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 in 1930, the Greenfield Republican reported that Hillsboro merchants had a fall festival. The paper said the businessmen in Hillsboro all cooperated to have it end up being “one of the best affairs of the kind ever put on in that city.”
A house that was used to store implements and grain burned down at a farm west of town at around 10 p.m. on the Tuesday night of that week. The paper reported that the fire was believed to have been started by someone around the farm that wanted to steal corn, but the paper said that was conjecture.
A student at McClain High School, Robert Burgess, won the state poultry judging contest at Ohio State University. Burgess went on to attend the National Dairy Exposition in St. Louis where he represented Ohio.
The Highland County Health Commissioner Dr. H.O. Hodson announced that schools were to reopen Monday following fear of infantile paralysis. Multiple places in the county reported cases of the disease and it caused schools to close the Friday prior.
The South Central Ohio League opening game between Hillsboro and Washington C.H. was postponed on Friday afternoon to later in the season. It was due to Highland County schools closing because of the infantile paralysis cases.
The paper reported that the city hired its second night policeman for a period of five months. It said the city paid the new policeman $25 a month toward his salary and local businesses worked together to pay the rest.
This week in 1950, The Press-Gazette reported that the first complaints about Halloween pranks started over the week. The Hillsboro police asked people to refrain from destroying property. The article said the pranks started in the middle of September.
The paper reported that chestnuts picked from a tree at a farm near Sinking Spring were displayed at the Hillsboro Publishing Company office. A blight hit virtually all the trees in the area, which made these nuts rare.
Jacques Laymon, the son of Burch Laymon, a big prize winner at the Highland County Fair, won the Ayrshire showmanship trophy and placed all four of the Ayrshire cattle registered in the Gold Medal groups of the junior show at the International Dairy Exposition in Indianapolis.
The head sire of the Hampshire herd for the Hisers from Hillsboro Rt. 4, Newcrest Supreme, won 115 fair ribbons, was grand champion at seven county fairs and won third place at the Ohio State Fair. The seven-county fairs it won were Fayette, Scioto, Champaign, Ross, Montgomery, Butler and Brown.
The paper reported that a strange-looking vegetable was growing in the window of the Hillsboro Publishing Company. The item was brought by someone else and was called zucchini. It said the item could be eaten like green beans when it is small and sliced when older.
This week in 1974, The Press-Gazette reported that the Ohio Bell Telephone Co. said it wanted to start a 33 percent rate increase immediately without waiting for formal approval from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The company announced the raise earlier that week where it would go from $8 per month to $10.65.
Ohio’s two NCAA football teams in the top 20 were reported to face tough competition in their next matchups, the two teams being Ohio State and Miami University. The Buckeyes, ranked first in the country, faced off against the 13th ranked Wisconsin Badgers while Miami played Ohio University.
The Cincinnati Bengals, 3-1 at the time, were third in scoring in the entirety of the NFL but hadn’t scored a single point in the first quarter. The article said Bill Walsh, assistant coach for the team, thought the reason for this might be because the offense spent the beginnings of the game “probing” for weaknesses of the opposing defense.
This week in 1999, The Times-Gazette reported that Hillsboro was about to induct the inaugural class of the Hillsboro High School Athletic Hall of Fame. The class included Larry Armstrong, Ernie Blankenship, Jim Buck, Jon Cole, Vernon Hooper, Belinda Hottle, Louis Lamb, Dave Larimer, Willard Parr Jr. and Omer Price Jr.
The Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Purdue Boilermakers and eventual NFL superstar Drew Brees by a score of 25-22. The Boilermakers were prepared to tie the game with a field goal but it was tipped by Brent Johnson and fell harmlessly and gave the Buckeyes the win.
Three Atlanta doctors were barred from working at a hospital and fired from radiology practice after they made racist comments which were caught on a tape recorder they thought had been turned off.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
