News articles from Wayne County Newspaper Submitted by June White and Wayne County News,who gave permission to research its old editions, and Nina Johnson, resident genealogist at Cabell County Library. December 2001 LETTER TO THE EDITOR CAPTAIN JOSEPH M. FERGUSON, OBIT NEWS BRIEFS ACROSS WAYNE COUNTY CEREDO TOWN HISTORY LOUISA, KENTUCKY, ADOPTS EASTERN STANDARD TIME Local News Items MRS. MAHALA WELLS HUFF LOCAL BOYS MAKE BIG SHOWING WAYNE LOSES; C-K KEEPS ON WINNING MARCUM AND WATTS GET IMPORTANT COMMITTEE POSTS IN LEGISLATURE CK Bill White and Johnson SCOTT ADKINS, OBITUARY OF WWI VETERAN BETTER HOMES CAMPAIGN IN THE WAYNE COMMUNITY HOW TUG FORK OF SANDY WAS NAMED WHITE'S CREEK COVERED BRIDGE BREAKS UNDER HEAVILY LOADED TRUCK NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR TELEPHONE FRANCHISE HUNTINGTON, WAYNE, FT. GAY AND LOUISA BUS LINE Local News 28 PRACTICING WAYNE MIDWIVES TO RENEW LICENSE THIS MONTH BODIES OF COL. J. J. MANSFIELD AND HIS DAUGHTER EXHUMED KENOVA COMPANY TO SELL NEW GAS LOWER LYNN CREEK SCHOOL IAEGER, McDOWELL COUNTY ************************************************ ***************************************** LETTER TO THE EDITOR 1927 Huntington, W. Va. 805 Vernon Street (Westmoreland) Wayne County News Wayne, W. Va. Gentlemen: About two months ago a large industry came from New York to Huntington to locate a factory employing about 250 men and women. Mr. A. F. Thompson who formerly had a stove factory in Cabell County, but who now owns a stove factory in Westmoreland, Wayne County, happened to be present at the meeting of the West End Commercial Club and heard the discussion about the new factory. One of the factory representatives remarked that he had been down in Wayne County near the Ball Brothers glass plant looking over some proposed sites. One of those present who didn't want this county to get the factory said, "They will tax you to death down in Wayne County." Other remarks were made against Wayne County as a proper site for the factory. After they all got through, Mr. A. F. Thompson, mentioned above, got up and told all of them that he was raised in Cabell County and had done lots of business there, but that he had been treated better down in Wayne County than in Cabell County in the matter of taxation, and Mr. Thompson offered the factory a gift of two hundred dollars toward a factory location if they would locate in Wayne County. Friends, the factory sites in Wayne County need to be boosted and shown to people who plan to locate in the Tri-State section. We have some of the best factory locations between Four Pole and Big Sandy that are to be found anywhere in the State. We need more boosters of the type of Mr. Thompson, R. F. Morgan, H. R. Alexander, J. H. Nichols and others. A county Chamber of Commerce could be organized to advantage, composed of such men. The river front of Wayne County has a great future as a manufacturing center, and we need boosters to show others what we have. Our factories here are well pleased with Erwin Blankenship, our assessor, and they feel that they are getting a square deal in Wayne County in the matter of valuations and taxes. Lee Frazier ************************************************* CAPTAIN JOSEPH M. FERGUSON, OBIT Funeral services were held Monday morning of this week for Captain Joseph M. Ferguson, of Ashland,Kentucky, who died at his home last Friday night. Captain Ferguson was a native Wayne County man and had numerous relatives and a wide circle of friends and admirers in this county who were shocked to hear the news of his death. Captain Ferguson was the brother of the late Charles W. Ferguson, who for so many years lived and conducted a mill and store at Elmwood, a mile South of town at the present location of his son, L. B. Ferguson. Capt. Ferguson was an officer in the Eighth Virginia Cavalry of the Confederate Army and until his death last week he was one of the few surviving veterans of the Civil War from this county. He was born on October 11, 1834, the son of Milton Ferguson, of what is now Wayne Court House. As a lad he attended school at the historic Inductive Seminary, which was conducted within the boundaries of the present city of Ashland but before the present city of Ashland was incorporated. Before the Civil War, he married Miss Susan Cannon, a native of Kentucky. At the outbreak of the war, he joined the Eighth Virginia Cavalry, entering with the rank of lieutenant and emerging with a commission as major. He was wounded at Gettysburg, and as the result had a stiff knee which caused him to walk with a limp for the remainder of his life. After the war, he took up residence on a farm, much of which was in the present town limits of Ashland. He was one of the organizers of the Second National Bank of Ashland and its first depositor. He had extensive business and property interests at the time of his death. The first Mrs. Ferguson died in October of 1894. Later he married Mrs. Eugenia Dickenson, who survives him. Three children by the first marriage survive him. They are Mrs. H. M. Pollock and Mrs. A. H. Ferguson of Ashland and Mrs. Smile Smith of Oakland, Cal. Funeral services were held at the home on Newman Street in Ashland, Monday, with Rev. A. L. Spencer, M. E. Minister, and Rev. S. S. Daughery, Presbyterian minister, in charge of the services. Burial was made in the cemetery at Ashland. The services were laregely attended, and many folks from Wayne County were among those present. ********************************************** NEWS BRIEFS ACROSS WAYNE COUNTY Allie Booth is building a new store building next to the new residence which he recently completed in Newtown Addition, at Wayne. *********************************** The Huntington Lodge of B. P. O. Elks will establish their summer camp at Kellogg, this county. The camp will open July 1st and continue throughout the summer. *********************************** J. M. Clay, former Wayne County man who now lives in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, is a candidate for railroad commissioner of Boyd County on the Democratic ticket at the primary to be held in August. *********************************** The new highway bridge across Big Sandy River at Kenova is expected to be open to traffic about next week. The concrete floor is now being poured. The next structure will be known as the Mayo-Midland Bridge. *********************************** P. P. Lester, principal of the Wayne graded school, has assigned the teachers to the following grades: F. W. Taylor, seventh; Mildred Smith, sixth; Spice Adkins, fifth; Irene Wilkinson, fourth; Helen Newman, third; Alma Walker, second; and Hazel Mosser, first. ************************************ Local young people who have been away at school are returning home, among them being Jack Osburn and Newman Newhouse, State University; Dorsey Ketchum, Richmond Medical College; Jack Thompson, Bethany College; Earl Burgess, Columbia; Helen Newman, Madge Staley, Ernestine Tabor and Opal Matthews, Marshall College. ************************************ Robert Burchett, age 13, son of Tom Burchett of Deephole, near Louisa, was shot with a .22 cal. rifle through the right lung accidentally by a playmate, Edgar Rice, age 12, last week. The boy was brought to Fort Gay and rushed to the Marting Hospital at Ironton, Ohio, where he is under treatment. They were out hunting when the accident happened. *************************** NEWS ITEMS, WEBB Flossie Mills of Wolf Creek recently visited friends here.*** Lee Curry and his family are moving to Tennessee, where Mr. Curry will enter law school.*** Dewey Curry is ill with mumps.*** Anna Damron of Glenhayes is visiting Nadine Little.*** Mrs. Maude Curry recently visited relatives in Ashland.*** Anna Little has returned from an extended visit with relatives in Huntington and Logan.*** Marie Parsley of Donithon recently visited her grandparents here.*** D. G. Harmon of Portsmouth was the week end guest of friends here. NEWS ITEMS, COLEMAN Mr. and Mrs. Riley Mullens of Huntington were visiting Mrs. Wilbur Wilson last Sunday.*** Emma Workman, who has employment in Huntington, visited home folks last Saturday.*** Mrs. J. D. Workman, who has been visiting her sister in Huntington, has returned home.*** George Rutherford, who has been sick for the past week, is able to be out again.***Mrs. Miles Jackson is on the sick list.*** Rev. A. W. Damron of Wayne will preach at the Twelve Pole Valley Church June 18 and 19.*** Mrs. Sidney Wilson, who has been ill, is able to be out again. NEWS ITEM, WILSON'S CREEK Mr. and Mrs. Russell Buckingham and son of Huntington spent last week end with relatives here.*** W. L. Banfield, Allen and Golden Banfield and Jennings Cyrus made a business trip to Huntington last Saturday.*** Mrs. E. A. Buckingham recently visited relatives in Huntington.*** Rev. W. B. Bias will fill his regular appointment at Spurlock Church next Sunday, June 19.*** Dr. Banfield of Huntington recently visited his brother here.*** Mrs. J. D. Poindexter, who has been visiting friends in Huntington,has returned home.*** Mr. and Mrs. Charley Lockhart and children visited friends in Huntington last Sunday. ****************************** CEREDO TOWN HISTORY FULL OF INTEREST Citizens of the community of Ceredo are arranging for an Industrial Survey of the Community, to be held next Monday and Tuesday, March 21st and 22nd. This is he first Industrial Suvey that has been conducted by any community in the county. County Agent W. D. Click, H. J. Stark, Dr. W. F. Bruns, Eustace Adkins, and Rev. E. T. Stump compose an executive committee that will have the program in charge. The survey that is being planned for Ceredo makes this an opportune time to recall certain interesting events concerned with the early history of the town. The town of Ceredo was founded in 1857 by Eli Thayer, a member of Congress from Massachusetts. While in Washington in 1856, he became acquainted with Albert G. Jenkins, then representing this district in the national Congress. In 1857 Thayer visited his friend on the banks of the Ohio, and at the time met Thomas L. Jordan, who then owned the land upon which the town now stands. Thayer purchased the land for a site for his new town, and upon visiting the locality and seeing the beautiful crops with which Ceres (goddess of vegetation) had laden the land, thought it a becoming tribute to the fabled goddess to name the town in her honor, and, accordingly, it became Ceredo. Thayer then returned to the East and sent Sabine P. Pond to cooperate with Mr. Jordan in laying out the town, grading streets, etc., while he himself visited several of the eastern cities for the purpose of inducing manufacturers to establish their business in his embryo city. He was, at least, successful in obtaining promises --one from the proprietors of the Agricultural Implement Works of Worcester, Massachusetts, at that time one of the most extensive of its kind in the world. Another that promised a branch establishment was the Boston Furniture Company, then the most extensive in New England. Some time prior to 1857, a town plan had been laid out on the Morgan farm on Virginia Point, but on account of poor management, or rather no management at all, the project had failed. Several houses had, however, been erected, and among the number who established themselves at that place was James Poteet. He was pleased with Thayer's city, and in July 1857, removed to Ceredo, where he became the first merchant. The first house was erected by H. W. Stewart for John Roberts and George McCormack. The year 1857 witnessed the erection of a number of temporary tenements by prospective residents, and at the same time the Ceredo Company erected what was known as the Crescent Building, designed for both school and church purposes. The dream of Thayer, the founder, had been to build an immense manufacturing city on the banks of the Ohio, but he was doomed to disappointment. He had expended a vast sum of money in paying for land, grading streets, erecting buildings, and buying machinery, and now the promised manufacturing enterprises failed to come, and in order to meet his financial engagements, he was compelled to mortage his property to the Hon. C. B. Hoard, than a member of Congress from Waterton, New York. Lots failed to find purchasers; the financial crash of 1858, which came on just at this time, added to the embarrassment of the proprietor. Notwithstanding, the town continued to improve. Early in 1858, Elijah Griswold came from New York and engaged in mercantile business; later, in the same year, A. F. Morse came from Rhode Island and engaged in the same business. W. H. Wilson opened a drug store. In September of the same year, Z. D. Ramsdell and Ira Floyd, the former from Maine and the latter from New Hampshire, arrived and began the manufacture of boots and shoes. Mr. Ramsdell took an important part in the formation of the new State of West Virginia and was the author of the first free school law of the State. The Civil War came on, and instead of the realization of the dream of its founder, it was in 1861 a town of 440 inhabitants, five grocery establishments, two hotels, one boot and shoe shop, one barber shop, two blacksmith shops, two churches, one school building, one printing office (Ceredo Enterprise), one railroad depot (Chesapeake and Ohio), one livery stable, one post office, one Masonic hall, one saw mill, one stave and heading mill, one resident physician, one resident minister, one surveyor, and one architect. The town was incorporated by an act of the Legislature passed February 22, 1866; by it the corporate boundaries were defined to be as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of Twelve Pole River, thence up said river forty rods to the old military line, thence due west three hundred rods, thence north to the Ohio River at the old Morgan Mill, thence up the Ohio River to the place of beginning." The first officers were Mayor, Richard Brown; recorder, W. H. Stewart; councilmen, Charles A. Brown, Lafayette Brown, John Kelly, Patrick McLeese and Robert Wright; town sergeant, A. W. Brown. ****************************************************** LOUISA, KENTUCKY, ADOPTS EASTERN STANDARD TIME TO BE EFFECTIVE APRIL 3rd Eastern standard time (commonly referred to as Fast Time) was adopted for Louisa, Ky., Tuesday evening by the city council in an ordinance effective April 3, when this standard goes into effect on railroads throughout this section by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The change from Central to Eastern time causes time to be set forward one hour at Louisa. Similar ordinances have been adopted by a number of cities and towns served by railroads adopting Eastern time after April 3, since it is held that uniformity should be maintained with railroad time for the convenience of the public. Ironton, Ohio, is the only exception thus far, its city council having refused to approve the change. ************************************************ LOCAL NEWS ITEMS, PRICHARD Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Keyes were Ft. Gay visitors last Sunday.*** B. H. Cooksey, Mrs. John Heaberlin and Miss Quinn Cooksey attended the funeral of their brother, Will Cooksey, at Huntington March 11*** Mrs. Worth Hatten was called to the bedside of her grandson, Elba Drown, at Kenova this week.*** Blanche Frazier spent last week end with relatives in Fort Gay.*** Panther Shannon is visiting friends in Portsmouth.*** Mayme Boyd, who has been visiting relatives in Logan, has returned home.***Mr. and Mrs. Chris Meredith of Kenova spent Sunday with Mrs. Meredith's mother.*** Eli Perry has moved to the Hut Shannon Hollow from Big Hurricane. Jack Bryant and Wm. Cole of Zelda, Ky., were business visitors here last Saturday.*** George Shannon of Guyandotte spent Sunday with his mother here. LOCAL NEWS ITEMS, WOLF PEN Ora I. Clay, son of Millard Clay of Hubbal, and Maypel M. McComas, daughter of Elba McComas of Wolf Pen, were married at the home of the bride, March 12. The following were present: Mrs. Dicie Adkins; Mrs. Mary Anne Gilkerson; Mr. and Mrs. Earl Adkins; Mr. and Mrs. Spencer McComas; Mrs. Susie McComas; Eldred and Susie Adkins; Woodrow McComas; Cassie, Iva and Alma Simpkins; Tennessee Johnson; Paris B. Adkins; Ruby and Yonnie Gilkerson.***Elizabeth Dickerson and Eugenia Wagenlender, who have been teaching here, have returned to their home in Huntington.***Mrs. Dicie Adkins recently visited her daughter, Mrs. Lola Sansom of Huntington.***Ora I. Clay and Earl Adkins were recent Wayne visitors.***Mrs. George Adkins is ill.*** Thelma Lockhart and Mrs. Fannie Adkins of Huntington recently visited friends here.*** Mrs. Henry Simpkins recently visited friends in Huntington.*** H. J. and T. O. Simpkins were business visitors in Huntington Monday.*** Mrs. Hulda Finley of Nestlow recently visited her daughter, Mrs. Callie Simpkins. ****************************************** MRS. MAHALA WELLS HUFF, NATIVE OF WAYNE COUNTY, DIES AT AGE OF 108 YEARS One of the most interesting characters and the oldest person in this section of the county passed away Thursday morning of last week when Mrs. Mahala Wells Huff died at the home of her son on Little Blaine Creek, three miles south of Louisa, Kentucky, at the age of 108 years and 19 days. Mrs. Huff's husband fought in the War of 1812 and her father was in the Revolutionary War. She was a former Wayne County woman, having been born across Tug River from where she died, on West Virginia soil. Mrs. Huff was known to most Wayne County folks as she lived near the Wayne-Lawrence County, W. Va./Ky. line. Was Oldest Pioneer The death of Mrs. Huff ended the oldest life of the most pioneer of all citizens in this part of the State. Even the log cabin where she lived with her son and where she died last Thursday was suggestive of pioneer days. It is a three-room cabin, built from logs cut from the hills' sparse woods, chinked with mortar and trimmed with heavy boards laboriously sawed by hand. The windows are burnished like the brightness of a new pane and the plank floors of the old cabin are scrubbed to a cleanliness that is like fresh butter before the milk has been worked out. And here dwelt Mrs. Mahala Wells Huff, born 8 years more than a century ago across Tug River in West Virginia within walking distance of the very cabin which has been her home for almost forty years. Lived With Her Son Forty years, to most of us, seems quite a long period, but Mrs. Huff was a girl of 75 when she came to this hill cabin to live for the rest of her life with her son, Henderson, her only child, who is now a youth of 75 summers. With them lived Mrs. Huff's daughter-in-law, Laura; John Workman, the latter's uncle, who considered himself the youngest member of the family at 76 years, and a lad whom they had taken to raise--all of their own children having left the old home. Although the daughter-in-law was in active charge of the household, Mrs. Huff was by no means a burden on the rest of the family. On the contrary, she made up the beds every morning--and these are old Kentucky feather beds and no light work for any chunky pair of arms--and almost always helped with washing the dishes as a part of the cooking. She swept and scrubbed the floors and turned the handle on the mechanical churn with as much vigor and a great deal more industry than any youngster of eighteen. She did these things up until a short time before her death last week. Husband's War Record On Decoration Day in 1922, Mrs. Huff was named by the government as the oldest widow on its pension rolls. She was then more than 103 years old and the following war record of her departed husband was announced by the war department: "James Huff volunteered November 5, 1813, at Knoxville, Tenn., and served until March 10, 1814, when he was honorably discharged. He served with the Fourth Regiment of General Taylor's brigade, having participated in numerous skirmishes near Norfolk, Virginia. "The year after his return to civil life, he married Miss Ann Pennington. When she died, he then married Miss Mahala Wells, who survives him." Her Philosophy of Life Age brought to Mrs. Huff a philosophy of life that is not inharmonious with the bleakness of the hills outside the little cabin, nor with the smooth, inevitable sweep of Tug River, clearly visible on a bright day off to the south as it goes to join Levisa Fork at the twin towns of Louisa and Fort Gay to make the Big Sandy River. "I just intend to keep goin' until I die," she said in an interview a short while before her death, without a touch of the self-pity so often noticeable in similar statements from aged people. "I enjoy living just like I always did, and I don't suppose I ever will get tired of it." She chuckled and leaned toward the big open fireplace, where four foot legs blazed forth a heat that made the whole cabin cozy, peering into the coals over her ancient spectacles, holding her brown, old hands to the warming flames. Why Die Young? "I've heard young people say that they wanted to die before they get old and couldn't get about like they did when they were in the 'teens, but there don't seem to be any reason for feeling that way about it when you reach old age. Of course, I don't care so much about dancing as I did once, and I'd a heap rather sit in a spring water on a ride than on a mule's back. Still I like to do my work around the house here, and then sit down and rest after it's done, feeling like I'd really accomplished something and saved somebody else the trouble." She paused to readjust her spectacles a little further from her eyes. "After I've done a bit of sweeping, or scrubbing, or washing, and I sit down in front of the fire to rest, I feel so comfortable and peaceful that it seems I never really enjoyed living until that very minute. Most people don't know how much real fun there is in resting until they grow old, then they're afraid to do enough work to get tired, and they never appreciate what they miss." An Eventful Life Nor was it an uneventful life that the old venerable lady recalled. She was born in the year 1818 in a one-room cabin on Well's Ridge in the heart of Wayne County, West Virginia. Ann and Moses Wells built the Cabin but a few years after Daniel Boone had tracked through that country and made his coonskin cap a symbol for love of adventure and courage that dare any danger to penetrate an unknown land. She was the youngest of four children, all of whom have long since passed away, and she grew to robust young womanhood with only the vaguest conception of other mortals outside of her immediate family, who lived in the scattered cabins many miles away on Twelvepole Creek and down at the mouth of Tug River, where twin trading posts had been settled. Occasionally she saw small boats on Tug River, when she accompanied her father hunting, and they learned from traders of a town of considerable proportions which had grown up at the mouth of Big Sandy, where it added its turbid waters to those of the Ohio River. So it was not surprising that after the death of Moses Wells the family foresook the cabin on Well's Ridge and moved to Catlettsburg, then one of the most prosperous towns along the Ohio. Here they lived, until the mother of the family died, leaving Mahala, the only daughter, to keep house for her brothers, one of whom left home when the removal to Catlettsburg was made. Gets 1812 Pension Soon after the death of her mother, Mahala Wells married James Huff, a veteran of the War of 1812, in which he served as a private in G. W. Camp's company of the Virginia Militia, and they lived in the towns of Catlettsburg and Louisa until his death. Neither the records of the government, which paid Mrs. Huff a pension as the widow of a veteran of this country's last war with England, nor those of either of the towns in which the couple lived throw any light on the Huffs. James Huff seems to have been a riverman, but in those days most of the male residents of Ohio River towns either followed the river or aspired to do so, so that classification is too generous to give much information. The Huff home, in common with most of the homes in the border towns during the troublesome days of the Civil War, was raided first by home guards and then by guerilla fighters from both the Union and the Confederate forces. At any rate, Mrs. Huff's Bible, with the history of her family and that of her husband carefully recorded on the yellow pages, was lost during that period, along with most of her prized family treasures, most of which were relics of the days of the revolution. James Huff died in 1872, and six years later, by the act of a benevolent Congress, Mrs. Huff began to receive the munificent sum of eight dollars a month as a token of the services her husband had rendered his country in time of need. . . . No Longevity Prescription Meantime her son had married, and Mrs. Huff, longing for the freedom of the hills and isolated life she had known as a child, went to live with her son and his wife in the cabin that stands on the highest and the bleakest hill that borders Little Blaine Creek. In an interview a short while before her death, Mrs. Huff said that she didn't have any prescription for longevity except except working in the daytime and sleeping at night, living where the air is always fresh and the worries of a complex civilization are the lightest. Worry, she said, was the cause of most deaths and the reason why so few people got any real enjoyment out of life. The death of Mrs. Huff at the age of 108 years on Thursday of last week is of interest to people the whole country over, since so few people ever attain that advanced age, but her death is news of outstanding interest to readers of Wayne County News since the deceased was a native of Wayne County and had spent her entire life either in this county or near its borders. **************************************************** LOCAL BOYS MAKE BIG SHOWING IN STATE UNIVERSITY FARM CONTEST Despite the fact that over two hundred boys representing twenty-eight different high schools took part in the Annual Voc-Ag Judging Contest at the State University at Morgantown last week, Wayne County High School took fifth place in the sweepstakes with a score of 95 per cent, which shows that the competition is becoming keener each year. The same score of 95 per cent won first place for Wadestown last year. The first ten teams stood as follows and in the order named: Aurora, Morgantown, Masontown, Peterstown, Wayne County, Shianston, Petersburg, Hodgesville, Wadestown, and Greenville. Wayne ranked in team honors as follows: Second in grain; fifth in fruit; fifth in Holstein cattle. In individual honors, Minse Adkins took first place over two hundred boys from twenty-eight high schools, winning a gold medal. His score was 98.6 out of a possible hundred. This is indeed a remarkable score. Basil McKee finished fourth in the judging of grain with a score of 92.4 per cent. This is another very good score. Rudolph Perry stood eighth in fruit judging, and Edgar White stood tenth in livestock. Wayne County is one of the farthest schools away from the State Judging Contest in Morgantown. However, in spite of this fact, Wayne was represented by the largest delegation of boys--to be exact, twelve in number--which makes thirty boys that have represented Wayne County over the past three years. The majority of the schools only takes three boys to do all the judging. Wayne County believes in all her boys and girls, not just a few; therefore, the twelve boys made up four teams, composed of three boys to each team. Many other boys in the Agriculture classes at the County High School were as good as these boys, but certain conditions did not allow them to attend. All the boys on the team made a good showing, or we never would have made a total sweepstake score of 95 per cent. Great pleasure is taken in introducing to Wayne County her noble sons who hold up the good qualities of our community in such a splendid fashion. The boys' names are Roscoe Adkins, Marvin Wilson, Wallace Wellman, Edgar White, Jack Preston, Horace Tabor, Otto Tabor, Lowell Sellards, Clyde Tabor, Minse Adkins, Basil McKee, and Rudolph Perry. The boys made the trip to Morgantown by automobile truck and were accompanied by Professor William M. Garrison, head of the Agricultural Department in the local high school and to whom a great amount of credit is due for the good showing made by the Wayne County judging teams. ***************************************************** WAYNE LOSES; C-K KEEPS ON WINNING Wayne County High School dropped three games in basketball over the week-end, all the games played on the home floor at Wayne. The Wayne boys lost to Proctorsville, Ohio, 10 to 14 Friday night. The Wayne girls' team lost to the girls of Ceredo-Kenova Saturday evening 15-22. The Wayne boys lost to the fast Ceredo-Kenova five Saturday night following the girls' game in the feature home game of the season by the score of 13 to 19. That was a real exhibition of basketball and enjoyed by a big crowd. Wayne held Ceredo- Kenova to a closer score than did Huntington High School as C-K defeated Huntington 24-17. Friday of this week Wayne plays Catlettsburg, and on Saturday night Chesapeake at Chesapeake. On the 24th the locals play Milton at Wayne, and on February 4th Wayne plays a return game with Ceredo-Kenova on the C-K floor. C-K's Good Record So far this season, Ceredo-Kenova has played nine games and has won every one, their splendid record today for the season being indicated by the following scores: C-K 21 Grayson 8 C-K 24 South Point 10 C-K 19 Hurricane 11 C-K 28 Columbia Central 20 C-K 30 Ashland Blue Devils 19 C-K 27 Hamlin 16 C-K 16 Ashland 12 C-K 24 Huntington 17 C-K 19 Wayne 13 ************************************************* MARCUM AND WATTS GET IMPORTANT COMMITTEE POSTS IN LEGISLATURE James O. Marcum of Ceredo and Oscar Watts of Westmoreland, Wayne County's representatives in the House of Delegates at the Legislature session now in progress at Charleston, have been honored by appointment on a number of important committees. Mr. Marcum is a member of the following committees: Humane Institutions, Labor, Railroads, Executive Office and Library, Mines and Mining. Mr. Watts is a member of the following committees: Roads, Printing and Contingent Expenses, Game and Fish, and Arts and Sciences. 35 bills were introduced in the House Monday and 25 in the Senate. None of them were introduced by the Wayne County Delegates. Among the bills of general interest, introduced was one requiring the Bible to be read in all schools; another providing for the local distribution of automobile licenses; one to relieve from double taxation notes, certificates and bonds; one providing that trust deeds and mortgages merely be filed instead of being recorded; a bill requiring all prohibition enforcement officers to wear uniforms; a bill making every school teacher an officer of the law; a bill relating to salaries of county officers, etc. Bills are only introduced at the present sitting of the legislature and will not be acted upon until after the legislators reconvenes after a recess. Ceredo-Kenova Bill It is understood that a bill will be introduced at the present session giving the municipalities of Ceredo and Kenova the opportunity of voting themselves into the corporation of the city of Huntington, as Westmoreland did at the last session of the legislature. Some of the Huntington city officials, including Mayor Neal and Commissioner Murphy have expressed themselves as opposed to the measure, according to newspaper reports. No action has been taken on the bill yet by the Wayne County Delegates, and a copy of the proposed bill is not available as this is written. However, it is understood on good authority that the measure provides that the corporate limits of the city of Huntington be extended to Big Sandy River, to include the municipalities of both Ceredo and Kenova. White and Johnson Hon. Mont White of Williamson, who defeated J. Floyd Harrison of Wayne in the November election, was elected Speaker of the Senate. Delegate Vernon E. Johnson, of Morgan County, was elected Speaker of the House of Delegates. ************************************************* SCOTT ADKINS, OBITUARY OF WWI VETERAN Scott Adkins, age 39 years, son of Mrs. Mat Adkins and the late Elisha Adkins of Wayne, died at the C & O Hospital in Huntington Friday of last week at 5 o'clock p. m., following a several days illness. The deceased first became ill with pleurisy at his home in Wayne. He was removed to the Huntington hospital and pneumonia fever developed. He lived only one week after being taken to the hospital. Adkins was a widely known local man. He was long known for his athletic ability and excelled in baseball. In the late World War he served eighteen months in the American Expeditionary Forces and saw active service on foreign soil and was in some of the major offensives of the allied armies. He was gassed in active service, and many of his friends believed that he never fully recovered from the effects of this. He had numerous friends in this county and in Huntington to whom his untimely death was a shock. Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon at three o'clock at the Wayne M. E. Church, with Rev. L. D. Icard in charge. Interment was at the Wayne cemetery. The funeral services were attended by one of hte largest crowds that has ever attended a similar occasion here for several years. Surviving relatives are his mother, Mrs. Mat Adkins; three sisters, Mr. G. B. Ketchum, Misses Eunice and Spice Adkins of Wayne; three brothers, Frank Adkins of Williamson, and Victor and John Adkins of Wayne. Pallbearers at the funeral services were W. Frank Harrison, Charley Newman, Muss Damron, Elmer Sansom, Carl Spurlock and Carl Frazier. ****************************************************** BETTER HOMES CAMPAIGN IN THE WAYNE COMMUNITY Mrs. J. B. Burgess of Herbert has been appointed chairman of a Committee to conduct a Better Homes campaign in the Wayne Communtity, which will be in cooperation with the Better Homes Week, which will be observed throughout the country from April 24th to May 1st. Herbert Hoover is national president of the Better Homes Campaign and the movement is sponsored locally by such organizations as chambers of commerce, parent-teacher associations, boy and girl scouts, women's clubs, and similar groups. The program arranged by Mrs. Burgess and the Wayne Women's Club will be given at eh court house auditorium on Thursday of next week, April 28th. There will be two sessions, afternoon and evening. The following program has been announced for these occasions: Afternoon 28th 2:30 Address, Mrs. J. B. Burgess Mrs. W. B. Smith--To encourage the furnishing of homes economically and in good taste. To supply knowledge of the means of eliminating drudgery and waste of effort in housekeeping, and to spread information about public agencies, which will asist housekeepers in their problems. Four-H Club Demonstration Miss Brand--Demonstration of proper table setting and service; followed by a tea to all present. Thursday Night 28th 8:00 Orchestra Prof. Berisford--Talk on how to make accessible to all citizens knowledge of high standards in home building, home furnishing, and home life. F. F. Scaggs--Talk on how to encourage thrift for home ownership and to spread knowledge of methods of financing the purchase or building of a home. Motion pictures directed by W. D. Click. Wm. Garrison--Talk on how to promote the improvement of house lots, yards and neighborhoods, and to encourage the making of home gardens and home playgrounds. C. W. Ferguson--Talk on how to extend knowledge of the ways of making home life happier, through the development of home music, home play, home arts and crafts and the home library. Orchestra. The general public is given a cordial invitation to attend these sessions and cooperate for the success of the Better Homes movement. Statewide Effort More than a hundred and fifty of the two hundred farm women's clubs in West Virginia are planning to participate in the Better Homes Week campaign. Plans for observing the week in West Virginia are under the direction of Homes Committee of the West Virginia Farm Women's Bureau. The members of this committee are Mrs. Bertle P. Rhodes, chairman, Weston; Mrs. Ray Ward, Elkins; and Mrs. John B. Burgess, Herbert of Way Route 1, this county. One of the major projects of the homes committee this year is to get more rural homes equipped with running water, and this feature will get special attention during Better Homes Week. A number of clubs are planning to install water systems in one of the farm homes as a community demonstration. The West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station has just issued Circular 44, "Water Systems for Farm Homes", and copies have been sent to all the members of the farm women's clubs. Others who are interested in the circular may obtain copies from the local county or home demonstration agent by writing to the Director of the Experiment Station at Morgantown. Some of the clubs are putting on demonstrations of labor-saving equipment and of kitchen arrangements or furnishings and arranging a model kitchen; others are sponsoring community meetings at which a "homes" program will be given; one club is putting on a home grounds contest; and many clubs are holding community sings or parties during the week. ************************************************* Oct. 27, 1927 HOW TUG FORK OF SANDY WAS NAMED, IS TOLD Few people know the interesting story connected with the Tug Fork of Big Sandy River, which borders Wayne County for half the entire length of the county's western boundary, says The Big Sandy News. There are a few persons now living who have seen the gas burning on the waters of Tug as it came out of the bowels of the earth and up through the bed of the river near Kermit. The blaze was extinguished many years ago after it had burned for no one knows how long. But, few are the people, very few, who know that this "burning spring" played a prominent part in naming of the river which now separates the states of West Virginia and Kentucky. Few have heard of the little band of soldiers sent out in the fall of 1757 to establish a fort at the mouth of the "Great Sandy," how they camped one night at these "burning springs," killed two buffaloes and hung their skins on a beech tree near the blazes from the water; how they were overtaken two days later by a messenger as they were within a few miles of their destination and ordered to return to Virginia; how they killed their pack horses in the middle of winter and ate them after their provisions had become exhausted and the proximity of Indians prevented their firing a gun or kindling a fire; how many of them perished from cold and hunger, and how, when they retraced their steps to return to Fort Dinwiddle, 300 miles away, and arriving again at the "burning springs," the officers took down from the beech tree the two buffalo skins, now warmed by the gas flames, and cutting them into tugs gave each soldier a tug to last him as food until they arrived home. All this is condensed into the name of the north fork of Big Sandy--and perhaps more. Yet, it has all but been forgotten. A leatherbound book dimmed and faded by age, found in a group of discarded possessions, is perhaps all that has preserved this interesting history for the future generations which will inhabit the valley and flourish. ************************************************** WHITE'S CREEK COVERED BRIDGE BREAKS UNDER HEAVILY LOADED TRUCK The covered bridge at the mouth of White's Creek, at the Hence Johnson farm, was broken Saturday when a truck heavily loaded from Huntington with lumber strained the woodwork beneath the floor of the bridge to the breaking point. Fortunately, the bridge did not totally collapse. New timbers have been ordered and repairs will have to be made promptly, according to announcement by County Road Engineer, H. O. Wiles. This is one of the few remaining covered bridges in the whole country. There are only two in Wayne County. This bridge was built at a total cost of eight hundred dollars in the days when lumber and construction costs were only a fraction of what they are now. The lumber was towed up Big Sandy in a barge as there was no railroad there when the old bridge was built in 1881. ***************************************************** NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR TELEPHONE FRANCHISE Notice is hereby given that the undersigned on the 18th day of October, 1927, filed his petition and application with the Recorder of the Village of Wayne, a municipal corporation of the State of West Virginia, praying for the granting to him of a franchise for the period of fifty years from day of entry of a proper ordinance therefore to use all of the streets, alleys, avenues, public ways, roads, parks and grounds, or such of them as may be necessary or convenient, for the purpose of planting and placing poles, towers and structures for the holding and the use of operating maintaining, removing and replacing of wires and cables and other wires or material necessary or convenient in the operation of a telephone system and telephone exchange, and of the placing in and under the surface of any such streets, alleys, avenues and public ways, roads, parks and grounds conduits or other means or methods of placing and planting any such wires, cables or other materials useful or necessary as aforesaid, and also for the placing, maintaining, operating and removing of such material, antenna or other station or stations, structure or structures for the transmission or reception of sound or voice by means of wireless band and the dissemination thereof, as may be found convenient, necessary or useful in the said business; and that on the evening of 18th day of November 1927 at the Town Hall of the said Village of Wayne, and at the hour of 8:00 such matter will be called up for hearing at which time and place any person may attend and show cause against the same if any he can. Given under my hand on this the 18th day of October, 1927. C. J. McMahon, Trading and doing business as Wayne Telephone Company ********************************************** BUS LINE SCHEDULE HUNTINGTON, WAYNE, FT. GAY AND LOUISA BUS LINE George W. Chapman, Mgr. SCHEDULE (Eastern Time) LEAVE LEAVE ARRIVE Louisa & Ft. Gay Wayne Huntington A. M. 7:00 7:45 8:45 9:00 9:45 10:45 11:00 11:45 12:45 P. M. 1:00 1:45 2:45 3:00 3:45 4:45 5:00 5:45 6:45 *************************************************************************************** LEAVE LEAVE ARRIVE Huntington Wayne Louisa & Ft. Gay A. M. 7:00 7:45 8:45 9:00 9:45 10:45 11:00 11:45 12:45 P. M. 1:00 1:45 2:45 3:00 3:45 4:45 5:00 5:45 6:45 **************************************************************************************** STATIONS: Huntington, United Bus Terminal, 5th Ave., bet. 9th and 10th Street Wayne, Drug Store in front of Court House Louisa, Atkins & Vaughan's ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS LETTERS, MACEDONIA Violet and Helen Marie Keller motored to Huntington last Sunday.*** Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ellis and daughter and Bruce Congor spent last Saturday with Aubry Hunter.*** Mr. and Mrs. Steve Bench spent Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. Fenton Adkins. ************************************************ NEWS LETTERS, JIM BRANCH Mrs. Wetzel Lester is visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Garland Mills of Upper Beech Fork.*** Mr. and Mrs. Scot Berry of Huntington were Sunday guests of Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Osburn.*** Mrs. Olive Smith, who has been confined to her home with a very badly infected leg, is feeling better.*** Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Smith of Walnut Hills were Sunday guests of Mr. and Mrs. M. H. Smith.*** Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Morrison of Huntington were Sunday visitors here.*** Edward Smith of Huntington was the week end guest of Mr. and Mrs. Fonso Adkins.*** Bertie Bowen is visiting friends in Huntington. *********************************************** NEWS LETTERS, CRUM William Spurlock has purchased the grocery store of J. B. Crum and the restaurant owned by Jessie Prince.*** Mrs. James Camel and Tom Self, who have been visiting in Virginia, have returned here.*** Orison Parsley of Breeding was the week end guest of friends here.*** Dewey Parsley has moved to the residence of Frank Marcum.*** Aunt Betty Queen, who has been ill, is improving.*** Prayer meeting was held at the home of Charley Doss last Thursday night.*** A Bible Class will be held at the Crum Baptist Church every Friday night.*** Rev. and Mrs. Lawrence Sammons of Logan County were visiting here last week.*** Wm. Sammons has purchased the Ford touring car owned by Leon Valley of Jennie's Creek.*** Lelia and Fannie Molette are attending high school at Inez, Ky.*** G. L. Adkins attended lodge at Portsmouth recently.*** O. F. James was in White House and Paintsville, Ky., last week end. J. B. Crum, Sr., is erecting a new building here.*** The hard surfacing of the state highway began here last week with Sammons as contractor.*** Mr. and Mrs. Lon Wiley of Williamson and Mrs. J. H. Marcum of Stonecoal were Sunday guests of Mrs. Nannie Corns.*** Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Mead attended church at Warfield, KY., last Sunday.*** Ruth Stepp is ill as of this writing.*** Albert Crum, who is employed by the N & W Railroad, is visiting home folks.*** Sherman Salmons of Kermit is visiting relatives here. ********************************************* Dec. 8, 1927 28 PRACTICING WAYNE MIDWIVES TO RENEW LICENSE THIS MONTH During the year 1927, the state health department granted licenses to 521 persons, on recommendation of local physicians, to practice midwifery in the state. The midwives are to be found in every county, the greatest number being in the more rural communities where medical service is hard to obtain. Among the number are 16 men, several of whom had studied medicine but are not licensed to practice, and a number of women who had some training as nurses. Of the 521 persons granted midwife licenses in the State this year, 28 are in Wayne County, and these are the only persons qualified, under the law, to serve in this capacity. Following is the list of licensed midwives in Wayne County: Mrs. James Wheeler, Route 2, Fort Gay Mrs. Matilda Ann Vinson, Webb Nancy Thompson, Box 35, Queen's Ridge Mrs. Sallie Smith, Ferguson Laura B. Smith, Radnor Eliza Smith, R. F. D. 1, Box 68, East Lynn Dora Smith, Dickson Isabelle Skeens, Route 1, Box 70, Prichard Virgie Roberts, Route 2, Box 51, Fort Gay Mrs. Elizabeth Porter, Grassy Mrs. Enster Perry, Dunlow Adelia Evans, Webb Mrs. Hulda Finley, East Lynn Mrs. Mahala Farley, Queen's Ridge Maggie Farley, Queen's Ridge Mrs. Armilda Gilkerson, R. F. D. 2, Wayne Liza J. Adkins, Wayne Allie Brown, R. F. D. 1, Box 14, Dunlow Eva Moore, Prichard Sinda Messer, Crum Mary Mathis, Dunlow Rachel Marcum, Crum Polly L. Crum, Wilsondale Armilda Marcum, Dunlow Mrs. Ollie Crum, Webb Martha Copley, Webb Mrs. Ires Dyer, Cove Gap Mollie Dortin, Wilsondale The state health department calls attention to the fact that all of these licenses must be renewed in December 1927 for the year 1928 under the law passed by the Legislature of 1925. This law requires every person practicing midwifery in the state, and who accepts any renumeration for services rendered, to register with the state health department, the registration to be accompanied by the endorsement of a local physician before the license can be granted. The law further states that midwives shall practice only in normal cases, defining the conditions under which a physician must be called. All midwives are required to place in the eyes of the new born baby two drops of one percent solution of silver nitrate to present sore eyes and blindness and also to report the birth to the local registrar. By the passage of this law, it was hoped to raise the standard of those practicing midwifery and to give some supervision to the work, in an attempt to reduce the high maternal and infant death rate in this state, which last year showed a toll of 299 mothers and 1748 babies under one month. After the law was enacted, a survey was made by the state health department in an effort not only to acquaint those affected by the law, with its provisions, but also to give instruction to those applying for a license. The survey revealed a number of interesting facts, among the most important being that the practice of midwifery is on the wane in West Virginia. This is due to the fact that midwifery was practiced more generally by the older generation of women and that very few are entering the field; that an increasing number of families are employing physicians, the midwife acting only in the capacity of a practical nurse; and that, because of good roads and education, more and better medical attention is available. The survey further disclosed the fact that in many instances those applying for a license were graduate nurses or women with some training, living in the more isolated communities where medical care is hard to obtain. Education of the mother and expectant mother is being aided through the motherhood correspondence course conducted by the state health department and those counties having full time health units. A total of 13, 021 mothers have been enrolled for this course up to July 1927, in many instances the names being sent in by local physician or midwife. ***************************************************** BODIES OF COL. J. J. MANSFIELD AND HIS DAUGHTER EXHUMED HERE AFTER 66 YEARS Two bodies were exhumed in the town of Wayne, Tuesday of this week, after having been in their graves for nearly seventy years. The bodies were those of Colonel Joseph Mansfield and his daughter Louisa Ann Mansfield. The bodies were taken up by relatives from the garden plot of the Boyd-Adkins property in Wayne and removed to the L. B. Ferguson cemetery at Elmwood, a mile South of town. Colonel Mansfield was buried here in 1861--sixty years ago. He was born in Jefferson County, Virginia, and married Miss Amanda Smith, better known to her many Wayne County friends as "Aunt Amanda" Osburn. She died at Wayne last Spring at the age of 97 years. Colonel Mansfield was a colonel in the militia of Cabell County, and then of Wayne County, from the time it was designated a separate county until the opening of the Civil War. With the State Militia he went into service when the Federal army invaded this portion of the state, and he was shot by a picket at Neary, in Putnam County, in July of 1861. He died at the Asa Booton farm on Miller's Fork, this county, as he was being removed to his home. Notwithstanding the fact that Colonel Mansfield's body had been in its grave here for 66 years, his skeleton was found intact when the body was taken up Tuesday. Even some portions of the clothing he wore could be recognized. It was discernible that the casket in which he was buried was made from walnut lumber, and the nails in the casket were the square type of nails that were common seventy years ago. The body was re-interred alongside that of his wife, the late Amanda Osburn, at the request of relatives. The little daughter of Colonel Mansfield, Louisa Ann, died a short time before her father, in 1860, at the age of about one year. She died from measles. When her body was taken up Tuesday, very little could be found of her remains, most of the bones having perished to dust. A quantity of dark dust was removed as the remains of the little girl. ********************************************************* KENOVA COMPANY TO SELL NEW GAS A company composed principally of local people has been organized here for the manufacture of King-Kol, a fuel to take the place of gasoline, and it is claimed it will have thirty percent per gallon more efficiency than the ordinary gas and will cost but little more. Incorporation papers will be taken out in a few days and business started. The building formerly used by the High Grade Oil Co. at Fifteenth and Beech Streets, has been secured and will be used for the new factory. W. S. Tabor of Birmingham, Ala., will probably be manager. He has rented the Ezra Ball property on Poplar Street and will move his family (a wife and one small daughter) here in a few days. Reporter ************************************************* SCHOOL NEWS LOWER LYNN CREEK SCHOOL Honor roll for the fourth month is as follows: Jewell Newman, Pearl Edra Newman, Virgie Irby, Letha Irby, Evelyn Plymale, Louise Ray, Phoebe Staley, Leata Marie Smith, Leonard McCoy, Mary Catherine McCoy, Beulah Staley, Evelyn Ray and Ruby Newman. Jewell Newman has made the greatest effort in all her classes of any pupil in school this month. We are planning to have a Christmas tree party Friday, December 22. The Work and Win 4-H Club baked pumpkin pies and presented them to the kiddies at the Union Mission in Huntington for Thanksgiving. They also prepared a big basket of good eats for old "Uncle George" and "Uncle John" Pyles, two of our old men who live alone. The girls are planning some good deeds for Christmas week. Sam Jay, Leonard and Mary Catherine McCoy have made perfect attendance every day this year. In spelling this month we kept a record of the ones who made perfect spelling lesson and we list the following who were perfect: Phoebe Staley, Virgie Irby, Letha Irby, Jay Staley, Leslie Ray and Pearl Edra Newman. Jay Staley and Pearl Edra Newman have missed only one word each during the whole four months of school. ********************************************* IAEGER, McDOWELL COUNTY The little town of Iaeger has two first class hotels and a traveler's inn, where all the traveling salesmen stop, two or three department stores, a meat market, soft drink stands, one theatre, high school and graded school, two churches, electricity and water system. C. E. Price's five sons are all located here at present and are building a 16 mile stretch of road which will connect with State Highway No. 8. H. C. Price has a twelve room house and boards the single white men. Mrs. Elizabeth Sparks of Wayne County is running the boarding house. He also has a modern office in the same building. ************************************************