DISCLAIMER: Echoes of the Past is printed as it originally appeared, typos and all.
1923 – 100 Years Ago
Greatest Disaster In Recorded History
The greatest holocaust of modern ages has ravaged the Islands of Japan beginning last Friday and Saturday. It is the heaviest blow struck by nature in many centuries, and had its origin in earthquakes, which destroyed the means of communication so that we as yet know almost nothing of what transpired. The number of estimated dead has reached the appalling total of 350,000. Five great cities of the Japanese empire – the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Yokosuka and Kamakura – have been virtually destroyed by earthquakes, fire, tidal waves and typhoons.
Great Crowd Here Saturday
A crowd gathered in Ronceverte last Saturday to witness the sensational prize drawing of the Overland automobile or the $500 cash, given away by Burkholder & Green of Ronceverte. About 5,000 people were in the city for the event.
To Issue Million In Stock
The interstate commerce commission has granted authority to the Greenbrier & Eastern Railroad to issue $1,000,000 in new capital stock. The G&E is a coal carrying road running from the G&E junction with the Sewell valley Railroad to Marfrance in the western end of the county and serving this new coal field.
1948 – 75 Years Ago
Hanna Buys Store
Ross Hanna, Frankford businessman, has completed the purchase of the Oscar Nelson store this past week. The Nelson store is one of the largest and most complete general store in the rural portion of Greenbrier County. It is situated on Route 219 in the center of Frankford.
Bluefield’s Lemonade Treat
The Bluefield Chamber of Commerce dished out 115 gallons of cold lemonade to hot citizens on August 26 and thus kept a 14-year old promise. The promise is that everyone gets free lemonade whenever the temperature tops 90 degrees in what the chamber likes to call nature’s air-conditioned city. With the temperature at 92, attractive young girls in shorts ladled out the lemonade at three downtown stands.
Three Trips To Lewisburg
The Victory Bus Lines are now running three daily trips from Hinton to Lewisburg and return. Formerly they made only one trip.
1973 – 50 Years Ago
$1,480,000 Goes For Soda Pop Locally
Residents of Greenbrier County are going in for bubbly beverages – the non-alcoholic kind – in a big way. It is estimated in reports that local people are downing the fizzy beverages at the annual rates of 478 eight-ounce bottles and cans per person. Which is a lot of pop. As for the Greenbrier County population as a whole it consumed approximately 15,583,000 eight-ounce containers or the equivalent in the year.
Bendix To Move Facility
The Greenbrier County Court approved a $1.4 million bond issue to cover the cost of constructing a building near Lewisburg for the Bendix Corporation, now located in Ronceverte. The Bendix Process Instruments Division has been located in Ronceverte for 11 years and employs about 300 persons.
Judges Asked For Decision
President Nixon’s lawyers have asked the full, nine-judge U. S. Court of Appeals to bar District Judge John J. Sirica from inspecting the President’s Watergate tapes. The Washington Post quoted Sirica as saying, “Well, I’ll have to get a lawyer. It isn’t everybody who gets sued by the President of the United States.”
1998 – 25 Years Ago
Police Seize Marijuana Plants From Lewisburg Residence
Over the Labor Day weekend, the Lewisburg Police Department carried out its biggest marijuana seizure within the past ten years. According to Chief of Police Tim Stover, the department seized approximately 40 plants ranging in height from two to nine feet He said their street value is estimated to be between $80,000 and $100,000.
WVSOM Professors Launch Vaccine Study
How can osteopathic medicine make the influenza vaccine more effective? That’s the question several professors are investigating in a new study at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. Professors are conducting research to see if osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) can heighten the body’s immune response to the influenza vaccine, thus increasing the vaccine’s effectiveness. Kelly Jackson, Ph.D. is the principal investigator in the study.
Boswell, Wyld Ryde Win County Talent Search Contest
Matthew Boswell of Lewisburg and Wyld Ryde of Wolf Creek are the grand prize winners in the 1998 Kickin’ County Talent Search concluded during the State Fair of West Virginia and sponsored by 99.5 WJLS and Shoney’s, Inc. Wyld Ryde is made up of (from left) Jim Croy, Raymond (Sac) Saunders, David McCarty, Ari Vaughn, sound technician Tina Croy, and Rick Vandergrift. (See attached photo)
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