CARTER
I love local history, and every now and then, I stumble upon old online newspaper reports that solidify my interest. The newspapers of the past often gave frank, colorful details – much more interesting and thought-provoking than the scant coverage given in modern publications. I find it so entertaining to read about events of the past and speculate on what those days must have been like. Up-close and personal, newspapers used to supply readers with amazing accounts of people and their interactions.
Such is the case with my recent findings from the “Carter County News Articles” compiled by Glen Haney at https://kycarter.com/news/glen_haneys_articles_03.htm which is part of Carter County, Kentucky Genealogy & History Research Website (KYCARTER.COM) at https://kycarter.com/index.html.
The directory listing for news is https://kycarter.com/news/index.html.
Please access these sites
for much more information. (Click the addresses above for the transfer.)
I will share some of these Carter County News articles with you today. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. This blog entry is strictly for historical purposes and should not be used as a source to verify the contents of any of the newspaper articles below.
Portsmouth, Ohio Mention
September 10, 1898
PORTSMOUTH: Al McGlone, a young man who formerly lived on East Twelfth Street is now in New York city hospital. He was severely wounded in one of the engagements proceeding the fall of Santiago, being shot through the wrist. The bone was so badly shattered that it became necessary to amputate the arm.
McGlone is well known here. He was a rather wild young man, but his past sins are certainly wiped out by his gallant conduct in his country's cause. He is the son of Capt. W.P. McGlone, who now lives at Olive Hill, Ky. A communication to the Times says young McGlone will be in Portsmouth next week.
Nov 14, 1908
John Swords and his wife, Rhoda Jarvis Swords, who claimed to have been kidnapped, recently, called at the C. & O. freight office Tuesday to claim some effects that had been shipped to them from Olive Hill, Ky.
The goods-were the same which the woman claimed Jim Jarvis, a former husband, and his accomplice, Will Schaefer, took at the time they carried her away from her Pond Creek home. Swords had enlisted the aid of the Kentucky authorities in recovering the goods.
The couple went to Pond Creek with all possible haste for word had reached them that Jarvis was on his way to Portsmouth to kill Swords. He has made repeated efforts to get back his wife who he claims had not been divorced when she married Swords at Aberdeen a year ago.
Swords now has both his wife and the two bushel of beans he mourned about when she left.
July 8, 1910
PORTSMOUTH: A few hours after he came here in search of work Arthur Debord, 19, of Olive Hill. Ky. fell dead from an iron swing at Millbrook park. The coroner has not yet rendered his verdict, hut it is said the swing had become charged and Debord was electrocuted.
March 3, 1913
PORTSMOUTH: A. L. Daniels a Carter County, Ky. youth who while crazed by drink, amused himself discharging a pistol at the feet of a fellow boarder at Sarah Conley's boarding house, and who fired a bullet through the floor of Joe Distol's saloon, was fined $25 in each case and also promised the limit if he ever stepped inside a saloon again, as he is a minor.
Daniels claimed to a brought a bottle of whiskey with him from Grayson.
August 3, 1956
If it hadn't been for the dirty trousers he was wearing, Richard Crislip, 23, might still be a free man. Instead, the South Shore resident was in Carter County jail tonight awaiting a hearing on a federal charge of interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.
County Judge Pro Term Bishop Giles tells the story:
Crislip stole a truck near Portsmouth Ohio, about 10 days ago and abandoned it when it broke down. He hitchhiked into Kentucky and while walking along the road between Carter City and Olive Hill he came upon a car with a pair of pants inside. He took the trousers "because his were dirty," changed into them and threw his into a creek.
Out on the road again, thumbing, Crislip was picked up by J.R. Liles.
Liles asked, "Where did you get those pants?"
"I stole them,” Crislip replied.
"They're mine,” Liles said, "but we'll forget about this whole thing if you'll give them back to me."
Crislip refused. Liles drove him to police headquarters at Olive Hill.
Crislip was awaiting a hearing before the U.S. Commissioner at Huntington on the federal charge.
Kentucky And Nearby
Klan Reported From Ironton
August 6, 1872
IRONTON: The Kuklux (sic) have run Colonel and Tom Lawton out of Carter County. Tom Lawton came to Ironton last evening, and went before Zwait and swore that eight or ten Kuklux came to his house, all masked, whipped him, and ordered him and his father to leave the county, which they did. I saw the marks of the hickory on Tom. They did not give him as much as Callahan got but he got plenty.
Zwait has issued warrants for them. There is no one here to go for them, Herman Davis is away. It is about time that there is an example made of some of them infernal hounds. Tom Lawson says there are a dozen cases of a similar character down there, but the people are afraid to do anything for fear that they will not be protected. There can be no doubt about the truth of the statement, as warrants were sworn out yesterday before Mr. Zwalt at Ironton, for the arrest of eight or ten men charged with the offense. We suppress their names for prudential reasons. Ironton is a sort of city of refuge for the victims of the Kuklux.
A Violent Excursion Through East Kentucky
March 1, 1885
As the excursion train going east over the East Kentucky railroad left Grayson a drunken fight occurred in several of the coaches simultaneously. Fully twenty-five pistols were drawn and glittering knife blades flashed in the sunlight. Men were knocked down, women screamed and for a while the cars were a perfect pandemonium. The train was stopped and conductor ordered the men to get off and fight. A line of battle was formed and armed with clubs, pistols and knives a score of drunken men eyed the enemy who
failed to cross the line. The train started and a few of the disturbers were left behind. No lives were lost but broken noses were plenty.
Sparking the Girls And a Big Baptist Meeting
May 31, 1894
I thought I would shoot a little squib to inform your readers how things are moving along in these mountains- I left home May 20th, boarded the eastbound train at Olive Hill at 2:30 p.m. and arrived at E.K. Junction at 11 p.m. Visited Mr.Mobley, the enterprising merchant of that place and found him very busy waiting on customers.
I boarded an East Kentucky train at 4:23AM arrived at Webbville in Lawrence County at 2 PM, finding business very lively my book swinging to my side (for I'm a book agent, you know). I took in dry fork Caney, then crossed the ridge, did Cherokee.and Caney's creek, and am now on Blain.
Hard times is the main cry in this section of the country. There are wagons traveling throughout all this country, begging for the relief of the miners in this country. Snow fell five or six inches deep here and [ruined] wheat, rye, oats and almost everything-else.
What corn has been planted is up but is yellow like a ripe banana. though most farmers are not yet done planting.
Well, by the way, I had new potatoes for dinner today that were grown here. This is Saturday evening and I am taking in a big Baptist meeting and I am having a jollification
sparking the gals and drinking native extract of corn. 1 will be at Hood's and Louisa next week and will try and inform you of the doings down there – OLIVER TWIST
Notable Youngsters of Roundbottom
Feb 9, 1892
ASHLAND: Joseph Davis of Roundbottom, W.V., 15 miles up the Big Sandy Valley, is in the city making arrangements to remove to Carter County, Ky. Davis is the father of the queerest lot of youngsters this end of the state has yet put forth, for though he now lives in West Virginia, the children are native born Kentuckians.
The baby, George Thomas, 2, tips the beam at 12 pounds, and at birth weighed two and a half pounds. Gertie May, 7, weighs 200 pounds while Lizzie, 12, pulls only 48 pounds. But the crowning glory comes with the oldest daughter, who at 13 thinks nothing of her 510 pounds of avoirdupois and does her share of housework. Davis is a very common looking backwoodsman and his wife is a small woman. He offers no solution for the strange variance of his size in his offspring and is content that they are a "tarnally bright lot o' kids.
Giant At Grayson Jail Door
May 3, 1895
James McDowell, a man of Herculean build and standing seven feet and one inch in his bare feet, treated Grayson Ky. to a regular picnic a few days ago. Jailer Brown had a warrant issued for him, the charge being that McDowell had smuggled liquor to prisoners in jail. McDowell was easily found and went to the jail door, which was only six and one half feet high. But he refused to stoop to enter the jail. The jailer begged, then threatened, but the giant stood immovable. Brown tried to bend McDowell's
legs at the knee. He got up twenty feet away. Help was called for, but McDowell stood at the door, grim, but steadfast.
A crowd began to gather. Soon all the town was attracted to the giant at the jail door. He was good-natured, and laughed and jested with the crowd. Toward evening McDowell announced that he was getting weary and would go home, promising to appear in court the next day, adding that if the door was enlarged he would go into the jail, but he would never bow to any jail door. Brown let him go. McDowell came back as he had promised, pleaded guilty and paid his fine.
Somnambulism Kentucky-Style
Nov. 7, 1898
From Olive Hill, Carter County comes the story of a most remarkable case of somnambulism, A few nights ago Emma, the 14-year-old daughter of Captain and Mrs. Brooks, living on a farm a mile east of Olive Hill, after having finished her studies for the next day, lay down on the bed to rest, but did not intend to go to sleep. She promptly went to sleep. The rest of the family, thinking she had retired for the night, did likewise.
About 10 o'clock Emma arose, put on her mackintosh, and, carrying her shoes in her hand, left the house unobserved in a deep sleep. She went to the C and O. track near the house and started east. She walked rapidly, and was seen by no one until she passed Aden, seven miles east of her starting point, where the night operator noticed her, but did not speak to her. The girl's eyes were wide open, and there was nothing in her appearance to indicate that she did not know what she was doing.
She walked about four miles further eastward before she awoke, probably from pain caused by the laceration of her feet. She was dazed, but promptly reversed her course.
Meanwhile her absence had been noticed, and her parents began telegraphing in both directions from Olive Hill. From the Aden operator it was learned that a girl answering Emma's description, had passed eastward. A handcar wag secured and the girl was picked up on her return trip. Her feet were terribly cut, and she was in a state of physical collapse.
She said she had dreamed that her mother had told her to go after the cows and that she remembered nothing else till she awoke. On her journey she had met three trains and had been overtaken by two, unconsciously stepping out of the way. She had crossed fourteen bridges and trestles, one of the former being more than 200 yards long and one she had refused to cross in daytime. She had also passed through two tunnels and over innumerable cattle guards. It was her first sleepwalking experience. Captain Brooks, Emma's father, is a well-known railroad man.
Corn-Cob Smoking Granny
April 13, 1911
Puffing away contentedly on a corn cob pipe, which she admitted had been her companion for two years, Mrs. Amanda Scott of Olive Hill, Ky., attracted considerable attraction at the N. & W. depot Thursday noon.
Mrs. Scott is past 76 yet she travels alone and enjoys it. She is wonderfully well preserved, possessing a keen pair of eyes, a remarkably smooth face considering her age and she is an entertaining talker. Before the arrival of the train she regaled a coterie of traveling men with her some clever stories about her native health. She talked interesting about politics and between puffs on her pipe she related the history of Olive Hill. She scouted the theory that smoking was injurious.
"Why I've been smoking for over 40 years "said the old lady, "and I recon it ain't hurt me much as I will be 76 in June, if the good kind Providence spares me that long."
"Do I think smoking is harmful, well I certainly don't. Harrison, he is my husband, smokes the corn cob from morn till night and he can outrun any of you here", said Mrs. Scott as she carefully surveyed the little throng that surrounded her in the depot.
When two traveling men volunteered to help her board the N & W noon train, Mrs. Scott protested in no uncertain tones. She went to Ironton to visit a daughter before returning home. She had been spending a few days with local relatives.
Grayson Hog Pens – Pee-yew!
July 17, 1916
Down at Grayson, Ky., when the city officials do not walk in the straight and narrow path of duty, they tell 'em about it, and they tell 'em in plain and forcible language.
For instance, take this mild tip handed out last week by the Eastern Kentucky Journal, of Grayson, to the mayor and health officer of the town: "Remember the alley-cleaning proposition, and, by the way, Health Officer and Mayor, we have some of the 'blamdest, stinkyist hog pens in this town we ever smelled, and if the Health Officer overseeing and
the Mayor know anything about Health overseeing or Mayoring both know that these infernal stink-holes ought by all means be cleaned up, and you ought to be arrested and cast into a hog pen until you agree to enforce that law which prohibits these unsanitary nuisances.'
C&O “Jim Crow” Car
June 7, 1921
Harold Garner and his wife Marie Garner have brought action in Common Pleas court against the C & O Railway Co., asking damages in the aggregate sum of $500.00 through attorney Louis Schneider.
The plaintiffs allege that on July 4, 1920, they boarded one of the defendant's trains at Ashland, Ky., to go to Olive Hill, Ky. They were put in a "Jim Crow" car reserved for colored people, but this car was invaded by a number of drunken white men who were noisy and used obscene language and the train crew ordered them out of the car and into the smoker where white men were smoking and using bad language.
The plaintiffs claim they were deeply humiliated and ask damages in the amount stated.
Just a Little “Rough And Tumble” Football
Sept. 20, 1937
Greenup Ky., Olive Hill, Ky., High school defeated the Greenup High school football Tiger's here this afternoon by a score of 3 to 0 but the game, a rough and tumble affair marked by much wrangling was only a minor part of the matinee. A free-for-all followed the gridiron struggle in which players, coaches and spectators participated, until officials separated the combatants. Black eyes, bloody noses and bruised anatomies were plentiful following the near riot.
The post-game battling started when Coach Scruggins of Olive Hill kicked Jimmie Archie, star half back of the Greenup team, say eye witnesses. Then Chas. Wilson, Greenup coach, brought his fists into play and Scruggins is said to have lost a couple of teeth. Then players and spectators alike took a hand and the combat de honoris was waging fast and furious when officers of the law poured oil on the troubled, waters.
Olive Hill won the contest in the last quarter by a spectacular drop kick from the 2 yard Hue at a difficult angle by a backfield man. Jimmy Archie, Greenup half back, starred for his team.
Two occurrences in the contest riled the Greennp partisans. Greenup had an end way out on the edge of the field for a "hideout" pass when the Olive Hill time keeper tipped off the play to the Olive Hill team and then the Olive Hill coach was accused of coaching his team from the side lines. Unbiased spectators said Grcenup did not threaten the Olive Hill goal mark.
Carter County Lightning
Aug. 4, 1953
GRAYSON: John Taylor 64, of nearby Stan Branch, was killed Monday afternoon when lightning struck a tree against which he was leaning on the Carter County Courthouse lawn. The bolt sent 10 persons to the hospital for shock treatment and knocked three persons off their feet.
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