West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 59

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 59 by Charlie Miller

____June 25, 1925 – A campaign has begun to improve Edgewater Park. Tables and benches will be constructed, and a building 30’ X 40’ has been donated by T. C. Gregg and H. L. Thuma and is to be remodeled as a shelter house. A new bathing beach is underway under the direction of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Flower beds have been placed, and ball diamonds constructed. (The Park was on the Middle Pike next to Little Darby Creek, Jeff’s football games were played there at one time.) 

____June 11, 1925 – E. J. Britton has bought the meat market from the Martin Brothers. This is the same one that he had owned some time ago. (This eventually became the Red & White Grocery Store, at one time the second oldest one in the country. (Ed was a character; I delivered his paper and when I collected, he would hand me a roll of money with a $100 bill on the outside and say, “Is this enough?” I knew it was full of $1 bills! He always had a bunch of old cronies sitting around a pot-bellied stove and everyone got a big laugh out of it.) 

____July 9, 1925 – Four cases of smallpox have been found in Jeff.

August 17, 1925 – The Kiser-Hoe Cannery will open soon. According the W. A. Beddle, Superintendent of the cannery, this year’s crop will exceed all others including the record crop of 1912. 

(The cannery was located on Jackson St. It was eventually owned by Stokley Foods. During WWII, when help was short, the Senior boys at the High School were let out to work at the cannery. Also, a siding was laid near Murray’s elevator, and migrant workers were brought in to work and lived in the cars.) 

____August 31, 1925 – Mrs. Mary Fellows, widow of T. B. Fellows, died in Columbus. Mr. Fellows ran a hardware store in West Jefferson for a number of years. (His father was W. W. Fellows, who built the big brick on the corner of Fellows and Frey Ave. Fellows Ave. was named after him) 

September 3, 1925 – “Fire Destroys Elevator Plant” ….. The most disastrous fire in West Jefferson’s annuals caused a $55,000 fire to the West Jefferson Elevator Co. Several hundred dollars in damage was done to several nearby houses and $250 to the A.T.&T. Wires and loss to the West Jefferson Power & Light Co. wires. The origination is unknown. It was discovered at 9:45. Heavy damage was sustained by nearby houses owned by Hinkle Patterson, Joseph King, Zim Lewis, and Charles Baker due to the sparks from the fire. Stored in the elevator were 5,000 bu. oats, 1,200 bu. wheat, 500 bu. Corn and 300 bu. barley. Wilbur McCoy, employed by the Sam Feder Hardware Store, was burned about the face and left arm while attempting to extinguish a blaze that threatened his residence. O. P. VanSchoik was overcome by the heat and smoke. 

November 12, 1925 – “Young Baker Chosen As W. M.”. …... E. E. Gregg was elected as Worshipful Master of the Madison Lodge #221 F.&A.M. (More about E. E. Gregg in Series #60)

November 16, 1925 – Radio programs lists start appearing in The Madison Press. Some of the stations were: KDKA, Pittsburgh; WEAF, New York City; WTAM, Cleveland; WKRC, Cincinnati; WOAI, San Antonio; WGY Schenectady; WWJ, Detroit and WLW, Cincinnati.