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When the West Virginia Agriculture and Forestry Hall of Fame welcomes six new members this weeknd, half the class will share a single thread — Upshur County, and the farms, sawmills and forests where they built their life’s work.
The hall will honor its 2026 class with a banquet on Saturday, July 11, at Jackson’s Mill. A reception begins at 4 p.m., followed by dinner at 5 p.m. Chartered in 1974, the hall recognizes West Virginians who have made outstanding contributions to agriculture, forestry and family life in the state and beyond.
“This year’s inductees represent the very best of West Virginia’s agriculture and forestry communities,” said Matthew Wilson, the hall’s board president. “Their lifelong commitment to innovation, stewardship and service has made a lasting impact not only on their industries, but on the families and communities they support.”
Three of the six honorees come from elsewhere in the state: Lloyd Earnest of Cameron and Lynwood “Woody” Ireland of Pullman, both for agriculture, and Dennis “Denny” Barron of Shepherdstown, for family life. The other three are bound to this corner of West Virginia.
For many in Buckhannon, Donnie Tenney needs little introduction. As president of the Buckhannon-Upshur Farmers Market, he is often the grower behind the table on a Friday evening, handing over the sweet corn and pumpkins himself.
Tenney, of Tallmansville, is being inducted for agriculture. A Vietnam veteran educated at West Virginia University and West Virginia Wesleyan College, he has spent five decades as owner and operator of Appalachian Acres, Inc., a 45-acre farm of managed timberland, high tunnels and greenhouses. He served 18 years as an Upshur County commissioner, chairs the Tygarts Valley Conservation District after 18 years as a supervisor there, and is president of the West Virginia Association of Conservation Districts. He has produced maple and sorghum syrup, taught microgreen production and supported Farm to School programs.
He has also been candid about the pressures bearing down on small growers. Addressing the Rotary Club of Buckhannon-Upshur in August 2024, Tenney laid out the arithmetic of a hard season.
“Everyone knows and feels the impact of inflation. Four years ago, we paid $12 a pound for our sweet corn seed, and this year it’s $36 a pound,” he said. “Fertilizer has doubled, and we used to get farm help for $10 an hour, but now it’s $15 to get anybody to help. And you always lose 30 to 40 percent of what you have planted to insects, animals, the weather.”
His larger worry is who will grow the food once his generation can no longer do it. Tenney has noted that in the 1890 census, farming accounted for 90 percent of the listed occupations in Upshur County.
“Here’s the dilemma we face: if we don’t have more participation to get more people involved in growing, then eventually old people like me are going to die or get to the point we can’t farm like we would like to,” he said. “It takes both sides of that dynamic; it takes people to grow, to have produce, to sell, and it takes people to buy in order to keep people growing.”
Edward Kraynok built his name in the West Virginia woods. Honored for forestry, he spent more than four decades in forest management and timberland operations across the Appalachian region.
Kraynok earned a bachelor’s degree in forest science from Penn State in 1973 and began his career as a forester in West Virginia with Frazee Lumber Company. In 1977 he joined Coastal Lumber Company and helped engineer its acquisition of Frazee, folding the smaller company into Coastal’s growing footprint. Over the next 35 years he helped expand the company’s land base and rose to vice president. A member of the Society of American Foresters, he also served as president of the West Virginia Forestry Association.
Dale Woody’s life in the timber began in 1950, working beside his father at the family sawmill on Jenks Fork. He is being inducted for forestry.
After serving in the West Virginia National Guard, Woody came home and helped build Woody Lumber Company into one of the state’s most respected timber operations. He was named president in 1966 — the same year the company was incorporated in Upshur County. He extended the company’s reach overseas through Woody Forest Products and represented West Virginia on the Hardwood Products Trade Mission to Asia in 1985. He received the West Virginia Forestry Association President’s Award in 1989 and served for years on the First Community Bank board of directors.
At 88, Woody still spends his days caring for the forests that have defined his life.
