from the head of Tea Creek to Black Mountain. Howard has a birthday on October 6. This year, a most appreciated present was a good big bear, with a nice skin and a lot of good meat. In the dusk of the evening the dogs broke out into the nearby woods, barking furiously. After a short running fight, they treed. Howard took his gun and hurried along. He found the dogs baying a good sized bear up a dead tree. He shot the bear down. It was lucky thing for Howard the bear did take up a snag; it was too dark to see to shoot into a tree with leaves. This bear had come from the head of Tea Creek, where it had been feeding on wild cherry, mountain ash and the like. He was headed for Black Mountain where there is a crop of beech mast. As for fat, the meat was covered thinly with gray.
DEAN-MEADE
Announcement is being made of the marriage of Friday, August 1, 1947, of Miss Faye Evelyn Meade, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. P. B. Meade of Huntington, to Summers Irvin Dean, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Dean, of Marlinton. The ceremony was performed by Rev. D. H. Matherly, pastor the First Christian Church, of Catlettsburg, Kentucky…
BIRTH
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Charles T. Cover, at the Alleghany Memorial Hospital in Covington, a daughter, named Madonna Ann.
DIED
Our community was sadly shocked Wednesday, October 22, 1947, by the sudden passing of Mrs. Rita May Summers, teacher of the Woodrow school; while in the act of calling her pupils back to their classes for the afternoon session, she was overcome by a heart attack and before medical aid could arrive, died on the school lawn.
Mrs. Summers was the daughter of Mr. and Martha Shaw Rader, of near Marlinton. She was born October 14, 1907 at Fairview, near Pickens, where much of her early life was spent…
Mrs. Summers was an extremely capable person and gave fully of her strength and ability in serving others. She was reared in a Christian home, and became a member of the Methodist Church in early life, and wherever she lived took an active part in Sunday School and other phases of church work.
“She is dead, they came and told us,
She is dead, we hear them say.
But our hearts will not believe it,
She has only gone away.”