AUNT NETTIE'S CONTRAPTION SCARED HER - "I Had To Go Sit Down"

(05/09/2026)

PUBLISHED 1930s Miss Nettie Stump, who is described Grantsville's growth in poetry, has also published a book of verse, "Trail of My Pen." She is active in many other fields too, adept at painting and has exhibited works at Glenville State College. Her needlework is superior and she likes to make things like pocketbooks, shoes and hats. "As a child I wanted to be doing things," she said, "So I've just gone ahead and done them." "I made one thing that really scared me though," "Miss Nettie" added. "I saw a projecting machine that would show postcards and pictures on the wall, so I thought I'd make one for myself." "Well, I put one together out of a big box and an oatmeal container and a magnifying glass," she continues, "and then put a postcard of George Washington in it to try the contraption." "When I turned the light on, George popped up on the wall so big and mean looking that he really scared me." Miss Nettie sighed, "I had to go and sit down." (Ronzil Lynch, son of longtime Calhoun schoolteacher Russell Lynch said, "What Miss Nettie had made is called a epidiascope, a kind of magic lantern. My dad had one. We would glue pictures of all kinds and cartoons on cardboard strips." "They showed up real good on a white surface. With some popcorn made in a skillet, me and my little sister thought it was almost like going to the movies," Lynch said. Miss Stump and her brother, Charlie, live near the center od town, and have friends all over the county. Charlie, familiarly known as "Spavy," formerly had the livery stable in Grantsville. The Stump Family operated the Stump Hotel on main street, now restored by the Calhoun Historical Society. Miss Nettie Stump died of heart disease and a fractured hip in 1959 at age 83. There are numerous stories about her on the Hur Herald.

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