LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Special section brought back Society Hill memories
I want to thank Bobby Bryant, Brian Gandy and any others who contributed to the special edition on Society Hill.
Although a Dovesville boy, I had a very special relationship with Society Hill through school (St. David’s Academy) and Welsh Neck Baptist Church and many friends I have known over the years from Society Hill.
As a 6th-grade student in Mrs. Fred Auman’s class in 1958, there was always this older guy hanging around outdoors near our classroom window smoking a cigar. I asked Mrs. Auman did she know that old man walking around outside always smoking that cigar.
She smiled, realizing I had no idea who he was, and said he was a school official (unknown to me, chairman of the county school board) checking on our school. Later on I did learn that Fred Auman (the cigar-smoking man) was her husband!
In 1975, I bought a home in N.C. and furnished it with two Colonial Rocking Chairs from Palmetto Furniture Co. I had a nice carpet in my bedroom so I slept in my Marine Corps-issued sleeping bag for a week or two until Warner Dehart (VA rep and friend) shipped me my bedroom furniture from his business in Hartsville.
The history surrounding Society Hill is fascinating and I know from our ancestry that Col. Abel Kolb was another connection to my family who was killed by Tories during the American Revolution on his front porch near Society Hill.
On another note the old Railroad Depot museum that Society Hill is working to open was run by an old friend from Dovesville for many years. Her name was “Mrs. Meter” Howle and two of her grandsons were some of my best friends growing up in Dovesville, Lon G and Tommy Howle.
I still talk about how “Mis Meter” fried apple pies she would make and share with her grandsons and, if I was lucky to be with them, me. My last story on “Mis Meter” is about her leaving her house as the train passed her home in Dovesville headed to Society Hill Depot.
She would jump in her car and drive as fast as she could back to Society Hill Depot to put out the bag the train picked up as it traveled by the depot. When you saw Mis Meter flying down the road after the lunch hour, you knew to get out of the way of her car because she was on her way back to the depot to catch the train and the Highway Patrol never stopped her, because they knew who Mis Meter was and why she was flying down Highway 52 headed toward Society Hill after lunch.
Looking forward to my visit back to Historic Society Hill this summer.
Chuck “Boobie” DeLorme
Lebanon, Ill.
