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Anyone driving on South Randolph Avenue near Elkins Kroger since last Friday could have seen that the old fence and gateposts were down at Historic Kump House. This is the beginning of a major beautification initiative led by Debra M. Barsy and Laura B. Santmyer. Both women grew up in Elkins, and they want to make the property at the entrance to their hometown look better.
This new Kump fence will provide protection for children when they participate in educational programs identifying trees or playing on the south lawn and in the upper orchard. The fence will limit the number of deer that invade the yard and eat daylilies, roses, Rhododendron, and anything green in winter. Deer may also carry ticks and the threat of Lyme disease in summer.
Also the historic gateposts will be restored when the new fence location is properly established, and the Elkins Fire Department makes a recommendation concerning the driving space needed for fire trucks to pull in near the historic house between the new lamp posts and gateposts.
The idea for having better lighting is a significant concern of both Debra Barsy and Laura Santmyer. The new lights on the front of Historic Kump House will not look commercial, but they will be appropriate for a large residential building, and they will make visitors safer when coming and going for banquets, lectures, and meetings in the dark.
The four brick gateposts are important in telling the story of the Great Depression. Illiterate Hoe Boys or Hoboes marked these posts with the "Code of the Road" to let other hungry men know that they could get a sandwich at the back door and/or sleep in the barn. Poor people wanted to work and would offer to hoe gardens to pay for food. Most Hoboes could not read or write because public education was not properly funded until after 1933 when Kump was Governor.
Although H.G. Kump had enough money in 1924 to start building a larger home for his six children and eight half-orphaned nephews and nieces, he found it difficult to pay for the construction of the house and help educate all the young people in his large family.
The American economy declined radically with the Stock Market Crash of 1929; therefore, in 1933 President Roosevelt and Governor Kump began new policies with New Deal Banking, Civilian Conservation Corps. Unemployment Insurance, Social Security and many other innovations.
Visiting historic Kump House is a good way to learn about the influence of public policy on family life during the 20th Century a.k.a. the "American Century." Usually, a democracy does not allow rapid change because people are slow to accept change. However, each time a new official is elected, a new set of priorities may begin to control of public funding and policy.
Real progress is slow, but when major economic changes come about because of new technologies, and when social behaviors change, government must respond. That is when new concepts of shared public spending and taxation begin to make a real difference in family life.