A Look Back

By William “Skip” Deegans Apparently, this photo from about 1900 was used to illustrate the number of outdoor sports offered by the Allegheny Collegiate Institute (ACI) in Alderson. Shown are tennis rackets, baseball gloves, fishing rods, hunting rifles and shotguns, and lacrosse sticks. It would be nearly 100 years later...

By William “Skip” Deegans This week’s 1929 photo shows the Bank of Renick. On the left is Mary Rapp Callison and on the far right is the cashier, J.R. Baxter. The bank was established in 1909 and capitalized with $25,000. The original incorporators include A. D. Williams of Marlinton; B....

By William “Skip” Deegans Using a massive fleet of large machines that needs a wide disturbed right-of-way to maneuver, our region’s Mountain Valley Pipeline project contrasts sharply with this week’s photo of an early installation of a gas pipeline in West Virginia. The photo shows a handmade wooden lever that...

By William “Skip” Deegans Shown is an illustration of Lewisburg’s Davis Mansion, just off Echols Lane. The house was built circa 1903 for Dabney Carr Terrell Davis, Jr. and his wife, Mary Rhett Davis. In 1904, the house was appraised for tax purposes at $4,000. At the time, it was...

By William “Skip” Deegans This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 26th amendment to the U. S. Constitution that gave men and women from 18 to 21 years of age the right to vote. Shown in this week’s 1946 photo is West Virginia Congressman Jennings Randolph and actress Loretta...

By William “Skip” Deegans Nearly 100 years ago, E.A. (Eugene) Tuckwiller and S.S. (Slater) Tuckwiller opened Lewisburg Motor Company, a Ford dealership on Washington Street, where Lewisburg’s Food & Friends restaurant is located. In 1929, The Greenbrier Independent described the enterprise as “possibly the best-known automobile dealer is Greenbrier County.”...

By William “Skip” Deegans The recent political turmoil in Haiti brings back memories of Haitians who came under duress to West Virginia. In the 1970s and 1980s, Haitians fled the oppressive regime of Haiti’s president Francois (“Papa Doc”) Duvalier and their country’s extreme poverty. Many left by boat for Florida’s...

Sign, Burma-Shave advertisement, "The one who // drives when // he's been drinking // depends on you // to do his thinking". 2005.0121.01. By William “Skip” Deegans Older fairgoers who traveled along Rt. 60 from the west may remember the Burma-Shave signs beside the road. They...

By William “Skip” Deegans This week’s undated photo shows a gathering of the Ladies of the Modern Maccabees (LOTM) in Fenwick, Nicholas County. The Ladies of the Maccabees was a tangent of the fraternal order Knights of the Maccabees that was founded in Canada in 1878. In 1892, a schism...

By William “Skip” Deegans In the background of this week’s photo from the 1970s is the former Pocahontas Supply Company store in Cass, WV. Known as the company store, it was built in 1902, two years after the town was founded by the West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co. for...