The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

The Way We Were

Clips from available Mountain Eagle pages since our founding in 1908



 

 

Thursday, August 2, 1934

Twenty-five men and women are in the Letcher County Jail this week, with the cost of keeping those who persist in breaking the law about 85 cents per person per day, or about $21 per day for all. The jailer’s claim for county and state is seldom less than $600 per month, which adds up to something more than $7,000 per year. The time may come soon when the fines paid will at least offset the cost of maintaining the jail.

.

No whiskey is allowed to be sold or consumed this coming Saturday, which is primary Election Day. “Keep in mind the wicked condition that prevailed [in Whitesburg] and in the county last August,” writes Mountain Eagle editor and publisher Nehemiah Webb.

.

A Jenkins City Police officer is lingering between life and death at the Jenkins hospital, where he is being treated for a gunshot wound that was apparently selfinfl icted. No one has been able to determine why Officer Dock Blevins shot himself or even if he did fire the shot himself.

.

“When at your leisure, you might think of the big circus to be held here next Tuesdays,” writes Eagle editor/ publisher Webb. “Barnett Brothers is said to be a good one.”

Thursday, August 3, 1944

Mr. and Mrs. Arch Cornett of Blackey have received word from the War Department that their son, Staff Sergeant Emil Cornett, is missing after a raid over Hungary. The raid occurred July 14. Sgt. Cornett was a tail gunner on a B-24 with the 15th Air Force in Italy.

.

Garnett Wright, an employee in the engineering department at Consolidation Coal Company in Jenkin, died at the Jenkins Hospital yesterday of injuries he received when he was caught under a slate fall while riding to work inside the mine.

.

The Premium Coal Company payroll was looted on Friday, and some $3,700 is reported to have been taken from the safe.

Thursday, July 29, 1954

William B. Hall of Whitesburg assumed the duties of Superintendent of Schools of Letcher County on July 23 after Circuit Judge Courtney C. Wells dissolved a restraining order that had forbidden Mr. Hall from taking office on July 1. A native of Deane, Hall has been a teacher in the county school system for the past several years. He has also served as principal at Fleming-Neon High and Grade School and at Kingdom Come Settlement School.

.

A huge gasoline truck loaded with several hundred gallons of gasoline overturned on Pine Mountain Wednesday morning. Luckily, no one was hurt after the trailer section broke loose from the cab.

Thursday, July 30, 1964

The Letcher County Board of Education has accepted a bid of $247,600 for construction of the new Martha Jane Potter School at Kona.

.

Letcher County schools will open August 24 for the 1964-65 school year. School will end May 19.

.

”Count your fogs in August,” writes Millstone correspondent Mabel Kiser. “We will have a snow this winter for each fog we have in August.”

.

Danny Day, president of the Whitesburg chapter of the Future Farmers of America, was presented a Leadership Award at a Leadership Training Center. Others attending the Leadership Training Center were Ronnie Fields, vice-president; Garry Creech, secretary; Edwin Holbrook, treasurer; Larry Brown, reporter; and Larry Taylor. Their advisor is Veron Campbell.

Thursday, August 1, 1974

One hundred workers at Whitesburg Appalachian Regional Hospital have returned to work, ending a fourmonth strike which idled employees throughout the 10-hospital chain. An agreement to end the strike was announced jointly by the Appalachian Regional Hospitals and the United Steelworkers of America.

.

A Mountain Eagle editorial proposes that a national television network carry in detail the main proceedings in Congress. “Such a network could be regionalized and in season, could carry televised proceedings of state legislatures, and even of county governing bodies and city councils. The time has long passed when government must be protected from voters by keeping the voters ignorant.”

.

Fifteen youngsters participated in a day camp held at the Cowan Community Center. Among the activities was a hike at Lilley Cornett Woods.

.

Army Private Emil R. Bowen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Bowen of Whitesburg, has completed a seven-week recovery and evacuation special course in Maryland. He is serving at Fort Polk, La.

Wednesday, August 1, 1984

Figures released by the Kentucky Department for Mines and Minerals show that only one mining company with operations in Letcher County ranked among the state’s top 10 coal producers in 1983. Blue Diamond Mining Co., which owns Scotia Coal Co. at Oven Fork, was the eighth largest producer, mining 1,685,126 tons.

.

A virus infection is hitting green beans in Letcher County. The virus which is affecting the beans but not their human consumers, is known as bean mosaic. Its symptoms are puckering of the leaves of bean plants, and yellowing of the leaves in tiny patches. The bean vines are stunted, then die.

.

Kate Adkins of Neon, celebrated her 100th birthday July 26, 1984. She is the widow of Cleveland Adkins, who died in 1932, and has one living daughter, Phoebe Fields of Little Cowan.

.

Schools are scheduled to open August 14 in both the Letcher County and Jenkins Independent systems. The last day of school in the Letcher County system is planned to be May 14, and May 9 in the Jenkins system.

Wednesday, August 3, 1994

The Letcher County Board of Education has approved a plan to centralize the operations of its food service program. Menus will be designed by the food service director in consultation with lunchroom managers, students and parents. Food for the entire district, with the exception of bread and milk, will be orderly weekly from the central office.

.

Kentucky heroes and legends will be the theme of the 1994 Mountain Heritage Festival. Raymond Smith of Whitesburg, a World War II veteran, will be grand marshal of the festival parade, and former Whitesburg resident Virginia Combs of Lexington, will be honored as a legend.

.

The jobless rate in Letcher County is the fifth highest in the state. Letcher County’s 11.4 percent jobless rate is also the highest in the eight-county Kentucky River Area Development District.

.

Ray Venters of Sebring, Fla., has returned to Letcher County to receive a 50-year membership certification pin from Whitesburg Masonic Lodge #754. Venters worked at Kyva Motor Company from 1924 to 1954.

Wednesday, August 4, 2004

Jimmy W. Anderson, 33, of Kona, was killed August 2 in an underground mining accident in Knott County. He died after a rock fell on him while he was trying to secure a roof about 1,500 feet inside a Reedy Coal Company mine at Pinetop.

.

Felony indictments have been returned against two men charged with smoking marijuana and abusing prescription pills while they were inmates in the Letcher County Jail.

.

Donnie Jackson Adams, 23, has qualified for the largest amateur motocross race in the world, the 23rd annual Air Nautiques AMA (American Motorcycle Association) Amateur Motocross Championships. The race runs from August 2 through August 5 at the Loretta Lynn Ranch near Nashville, Tenn.

.

Letcher County students will return to school on August 6. Jenkins students begin school on August 9.


Leave a Reply