The following information is taken from the pages of The West Virginia Daily News, The West Virginia News, and The Greenbrier Independent in The West Virginia Daily News archives from 25, 50, 75, and 100 years ago.
April 1-5, 1996
25 Years Ago…
A part of Ronceverte’s history was reduced to rubble Friday as construction workers knocked down the old West Virginia News building on Main Street.
The workers salvaged a keystone dated 1909 from the building before the structure was demolished.
• • •
Two elderly women escaped unharmed from an old apartment complex on southeast Edgar Avenue in Ronceverte as it was consumed by flames early Saturday morning.
The building was gutted, but there are still four walls left at the site of the blaze. The building suffered at least $25,000 worth of damage.
• • •
Desiree Brianne Elmore, a student at Greenbrier East High School, was one of 101 high school juniors named to the 1996 West Virginia Honor Roll by The Mountain Institute.
• • •
Jonathan Paul Michael, son of Robert and Yvonne Michael of Lewisburg, has been elected senior class pastor at Southern College of Seventh-Day Adventists in Collegedale, TN.
• • •
A proposal by Greenbrier Development Group L.L.C. to develop a planned community, Sweet Grass, in the Richlands area passed the first hurdle to approval when the Greenbrier County Planning Commission voted on March 27 in favor of the proposal.
• • •
Jessica Smith of Lewisburg has been named to the dean’s list for the 1995 autumn quarter at the University of Cincinnati.
• • •
Sara Blankenship won the White Sulphur Elementary School Spelling Bee competition and placed third at the county level. Derek Bostick was the runner-up in the school competition.
• • •
Rebeca Baum, a senior honor student at Hollins College, will be a participant in the 10th National Conference on Undergraduate Research to be held April 18-20 at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
She is the daughter of Bill and Mary Alice Baum of White Sulphur Springs.
• • •
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Bernie L. Deskins Jr. has reenlisted in the U.S. Air Force after 18 years of military service.
He is the son of Bernie L. Deskins of Ronceverte and is a 1976 graduate of Greenbrier East High School.
• • •
Brad L. McMillion, second machine shop supervisor at Process Analytics Unit of Combustion Engineering, was recently honored with a retirement dinner and presented a gold watch and other gifts.
McMillion joined the firm on May 15, 1985.
April 1, 1971
50 Years Ago…
The Maple Grove Water Association Inc. has started its water line west from Lewisburg.
They will purchase water from the City of Lewisburg and serve residents in an area west of Lewisburg.
• • •
At the local option election held in Alderson Tuesday as to whether a liquor store should be established in Alderson, the vote was: Greenbrier Side, 135 For and 110 Against; Monroe Side, 45 For and 41 Against.
This is the first time that Alderson has voted wet.
• • •
Captain Doyle Kester of Lewisburg, an instructor at Greenbrier Military School, was installed Saturday afternoon as president of the Greenbrier County Chapter of the United Nations Association of the United States of America Inc.
• • •
Navy Petty Officer Third Class James R. Neal, son of Mr. and Mrs. Russell E. Neal of Rainelle, is serving aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Albany which is currently deployed with the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean.
• • •
A new steeple for the Lewisburg United Methodist Church was lowered into position Thursday by its manufacturer from Campbellsville, Kentucky.
The 40-foot, aluminum steeple replaces the old wooden one that was erected when the church was built in 1904.
• • •
Marine Pvt. James M. Payne, son of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Payne of Rupert, has completed the Individual Combat Training and Basic Specialist Training course while serving with the Third Infantry Training Battalion, First Infantry Regiment, Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
• • •
Joy Wise, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Wise of Ronceverte, was among the first semester honor students announced for the West Virginia University School of Nursing and for pre-nursing majors in the College of Arts and Sciences.
• • •
The appointment of French B. Powers to be postmaster at Rainelle was announced March 20 by Carl C. Ulsaker, director of the Washington Region, United States Postal Service.
Powers has been with the postal service since 1963.
April 2, 1946
75 Years Ago…
The Ronceverte Rotary Club unanimously directed that a letter be written to the State Road Commission urging the early contracting of State Route 63, the Fort Spring-Alderson link.
• • •
The old post office room on Main Street is being remodeled for a new restaurant in Ronceverte.
• • •
The Farmers Equipment & Supply Co., owned by A.J. Dowds and L.H. Roberts, is now open for business in the building formerly owned and used by the Woodson-Prince Co. as a wholesale grocery in Alderson.
• • •
Mr. J. Gordon Townley has resigned his position as evaluation engineer for the Plant Disposal Division of the War Assets Corp., Washington, D.C., and will become affiliated with the West Virginia Furniture Mart Inc., 2001-7, Seneca Trail, Fairlea, Ronceverte. The new mart will be located in a building now being completed at Fairlea and will open about July 1st.
April 2, 1921
100 Years Ago…
A charter has been granted the Greenbrier Insurance Agency at Lewisburg; $3,000; W.R. Burdette, W.J. McLaughlin, Paul C. Hogsett, J.L. Burdette, W.L. Burdette, Lewisburg.
• • •
A saw mill belonging to H.C. Spencer and located near Vago, this county, was burned to the ground last Tuesday night at some time between the hours of 7:30 and 9:00. The origin is not known.
• • •
Work has started again on the state road. It is planned to lay two miles of hard-surface road between Rainelle and Rupert this summer.