Thursday, February 1, 1951
On last Friday evening, the Pocahontas Council for Farming for Better Living were guests of the Monongahela Power Company at the El Poca dining hall. The council for 1951 consists of Glenn Shrader, W. E. Jett, L. E. Montgomery, E. E. White, J. A. Sydenstricker, June McElwee, Calvin W. Price, Charles Eib, William Moore, Mrs. Esther LaRose, Z. S. Smith, Jr., Mrs. Carlon Pritchard, Harry D. Cochran, Richard McNeel, David Smith, O. L. McMann, Hal Moore, Ward A. Barlow, Clarence Sheets, H. A. Yeager, H. M. Widney and H. H. Thompson. The dinner was a token of appreciation for one hundred percent completion of last year’s program…
FROM JUDGE GATHRIGHT
My dear Calvin;
I have just read with much interest your account of your Highland trip where you told the folks something of the Cranberry Glades. This reminds me of an unfinished story of the Bogs that I wanted you to have.
Some years ago, by special appointment with you, I took a very distinguished party of friends over to Marlinton, where you joined us and made the trip in Cranberry Bogs. Incidentally, I want to say that we had with us on that trip, Mrs. Henry, of Philadelphia, who is probably the world’s authority on wildflowers. The trip through the bogs with you and your knowledge of how it was formed, the plant life and everything made it wonderfully interesting.
When we came back out of the Bogs to the road, one of the ladies exclaimed what beautiful trilliums were on a little rise just above us, at which time all of us climbed up to see the wildflowers. You reached down and pulled up something and asked if I knew what it was. I did not and you told me it was a “ramp” and that I should have some of them growing on my preserve. I borrowed two feed sacks from the chief engineer of the Government Reservation and in a very small space got enough ramps to fill the two bags and brought same home with me and the next day had several of my men setting out ramps on different areas. I had some ramps left over and they were on my back porch the next day when one of my tenants came in to see me. This man was raised over in the Richwood country and I asked him if he knew what they were and he immediately said, “yes, I do – them is ramps.”
“Are they good to eat?” I asked.
“Best thing you ever et.”
“Do you know how to cook them, Tom?”
“Yes sir, you can eithter cookem or eatum’ raw.”
Well, Tom, I want you to eat lunch with me and we will eat ramps – both cooked and raw – and then I want you to go down in Kincaid gorge with me to clear off a view point of the river and you can go on home from there.”
We went down, after eating the ramps, and worked on a steep slope. I stayed up near the top and sent Tom and a colored man down the slope to cut brush and trees. It was hot and when old Tom get “het up” and the ramps began to volatilize, I could hardly stay on the slope above him.
Then, there came up a thunderstorm and all of us including old Tom DePriest, the hound dog, my colored man and I took refuge under a leaning, sheltering tree. Pretty soon my colored man, my dog and I, not being able to stand the odor of ramps on old Tom, left him and hunted a new tree nearby. Then in a few moments, the colored man and my dog left me and stood out in the rain. I have not eaten any ramps since.
Tom
Hickory Lodge
Bather County, Virginia
BIRTHS
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Warren Sheets, of Green Bank, a son, James David.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Parker, of Marlinton, a daughter, Jeanne Marie.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Hubert Miller, of Durbin, a son, Daniel Wayne.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Keiver Jordan, of Droop, a son, Stephen Wayne.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. David Sparks, of Marlinton, a son, John Richardson.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Beard, of Hillsboro, a daughter, Suzanne.
DEATHS
Milton Dolley, 70, a prominent citizen of Pendleton County, was instantly killed in an automobile accident January 24. At the same time, Mrs. Hedrick, post mistress at Teterton, suffered injuries from which she died some hours later.
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Rozelle Edgar Burner, aged 62, died at his home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, June 28, 1950. The deceased was a son and the eighth child of Charles Cameron and Elizabeth Augusta Beard Burner, of Travelers Repose. Of his father’s family, there remain his brother, Harry C. Burner, of Bartow, and his sister, Mrs. E. E. Oldaker, of Durbin…
