(Look Back with Bob Enoch - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a reproduction of historic newspaper excerpts, and contains descriptions of behavior and language that is understood to be outdated and wrong and would not be used in print today.)

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A Social Retreat

H.B. Hull’s Art Gallery, Court Street, is the Old Reliable, having more experience than any other in the city. Therefore study your own interests and go there for your pictures. His display rooms are on the first floor making it the best arranged Gallery in the city, and more convenient for elderly persons and children. Don’t pass without walking in and examining the large display of pictures, plain in ink and in colors.

The Parkersburg Weekly Sentinel

July 24, 1875

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The Germania Singing Society, composed of a number of first-class singers, have rented, fitted up for their use and adorned in a highly ornate style, the front room in the third story of T.I. Boreman’s building on the south side of Court Square. We are always glad to see societies for improvement, pleasure and recreation built up and encouraged, and hope the Germania may succeed beyond their most sanguine expectations.

The Parkersburg Sentinel

Aug. 14, 1875

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Social Salmagundi: The Diary of a Week’s Local Happenings in Society

A Musical Club — Our city affords musical talent in no small degree. We venture the assertion that we have more vocalists and performers in proportion than any other place in the State. Yet all our talent is unorganized and its benefits are in a measure lost. A musical club organized on a broad basis, under popular leadership, would be an excellent idea. As an object we would suggest a concert or a series of concerts for the benefit of the Henry Logan Children’s Home.

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Opera Glasses

Everyone is accustomed to seeing opera-glasses in use at the play, but it is not generally known that they sometimes play a star engagement in the romance of real life. An ingenious young lady who lives in a certain house in a certain portion of the city, is entitled to the credit of discovering the new utility. There is a young gent, handsome of course, in whose goings and comings, said young lady takes much interest. About dinner or supper time our young lady may be seen at her chamber window, her glasses leveled on the y.g. as he walks briskly to dinner. There are about twenty-seven gentlemen who will wonder if they are referred to.

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The Amateurs

The young ladies and gentlemen who organized the Amateur Dramatic Club during the winter, within the past few days laid it quietly to rest. This obituary notice will be read with regret by the friends of the club, who hoped to witness the presentation of the comedies rehearsed in which the amateurs had made no little advancement. The rehearsals, however, furnished no little amusement for many an evening which might otherwise have been spent less pleasantly and profitably, and the young folks have learned that an actor’s lot is not a happy one, so the effort has not been without its benefits.

[FYI — Mr. D. Webster describes SALMAGUNDI as a heterogeneous mixture: potpourri]

The Parkersburg Daily State Journal

March 20, 1886

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A Social Bomb

A sensation in local colored social circles was created to-day by the reports of the elopement of Mrs. Charles Scott with G.W. Bowman.

Mrs. Scott is the organist at the Logan Memorial Church, is a comely young woman about twenty-five years of age and is the wife of Charles Scott who works for the Parkersburg Transfer Company. They were married only about two years ago.

Bowman is a single man whose home is in Columbus, O., but who has been working since Christmas at the Homestead restaurant. It is said that they took the early morning Ohio River train for Charleston where Mrs. Scott has a sister.

Mr. Scott is an upright, hardworking, sober man and supported his wife well, and there was no reason why she should leave him. It is said that she has been rather gay.

The Parkersburg Daily State Journal

Feb. 18, 1893

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.