Sentimental Sunday

Waiteville School

[Waiteville Community Building]

Waiteville, Monroe, WV

This old school house held four classrooms.  It covered the kindergarten through junior high school grades. For many children in the community this was all of the education they ever received.

For those who decided to travel to Gap Mills to go to High School, they often walked over Peter's Mountain on Sunday, and boarded with other families. Walking back home on Friday evening after the last class, or on Saturday morning. [We're talking on rough trek!]

After the school closed in the 1960's, the Board of Education kept the rights to the property. And later sold it to the community. Today the building has been kept up in pristine condition, and is a wonderful community building. Complete with a small gym, the building is used for community and family events. And this is where my family holds theirs biennual reunion.

At our next reunion, in August 2011, we will be using the building for the entire weekend. We will be bringing our sleeping bags, cots, tents, and campers. And we will be spending an entire weekend together! [Can you tell I can hardly wait??? And I've got to wait a whole year yet!]

This old building stands a silent reminder of those who chose to learn, and who didn't have it quite as easy as we did, or our children, or grandchildren.

Here is where my Dad and several of his siblings attended school. It sits in the heart of the tiny Waiteville community. A place that will forever mean "home" to me.

Treasure Chest Thursday - January 28, 2010

The following are photos of the interior of the old William Bean home, as posted yesterday.

The Front Room

The stariway leading to the 2nd floor.

One of the bedrooms.

The doorway leading to the stairs.

A window, where once there was a chimney, looks out on the beautiful Potts Valley, toward Waiteville.

One of the upstairs bedrooms.

Although the exterior has changed a bit, there has been siding placed over the logs and both stone chimney’s have been removed, the interior remains much the same as it was when William and his wife, Rachel, lived there with their family in the 1840’s-1860’s. Only electricity and a modern bath added. The rear extension behind the house is a complete modern addition.

Almost Wordless Wednesday - January 6, 2010

Ada Eeanor Bean Ward

04 Aug 1921 - 14 May 2007

Ada Eleanor Bean was the 10th born child of John Monroe Bean, and the 7th to his second wife, Ada Burdette. Known to her family and friends as "Eleanor" she grew up in the communities of Gap Mills and Waiteville, in Monroe County, West Virginia.

On 17 Dec. 1940, Eleanor married Donald W.Ward in Covington, Kentucky. Don was a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Army, and the couple traveled the globe. The above photo was taken in 1954 in Japan.

Eleanor and Don had four children: Lawrence W. [b. 1949]; Gail; Johnny; and Ronnie [b. 1954].

The couple finally retired and settled in southern California. There Don died at Buena Park, Orange County, on 26 Nov. 2000. Eleanor passed away on 14 May 2007 at Riverside, California.

Eleanor was my Dad's sister.

Almost Wordless Wednesday - October 28, 2009

That's the Texicanwife on the left [hmmm...we won't say what year this was!] And my baby sister, Eydie, on the right. In the middle is my beautiful grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Faudree Bean [1897-1975]. This is a rare of photograph of her with the only two grandchildren she got to know. The year she died [11 months later] my parents adopted 2 little boys, so there were two more from our family. Several years later, my Uncle married and had 2 more children.

Mary was the daughter of Stephen Ledford Faudree and Elizabeth Carnifax. She married John Monroe Bean, Sr.[1866-1954] in Alleghany County, Virginia. The couple lived in Monroe County, West Virginia. They had three sons: Walter Maxwell [b. 1937], Edsel Ford [b. 1939], and Roy Edwin [1943-1946].

Mary and John are buried in the New Zion Union Church Cemetery, Waiteville, Monroe County, West Virginia. Roy Edwin is buried at Carmel Cemetery, Gap Mills, Monroe County, West Virginia.