HAL L. CURTIS, 44, DIES IN CHICAGO

Hal Lorimer Curtis, 44, former editor of the TIMES RECORD, died Thursday in Chicago. He was employed by the Chicago TRIBUNE at the time of his death.

Curtis, who was regarded as a brilliant journalist, edited the RECORD about 12 years ago and had a distinguished career in the newspaper business. At various times he had held high editorial posts with the Baltimore SUN, Charleston GAZETTE, Huntington HERALD-DISPATCH, Parkersburg NEWS, Detroit FREE PRESS and others.

During World War II he was with the Canadian Army in the Essex Scottish regiment. He served overseas, was injured and spent about a year in military hospitals in England.

He was a native of Spencer. His father, the late L. O. (Ord) Curtis, served as Roane County Circuit Clerk for several years.

An article by Curtis appeared in the SATURDAY EVENING POST a number of years ago, relating the story of the mammoth chain of weekly newspapers operated by the three Woodyard brothers, Ted, Bill and Henry.

He is survived by his mother, Mrs. Virginia Ingram Curtis of Lakeland, FL; and one sister, Mrs. Helen Hussey of Lakeland.

Funeral services were conducted on Sunday in the Barlow Mortuary with Dr. Joseph Clare Hoffman, pastor of the Christ Church Methodist, Charleston, officiating. Burial followed in Sunset Memorial Park, South Charleston, WV.

Front page, TIMES RECORD, 22 Mar 1951
(Submitted by Jo Ann H. Stephens)

Edna Warren Ingram

Bridgewater, PA Word was received in this place Saturday of the death of Mrs. Blaine Ingram, which occured at Crescent, PA, where she had been taking treatment at the tuberculosis sanitarium. Mr. Ingram left for that place Sunday.

Mrs. Ingram is survived by her husband and three small children. The family is well-known in this place and Fallston where they resided for many years. The interment will take place at the old home of Mrs. Ingram in West Virginia.

Beaver Falls, EVENING TRIBUNE, Monday Apr 12, 1920
(Edna Warren Ingram was d/o Rev. & Mrs. Daniel Warren, and is buried in Liverpool Cemetery.)
(Submitted by Jo Ann H. Stephens)

NORA SLEETH RITE IS READ

Mrs. Nora Olive Sleeth, 69, wife of John Sleeth (sic) and resident of Mason City and Cifton the past 16 years, was laid to rest in a Roane County cemetery Sunday afternoon following services at Clifton and in Roane County.

A brief service was held in the late home at Clifton at 9:30 o'clock Sunday morning in which the Rev. Russell Clarke, of New Haven, United Brethren pastor, officiated.

A second service was held in the Mt. Zion Church about seven miles from Spencer near the Roane County line at 3 o'clock. The Rev. Mr. West of Spencer officiated. Burial was in the Mt. Zion Cemetery by Fogelson Funeral Home of Mason City.

Mrs. Sleeth, in poor health the past few years, succumbed at her Clifton home Saturday morning at 6 o'clock. She had sustained a stroke about two weeks prior to her death.

The deceased was born in Roane County and moved with her family to Mason City in 1922. Some time ago, the family moved to Clifton.

Mrs. Sleeth was a member of the Mehodist Church and was highly respected and widely liked by her many close friends and neighbors.

Survivors include the husband, John Sleeth (sic) and five sons and five daughters. Three of the daughters, Misses Lucy, Ivy and Lessie are at home. The names of the other children were not reported here today.

(Nora Olive was the wife of Henry Thomas Sleeth)
Pt. Pleasant REGISTER Monday, Feb 27, 1939 p.3
(Submitted by Jo Ann H. Stephens)

Mina M. Curtis

Mina M. Curtis, 75, Gandeeville, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lenna McVay, at 2:30 P.M. Wednesday, 25 February, of a long illness. She belonged to the Methodist Church for 50 years. Her husband, Nathan Curtis, preceded her in death. Survivors include one daughter, Mrs. Lenna McVay of Gandeeville; one grand-daughter and one great-grand-daughter; 2 brothers: J. J. Board of Spencer and W. T. Board of Newton; 4 sisters: Mrs. Lettie Epling of Akron, Mrs. Lula Crissinger of Struthers, OH, Mrs. Minnie Fields of Charleston and Mrs. Lillie Starcher of Parkersburg.

Funeral services were held Saturday, February 28 at 10:30 at the Hardman-Conrad Funeral Home with the Rev. W. B. Leggett officiating. Burial was made in the Spencer Memorial Cemetery with Hardman-Conrad Funeral Home in charge.

ROANE REPORTER, 05 Mar 1953 p.12
(Submitted by Jo Ann H. Stephens, g-granddaughter)

IN MEMORY OF A GOOD WOMAN

Mrs. Nancy J. Starcher, the subject of this sketch, was born in Gilmer county, now Calhoun, near Arnoldsburg, June 27, 1831, and died at her home on Henry?s Fork in Roane county, near Pink post office, September 24, 1918, aged 87 years, 3 months and 27 days.

Her home, in which she was brought up, was one of those good nurseries of young life in which duty and love made daily life vital and essential; so that good sentiments and good deeds distilled good results in her young soul. She possessed a pleasant and loving nature, which gave her an admiration for the good and beautiful. The very things to be seen in nature around her, became dear to her and taught her of God and love.

On Nov. 10, 1853, she married a very worthy man, Mr. Josiah P. Starcher, by who she had nine children. Three of these, Columbus, George B. McCleland and Willie were transplanted when young to the evergreen fields above. Since her death one daughter died, Mrs. Anna Dillon, who possessed the reputation of a true woman. The five living, Mrs. Manda Ellison, Mrs. Luverna King, Mrs. Bell Bissell, Miss Lucy and Mr. John Starcher were king, gentle and loving to their mother. They went with her to the very brink of the cold river that rolls between this and the unseen world, but she passed in under the deep shadow of death with no human hand on which to lean ? trusting in God whose rod and whose staff comforted her.

Her married life was one of confidence and love. She was gentle and considerate to her husband. The influence which she possessed over him arose from the mildness of her manner and the discretion of her conduct. Whilst she was careful to adorn her person with new and clean apparel ? for no woman can preserve affections if she is careless on this point ? she was still more attentive in ornamenting her mind with meekness and peace with cheerfulness and good humor. She lightened the cares and chased away the vexations to which her husband was exposed in his dealings with others by rendering so far as was in her power, his home pleasant. She kept at home. Her employment and pleasures were domestic.

As a mother, she had the courage and stood for rectitude in her children with all her might. She demanded good habits, good manners and good morals as her right at the hands of her children. She exacted respectful conduct towards herself, the helpful hand the ready foot, the obedient muscle that she should be obeyed and tenderly treated by her own.

She believed and taught that it is a great mistake for mothers to become slaves to their half-grown and grown-up children, to work for them while they sleep and play and idle away their time; to wait upon them when they should wait upon their mothers; to give away to them when it is proper for them to give way to their seniors. She believed it is a sad mistake to have children heard first and have the first place and the first service when it is their duty to wait and serve and be second. In the training of children she believed that mothers are often at fault to the injury of their children. By mothers failing in these things their grown-up young men and women often set them aside, count them old-fashioned, regard them as family drudges and servants and forget their true relation to the family. She labored to hold herself up to the true dignity of her position as heart and life of her home. She did hold her true place as mother and her motherhood has been honored by her family.

Sister Starcher?s life of usefulness and honor, her sense of kindness to others and her conscientious discharge of duty leads so surely to heaven?s brightest gate as the sunbeam to the bosom of a flower. Her highest aim was to be a true woman, one determined to do right because it is right; willing to accept such measures of present happiness and success as results from obedience to truth. She was careful to see that she had enough little virtues of life, to do the little duties she saw before her and she did not mourn because she was neither a renowned heroine nor a saint.

Life, with her, whether in this world or in any other, is the sum of our attainments, our experiences and our characters. That the course of life is a rugged diagonal between duty and desire; that it lies through true manhood and womanhood; through true fatherhood and motherhood; through true friendship and relationship of all legitamate kinds and of all natural sorts whatever. That it lies through pain and poverty and all earthly disipline; through unswerving trust in God; through patient and self-denying heroism ? she walked therein and she is sure of a prize in the world to which she is gone.

Appropriate religious services were conducted at the family home by the writer, after which her remains were taken to the Wayne cemetery where it was laid to its final resting place.

?Mother, they spirit has flown,
I look above ? thy image is there;
I listen and thy gentle tone is on the air.?
Wellington Lester


REFERENCE: STARCHER, Nancy Jane (Nichols) (1831-1918)
Obituary ? Newspaper Clipping (Copied exactly as written with no corrections to punctuation or spelling errors)
Unknown Source ? Believed to be Times Record, Spencer, WV, Date ? 1918
(Submitted by Carol Cronin)