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Seventy-Five Years Ago

September 10, 2025
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Thursday, September 14, 1950

Of late weeks, by reason of the Hill relationship reunion, my attention has been somewhat centered on Richard Hill, a Greenbrier Valley Pioneer, Indian Scout and Revolutionary soldier. He was called from out of the Sand Hills of North Carolina unto a land he knew not, like Abraham, from the land of Ur of the Chaldevs. So far as I know, Richard Hill left no written record of his birth place nor the names of his parents. He passed to his reward a little more than a century ago.

Richard married Nancy, daughter of John and Martha Davis McNeel, the pioneer family of the Little Levels. Being as I have nothing to record of his own father and mother, I will write of his mother-in-law.

Martha Davis was a native of Wales. She was of the Reformed faith and doctrine. Her church is known even unto this day as the Calvinistic Methodist. Her Bible, printed in Welsh, is still in existence. The last I heard, it was in the possession of some of her descendants away out in the Oregon country. I have always thought it ought to be brought back home. This certainly would be a fine gesture for Dr. John McNeel, now of Seattle, Washington, to busy himself with. There may have been Bibles brought to this upper Greenbrier Valley before the coming of the John McNeels, about the year 1767. However, the Bible of Martha Davis McNeel is the first so far as there is positive proof.

Of course, I have heard tell of the traditional controversy of Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell here two centuries ago. They argued over the then live question of dissent from a church established by civil law. Such a fussing might be considered as circumstantial evidence that there was no Bible in their camp at Marlinton in 1750.

Then came the White Pole Church, a house of worship, built by these McNeels at their cemetery in gratitude to God for providential care in wanderings and fears, to permit the lines to fall to this pioneer household in such a pleasant place.

Then there is the tradition of the first little grave. In the fall of 1774, John McNeel was in the Army for the Battle of Point Pleasant. During his absence, a child was born and died before his return. The mother with her own hands prepared the coffin and the grave and buried it…

FIELD NOTES

Droop – Ben Kellison came home from work last weekend and found the folks out at the neighbor’s. Going into the kitchen and through to a bedroom he got the surprise of his life. A big bird flew directly at his head as it made for the door. Slapping it down, he found his visitor was a chicken hawk – a blue tailed darter. The sign showed the hawk had struck a chicken hen at the back of the house. The hen had dashed against the screen door which opened on the inside and through the kit-chen and into a bedroom, taking the hawk with her.

– – –

Another unusual incident of a wild creature out of a place by invading a residence was a bull frog in the flowers of a window box on the second story of a Marlinton apartment. Of course, the lady of the home could not believe her eyes. The mystery was somewhat explained by a neighbor who had seen the frog in the hall as it was coming from the open door on the street.

– – –

Last Thursday night a big old beaver got the surprise of his misspent life. Up on Knapps Creek, above the mouth of Spice Run, he had cut off a chunk of a poplar tree to supply him with winter eating wood. The tree crashed across a high-power electric line – 12,000 volts. There were fireworks a plenty. In the dark, wet night, on a rocky and brushy hillside, through the morass of a beaver dam, the linesman had no pleasant evening’s outing.

WEDDING

Miss Ida Gaye Hiner and James Yeager Pritchard were united in marriage at the Methodist parsonage at Monterey, Virginia. The ring ceremony was performed amid a setting of various colorful summer flowers. The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Hiner, of Dunmore. The groom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Carlon Pritchard, of Dunmore. While serving for two years in the United States Army, he was on duty in Japan. He is engaged in farming.

BIRTHS

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Franklin Gordon, of Dunmore, a son, Clarence Wayne.

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Thomas Vandevender, of Arbovale a son, Jerry Lee.

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Norman Lee Walker, a son, Russell Wesley.

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Benny Paul Vigilanti, of Slaty Fork, a son, Michael Joseph.

DEATHS

Lantie W. Ervine, aged 72, died at his home in St. Albans. Burial in the Arbovale Cemetery.

– – –

Two brothers, Richard H. Callison, of Hillsboro, and Glen W. Callison, of Roa-noke, VA, died within two days of each other. They were the eldest and youngest sons of the late George W. and Maude McNeel Callison, who lived at Hillsboro.

Funeral service for Richard H. Callison was conducted from the home at Hillsboro with interment in Oak Grove Cemetery. Funeral service for Glen W. Callison was held at the Okey Chapel with interment in the Evergreen Cemetery at Roanoke, VA.

Both brothers were members of the Methodist church and the Masonic Lodge.

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