West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 61 by Charlie Miller
____May 30, 1926 – Two of the five surviving West Jefferson Civil War Veterans were escorted to the Alton Cemetery. They were: James “Daddy” Chambers and W. R. Borland. The five are: Thomas Pearce age 90, James Chambers, 87, George Prugh, 85, Corwin Carter, 83 and W. R. Borland, 80.
____ June 28, 1926 – Beginning July 1st, the old custom of ringing the ‘curfew’ will be put into force again. But in accordance with the changing of customs, the curfew bell at the Hall will not be used, but a siren will be sounded. (How many of you reading this remember this siren?)
____July 1, 1926 – The London National Guard is one of the oldest in the State of Ohio, being formed as the 154th Regiment, Ohio National Guard on May 9, 1864. Capt. Alexander Swanston of West Jefferson commanded Company C of that Regiment. A number of West Jefferson men served in it.
____September 6, 1926 – George Stephenson who conducts a blacksmith’s shop on N. West St. is the prize “Smithy” of Ohio. He was given this honor at the State Fair last week when he took home first honors from a field numbering in the hundreds. (George was born November 26, 1885, in Shipton Thorpe, Yorkshire, England. He immigrated in 1909 and was naturalized in 1918. He diedon October 22, 1966. He had his shop behind the large building on W. Town St. He was called upon by Anhauser Busch to shoe their Clydesdales when on tour. He never lost his accent, he would come into the I.G.A. and order “A af of pund of amberger.”
____September 16, 1926 – Fred Weber, head of the West Jefferson Elevator Co, announced that a contract had been let for the construction of a new elevator, which is to be built at a cost of $30,000. The plant will be built on the site of the old one but will be on the level, thus eliminating the hard pull.
____November 18, 1926 – One of the town’s oldest businessmen, William Haislett, age 73 died. He came to Jefferson in 1885 and set up his hardware store. ( The store stood on the current site of the parking lot of the Huntington Bank. He was born in 1852 in New London, PA. His wife Pattie was born in England in 1882 and immigrated in 1885. He was a Tin Smith. The store was a large two-story brick, a store on the west side and a residence on the east side. When I was a kid in the 40s the store was always dark inside, we kids were scared of her she always looked like a witch!)
____February 24, 1927 – “New Elevator Is Completed”- It stands on the site of the original elevator built in 1894 by Myron Silver. The new plant cost $30,000 and has a capacity of 30,000 bushels of grain. It is located on the Pennsylvania R.R. at the west end of town. (In the future it held Hartco Printing.)