Thursday, July 12, 1951
FIELD NOTES
One of my Underwood friends from off Beaver Creek asked me to tell him the name of a little short-tailed animal, somewhat on the order of field mouse, but larger.
It cuts stacked hay into short bits and riddles corn fodder. It will fight anything, even a cat. However, the cat at the Underwood home prefers these creatures as her prey above rats, mice, moles and birds.
The answer is the short-tailed shrew. The stacked hay was cut in bits by mice and hay rats, and the shrews came in numbers to kill and eat these mice and rats. As for corn fodder, it could be the shrews did riddle the stalks for the corn borers, as they are insect eaters.
Though small, the shrew is a match for anything in gameness. In addition to insect fare, they will eat almost any animal they can overcome, in fair fight or foul. Even small birds are caught and killed. The shrew has to eat to live. The book says they can die of hunger in less than half a day.
The short-tailed shrew is known to be a cannibal. It burrows just beneath the surface of the ground in summer and under the snow in winter. The more common long tailed shrew does not burrow. It uses the galleries of the mole.
Scientists are greatly interested in the fact that the red backed shrew is found in Cranberry Glades. This, it seems, is far south of its expected home.
Rest assured, shrews never ate up anybody’s hay-stack, but they do live fine on the rats and mice which at times do riddle haystacks left over for a year.
ENGAGEMENT
Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Totten, of Mill Point, are announcing the engagement of their only daughter, Thelma Gray, to John H. Mullens, son of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Mullens, of Marlinton.
WEDDINGS
Sunday evening, June 12, 1951, Miss Mary Ann Simmons became the bride of Forest J. Beverage, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Beverage, of Marlinton. The ceremony was performed at the home of the bride. She is a daughter of Mrs. Nelle Simmons, of Hillsboro, and the late G. H. Simmons.
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The marriage of Mrs. Mary F. Moore to Mr. Henry Barlow, will take place on the lawn at the home of the bride on Stony Creek, Saturday afternoon.
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In historic Oak Grove church in Hillsboro on Sunday, July 8, 1951, Marion Balzer became the bride of Jack R. Hunter.
BIRTHS
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Louis P. Madison, Jr., a son.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Sampson Goldizen, a son.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Don Terry, a son.
DEATH
Abraham Waugh Pritt, aged 77 years, of near Buckeye; funeral was held from the home with burial in the Brick Church Cemetery. Six children survive: Nellie Barrett, Laura McCoy, Minnie White, Cecil, Winters and Homer.
