Sometimes anniversaries come and go, and no one seems to realize it. This week’s Pulaski’s Past reminds us of a couple of interesting local anniversaries.
Did you know that the first McDonald’s opened in Somerset 50 years ago? At the time, it was reported as being the largest freestanding McDonald’s ever built.
Also 50 years ago, Pulaski County witnessed its first-ever reenactment of the Battle of Mill Springs in the community of Nancy. The first event, by all accounts, had a turnout that was just as large as any other turnout over the more than 40 years that it was held. Unfortunately, the battle reenactments are no longer held on the historic battlefield – but anyone who was able to witness one has a lasting impression of the event.
Here’s what was newsworthy in Pulaski County this week in 1974, from the pages of The Commonwealth-Journal.
Pulaski Preparing for Bicentennial
Pulaski County’s first observance of the Kentucky Bicentennial will be a full weekend of events starting Saturday morning and continuing through Sunday evening. …
In downtown Somerset, the Pulaski County Public Library will be one of the principal focal points as the Kentucky History Mobile Unit will be parked in front of the library on Main Street both days. ... It will be a colorful weekend in downtown Somerset as merchants and clerks will be dressed in period costumes... Participants in the re-enactment of the Battle of Mill Springs will be in their Union and Confederate uniforms. ... A number of downtown Somerset stores also will have displays in their windows reminiscent of the wares being offered for sale in the late 1860s. At 1:30 p.m. Saturday the Daughters of the American Revolution will dedicate a monument the local chapter has erected on the south side of the library. At 2:30 p.m. what is expected to be one of the biggest parades in the history of Somerset will form on North College St. in the vicinity of Central Junior High School... At 8 p.m. there will be a square dance conducted on the Fountain Square.
There will be a number of living history events conducted at the site of the reenactment battle Saturday morning, starting at 8 a.m. These will include black-powder shooting matches with pistols and rifles in which local persons may participate, cavalry races between Northern and Southern units, drill competition and camp inspection. The reenactment site is just west of Zollicoffer Cemetery near Nancy. ... Sunday morning activities at the reenactment site will get underway at 9 a.m. with a non-denominational church service. Special church services will be held at 11 a.m. at two of the oldest churches in Pulaski County, the Pisgah Presbyterian Church and the Flat Lick Baptist Church. At 12:30 p.m. a memorial service will be held at Mill Springs National Cemetery and a half hour later a similar service will be conducted at Zollicoffer Cemetery. At 3 p.m. gunfire will mark the beginning of the reenactment battle. The battle is expected to last about two hours or until the 400 pounds of black powder is fired. Arrangements are being made for some 2,000 spectators to watch the battle from special viewing areas out of the line of fire.
Lake To Be Zoned for Water Skiing
The U.S. Corps of Engineers, in cooperation with the Kentucky Division of Water Enforcement, in the interest of public safety, is restricting water skiing on certain portions of Lake Cumberland. The areas in which skiing will be restricted are narrow and have underwater hazards such as sand and gravel bars and stumps which could cause serious injury to skiers. The “No Ski”’ areas will be marked with buoys and persons who ski in these areas will be subject to citations issued by officers of the Division of Water Enforcement. The specific areas in which skiing will be prohibited include: (1) The entire Rockcastle River; (2) Buck Creek above Buck Creek Dock; (3) Above the junction of Alligator and Wolf creeks; (4) Above the mouth of Dudley Creek; (5) Above the junction of Caney and McFarland creeks. ... The Corps would like to emphasize that restricting skiing in these areas is being done to protect both skiers and boaters. Additional areas will be added as determinations are made on which areas are unsafe.
Ohio Couple Killed in Boating Mishap
Scout Troop 79 Observing 50th Anniversary
Boy Scout Troop 79, the Chester Kaiser troop of the First Christian Church, is participating in Pulaski County’s Bicentennial observance this weekend as it celebrates its golden anniversary. … It is the oldest troop in South Central Kentucky that has been in continuous existence. … Former members from as far distant as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida and Michigan have sent in reservations for the Anniversary Banquet which will be held at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the First Christian Church. More than 200 present and former members of the troop are expected, according to Jack Goldenberg, assistant Scoutmaster of the troop. … At 6:30 p.m. Saturday there will be a fellowship period and get-together in the Community Room of the Church and the banquet and program will follow at 7 p.m. Principal speaker at the banquet will be Jim Host, Lexington, president of the Blue Grass Council of Boy Scouts of America. … Three members of Troop 79 will advance to Eagle rank, the highest in Scouting, during the program. They are Robin Daughetee, Ray Carmichael and Darrell Floyd. … Present leaders of the troop are Marion Berry, Jr., Scoutmaster, Larry Nunemaker, Sr., and Jack and Glen Goldenberg, assistant Scoutmasters, and Doug Franklin, junior assistant Scoutmaster. John G. Prather is the institutional representative, Kenneth Gumm, Bruce Orwin, Mark Colyer and David Floyd are members of the senior patrol, and the troop committee is composed of Jerry Prather, chairman, and Rev. L.D. Fisher, Charles Meece, John G. Prather, Jr., William Cain, Don Orwin, Harry Kennedy, Sr., Paul Floyd, James Daughetee, Jim Williams and Fred Aker. The Golden Anniversary celebration of the troop has been dedicated to the memories of its first Scoutmaster, the late Chester Kaiser. Through his leadership and initiative the troop was organized, and he served as its Scoutmaster from 1924 to 1957. The troop has been named the Chester Kaiser Troop as a living, active memorial to him. Kaiser taught a Sunday School class of boys at the Christian Church and it was members of this class that formed the nucleus of the troop when it was first organized. … For 33 of the troop’s 50-year history, Kaiser served as Scoutmaster, working with “his boys,” who numbered in the hundreds, advancing in rank right along with the young Scouts until he earned the rank of Eagle. He later was awarded the highest honor of Scouting when the Silver Beaver Award was conferred upon him.
Community News:
-Mr. and Mrs. Harold Rogers and family returned Sunday from a vacation spent at St. Petersburg, Fla. While there they visited Disney World.
-Mr. and Mrs. Mac Tucker and children, Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Scott and family, and Mr. and Mrs. Cleo Routen spent their vacations at Daytona Beach, Fla.
-Mr. and Mrs. Max Flynn and children have returned home from Daytona Beach, Fla., after spending the spring vacation there.
-Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Utley, Jr., and children attended the Master’s Golf Tournament in Augusta, Ga., and went on to Florida to see Disney World.
-Mr. and Mrs. Max Lay and son, John Bradley, spent the weekend in Nashville, Tenn. While there, they attended a performance of the Grand Ole Opry.
-Mr. and Mrs. Alton E. Blakley and son, Al, returned Sunday from Florida where they spent their spring vacation at Daytona Beach. They were joined at Daytona Beach by their daughters, Mrs. Nell McMeans and Mr. McMeans and Miss Kathy Blakley of Knoxville.
-Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Epley and family returned Sunday from a vacation spent at Daytona Beach.
-Dr. and Mrs. Gerard A. Weigel and family spent the spring vacation at Daytona Beach. Fla.
-Mr. and Mrs. Vance Graybeal returned Sunday from Daytona Beach where they spent their vacation.
-Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Adkins and children, Sherri, Beverly and Jerald, and Mr. and Mrs. Don Hampton and son, Tim, spent the spring vacation in Florida. Arriving at Sarasota, the Hamptons went to Fort Myers to visit her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Claude George at their home there. The Hamptons rejoined the Adkins family at Sarasota. From Sarasota the entire group visited Disney World at Orlando and spent the remainder of the week at Ormond Beach.
National News:
Military News:
-Dillard L. Silvers, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. James R. Silvers, 16-C Colonial Village, Somerset, Ky., was promoted to Army Specialist Four while serving with the 1st Cavalry Division at Ft. Hood, Texas. Spec. Silvers is a field wireman with the Division’s Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade. His wife, Betty, lives in Kempner, Texas.
-Army Specialist Four Roger D. Meece, 19, son of Mrs. Edna M. Mounce, Ferguson, was promoted to his present rank and assigned to Headquarters, U.S. Army Third Recruiting District in College Park, Ga. Spec. Meece is a personnel specialist with the Headquarters. His father, Robert E. Meece, lives on Route 1, Somerset.
News from Local Businesses:
-Don and Dorothy Bradford are the owners of the new McDonald’s Restaurant on S. U.S. 27, which officially opened yesterday. The McDonald’s is the 2,768th restaurant in the worldwide chain and is the largest size freestanding model built, including 132 seats, 89 parking spaces and employing 62 people. Mary Grundy, Howard Silvers and Dennis Cowan will serve the restaurant as managers.
-Local businessmen whose businesses are expected to be affected by the reconstruction of the U.S. 27 — Ky. 80 intersection met yesterday morning to attempt to change proposed construction plans of the Kentucky Bureau of Transportation. ... The merchants, some 35 in attendance, felt that the lack of traffic near their stores would decrease sales, possibly forcing a reduction in employees and the closing of some businesses. … “I can’t understand why they (Highway Department) would wait until the beginning of the tourist season to start construction,” remarked Elmer Cooper, one of the owners of Cooper Brothers’ Service Station at the intersection. ... “We’re counting a lot on the tourist business,” asserted Roy Fredricks, operator of Family Sports and Hobby Center. “It’s going to make it awfully rough.” ... Both County Judge Jacob V. Garner and Somerset Mayor Dearl Whitaker, who were present at the meeting, were sympathetic toward the merchants’ problem, offering their assistance.
-Utility and Industrial Co. is formally operating in its spacious new building on South Ky. 1247 today, providing mill and industrial supplies for Central and South Central Kentucky industries. A grand opening celebration was conducted Saturday afternoon at its modern, 10,000 square foot Stran Steel building just across the highway from Tec*mseh Products and Lear Siegler plants. … “This is a great addition to our Industrial Park and will be helpful in attracting other industries into our county,” County Judge Jacob V. Garner said. Utility and Industrial Supply, which has been operating in Jackson, Mich., for 38 years, opened a branch in temporary quarters in a warehouse in Ferguson in the spring of 1972 and operated there until its new building was completed this spring.
Birth Announcements:
Recent arrivals at the Somerset City Hospital were: April 7, a daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wilson of Somerset; April 8, a son born to Mr. and Mrs. David Barnett of Somerset; April 9, a daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Balley of Somerset, a son born to Mr. and Mrs. Delmas McKinney of Eubank, a son born to Mr. and Mrs. William Campbell of Tateville, a daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. Michael Dagley of Science Hill; April 10, a daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. Brent Hampton of Eubank; April 11, a son born to Mr. and Mrs. Roger Inabnitt of Somerset; April 12, a daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. Larry Fox of Nancy, a son born to Mr. and Mrs. Doran Lewis of Tateville; April 13, a daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. William Mounce of Somerset, a daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. David Dunaway of Somerset.
Obituaries:
-Don Bogle, 67, 220 Clifty Road, Somerset, died suddenly Sunday at Somerset City Hospital. He was born in Pulaski County on January 20, 1907. He is survived by four great-nieces and six great-nephews. He was a house painter and an interior decorator. He was a member of the Davis Chapel a.m.E. Church. Funeral services will be conducted this afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Davis Chapel a.m.E. Church. Burial will be in the Mt. Olive Cemetery.
-Charles “Hookey” Baugh, 87, West Antioch Street, Burnside, died Thursday at Somerset City Hospital after an illness of several months. He was born in Burnside on March 11, 1887. He married the former Nora Taylor on June 18, 1912, in Somerset and she survives. He was a railroad engineer, retiring from Southern Railway after 43 years. He was a member of the Burnside First Baptist Church.
-Gertrude Bowling, 76, a native of Somerset, died Friday at Colonial Nursing Home after an illness of several years. She was born in Somerset on December 11, 1897. She is survived by a nephew and a niece. She was retired as an office stenographer in Washington, D.C., and was a member of the Somerset First Baptist Church.
-George Robert Hayes, 77, 119 Harvey Avenue, died Friday at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington after an illness of five days. He was born in Wayne County on February 9, 1897. He married Mary E. Hayes on April 21, 1919, in Pulaski County and she survives. Other survivors include seven children, one sister, 18 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. He was retired from Southern Railway and was a member of First Baptist Church of Maple Street and V.F.W. Post 7991.
This Week in Local Sports:
-The Somerset High track team rolled to an easy victory in a triangular meet at Berea yesterday, as it scored 102 ½ points to 47 ¼ for Lexington Sayre and 14 for Berea. Tim Gaines chalked up three first place finishes for Somerset, as he won the 100, 220 and 440-yard dashes. Mark Frank and Lawrence Ingram had two firsts each, as Frank won the 880 and mile and Ingram took the long jump and triple jump. Also posting first place finishes for Somerset were Ronnie Barnes in the two-mile, Jeff Whitis in the pole vault, Burney Manning in the high jump, and Mike Griffis in both the shot put and discus. Griffis, participating in his first meet of the year, had a distance of 55 feet, four inches in the shot, the longest high school throw in the state this season, according to SHS coach Ron Cain. … Somerset also won both relays, with the 880-yard team composed of Quinston Smith, Melvin Stigall, Wendell Dean and Chuck Estes and the mile team made up of Smith, Paul Herron, Estes and Dean.
-The Pulaski County track team easily defeated Berea 97-38 in a meet held yesterday at Berea. The victory saw four Maroons break school records. Joe Crawford, the meet’s top scorer with 20 ¼ points, set a new mark in the 180-yard low hurdles as he finished first with a 22.6 time. Barry Daulton and Mike Measel both eclipsed the school high jump record, as they tied for first at 5 feet, 8 inches, and Mike Johnson set a new mark of 40 feet, 44 inches in the shot put, placing third. Measel finished with 12 ¼ points for the meet, while Daulton had 11.
-Gary Conley’s two-out grand slam homer in the top of the seventh inning gave Somerset High’s baseball Briar Jumpers a dramatic 7-4 victory over Stanford yesterday afternoon at Stanford. The Jumpers, trailing 4-3 entering the final frame, were down to their last strike as Conley connected for his game-winning blast on a 3-2 pitch. Stanford threatened in its half of the seventh, but David Dorsey came on to pitch in relief of Barry Vaught and put out the fire with three strikeouts. Conley, Greg Reynolds and Howard Lamkin each had two hits for Somerset while Jack Logsdon had the only extra-base hit, a double. … Vaught, Somerset’s starter, was the winning pitcher.
-Pulaski County’s baseball Maroons dropped their fifth straight game yesterday, as they absorbed a 13-5 loss to Berea. The contest was tied 2-2 in the third inning when Berea jumped on Maroons’ starter Farmer Erp for five runs on four hits. Coy Mounce relieved in that inning and pitched shutout ball until the sixth, when he was tagged for six insurance runs. The Maroons scored two in the second on a triple by Tommy Francis and singles by Jeff Girdler and John Bolze. They added another in the fifth on a walk, a single by Robert Bowling and a double by Ken Abney. A single by Francis, an error and a wild pitch accounted for the Maroons’ final two runs.
-The Somerset Community College baseball squad closed out its season with a doubleheader sweep over Southeast Community College last Saturday at Cumberland, improving Its final mark to 5-19. The Cougars banged out 13 hits in the first contest, as they posted a 12-4 victory behind the four-hit pitching of Bill Clouse. Clouse fanned nine batters before giving way to reliever Ron Hopper in the seventh inning. Hopper had two doubles and a single to pace SCC, while Clouse had a double and a single and Mike Kerr had a triple. The Cougars took the second game 17-2, as they exploded for 14 runs in the top of the sixth inning. Hopper, who went three for four in the game, had a bases-clearing double to highlight the barrage while Clouse added two triples and Doug Denney had a double and a triple in the big frame. The Cougars had trailed 2-0 in the game, but they went ahead with three in the fifth before the big rally. Hopper, who went all the way on the mound, allowed four hits while the Cougars collected ten. … Gary Robertson finished the year as the only Cougar regular hitting over .300, as he posted a .308 mark. Clouse had five hits in 15 trips for a .333 average, with four of his hits coming Saturday.
-Somerset High’s golf team took its fifth straight win without a loss yesterday afternoon as it defeated Casey County 167-184 at the Somerset Country Club. Coach Ron Whitson’s charges won even though several of their top golfers had mild off-days. No one in the match was able to break par, as David Dick’s three-over round of 39 was the best for either team. Mickey Ray followed Dick for Somerset with a 40, while Allen Roy and Mike Duncan each fired a 44.
-The Somerset High girls’ tennis team scored a shutout in its first effort of the season yesterday as it blanked Boyle County 8-0 at the Porter Hopkins courts. Donna Sadler, Somerset’s only state tournament representative last year, played number one yesterday and defeated her opponent, Green, 8-3 in the singles. In other singles matches, Julia Coleman of Somerset defeated Edwards 8-2; Jamie Neely of Somerset blanked Smith 8-0; Mary Foreman of Somerset stopped Coulter 8-0; Beth Tucker of Somerset won over Ellis 8-2; and Connie Zachary of Somerset defeated Reid 8-5. In doubles, Sadler Coleman of Somerset won over Green and Edwards 6-1, and Foreman and Neely of Somerset beat Smith and Coulter 8-1. Cindy Wesley, one of Somerset’s top players, did not compete in yesterday’s match.
-The Somerset High boys’ tennis team dropped its second straight match yesterday, losing to Danville 5-2 at Danville. Al Blakley, playing number one for Somerset, lost his singles match to Danville’s Preston Richardson 8-5. Somerset’s number two man, Chuck Padgett, won 8-6 over Cork Deaton but Danville swept the other singles matches, with Jeff Baird defeating Doyle Swanner 8-3, Bob Mott blanking Miles Estes 8-0, and K.C. Wold downing Kirby Stevens 8-1. In doubles, Somerset’s number one team of Blakley and Padgett stopped Baird and Mott 8-6. However, Danville’s number two doubles team of Bottas and Best won over Swanner and Estes 8-4.
Advertisem*nts from Local Businesses:
-Country Fair Garden Center & Nursery – 105 Slate Branch Road. Grand opening Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Complete One Stop Garden Shop, where it’s always springtime. Come out and browse in our pleasant and colorful atmosphere! Gene Cheshire, owner. Pat Karambellas, operator.
-Sexton’s Salvage – Ferguson. 24 oz. bag Brach’s butterscotch disks, 89 cents. Bananas, 10 cents/lb. Ex Lax, box of 16/39 cents.
-Classy Beauty Salon – Main Street, Burnside. Opening May 1. Haircut free with shampoo and set. This offer good through June 1.
-Alton Blakley Ford – South Hwy. 27. It’s Mustang’s 10th anniversary! Ford Mustang II, $2,895. Ford Maverick, $2,591. Ford Pinto, $2.442.
-Russell’s Jewelry Inc. – Masonic Building, downtown. New low priced family ring, custom made for mother. Set with radiant birthstones, one stone for each member of the family, in precious 10kt. Yellow or white gold. $29.50. $3.00 additional for each birthstone.
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