The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

The Way We Were




Clips from available Mountain Eagle pages since our founding in 1907

Thursday, November 23, 1916 New through daily train service was inaugurated between Whitesburg and Lexington, via Natural Bridge. The train leaves Whitesburg at 12:37 p.m., arrives in Winchester at 7:40 p.m., and in Lexington at 8:30 p.m. The Whitesburg-bound train leaves Lexington at 6:45 a.m. and arrives in Whitesburg at 2:32 p.m. This new service replaces trains 7 and 8 formerly operated between Jackson and McRoberts. Also, the time of train No. 3 has been changed to leave Whitesburg at 7:49 p.m., arriving in McRoberts at 8:30 p.m.

. Cool nights and warm days are the order of the day.

. It was reported that a Mexican man was shot and killed Tuesday by an officer on duty at the Hemphill coal camp. No particulars were available at press time.

. Only the finishing touches await the completion of the new school atop College Hill in Whitesburg. “When you come to town, take advantage of the occasion and go upon College Hill and see what a beautiful building your money is erecting,” The Mountain Eagle says. “You’ll find it a dandy — one of the best in the mountains in every particular.”

. About 600 “awfully good citizens” now make up the list of subscribers to The Mountain Eagle. At least 300 of them appear to be Republican voters, while about 200 are Democrats. “We would like to have about the same number of each,” The Eagle says.

. Wedding bells were ringing in Whitesburg on Friday for Professor G. Bennett Adams and Miss Ella Combs, daughter of Letcher Circuit Clerk S.P. Combs. Professor Adams is one of the leading teachers in the Graded School here and a popular young minister of the Baptist Church. He is a son of merchant S.E. Adams of Mayking and a graduate of the Louisville Law School.

. The Bank of Hindman lists total assets of $97,072 against total liabilities of $97,072. “The attention of our many readers is called to the excellent financial statement of the Hindman bank, printed in this issue,” The Eagle says. “Letcher County is proud of her sister county, Knott.”

. Letcher County residents with furs to sell are asked to contact M. Sable & Sons of Louisville.

. A man hunting rabbits in Woodford County in central Kentucky killed a wildcat measuring three feet, seven inches.

. An oil well just drilled near Warfield, Kentucky is flowing 100 barrels per day, being the biggest strike yet made in the Big Sandy field. The Ohio Oil, Gas and Distributing Company of Ashland, Kentucky will proceed to drill six wells in the same locality.

Thursday, November 25, 1926 A special election will be held in Whitesburg on November 27 to give all “white legal voters” the opportunity to decide whether the “White Graded Common School District No. 1 of Letcher County” should be permitted to sell $27,000 in bonds “for the purpose of providing suitable grounds, school buildings, furniture and apparatus.” The money would be used to build a dormitory to accommodate the 150 county students expected to be enrolled in the Whitesburg High School next year. About 100 students who live in Whitesburg will attend the school next year.

. The big lot sale held near Blackey on Saturday was big success, as about 150 beautiful building and house lots were sold. Former Mountain Eagle editor Nehemiah Webb was present for the sale and now believes that Blackey will become the next Berea with the presence Stuart Robinson School where, Webb says, “hundreds of the brightest intellects from the mountains are drinking from the fountains of knowledge.” According to Webb, the “Backs, Caudills, Dixons, Whitakers, Isons, and Fieldses … were the rival bidders and buyers,” adding that “they will make this new annex to the City of Blackey a hub around which will radiate the beams of enlightenment and culture in the years to come.” Webb said he was present in Berea when Berea College opened about 40 years ago. “There was only slight hopes for (Berea College) gaining a foothold, but a few men of intellect and power were behind it,” Webb writes. “It had none of the vim that is backing Stuart Robinson.”

. Mrs. D. Smith of Jeremiah was the winner of the new Ford touring car given away as part of the big lot sale near Blackey over the weekend. The car would have gone to Mr. H.M. Craft of Mayking, but he was not present at the time as required by the rules of the drawing.

. Students in the Upper Sandlick School won a spelling contest with students of the Lower Sandlick School.

. Tonsorial artist Hugh Combs is moving his barbershop and poolroom to the Daniel Boone Hotel building in the space formerly occupied by the Whitesburg Post Office.

. Concrete pavement is being laid on Church Street in front of the Presbyterian Church in Whitesburg and other properties on that block.

. The Karlton Theatre of Hazard has been sold.

. The Blackey Bluebirds defeated the Blair Branch basketball team, 9 to 5.

Thursday, November 28, 1946 A small item appeared in last week’s Mountain Eagle offering a prize to the first person guessing who the Abbott & Costello business partners of Neon were. This created quite a lot of interest, with phone calls and letters coming from all over the county. The winner was Alice Fields, who works in the county school superintendent’s office. She was the first of several who correctly guessed Abdoo & McKinney. She received a nice costume jewelry pin as a prize.

. Dawahare’s Department Store and the Whitesburg Department Store have opened toy departments in their basements for the Christmas season.

. Studebaker has announced new price increases ranging from $32 to $64 for all new passenger car models.

. Miss Kentucky, Madonna Smith of Jenkins, was appointed by Governor Willis to represent the state in the Birmingham Christmas Carnival in Alabama.

. Brownouts and other coal saving measures went into effect in 21 states east of the Mississippi River on November 26. Meanwhile, United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis will be tried next Wednesday on contempt charges filed against him after the UMW ignored a federal

injunction against the coal strike.

. The Coldiron Farm located on Whitesburg Road near Cumberland will be sold at auction on Saturday, November 30. The property will be subdivided into 100 business and residential lots and baby farms.

. Tennessee punt return specialist Walter Slater returned a George Blanda kick 54 yards to help Tennessee to a 7-0 win over Kentucky.

. Eighty-two people were killed in traffic accidents in Kentucky in October, the highest total since 102 people were killed in December 1941.

. Gary Cooper and Lilli Palmer star in “Cloak and Dagger” during a Thanksgiving night showing at the Kentucky Theatre in Whitesburg.

Thursday, November 22, 1956 Letcher County native Thomas E. Gish has purchased The Mountain Eagle. W.P. Nolan, the Eagle’s current publisher, said Gish would take over operation of the paper January 1. Nolan and his wife, Martha, have published the paper since 1938. Gish, a native of Seco, and his wife, the former Pat Burnett, have had wide experience in the newspaper field. Gish, 30, has been manager of the United Press’s Frankfort bureau the past nine years. Mrs. Gish was a staff reporter for the Lexington Leader for eight years. Both are graduates of the University of Kentucky. Gish’s father, B.F. Gish, is superintendent of South-East Coal Company’s mines at Seco and Millstone. Tom and Pat Gish have two daughters, Ann, 4, and Sarah, 2.

. Frank Smith, general superintendent at Blue Diamond Coal Company’s mine at Leatherwood, was elected president of the Kentucky Mining Institute at the group’s annual meeting held recently at the Phoenix Hotel in Lexington.

Thursday, November 24, 1966 A new 30,000 square-foot building is being erected near Isom to house Letcher Manufacturing Company, which manufactures couches, chairs and other office furniture for use by the federal government. The new factory is the brainchild of Billie Lois Baker, wife of Nathan Baker. The new firm has already received a certificate of merit for its high quality of work from the General Services Administration. “Her enthusiasm is boundless and contagious,” Mountain Eagle editor Tom Gish writes of Mrs. Baker, “and if you spend much time talking with her you will want to go out and start your own factory.”

. The City of Whitesburg this week received notice of approval of an $188,000 federal grant-and-loan to finance a new water supply for the city. Congressman Carl D. Perkins said Whitesburg would receive a $98,000 public works grant and a $90,000 loan from the Economic Development Administration to build the new system. The funds will be used to build a low-level dam in the Kentucky River in the area near the Whitesburg Appalachian Regional Hospital and to pipe the water downstream to the water plant near Whitesburg High School.

. Pre-school children are invited to join a kindergarten class each Friday around 11 a.m. in the Letcher County Public Library to watch films provided by the State Department of Libraries.

. “We have a bountiful supply of food, our United States is one of the richest countries in the world in natural resources, in spiritual knowledge, in medical techniques, in beauty and in the finer things of life. No nation under heaven has been more blessed than our nation. Yet, I wonder just how many of millions will pause one minute Thursday morning and say, ‘Thank you, God, for everything.’ Said from the heart it means so much, and it takes so little time to say it.” — Millstone correspondent Mabel Kiser

Thursday, November 25, 1976 Attorney General Edward H. Levi has told United Mine Workers President Arnold Miller that the failure of federal judges in the Eastern District of Kentucky to schedule civil penalty trials for coal operators violating federal mining regulations has “effectively insulated” mine owners from paying the fines provided in the 1969 mine safety law as a deterrent to law violations.

The bodies of eight miners and three federal inspectors killed in a March 11 methane gas explosion at the Scotia Mine were recovered Friday. Two days after the explosion the mines was sealed with the 11 bodies inside.

. Plans to construct a $1.2 million nursing home in Whitesburg starting next spring have been announced by Barton Associates of Corbin

. Pork loin is on sale at the Whitesburg A&P food store for 89 cents a pound. Turkeys are 37 cents a pound.

Wednesday, November 26, 1986 Hiram Wright, a son of County Court Clerk Charlie Wright, was deer hunting near the Roanoke area of Virginia last week when a black bear came walking near a deer trail Wright was watching. Wright, who has a bear license, shot the 6-foot male bear four times. He estimates that the bear weighs 300 pounds.

. Commonwealth’s Attorney James Wiley Craft has asked the state House of Representatives to declare him the winner of the race for state representative in the 91st Legislative District. Craft has filed a petition with the House charging that results from one precinct are “so tainted” they should be eliminated from determining the winner of the November 4 general election between Craft, a Republican, and Whitesburg businessman Paul Mason, a Democrat. Craft won the race in Letcher County by 471 votes, but lost the district — which also includes portions of Pike and Perry counties — by a margin of 98 votes.

. Forty-three percent of Kentucky’s Appalachian counties lost population from 1984 to 1985, the state’s population studies center reported this week. Letcher was one of the 21 counties which declined in population, dropping from 30,382 in 1984 to 30,189 in 1985. The lost of 193 persons was 0.6 of the county’s total population.

Wednesday, November 27, 1996 A judge said Monday he is “fed up” with the way state and local officials are fighting over control of the Letcher County School System and that he will research whether he can take personal control of the district. Special Letcher Circuit Judge John David Caudill said children in Kentucky’s only state-managed school system are getting shortchanged by the bickering. He said both state managers and the local board have mismanaged the southeastern Kentucky district, and that he might just take over.

. The Letcher County Board of Education has again lowered the scholastic standards for new teachers, this time deciding to consider applicants who have the lowest grade point average allowable under state law. The surprise move came at the board meeting Monday night. The board voted to approve a standard of 2.5 (C+) for teacher applicants.

. Letcher County residents will be invited to the December meeting of the Letcher Fiscal Court to talk about naming all the streets and roads in the county to help the E-911 emergency service into operation. All roads and streets will have to be marked in order for the new emergency service to be effective, officials said.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006 The Letcher County Board of Education was told by the district finance officer at a special meeting last week that the board needs to trim down next year’s school budget. Roger Martin, the new finance officer for the district, said the school system has over budgeted for this school year and that it is a warning sign for the next few years.

. A Letcher Circuit Court jury has recommended a prison sentence of 11 years for 41-year-old Edward Morton, who was convicted last week of reckless homicide and second-degree assault in the death of his infant daughter and injuries to his infant son.

. The defending 14th Region champion, Letcher County Central High School, lost its opening game to Breathitt County, 44-34, in the inaugural girls’ varsity basketball game in the new LCC gym.

. A reception will be held December 1 to mark the 90th anniversary of the Jackhorn Post Office. The post office was established November 17, 1916. Samuel J. Hornsby was the first appointed postmaster.



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