Dr. Frank C. Nickell, Veterinary Surgeon for the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company in Cass. The photo, dated October 14, 1918, shows Doc Nickell on a handcart, most likely near the town of Spruce. A log landing can be seen on the hill next to the tracks. Frank Nickell was appointed postmaster at Cass in April 1945.
(Photo Courtesy of Norris Long, ID: PHP000491)

Access the “Preserving Pocahontas” Digital Library at www.pocahontaspreservation.org
If you have photographs or documents to be scanned for the county Historical Archive Project contact Preservation Officer B. J. Gudmundsson at 304-799-3989 or email info@pocahontaspreservation.org Prints of photographs from the archives are available.

Preserving Pocahontas News

Dallas Widney, of Lewisburg and formerly of Durbin, has identified the lone unknown girl in the photo of the Durbin Girls Basketball Team which ran in the January 24 edition of The Pocahontas Times. Her name is Margaret Wilson and she later became a teacher at Durbin Graded School. She is standing in the center on the back row wearing a black dress.

Two new collections have been added to the online digital archive at pocahontaspreservation.org

The “Warren E. Blackhurst Collection” contains 25 pages of an unpublished play written by Tweard Blackhurst. “The Last Day of School” was penned and staged for the Annual Show of the Durbin Lions Club in 1949. The original document is quite fragile and had been rolled up for many years. Thanks to Will Rhodes, who loaned the document, this local literary treasure has been scanned and the digital images will be preserved. Much of the text is difficult read. The document will be transcribed in the future and the transcript will be added to the archive.

Another new collection is the “Fannie Overholt Photo Album” which comes from the Pocahontas County Historical Society. The album contains 175 photographs taken primarily in and around Marlinton and Campbelltown in 1912. A number of the photos are now online with more coming over the next few weeks.

Frances Golden Overholt graduated from high school in Marlinton and went on to teach here for many years. Her students fondly remember her as “Miss Fannie.” She was an avid doll collector and many of her dolls are on display at the Historical Society’s Hunter House Museum in Marlinton.