100 YEARS AGO — 1917

The Danville schools have opened and the first day’s attendance was far above the average. It is very important that students enter at beginning of the term, as delay is caused by those straggling in later. Most of the students appreciate the importance of getting an education. They realize the fact that the conditions caused by the war demand that every student apply himself to the hardest study. Consequently much good work will be done.

Never in the history of he city of Stanford has there been so much excitement as prevailed yesterday when Smith Baughman was deliberately murdered on the street in front of Penny’s Drug Store. He was the Democratic candidate for sheriff of Lincoln County. Early in the morning he had trouble with Rev. Edward Hubbard, his Republican opponent. Hubbard is said to be a religious crank as well as a fanatic and was bitter against prohibition. Witnesses said Baughman was looking into Penny’s Drug Store window as Hubbard dodged behind some cars and succeeded in slipping up behind Baughman. People saw him carrying a pistol but never dreamed that he intended to assassinate Mr. Baughman. Just as Hubbard got up to Baughman, he shot him in the base of the brain. To add to the horrible brutality, Hubbard fired three more times at Baughman has he was dead on the pavement. Jesse Lynn, special officer, quickly arrested Hubbard and took him to jail.

Clarence Brooks, the alleged German “spy” arrested at King’s Mountain Tunnel, has been held over until Sept. 18 for a hearing for a hearing before Commissioner Lawwill. The general impression is that there is nothing in the case although Brooks has made some queer moves.

George D. Hopper, the well known insurance man in Danville, is quite a musician as everyone knows. Now he is also a composer. The tearing up of Main Street has given him an inspiration and he has just composed a beautiful (??) and pathetic song entitled, “Moving Willie’s Grave to Lay the Sewer.”

A farmer in Harrodsburg was coming down the Perryville Pike and met seven able bodied men with each carrying a 5-cent fishing pole over his shoulder on his was to  Salt River These men could easily get $2 a day hauling tobacco or working in the field. The farmers are clamoring for labor and can’t get enough help.

75 YEARS AGO — 1942

Members of the Danville city council made a patriotic gesture when they voted to turn over to the war effort a quantity of bronze that the city had planned to use in making a plaque honoring city officials. The plaque would have been hung at the city sewerage disposal plant. Bronze is used in making guns.

Danville’s police department set a new all-time high in the numbers of arrests made and the amount of money collected during August. A total of 126 people were arrested and a total of $1,029. 50 in fines and costs and replevin bonds was collected. According to the police report, 96 persons were arrested on drunkeness.

Danville City Council passed an ordinance stating all grocery stores and meat markets close at 1 o’clock every Wednesday afternoon from now on. This is the same ordinance that was in effect during the summer months. Under the wage and hour law, having merchants close on Wednesday afternoons would permit them to open Saturday nights without causing an increase in overtime pay. The ordiance is said to also help conserve tires, gas and fuel and when meat rationing begins, shoppers can use Wednesdays as their meatless days.

Danville residents want to know when will the gas rationing program begin and how drastic is would be. The proposed limitation to 5,000 miles of travel for each car each year is a decrease of about 43 percent. Dr. Adolphys Gilliam, pastor of the Methodist Church said the rationing would “tone down the plane of living and make for more fellowship.” A farmer in the west end of Boyle County said the limit would not affect him much. He explained that since tire rationing began he started trading in Perryville instead of coming to Danville.

50 YEARS AGO — 1967

Rejoining the Advocate-Messenger advertising staff is an old timer who needs no introduction. He is Jery Dunn, who worked in the advertising department here for four and a half years. He is a Danville boy, a graduate of Danville High School, and returns to his duties here after having served four months with the Army Reserves at For Dix, New Jersey.

The family of Capt. Virgil Kinnaird Kelly Jr. has received confirmation that the 27-year-old pilot has been killed in action. A previous communication had informed the flier’s amily that he had been missing in action in Southeast Asia since Sept. 4. Captain Kelly was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Kelly of Shelby City and the husband of Opal Kelly of Danville. Captain Kelly had been on board a C-123 aircraft on combat essential mission.

Dollar General Stores has leased fro ARnold Gregory, the store building on North Fourth Street that was recently occupied by the A&P Company.

Rainey Bridgewater’s Blacksmith Shop, on Walnut Street, adjacent to the Farmers National Bank Branch, has been purchased by the ban and the site will be cleared immediately and used in the expansion plans of the bank. Owner Bridgewater has been ill for several months and has not occupied the building, which is probably one of the last old blacksmith shops in the state. The housing inspector had marked the building “unfit” and the job of removing the contents of the shop and the lot in back of it has been started

25 YEARS AGO — 1992

The African Methodist Episcopal church was founded in 1787 when a black man was not allowed to kneel in prayer alongside the white members of a Philadelphia Methodist Church. The minister told Richard Allen to go up to the balcony and wait to take communion after all the white congregants had received it. Allen didn’t go to the balcony and he didn’t wait. “He walked out,” said the Rt. Rev. Vernon R Byrd, “and went to Sixth and Lumber streets to a blacksmith’s shop and organized the AME Church,” he said. Byrd is president of the Council of Bishops of the AME Church and presiding bishop of the 13th Episcopal District of Kentucky and Tennessee and was in Danville to preside over the 125th session of Kentucky Annual Conference of the AME Church at St. James AME Church in Danville.

The purchase of the Sigwald property on Perryville Road for a multi-purpose park is not a dead issue even though plans for the park are up in the air.The 226-acre site between Boyle County High School and the Christian Children’s Home is the favorite of the Danville-Boyle County Recreation Board and many park supporters. Reasons given are its location near the fairgrounds and two major roads, the acreage available and the lay of the land.

Since Boyle County Jailer Mickey Harmon has decided not to run for a second term, the race to replace him is drawing a crowded field. Harmon, who has worked at the Boyle County Courthouse for 34 years, has decided to retire from public office when his term expires in January. Three men have already expressed interest in running for the office, Chris Hill, Tyndale Brown and Ron Arnold.