100 YEARS AGO — 1917

On Sunday, May 27, the new Baptist Church at Mitchellsburg is to be dedicated. It is to be an all day service. The good women are expected to bring well filled baskets and the men full pocket books. A record breaking crowd is expected to be in Mitchellsburg next Sunday.

Because of the disturbed condition consequent upon the war and the fact that the farmers are greatly behind in their work, and that it would be a hardship upon jurors and witnesses to be compelled to attend a three-week term of court, Judge C.A. Hardin has announced that all jurors are excused from attending the May term of the Lincoln County circuit court. No court will be held for the jury cases.

Dr. Hunn was called to the home of Mike Bodner, who lives south of Junction City Friday night. Mrs. Bodner was so ill that Dr. Hunn remained overnight. Saturday morning the physician was leaving the Bodner home and carrying in his coat pocket a 44 caliber pistol. It was discharged, the ball entered the left breast of Dr. Hunn causing his instant death. Coroner Zimmerman of Danville was called to the scene and summoned a jury which rendered a verdict of accidental death. 

A.B. Rue, a gallant Federal solider in Harrodsburg, has put up a puzzling question to the Harrodsburg City Commissioners. He says he don’t want to be a slacker in the present war, and since he is too old to fight, he would like to do his bit of preparedness by raising a garden. But he can’t do it unless he is allowed to kill some of the squirrels in the City Park, which his property adjoins. A city ordinance protects these squirrels and they have greatly increased in number and become very tame. Other residents in the same neighborhood join Mr. Rue and now it is up to the city officials to rescind the ordinance or compel the citizens to be unwilling slackers.

Direct from the Mexican border and headed for somewhere on the Atlantic coast, Gen. Pershing and 1,090 U.S. soldiers passed through Danville today. They are traveling in four special trains and seemed quite comfortable and happy. As the soldiers are going directly to France and Belgium, the thickest of the battle, special interest was taken in seeing and cheering them. The station and grounds were crowded with Danville people who gave the boys many a sincere God-speed.

75 YEARS AGO — 1942

Chairman Gilbert White of the Fire Warden effort being put forth in this city, presided over a large meeting of enthusiastic members of the various districts. He impressed the importance for Danville to be organized and remembers these points in case of an emergency: keep calm and cool; stay home; put out lights; lie down; stay away from windows; don’t telephone. Danville has been divided into six precincts for the protection of the citizens if and when an air raid should visit this city.

Mr. and Mrs. Earl Hill, of Danville, have just received a letter from Reed Wooldridge, who is a graduate of Danville High School and Centre College. The letter reads: Enroute, April 6, 1942. What a dull voyage this has turned out to be…Actually the trip so far has been about as exciting as Main Street in Danville on most any Sunday morning…We have been on this boat since March 1 and have yet to see Australia…It is really impossible for me to convey to you an accurate impression of the vastness of this Pacific Ocean. Only after one has sailed through it for weeks on end, gazing day after day at its endless distances and its lonely emptiness, does one’s awareness crystalize in a clear conception of its overpowering hugeness…The nature of our function in Australia is completely shrouded in military secrecy. We know not where we shall land, where we shall be stationed, nor in what capacity we shall operate. So that is that.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Putney Guerrant announce the engagement of their daughter, Nancy Armstrong Guerrant, to Lieut. William Chauncey Alcock. Miss Guerrant was graduated from Centre College and has studied at Oberlin Conservatory. Lieut. Alcock was graduated from Centre College and is now public relations officer at Holabird Quartermaster Motor Base, Baltimore Maryland.

50 YEARS AGO — 1967

The special summer tickets offered to school children may now be purchased at the Danville Library, North Third Street at Broadway, at $1 and may be used from the date of purchase until September, said Miss Bess Tunis, the librarian. The library is open daily from 2 to 6 p.m. and from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

William E. Taylor, 64, of 342 Wilderness Road, owner of a grocery store on West Walnut Street for 25 years, died unexpectedly of an apparent heart attack last night. He had served as the manager for about 20 years of A&P Tea Company stores in Louisville, Bowling Green, Hopkinsville and Danville. Coming to Danville from the Fork area of Boyle County, he was well known as a stockman and horseman, as well as a prominent farmer. Survivors are a daughter, Mrs. R.B. Porter and a son, Joe Taylor, who is also a prominent Boyle County farmer who operates a grocery at Stanford Road and Walnut Street.

25 YEARS AGO — 1992

State engineers responsible for designing the section of the U.S. 127 reconstruction project between Danville and Junction City may be getting out their erasers again. The state Dept. of Highways recently put the finishing touches on a revision of the project in the vicinity of Warrenwood to minimize the impact on the estate because it is on the National Register of Historic Places. But one aspect of the revised plan, which involved months of negotiations with Warrenwood’s owner, Mary Oldham, has gotten residents of Bonta Lane across the highway from the estate up in arms. More than 50 residents from the Meadows subdivision attended a Boyle County Fiscal Court meeting to protest a change in the path of Bonta Lane that puts a curve in what is now a straight road and relocates the entrance.

Carrying balloons proclaiming their love for Jesus, about 350 people marched through Danville Saturday morning and prayed for Christianity to reign over Kentucky. The people gathered at Constitution Square to march down Walnut, Fifth and Main streetsA truck toting a plane, speakers and two singers led the way as marchers followed behind singing, praying and carrying banners. The group was made up of people from Boyle, Casey, Garrard, Mercer and Washington counties.