Looking Back

25 Years Ago - June 26, 2001

Larry and Lita Coleman are farmers and longtime residents of the area. Both are looking forward to retiring — he as a truck driver and she as a laboratory technician — to run their new business, Wildcat Carriages.

The operation of this enterprise will be conducted like an automobile dealership with the exception that these cards do not have internal combustion engines. Their source of motion is 100% horsepower.

They will have a grand opening July at the Coleman Farm, 1657 Old LLL Highway, about four miles south of Falmouth. They will offer carriages, surreys, buggies, stagecoaches, buckboards, wagons, pony carts and other horse-drawn vehicles.

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Pendleton County school officials will have to look at options other than portable classrooms to meet growth estimated at the high school, but changes will be coming to the school.

Larry Sutton, director of facilities and maintenance, announced at the Jun 21 school board meeting that the Kentucky Department of Education will not allow the district to purchase portable classrooms out of the district’s building fund.

Sutton and Superintendent Patrick Clore will meet with state officials Tuesday about plans and growth.

“The problem is really three years down the road,” Sutton said. “It will be uncomfortable for a couple of years. We will talk to them about building renovations.”

50 Years Ago - June 25, 1976

On commencement night, June, graduating seniors awarded plaques for perfect attendance were Michelle Kaplan, 11 total years of perfect attendance; Delores Reed, seven consecutive years; Mark Godman, six consecutive and 10 total years; JoAnn Bowen, six consecutive years; Beverly Miles, six consecutive years; Becky Browning, five consecutive years; Freida Sponcil, four consecutive years; and Patricia Tarvin, four consecutive years;

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“Spirit of ’76” is the theme for Pendleton County’s bicentennial observance of the nation’s 200th birthday on Saturday, July 3, in downtown Falmouth.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, July 4, churches in Pendleton County and elsewhere are asked to ring their church bells. This will be done all over the United States.

There will be family gatherings in homes and other activities planned in the county and at Kincaid Lake State3 Park.

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Advertised specials at Wyatt’s Food Market in Falmouth include pork steaks for $1.19 a pound, rib steak for $1.39 a pound and fish tails at $1.19 a pound.

Hyde Park bread was four for $1, a half gallon of Holland ice cream costs 89 cents, and Fox Pizzas, cheese, sausage or pepperoni, were 89 cents each.

Also, pick up a carton of eight 16-ounce bottles of R.C. Cola for 99 cents, plus deposit.

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Terry A. Rice, formerly of Demossville, will perform at the Pendleton County Youth Fair on July 10.

Terry said it will be a special night for him as his team will be recording the program to be made into a live album this fall.

Terry is a small part of the Grand Ole Opry. He travels quite a bit doing concerts or serving as the opening act for other artists. He has appeared with Tanya Tucker, Hank Williams Jr. and Stu Phillips.

75 Years Ago - June 29, 1951

Morgan High School Class of 1948 graduate Pvt. Lloyd B. Kenner, 21,has been wounded in the Korean fighting, according to a telegram received Friday by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James L. Kenner of the Morgan and Williamstown Road.

In an airmail letter to his parents, Lloyd wrote, “It happened Saturday, June 16, about 2:30 p.m. when I was in a tank and it ran over a mine. It tore up the tank and hurt me a little. My right leg is broken at the knee and the left is fractured.”

Charles Kenner, who is in the Air Corps, wrote after visiting Lloyd, “He said he was only in Korea 40 hours and his first day on the line. ... He feel pretty bad about getting hit the first day. He is still a little shocked about the whole thing. ... He is hurt, yes, but he will come out OK.”

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Mr. and Mrs. Luther Ruby of 105 Dickerson Lane, Falmouth, will be married 50 years on July 2, and will celebrate with friends and family at their home on Sunday, July 1.

Mr. Ruby, 74 years of age, is a retired maintenance millwright. Mrs. Ruby recently celebrated her 68th birthday. The couple had lived in Falmouth  for nine years.

100 Years Ago - June 25, 1926

“I could not put up with everything,” declared Charles Tillett, 53, in discussing the murder of Charles Cummins, a neighbor, with a representative of The Outlook, as he lay on his bunk in the Pendleton County Jail Monday morning. “His stock got into my crops, ruined my corn, trampled my tobacco beds and bothered me continuously,” declared Tillett, as he lifted his hat and wiped perspiration from his forehead.

Tillett, a typical specimen of the hardworking simple type of man found in many of the rural districts, said he had not slept well during his first night in jail.

“I couldn’t do much good sleeping,” he said, explaining that this was the first time in his life he had ever been locked up.

Tillett shot and killed Cummins late Sunday afternoon. Cummins was found by another neighbor several hours later, lying in the middle of the road in a pool of blood, his arms folded, his hat lying nearby. A gaping hole in the back of his head, just above the base of the brain, told the story of quick and painless death.

Tillett is a Harrison County man, but has resided in the Foster neighborhood for several years. This is one of the county’s sparsely settled areas, whose rugged hills slope downward to Jimmie Creek. It is a country where the voices of the night are strange and eerie - the bark of the fox, the hooting of the owl and the plaintive incessant call of the whippoorwill. It is a place where moonshiners are said to rendezvous.