Editor’s note — We’re continuing our tradition of taking a look back each Saturday at some of the important, interesting or even odd events as they were reported during the same week throughout the years, along with interesting advertising features from back in the day.
This week in 1904, the Hillsboro News-Herald reported that a large black snake measuring nearly seven feet long was killed by a farmhand near New Vienna. “He struck at it with a spade and his snakeship showed fight and great activity for so early in the season,” the writer said. The article went on to advise that snakes would be “plentiful” in the area for the remainder of the year.
The Highland County coroner was investigating the mysterious death of a local man whose body was found at the Baltimore & Ohio Rail Yard in Greenfield.
Advertisements for miracle remedies filled the inside pages of the paper, claiming cures for whooping cough, sour stomach, vomiting spells, colic, cholera, bronchitis and “the consumption.”
Another advertisement said “If you have your job work done at the News-Herald office, the work and price will both be right.”
This week in 1947, the Hillsboro News-Herald reported that three of the five Hillsboro High School seniors who took the test for Navy ROTC at the college of their choice passed with flying colors. The local boys were James Mott, Dave Gilboe and Ted Lukens.
Post-war unemployment was dropping in Highland County, with the local employment service office reporting the numbers had fallen by 100 from the previous month.
A Chillicothe man told state patrol troopers that he wasn’t driving when he wrecked the 1940 Studebaker he had just bought three days earlier. The 60-year old man, who was charged with driving while intoxicated, claimed his terrier was behind the wheel when the car failed to make a curve on U.S. Route 50 near Rainsboro.
At the Colony Theatre, two big hits were on the big screen for the weekend, with John Payne and June Haver starring in “Wake Up and Dream,” and then it was blazing adventure with a hero of the plains matching wits and daring against a bloodthirsty gang of cutthroats in “Days of Buffalo Bill,” starring Sunset Carson.
A Greenfield physician, Dr. W.H. Williams, was marking a half-century of practicing medicine, having received his medical degree on April 15, 1897. He remarked that he made house calls riding a bicycle, but later owned the first Ford car sold in Greenfield.
The Green Roof Bar-B-Q was offering three meals daily of steaks, chops and sandwiches at its restaurant on U.S. 50 opposite the high school.
This week in 1973, The News-Herald reported that election officials were predicting a light turnout due to a lack of special local issues and primary run-offs in Greenfield and Hillsboro. The major item on the ballot was a bond issue for the Bright Local School District.
At the Roselawn Drive-In Theatre, Thursday was Family Night with admission just $1.50 per carload, and on the big screen in Allensburg, Lee Van Cleef and Carroll Baker were starring in “Captain Apache,” along with “Countess Dracula” on the twinbill.
In news from Sardinia, Mrs. Lucille Riffle was calling it quits after a 50-year career in banking. She was retiring from the First National Bank of Sardinia.
It was time for America’s favorite past-time and at Kaufman’s Department Store in Hillsboro, kids young and old could get a free baseball or softball with the purchase of a glove or aluminum bat.
Local sports star Kip Young was doing double-duty for Bowling Green State University, playing on the junior varsity basketball team and finishing the season as a starting guard in basketball. The future pitcher for the Detroit Tigers was attending the college on a baseball scholarship.
Their advertisement boasted “you’ll spend less at Albers,” and to prove it, Zesty soft drinks were only a dime a can, the jumbo roll of So-Soft paper towels was 31 cents and those new-fangled potato chips in a can, Pringles, were two for 69 cents.
Sending a letter was going to cost a little more starting in 1974, as the local post office announced that a first-class postage stamp was increasing two pennies to 10 cents the following March.
This week in 2003, The Times-Gazette began a series of stories on methamphetamine in Highland County called “The Madness of Meth.” The first story quoted Sheriff Ron Ward saying, “This drug has become a problem of epidemic proportions, in my opinion.” A sidebar called methamphetamine “the poor man’s cocaine.”
Hillsboro City Council discussed the future of the Colony Theatre, which had begun falling into disrepair as it faced dire financial straits.
In sports, Highland County track and field teams traveled to various meets in bitter cold weather.
The Hillsboro Super Kmart had implemented a drop-off program to send care packages to troops serving overseas. Kmart said it would pay the postage on shipping the boxes, and it was personal to those pictured. In addition to store manager Matt McKee was Cindy Hopper and Donna Syhora, both of whom had a fiance and husband respectively serving in “the sand” of Iraq.
Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571.
