The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Clips from available Mountain Eagle pages since our founding in 1907




Thursday, November 4, 1926 A 50-year-old Whitesburg taxi driver was shot and killed by a 30-year-old Caudill Town man early Wednesday morning. John Combs was shot four times by Henry Holcomb. The shooting took place at Holcomb’s home and apparently was the result of a relationship Combs was having with Holcomb’s wife. Combs was Holcomb’s step-father-in-law.

. The Cumberland Bus Lines, the latest transportation company to enter the local field, now makes regular runs from Jenkins to Norton, using seven big Hudson and Studebaker vehicles.

. Pharmacist Charles G. Passmore has left his job at Fitzpatrick Drug Store in Whitesburg and has moved to the city of Chicago.

. One of the newest enterprises in Letcher County is a large new steam laundry at Jenkins. It employs 17 women and seven men and is owned by the Smith family.

. A well-known Whitesburg man was killed in a slate fall in the old Issacs & Lewis mine. The victim, Hiram Fields, was working with Andy Mays and Oliver Mullins driving a new heading in the mines and had gone back a distance of about 30 feet when the unsupported top gave way. Mays and Mullins tried to extricate Fields from under the rock, but it was in vain and they had to come to town for assistance.

Thursday, November 14, 1946 November 17 is the date set by the L&N Railroad to introduce how band new fast coach streamline trains, The Humming Bird and The Georgian. After christening ceremonies the two trains will immediately begin operation at Cincinnati, New Orleans, St. Louis and Atlanta. The Humming Bird will make its 922-mile run between Cincinnati at New Orleans in exactly 19 hours; and The Georgian will complete its trips between St. Louis and Atlanta, 612 miles, in 12 hours and 52 minutes. The airconditioned diesel-engine trains are the fastest yet to be run between these cities.

. Curtis Boggs, a well-known citizen of Eolia, was burned to death when his home caught fire sometime Wednesday night. Mr. Boggs lived with his sister, but she was away at the time of the tragedy.

. The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled this week that veteran politician Zach Bentley was duly elected to the office of police judge of the City of Neon. Bentley and S. Martin Wright ran on independent tickets. After the official count showed Bentley got 157 votes and Wright 149, Wright contested the election. Special Letcher Circuit Judge B.F. Wooton ruled the election void because of illegally voted ballots. The Appellate Court ruled that Wooten erred in throwing the ballots out.

. A definite plan to sell houses in the town of Jenkins has been worked out, beginning with the month of November, Consolidation Coal Company says. Madison A. Dunlop has resigned his present position with Consol as assistant to the president to devote his entire time as agent for the company in the sale of the houses. Present tenants of company houses will be given the first opportunity buy. One group of houses will be sold at a time.

. Only eight days remain before the possible deadline for a soft coal strike. Secretary of the Interior Krug postponed his meeting set for today with UMW President John L. Lewis.

. Curtis Combest, a 42-year-old Danville, Ky., native who has been working as a mechanic for Combs Motor Company in Whitesburg the past few years, was fatally injured in an accident involving three trucks on Saturday. Injured seriously was young Fulton Combs, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Combs. James Adams, son of Melvin Adams of Craft’s Colley, was arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter in the accident. The wreck is said to have happened when a Dr. Pepper truck broke down a short distance from Pine Mountain Junction. Combest drove up in a truck to help service the Dr. Pepper truck, and as he and young Combs were working, the third truck, driven by Adams, collided with the Dr. Pepper truck.

. Seven Letcher County boys are attending Millersburg Military Institute. They are: Bobby Craft of Neon; Isaac Monks Hall of Whitesburg; Townsel E. Lee Adams of Whitesburg; Billy Paul Correll of Neon, and A.F. Dawahare, Martin Dawahare, and Hoover Dawahare, all of Whitesburg.

Thursday, November 9, 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, defeated Democratic challenger Adlai E. Stevenson II in Letcher County, 5,899 votes to 4,086, on his way to a second landslide victory nationwide. His running mate again was Richard M. Nixon.

. Seven-year-old Philip Howard had the misfortune of being bitten by a rabid cat recently while playing near his home in the Whitesburg area. Tests have confirmed the cat was rabid.

. The Fleming-Neon Pirates will meet the Cumberland Redskins in the first Coal Bowl on November 10. The game will be played in Cumberland. Pre-game festivities, including a parade, are expected to attract 25,000 people. The Neon Lions Club and Whitesburg VFW Club will have floats in the parade.

. A new type of coal shuttle car, developed and patented by Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Company, will be manufactured in Ashland, Ky., in an assembly-line process by the National Mine Service Company. The new car will be constructed of steel and will weigh 26,000 pounds. Its single electric motor will be manufactured elsewhere. Full production of the cars will mean 10 per week.

. The U.S. Civil Service Commission is taking applications for the position of custodial labor. The position pays an hourly rate of $1.49 or an annual salary of $3090.

Thursday, November 10, 1966 Just how effective are federal and state anti-poverty programs in eastern Kentucky? This question will be the subject of a public hearing in Whitesburg to be conducted by the National Council of Churches.

. The Appalachian Regional Commission this week gave formal approval to plans to complete the rebuilding of the Whitesburg-Hazard road and the Whitesburg-Jenkins road. In all, the new commission set aside $17,381,000 in funds for work on the new U. S. 119 and the new Ky. 15 between Jenkins and Whitesburg.

. Letcher County voters did the expected Tuesday and gave overwhelming support to Republican Senator John Sherman Cooper and Democratic Congressman

Carl D. Perkins.

. Letcher County School Board Chairman Dr. B.F. Wright won absolute control of the county school system this week, as candidates who were opposed to Wright’s leadership lost in two contested school board races.

. Farmers in Letcher County can add to their income next year buy growing cucumbers to be processed into pickles, says Hubert W. Davis, University of Kentucky Extension Service vegetable specialist. Cucumber growers who do a good job in 1967 may gross as much as $1,500 an acre, Davis said.

. Airman Danny M. Hatton, son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Hatton of Whitesburg, has been selected for technical training as a U.S. Air Force air policeman. He is a graduate of Whitesburg High School.

. B.P. Sergent, a 71-year-old Letcher County native and longtime manager of Home Lumber Company in Whitesburg, died in Lexington, where he moved after retiring.

Thursday, November 11, 1976 Recent federal inspections of the two working Scotia Coal Co. mines reveal violations of mining law that are similar to those on record as occurring in the company’s No. 1 mine the days, weeks and months before that mine exploded last March. The two mines were cited four times last month by federal Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration inspectors for failure to provide adequate ventilation to working areas. In all, the two mines were cited 52 times for violation of federal mining law in about 10 days of inspection during last September and early October.

. Federal mining officials and representatives of Blue Diamond Coal Co. told the widows and families of the 15 men entombed in the Scotia Mine since last March that recovery teams should reach the bodies by the end of next week.

. The Whitesburg Yellowjackets scored 18 points in the first two minutes of play against Virgie last Thursday before running an offensive play. Whitesburg went on to defeat Virgie 37-0.

. Whole pork roasts are on sale this week for 87 cents a pound at the A&P Food Store. Beef sirloin tip is $1.29 a pound.

Wednesday, November 12, 1986 Federal officials issued a closure order to a City of Fleming-Neon strip-mining operation and Mayor James Seals immediately cried foul. Roger Calhoun, chief of the regulatory branch of the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) in Lexington, said that the agency had decided that the project does not meet federal criteria, which allow strip-mining without a permit when removal of the coal is incidental to a government-financed project.

. BethEnergy will close its division maintenance shops in Dunham effective December 5, a spokesman for the

company said. The closing will cause the layoffs of 18 hourly workers and five salaried employees who have been doing maintenance for mines 25, 26 and 29.

. The new Whitesburg Middle School building will be completed sometime next semester, allowing students to vacate temporary classrooms outside Whitesburg High School and assorted areas at West Whitesburg Elementary School. The students have been without permanent classrooms since the fire destroyed the middle school in 1980.

Wednesday, November 13, 1996 Board chairman Tommy Vanover, who has been leading the fight against state efforts to improve the county school system, failed to win re-election last Tuesday as a member of the county school board for District Two. First-time candidate Steven Carroll Sexton defeated Vanover, 362 votes to 328.

. Unless someone comes up with a workable plan to restore the old Kingdom Come Settlement School building at Linefork, the Letcher County Board of Education may have to tear it down. The building is a safety hazard in its present condition, school officials say. The school system does not have the money to restore the building itself and may have to demolish it if no one can find a way to make it safe.

. An apparent rash of deaths related to overdoses of the pain-killing drug morphine is causing concern in Letcher County. According to reports circulating around the county, as many as seven young Letcher County adults have died of morphine overdoses in the last 14 months.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 Letcher County Clerk Winston Meade said a “major screw up” uncovered two days after the November 7 election will result in a new winner being declared for office of magistrate in District One. Gary Cornett, a Democrat, left the courthouse Tuesday night believing he had defeated Republican Bobby D. Lewis by 22 votes, 1,058 to 1,036. When county election officials were getting ready to certify the results, they found a clerical error that showed Cornett was credited with 53 more votes and Lewis was credited with eight more votes than they really got on a voting machine at Eolia.

. A jury was selected and opening arguments were presented on the first day of the trial against 41-year-old Edward Morton, who is charged with complicity to murder in the death of one of his infant triplets.

. Letcher County residents should be receiving their tax bills in the next few days. Letcher County Sheriff Danny Webb said 2006 tax bills were mailed out yesterday (Tuesday). Webb said the bills were late because of delays in setting the tax rates.

. Letcher County resident Lois Baker was inducted into the University of Kentucky College of Public Health Hall of Fame. She recently retired as chief executive officer of the Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation.



Leave a Reply