Clips from available Mountain Eagle pages since 1907.
FRIDAY
JULY 22, 1921
Southdown is the name of the new post office being established at the head of Craft’s Colly. Elihu Addington is the postmaster.
Mining at the Elkhorn-Hazard mine on Sandlick has resumed. The mine had been idle since last fall.
Joe Boney Combs, candidate for jailer in Perry County, was shot and killed by T.C. Combs, who was opposing Combs in the coming primary election.
In the past few days, George Washington and John Adams have secured marriage licenses in Letcher County. “The month of July has always made itself felt in American history,” The Eagle notes.
Nine candidates remain on the ballot for the Republican Party nomination for Letcher County sheriff after five other candidates agreed Saturday to withdraw from the August 6 election. s
The names of the three men killed in the recent Lynch shooting are J.C. Coldiron, Will Holcomb, and foreman Carl Fulton. The men who did the killings are said to be from Clay County and committed the murders after being fired by Fulton.
THURSDAY
JULY 23, 1931
East Jenkins resident John Abozovich was shot and killed on the Virginia side of Pound Gap Saturday night by Whitesburg taxi driver Finley Hensley. Hensley is said to have been driving his taxi toward the Kentucky side of Pine Mountain with Heddy Tyler and three girls as passengers when a tire went flat. At that point, Hensley walked a short distance to a restaurant, where he was assaulted by Abozovich. After Abozovich struck him several times, Hensley called for the occupants of the taxi to bring his gun to him. They did and the shooting took place. Bystander and restaurant owner Henry Reece was wounded in the leg during the incident. He is recovering at the Jenkins hospital. Tyler and the three girls were arrested and taken to the Wise County Jail. Hensley, about 35 and a veteran of the World War, escaped to the Kentucky side of the mountain and remains at large. Abozovich had been a resident of East Jenkins for a number of years.
Clyde Collins won the big golf tournament at the Mayking course Saturday with a score of 124 for 54 holes.
Grading of the county road from Ulvah to Garner is progressing nicely.
The Kentucky Fish and Game Commission delivered a large truckload of bass to Letcher County on Monday and placed them in the waters of the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers.
The Consolidation Coal Company at Jenkins is now operating its mines four and five days a week. The Cowan Creek Coal Company at Ice is now running five days a week, but coal business remains slow at Marlowe and Sandlick.
Goodyear tires are on sale for as little as $5.69 at the Public Square Service Station in Whitesburg.
Ward’s Cash Store in Neon is selling men’s shoes by Nunn Bush for $6.95 a pair. The store also has a good selection of hats made by John B. Stetson.
THURSDAY
JULY 24, 1941
On Monday, Hizzie Fields and his brother, Ambrose, who were painting in Jenkins, fell from their scaffold, injuring Hizzie seriously and giving Ambrose some very painful bruises and minor injuries. Both men, employees of Consolidation Coal Co., were rushed to the Jenkins Hospital.
John A. Hartford, president of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, announced the adoption of the five-day workweek for retail store employees. The five-day workweek, 48 hours, first in the history of the retail food business, was introduced on an experimental basis in A&P stores and will now be extended through the entire A&P organization. The pay for the employees for the shorter work week will remain the same as for the six-day week.
“Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Stidham were well pleased at having their son, Nathan Jay, spend a week’s vacation with them,” says Democrat correspondent Mrs. John M. Tolliver. “Nathan Jay has been in Fort Meade, Md., for a few months and tells us he likes the Army fine.”
“Tobacco Road” starring Charley Grapewin, Marjorie Rambeau, and Gene Tierney will play this week at Isaac’s Kentucky Theatre in Whitesburg.
From The Eagle’s sister publication The Neon News:
FRIDAY
JULY 25, 1941
A poem, “Call for Pots & Pans”, asks people to search their kitchens for metal items such as pots, pans, cans, and cookie tins to become “fighting things” that “can rout Nazis.” There is no author named.
On July 20, Clarence Clifford Cooley was struck and killed by a freight train. Clarence was 26 years old and an employee of South East Coal Co. for several years.
The Rockhouse news says “it seems as if our community has decreased recently by leaps and bounds. Three of our popular young boys have left for CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camps. They are Sherman Wright, Edgar Bentley, and James Baker.”
A 4-H Day will be held at Mill Branch July 26. The event will include contests of all sorts — horseshoes, volleyball, a sack race, a three-legged race, relay races, high jump and many others.
THURSDAY
JULY 26, 1951
One of the most outstanding sales ever conducted in Whitesburg opened last Friday, when the entire stock and fixtures of the Whitesburg Department Store were offered for sale. The sale was conducted by C.A. Jarvis and Ed Rabel, of Charleston, W.Va. They estimated the crowd at 10,000 to 12,000.
Two men are being held in the Letcher County Jail and one has been released on bond for the theft of $1,200 in cigarettes and other merchandise from the Neon A&P supermarket. Edward Holcomb, Neon night policeman, reports he investigated a suspicious-looking car at the supermarket. When he approached the car, Holcomb said, three men fled the building. The car was loaded with merchandise, Holcomb said.
Two men from Letcher County have enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. They are David R. Adams of Whitesburg and Richard L. Dorton of McRoberts.
The Jenkins Baseball Club of the Mountain States League recently sold centerfielder Joe Chapman and third baseman Bill Catlett to the Hazard Bombers.
THURSDAY
JULY 27, 1961
Whitesburg and Letcher County will have a new bank about Dec. 1. Construction of a building to house the new First Security Bank started today on the site on Main Street just across from the Letcher County Courthouse. The new bank will be merged with the Bank of Neon, which will continue to operate at Neon but will be known as First Security Bank also.
James E. Kendrick has begun his duties as Letcher County agricultural agent, replacing Robert Pike, who went to Iran to work. Kendrick, a native of Virginia, is a graduate of Clintwood High School and Berea College.
A split season on squirrels with different hunting dates in the eastern and western sections of the state has again been decreed by the Fish and Wildlife Commission. In the eastern section, the opening is August 26 and the closing is October 31 with a second section opening November 16 and continuing through December 8. In the western section, the first season will open on August 15 and continue through October 31 with a second section opening on November 16 and closing on November 27.
Army Specialist Four Billy Potter, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Potter of Burdine, was recently assigned to the 4th Armored Division in Germany. Specialist Potter entered the Army in August, 1959, and completed basic training at Fort Hood, Texas.
THURSDAY
JULY 29, 1971
Mines throughout the coalfields, including Letcher County, have begun to feel the pressures caused by the major labor disputes currently affecting the country. Area coal operators report that the threat of a national steel strike has caused some of them to curtail or even halt mining operations. David Zegeer, Division Superintendent for Beth-Elkhorn, said between a half and two-thirds of the firm’s more than 1,000 employees have been idled in anticipation of the steel strike, scheduled for this weekend.
Nearly 150 miners, widows, and others crowded into a Neon Elementary School classroom to hear black lung crusader Dr. I.E. Buff call for a dollar-a-ton tax on coal to finance a special benefits program for coal miners and their dependents. Buff charged that both the Social Security Administration and the United Mine Workers have done an inadequate job of assuring that the current black lung program serves those it is supposed to.
Army Staff Sergeant Elmer Amburgey, son of Mrs. Ida Amburgey of Isom, was awarded a letter of achievement recently while serving with the 69th engineer battalion near Can Tho, Vietnam. He earned the award for meritorious service as a reenlistment noncommissioned office in the battalion’s headquarters.
An expert cave explorer will be hired by the state to investigate the tourism potential of the Pine Mountain caves. State Parks Commissioner Shirley Palmer-Ball said his agency wants to give “every benefit of the doubt” to local supporters of the caves. However, both he and his assistant, C.F. Smith, are skeptical of the tourism potential.
THURSDAY
JULY 30, 1981
The Letcher County School Board has voted to “take under advisement” a recommendation that the proposed new Whitesburg High School be built on the industrial site in West Whitesburg. The board took the action in a special meeting after hearing the findings of a six-member high school site selection committee.
A Mountain Eagle editorial, addressing the site of the proposed new Whitesburg High School, says, “The industrial site comprises 15 of the most prime acres in all of eastern Kentucky — level land with sewer and water facilities installed. The tract is bordered by the CSX Railroad and the re-built KY 15, a key part of the Appalachian regional highway network. Whitesburg city services including fire and police protection are readily available. All in all, the site specifications sound like an industrial location specialist’s dream, and that is exactly what it is. … As the situation now stands, no manufacturing company will want to give serious consideration to the site for fear that its own efforts to locate a factory here might be stymied and indefinitely delayed or defeated if the board of education sought to condemn the property.”
A Mountain Eagle survey shows that the Falcon Coal Company Employees Association, Southern Labor Union, Scotia Independent Employees Association, Progressive Mine Workers, and other smaller unions are gaining on the United Mine Workers of America in wages, but often the gap is big. Mine safety appears to be a special concern with most unions.
“Do you hear the katydids singing nightly now?” asks Jeremiah correspondent Hattie Breeding Helton. “The ladies at the center say it will frost October 19, which is 90 days from the first time you hear them.”
Bernard Hall has been named by the Jenkins Independent School Board to succeed Jim Rollins as head basketball coach at Jenkins High School. Hall had been head basketball coach at Fleming-Neon High School the last six years.
WEDNESDAY
JULY 24, 1991
Whitesburg city officials have agreed to trade the Whitesburg Industrial Site for a 200-acre abandoned strip-mine and tipple site nearby, but who they traded and for what purpose is still unclear. The move apparently clears the way for a retail development on the 14-acre industrial site, but the companies involved have made no comment on their plans, nor have any companies admitted they are involved.
Letcher Fiscal Court has put off for another month Sheriff Steve Banks’s request for a central emergency telephone number for the county. Banks is hoping to install a central telephone number in his office to dispatch emergency services through Letcher County.
The Jenkins Independent Board of Education has voted to issue more than $1.7 million in bonds to renovate Jenkins High School. The board awarded contracts for the school construction last week, and, through its finance corporation, voted to issue revenue bonds to cover the cost of construction.
“City Slickers” and “Dying Young” will be shown this weekend at the Jeremiah Drive-In Theatre.
WEDNESDAY
JULY 25, 2001
The Letcher County Board of Education took the first step toward buying property for a new high school and paying for the construction of the school. The board voted to hire Ross Sinclaire & Associates to advise it and to handle the sale of bonds to finance the project. The firm will charge the board $30,000 to sell bonds for the high school project and an additional $10,000 to refinance existing bonds. s In less than a week, voters in Seco will decide whether Highland Winery should be allowed to sell its own product on its premises. The election is being held under a new state law that allows local option elections in voting precincts that contain small wineries. The elections govern only the winery premises and allow the sale only of the winery’s own products. The winery is owned by Jack and Sandra Looney.
Gov. Paul Patton will be on hand Monday to help open the new PowerUP computer center at Cowan Community Center. The “Power Pack” center will provide Gateway computers, Americana Online accounts, full-time staff, healthful snacks, community grants, and other programs to young people in the area. The center is being opened by the Cowan Community
Center and Save the Children.
Jenkins native John Shook is the new superintendent of schools in the Jenkins Independent School District. Shook was director of personnel and director of pupil personnel in the Letcher County School District.
WEDNESDAY
JULY 27, 2011
A flash flood hit Little Cowan July 25, with water entering the home of Johnny and Janet Napier. Janet Napier said the water, which looked like ocean waves, gushed into her yard full speed for at least 30 minutes. She said water covered the front step to her porch.
The Postal Service is considering closing more than 1 in 10 of its post offices nationwide, including 131 in Kentucky and nine in Letcher County. Those slated for review in Letcher County are Burdine, Deane, Eolia, Hallie, Jackhorn, Partridge, Premium, Roxana, and Seco, some of which are among the county’s oldest.
A second former administrator of Golden Years Rest Home in Jenkins has been indicted here on felony charges. The Letcher County Grand Jury returned an indictment against 25-year-old Jonah Tackett on two counts of bribing a witness, two counts of tampering with a witness, and three counts of theft by failure to make required deposition of property.
The Letcher County Board of Education gave Supt. Anna Craft the highest job performance ratings in eight of nine standards on her yearly evaluation.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.