LOOKIN' FOR LOVE - This photo of Edith Roach Sampson (1925-2001) was found by David Weaver, who resides in PA with his wife Patty Nicholson Weaver, a former resident of Rocksdale, whose parents once ran the long-gone store, the woman is likely wearing a uniform of her late WW II husband, Ralph "Otmer" Sampson (1925-1999), a Calhoun native who received a Doctorate in Divinity degree and was a pastor. The couple married in 1949, married over 50 years, living in Little Hocking OH
By Bob Weaver
Over 80 years ago a Rocksdale girl and her cousin were looking for love and placed notes in a sealed bottle and threw it into the West Fork of the Little Kanawha River.
The bottle with notes were discovered recently at the mouth of the river where it joins the main Little Kanawha at Creston.
Her photo was discovered, likely wearing her husbands WWII uniform.
ORIGINAL STORY: LOOKING FOR LOVE - Eighty Years Ago Rocksdale Girls Put Note In Bottle, Floats Down The River(02/02/2020)
By Bob Weaver 2017
In 1939, an 18-year-old Rocksdale girl put a note in a bottle, seeking to find a husband.
She and her cousin placed notes in the bottle, and put the bottle in the West Fork of the Little Kanawha in front of their house just above Rocksdale.
Unfortunately, its trip down the river went a short distance, ten miles or so, missing the opportunity of a float down the Ohio and the Mississippi.
Unfortunately their pleas for male companionship didn't work, the bottle was discovered 75 years later and opened by a Wirt County couple, Dennis and Robin Schrader, who were scavenging along the river at Creston.
The couple opened the bottle to discover two handwritten notes, still preserved.
Susie Tanner, daughter of life-long Rocksdale resident James Albert Tanner (1887-1973), and her 14-year-old cousin, Edith Roach, daughter of Daniel Roach, wrote these brief notes:
Susie Tanner's Note:
"I have brown hair and brown eyes. I am about five feet four inches tall. I am dark complected and weigh 115 pound. I am 18 years old and want to get married. When you find this send me your picture and I will send you mine...Please write."
Edith Roach's Note:
I am 5 feet tall, I have brown eyes and brown hair. I weigh 115 pounds. I am dark complected. I am 14 years old."
Both girls married and are now deceased.
Their brother and cousin, Albert Gale Tanner, well known for his work with Grantsville VFW Post 5959 passed away in 2010.
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