West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 111 by Charlie Miller
____May 26, 1916 – Mrs. Albert Stickley has resigned as the Interurban Depot Agent after 14 years of service, having started shortly after the line was started.
____June 5, 1916 – The Village’s first-speed limit signs are posted being four in number.
____July 1, 1916 – The merchants of West Jefferson are conducting a program known as “West Jefferson Day” with 1,700 prizes. The program started at 1:00 p.m. in front of the city hall with attorney Ed Johnson as speaker. No vehicles were allowed on Main Street after noon, and special police were on hand to administer the order. Eight hindquarters of beef were roasted over a wooden fire with iron bars trough to hold them above the blaze, and after 16 hours of roasting, it was good and tender. Conservative estimates place the crowd at between 2,500 to 3,000. (Sounds like an early Ox Roast.)
____1916 – Walnut Street was paved by the Andrews Asphalt Co., and the upstairs of the city hall, the Opera House, was leased to Mr. Kaho for notion pictures, etc. (Mr. Kaho later opened the Orient Theater across the street in the old Methodist Church building.)
____May 10, 1917 - The following are the results of an election that was held to determine if the sale of intoxicated liquor beverage should be allowed within the limits of the Corporation.184 yes, 140 no.
___1917 – The West Jefferson News was purchased by the Madison Press, and an ordinance was passed authorizing the sale of bonds for the purpose of building a water plant and tower.
____By the time WWI had broken out, the military outfits were formed much differently than they were in the days of the Civil War when each community had formed its own company or companies which were comprised of local men. There were many men from West Jefferson who served in World War I. The following is a letter from Walter Wilson, brother to the late Robert A. Wilson, Sr. It is dated October 1, 1918, from “somewhere in France.” “Dear father, (Henry C. Wilson) Will write you a few lines this afternoon. I was wounded in the right thigh on the 26th of September by a machine gun bullet, which broke my leg. I had just been transferred to another company, and it was my first day at the front trenches, but we went over the top.
The Germans got four of us in a line. One was killed, and I think one of the boys died later, while the boy next to me got his left leg broken in the same place mine is broken. I am getting along fine, but it is painful and tiresome. (This occurred during the Battle of the Argonne Forest)
Your Son,
Priv. Walter F. Wilson
American Base Hospital No. 26
A.E.F. APO 785