West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 64 by Charlie Miller

____May 23, 1929 – The local dog races are coming under fire from law enforcement officials. 

____June 27, 1929 – The Dog Track is still going strong; a twenty-day season recorded 40,000 in attendance. 

____July 18, 1929 – Dr. J. Wm. Hurt, a recent graduate of the College of Medicine, Ohio State University, is now associated with Dr. George W. Kerr. 

____February 5, 1929 – Lou Reason will move the White Kitchen from the Stutson Building, where it is now located, to across the street and a little bit east to the corner recently vacated by the Biggert Confectionery. (This was on the northeast corner of Main and Chester Streets, in the old Mantle House.) 

____October 10, 1929 – A restroom is to be built by Frank Olney on the lot west of the Town Hall. It will be ten feet off the back of the Fire Department room. 

____West Jefferson’s sanitary sewer system is to be completed by January 25, 1930. 

____November 14, 1929 – “New Mayor Gets First Page Story” -M. W. Stutson, Mayor-Elect of West Jefferson, was given prominent mention in the Sunday Dispatch. The article was headed “Mayor of a half-century ago returned to office in West Jefferson.” Mr. Stutson is 81 years of age – is full of vim and vigor and determined and perhaps enters with as much interest in the community growth as he did 57 years ago, or to be exact, 1872. He is quoted in the Dispatch as saying, “After I had served my term as Mayor I thought that I was through, but my friends wouldn’t have it any other way at the last election and I had to consent to run,” he said. “And you know now that after I have been elected, I am glad I did run because I think I have lived long enough to know what is good for the Village,” he added. “One of the first things that I’m going to do is get rid of the Motor Cop. I see no need for such an expense on the Village since the State has changed the speed law and it will just save the village government $2,000 a year.” 

____December 26, 1929 – Dr. Harry 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 had practiced dentistry from that period of time. (Dr. Jackson was born in November 1869 in Cadiz, Ohio. Dr. Jackson’s office was on Main Street, above the Gillivan Hardware Store, the current site of the Culp, Parsons, and Murray Building. The downstairs entrance door to Dr. Jackson’s office is displayed at the Hurt-Battelle Library.) 

____February 6, 1930 – Dr. George M. Kerr dies. He had spent all of his professional life in the community, first at Lilly Chapel and later at West Jefferson. His practice had been exceedingly large, and his work among the flu patients during the epidemic was never-ending.