February 11, 2025
25 Years Ago - February 15, 2000
Gov. Paul Patton has included $1.5 million for Pendleton County in his proposed six-year road plan for the commonwealth.
The appropriation would fund reconstruction of U.S. Highway 27 from the Licking River bridge at Falmouth to Kentucky 154 in Campbell County.
Overall, the governor’s plan includes 1,360 major road projects totaling $6.6 billion in state and federal funds.
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The tobacco quotas for next season’s crop are cut almost in half, a 45.3% quota cut.
“This quota cut is only devastating to our farmers, it will have a devastating effect on our community,” Pendleton County Judge Executive Henry Bertram said at an Agricultural Council meeting on Feb. 8. Fifty to 60 farmers attended the meeting.
The cut in the tobacco quota is the third such cut over the last three years. Bertram said he is looking at the cut plus the carryover pounds farmers had for the 1999 season.
“We are going to be losing farmer after farmer, because our young farmers can’t stand the cuts. Many of our older farmers who don’t owe on their farms will be lucky to slide by,” he said.
50 Years Ago - February 14, 1975
Pendleton County Extension Agent Robert M. Jones, in his column, wrote:
“Would you believe, cattle are dying because of lice? Low beef prices have caused a general lack of interest in beef herds. I’ve heard people say cattle are so cheap, you can’t afford to spend any more money on them
“But what is a dead cow worth? It’s true there are too many cattle in the county and numbers need to be reduced, but allowing lice to destroy them isn’t the answer.
“There are several materials on the market to control lice. Any one will do a good job. Dust bags and back rubbers are the easiest to used.
“If cattle are heavily infested, it probably would be b est to use the pour-on treatment. Spraying is also very effective, but choose a warm day for this treatment.”
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Specials advertised for the week at Wyatt’s Food Market in Falmouth included ground beef at 69 cents a pound, crispy serve breakfast bacon at 89 cents a pound, Kahn’s boneless ham road for $1.69 cents pound, a 14-ounce package of Vita fish sticks for 89 centers, Duncan Hines cake mixes for 69 cents a box, and a carton of eight 16-ounce bottles of RC Cola for $1.15, plus deposit.
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As the Pendleton Church Basketball League entered its final week before the tournament begins, Gumlick-Mount Carmel led Division A with a 14-3 record, followed by Falmouth Baptist at 12-5 and Turner Ridge at 8-9.
In Division B, Oakland remained unbeaten at 18-0, with Flour Creek-St. Xavier in second place at 15-2 and Fairview Baptist in third with a 12-5 record.
The tournament for the 13-team league was set to tip off Feb. 17, and conclude with the championship game on Feb. 27.
75 Years Ago - February 17, 1950
Members of the Pendleton County Fiscal Court adjourned their meeting early on Thursday and inspected the new location of the Mary Ingles Highway in Pendleton County.
A member of the court, Squire Sherman Allender, is president of the Mary Ingles Highway Chapter.
At noontime, representatives of the association met at the courthouse in Falmouth and took the Fiscal Court members to dinner at the LLL Restaurant. The inspection followed at Carntown.
Making the trip were Judge William J. Newkirk, magistrates Raymond McGraw, Thurman Anderson. L.E. Moore, Allender, Wreford McNay, Harry Bowen, Albert Ross Perrin and Ed Kidwell.
Mary Ingles boosters in the group were David Iler, association president; S.K. Morrow, secretary; William Rust, treasurer; Clarence Scharfenberger, vice president; and William McElfresh and C.B. Peoples.
The highway, which is part of Kentucky Highway 8, is name for Mary Draper Ingles, who in July 1755, during the French and Indian War, was taken prisoner by a party of Shawnee warriors set upon the Ingles’s pioneer settlement in western Virginia.
Later that year, she was taken to what is now Boone County, Kentucky, and forced into labor at the salt works there. She and “old Dutch woman” planned an escape and evade search parties on their way back to Virginia. Legend has it that part of the trail she took is what is now Highway 8.
100 Years Ago - February 13, 1925
Farmers in the Willow Riffle neighborhood, about four miles from Falmouth, were startled last Saturday by the appearance of an immense eagle-like bird winging its way across the Licking River.
Alexander Bishop, a farmer, brought the bird to the ground with a rifle. Its wing was broken by the bullet as it sailed across the river several hundred feet above the ground.
The bird was described as resembling the almost extinct California condor. It is black, with light feathers close to its body. It measures nine feet from tip to tip of its wings.
Its head is as large as the head of a bulldog and its bill is four inches long and very broad and thick. Its talons are three inches long and its feet are very large and its toes thick.
The bird is as large as a medium-sized man, it is said.
It was only after several hours of laborious effort that the bird was finally tied with ropes. It snapped and clawed and charged at those who came near it.
With the help of neighbors, Mr. Bishop finally lodged the bird in his corn crib and tethered it to the floor with a chain.
This savage creature of the wild seems to have taken a disliking to the presence of men about him from the first and goes into a frenzy whenever any one approaches.
One man, accidentally getting withing the reach of the bird’s sharp talons, lost the sole of his shoe when the bird grabbed him by the foot.