Bell Co. (KY) Public Library District
  Middlesboro & Pineville, KY

In Days Past...

by Ron Day

In Days Past….

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

---City Asked To Buy Water Company; Bonding Concern Will Finance Project If Council Acts On Proposal.

---Boy After Berries Is Bitten By Snake: Jasper Baker, 13 and the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Baker, had a close call from death Monday when he was bitten by a poisonous snake while picking huckleberries on Pine Mountain. The snake got away but was either a copperhead or a rattlesnake. The boy’s leg began to swell and soon his face and lips began to become discolored. His father put tobacco on the bite and tied a handkerchief around it and brought him to the hospital. It is expected he will recover.

---Brownies Creek Community School Making Marked Progress; New Settlement School Offers Opportunity To Mountain Boys And Girls: The second year of school will begin July 20th and about 60 or 70 students are expected to travel the miles of mountain trails for the next nine months. Many ride horseback for a distance of 3-5 miles. Last year one boy walked eight miles daily to attend the school.

---Silas Hoskins, 42, died at home at Varilla last Wednesday after a heart attack brought on my working in the fields in extreme heat. Survivors are his wife Roxie, one son and three daughters.

---Dr. C. B. Stacy has purchased the G. C. May home here and Stacy and Dr. R. B. Maw will occupy offies in the house and will also have their apartments there. The building is located on Tennessee Avenue.
 

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

--- Herndon Evans Named Editor Of Lexington Paper: “I regret leaving Pineville. It was a terrifically hard decision to make…” Herndon J. Evans, former owner of the Pienville Sun, used these words to sum up his reaction to the news that he had received the appointment as editor of the Lexington Herald.

---Funeral rites for Thomas Rice Ware, 90, of Pineville, will be held Thursday, July 19 at 2 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Pineville with the Rev. Raymond Sanderson officiating. He came to Pineville in 1903 as an agent for the L&N Railroad, and served as Mayor of Pineville from 1946-1950.

---Firemen Answer Call From Holly Street Home On Tuesday: The Pineville fire truck was called out Wednesday afternoon to extinguish a small fire at the home of Judge William Knuckles on Holly Street. The fire was caused by Mrs. Knuckles burning some insects on a cedar shrub. The only damage was some blistered paint and the loss of the shrub.

---J. C. Newport, Pineville, was one of 16 Union College students qualifying for the Dean’s List for the academic year.

---Ralph Vernon Gilbert, a 1949 graduate of Pineville High School has been named football and basketball coach for the junior varsity teams of Clinton, Tennessee.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

---Sorry! No one will be allowed to sit on “the wall” after 8 p.m. daily. Mayor Bob Madon had no alternative but to take the above action after trying everything he knew to allow the young people to remain on the wall in front of Mrs. Mary Wilson’s home. There has been considerable vandalism, including porch furniture being destroyed and broken bottles strewn about. Upon investigation, shrubs at the front of the property disclosed 28 beer bottles, 18 beer cans, 5 wine bottles, 4 vodka bottles, and 9 whiskey bottles.

---The Sun featured artist Rick Fodor, who sculpts a variety of subjects from a medium composed of sawdust, cornstarch, salt and water.

---Pineville School Board has hired two new teachers: Sharon Goodin and Genevieve Sasser.

---Sun photo caption: Dr. Dudley Pomeroy, president of the Bell County Public Library District Board of Trustees, accepts a check for $29,188 from David Wilder, District Director of the Cumberland Valley Regional Library District, to expand the historical and genealogical facilities of the Middlesboro-Bell Co. Public Library.

---New Ski Area Takes Shape: The Sun-Courier recently ran an article on a proposed ski slope for Pine Mountain Park, and this week printed an article pertaining to a similar project at General Butler State Park in Carrollton, which—if successful—could pave the way for such facilities at Pineville.

TEN YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

---After months of meeting without a full board, the Pineville Independent School system Board of Education is now back to full strength. The last two casualties were Tuck Woolum and Henry Lawson when they decided to run for city council. At Monday’s board meeting Kimberly Gambrell and Douglas Adams took the oath of office, bringing to five the number of board members.

---Eva Weller Nielsen, 94, passed away Sunday July 14, 1996 at her home. She was born March 6, 1902 in Pineville, daughter of the late Nicholas John Weller and Carrie Neal McKenney Weller. She taught at Pineville High during WWII and was a member of First Presbyterian Church. She was preceded in death by her husband C. C. Nielsen in October, 1980.

---Dr. Jaishankar Devapiran of Johnson City, Tennessee, formerly of Madras, India, joined the office of Dr. Madhan Mohan and Dr. Puneet Goenka on July 156h. He is married, and his wife is the Pediatric Chief Resident at East Tennessee State University. They have one child, a daughter named Devika, who is 7 months old.

---500 Join March Against Alcohol Sales In Pineville: Speakers at a rally against a petition that is circulating to support liquor sales included Honsel Biliter and Karen Greene Blondell.