3/30/07-West Virginia Yesterday & Today

by Mildred McKenzie

   Harold Davis, a Korean War Veteran from Wilmington, North Carolina has dedicated his life to tracking down the relatives of 8,000 U.S. soldiers who were unaccounted for when the war ended in 1953.
 Davis was born June 30, 1929 and was inducted into service in 1951, and spent his service years in combat zones, assigned to heavy mortar companies and came home in 1953.
 Harold Davis enrolled in Elon College and studied Math & Physics and went to work for Western Electric; which later became part of Bell Labs.  And he became a project engineer with the Bell Phone System.
 It was the historian in him that drew him back to the War years.  He remembered places he had fought or traveled such as Inchon, White Horse Mountain, Sandbag Castle, Punch Bowl, and Kogido, and he became a student of the Korean War. 
 He joined the American Legion and together they raised $20,000 for an elegant granite monument, inscribed with the names of those who sacrificed in World War I, II, the Korean War, and Vietnam.  It was installed in Hugh McRae Park in 1988.
 While trying to gather information about Veterans, and put it in the North Carolina Room at the Library, he learned that the government was trying to locate the families of still missing Korean War P.O.W.'s, and M.I.A.'s to build up its D.N.A. database.
 The database could be very crucial in making final identification of the remains of soldiers that are recovered.  A spokeswoman for the Army Casualty Office says as far as she knows Harold Davis is the only volunteer in the country who is searching for families.
 Of 8,100 missing from the Korean War, 6,300 are still missing and they can use your help. 
 Harold Davis works with the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, a government agency whose duties include accounting for missing personnel and identifying their remains.  The following is a list of names still to be accounted for in West Virginia.
 If you are a relative of any of the following service people, would you contact Harold so the soldiers can be returned home.
Harold G. Davis
Phone 910-791-2333
hgdavis@bellsouth.net
517 Mohican Trail
Wilmington, NC 28409-3426
 Harold Davis is a man of honor and integrity and needs our help in helping families reunite with their loved ones.
 I am reminded of the words (author unknown) who said after World War II in a song, "You ask me stranger why I've made this journey, why I've crossed these miles of rolling waves, I'm an American looking for my loved one, I'm over here searching for my "Soldiers Grave". 
Clifford Adkins   Boone County
James Bartram   Cabell County
Albert Boland   Mercer County
Joseph Booker   Kanawha County
Reuben Bragg   Webster County
Levi Burs   Fayette County
Adolph Calloway   Raleigh County
Pete Conley   Logan County
Richard Coulter   Monongalia County
Robert Detamore   Webster County
Tennis Dillon   Logan County
Harry Dobbins   Clay County
Ira Fulks   Kanawha County
Howard Godwin   Taylor County
Hayward Hamrick   Marion County
Harold Hanshaw   Greenbrier County
Hubert Harmon   Raleigh County
Hamilton Horner   Berkeley County
James Houghton   Kanawha County
Ronald Huffman   Mercer County
William Huffman   Taylor County
Charles Jarrell   Raleigh County
James King   Kanawha County
James Kittle   Harrison County
Charles Lambert   Franklin
Willis Lewis    New Cumberland
Robert Lohr   Logan County
Arnold Loudermilk  Greenbrier County
Allen Maddy   Summers County
Walter Maddy    Cabell County
Robert Mason   Wood County
Roy Mathess   Wirt County
Alton McClanahan  Kanawha County
Wendel Moes   Kanawha County
Fred O'Neill   Ohio County
Hoye Rodeheaver   Greene
Teddy Roten   Wood County
Robert Sawyers   Welch County
Bill Sizemore   McDowell County
Clyde Stacy   Raleigh County
Ralph Sturber   Charleston
Chauncey Swiger   Harrison County
James Taylor   Kanawha County
Paul West   Upshur County
Franklin Wetzel   Ohio County
Billy WIllians   Mercer County
Ralph Zecco   Harrison County

4/18/07-Echo From The Hills 

by Alyce Faye Bragg
      It snowed on the sarvis bloom.  It hung on the blossoming fruit trees, covered the lilac buds, froze the bleeding hearts and liberally covered the ground over night.
   Uncle Clarence Brown used to say that it would always snow on the sarvis bloom, before spring will come and stay.  We are all ready for that.  Those days of cold, gloomy weather makes us doubly thankful for the bright sunshine today.
   In spite of the cold and snow, the trees are putting forth fat buds and gleaming yellow dandelions are popping up everywhere.  The more modest violets are partly hidden in the thick grass along the creek, like chips of blue sky that have fallen to the ground.
   Morels are up already.  Daughter Patty and son-in-law Bob have harvested quite a few.  On the spur of the moment, they ventured into their secret patch on one of those freezing days last week.  Snowflakes were whirling all around them, yet they kept spying morels.
   I have heard that it takes snow to produce a good morel season, so we should have a bumper crop this year.  A day or so of warm sunshine should coax them right through the ground.  Spotting these tasty little mushrooms in the woods, under poplar and fruit trees, or along the creek is one of the thrills of springtime.
   Morels are not the only springtime treat that our hills have to offer.  Sassafras tea is one of most delicious spring tonics ever brewed.  Before the sap comes up in the tree, the roots are dug, scrubbed well, and put into a large pot of water.  It is then simmered until the resulting brew is deep red and hearty.
   Mom always said that sassafras tea would thin your blood, but I have always drunk it for its aromatic goodness.  A pot of sassafras tea brewing in the kitchen fills the whole house with the perfume of springtime.  It is so much better than sulphur and molasses!
   Another springtime treat is the lowly ramp.  It is also called a wild leek, and other terms not so flattering.  It does have a distinctive odor that lingers on the breath, but we have found that the early tender ones are not so offensive.  We have learned to cook them outside on the grill, and it will keep the house odor-free.
   We have had two good messes in the last few days, cooked with bacon and eggs.  I believe that a big mess of ramps, along with a pot full of sassafras tea, would cure the winter doldrums and get us ready for the planting season.
   We have had some home remedies come in, and some of them are new to me.  James E. Fairchild of Clarksburg was told at the age of seven that he had leakage of the heart.  His Aunt Flora Moore (Fairchild) had a cure for almost anything.
   She mixed a quart Mason jar with raw eggs soaked in lemon juice until they dissolved.  Then she mixed in raw honey and Kentucky bourbon whiskey until it was thick as molasses.  He was given a teaspoon full each day.  It may have helped-he is now 82 years old!  His Aunt Flora made this for many people in the eastern Kentucky area who had tuberculosis, asthma, and other respiratory diseases.   
   Imogene Burdette of Culloden said her parents mixed ground ivy with catnip for tea, which was a sight better than castor oil.  Mom always raised catnip to make tea for colicky babies.  I think it does help them sleep.
   My brother-in-law Howard Friend of Ravenswood has a good tip for a superficial cut.  He said when he would get cut on the job; he would apply a piece of tape directly over the cut.  This would keep it from bleeding, and later he could treat it.  He also suggested Colgate's toothpaste for a bee sting.
   L. L. Tolley, DDS, of Winchester, VA, said that his mother called the membrane inside an egg shell "striffen," and used it on a boil. As it dried, it would bring the boil to a head and could then be lanced.
   We've collected some more dialect.  Wally Sloan of Victoria, Texas, says his friends laugh when he uses the word "tacky" or "cotton-pickin'."  These terms are common usage to us, such as, "She shore did look tacky in that dress!"  Wally says a neighbor of his answers the telephone with, "Jot-em Down Store."  Doesn't that hail from an old radio program?
   Sissy Taylor says her father would say, "Step on it!" when he wanted them to hurry up.  Gordon Parker always wondered about "He took off like Snyder's hound."  Who was Snyder, and why couldn't he keep his hound under control?"
   I've wondered also about "Coxey's army."  When Mom would see a motley group of people coming, she would say, "Here comes Coxey's army."  Bernie Fulks sent us a Texas saying, 'She's uglier than a drunk mule!"  We always said "uglier than a mud fence," or "uglier than homemade sin."  Is homemade sin different from any other kind of sin? 
   We still call someone who is lazy or no-account "do-less."   A term came to me this week that I haven't heard for years.  We never said "bubble gum"-we asked for "blow gum."  "Gimme a piece of that there blow gum."
   I received a puzzling e-mail, and need help.  Alene Hubbard of Charleston (moved here about five years ago, but grew up in South Dakota,) wants to know what a katydid looks like.  She has some kind of a strange insect that pops up in her house intermittently.  (I did tell her a katydid was green, and it was not the season for them.)
   They emerge in the basement and on the main floor, reminds her of a cricket, but doesn't make any noise. They have very long legs and a body about one-quarter of inch in diameter.  They are reddish-gold, and have large antennae-like spikes at the front of their body.  When she tries to swat them, they curl up in a ball and jump into nowhere.    
   Except for curling up in a ball, it sounds like a mole cricket.  Does anyone have any idea?
   It's time to eat a mess of ramps, hunt a batch of morels, drink a jug of sassafras tea, and thank the good Lord for bringing us through another winter.

4/18/07-Harrison in the Rearview Mirror

by William Canfield

   Harrison is still located on the ridge between Widen and Clay. There is no sign, you just have to know where it is. There was another community several years ago just about 5 miles from here as the crow flies that is now gone and all the evidence that it ever existed. But, I have pictures to prove it was there. At the mouth of Groves Creek, (where Groves flows into the Elk) was Ira, West Virginia. In the early twenties and before, it was a coal town such as Widen but smaller. The mine was called the Blue Ridge Mine. There was a 3-story boarding house where the workers could stay that lived very far away. Very far was only a few miles in those days. I've been told there was a bridge that crossed the river at Ira. Jim and Opal crossed the bridge to get married in 1934. It may have been 1937 when the bridge washed out. Since the mine had closed several years earlier (early twenties or before) there was no need for the bridge to be rebuilt. There was also, a store and post office owned by Charles Ebert, which he had purchased from Burlington Duffield. The mail arrived by train and then was delivered by horseback to the other areas. Calling it a rural area doesn't seem like the right word to use because I would have to refer to Ira as a metropolitan area. Nathan Boggess Duffield owned a Gristmill at Ira, which was still in operation in 1914. In the middle 40's Dad would take us to the river to swim or fish. Uncle Jim and Aunt Opal Ramsey lived there at that time. We would play with our cousin, Margie and Bub Ramsey. We would go into the store to see what we could see. I remember the post office area in the back of the left. The mail slots were still there. Margie said, when they moved there, there was still some unclaimed mail in some of the slots. I also remember the gob pile at the foot of the hill. Sam Miller and his wife also lived there at that time. Here are some pictures of a place and time gone by. Email me at williamcanfield@hotmail.com or call me 286-2705.