About the 25th of February, 1930 Miss Vivian Neihardt, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Otto Neihardt of Dunnegan, Polk Co., Mo. visited us. We were well-acquainted with her father, who was the oldest son of Judge Moses N. Neihardt of Hermitage and her mother, who before her marriage was Miss Lottie Craig of Hermitage, Missouri. Her father is and has been for several years the station agent of the Frisco Railway Company at Dunnegan. Miss Vivian is a government employee and a stenographer in the Internal Revenue Bureau of the United States Treasury Department and works in the same room where our niece Nellie Slavens works. She is of medium size, has dark hair and eyes and is a very pleasant mannered young woman. We were very glad to have her visit and talk about people whom we knew when she was a child in Hickory Co., Mo. On the 16th day of March, 1930, a day which always brings sad memories to me as it is the anniversary of the death of my mother, my nephew, Gen. Thomas H. Slavens visited us. It had been a year or more since we saw him and we were very glad to see him. He said they were well, and that his son, Stanley Slavens, who is assistant Consul at the Capitol of Honduras, Central America, was well when he heard from him recently and that he would probably be home on vacation soon.

On the same day my nephew Thomas Slavens visited, Mrs. Alta Armstrong, widow of Attorney John W. Armstrong of Carlsbad, New Mexico, and her son Stewart, who is a student in the George Washington University, this city visitied us. We were all very glad to see Mrs Armstrong and her son. We knew her and deceased husband both before and after their marriage in Hermitage. Mrs. Armstrong was Miss Alta Morton, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Ellis Morton of Hermitage and Mr. Armstrong was a teacher and later an attorney and editor of a newspaper in Hermitage when we lived there. I had known him since he was a small boy, one of my pupils in the Urbana, Missouri public schools. He had been living in New Mexico several years at the time of his death and at that time was Attorney General of the state of New Mexico. Mrs. Armstrong and her son, who is a fine looking young man stayed with us an hour or more and we enjoyed conversing with her about old times when she and Joe and Mary were schoolmates in Hermitage, Mo.

On Saturday, March 22, our daughter Bernice Bengel and her husband moved to their new home which he recently bought of the Wardman Construction Company, at 718 Tuckerman St., N. W. and is a semi-detached, two-story of six rooms and bath, and is a very nicely finished and very comfortable home for them. They have it furnished with new furniture throughout, and are well-pleased with their new home.

I have given accounts from time to time of occasional visits of friends and relatives and in addition to these, since Irene and her husband have been making their home with us during the past five years we have had two regular visitors two or more times every month. They were Carroll’s father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Donohoe, who reside in the northeast section of Washington. Mr. Donohoe is a native of Loudon Co., Va., and Mrs. Donohoe, who before her marriage was Miss Grace Cheshire of Alexandria, Va., but they have lived in Washington since soon after their marriage. Mr. Donohoe in his younger days was a printer, but after his marriage a few years he obtained a position as a brakeman on freight trains on the Pennsylvania Railroad and he is still working as a freight conductor, I think on that railroad. Of course their visits have been really to their only son and his family, but we have all enjoyed having them with us frequently, very much. Occasionally Mr. Donohoe’s sister, Mrs. Rose Edwards and her husband of Baltimore and Mrs. Julia Mason of Alexandria, Virginia, a sister of Mrs. Donohoe, have accompanied the Donohoes on their visits. Once Mrs. Edwards came alone and spent a day and night with us. They are all very genial people and we were very much pleased to have them as guests in our home.

On Sunday, April 27, 1930, I accompanied Irene and Carroll and their children John and Bethel, our daughter Nelle, my grandniece Nellie Maude Slavens and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Donohoe on a motor trip through parts of northern Virginia. We left our home at 9:30 A. M. The morning was bright and sunny and augered well for a fair and pleasant day. We fell in company with the Donohoes near Highway Bridge over which we crossed the Potomac into the old Dominion and the first town through which we passed was Fairfax with an ancient looking courthouse, The next town on our route was Middleburg, also old looking. The next town was our first objective, the city of Winchester, the county seat of Frederick County which was made famous during the Civil War as the point from which the Federal General, Phil Sheridan, made his great ride south twenty or more miles to where his command was engaged in a losing battle with Confederates, and where he arrived in time to rally his forces and turn defeat into victory.

Winchester is in the great fruit growing region of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and for several years there has been an annual apple blossom celebration there, the latest of which was held only a few days before our arrival there, at which Miss Suzanne Pollard, daughter of Governor Pollard of Virginia, was crowned as Queen Shenandoah by the Governor of West Virginia. As we neared the city we crossed the Shenandoah River over a fine steel bridge and passed a number of beautiful blossom laden apple orchards. Winchester is one of the largest cities in the Shenandoah Valley and does a considerable manufacturing business, and is one of the principal points from which the immense fruit crop of the valley is shipped to all parts of the world every year. We did not pass through the main business section of the city, our route only went through the southern residential portion. We stopped a short time near an old water mill which was built before the Civil War, but was still doing business, grinding wheat and corn for the farmers of Frederick County. There was a rock fence near the road side where we stopped and Irene sat John and Bethel on the fence and took Kodak pictures of them.

After leaving Winchester we went in a southerly direction down the valley and for many miles oir route was in a continued lane on each side of which there were Large apple orchards in full bloom, one of the prettiest sights I had ever beheld. There were hundreds of acres in these orchards and the trees appeared to be of uniform size and as far as I could see there were very few trees missing. As we motored down the Shenandoah Valley, we passed through Middletown, Strasburg, Woodstock, Toms Brook, Edinburg, Mt. Jackson and New Market, and near the last named town we stopped and went up on a hill just off the road and ate our lunch. It was near New Market that a battle was fought between the Federal and Confederate forces during the Civil War. The Confederates were under the command of General Stonewall Jackson but I do not remember who was the commander of the Federal Army. Mr. Donohoe said that his father John Carroll Donohoe belonged to Gen. Jackson’s command and was in the battle. I think it was not far from New Market that the battle occurred to which "Sheridan ‘s ride" was made. After we had lunched and rested awhile we continued our journey down the valley and came to the large town of Harrisonburg where one of Virginia’s State Normal Schools is located. It is a very nice little city. While many of the buildings are old, of revolutionary or colonial style of architecture there are a great many business and residential structures that are more modern.

The next town on our route was Staunton, a city of considerable size and one of the most important commercial centers of that section of Virginia. We ended our journey down the valley at Staunton and turned east and began our return to Washington. A few miles from Staunton we passed through Waynesboro, a nice little town but in a very rough section of hilly country. At this place my niece Mrs. Gona Slavens Beery and her family resided a few years ago, at which time her husband, Rev. Dewitt A. Beery was the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. We saw the church building in which the congregation of which he was pastor, worshipped.

I forgot to mention that after we left Harrisonburg and probably about halfway between there and Staunton we stopped along side a very large apple orchard, every tree of which was large and about the same size and there were very few vacant places or dead trees, in fact none as far as I could see. While we were stopped we all formed a line near the road side adjacent to the apple orchard and Carroll took Kodak pictures of us. This orchard like many others we had seen was surely a beautiful sight.

After we passed Waynesboro, our road continued to ascend the Blue Ridge Mountain for several miles until we came to a very high peak over which the road ran and we stopped where there was a small resort near the little town of Afton and from this lofty height there was a splendid view of the surrounding country in all directions except north, in which direction the mountain was higher than at the Afton Peak. We stopped and viewed the beautiful but awe inspiring scene for awhile and we all agreed that it was one of the grandest and most beautiful sights we had ever beheld.

Leaving Afton Heights we descended from the mountain by a very winding road passing the small village of Afton and many farms and orchards as we neared the valley and after several miles travel we came to the city of Charlottesville, the site of the State University Of Virginia, the principal founder of which was former president Thomas Jefferson, whose home Monticello is on elevation about two miles south of Charlottesville. As it was getting late in the afternoon we did not go by Monticello. At Charlottesville we saw the old State University building which was an ancient looking structure, and also the more modern commodious and imposing new University buildings which are said to be among the finest educational institutions in the south. We also saw many residences, business houses and public buildings, some very old and others more modern. Leaving Charlottesville at 5:30 P. M. we passed through the large town of Orange about dusk, and a short distance from Orange we stopped and ate our supper, and then we resumed our trip we traveled 10 miles over a dirt road but a good one and there on a hard surface pike we soon reached the old city of Fredericksburg. It was dark during our transit through this city and we could only see the buildings on the streets through which we passed. Some of these were large and modern and others were small and quite old. Leaving Fredericksburg we made good speed over a fine motor road and soon reached Alexandria and then a little later crossed the Potomac again over Highway Bridge and in a short time we parted company with Mr. and Mrs. Danohoe and arrived at home at 11:30 P. M. having had an exceedingly pleasant trip and having traveled 346 miles during the day

Chapter thirty continued...