West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 146 by Charlie Miller
- 1956 – Village Hall Shut Down – With the controversy over and negotiations finished, the West Jefferson City Hall has temporarily been forced to give way to the march of time. Offices of village officials as well as the town library have been moved from the building. Arrangements have been made to move the mayor’s office into a building a block away, and the library will be housed in the Parson’s Building. All books have been called in by the library, according to Mrs. Charles Miller (no relation), the librarian. There will only be room for one-fourth of the 8000 books and the new location. The building had also housed the jail and the fire truck. The Police Department was moved to the Township Hall.
Whether the village will ask again for funds to build a new municipal building or money to repair the old building is unknown. Mayor Rader said that the $75,000 bond issue that had been defeated in November might be placed on a special ballot in May. Early last year, State Fire Marshal Charles Scott condemned the building, saying none of the major structural faults had been corrected. The order to evacuate was delayed until the results of the bond issue were known. With the issue defeated, Scott said that the building must be evacuated by the first of this month.
(The building had been built in 1893 using some of the bricks from the 1855 town hall. An issue was passed later to provide funds to remodel the building. The third floor, which had housed the ‘opera house,’ was removed, the top part of the tower was removed, and the interior was gutted and rebuilt.)
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- April 8, 2014 – What can a person predict using a No. 2 pencil, a needle and thread? In the case of Frank Cox former West Jefferson Police Chief, it was predicting childbirth long before sonogram. He was able to predict the sex of the child before birth. He was probably the only police officer to rival old ‘Bird’ Clark. Frank was born on August 11, 1933, and passed away on April 8, 2014, at the age of 80 years. He was a graduate of West Jefferson High School. He spent 46 years in the Police Department, 26 of those as chief. He served as a Cpl. with the United States Marine Corps, serving in Korea during the war. He was a recipient of the Purple Heart and a candidate for the Silver Star. Frank always said that he was the last Marine to get wounded during the war.
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- March 5, 1838 – Ever wonder when the London Road was built? A Corporation by the name of the Jefferson, South Charleston, and Xenia Turnpike Co. was authorized by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio. The purpose was to construct a Macadamized highway from Jefferson on the National Road to London by the way of South Charleston and Milford to Xenia. The Corporation was authorized to collect tolls every 10 miles on the road. Tolls ranged from 6 ¼ c. to 25 C. Every head of livestock was charged between 1/4c. and 1 c. Persons carrying U.S. Mail went free. This road later became part of State Route 142 and Route 42.