Learning from our past

Staff reports
Published: November 13, 2008

2007: On Sept. 28 members of the Spotswood Trail Garden Club put their knowledge into action by creating a garden around the sign at the Visitors Center, located in The Virginia Shop building on Route 33 business. Lori Gore, a master gardener and member of the club, designed the garden. Money from the club’s treasury was used to purchase dirt at a discount from Rose Hauling in Gordonsville, and plant material from Meadows Farms Nursery in Ruckersville. Other plant material was donated by members Lydia Papajohn and Swanee Bullard, who contributed irises and bulbs.

2003: There are holes in the walls of James Madison’s home at Montpelier, and two Stanardsville women are responsible for many of them. For the past two years, Misty Eppard and Maggie Wilson have been a part of the agricultural investigation of Montpelier. The Paul Mellon estate sponsored the investigation wit the intention of returning the mansion to the condition it was when the Madison’s lived there in the early 19th century. “We didn’t want to tear it up too much,“ Wilson, who has lived in Stanardsville for ten years, said. “We tried to make the smallest excavation possible.“ 

1998: Veterans Day is a time to remember the sacrifices made by men and women to preserve the freedom we enjoy today. On Wednesday, war heroes alive and dead were honored in a Veterans Day Ceremony on the courthouse square in Stanardsville. Three local men who took part in the ceremony also took time to remember their services this week and to discuss the significance of Veterans Day.  Retired Navy-man William Trimmer, a long time Greene County resident, fired a rifle Wednesday as part of a 21 gun salute to honor the dead and missing from all the wars.  Trimmer served on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania and witnessed firsthand the horrors of war at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

1983: An all-new Greene County Board of Supervisors will convene when the new term for the three member body begins on Jan. 1, 1984. Even though Ruckersville District Supervisor Ronnie Lamm announced some time ago his intention to forego a re-election campaign, the defeat Tuesday of his fellow incumbents C.C. Kurtz and A.N. “Buddy” Eddins caught many by surprise. In the Monroe District (Dyke and Swift Run ) current supervisor chairman Kurtz was narrowly defeated by Arthur L. Moran, Jr. A 65-year old Oklahoma native and retired engineer, Moran also outdistanced Glen Harrison Collier. Moran’s 345 vote total (111 in Dyke and 234 in Swift Run) edged Kurtz by only 16 votes.

1948: A possible labor-saving of from 50 to 75 per cent, teamed with higher production and less risk of fire, makes an electric chick brooder a perfect investment on any farm, believes J. E. Collins, assistant agricultural engineer for the Agricultural Extension Office. Although commercially manufactured brooders are not now generally available on the market, homemade brooders can be built on the farm with little labor and expense, Collins says. Plans are available from the agricultural engineering department at V.P. I. Brooders can be bought of built to accommodate from 25 to 300 chicks, the specialist said.