Beckley Post-Herald The Raleigh Register from Beckley, West Virginia • Page 23

Post-Herald and Register. Becklev. W. Va Sunday Morning. May 18.1975 FREE OLD TIME ROCKER With Any Purchase of or More Oak finish 36x48-60" plar.ic top: wrought iron-lopk trim, 6 vinvl chairs.

$129 95 36x36-48" quartz plastic top; embossed 4 leather-look vinyl chairs. $99 95 Sunny pair for summer lounging i 4 i i a i i i polyurethane foam cushions. SAVE 42" round plastic table top; adjustable base glides, 4 vinyl swivel chairs $239 95 Sofa Sleepers! These gorgeous porary sofa opens quickly and easily for sleeping comfort. 179 95 AS IS Excitingly modern dining room beauty Plastic top 40x60-78" table, one arm and three side chairs in hardwoods and a engraved particle board. 579 95 Wood-look 36x48-60" plastic table top: 6 tapered high-back vinyl chairs 139 95 Living Room Suites REGULAR $859.95 NOW JT7 60 ON DISPLAY PRICED FROM $299.95 UP Classic Italian styled elegance Pecan solids and veneers, simulated i A i i triple dresser, twin mirrors, armolre 50 ON DISPLAY PRICED FROM $289.95 i I I it i fH ARTY'Si FURNITURE -APPLIANCE CARPET 100 N.

HEBER STREET BECKLEY, W. VA. 253-7318 253-7319 1 Tcoiogy Watch Strip Mine Permit Applications Filed Island Creek Coal Paintsville, for 550 acres on Trace Fork Copperas Mine Fork of Middle Fork. .66 mile, southwest of Holden in isiana Creek District of Logan County; final protest date May 27. SMA-1555.

(First advertised April 29 in the Logan Banner.) Indian Coal Land P. 0. Box 1147, Beckley, for 200 acres on Rocklick Creek and unnamed branch of Arbuckle Creek. 4-5 (sic) miles, northeast of Minden in Plateau District of Fayette County; final protest date May 28. SMA-1390.

(First advertised April 28 in the Fayette Tribune.) McClung Construction Company, Box 437, Sum'mersville, for 82 acres on unnamed branch ot Gaulev River and Laurel Creek and Peters Creek of Gmilev River, one mile southwest of Poe District of N'icholas Countyrfinal protest date May 23, SMA-1556. (Advertised May 8 in the aear Fork 0 Co al P. 0. Box 27, laeger, on Doublecamp Branch of Clear-b orK, 1 5 miles northwest of Cleark Fork Post Office in Clear Fork District of Wyoming i a protest date May 31. SMA-1461.

(Advertised May 8 in the Pineville Independent Herald.) Campbell Mining Box 432 Richwood, for 200 acres on Nixon Branch of Laurel Creek, 3.75 miles, 5 degrees East of Fenwick in Williamsburg District of Greenbrier County; final protest date June 13, SMA-1567. (First advertised May 15 in the Meadow River Post.) Campbell Mining Box 432, Richwood, for 200 acres on Nixon Branch of Laurel Creek, 3.75 miles 5 degrees East of Fenwick, in Kentucky District of Nicholas County; final protest date June 15, SMA- 1567. (First advertised May 14 in the Nicholas News Leader. Presumably the same application as above with part of the proposed operation in Nicholas CounH and part in Greenbrier.) Indian Coal Land Box 1147, Beckley, for 80 acres on Sweetwood Hollow and unnamed branch of Dunloup Creek, miles west of Glen Jean in Plateau District of Fayette County; final protest date June 7. SMA-1494 (Advertised May 8 in the Ecolo gy a i a i on permit applications comes from legal advertisements (including map of the area to be stripped) printed in area newspapers Companies are required to i un ads containing information about the application three weeks in succession.

Written protest will be accepted by the Department of Natural Resources, Room 322, 1800 Washington Street East, Charleston, 25305. sure to include the.SMA (Strip Mining Application) number with y-our protest or it will not be honored bv the DNR. ALSO Send The Register a copy of your protest But you must send the original to the DNR lor it to be effective If you have any information on such permits, or any other environmental issues, please call the Raleigh Register, 253-3321. Strip Mine Permits Granted The DNR issued 10 permits for the stripping of 550 acres during the period May 1-15. Three of the permits are located in The Register's circulation area: Sterling Smokeless Coal for IfaO acres near Fireco in.

Shady Spring District of Raleigh County; Tamroy Mining, for 29.39 acres near Surveyor in Trap Hill District of Raleigh County: and McClung Construction for 47 acres hear Drennen in Jefferson District of Nicholas: Faded Photographs In Fayette By STRAT DOUTHAT FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. (AP) Some people keep their, childrens' picture in their billfolds but not Jennie Sbdders. She keeps hers on a billboard in front of her home. The children in the five faded photographs stare out at motorists who pass Mrs. Sodders' home, located alongside U.S.

21, just north of this quiet little community. Beneath the postersized pictures arethe names Maurice, Martha Lee, Louis, JenWie and Betty. And under the names, a hand-scrawled message proclaims "these children were all kidnapped on Christmas Eve, 1945. Do we or do have a law against kidnapping in W.Va:?" A sixth photogrpah also adorms the billboard. A little to the right of the others is the picture of a handsome, darkhaired young man.

"It came in the mail about seven years ago," said Mrs. Sodders, a graying woman who lives alone with her dog in a house that is encircled by a six-foot-high chain link fence with an electric gate. "The postmark was Central City, Kentucky. A message on the back of the picture said it-was Louis." She paused a moment and squinted back in time. "My husband went down there but couldn't find out anything.

Nobody had ever heard of the man in the picture. He couldn't find out a thing." "My husband died six years she added. "Before that, he traveled trom one end of the country to the other trying to find the children. We had 10 kids but we lost five of them that night." She leaned against the door and looked back again. "I was 37 at the time.

It was Christmas Eve and nine of the children were home. My husband and I went to bed about 10:30 and five of the children were still up, the ones that were taken-away: "Along about midnight the phone rang and'it was a man asking for somebody I'd never heard of. I went back to bed and about 30 minutes later the fire broke out. We got the girls who were sleeping downstairs and yelled for the others but they never answered. There was no trace of them.

Nothing was found. Nothing." She stopped and chuckled bitterly. 'Oh, the police came and said the children died in the fire. Three months later they buried a beef liver trying to prove the children were in there. My husband dug it up and sent it to Washington the report that came back said it was beef liver that had never been in a fire.

I've got the report in a safety deposit box at the bank." "There''s been reports about the children from to time but nothing ever came of them," she said. If you don believe me, ask Charles Payne, he came out from the funeral home the next morning to bring back the bodies and couldn't find anything." Payne is now retired but his wife, Velma, said she well recalled the incident. "My father and husband went out there," she said, "but there were no remains that could be identified. It. seems to be a mystery." "It is a mystery," said Mrs.

Sodder, whose husband was a small time coal operator back in 1945. "For a while, a lumor was going around that somebody had $75,000 worth of insurance on the children but we didn't have any insurance." She paused again then pointed to some large, square- cut rocks in the side yard. "That's where the house was, 'you can still see the foundations You can't tell me five children could b'urn up in a little old house like that and something wouldn't be left. No, believe it! "Somebody stole them, that's what. It's been a long time but maybe I'll be lucky 'enough to- see them someday.

Maybe "somebody will drive by and see the billboard you never know.".