100 YEARS AGO — 1917

While Uncle Ben Horn was hoeing corn at his place in Brooklyn on the Kentucky River, he discovered a bone sticking out of the side of the river bank. He called Allen Switzer, who was nearby, and together they unearthed two skeletons lying side by side in the ground. They were both in excellent condition and not even a tooth was missing. Mr. Horn and Switzer placed them in a box and reburied them near the cliff of the land of J.M. Woolums. Aunt Ellen Bishop, the oldest inhabitant of the Brooklyn neighborhood said she remembered that during the war two soldiers were drowned in the river at Brooklyn and were buried there. As a child she remembered seeing the rough stone head and foot markers placed at their burial. These later disappeared and the incident was forgotten. She thinks the two skeletons are undoubtedly those of the drowned soldiers.

All roads led to Crab Orchard last Saturday and the crowd that gathered to attend the great Masonic celebration was estimated to be between 6,500 and 10,000. People came in automobiles by the thousands, and trains from the North and South brought in many hundreds. It will go down in history as one of the greatest days in the memory of the oldest inhabitants of Crab Orchard.

Age is evidently no bar to the desire to kill off a few Germans. Lee Anderson, a negro, who claims to be 103 years old and can prove it with documents given to him by “white folks” went to the recruiting headquarters of a National Guard regiment in Lexington and applied for permission to carry a gun. Anderson said  his past record included service in the Mexican and Civil Wars, where he underwent many harrowing experiences. He was rejected.

75 YEARS AGO — 1942

An appeal was made today for money to purchase cigarettes for the 110 selectees leaving from Danville July 2 for Army service. The money should be given to George Harmon, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce committee to raise the money.

The beer license issued to Irene Boehm and Edith Miller at the Henson Hotel in Danville was revoked by the State Alcohol Control Board. It  charged that the women made a false statement in their 1941-42 license application by saying their business was located on street level when in reality they were located in the basement of the hotel. The women who operate the business known as “The Dugout” claim that their entrance is at the head of a flight of stairs running from their establishment to the street level while the State contends the entrance is the door at the lower end of the stairs.

The State Alcohol Beverage Control also revoked the beer licenses of C.D. Hedges at the Old Fort Inn on Stanford Road, and of Chester Davis of the State Restaurant on North Second Street in Danville. Hedges and Davis were charged with allowing disorderly conduct in their businesses and selling beer to minors and drunks.

A quiz program on the work, principals and activities of the Danville Rotary Club was featured at the club’s meeting at the Gilcher Hotel. the program was arranged by Charles Bassett. Each time a question was missed, the person giving the wrong answer purchased a war savings stamp  from Miss Hazel Cecil. Several stamps were sold.

50 YEARS AGO — 1967

Robert Lewis Jr., Centre College alumni executive secretary since 1963, has resigned his post there in order to voluntarily return to service in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant commander. He will serve in Washington D.C. at the Pentagon as a special duty officer in public affairs.

Four men called from Boyle County reported on Monday for their pre-induction physical exams at the Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station. They were: Jackson Davis Guerrant III, Sparkman M. Smith, Samuel Ray Beck and Gregory Brian Shepard.

The following young women from First Christian Church will be leaving on Monday to attend Camp Wa-Kon-Da-Ho in Casey County. They are Libby Milby, Patty Shelbourne, Pam Sheehan, Anne Sivis, Cindy Snowden, Melanie Murphy, Kathy Milby and Marsha Cox.

25 YEARS AGO — 1992

The cost of a $6.65 million regional park, including an indoor swimming pool and community center, stopped members of the Boyle Fiscal Court dead in their tracts even before discussing the plans with the Recreation Board that drafted the report. “$6.7 million scares the daylights out of everybody,” said Boyle Judge-Executive Mary Pendygraft.

The man who operated a candy and cigarette vending stand at the post office for nearly 40 years, William Carey Baker, has died at age 85. Baker became blind at the age of 27, and opened his vending stand in the old post office building on the corner of Fourth and Main streets in 1945. Upon his retirement in 1977 at the age of 70, Baker was commended by the state Bureau of Rehabilitation Services for his pioneering efforts in establishing quality vending stands for the blind.