From our files, Aug. 5
Published 8:45 am Monday, August 7, 2017
100 YEARS AGO — 1917
H. Clay Kauffman, of Garrard County, who is running for state Senator writes: In a recent issue of this paper, Mr. Mount seeks by an inconglomerate mass of words to attack me. I am not surprised for the one that runs ahead in any race is always shot at, in this case it is a blank load…Mr. Mount, suffering from paranoia, with its delusions of persecution and self-exhortation, culminating in his daily brain storms, is to be pitied far more than to be feared. We must all forgive him for he knows not what he does… With charity to all and malice towards none, I close my campaign absolutely confident that the dry voters of Boyle County will stand by me in my race for State Senator.
The Boyle County men named in the first draft for military service are now undergoing the rigid tests required by Uncle Sam. The 61 called yesterday were all there by night and were taken to the large circuit court room, stripped to the hide and given a very rigid test as to soundness. Many men have already been rejected. Applications for exemption are many and varied. Many of the married men brought their wives and children and the courthouse rotunda is filled with them. In fact the front yard and doorway look like a school house. Some of the excuses are very amusing.
Warren Seebree, a former piano dealer of Danville, arrived in Lexington last night in an automobile with his wife, daughter, and a newly married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Taller. Among other things in the machine he had five suitcases, a hand bag, a typewriter, a parrot in a cage and a little white dog beside him. On arrival in Lexington, detectives arrested Seebree on a warrant charging him with embezzlement of several hundred dollars from the Chase Hackler Piano Corp.
75 YEARS AGO — 1942
A crowd of about 12,000 persons, exceeding Friday night’s record-breaking crowd by nearly 4,000 Saturday night witnessed the final session of the Mercer County Fair and Horse Show.
Boyle County farmers are responding to the government’s request for more lamb pelts for aviation suits, according to John C. Brown, county agent. The price established is $2.15 for each pelt.
Arthur Whitney, writing from Hollywood tells an interesting story of Marie McDonald, is as fetching a girl as ever faced a sound camera, is a singer, so she’ll probably never sing in the movies, she said today with a sigh of resignation. The producers at Paramount have decided she’ll be a comedienne. “But that’s Hollywood,” Miss McDonald said. This little starlet is a prime favorite of Bruce Cabot. She is 19 years old and was born in Burgin, Kentucky. Her mother was a former member os Ziegfeld’s Follies and she taught her much of what she seems to know so well today.
P.H. Haley, district manager in Danville for the Southern Bell Telephone Company, speaking at the regular meeting of the Rotary Club at the Gilcher Hotel emphasized the necessity of limiting the number of long distance and even local calls. Mr. Haley stated no new lines could be installed due to the fact that the lines are coated with copper and there is no copper to be had at the present. He also urged everyone to use the telephone directory and to impress to their employees to use the directory so that operators won’t have to use their time looking up numbers.
50 YEARS AGO — 1967
Sp. 4 James “Buddy” Holly, son of Mrs. Alma Holly and husband of Mrs. Linda Belcher Holly, all of the Parksville and Mitchellsburg area, who was forced to undergo the amputation of a leg resulting from injuries when he stepped on a booby trap in Vietnam, has notified his relatives that he is now in a U.S. Army hospital in Yokahoma, Japan and should be sent to the U.S. in two or three weeks.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Girdler have received word that their son, Pfc. Donald E. Girdler, has arrived safely in Vietnam. Private Girdler is serving with the first Marine Division, 107 MM Mortar Bn., located about 15 miles from Da Nang.
The Danville High School cheerleaders have left for a cheerleading camp at the University of Kentucky campus. They are, Patty Cash, Linda Robertson, Sharon Caldwell, Jane Huffman, Linda Dexter and Camille Preston.
25 YEARS AGO — 1992
Several inmates at the Lincoln County Regional Jail spent a recent afternoon building a new section onto the existing jail. When finished later this month, the addition will house an enclosed exercise area and visiting rooms.
More than 100,000 marijuana plants were found in two large plots on a 200-acre farm about a half-mile east of Burgin on Kennedy Bridge Road. This is the largest marijuana crop found in Kentucky in several years and one of the largest ever found in the state. The street value of an average-sized marijuana plant is about $1,500, so this crop could have been worth up to $150 million. A state police detective spotted the crop from a helicopter when he was returning to Lexington from looking for marijuana in another part of the county. Police were amazed that the marijuana was being grown out in the open as if it were just another crop. One officer said the grower should be charged with being stupid.