1925– 100 Years Ago
A Menace To Traverlers
Heavy trucks and light Ford cars at the hands of reckless drivers are constantly violating the speed laws on our paved highways. Trucks, even though equipped with pneumatic tires, are not permitted a speed beyond 25 miles per hour; if they have solid tires the limit is 15 miles per hour. Passenger vehicles are limited to 30 miles per hour on open highways, but Ford cars are constantly and almost universally exceeding this limit.
Hounds Locate Stills
Sheriff Knight of Greenbrier County with other officers and Tom Keiffer and his bloodhounds went to the “Tar Heel” section near Renick, and by the aid of the hounds located two stills in almost inaccessible locations. At one still they seized 80 gallons of moonshine and 300 gallons of mash.
KKK’s Kut Kweer Kapers
A Ku Klux Klan demonstration was held between Ronceverte and Lewisburg last Saturday and Saturday night.
1950 – 75 Years Ago
Greenbrier Honors
President
After a faculty meeting, President and Mrs. French W. Thompson and Dean Marion Currie were surprised by gifts and speeches in honor of their quarter century of service at Greenbrier College. It was noted that Dr. Thompson has had a longer term than any previous president in the 138 years since the old Academy was first founded on these grounds, and probably the most prospered in its history.
Polio Cure Solid
The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis said last week that research for a polio cure is “on solid ground.” The foundation emphasized that it still is impossible to promise a practical means of control within a given number of years. The foundation’s program of research had developed scientific reasons for the belief that such control is attainable.
Lewis Theatre
Showing at the Lewis Theatre for an entire week is Cecil B. DeMille’s masterpiece Samson and Delilah with Hedy Lamarr, Victor Mature, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury and Henry Wilcoxin. The biggest motion picture since Gone With The Wind.
1975– 50 Years Ago
Statue Is Stolen
The statue may be gone – but Spartan spirit remains. The eight-foot tall, golden Spartan was stolen from the grounds late Friday or early Saturday. The statue, which was made of fiber-glass material, was presented to the School in 1969 by the Lewisburg Lions Club.
Ford “Drops In” At Austria
Before the eyes of Austrian television viewers, the President of the United States toppled over and, for a moment, lay at the bottom of an airplane ramp. The descent from the plane at Salzburg was perhaps the most sensational in presidential history, and a White House aide blamed the fall on a “football knee” which gives the former University of Michigan center trouble when he is tired.
Senator Randolph Addresses Group
Addressing the National Advisory Council of The Small Business Administration at The Greenbrier, U. S. Senator Jennings Randolph said, “Over the past 22 months, the major government efforts were aimed at reducing double-digit inflation and combatting meat, food, and other shortages. Our planners and policymakers were not made sufficiently aware that, beginning in mid-1974, business investment had been dropping at an annual rate of 15 percent.”
2000 – 25 Years Ago
Jazz Concert Highlights GVT’s Grand Opening Celebration
The opening act for Greenbrier Valley Theatre’s newly renovated performance center was jazz legend, Ellis Marsalis. Ellis is recognized as the premier modern jazz pianist of New Orleans. “To have a man of such consequence in historic Lewisburg, opening GVT’s new facility is almost poetic, “ said Long-time Marsalis friend and GVT musical director, Joe Buttram.
Braxton County Jury Finds Beard Not Guilty
After a Braxton County jury deliberated two-and-one-half hours, they found Jacob Beard not guilty of the murders of Nancy Santomero, 19, of Huntington, Long Island, New York, and Vicky Drian, 26, of Wellman, Iowa. Known as the Rainbow Murder Case, the murders took place on a summer evening in 1980. “Truth wins in the end,” Beard commented after the verdict. Public defender George Castelle openly shed tears, while others hugged Beard and his wife, Linda.
Byrd Speaks At Dedication For Alderson Plant Materials Center
Approximately 300 people were on hand for the dedication of the Alderson Plant Materials Center, a facility that will serve 11 states within the Appalachian Region. United State Senator Robert C. Byrd said, “This brand new facility has been designed and equipped to develop hard plants for the hardy people of West Virginia, and for the rest of the Appalachian region that it servies.”
Casino Issue Debated
If the Greenbrier County Commission goes strictly by the numbers it will decide later this month to put the issue of limited gaming at The Greenbrier on the November ballot. The vast majority of citizens who spoke during a public hearing on the issue said they want the opportunity to vote and they feel that vote should be taken during the general election, not a special election.
DISCLAIMER: The articles in Echoes of the Past are printed in their original form and may contain typos.
