West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 125 by Charlie Miller
____December 26, 1929 – Dr. H. F. Jackson, 60, a well-known dentist of West Jefferson, died suddenly of heart trouble. He came to Jefferson 33 years ago, in 1896, and has practiced dentistry since that period. (Dr. Harry F. Jackson. Harry Ferguson Jackson was born in November 1869 in New Castle, Pennsylvania. He built the house on Fellows Ave. across the street from the 1912 High School. The door to Dr. Jackson’s office is on display at the Hurt/Battelle Memorial Library.)
____February 6, 1930 – Dr. George M. Kerr dies. He had spent nearly all of his professional life in this community, first at Lilly Chapel, later moving to West Jefferson. His practice had been exceedingly large, and his work among the flu patients during that epidemic was never-ending.
____March 4, 1930 – Alex Strain, Village Marshal for years, dies at age 70. (Alexander Strain was born in 1862. He was a Village Marshal and also worked at the Canning Factory. He is buried at Pleasant Hill.)
____March 4, 1930 – The manager of the Orient Theater has contracted for the installation of Superior Sound Pictures, which will be in operation by the middle of the month. With this new sound device, all the latest and approved sound effects are given as the sound is taken directly from the film. The Orient is one of the prettiest picture houses in Ohio. (The Orient Theater was in the remodeled 1862 Methodist Church on Main St. When your writer was 15 years old, I was the janitor. The theater was open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Bill Strauss was the projectionist. When the film broke, everyone whistled and stomped their feet!)
____April 10, 1930 – The West Jefferson Four Mill burned to its foundation Monday evening with a loss of $10,000.00 or more. The West Jefferson Flour Mill was recently purchased and put into operation by Mr. W. A. Rush, who caught fire in the upper portion of the mill Monday afternoon and burned to the ground. Mr. Rush had made extensive repairs and had installed new machinery. The mill was probably 100 years old yet had been built of solid oak timbers that were still in a fine state of preservation. The mill was operated by water power for years when the waters of the Little Darby Creek were utilized.
(This mill sat at the far end of the Mill Road. The mill was later known as the Renner Mill, run by three brothers, John, Adam, and George. Their father, John, was born in Germany and immigrated in 1860)
____April 27, James ‘Daddy’ Chambers, age 93, died at the home of his son Eugene west of town on Monday morning. Mr. Chambers was a Civil War Veteran and one of the few remaining soldiers of that army. He was a member of Wilson Burrows Post #389 Grand Army of the Republic. Eugene Chambers was the father of Ellis “Doc” Chambers, who owned the I. G. A. Store.)
____July 3, 1930 – The Columbus papers will probably give West Jefferson a little free publicity with front page articles, for that is the date set for Mayor Stutson’s hearing before Gov. Cooper. A petition bearing the names of 200 persons asking for the Mayor’s removal was filed with the Governor. Following this, a petition with an equal amount of names has been presented asking that the Mayor be retained.