100 YEARS AGO — 1920

 

A Danville man was taken to the local jail, after police say he allegedly assaulted a six-year-old boy who was beaten on the head with a hammer and thrown into a sinkhole and left for dead. The man claims his innocence. Judge Hardin is looking into the kidnapping and assault of the child, and of the mob that formed Saturday night. The suspect was taken to the Lexington jail for safekeeping until the trial takes place.

 

Nothing new in the abduction case of the boy since yesterday afternoon, but the grand jury will examine the boy tomorrow. The evidence that he gives will practically settle the matter as to who will be indicted for his abduction and severe injury. He is improving rapidly, and is said to be in a cheerful state of mind, considering his harrowing experience. He will be taken to the home of his parents today.

 

The senior class at Centre College appeared in chapel wearing denim overalls. According to George Joplin, senior class president, the movement was not a fad, but is part of the nation-wide movement to force down the high price of clothing. The seniors caused quite a sensation when they entered chapel. Prices of overalls in local retail stores vary now from $2.25 for a pair of overall trousers to $7 for a complete suit. The public is watching with interest whether these prices will be forced any higher by tomorrow when it is thought the demand for overalls in the local retail market will increase.

 

April this year has been one of the coldest on record. The thermometer has registered for eight out of the first 15 days from 24 to 32 degrees, and only four days above 40 degrees. 

 

Speeding in the Danville city limits is prohibited, and all drivers of automobiles are hereby warned against any violations of the traffic laws. The maximum speed that any car can be legally driven in the business section is 10 mph and the maximum limit in the residential district is 15 mph.

 

75 YEARS AGO — 1945

 

Walter Clem of nearby Parksville, found a mother fox and five little foxes yesterday afternoon and took them from a hollow log. Mr. Clem said he didn’t want to kill the little ones, and said he would probably give them to someone interested in building a cage and raising them.

 

Tomorrow evening, Horace Scott Hicks of Chicago will be at the Bate School in a piano accordionist musical. He is a native of Danville and will be accompanied by his mother, Mrs. Gertrude Hicks. He appeared in Lexington Monday and Tuesday where large crowds heard him at each performance.

 

Businessmen in Danville and Boyle County who have positions open for typists, stenographers and clerks are requested to contact W.H. Owens, head of the commercial department of Danville High School. Many members of the 1945 graduating class will soon be available for temporary or permanent employment. Any prospective employers can see or call him at the Parks restaurant at 9116.

 

Although Pfc. Louis Long, brother of Ruby Young of South Fourth Street in Danville, is the driver of the radio truck of Headquarters Battery, 138th Field Artillery battalion, he received an assignment last week which was as far removed from artillery as New York is from London. Long is in Luzon, in the Philippine Islands. As the infantry moved deeper into the Zambales mountains of Luzon, the terrain became a mass of steep mountain sides and thick jungles. It was important that a supply line of ammunition and water be kept open to the front line infantry troops. Long, with a group of other artillerymen, was called in by engineers to actually build a row of steps up the side of one of the steeper mountains.

 

50 YEARS AGO — 1970

 

The Jackson Chair Co., which hired its first handicapped worker at Danville in 1960, has won an Employer of the Year award from the state. The Kentucky Commission on Employment of the Handicapped also presented similar awards to Courier Cartons and the Louisville Chair Co., both in Louisville. George Lovell, personnel manager of the Danville firm, said the company realized that the handicapped represented an untapped source of employment and decided to use it.

 

Mrs. Brenda Edwards, who has been employed in the makeup department of the Advocate-Messenger for several years, has been promoted to the area editor position and will be in charge of the news coverage in the counties surrounding Boyle. She makes her home with her husband, Harold, and two daughters, Lisa and Missy.

 

The Bluegrass 4-H Club met Friday at Hogue’s Stable with 11 members present. They spent several hours picking up trash on Goggin Lane. Participating were Ann Stith, Mary Ann Hamblin, LIsa Hogue, Julie Powell, Denise Berry, Leigh Hamblin, Mary Jo Weldrick, Vi Thomas, Mary York, Gay Best and Beverly Good. The club had a wiener roast on Clark’s Run following the cleanup project.

 

Next Monday morning the City Dump on South Second Street will be abandoned in favor of a new location near the redrier, off  South Fourth Street, near the railroad tracks and Clark’s Ru. The old site has been landfilled and is now a potentially beautiful area, without pollution, smog or dust.

 

25 YEARS AGO — 1995

 

Bate Middle School students got a pep talk from Danville High School football coach Sam Harp as they got ready to take the state’s assessment test. School officials hope the coach’s success in motivating his football team will translate into motivating the eighth graders to do well on the test. Harp said he used a poem he keeps in his wallet, “The Man in the Glass.” He said, “You might fool other people, but when you look at the man in the glass you can’t fool him, because that’s yourself,” Harp said.

 

A Boyle County couple who have put 200 acres of farmland in a native mixed prairie-savannah habitat will receive an Earth Day Award from the Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission. Mack and Gerry Jackson are that couple. About six years ago, the Danville surgeon and his wife decided the native habitat was the best use for part of the Chrisman Road farm. Dr. Jackson estimated it would take 20 years for the habitat to become fully established.

 

Five volunteers from Casey County were in Oklahoma City Saturday night to help recover bodies from the federal building that was bombed on Wednesday.

 

Twenty five years ago, the first Earth Day was more about flower children than flowers. The hippie event on April 22, 1970, made Nancy Caudill, who was 25 at the time, leery, she recalled. But she is pleased that it has grown over the years. Leo Hill was 36 when the first Earth Day came about. “I thought it was a good idea, and I still think it’s a good idea,” he said