Believe it or not, there are seven generations of my family
buried at the Skidmore farm in Webster Springs, West Virginia.
Believe it or not, I have three ancestors who married women
whose surnames were the same as theirs:
Anthony Wanner married Anna Wanner
William Witherow married William Witherow
Johann Peter Spaniol married Anna Magdalena Spaniol
Believe it or not, my 2-g grandfather, Charles Bess, refused
to fight for the Confederacy so they put out his eye and left him for dead.
He recovered, moved to what is now West Virginia, and fought bitterly for
the north.
Believe it or not, my 5-g grandfather, Col. Isaac Gregory,
killed the last buffalo in this part of the country.
Believe it or not, when my grandfather, Thomas Howard Glass
was born, his grandfather would have been 104 years old.
Believe it or not, my g-grandfather, C.C. Gillespie, went
to work in the coal mines when he was only 9 years old.
Believe it or not, my mother's and father's names appeared
side by side on a plaque at Dunbar High School, my mother's for scholarship
and my father's for activities.
Believe it or not, my g-grandfather, John Skidmore was the
youngest head cashier in the U.S. at the age of 21.
Believe it or not, my g-grandmother, Gertrude Craver, and
her eight sisters had the only all-sisters band in the United States at
that time (around 1900).
Believe it or not, one of my ancestors was getting water
from a creek behind her house when she saw a bear ready to attack her.
She raised her gun and as she fired it, rammed it into its mouth.
Believe it or not, my 2-g grandfather's (Levi Skidmore's)
leg was in the attic of a house in Webster Springs, WV. (It was a
wooden leg. With his wooden leg Levi served two terms of sheriff
of Webster County.)
Believe it or not, when my 2-g grandmother, Sarah Brannon,
was born, her mother was thirteen.
Believe it or not, my grandmother, Beatrice Skidmore, gave
an escaping prisoner his Christmas candy as he ran out the door.
(Her father was sheriff at the time.)
Believe it or not, my grandmother, Margaret Gillespie Glass,
knitted me baby booties with one arm and two knees. (She lost one
arm as a child when she was hit by a train.)
Believe it or not, my 5-g grandfather, Col. Isaac Gregory,
held the first Masonic meeting in central West Virginia in his home.
Believe it or not, my 2-g grandmother, Elizabeth Blake Cooper,
married her brother-in-law after they were both widowed.
Believe it or not, my g-grandfather, Thomas Glass, rescued
a baby out of a tree followign a train wreck.
