Town Cane

Waynesboro’s 80-Year Club was known as “one of its kind.” It was formed in Nov 1934 by Albertus Dyson Adams. Membership was restricted to octogenarians—those who had reached their 80th birthday. Its members were from both Franklin County and Washington County, Maryland, and they held monthly meetings. The Waynesboro Lions Club provided the annual dinner & began the tradition of passing the Town Cane. Their last meeting was held in May 1943, because “attempts to get remaining members together proved futile.” The Club was deactivated in Feb 1946 Its records were turned over to the Alexander Hamilton Library and the remaining monies were donated to Red Cross.[1]

Waynesboro awarded its first Town Cane in 1934. But unlike Chambersburg, Waynesboro’s Cane was not a local newspaper’s marketing scheme. The Cane was sponsored and awarded through the Waynesboro Lion’s Club to the oldest male in their “Eighty Year Club,” men who are all over the age of eighty. Also different from Chambersburg, was that the presenter of the Cane was not Waynesboro Burgess or Mayor. At least five Waynesboro men received the Lion’s Town Cane.

Judge Watson R. Davison presented a “representative” cane “to the oldest man in your club—John M. Newcomer” in December 1934. Newcomer worked in the feed, grain, and coal business, a promoter of the Pen Mar Realty Company, and former director of the Bank of Waynesboro and the First National Bank and Trust Company. “The official town cane, when it arrives, will be substituted for the cane presented tonight. Mr. Newcomer will use the cane until the end of his life; when the cane will go to the man who is the oldest at that time, and so on.”^[2] John M. Newcomer died in March 1938 at his home on South Church Street in Waynesboro.^[3]

 

Dr. James Burns Amberson, the dean of Franklin County Physicians, received the Town Cane in April 1938. Amberson was the last surviving charter member of the Franklin County Medical Society and its 1887 president. “An ardent promoter of the construction of the Waynesboro Hospital, Dr. Amberson was named president of the medical staff of the hospital after its establishment.” The Rev. S. E. Lobach presented the Cane to the 93-year-old physician at the Waynesboro Lions Club’s weekly dinner meeting.^[4] James Burns Amberson died in June 1943 after a long illness.^[5]

 

 

 

 

 

Melvin Augustus Flautt of East Second Street was announced as the next recipient of the Town Cane in August 1943. He worked for Joseph Krebs, the Geiser Manufacturing Company, and Frank Landis. Flautt also invented a straw shredder and a Boss weigher, which can be found on Wikipedia. The Cane “will be engraved within the next few weeks for presentation to the present oldest male resident, M. A. Flautt, a charter member of the 80-Year Club, who is now 94.” Judge Watson Davison presented the cane.^[6] Melvin Augustus Flautt died in January 1944 at his home in Waynesboro.^[7]

Jacob Bonebrake Hess of North Broad Street, age 90, was awarded the Town Cane “by the Waynesboro Lions Club to the oldest living man in Waynesboro,” probably in April 1944.^[8] He “retired from extensive farming…and was a charter member of the Eighty-Year Club; and at the time of his death was the oldest member, having possession of the cane.” Jacob Bonebrake Hess died in October 1945 at his daughter’s home on Broad Street after a three-month illness.^[9]

Clinton Middlekauff, age 87, of North Church Street received “the Traveling Cane of Waynesboro Lions Club, held by the town’s oldest citizen” in January 1946.^[10] Middlekauff was retired from the Geiser Company for thirty years and “a member of the 80-year-old club and at the time of his death, had the cane in his possession.” Clinton Middlekauff died in October 1946 at his home on North Church Street. He was the last known recipient of the Waynesboro Town Cane.

One month after passing the Cane to Middlekauff, “the Waynesboro Eighty Year Club, the only one of its kind known in Pennsylvania was deactivated” in February 1946. The Club claimed that “it is most likely that the cane will be kept in circulation.”^[11] Middlekauff was the last documented holder of the Waynesboro Lions Town Cane, as no article describing the next recipient has been found. Middlekauff’s only child Nellie Pearl (Middlekauff) Miller died in 1973. She had nine children and 38 grandchildren.[12] If anyone knows any of Clinton Middlekauff’s surviving great grandchildren, one of them may know the whereabouts of Waynesboro’s Town Cane.

(To be continued in Part 4: Where are Franklin County’s Town Canes)

 

[1] “Waynesboro’s Unique 80 Year Club is Being Deactivated Here,” The Record Herald (Waynesboro, Penn.), p. 1, col. 2.

[2] “Lions Award Town Cane to J M Newcomer,” The Record Herald, 13 Dec 1934, p. 1, col. 6.

[3] “J. M. Newcomer Dies at Age 95,” The Record Herald, 14 Mar 1938, p. 1, col. 8.

[4] “Receives Town Cane,” The Record Herald, 14 Apr 1938, p. 1, col. 6.

[5] “Dr. Amberson Dies Today,” The Record Herald, 14 June 1943, p. 6, col. 4.

[6] “Lion’s Cane Goes to M. A. Flautt, 94,” The Record Herald, 22 July 1943, p. 1, col. 3.

[7] “M. A. Flautt Dies at 94,” The Record Herald, 13 Jan 1944, p. 1, col. 2.

[8] “Jacob Hess is Awarded Cane,” The Record Herald, 16 Mar 1944, p. 1, col. 6.

[9] “Obituary: Jacob B. Hess,” The Record Herald, 29 Oct 1945, p. 8, col. 3.

[10] “Town Cane is Awarded,” The Record Herald, 10 Jan 1946, p. 1, col. 4.

[11] “Waynesboro’s Unique 80 Year Club is Being Deactivated Here,” The Record Herald, 16 Feb 1946, p. 1, col. 2.

[12] “Nellie Pearl Middlekauff Family Tree,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com).