THE HUNTERSVILLE HEIRLOOM
HUNTERSVILLE, WEST VIRGINIA (November 10, 1955) — "The young people of today are digging their graves with their teeth," warns Alfred Beckley McComb, Pocahontas County's oldest living citizen.
At 96 years of age, the spry Huntersville resident has a stern but humorous message for the younger generation, insisting they are "just eating themselves into an early grave" with modern, sticky sweet confections and constant snacking. For the past fifty years, McComb has strictly consumed only two meals a day—breakfast and supper—sticking to plain, hearty frontier fare like eggs, cornbread, meat, and vegetables, with a lifelong partiality for beef and potatoes. When asked if his robust longevity is due to these disciplined eating habits, the old pioneer replies: "You bet that's it... to not stuffing my stomach, and by keeping mentally and physically busy." To prove his point, he still uses tobacco regularly, claiming with a chuckle that "it won't hurt anybody."
Hiding in Caves and Border-State Strife
McComb’s memories stretch back to the dawn of the American Civil War. Born on April 1, 1859, on Cummings Creek just three miles from Huntersville, he was the son of Price and Liza Moore McComb. As a small boy during the war, he vividly recalls his mother hiding him away in a dark cave to escape a Yankee raid.
Living so close to the Virginia border, local residents found themselves caught in a dangerous geopolitical vice. "The people in this section were not trusted by the North, and because of the State's sympathies for the Union, the South trusted us even less," McComb remembers. As a result of this mutual suspicion, local families were regularly pillaged by both Union and Confederate forces alike.
The Turnpike and the Naming of Huntersville
As a boy, McComb listened to his elders recount the creation of Pocahontas County's very first highway: the Warm Springs and Huntersville Turnpike, built in 1838—more than two decades before his birth. Shortly after its completion, a trader named John Harness began the grueling work of hauling essential goods from Staunton, Virginia, into the rugged Allegheny mountains.
Harness established his headquarters at the home of John Bradshaw in Huntersville, exchanging salt, coffee, gunpowder, lead, and calico for the settlers' fur pelts, venison, and wild ginseng. It was this bustling trade in wild ginseng, brought in by the local woodsmen, that ultimately gave the town of Huntersville its name.
Growing up in this wilderness, McComb’s formal education was sparse, consisting of only four months of school each year, which required a daily two-mile walk to the schoolhouse. When he wasn't in the classroom, he learned the essential frontier arts of hunting, fishing, and carpentry.
Twenty-Three Days and Nights to Build a Home
Shortly after marrying his late wife, Emma McLaughlin—the daughter of Hugh McLaughlin—McComb set out to build a home for their future family. He asked his father for enough pine timber to construct a house, cut the trees himself, and spent a solid week at the local sawmill working day and night until the lumber was finished.
With the lumber ready, McComb accomplished the astonishing feat of building his home in just twenty-three days and nights. He credits his late wife as his most valuable partner: "No, sir, I had the best wife in the world and she worked along with me. She would carry the lantern while I nailed on the lathes."
The rapid construction did not please everyone, however. One night, a frustrated neighbor came over to complain that the late-night hammering was keeping him awake. McComb recalls telling him flatly that he needed a place to sleep too, and that the work would go much faster if the neighbor offered to help. Though he didn't get any extra help, the neighbor at least stopped complaining about the noise.
mud-slick Turnpikes and Customers "Wanting to Charge"
To finish the house, McComb had to haul roofing materials all the way from Millboro, Virginia. He recalls the grueling trip as "just hauling them from one mud hole to another."
In 1889, with just one hundred dollars of his own savings, McComb decided to enter the mercantile trade, constructing a physical storefront in Huntersville known as McComb's Store. Rival merchants openly mocked his venture, calling it a "wet weather spring store" that would quickly dry up and fail. Furthermore, traveling salesmen frequently bypassed the town entirely, refusing to stop at the small mountain shop.
However, McComb’s fortunes turned when a supportive salesman finally gave him a break, helping his business take off. For his store's trademark, he chose the biblical passage: "Be Just O Man." His store became so busy that he frequently had to skip lunch entirely, cementing his fifty-year habit of eating only two meals a day.
When reflecting on his long years as a shopkeeper, the old merchant offers a dry, witty observation about his patrons: "I owed my success to my good customers, but sometimes, I would say some of my customers would make the best soldiers... they were always wanting to charge."
"A Boy of 96"
Though he is not a formal member of any church, McComb notes that if he ever does join one, it will be the Methodist Church. Over the past three years, he has dedicated himself to deep prayer and reading his Bible, declaring, "I like every single word in that Bible."
Today, the 96-year-old patriarch remains incredibly active, having raised nine living children—three sons and six daughters—six grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. This past summer, he successfully cultivated and harvested a thriving home garden.
"I raised a darn good garden," McComb says with pride, "and that's not bad for a boy of 96."
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Huntersville got its name from the local hunters who frequently traveled there to trade wild-harvested forest goods like ginseng.
Shortly after the construction of the Warm Springs and Huntersville Turnpike in 1838, a trader named John Harness began hauling goods from Staunton, Virginia, into the Allegheny Mountains to trade with the frontier settlers. Harness established his trading headquarters at the home of John Bradshaw in what would become Huntersville.
At this outpost, Harness traded valuable supplies—such as salt, coffee, gunpowder, lead, and calico—in exchange for forest commodities brought in by local woodsmen: specifically fur pelts, venison, and "gingseng" (spelled with an extra 'g' in the original newspaper print). Because the trading hub relied entirely on these hunters bringing in their wild ginseng and pelts to swap for store goods, the settlement officially came to be named Huntersville.
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