West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 160 by Charlie Miller

-West Jefferson Centennial 1934 -

- Greetings – It is with great pleasure and infinite pride in the achievements of the community that we congratulate the people of West Jefferson on their splendid heritage that has been 100 years in the making. A wide selection of choice cuts at special low prices. Beef—Veal—Pork—Lamb. Our meats will be sure to please you. Recobs Meat Market. R.W. Recob Prop. Phone 135 West Jefferson.

- Charles F. Kuehner. The name Kuehner has been listed in the business directory of West Jefferson for the past 75 years; Charles’ father, Martin, founded a hand-work shoe shop on the site of the present store in 1858. Charles has been associated with the business for the past 52 years. He started as a cub on the shoe bench in 1882 and has been a member of the firm ever since. Mr. Kuehner is an active member of the Business Men’s Association and has always been a leader in civic affairs. His hobby is a good book.

(Charlie Kuehner was born June 17, 1863, and died April 9, 1962, aged 98 years. When your writer was a very young boy shopping with his mother in Kuehner’s, Charlie Kuehner gave me an 1878 silver dollar, which I still have (2023). The Kuehner Building was the one that collapsed in 2015 on W. Main St.)

- Our Ice is Absolutely Pure – For the past several years we have safeguarded the health of our citizens by keeping their ice boxes filled with good pure ice. Foods never spoil with pure ice in the refrigerator. Fresh vegetables never dry out or wilt with pure ice. And the butter never tastes like fish or Limburger—because the melting ice actually absorbs all food odors and carries them in the waste water down the drain! C. I. Merrick, Ice plant on North Walnut Street, West Jefferson.

(Years before, ice was cut on Little Darby Creek in the winter.)

- Extended Greetings—To West Jefferson and its citizens on the One Hundredth Anniversary.

W. H. Wills your barber, West Jefferson.

- Final Article

- Press Historian Interviews Ol’ Timer—Your historian is greatly indebted to Mr. James Clark, an old resident, for the following information.--O. H. Bliss ran a place of business opposite the Pennsylvania depot. He was a dealer in old rags and iron, and especially in hoop poles. Small boys were his usual customers, and he usually paid them in candy of merchandise in lieu of cash.--North of the railroad, Lester Burnham made use of an old cooper shop for broom corn drying and was himself an extensive raiser of this. (A cooper made barrels. In 1875, Daniel Priest made these barrels from local oak. His shop was on Pennsylvania Ave next to the tracks. This was before they were elevated.)--In our very midst, a real frog pond once occupied the lots now owned by Jennie Redmond and Ella Peene. It was a paradise for the small boys, and catfish were plentiful, and in the evening, the bullfrog chorus furnished a melodious concern as the good citizens retired to their rest. (This pond was located on the north side of Main Street where Pond Street intersects it. That’s where Pond Street got its name.)