The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

The Way We Were

Clips from available Mountain Eagle pages since our founding in 1908



 

 

Thursday, February 12, 1925

More than 20 of the most important businessmen of Poor Fork [now Cumberland] met at a luncheon at the Mountain City Hotel there to launch the Poor Fork Chamber of Commerce. “The paving of the streets last summer was concrete evidence of the fact that when they get together and go after a thing they accomplish wonders,” reports the Harlan Enterprise. Adds The Mountain Eagle: “Poor Fork is fully alive and is rapidly becoming one of the most progressive little cities of the Upper Cumberland. With the completion of the Whitesburg-Eolia highway and the energy that will be expended on the county’s highwayfrom Eolia to Poor Fork, we’ll be in two hours’ run of this, our neighbor city.”

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The L&N Railroad is surveying for a location in Harlan County where the L&N line will connect with the Southern Railroad and Clinchfield Railroad lines from southwest Virginia. “The same is true of a line of cut-off of the L&N from Hazard to a point near Elkhorn City,” reports The Appalachian Journal of Knoxville, Tennessee.

This photo from the National EMS Museum shows the Pneolator, introduced in December 1950 by the Mine Safety Applicances Company in Pittsburgh and purchased for use in emergencies by the Jenkins Kiwanis Club in the winter of 1955. The artificial respirator had pressure settings for infant, child and adult. It also had a oxygen powered aspirator to remove secretions from the patient’s airway. The Pneolator weighed 46 lbs. (Photo courtesy National EMS Museum)

This photo from the National EMS Museum shows the Pneolator, introduced in December 1950 by the Mine Safety Applicances Company in Pittsburgh and purchased for use in emergencies by the Jenkins Kiwanis Club in the winter of 1955. The artificial respirator had pressure settings for infant, child and adult. It also had a oxygen powered aspirator to remove secretions from the patient’s airway. The Pneolator weighed 46 lbs. (Photo courtesy National EMS Museum)

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“Bad liquor makes bad people,” Mountain Eagle editor N.M. Webb observes in a front-page commentary about the sale of moonshine whiskey during Prohibition. “It ruins body, reputation and soul. It costs money but is of no value. The Kentuckian is safe if he is sober, but a mighty dangerous man if he is drunk. All good citizens join in the fight against booze.”

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Negro bandits, heavily armed, resisted arrest near Jenkins and Officers Horton and Murphey were shot. It is said the bandits robbed a number of persons. Offi- cer Horton was shot through the foot and Mr. Murphey through the hip. Some of the bandits were wounded before submitting to arrest. One or more escaped.

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Lincoln’s birthday is being observed in Letcher County by the banks, the post office and schools.

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Martin V. Bates, nephew of the great Kentucky giant known as Bud Bates and for whom he was named, died at his home at Millstone.

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There has been some flurry of news circulating about the proposed building of the Kingscreek railway.

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Hazard’s freshmen defeated Whitesburg’s freshmen in a basketball game, 7 to 6.

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Construction of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company in Whitesburg will be finished soon.

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Millstone businessman A.C. Slemp was in Whitesburg recently.

Thursday, February 8, 1945

Dealers in alcoholic beverages were ordered to dispose of their wares immediately after a statement was issued from Frankfort declaring Letcher County officially dry. The statement comes nearly two years after a small majority of Letcher County residents voted 3,001 to 2,972 to outlaw the sale of alcoholic beverages and three months after the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed an earlier ruling that had voided the election because of vote tampering in the Jenkins area.

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The War Department has confirmed its recent telegram informing Mrs. Sallie Hoffman of Whitesburg that her son, Private John G. Hoffman, was killed in action in Belgium on January 7. The Adjutant General’s Office said Hoffman died a hero, but that no more information concerning his death is available.

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Mrs. Heddie Vest of Whitesburg was told by the War Department that her son, Corporal William A. Vest, has been missing in Germany since December 21. The report comes the same week during which Mrs. Vest announces the marriage of her daughter, First Lieutenant Josielee Vest, formerly of Whitesburg, to Lieutenant Colonel Eugene H. Callahan of San Antonio, Texas. The wedding took place somewhere in France on January 18.

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Tech Sergeant John W. Franklin has been awarded the Silver Star for his heroism during a battle in Germany. With all members of Franklin’s platoon wounded and ordered to withdraw from their position near Pointe du Hoc, France, Sgt. Franklin remained alone at his post to cover the withdrawal. In the performance of this heroic act Sgt. Franklin was severely wounded, but still maintained his position until all the other men reached safety. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Franklin of Millstone.

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Staff Sergeant Dura Hale of Jeremiah is back in the United States after serving combat duty for 35 months in the South Pacific.

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Harry M. Caudill has announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the office of Letcher County Court Clerk in the August 4 primary election. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Cro Caudill of Whitesburg, he becomes the first veteran of the present world war to seek election to a Letcher County office. “There are no Democrats or Republicans in the front-line foxholes and slit-trenches,” Caudill, a University of Kentucky student, says. “There are only Americans — and a short distance away, the Japanese or the Germans.”

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Private First Class Corbit Caudill, 28, of Jeremiah was awarded the Purple Heart after being wounded in the hip and right hand while under attack by German forces in the Belgian city of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in December. Caudill is “making very satisfactory progress,” his ward surgeon, Major William H. Gifford, said from an Army hospital in England. Private Caudill is a son of Billy Caudill of Jeremiah. Three of his brothers are also serving overseas in the Army.

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Lieutenant John Salyers of Jenkins has been missing in action in Germany since last month.

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Staff Sergeant Pete Barney of Jenkins and Private Arlie Cook, formerly of Democrat and the husband of Edna Cook, went missing while fighting enemy forces on January 10. Both are soldiers with the Seventh Army in France.

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The people of Neon were shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Captain Guy L. Young, known in Neon as Jr. Young, in France. Captain Young finished high school at Fleming and attended Millersburg Military Institute before enlisting. He had worked for General Electric in Neon. He leaves a 10-year-old daughter in McRoberts to mourn his passing.

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Mr. and Mrs. David McFall of Blackey have been told by the War Department that their son, Private David Mc- Fall, has been seriously wounded in combat somewhere in Belgium. He has been overseas for about one year.

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Sergeant John D. Johnson Jr., son of Mrs. Donna Johnson of McRoberts, has been awarded the Bronze Star for heroic achievement in action. He is serving with the Fifth Army front in Italy with a tank battalion of the First Armored Division.

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Staff Sergeant Floyd Caudill of Eolia has been awarded the Purple Heart and Infantryman’s Badge. Caudill is a patient at LaGarde General Hospital in New Orleans, where he is recovering from wounds he received while fighting German forces at St.-Lo, France. “I had only 25 days of combat duty in France, from June 11 to July 4,” said Caudill, “but they were hot ones.”

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Sam Castle Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Castle of Thornton, was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds he suffered during combat in the European theatre. Castle, 22, has returned to the United States and is in Miami Beach, Florida awaiting his next assignment.

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The City of Whitesburg has “grown in spite of ourselves” and is in need of a “first-class hospital,” a bakery, a laundry, a jeweler, a plumber, an airport, a new water system and a sewer system. That’s the view of Whitesburg City Councilman Ben P. Sergent, who was the featured speaker at the Whitesburg Rotary Club on February 9. Sergent’s observations were included in his address, “Post War Whitesburg — As I See It.” “Twenty years ago there were very few houses in Whitesburg,” said Sergent. “We had one wooden bridge and we had no paved streets. Gradually the town has grown until now. Practically all of our streets are paved, we have three modern bridges, three modern churches, and good school buildings.” Cautioned Sergent: “We are not any too progressive and do not cooperate with each other.”

Thursday, February 10, 1955

Jack Max, former businessman in Jenkins and Neon, has pleaded guilty to murdering his wife in Deland, Florida. Max, 54, of DeBary, Florida, shot his wife to death with a pistol last March. After admitting guilt to second-degree murder last week, he faces a prison term of 20 years to life pending formal sentencing by Volusia Circuit Judge P.B. Revels. The woman Max killed was his second wife, his first wife having been a nurse in the Jenkins area. He killed the second wife, 49-year-old Mildred Gilpen Max, by pumping six .38-caliber bullets into her body, which was later found stuffed into a clothes closet in Max’s home between Orange City and Sanford.

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Mrs. Henry Holbrook of Colley is a patient in the Fleming hospital, where she is being treated for burns she suffered after her clothing caught fire while she was near an open fireplace.

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The Jenkins Kiwanis Club has purchased a Pneolator, which provides automatic artificial respiration for a victim of asphyxia. This instrument, patented in 1951, is an advance in the field of respiration as it inflates the lungs of an unconscious patient with the right amount of oxygen at the right pressure for the individual’s own specific need. The machine was purchased for $420. Classes on how to use the emergency device will be held for members of the Jenkins fire department, police department, Kiwanis Club members, and any other citizens interested. The Pneolator will be kept at the Jenkins Fire House.

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Jennie Coldiron of The Vogue Shop will begin classes in modeling at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays at her shop in Whitesburg. The six-week course is available for girls ages 8 and up.

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Bad luck related to fires has again sturck Mr. and Mrs. Bill Collins of Haymond. The couple’s home was destroyed by fire of unknown origin last Thursday afternoon, just two years after their previous house was among several Haymond homes that burned after a gasoline tanker truck overturned and the spilled gasoline was ignited. The couple have seven children. Mr. Collins works for South East Coal Company.

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Charlie Adams is opening the Adams Barbershop in the Matt Dann Building on Webb Avenue, next door to Whitesburg City Hall. Two chairs are available for customers in the newly decorated shop. A shoeshine boy will also be on hand to help satisfy the customers.

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The state department of highways is accepted sealed bids for construction of the Ulvah-Linefork Road, beginning near the mouth of Turkey Creek and extending south to near the mouth of Big Branch, a distance of 4.002 miles. The project calls for grade, drain and traffic-bound surface.

Thursday, February 11, 1965

Television viewers in Letcher County may soon be watching a channel from Knoxville, Tennessee. Notice is given this week that on February 8, Whitesburg Television Translator Inc. filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission authorizing the construction of a new TV broadcast translator at a site on Pine Mountain near Mayking. The translator would occupy Channel 4 and would rebroadcast WBIR-TV’s the signal. WBIR, the CBS affiliate that signed on the air in August 1956, is broadcast on Channel 10 in its home area.

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With the filing deadline for elections still two months away, 55 candidates have filed for county offices. James M. Caudill filed for re-election to the county judge’s office with three opponents for the Democratic nomination, Alvin Webb, George Renus Gibson and Johnny Fulton.

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”The war on poverty this week became a poor man’s war indeed,” says an editorial in The Mountain Eagle. “Originally, the OEO (Office of Economic Opportunity) had indicated it intended to offer salaries of about $13,000 a year to the men and women hired to plan antipoverty projects in various counties . . . But now, OEO has decided that it will pay only $7,500 to county planners. The reason given is that otherwise the anti-poverty directors would be making more money that the school superintendents and county judges with whom they would be working . . . There has been no word whether OEO plans to cut salaries of its workers who are stationed in Washington to bring them in line with those to be paid in eastern Kentucky.”

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“Ensign Pulver” and “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” are playing at the Alene Theater in Whitesburg.

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Letcher County government offices moved into the new courthouse this week, and fiscal court took immediate steps to see that the courthouse keeps its new look. The court approved an order declaring penalties of up to $500 for persons who litter the courthouse or otherwise harm it. Formal dedication for the new building will be held in April.

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Seven more Letcher County boys have left for service in the Job Corps, an agency of the federal Office of Economic Opportunity. Eleven others left just a few weeks ago.

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Coal production in the Hazard field amounted to 128,410 tons for the week ended February 6, bringing the total for the year to date to 755,400 tons, about 14 percent less than this time last year.

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About 150 Letcher County merchants attended meetings here this week to hear details of the new food stamp program that will start in the county in March. Letcher County will be the 10th eastern Kentucky county to join the food stamp program

Thursday, February 13, 1975

Thirty-four-year-old Mary Ann Childers, a coal miner, is working the “hoot-owl” shift for Beth-Elkhorn Corporation at its Mine No. 22 at Deane. She is the daughter, the stepdaughter, and the wife of coal miners. According to the United Mine Workers, she is one of only 30 union women miners in the country.

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Letcher County residents described roads with potholes, mudslides, broken pavement, and dangerous bridges to the state Special Subcommittee on Highway Safety Problems, which met in Whitesburg. The subcommittee, which includes Rep. Hoover Dawahare, DWhitesburg, voted to recommend a number of area road improvements to the Kentucky Bureau of Highways.

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Rupp Arena has been chosen as the name of the sports coliseum that will be part of a $46 million Lexington complex. Scheduled for completion in the fall of 1976, the basketball showcase will seat more than 20,000 people. The arena is named for Adolph Rupp, who was the University of Kentucky basketball coach for 41 years.

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Rib roast is $1.29 a pound at the A&P Food Store. Pork chops are $1.09 a pound.

Wednesday, February 20, 1985

The Letcher County Board of Education plans to relocate Whitesburg Middle School and renovate and add onto the present Whitesburg High School as soon as possible after state approval is received. Members of the school board voted unanimously to remodel the existing buildings on School Hill and build a 24-classroom addition. The new middle school is to be located next to the elementary school in West Whitesburg.

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”Did the deep snow bring many feathered friends to your door?” asks Jeremiah correspondent Hassie Breeding Helton. “I had so many and a new type I hadn’t seen before. With a book on birds, I found they were titmice . . . I have never seen as many birds in this area.”

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The Fleming-Neon Lady Pirates defeated the Cawood Lady Trojans 79-58. The Lady Pirates had four players in double figures. The Lady ‘Jackets ran their record to 20-2 with a win over the Lady Mountain Lions of Pineville.

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Jeff Blair, a senior at Letcher High School, performed with the Kentucky All- State Symphonic Band in Louisville. The performance was the finale to a conference of the Kentucky Music Educators Association.

Wednesday, February 15, 1995

The Kentucky Department of Transportation sent a notice to the Letcher County Fiscal Court saying the county had 10 days to make arrangements to start paying $7,9429.23 it owes the state for road salt and bridge flooring since 1985 and 1986. The next day the county judge’s office received a separate notice from the Transportation Cabinet saying court action would be taken in 10 days if arrangements aren’t made to pay $84,471.09 that had been due for road and bridge materials since 1984. Judge/Executive Carroll Smith says the county will contest the two bills.

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The Kentucky Board of Education indicated it is not likely to turn the Letcher County school system back to local management for some time. The Kentucky Department of Education has been in control of the Letcher County system since June 1994, when it brought charges of “gross mismanagement” of the system against then-Superintendent Jack Burkich and signed a contract with the Letcher County Board of Education permitting its members to remain in office and to carry on the functions of a local school board while state managers took over the day-today supervision of the schools.

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”The Brady Bunch Movie” and “The Quick and the Dead” are playing at Whitesburg 1 & 2.

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The Lady ‘Jackets, the state’s topranked girls’ team, downed the Lady Cavaliers to reach 22-0. The top scorer in the game, however, was Jenkins’ Karrah Sampson with 26 points.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

The Letcher County Fiscal Court received another warning from County Treasurer Phillip Hampton about a possible budget shortfall that could reach more than $1 million in a worst-case scenario. Hampton told the court that a combination of payroll, landfill fees, health insurance, and other costs could send the court into a serious deficit by June 30.

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The Letcher County Sheriff ’s Department says two men and a woman were arrested while waiting for the United Parcel Service to deliver prescription narcotics ordered through the Internet. The arrests were made in the parking lot of the Ermine Post Office while the three were waiting for a UPS delivery truck to come by.

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A house belonging to Lawrence Goodgame of Fleming caught fire February 11 and quickly burned out of control. Neon Volunteer Fire Chief Carter Bevins believes the blaze started when a coal fire spilled from a grate in the front room. Bevins said the wooden coal camp house was built between 1928 and 1934, and that the lumber was very dry and burned quickly.

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A public meeting to discuss measure to increase highway safety along Letcher County portions of KY 463, KY 160 and KY 510 will be held February 22. The focus of the meeting will be danger speed and commercial vehicles place on residents traveling these roadways.


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