Twice-Told Tales Redux

This edition of Twice-Told Tales was published ten years ago this week on Wednesday, March 11, 2015.  

Ten Years Ago – 2005

Fire Chief Bob Smith reports that the community’s application for a FEMA Homeland Security Grant of $146,000 to purchase equipment and protective clothing has been approved.

The Daily Jeffersonian/Enterprise’s Columbus Capital Bureau chief reports that there are more than 45,000 concealed gun carry licenses issued statewide.

Elizabeth “Lib” Ramsey, 90, who along with her late husband, Phil ran the Ramsay Shell Station near the intersection of Routes 40 and 149, Mooristown, has died.

Also passing this week was Pauline Peddicord Fitzgerald, 88. Burial took place at Pleasant Ridge Cemetery near Somerton.

Jean Davies profiles Hazel Smith upon reaching the age of 103. Smith, a resident of the Barnesville Health Care Center for the past four years, is the widow of Roy Smith, co-founder of the Red Star Bus line that ran initially from Woodsfield to Barnesville and eventually operated lines to Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh. Smith is a native of Alledonia.

Twenty-five Year Ago – 1990

Barnesville Council agrees to invest the $11,000 proceeds the town received from the sale of the Burns Apparel factory into a downtown building revolving loan fund administered by the development council.

In other development council news, officers are pleased to note that Senator Ney and Representative Cera have secured a $150,000 line for the Victorian Village Project in the state budget.

TCI of Ohio, the local cable television provider, presents a check of over $8,000 to the village for the 1989 town’s franchise fee.

A photo of the 25-member Bethesda Volunteer Fire Department is featured on the Area News page.

Fifty Years Ago – 1965

With new Interstate Route 70 through the county and Ohio University branch college here, Belmont County is going to grow, Attorney George Cheffy, village clerk, said in a talk to the Rotary Club. “Whether Barnesville grows with the county depends on the people in this community,” he added in a page one story.

Another page one story profiles Cheffy’s children, Sally, a freshman, and Ed, a sixth grader, as they prepare for the annual school science fair.

A few timbers sticking into the air are all that is left of the 80-year-old frame hotel at Epworth Park. Work tearing down the historic structure got underway two weeks ago. The hotel was three stories high on one side, two on the other. It was condemned as a fire hazard last summer by the state fire marshal and ordered torn down.

Woodsfield native, Dr. Donald Piatt, will open a practice here in June.

Seventy-five Years Ago – 1940

Kirk’s New Women’s Shop, typical of a New York Fifth Avenue dress shop, will have its formal opening Friday and Saturday. Christy Mansfield is in charge of the new department, one of the most outstanding women’s apparel stores in the tri-state area. 

Harry Burns of Belmont was one of two local flood victims on Sunday. He and Samuel Maroni of Fairpoint drowned on Sunday in Wheeling Creek when the bridge which they were crossing was washed loose by a flash flood throwing them into the water. Burns’ uncle is Wayne Thornburg of this city.

P.B. Worthington has installed the new “daylighting” system in the men’s clothing department of his store. The lights, placed over the showcases of men’s suits, give a daylight glimpse of the clothing.

A local cast of over 100 citizens will present “Gone With the Wind” at its debut tonight in the Barnesville Saddle Club Show at the junior high auditorium. The musical is produced by Margaret Hanlon Fowler and assisted by Audrey N. Huber at the piano.

A conference on Peace will take place at the Friends Boarding School this weekend. Members of the Philadelphia-based American Friends Service Committee are in charge of the program.

One Hundred Years Ago – 1915

From the Whetstone

A big street parade led by two bands will take place at 11:45 am March 15 to herald into Barnesville “the biggest and best Uncle Tom’s Cabin Show on the Road”.  Patrons are advised to secure seats early at Moore’s Opera House. The doors open at 7:15 and the curtain rises at 8:00. Ticket prices are 25 -, 35- and 50-cents.

Advertisement – Our Loaves are the biggest and best at Mantz Bakery because all dough for our bread is “well thumbed” by our sanitary “thumbing” machine.

The Dallas and Miller Cash Market on Arch Street has “solved the “Cost of High Living” proposition by abolishing the telephone, delivery boy and account book. Customers save by purchasing goods with cash in person.

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Twice Told Tales is compiled by Bruce Yarnall, former general manager of the Barnesville Enterprise.