Donors will get $5 Amazon gift card at Bloodmobile in Fincastle Feb. 16
Editor:
The Bloodmobile will be at the Fincastle United Methodist Church Family Life Center from noon until 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb.16.
We collected 29 units in December. Thanks to all doors and volunteers. Thanks to Sally Field, Sharlotte Sink and Robbin Saunders for providing the homemade cakes and cookies. It was Bo Time at the blood drive! Bojangles of Daleville provided sausage biscuits for all the donors and volunteers. Thanks to Bojangles for their support.
All donors at this blood drive will receive a $5 Amazon gift card! Don’t miss out; put us on your calendar.
Due to the inclement weather, blood donations nationwide are at an all-time low. You can give a little back to your community and your fellow man by donating something you have plenty of– blood! We are depending on you to come and give the gift of life. Be sure and mark your calendar today. Donate blood, help us deliver life!
Sam Saunders
Fincastle
Technology initiative sponsored by Del. Austin deserves support
Editor:
The technology initiative being pursued by Del. Terry Austin in the legislature of the Commonwealth and with the support of Botetourt academia will provide a trained workforce that will encourage more investment and economic development in the community by manufacturers and technology enterprises.
The initiative will give Botetourt a melding of engineering and information technology that provides the opportunity for students to meet workforce needs.
This pilot initiative for the betterment of the community must receive continued proactive support from the residents, students, all academia and governing bodies of Botetourt.
Del. Austin continues to keep the welfare and market competitiveness of Botetourt in the forefront; thank you for that.
Al daCosta
Daleville
Time needed to investigate for Fort William
Editor:
I read the January 18 article on the “Finding What Has Been Lost” exhibit at the Historical Museum. It put me in mind of the destruction of the site at Greenfield where the remnants of log structures were located.
I always thought these structures looked like some kind of frontier fortifications. In time, I learned that the principle frontier fortification was a log blockhouse which was constructed of hand-hewed 20-foot logs, two stories high. Sides of the second floor may overhang to allow riflemen to shoot down on the enemy if they reach the first story wall. Each blockhouse has two storage or provision cabins built of heavy logs which also were fortified.
In the book “Kegley’s Virginia Frontier” on page 215, a paragraph reads: “The one other place known to be fortified before 1756 was the pass leading from Catawba to the head branches of the Roanoke, forming Tinker Creek and the head springs of Looney’s Mill Creek. This fortification was called Fort William or Preston’s Fort, sometimes the Fort at Catawba. It is hard to determine just where it stood. References are made to forts in that community as if there were different forts at different times. Fort William was reported in 1756 as already built; Washington spoke of it as the fort at the head of Catawba, 15 miles from Looney’s Ferry. He may have meant at the head of Mill Creek, which would have made the distance about right.
“In 1756, Capt. Preston referred to the fort there as Preston’s Fort, and in his journal of the Shawnee Expedition he said that he set out from Fort Prince George, apparently referring to this fort. In one of his letters in 1756, Andrew Lewis spoke of Fort William as built by William Preston. This fort was to be 20 miles from the mouth of Johns Creek, 15 miles from Looney’s Ferry and 18 miles from Bryant’s, near James Campbell’s. It was at or near the home of David Mitchell on a south branch of Catawba.”
Time is needed in order to find out what old things really are. Each may have many and different uses over extended periods of time. This was neglected and ignored in the case of the site at Greenfield.
Robert Hundley
Eagle Rock
