THIRTY-EIGHT VOLUNTEERS

 

The Men Who Brought Ruritan to Churchville

67 Years Ago

 

by

John Corns

 

The village of Churchville and the nation stood stoutly after more than three years of worldwide conflict in the spring of 1944. Many young men, some with families of several children, were far away at war, and women, children and older men plowed the fields and made industry work.

Mothers stepped outside the home to teach school in unprecedented numbers, clerk in stores, recycle, manufacture, and return near the end of day to nourish and guide young people at home. Meanwhile, there were other young Churchville men who were still to leave for that costly war.

They had learned of an organization, then some sixteen years old, that uniquely looked to encourage community service. They were told this organization believed in the value of Fellowship, of coming together in times of plenty and lightheartedness in order to build friendships and camaraderie that would make them strong in days of concern for all they believed in. They learned that the organization valued Goodwill, a blessing to each person and a community in times when trust and confidence are essential. And they were told, the organization believed Service to the Community was the obligation of every man, woman and child.

 

 

On April 13, 1944, approximately forty men met at the Churchville High School with Harold Spangler, Ruritan National President, and a few members from North River Ruritan Club. The Churchville men were there to learn more about Ruritan National. Some thirty-six men signed their intent to become members. William T. Bear, Whitfield Sellers, and William Ralston were appointed to return a list of officers to nominated as leaders of the club the following month.

 

On May 11, 1944, the club convened with Mr. Spangler again attending. He presented the charter approved by Ruritan National on April 29, 1944 and thirty-eight men signed the charter. Officers were elected and Mr. Spanler charged the club to serve the community well.

 

The original officers were: C. M. Ritchie, President; Walter A. Fullen, Vice President; S. N. Karicofe, Secretary; E. M. Eagle, Treasurer; Woodrow W. Ashby, 1 Year Director; Rober H. Bear, 2 Year Director; Jack Covington, 3 Year Director. This meeting was also held at Churchville High School. The school's Home Economics Club prepared the meal. The then principal, Robert McChesney, and the agricultural instructor, Walter Fullen,were given much of the credit by the members for organizing the effort to begin the club.

An additional nine men, who were not present to sign the charter, were nevrthless regarded by the Churchville Ruritan Club as charter members. Among them was William T. Bear, a member of the first nominating committee. The nine men are addressed in this writing and listed later as, "The Other Nine." Together, those first members totaled forty-seven, and were, at the time, the largest Ruritan Club in the Valley.

 

The Thirty-Eight included more farmers than any other line of work, in keeping with the lingering agricultural emphasis of Augusta County. But there were also a barber, grocery store clerks, a teacher, a principal, a builder, laborers, storeowners, a funeral director, a cabinetmaker, a banker, and a janitor.

The oldest of the Thirty-Eight, at 69 years, was Willis B. Wilson. The oldest of the Other Nine was William T. Bear, two year younger, at 67.

 

Albert C. Bear would go on to live the longest life of those who have passed, age 96.

The youngest at the time, at 19 years, was Harold Armstrong.

 

Harold "Satchmo" Armstrong was the first to leave the club to go off to war in 1944. In time, he returned to the Valley to complete college at Bridgewater and teach school in Weyers Cave, where he was briefly a member of the Ruritan Club there until he rejoined the original Thirty-Eight at Churchville Ruritan Club in 1954.

 

The first to be lost from the circle was E. V. Stoutamyer. He had worked for 34 years as a cashier at the Augusta County Bank in Churchville when he passed away on the morning of Tuesday, August 20, 1946.

The Ruritan Club, like Augusta County, the state, and the nation, knew its economic good times and bad times in the years of the heyday of the Thirty-Eight.

 

Early meetings were held in the cafeteria basement and auditorium of the Churchville High School, a practice that continues to this day at Churchville Elementary School. Over the years, the club has been fortunate to use the various buildings that have housed the high school or the elementary school.

Members of the club, following their original feast prepared by the high school home economics club, might have starved or been endangered by their own cooking had not the women of some of the local churches agreed to cook the members a good meal. In return, they made a modest profit for their church that would have been no profit at all had the women..and the men.. of the church asked to be paid for their time and effort.

 

But all was not always well with the meals. At times, the men did have to fend for themselves. It's not clear whether the members roasting their own hotdogs or frying their own bologna was the worst of all of their self-prepared meals. Stories passed down suggest that an air of tall tales and jokes at the expense of another member eased the lack of the ladies home fried chicken, corn bread, and macaroni and cheese.

But in the good times, when they could afford to pay for a square meal prepared by one of the fine church groups, it was not hard for them to forego the horseplay and jokes in favor of good behavior and civil tongue so as not to offend the preparer or server of the food.

 

The stories that survive suggest it was all harder back then:

Making apple butter, for example, began with picking with picking the apples; then peeling and coring and quartering and rendering the apples into sauce and, only then, filling the vats for the long wait and stirring and testing and flavoring and tasting and on and on...

 

Sometimes, one expects to be told how they planted and grew the apple trees first. However, it is clear that back in those days the now famous Churchville Ruritan Club apple butter, "made right here in the Shenandoah Valley," did require more time, and more people. The stories that have drifted down over the years give the impression that they had more fun back then when they were "making apple butter." Maybe not, though. More recent and current members relate similar stories of good fun and fellowship in the old fashioned process at the August County canning facility.

 

These first volunteers, the Thirty-Eight and the Other Nine, recruited heavily among the veterans returning from the big war. They were younger men, more with young families, and Ruritan turned with increased emphasis on youth. The returning veterans coached, played, umpired and cheered their youngsters and those of their neighbors as baseball bats of the late 40's drowned out the lingering sounds of war and preparations for war.

 

By the mid to late 1950's a better level of income permitted old hand-hewn bats of hickory and ash and baseballs made from friction tape wound around wool strips over rounded cork to replaced by store bought bats and balls, and Churchville Ruritan ingnited it long love affair with baseball!!

In the '50's, from those baseball diamonds and football fields the Thirty-Eight and the Other Nine, still largely intact through the decade, recruited more of the newer generation only to see some in the first years of the decade off again to war, this time in Korea. From among those who returned, the older members began to shape their successors, the men who would lead Ruritan in the last two decades of the Twentieth Century as time and failing health began to reduce their number

 

Through it all, the focus remained on youth as Ruritans supported programs that nurtured young men and women, like the Future Farmers of America and 4-H Clubs. As the schools changed and Churchville High School was supplanted by Buffalo Gap High in the early 1960's, programs to encourage patriotism and citizenship in the elementary schools were expanded to include the high school. Ruritan Club time and energies reached out to encourage businessmen and profession. Projects that addressed the environment led to streams being freed of debris, trees planted, and highways cleared of refuse.

 

Ruritan has seen descendants of the Thirty-Eight come on board and become long serving members and contributors to the success of the Club's programs. Some of these descendants today guide programs that return large benefits to the youth of Churchville and neighboring communities.

 

Many of the men who followed the Thirty-Eight and the Other Nine in the next decade or so have amassed long years of service and perfect attendanc: Rawley Collins-59 years; Sam Thacker-56; Bill Bear-53; Vaughn Ashby-49; Harold Armstrong-42; and Lyle Hull-39 years. Each will add a year this year of 2009. These members have carried on the traditions and high standards set by the Thirty-Eight and the Other Nine and provide daily examples of the Ruritan tradition to newer men and women members.

 

In the closing decade of the Twentieth Century, new members of Ruritan were treated to knowing the dwindling few remaining of the Thirty-EIght. The steady counsel and hand of Jake Lighter, who the club lost in August of 1996. The sparkle in the eye of Whitfield Sellers, rejoicing in stories of trips to conventions near and far. Whitfield passed in May of 2002. He saw the new millennium.

 

It has fallen to one man, youngest of the original Thirty-Eight, to shoulder the load of being the bridge between the Charter Members and the New Members. He has done so with strength and vision for the club and the community of Churchville. In the last two decades, no other Ruritan has brought more new members into the Churchville Ruritan Club than Harold Armstrong. He cannot avoid the light of his special status. He cannot evade the attention. Sixty-five long and tumultuous years have passed since that day in April of 1944.

 

"Don't make too much of it," he says, suggesting that if you could ask any one of the original Thirty-EIght they would not point to themselves, but to the younger men who followed, the names that are today better known in the Churchville community as "A Ruritan" than nearly all of the those original volunteers. And maybe they would point, as Harold suggests, to the great expansion in programs of the local chapter in the last three decades, particularly the increased role of women in the club, from committee chairs to president. "We could use a little more of that- the women members," Harold says.

 

Asked what, of all the values and joys of Ruritan membership he treasure most, Harold says, "Well, I guess both the Fellowship and the Service to the Community. Both are two of our primary reasons for being. For me, I value helping the community to improve and to change where it was really needed. But I value that we kept many of those traits that make it great to live in and around Churchville. These two things I value most."

 

Asked what he feels most when he thinks of Ruritan and the community of Churchville, he says, "Pride. Pride in Ruritan, but mostly pride in the entire community. Churchville is a very special place. It still has a lot of the feel and beliefs that we all felt when we signed our names on that charter 65 years ago. There were men in that original Thirty-Eight who had more vision about where we going than I, and men who probably made more of a difference, for a time. But, looking back, I am very proud of what I have been permitted to do in Ruritan and what I have tried to do to make it all better. Of course, Churchville is more than Ruritan, but, for me, I think that our Ruritan Club has, over the years, captured and passed on to visitors and fellow community members what we all want to be and, for the most part, I think we are.