75 Years Ago

Herald of Dec. 23, 1948

Quick action by the Martinsburg Fire Company restricted damage to a few feet plank wall when a defective chimney set fire to the house of Rev. I. B. Kennsinger at Fredericksburg, Tuesday morning. Damage to the plank dwelling recently covered by clapboard was estimated at about $100 by the owner. Fire Chief Frank Teeter said the fire was caused when excess heat cracked a terra cotta pipe which extended through the plank wall into the outside chimney.

Prospects for a white Christmas which looked so bright Sunday morning when Morrisons Cove was covered with a five-inch blanket of snow melted away with the snow that week. The second heavy snowfall of the winter followed the heaviest and probably the most destructive coating of ice the Cove had seen in years. Trees were coated with glistening ice which measured two inches thick on the mountain tops. Countless thousands of small trees were bent to the ground, while larger trees were split or their tops broken.