1923 – 100 Years Ago
Impressive Ceremony At Laying Of Cornerstone On Thursday
Thursday morning, December 20th at eleven o’clock, in the presence of a large gathering of members of the congregation and their friends from Ronceverte and surrounding communities, the corner-stone of the New Presbyterian Church of Ronceverte was laid with Masonic ceremonies. Mr. Robert S. Lovelace, deputy grand master of the West Virginia grand lodge presided.
Lee Hardware Store Robbed
Robbers broke into the hardware store of Lee and Lee on Ronceverte’s Railroad Avenue last Wednesday night and so far as could be estimated took almost $100 worth of revolvers and ammunition, without bothering others goods in stock. Thursday morning the bloodhounds from Alderson were brought in, and an attempt made to get them on a trail.
Southern Divine Raps The Klan
Branding the Ku Klux Klan as “an excrescence of the social organism engendered by the political, social and ethical convulsion of the war,” the Rev. Dr. A. W. Plyler, of Greensboro, North Carolina, delivered last Saturday in Washington, D. C., a bitter and satiric attack on the hooded order before church editors from all over the South attending a convention of the Southern Methodist Press Association.
1948 – 75 Years Ago
Church Organ Installed
A Wurlitzer organ has been installed in Clifton Presbyterian Church at Maxwelton. The Rev. J. P. Proffitt, D.D., is pastor of the church and Robert Doss is organist. Earlier this year Clifton Church, which is probably serving the largest rural congregation in West Virginia, was completely re-decorated and refurnished. A color scheme of white and walnut has been used in refinishing the interior.
Chimes Installed
The newly installed carollonic bells at the old Greenbrier Baptist Church were heard by the people of Alderson and vicinity for the first time Tuesday evening when tested for satisfactory performance by Mr. Radford Narville, engineer for Schulmerich Electronics Corporation, who is in charge of installation. The splendid addition to the ministry of music provided by the electronic bells is a memorial to the late John Marshall and Florence H. Alderson, presented the church by their children.
School Pupils Vaccinated
A community vaccination for typhoid fever was conducted by Miss Margaret Arbuckle, Greenbrier County health nurse, and Miss Elizabeth Skaggs, Monroe County health nurse at the Alderson High and elementary schools. More than six hundred persons, including the school pupils, teachers and several citizens were given the serum.
1973 – 50 Years Ago
Dr. Bateman Is Rotary Club Speaker
Dr. Mildred Bateman, the Director of the West Virginia Department of Mental Health, addressed the Lewisburg Rotary Club at its luncheon meeting at the Fort Savannah Inn. Dr. Bateman discussed the plans for the use of the Greenbrier Comprehensive Mental Health Center, located in the facilities formerly occupied by the Greenbrier College for Women.
Tony Boyle Is Ordered To Jail
Former United Mine Workers President W. A. “Tony” Boyle, under three murder indictments, may go to jail today on a federal conviction of making illegal political contributions with union funds. A grand jury in Washington County, PA, on Monday indicted Boyle on three murder charges in the 1969 slayings of his union revival, Joseph A. “Jock” Yablonski, and Yablonski’s wife and daughter in their Clarksville, PA home.
Darin Dies
Singer Bobby Darin, who recorded the hit tune “Mack the Knife” and “Splash Splash,” died today at age 37 of complications following his second open heart operation. Darin was once married to actress Sandra Dee in one of the teen-idol romances of the early 1960s. The marriage lasted three years.
1998 – 25 Years Ago
Ceremonies Mark Opening Of GCW Alumnae Room At GCCC
A ribbon-cutting took place in the newly decorated and memorabilia filled Alumnae Room located in Greenbrier Hall at the Greenbrier Community College Center of Bluefield State College. During the era of the Women’s College, Greenbrier Hall was the center of much activity. Today, this beautiful brick building with its wide expanse of steps at the front entrance is the new home for Greenbrier Community College Center.
Judge Finds Alderson In Contempt Of Court
Circuit Judge James J. Rowe found the town of Alderson in contempt for not adhering to an order he had handed down almost six months ago. Although Alderson’s mayor insisted the town has no money to remedy a water runoff problem which ruined a woman’s house and left it uninhabitable, Rowe said the town “failed to demonstrate a good faith effort to comply with the order.”
State’s Unemployment Rate Rises In November
West Virginia’s unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percentage point to 6.0% in November, the state Bureau of Employment Programs reported. The number of unemployed West Virginians increased 900 to 48,100.
DISCLAIMER: The articles in Echoes of the Past are printed in their entire original form, typos and all.
