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 years gone by.
This week 1882, the Hillsborough Gazette reported a temperance meeting at City Hall was “well attended and well improved.”
“Down they go!” was the catchphrase on an advertisement for low prices on fly nets, dusters, harnesses and whips at Maddox Brothers on South High Street in Hillsboro.
Wm. H. Loyd & Company’s grocery was “the cheapest place in Hillsboro to buy groceries,” according to its advertisement.
In local briefs: “Jack Price misses the green peas and strawberries, as well as the balmy breezes he enjoyed in the sunny south … The echoes of the Opera Festival have hardly died away, yet our musical people are looking forward with impatience to the May Music Festival at Cincinnati.”
The paper endorsed Frank Leber’s tonsorial parlors as “the finest in Southern Ohio.”
This week in 1919, on the front page of the Hillsboro Gazette was the headline “Brutal Murder Arrouses Community,” where an aged Syrian merchant named John Moses was found “foully slain by an unknown fiend.”
A live performance for one-night only of “Parlor, Bedroom and Bath” was advertised at Bell’s Opera House, billed as “the farce hit of the season” that played for one year at the Republic Theatre in New York City. Ticket prices were 50 and 75 cents, $1 and $1.50 at the door.
Spring hats were in at The Bon Ton Millinery, exclusive distributors of Hart hats in Hillsboro. Ladies could find all the spring styles and shades from celebrated makers like Gage, Hart, Edison-Keith and Clark-Davis.
The Hillsboro community was shocked to hear of the death of George Shack, who was injured one year earlier in a farming accident that resulted in two operations to restore use of one of his arms. Shack appeared to be recovering in a Columbus hospital, but died of tubular pneumonia.
A small stock of general merchandise was listed for sale with the closing of A.L. Carr’s store in Taylorsville. It was located at the Norfolk & Western Railroad Station, with a seven-room cottage and seven acres of farm land also up for sale.
This week in 1937, the Hillsboro News-Herald reported that members of the junior high school in Greenfield were hard at work rehearsing their presentation of the comic operetta “The Mikado,” scheduled for the evening of April 6 in the high school auditorium.
Rumblings of war in Europe had led to the forming of an Emergency Peace Campaign in the country, with meetings planned in over 4,000 communities including Hillsboro, with the motto “Let’s Keep Out of War.”
John Gotherman’s automobile dealership on West Walnut Street, opposite the Hillsboro Church of Christ, had a 1936 Hudson demonstrator with 4,300 miles for sale, a 1932 Phymouth Roadster with new tires, a ’29 Chevrolet Coupe with low miles and a 1928 Oldsmobile Sedan priced to drive off the lot.
In Marshall news, Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Barrett gave a supper Monday evening in honor of their granddaughter Janette Smith’s birthday, Mr. and Mrs. Willard Murphy and daughter Eileen spent the weekend with Mr. and Mrs. Ed Bloom near New Market, and the WCTU heldits regular meeting at the home of Mrs. O.H. Hughes.
W.H. Ballentine’s hardware and supply in Hillsboro was getting ready for “America’s Past Time” with a 49 cent sale on baseball bats, flat seam soft balls and fielders gloves — all at “home run values.”
The paper reported on a full-page feature that appeared in The Columbus Dispatch written by local author Violet Morgan Turner about Highland County’s most famous desperado and outlaw, Bob McKimie, who was born in Rainsboro and went west to seek his fortune.
About 400 more persons bought license tags for their cars and trucks in the county than they did in 1936, with only two licenses for motorcycles being registered.
Plans to bring electric to rural parts of the county were continuing, with the company in charge of the project reporting that 50 miles of poles had been set in the Leesburg/New Vienna vicinity.
A big double feature was showing at the New Bell’s Theatre, with Johnny Mack Brown starring in “The Gambling Terror,” followed by the Ann Dvorak, Smith Ballew and Harry Carey appearing in the horse racing drama “Racing Lady.”
This week in 1969, the Hillsboro Press-Gazette reported that Highland County joined the rest of the nation Monday in paying homage to former President Dwight Eisenhower, who died on March 28. The paper reported that banks and most businesses were closed in observance of Ohio Governor James Rhoades’ declared day of mourning.
The Hillsboro City Council split along party lines in a 4-3 vote to approve the purchase of a tract of land for a new city reservoir.
Dean Martin was starring in the last of the “Matt Helm” movie series at the Colony Theatre. “The Wrecking Crew” was on the big screen, with Elke Sommer, Sharon Tate, Nancy Kwan and Tina Louise making up “the most beautiful body of she-spies a secret agent was ever up against!”
G.C. Murphy’s in Hillsboro was getting ready for Easter with filled Easter baskets for 98 cents to $3.95, a one-pound box of filled candy eggs for 46 cents, and solid chocolate seven-inch tall Easter rabbits for 79 cents.
Construction workers had begun clearing the site for the new Highland County District Library at the corner of East Main Street and Willettsville Pike in Hillsboro.
Hillsboro Auto Company had great prices on used cars and trucks, such as a 1967 Ford Mustang fastback with a V-8 under the hood, automatic transmission, radio, heater and new tires for $1, 795; and a 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 four-door V-6 with automatic transmission, power steering, jet black with a red interior for $1,645.
The Skyscraper Restaurant in Hillsboro invited everyone to give Mom a break from the kitchen and take the family out for Easter dinner, with ham or chicken and all the fixin’s on the dinner menu.
Mary Ann Ravenscraft was the caller for square dancing every second and fourth Saturday night at the Loft, on the Marshall Pike.
Just in time for Easter, Burger Chef in Hillsboro was having a fish-free sale, with four fish sandwiches for just $1 through the end of April.
Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571.
