Twice-Told Tales
This edition of Twice-Told Tales was originally published ten years ago this week on Wednesday, May 20, 2015.
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Ten Years Ago – 2005
The 1990 valedictorian of Barnesville High School is Todd Miller, son of Edward and Deborah Miller. The salutatorian is Danah Pryor, daughter of Steve Pryor and Carolyn Markovich.
Commencement exercises will take place in the high school gym on Sunday afternoon.
A lightning strike heavily damages the historic Kennard Building at 108 N. Chestnut Street, home to Antiques on the Main. Also damaged was the Styling and Tanning Salon next door. Both buildings are owned by Frank “Clem” Williams.
Harold and Carolyn Baker of Barnesville marked their 40th wedding anniversary on the 15th.
Mrs. Bea Dyer will mark her 100th birthday on the 23rd. The longtime Barnesville resident is a native of Noble County just west of Stafford.
Agnes “Aggie” Timmons, longtime Barnesville educator and girls’ athletic coach, will be inducted into the Ohio Valley Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame at ceremonies slated for August 20 in Wheeling.
Twenty-five Year Ago – 1990
Ribbon cutting ceremonies mark the opening of the Barnesville Antique Mall and the Barbara Barbe Doll Museum.
A chicken barbeque at the Morristown Raceway Park will benefit the Morristown VFD as the volunteers regroup following a costly fire that heavily damaged the firehouse and equipment.
John Pollock, a resident Euclid Avenue in Barnesville, wins the Democrat nomination for Belmont County Commissioner. Voters also return Judge Jennifer Sargus to office by a large majority.
Precinct Three voters here reject sale of beer by the glass by a narrow margin, 48-45.
New officers of the BHS Honor Society are Brian Clymer, president; Erin O’Grady, vice president; Erica Keiser, treasurer, and Ann Bunfill, secretary-historian.
Belmont Grange No. 89 accords Jean Davies its Community Citizen Award. Lecturer Elizabeth Rockwell presented Davies with a plaque. Refreshments and fellowship in the Grange Hall dining room followed.
Don Davis has purchased the Battery Company from Tony Complo. Located at 600 South Chestnut Street, the business features new, used and reconditioned batteries for auto, farm and home.
Fifty Years Ago – 1965
Belmont County Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) reports 24 direct industrial contacts with new industrial prospects during the past six months; two industrial sites are under option with two more are expected. Visits to 14 existing county industries also took place during this time.
High School principal James Griffin reports that 24 BHS seniors who took recent tests now qualify for employment by the FBI.
The Board of Education accepts bus bids from two local dealers – Doan Ford and Bob’s Chevrolet – for 54-passenger buses for the next school year.
The local senior citizens group will gather at 8:30 fast time this morning for a sightseeing trip to Marietta.
The annual alumni banquet for Beaver Local High School will take place May 29 in the Batesville gym.
Somerton – Eugene Rogers has returned home from Nashville, Tenn. where he graduated from the Nashville Auto Diesel College on April 28.
Seventy-five Years Ago – 1940
A senior class of 18 at Belmont High School will graduate next Wednesday.
After tireless and unceasing work, D.O. Polmatier, president of the Trico Conservation Club, has been assured that a series of dams will be constructed along the Captina Creek after which they will be stocked with fish by the State of Ohio.
Wilford Shipe, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Shipe of N. Broadway, will represent the local American Legion post at Buckeye Boys State this year.
As enumerators of the 1940 Census are busy in the community, local historian Frances Hibbard profiles the town’s first census of 1820 when the town’s population was 326.
Bethesda – Mrs. Campbell of Bellaire, who has been engaged as hostess and manager of Epworth Park Hotel for the present season, has arrived and is busily engaged in placing the hostelry in proper condition.
One Hundred Years Ago – 1915
From the Whetstone
At noon Sunday as the whole landscape was bathed in the beauty of the mid-day sun, when the earth was clothed in the splendor of the spring-time, one of Barnesville’s oldest and most highly respected citizens in the person of Mrs. Eliza E. Fowler, passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. S.S. Foreman of N. Chestnut. She was born the daughter of Thomas and Ellen Shotwell on January 30, 1825.
Everett S. Bulger, son of Mrs. Dorcas Bulger of N. Broadway, was struck and killed by a passenger train on the B & O near Butler Station, Ohio Wednesday afternoon.
Robert L. Hunt, aged 50, proprietor of the Idlehour pool and billiard parlor located at the corner of N. Arch and E. Church, died Tuesday of hypertrophic cirrhosis of the liver, death probably having been hastened from a blow sustained on April 26th, when, it is said, he was assaulted by Marshal Dave Wilson. The deceased is survived by one brother, George E. Hunt, owner of Hunt’s Cash Store of North Chestnut, from whose home the funeral will take place tomorrow afternoon.
Probably one of the costliest wrecks to occur on the B & O in this county for many years took place at Belmont last Friday afternoon. An eastbound double-header freight running at a high rate of speed was badly wrecked and 14 cars of merchandise more or less demolished. The bodies of two dead, both railroad employees, were taken from the debris. Thousands of visitors from throughout the county visited the scene.
After an idleness of nine months, the Kearns-Gorsuch bottle works opposite the depot is to resume operations. Fires were lighted at the factory Tuesday, and if all is well, the work of several hundred men will commence in two weeks.
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Twice Told Tales is compiled by Bruce Yarnall, former general manager of the Barnesville Enterprise.
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