1930 Lanark High School Basketball Team

The Prairie Advocate recently received this photo from Mike Harman of St. Albans, West Virginia of the 1930 Lanark High School basketball team. “My Father, Carl Harman, is pictured, standing at far left,” Mike wrote. “He must have been around 15 years old in the photo.

“My wife and I were in Lanark about 2 years ago. We stopped in the antique store (downtown) and struck up a conversation with the woman there (Sue Appel), who directed me to my uncle Paul Harman’s house (He died at least 25 years ago). My father grew up in Lanark in the 1920’s and 30’s, and played basketball at the high school.

“Uncle Paul was a star athlete and worked for Don Buss at the Buss Bed-Ding plant outside of town. My family would occasionally visit my Uncle Paul, and Aunts Dorothy and Elizabeth Harman, who shared the house with Paul, and were both school teachers.”

Mike said his father graduated as a chemist from the University of Illinois and worked for Monsanto in St. Louis, where Mike was born. He was then sent to Nitro, West Virginia. They bought the house in St. Albans, WV where Mike currently lives.

Mike told of some of his fond memories of Lanark:

“I have only returned to Lanark twice in the past 20 years so probably will not be back for a while,” Mike wrote. “My uncle Paul Harman lived in Lanark until his death, over 30 years ago. I have some fond memories of visiting when I was a kid. A very fun thing was, my cousin Bob Schoen built large radio-control model planes in the back of his shoe repair shop there in downtown Lanark. I was totally enthralled with those things!

“Uncle Paul and Don Buss started up the Buss Bed-Ding factory where they made worm bedding for fishermen, out of ground up recycled paper and dirt. I can remember watching them ram the bedding into yellow retail bags using an old tractor engine for power. Don Buss went on to become a millionaire I believe, but Uncle Paul wanted no part of the business other than to work and get paid for it. He rode a bicycle to work most of the time, but had the first powered lawn mower that I ever saw.”