90 Years Ago
Ivan Wren Gets 5 Years For His Part In Murder
Returning to the courtroom at 2:01 p.m., the jury in the trial of Ivan Wren for the murder of Dad Bryant handed in their verdict of guilt of murder in the second degree and fixed punishment at five years in the penitentiary.
This is the third of the trials growing out of the cruel murder of Frank Bryant, aged recluse, on the Selma flat, September 4 last.
The crime was regarded as one of the most atrocious in the history of Alleghany County.
The county was amazed when Bob Keys, leader of the gang of his name and generally regarded as the moving spirit in the murder, where Raymond Edwards merely “hit the most licks,” was let off by a Roanoke jury with a sentence of but five years.
Ivan Wren was called and took the stand.
He was 17 years old, he stated, and had been with Keys, his brother Tom Wren and Edwards the night of the murder.
They got together early in the evening of September 3 and got some whiskey which they consumed at the sandbank.
Keys had said, “Let’s go and give old Bryant moving orders,” and they went to the cabin and dragged the old man out.
They knocked him down and Keys was kicking him.
Ivan said the old man was pleading for someone to stop them and he pulled them off.
When asked why he went with the other two gangsters to the shack, Ivan said they were all drinking and he just went along from curiosity.
He did not think they would do the old man any bodily harm, that they were just going to give him moving orders.
75 Years Ago
A Local Man Felt Like Swollen Balloon, Full Of Stomach Gas
Recently, a Covington man stated that he used to feel like a swollen balloon after every meal.
He would bloat full of gas and spit up acidulous liquids for hours after eating.
He was terribly constipated.
This man is one of the hundreds in this vicinity who now praises ERB-HELP.
He states he was amazed at the results when he took this medicine.
ERB-HELP contains 12 great herbs, they cleanse bowels, clear gas from stomach, act on sluggish liver and kidneys.
Miserable people soon feel different all over.
It is sold by all drug stores here in Covington!
50 Years Ago
Shrine Parade In Clifton Forge Saturday
The Clifton Forge Shrine Club annual benefit football game and parade will be held Saturday, with the parade beginning at 3 p.m. and kick-off for the game between the Clifton Forge Mountaineers and Buena Vista at 8 p.m at Memorial Park.
Proceeds from the game will go to the Shriner’s Crippled Children’s hospital in Greenville, S.C.
Several area beauty queens and a number of floats will be featured in the parade.
25 Years Ago
Umberger Launches Write-In Candidacy
W.T. Umberger is waging a write-in campaign for the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors.
Umbarger, 64, of Cherokee Forest Subdivision, is seeking election to the Boiling Springs District seat on the board.
He is one of three candidates running for the Boiling Springs seat Nov. 7.
Umberger is seeking to succeed L.J. Rose Jr., who recently resigned after accepting employment in North Carolina.
The other two candidates are Eddie Hall and Alan Howard.
Umberger said that under the write-in procedure, Boiling Springs District voters who want to vote for him rather than Hall or Howard will have to look
for the write-in slide at the top of the voting machine over the title of Board of Supervisors.
To ensure their votes for him being counted, voters should write in or print his name on this slide exactly as it is have been given to the Board of Elections, “W.T. Umberger.”
The two voting precincts for the Boiling Springs District are Arritt, located at the Boiling Springs firehouse, and Dameron, located at the Dunlap firehouse.
Umberger said he received “a lot of encouragement” to run as a write-in candidate and people have been asking him to become a supervisor candidate for three or four years.
10 Years Ago
Anita Rice Receives State Teaching Award
Covington High School teacher Anita Rice has received the Virginia Association of Teachers for Family Consumer Sciences’s Outstanding Teacher in Community Service award for the state of Virginia.
The award is sponsored through the Association for Career and Technical Education.
Anita was recognized at the VATFACS Teacher’s Institute in July.
Anita has been an educator for 34 years.
She taught Food Occupations at Jackson River Technical Center for four years when the center opened in 1974.
She left the teaching field and was manager of the former Sidney’s Fashion Boutique in Covington.
She later re-entered the teaching profession and taught Teen Living for four years at Clifton Middle School in Clifton Forge.
She began her Family and Career Science career at Covington High School, where she has taught for 23 years.
She is the advisor for Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and serves on the Virginia FCCLA board of directors.
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