West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 44 by Charlie Miller

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES: ____January 21, 1869- The Madison County Democrat- Charlie Bliss and Pern Cowling have purchased the drug store owned by J. B. F. Taylor. 

____January 25, 1869- turnpikes have been proposed from West Jefferson to Lilly Chapel and Pleasant Valley (Plain City). 

____April 2, 1869- The first term of our Union School was held in the new building, closed on the 19th of March. The number enrolled for the term was 193, with an average attendance of 147. On the nights of the 22nd and 23rd the new hall of the school building was opened to the public for the first time. 

____April 29, 1869- Mr. Fickey has bought the grocery store of Mr., Kennedy. Ned Lowe is fitting up the Post Office room for a drugstore. The Drug Store of Bliss & Cowling boasts a fine soda fountain. 

____May 6, 1869- Ben Hoe is putting up a fine store in the east end of town and will soon open a fine supply of dry goods. (This was occupied by Pete Loveless for many years.) 

____Several of the finest shade trees in town have been nearly ruined this spring by allowing horses to stand hitched to them so long. 

____May 13, 1869- Died during this week, Horace Putnam and Sebastian Roberts. Mr. Roberts was laid to rest in Pleasant Hill Cemetery which he had created in 1866. 

____June 3, 1869- The old building on the Flint corner has been removed completely and excavations for the foundation of Mr. Swanston’s new building are progressing rapidly. (Corner of Main & Walnut) 

____June 17, 1869- The abutments under the Little Darby bridge on the National Pike at West Jefferson are to be re-constructed. June 8, 1869- Chas. Blair has taken charge of the Post Office at West Jefferson. (He served from June 15, 1869, to September 20, 1870. Charles Blair enlisted in the U. S. Navy at Cleveland in June of 1863 at 17 years of age. He served on the USS Tawah, a wooden river steamer that patrolled the Tennessee River. He suffered a gunshot wound and was in the Naval Hospital at Memphis, Tenn. in April of 1863. He died June 24, 1886, in Arkansas.) 

____June 15, 1869- Capt. Swanston has finished the foundation of his new brick block. The first story will contain three very handsome business rooms one of which will be occupied by Mr. Fellows, a dry goods merchant. 

____August 19, 1869- John Harvey has commenced work on the Middle Pike near T. T. Timmons.