From Our Files
Published 10:04 am Friday, November 29, 2019
100 YEARS AGO — 1919
War-time coal restriction hits stores, retail establishments and industries. Kentucky residents will be unable to spend money on anything after 4 o’clock today, and every other day, except for a few necessities including at the movies, food, shaves, haircuts and drugs. And on Saturday nights, only for clothing. The prohibited list includes electric signs, show window lights, and electric display advertising. Industries are allowed to operate only 48 hours a week. The exempted list includes hospitals, railroad stations, telephone and telegraph companies, and all public utilities, hotels and newspapers.
Last week when the rains had swollen area streams, Mercer County farmers Pete Carey and Lee Russell, who live near the Boyle County line, were driving a horse and buggy across a bridge which crossed the confluence of Fallis Run and Chaplin River. The streams had risen so high that water covered the bridge and the horse walked off of it into 15 feet of water. Weighted down by the buggy, the horse was dragged under and the animal and vehicle have not yet been recovered. Carey and Russell leaped from the buggy and were carried downstream about 30 yards where Carey caught the upper branches of a small willow. Russell was washed against a tree and he climbed on. Carey, however was immersed in water up to his neck and at times was covered completely by the violence of the stream. The screams from the two men attracted residents in the neighborhood who rescued them in a novel manner. Tying a heavy fence rail to a horse’s tail, they forced the horse to swim in to the stream where the men were marooned. The rail was swung down stream by the force of the current and within reach of the men, and then they were towed to shore. Russell spent only one hour in the water and Carey spent two hours up to his neck in the water.
The subject of the sermon to young people at the Baptist Church next Sunday night will be “Finding Your Mate.” This will be the third of a series of sermons on practical present day problems of our young people. The preacher said “Give a special invitation to all old bachelors and old maids — we will do the best we can for them.”
75 YEARS AGO — 1944
Landlords are required to register every piece of rented residential property in Boyle County between Dec. 1 and Jan. 15, under the rent-control regulation. The rent control order, issued by the national OPA last week for Boyle, Fayette and Clark counties, will roll back rents in Boyle County to the Oct. 1, 1943 levels.
There is a new military bag which soldiers use for ridding clothes of bugs. All they do is insert a glass ampule of methyl bromide, wrapped in cloth, into an inside pocket of the bag. They then dump their whole outfit, including shoes, into the bag and roll it up at the top. The liquid is dispersed by stepping on the glass ampule, thus permeating the contents.
Danville’s Goodall Field was one of 11 Kentucky airports proposed to Congress by the Civil Aeronautics Authority for improvement and construction as part of a billion-dollar post-war program of air transport expansion. The Danville airport is now listed as a Class 2 field, adapted to the use of feeder airlines and private flying.
50 YEARS AGO — 1969
President Nixon’s new draft lottery system will go into effect on Dec. 1, making it the first draft lottery drawing in 27 years. A new drawing will take place every year while this system remains in effect.
The Salvation Army Christmas kettle will be set up on Dec. 5 at the corner of Third and Main streets in Danville to collect money for the organization to use for feeding and clothing some of the needy residents of Boyle County. The kettle will remain at that location through Christmas Eve. Last year the Salvation Army distributed 85 food baskets and 1,200 toys and gifts to the families here.
The Presbyterian Guidance Center, located at 205 Beatty Ave., has received word of its accreditation from the American Board on Counseling Services. It is now one of only two such centers in the state. Under the auspices of Centre College for the past 13 years, the guidance center is now administered through the Presbyterian Churches of Kentucky. The facility is designed to deal with the testing and counseling of both teenagers and adults in terms of interests and skills.
The traditional Christmas tree lighting ceremony will be held at Kentucky State Hospital on Dec. 17, when a large tree decorated by the hospital’s recreation staff will be officially lighted. Following the ceremony in the lobby, the Christmas program will be presented in the hospital gym where there will be singing of traditional Christmas carols and hymns, a medley of Christmas songs by the patient chorus and a chorus consisting of students of the Lafayette Area Vocational School of Practical Nursing. The community is invited to come and share in the evening.
25 YEARS AGO — 1994
Boyle county and Junction City have put the finishing touches on their ethics ordinances. Under state law, the ordinances must provide for an ethics commission that will review all alleged violations and impose any penalties that may be needed. Junction City, Perryville and Boyle County governments have decided to have a joint ethics commission. Danville will have its own ethics commission.
Government is neither the cause nor the solution to problems confronting Danville’s black community. Often the fault and the remedy lies with the community itself. At least that’s the view of Tai Doram, a black Danville city firefighter who believes it’s time for blacks to fight for solutions to their own problems rather than to look to city hall or the courthouse. With that in mind, Doram is trying to organize a citizens committee to identify the problems confronting the black community and work together to provide solutions. During the first meeting, Doram will provide an outline of some items to discuss, such as, “creating a black awareness,” “taking back our children and community,” and developing programs to improve performance of blacks in education, particularly math and the sciences, and to increase the number of blacks involved in local government.
The Danville-Boyle County Optimist Club surrounded the statue at Constitution Square State Park with 325 Christmas trees they plan to sell. The club raises money for community projects by selling the trees every year. It gets the trees from Oregon and are primarily Scotch Pine and Douglas Fir.