100 YEARS AGO — 1918

Two large automobile mail trucks are now serving the people of Danville and this section of the state. Beginning yesterday, a route was established between Danville and Cynthiana. The truck leaves here at 5:30 a.m. and passes through Hedgeville, Hubble, Lancaster, Bryantsville, Nicholasville, Lexington and onto Cynthiana. The truck returns in the evening at 7:30. The other mail truck comes from Louisville, via Bardstown, Springfield and Perryville. After the people get in the habit of using the mail trucks, they will realize that they can not do without them. Before the mail trucks, mail service out of Danville has been very bad, but now farmers may send their country produce to market and send mail every day and receive replies in a reasonable time. Let everyone support the mail trucks in order to keep them.

Centre College plays the all-star, nationally famous Camp Zachary Taylor football team on Cheek field in Danville on Nov. 22. This promises to be the classiest football repast ever served to fans in Central Kentucky. Camp Zachary Taylor’s team is composed of the pick of thousands of men and include some of the best and most famous athletes in America. It will be a battle of brain, speed and brawn.

Mrs. Mattie Harmon received a message from the War Department last Friday that her son, Newton Harmon had been killed in action on Nov. 5 on the Western Front in France. He is the first young man from Perryville to pay the supreme sacrifice.

The girls and boys of Danville and Boyle County will be asked to earn and give at least $5 to the United War Work campaign which will be known as the Victory Girls and Victory Boys. A boy enrolls as one of “a million boys behind a million fighters,” and a girl will enroll under the slogan “every girl planning for victory.”

75 YEARS AGO — 1943

An outbreak of scarlet fever in the west end of Boyle County is believed to be under control. Although there are eight known cases in Perryville, no new ones have been reported since Nov. 15. Perryville school will be closed if any new cases are reported. In the event the school is closed, every family in the west end of the county will be quarantined, which means they will have to stay at home and will be prohibited from attending church, Sunday school, shows and appearing on the street.

The Red Cross “buddy bags” which are being made by members of the St. Asaph’s chapter D.A.R., must be in the hands of Miss Elizabeth Carpenter before Dec. 1 to be shipped on that date for Christmas gifts to members of the U.S. Army.

Mr. and Mrs. Orville Horn of Junction City hold the record of having three sons out of four in service. The fourth son is too young to fully decide what he will be, but is planning on following his brothers to help win the war.

Again this year, during Thanksgiving and its holiday weekend, the public is requested not to use the long distance telephone to exchange greetings. This request is made in order to assure war calls the fastest possible service. the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company manager said, “It is not our wish to deprive the public of such holiday greeting calls, but telephone facilities are already over crowded and any additional load might seriously affect the nation’s war business. Also, service men and women at Darnell and Centre College and other camps and bases over the country will want to call home and everyone will want them to get the best service possible.”

50 YEARS AGO — 1968

A young boy’s report of a fire to the Danville fire department at about 2:50 p.m. probably prevented the complete destruction of the historic Trinity Episcopal Church on Main Street. A youngster walking on Main Street saw smoke coming from the eaves of the building and ran a block to the fire fire department where he made a report and then, “just disappeared.” Captain Paul Hammons, chief of the Fire Prevention Bureau, said the department dispatched three fire engines, the rescue truck and 30 firemen to the scene. The fire apparently originated from defective wiring in or around the organ, was confined to that area. Water and smoke damage was held to that area as the organ console was completely destroyed. Other damage was to the walls, ceilings and large beams in the ceiling. The Very Rev. Edgar C. Newlin, rector of the church, said because of the care in which the fire was fought there was very little water damage and that the firemen used covers and swept up as they fought the blaze.

Danville’s bypass came closer to reality when a ribbon-cutting ceremony opened the first of three sections of the project, which when completed will extend around Danville from the Harrodsburg Road, through the Hustonville Road and on to Stanford Road.  The first section opened extends from Harrodsburg Road to Perryville Road and is 2.4 miles long.

Contributions of cash and pledges in the 1968 campaign of the United Community Fund of Danville and Boyle County are now over the top with a sum of $53,901. The campaign goal of $53,500 has thus been exceeded by $401 at this point. The UCF contributions will be divided among 10 local welfare and service agencies or cut-side agencies who carry on their work in Danville. They are Salvation Army, Red Cross, Family Welfare Association of Boyle County, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, the Danville-Boyle County Rescue Squad, YMCA the USO, Muscular Dystrophy Association of America and Cerebral Palsy.

25 YEARS AGO — 1993

Wal-Mart was cleared to begin construction of its Super Center in Danville after months of negotiating over plans. It will contain nearly 170,000 square feet and plans to open next fall.

The woman who has been the assistant at the Heart of Danville has been hired as the program’s new director. “I’m looking at the challenge of being able to help preserve downtown Danville and coexist with Wal-Mart,” said Marnie Gregory. The 25-year-old Danville native had been hired in August as assistant to the Main Street Program Director Yvonne Morley, who had held that position for five years before leaving to become assistant to the president for external affairs at Centre College.

Residents of Boyle and surrounding counties could be exposed to radon, which can cause lung cancer, according to a soon-to-be released survey by the federal EPA. Mark Reed, an environmentalist with the Boyle County Health Department, said Boyle County has been named as a high-risk zone for potential exposure to radon, a naturally occurring radioactive element.

Mary Elizabeth Dedman of Harrodsburg has had  a major addition to her pig collection. Ralph Anderson, of Anderson Circle Farms has given Dedman a 1,200-pound, specially made concrete pig. The 4-foot-tall pink pig has been given a place of honor in the backyard Fro and is spotlighted at night.