100 YEARS AGO — 1919

How many people in Danville are aware that the remains of the great evangelist George O. Barnes and his wife are buried in unmarked and unidentified graves in Danville Cemetery. Many of the older residents remember well the wonderful meeting he held in Danville the winter and spring of 1878. This whole community was stirred as it had never been before. Both George Barnes and his wife died on Sanibel Island off the coast of Florida. They were buried there and were afterward taken up and moved to Danville and buried here. A devoted friend of George Barnes took it upon himself to go to the Danville Cemetery and find the graves of that good man and his wife, and called attention to the good people of Danville to this fact, hoping that they might become interested in the matter.

A grog shop is responsible for Harrodsburg having a steep and narrow Main Street. Visitors on Harrodsburg have expressed surprise that the town should have such a steep grade and narrow confines, when Chiles street, which parallels it, is level as a floor and is attractively broad and would have been a better choice. An old resident said as a boy, he heard from the town historian the reason. According to the old man, when the Native Americans ceased warfare and the pioneers were able to come to Harrods Town from where they had hid in the Palisades, a man built a little shack on what is now Meisburg’s Drug Store corner and opened up a grog shop. It proved to be very popular. Later, another fellow opened up a lunch stand next to the grog shop then someone else started a general store next door. This gradual addition to the primitive business houses centering around the busy grog shop kept up until the street inadvertently grew into the Main thoroughfare instead of the wider and more level street that was laid off by the pioneer town fathers as Main Street.

C.E. Powell, owner of the Parksville roller mills, is increasing the capacity of his business and will be installing a new 75-barrel mill. When this is done, Powell will have one of the most up-to-date plants in Kentucky. While the capacity of his flour mill will be tripled, it won’t require any more power to operate. Mr. Powell bought the Parksville mills several years ago from J.J. Cozatt. The mill is directly on the L&N Railroad and processes the wheat grown in that territory.

75 YEARS AGO — 1944

It looked for a time, like Danville might have another school, but for the time being it won’t. The Catholic Church offered the Ephraim McDowell Board of Trustees $30,000 for the Farris property on East Main Street. The church wanted it for the establishment of a parochial school. The McDowell board wants to turn the property into a home for the aged in this community. At the local hospital, there are numerous cases, lifetime cases, they may rightfully be called, and they take up space that is badly needed in the hospital.

Mrs. Mary Eva Burke, chief clerk of the local war price and rationing board has announced two details of the program. 1. Applications for canning sugar are now available at all city and county grocery stores. 2. May 15 is the deadline for the registration of institutional food users, which includes restaurant owners and boarding house keepers for their May and June food allotments.

The Grand Ole Opry tent theater will give a one-night performance in Danville on May 15 at Fourth and Dillehay Streets. Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys with Clyde Moody will be one of the features of the popular show. Chubby Wise, Sally Ann, the Kentucky Song Bird, String Beans, Curley Bradshaw, Lone and Tomie Thompson, The Singing Range Riders and many others will also perform. The tent opens at 7 o’clock and the show begins at 8.

Burial services were held in Bellevue Cemetery for Miss Lettie Tucker, 54, who died on Friday.  Miss Tucker was the granddaughter of Gov. Magoffin, war governor of Kentucky and the great-granddaughter of Gov. Isaac Shelby, first governor of the state. Employed by the local telephone company for 30 years, she was credited with having remained at her post during two disastrous fires which threatened the town.

50 YEARS AGO — 1969

Danville, the black angus capital of the world, is even more highly regarded in that category now that Floyd Dievert and Black Watch Farms of New York have leased about 1,000 acres at Kentucky State Hospital and will raise between 400 and 500 of the finest Black Angus in the world there. Mr. Dievert negotiated a five-year lease with the hospital for $17,000 a year.

First reading of an ordinance that will lower taxes for Danville residents was unanimously approved by city council. The ordinance will lower the ad valorem tax rate from 40 cents to 37 cents per $100 of assessed value of property.

The Kentucky Parachute Association Inc., whose members have been jumping for the past three weeks on Sundays at the Goodall Field, will participate at the field every Saturday and Sunday beginning soon. The group has been jumping since 1958 and has about 20 members, all from Louisville.

25 YEARS AGO — 1994

Danville Mayor John W.D. Bowling asked the city commission to purchase a double-decker, horse-drawn trolley for use on special occasions. “It could be a form of economic development,” he said. Bowling envisions a trolley being used for tours during festivals and when groups are in town.

Boyle County probably will have to renovate and expand its jail or build a new one in order to meet current state standards and handle future inmate populations. That’s the preliminary assessment of the county’s jail situation by the architectural firm, Architecture Plus, that the fiscal court has hired to draw up a feasibility study for $5,000. The president of the Georgetown firm said it will take several weeks to complete the study, but based on what he already knows about the jail, the county’s options are limited as to what it can do about the 72-bed facility.

Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center broke ground on its $12.6 million expansion. Taking part in the ceremony were hospital president Tom Smith, board chair Don Ratzlaff, McDowell Health Care Foundation chair Bob Donlon, hospital auxiliary president Frankie Collier and medical staff president Dr. Alvin Harrison. The L-shaped addition will allow the hospital to increase its outpatient and emergency services. The project will take about two years to complete.