The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Blackey history from the ‘20s




Blackey news, 1926–1927

The Blackey Ice Company wants to sell you ice. Delivery wagon to the city M-W-F. Leave orders with Willie Webb. ( Note: The concrete foundation of the old ice plant is still there.)

Absolute Auction: On July 22, 1926. 100 lots, 1 hotel, storehouse and 6-room dwelling. The Jeff Ison homeplace. Also, we will sell the 8-room house and 6 lots on Elk Creek, owned by Mr. Ison, the D. Blair property. FREE – one lot or $100 in cash. You must be present to win.

June 3, 1926: All lots in the upper division near the Ison home sold quickly. The hotel sold for $5,125 and Jailer Fess Whitaker bought it. Total sales = $ 15,000. This sale will make Blackey grow out of its bounds and increase its prestige as a city.

June 30, 1926: The Blackey State Bank had $118,863.42 in assets.

Sept. 2, 1926: The big foundation for the Blackey Presbyterian Church is finished. Jack Starkey did this fine piece of work.

Dr. Ison’s hospital is a fine place. Luckily there are only 2 patients, and they are doing fine.

Charlie Caudill is the new grocer and meat man on Main Street, and is doing a fine business.

Oct. 21. 1926: Nath Morgan, 22, was killed and Joe Dixon, son of W.C. Dixon, was perhaps fatally hurt in a mine explosion at Blackey.

Nov 25, 1926: David D. Kelley, Blackey, was almost instantly killed in a tipple accident while working for the Rockhouse Coal Company. Members of the Blackey Masonic Lodge took charge of the funeral and burial.

Dec. 29, 1926: The Blackey Grade School defeated Whitesburg in a basketball game by a score of 10 to 7.

Jan. 26, 1927: In a pistol battle at Blackey, Jack Noble, 22, of Breathitt County, was instantly killed and Deputy Sheriff M. F. Hall, shot through the leg and seriously wounded. Noble had been drinking and had been going around shooting and terrorizing people in Blackey. Hall followed Noble up the railroad tracks a short distance, and when he got close enough, called upon him to surrender. Noble responded by shooting Hall in the leg. The officer fell, and while going down, drew his pistol and shot Noble through the heart, killing him instantly.

Feb. 3, 1927: Melvin ‘Buddy’ Salyer, an employee of the Rockhouse Coal Company of Blackey, was electrocuted yesterday as he leaned against the substation power line, which had an exposed wire. He received a charge of 35,000 volts. He left a wife and 4 children.

March 24, 1927: C.P. Stafford and a man by the name of Mullins were killed in a slate fall at the Blackey mine of the Consolidated Fuel Company. Stafford was a motorman and Mullins was his helper. Stafford leaves a wife and 3 children. Mullins was not married.

April 28, 1927: Work has begun on a new brick building for the Blackey State Bank. This is the first business house in Blackey to be built of brick. The cost of this new building is $10,000.

Sept. 15, 1927: Open house celebration at Blackey State Bank. The building has running water and men’s and women’s restrooms.

Sept. 29, 1927: Blackey has its first concrete street poured at a cost of $22,000.

Complied by Jim Cornett from articles in old copies of The Mountain Eagle.



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