The Week of Sunday, May 19th, 2013.

Photo of a home in Watauga County, with family members gathered around for a portrait. Note the stone chimney, wood siding, fence, and shingles, and the extra lumber at the side of the home. A reader submits, “this is the Ward home-place that was located on Phillips Branch Road, Sugar Grove, NC. This house was torn down and one was built across the road in the same style as this house. Formerly Leonard Ward lived at the second house. He is deceased now.” Courtesy of the archives of the Historic Boone society.

May 17, 1923

“Standard Oil of N.Y. Earns 19 Millions,” the headline of an article in this week’s edition of the Watauga Democrat newspaper, introduced a news item which told that, ”The Standard Oil Company, of New York, earned net profits in 1922 of $19,434,734 as compared with $9,698,972 in 1921 and $39,406,631 in 1920, it was announced tonight.”  The company was reported to have “paid cash dividends of $12,000,000” to its stockholding investors in the prior year.

A brief notice entitled “Town Sanitation” asserted that, “(t)he general sanitary conditions of the town seem to be good, but there are exceptions. Some things still exist that should not be tolerated, and those responsible should look after existing conditions before the arrival of the State Health officer, which will be in the near future.” Further details were not provided in this article.

May 22, 1941

“Bookmobile Tour Dates Are Given,” announced a feature news item in this week’s newspaper. “The people of Watauga county had made available to them yesterday a library of 2,500 books, when the WPA (Works Progress Administration) Bookmobile began its rounds, with Nancy Miller as librarian, and George Norris, driver.” Reported the Watauga Democrat, “(t)his collection of books contains the new titles in both fiction and non-fiction, as well as the old favorites. It is hoped that the people will take advantage of this unusual opportunity.” A two-week revolving route of scheduled stops had been drawn up. Designated stops on the Bookmobile’s route included “Don Hagaman’s store,” Bethel school, Peoria, Reece, Forest Grove, Amantha, Mast, Zionville, Tamarack, Chestnut Grove, Grandfather, Foscoe, Poplar Grove, and Hodges Gap, among others. The article urged, “(i)f any section of the county is not being served by the ‘traveling library,’ please contact Mrs. A.R. Smith, chairman of the Watauga county library board.”

May 18, 1961

“Annual Meeting Sees Good Season For ‘Horn,’” the top front-page item in this newspaper from 52 years ago, began by reporting that, “Horn in the West was given credit Monday night for attracting a large number of visitors to the area, and helping travel and tourist business maintain its place as the third largest industry in North Carolina.” The article, authored by “Joe C. Minor (Staff Writer),” related that, “Robert T. Ellett, chairman of the Travel and Recreation Committee of the Northwest North Carolina Development Association, was speaking to the Southern Appalachian Historical Association during their annual spring meeting and banquet at the Daniel Boone Inn when he praised the Horn and its sponsors.” Mr. Ellett “gave some figures to show what the travel and tourist business means to North Carolina,” including “(s)eventy-two thousand persons… employed in North Carolina in various capacities to serve the traveling public, with a payroll of $118,000,000.” Ellet “encouraged his listeners to improve and increase the traveling facilities so that more people will want to come here and may be better served.” The news item also cited “Dr. I.G. Greer, Chapel Hill, president of the Southern Appalachian Historical Association,” who “presided over the meeting, which was attended by 105 members and guests.” Dr. Greer  “said the large number attending indicated growing loyalty to the association,” the organization responsible for putting on the “Horn in the West” outdoor drama.

The Week of Sunday, May 12th, 2013.

“Newland Hall, Appalachian Training School, Boone, N.C.”, shows the beginnings of the institution which would become Appalachian State University. Postcard of unknown date, building from the first decade of the 1900s. Courtesy of the archives of the Historic Boone society.

May 10, 1906

“A feature of our iron and steel trade during recent weeks has been the reappearance of the United States as a buyer, on a scale sufficiently large to be noticeable,” according to an article appearing on the front page of this week’s edition of the Watauga Democrat newspaper. According to the article, “(t)hese orders are the outcome of the extraordinary activity of the American trade, says Engineering, the demand being so great that the country’s own mills are unequal to it.”

In local news, “(t)he summer term of the Training School will begin in June, but the exact date has not been fixed,” according to reports from the institution which would become Appalachian State University.

“The Lees-McRae institute at Banner Elk had a most auspicious opening on the first – in fact, the best in the history of the school,” according to another item of higher education reporting. “The music class alone is composed of more than 30 pupils.”

“On last Saturday a son of friend George Greene, of Stony Fork, had the misfortune to get one of his hands caught in the machinery of a pin factory and literally torn to pieces,” according to a less cheerful report this week. “Dr. Blackburn was called at once, who amputated the hand near the wrist joint,” according to this graphic story.

May 10, 1928

“Land owners of Happy Valley, Caldwell county are working together to incorporate the Happy Valley district, beginning about the highway and extending to Beach Ford, into a protective game preserve. Last week 59 pairs of Mexican quail, costing $250, were turned loose,” according to a front-page article in this week’s newspaper. “Orders for more of these quail have been placed,” continued the news item, which also included notice that, “(a)pplication for fish for stocking both the river and Buffalo creek have been filed with the bureau of inland fisheries of the North Carolina department of conservation and development.”

“Jailed on Forgery County,” announced a headline in the same issue. “Clarence Cannon of the Beach Creek section of the county is in the Watauga jail in default of $2,000 bond, the arrest having been made at the home of the defendant yesterday morning by Deputy Sheriff H.A. Hagaman,” according to the report. Told the Watauga Democrat on this day, “Cannon was to have appeared at the last term of superior court, in answer (of) a charge of check raising (?), being an accomplice in the crime of Dewey Harmon, now serving a term in the state prison for the robbery of the Valle Crucis bank. He ‘skipped’ the bond of $1,000 and officials had heretofore failed in their efforts to catch him.”

The Week of Sunday, May 5th, 2013.

This photograph of a child, posed on a stool and in a formal dress, seems to be of the Daguerreotype or of a similar early photographic form. No information accompanies the image to indicate the date or the identity of the young subject.

Courtesy Historic Boone

May 2, 1912

News items relating to the sinking of the Titanic sea liner were prominently featured in this week’s edition of the Watauga Democrat. “Senator Simmons has been appointed a member of the Senate committee which is investigating the greatest marine tragedy in the world’s history, the sinking of the Titanic,” according to one brief notice. Reported another item, “(h)oping that Maj. Archibald Butt’s body would be among those recovered and brought to Halifax from the scene of the Titanic disaster, President Taft has sent an officer to Halifax to watch the bodies brought.” Major Archibald Willingham Butt was a native of Augusta, Georgia, and served as personal aid to two Presidents (Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft), and his funeral was attended by some 1500 mourners. His body was not recovered, however.

In other international news, “(t)he missionaries of the associate Reformed Presbyterian church South, laboring in Mexico have been wired to return at once to the United States. There are twelve missionaries of this denomination there and some of them have been working in that field for twenty five years. Their lives are now in danger due to the Mexican trouble.” The “Mexican trouble” referred to was the upheavals of the Mexican Revolution, then in its second year.

May 5, 1938

“New Bus Service to Wilmingt’n (sic) to Start Saturday,” a bold front-page headline this week, bore a subheading which read, “Big Celebration Will Feature Linking of Mountains and Sea by Direct Bus Service; Many Visitors Expected from Eastern Carolina.” The body of the article elaborated that, “Hon. Stanley Winborne, state utilities commissioner, will be the principal speaker at the college auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Friday when the people from Watauga and adjoining counties will meet with a large delegation from Piedmont and Eastern Carolina in celebration of the opening of through bus service from Boone to Wilmington, which starts Saturday.”

“All-Day Parking Now Prohibited: Mayor Asks Business Men to Aid in Providing Space for Cars of Shoppers, Tourists” reported in this edition of 75 years ago that, “(t)here is to be no more all-day parking of autos on the streets of Boone, according to an announcement made by Mayor W.H. Gragg the first of the week, who points out that business men and their employees are using such a great amount of space in the congested area that it is well nigh impossible for people from the country to find room for their cars while they attend to their shopping.” The town’s solution to the pressures of limited parking in Downtown Boone was for Mayor Gragg to “insist that the business people co-operate in providing space for their customers’ cars by parking their autos in the back lots and on side streets. This, he believes, would greatly relieve the crowded condition that now prevails.”

“Book By Local Man To Be Out By June” reported that, “’Testing Time,’ a stirring romance of the Civil War, written by David P. Allison of Boone, has been accepted for publication by Eerdman & Co., Grand Rapids, Mich., and will be on sale by the first of June.” According to the newspaper report, “(t)his is the second volume by Mr. Allison to be accepted by the publishers in the last six months. ‘Greater Love Hath No Man’ came out in December and has enjoyed a splendid sale, it is said.”

An advertisement from a May 1912 edition of the Watauga Democrat newspaper of Boone, North Carolina.

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The Week of Sunday, April 28th, 2013.

“Daniel Boone Hotel.” A postcard of an unknown date capturing the facade of the former downtown Boone landmark.

Courtesy Historic Boone

April 24, 1913

“It has been alleged that among the enlisted men at the naval station in San Francisco,” reported a front-page article in this week’s edition of the Watauga Democrat newspaper, “there is a wide spread usage of cocaine. Secretary Daniels has directed investigation, made (? – sic) and says he will not wait for any red tape, or long collection of proofs.” Concluded the news notice, “(i)t simply must be eliminated.”

An item attributed to the Lexington Dispatch, which was apparently included as locally relevant, proclaimed, “(w)hat we all want is a road that is good 365 days in the year. This thing of being cut off from town, church and from your neighbors three or four months out of the year because of bad roads, is not to be borne in these days of progress.”

An advertisement for the “Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co., Box 1117, Richmond, Virginia” announced “Save Farm Labor – Make it Produce More.” The ad alleged that, “(w)ith practically the same labor, horses, mules, wagons and implements, you can produce bigger crops from the same, or less acreage. It takes no more work to raise 60 to 90 bushels of corn, or one and a half to two bales of cotton, to the acre than it takes to make ordinary yields. It is not necessary to plant a larger acreage to get a bigger yield. Simply work and cultivate the same amount of land more thoroughly. You can produce bigger crops of COTTON, CORN, TOBACCO, AND ALL CROPS with Virginia-Carolina High-Grade Fertilizers. They contain plant foods which enrich the soil, increase the yield and make farming more profitable.

April 28, 1938

“Local Hotel Receives Renovation” reported in this week’s newspaper that, “(d)uring the past week Mr. J.B. McCoy has been thoroughly renovating the Daniel Boone Hotel in preparation for the summer visitors, who will soon begin to arrive in Boone. From attic to basement the equipment, floors and walls have been renewed. In the lobby a restful color scheme of tan, white and dark brown has been carried out, while the dining room is a clean and beautiful black and white. Floors have been sanded and waxed and every wall in the hotel retouched. Outside painting has not been completed, but painters are at work on woodwork and signs every day. A new heating and water system and new kitchen ranges are being installed, and within a few days new hangings, rugs and tableware will add to the charm of this popular hostelry.” The downtown Boone landmark “popular hostelry” was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and demolished soon thereafter to make way for a condominium development.

April 27, 1944

“Crimea Become Nazi Dunkirk” reported this week that, “(t)he Crimea again occupies the historical spotlight as Red forces push the Nazis into a pocket at Sevastopol. “ A detailed map inset with the brief story explained that, “(t)his close-up reveals how German and Rumanian armies were trapped (1) when Reds reached Dzankhoi and (2) cut communications link. Meanwhile amphibious forces took over Kerch (3) and moved rapidly towards Feodosiya and Simferopol. Nazis made desperate attempts to evacuate by boat as Russia moved swiftly to check this means of escape.”  The accompanying map showed the multi-directional advances by Soviet forces which left the Axis armies pushed to the coast of the Crimean peninsula.

 

Advertisements from a 1912 edition of the Watauga Democrat newspaper feature two products: the latest technology of ironing without a fire, and the more archaic medium of tombstones.

 

 

The Week of Sunday, April 21st, 2013.

 

This photograph bears the caption, “Watauga County Court House. Boone, N.C. Altitude 3332 feet. Highest East of the Rockies.” The building shown was built in 1904, just a few years before the article below noted recent legislation mandating that the North Carolina State Flag be flown over the courthouses of the state.

Courtesy of the archives of the ‘Historic Boone’ society

April 18, 1907

“Hagaman Items,” a column in this week’s edition of the Watauga Democrat newspaper, reported in this mid-April issue that “all farm work has been suspended until winter breaks.” Other news from the Hagaman community told, “there have been three marriages here since last Wednesday almost within a stone’s throw of each other, but we will be bound to postpone that business pretty soon on account of material” – or, perhaps, the author may have been implying, a lack of further eligible material.

“The law requiring the State flag to float above every court house is now in effect and we expect shortly to see it flung to the breeze from Catawba’s court house. The law requires that it be displayed every day, except when it rains, and that it be placed at half mast on the death of any State officer or other prominent official or citizen,” reported another item, attributed as having originally appeared in the Newton Enterprise. Continued this notice, with a parenthetical note from the editor of the Watauga Democrat, “Watauga, of course, comes under this law, but as yet we fail to see the flutter of a flag from the dome of our pretty county building. It is now up to some man or set of men to see that this law is complied with at once. – DEMOCRAT.”

April 21, 1932

“RABID DOG LEFT TRAIL OF DEATH UP COVE CREEK,” a bold and dramatic headline in this week’s edition, related that, “(a) telegram received by Dr. H.B. Perry last week from the State chemist indicates that the head of a sheep furnished by J.R. Mast of Sugar Grove, brought unmistable (sic) proof of hydrophobia, and since that time the extent of the depredations on Cove Creek from the recent raid of a rabid dog, have become more apparent, and the losses to the herds and flocks of breeders have already reached several hundred dollars.” The news story reported that “(a) number of the people of Cove Creek have started a campaign to rid their community of dogs, and a number of the beasts have been freely killed as a precaution. In the meantime, Messrs. Swift and Mast, who handled their stock more or less after they had been stricken, have made arrangements to make treatment in case they might have become infected.” No cases of human infection, however, were reported at the time of this report. The story concluded, though, that “a lookout for prowling dogs is expected to bring about a steady decline in the canine population.”

April 20, 1944

“Big Herb House Will Be Erected,” according to a feature on this week’s front page. Details of the story narrated that, “Mr. W.C. Greene, local building contractor, has accepted a contract for the construction of a large herb house for the Wilcox Drug Company, a government permit has been granted, and the work will start immediately.” The planned structure was to be “modern in every respect, and built particularly for the needs of the root and herb business.

Materials for this column are drawn from the microfilm archives of the Watauga Democrat newspaper, available at the Watauga County Public Library in Boone.

 

The Week of Sunday, April 14th, 2013.

Filmore Bingham House, built in 1860. This Cove Creek-area house was built for a local doctor.

Courtesy Historic Boone

April 13, 1913

“Look At Your Plumbing,” encouraged an item of advertising in this week’s edition of the Watauga Democrat. Continued the ad, “(y)ou know happens in a house in which the plumbing is in poor condition – everybody in the house is liable to contract typhoid or some other fever. The digestive organs perform the same functions in the human body as the plumbing does for the house, and they should be kept in first class condition all the time. If you have any trouble with your digestion take Chamberlain’s Tablets and you are certain to get quick relief. For sale by all dealers.”

In North Carolina news of the day, the paper reported that “(t)he airship on which Mr. Lon Sherrill, of Newton, has been working for two years, will be ready for its first flight in the near future. His model is perhaps crude, but he believes his ideals are all right.”

April 10, 1941

“Eleven Men are Called to Colors,” a bold headline in this issue, headed an article which relayed that, “(e)leven more Watauga county men will leave next Saturday morning for Fort Jackson, S.C., to enter military service under the selective draft act. They are required to report at the office of the local selective service board at 8:15 Saturday morning.”

“Bookmobile Again to Make County Tour” announced that, “(t)he bookmobile travelling library conducted jointly by the State Library Commission and the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration) will return to this county on May 6, according to Miss Jewel Hagaman, county librarian. The bookmobile carries 1600 volumes into various neighborhoods of the county and the people are invited to take advantage of this travelling library service, which is given absolutely without cost.”

“Greeks Retreat Before German Blitz” reported from the international scene that, “Greek and British forces are falling back hastily under a smashing German drive down the Vardar valley to within about 23 miles of strategic Salonika after collapse of Greek resistance on the Yugoslav left flank, it was stated today.”  The story reported further that, although “shock troops battled savagely to stem the furious assault of Nazi ‘panzer’ forces around Kilkis,” nonetheless “the Greek army of Macedonia was said to be frantically collecting its war materials and supplies for abandonment of all Greece.”

April 12, 1961

“’Country Store’ To Occupy Restored Cabin On Horn In West Property,” was a banner headline in this week’s Watauga Democrat. “A ‘country store’ or trading post is being built near the Horn in the West parking lot. Logs from the old Hayes cabin, near Bamboo, are being used in the construction.” Continued the article, “(t)his is the third log structure that has been reconstructed on the Southern Appalachian Historical Association property. The first was the Tatum cabin that now houses many relics and records handed down in the Tatum clan, pioneer family in this area.” The second cabin referred to was “of the type that Daniel Boone was believed to have used on his trips to the area while hunting,” With the installation of the third cabin, it was “hoped that interest will be revived in quilting parties, and the like.”

The Week of Sunday, April 7th, 2013.

Photo caption:

One of the stone “faculty houses” built around 1940 by Appalachian State University for faculty members and their families relocating to Boone from other areas. Although the row of such houses has been demolished, the housing still gives its name to the small side street known as “Faculty Street,” near the Holmes Convocation Center.

Courtesy Historic Boone

April 7, 1907

The column “Sweet Water Items,” attributed to a “Smith Hagaman,” reported on this day, “(p)lowing has been almost entirely suspended owing to the continued dry weather, which is a very unusual thing for March.” This notice continued, however, that “(t)he ground is now saturated by the melting of the biggest snow of the season.” Other Sweet Water news reported by Hagaman included the notice that, “I have just returned from the Baptist Sunday School Convention which was held with Timber Ridge church. The convention was right well attended and royally entertained. By the way, there is no section of our country that has a better, more progressive and public spirited citizenship than Timbered (sic) Ridge, and more genuine hospitality is not to be found anywhere.”

“Sugar Grove News” in the same week’s edition told that, “Mrs. Lily McBride, nee Mast, who has been visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. F.B. Mast, for some time will leave soon for her new home in Mexico.”

April 4, 1929

“Dougherty and the School Bill,” a headline in this edition with a byline reading “Raleigh, special of March 29 to Greensboro Daily News”, reported that, “President B.B. Dougherty, of the Appalachian Teachers College, is not the author of the new school bill, universal as the tradition has become in two weeks, but he is the author of sections 15 and 10 which make the law existing regarding salary schedules of teachers and superintendents, he told the Daily News bureau today. And he believes he should be crowned with bays rather than pelted with bad eggs.” The educator and co-founder of the institution which would become Appalachian State University was said to have “disclos(ed) the daddyship of that bill,” which had “many fathers,” naming the contribution of several prominent North Carolinians of the day.  “Mr. Dougherty,” reported the article, “talked more today than he ever did. He says he would be very proud to be the author of the bill because he would have the satisfaction of making law in 1929 what had been hitherto the fiat of school men in the state. For two years, at least, the teachers are protected by statute from any changes in salaries.”

April 1, 1943

“Overflow Group Campers is Seen in Yonahlossee,” a bold headline this week, reported that, “Dr. and Mrs. A.P. Kephart, owners of Camp Yonahlossee have just returned to the county, after a ten weeks promotion tour through the southeast,” while also noting that this tour was briefer than the couple’s usual tour for the purpose, “(b)ecause of rationing and because travel appears not to be necessary.” For these causes, “they will handle all of their work from now on in correspondence.” The camp for girls was said to have, in the prior year, taken 25 more campers than the 100 previously admitted. Campers for the 1943 summer were to come from “North Carolina (the majority), South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Iowa, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.” The camp was noted to have added “a number of marked improvements,” including “a new six room crafts house, an enlargement of the kitchen and an addition of an electric dish washing machine, and the building of much stone wall.”

The Week of Sunday, March 31st, 2013.

“1949 Echoes of the Blue Ridge: Russel D. Hodges, Fay G. Hodges,” says the caption inscribed on the back of this photograph. The Watauga County Centennial included a dramatic recreation of vignettes from throughout the area’s history, featuring local performers. The scheduled performances in the Centennial year were, for the most part, rained out, but the endeavor gave birth to the High Country’s outdoor drama Horn in the West, running consecutively from 1952 up to the present.

Courtesy Historic Boone

March 28, 1901

This week’s edition of the Watauga Democrat included a short notice credited to the Richmond Dispatch: “The answer, ’Because I am a christian (sic),’ given by Charles Morall, of Chicago, when asked why he paid the funeral expenses of a man who tried to assassinate him and then killed himself would not be a bad approach for the powers to adopt in China.” The “powers” referred to included Britain, the United States, and other Western nations whose “spheres of influence” in China were, at the time, being resisted by the anti-foreign uprising commonly known as the Boxer Rebellion.

Cough remedies were leading advertisers in this season, with one sponsor announcing that, “(r)eports show a greatly increased death rate from throat and lung troubles, due to the prevalence of croup, pneumonia, and grippe. We advise the use of One Minute Cough Cure in all of these difficulties. It is the only harmless remedy that gives immediate results. Children like it. Moretz and Farthing. Johnson and Buchanan.”

March 28, 1929

A report bearing the somewhat scrambled dateline “Bahia, Brailz (sic), March 26” related in this issue that, “(v)irtually unreported since leaving the cast of Africa, the Spanish airplane ‘Jesus Del Gran Poder’ unexpectedly ended a brilliant flight from Seville at 10 o’clock today. Only once since leaving the African coast were they reported. The flight covered a distance of 4,100 miles.”

In more tragic news closer to home, the headline “School Teacher Gives Up Self After Murder” reported from “Brevard, N.C.” on the 25th of March  that, “Richard Harrison, a school teacher at Namur, N.C., surrendered today to local officers for the slaying late yesterday of John Hinkle, prominent citizen of Transylvania county.” According to the article in the Democrat, “(t)he shooting occurred in a remote section near the South Carolina line and was unknown to officers until Harrison gave himself up.” The item noted that “(t)he slayer is the son of a former lieutenant governor of Mississippi and came from state a year ago.” Concluded the story, “(h)e claims self defense.”

March 27, 1969

“Southern Bell Sets Up System For Information”, a headline in this week’s newspaper, reported that, “(a)n increasing number of Bell System customers are getting a new response when they dial for information. The response ‘Directory Assistance’ is now being used in the major areas of Charlotte, Gastonia, Burlington, and Shelby.” Continued the report, “Boone will receive this service May 4.” The article quoted “”B.B. Leazor, Boone Manger for Southern Bell,” who explained that, “the new service will offering will provide what its name implies, ‘directory assistance.’” Apparently, the former designation of the service as simply “information” had become problematic: “the title, information, misleads many to make calls for general information rather than telephone numbers.” The purpose of the service was to have special “directory assistance operators” to “primarily seek to provide numbers which are not listed in the current telephone directory.” In order to expedite access to phone numbers in the future, the operators would “explain hard-to-locate listings and… encourage customers to copy numbers on their own personal directories for future reference.”

1944 Red Cross advertisement from The Watauga Democrat newspaper,

Boone, North Carolina, U.S.A.

The Week of Sunday, March 24th, 2013.

“Watauga Centennial: Ladies of Boone; (unknown), Margaret Councill, Margaret L. Coffey, Mrs. Ben Councill,” reads the handwritten caption on the back of this photograph, taken during the 100th anniversary of the founding of Watauga County, in 1949.

Courtesy Historic Boone

March 21, 1907

“’If my heart be narrow, what avail to me that the world is large,’” read a brief quote in this edition of the Watauga Democrat, cited simply as, “- Armenian Proverb.”

“At a recent election, Knoxville, Tenn., voted for Prohibition by a majority of 1,921 and the saloons will have to go in six months,” reported a news article of the week. “The fact that Knoxville and Bristol both are to go dry, means much for this part of North Carolina,” according to the editorial voice of the paper.

“Col. V.E. McBee, who resides on Buck Shoals, on the French Broad River near Asheville, the former house of Edgar W. Nye, has had a gassoline (sic) launch built to ply on that river,” according to another brief notice. “Brevard is the point to which it will go and it is designed to carry both passengers and freight.”

A “NOTICE” included in the newspaper this week stated, “(a)ll persons wanting good and up to date Photographic Work done at starvation prices, call at my new studio at Mabel, N.C. If interested in good work, the trip to my place of business will more than pay you, if my studio is nearer to you than some city gallery, as I can’t possibly do you as good work out doors as I can in my studio… Call, see my samples and get prices, and I am sure you will give me a trial order. Satisfaction guaranteed. A.J. CAMPBELL, Artist.”

March 21, 1920

“Legislature Ends On Its 70th Day” reported in this week’s edition of the Watauga Democrat that, “(a)ttended by only a handful of its members, the 1929 general assembly – longest on record – was terminated at eight o’clock Tuesday night.” According to the report, the “70-day session ended after a tedious day of waiting and uncertainty as to when struggling enrolling clerks could finish the flood of last-minute bills dumped on them.” Apparently, according to this report, a “majority of the members were headed homeward before the end. The last of important business had been disposed of Monday, and Tuesday was devoted to clearing odds and ends and the horseplay that every assembly amuses itself with in its dying hours.” This gathering of the North Carolina state legislative body had “added 1,080 new laws to the statute books,” while the previous year’s session, “its 64-day predecessor,” had “passed 1,205.”

Another news story in this edition gave some details as to the contents of a selection of the over-one thousand laws enacted by the 1929 General Assembly. The “County highway aid law” was among the legislation passed by the session, which “increases the gasoline tax from four cents a gallon to five,” according to the report, “and creates a county aid fund of approximately $3,000,000 a year to be allotted to the 100 counties of the state on a population area basis, on condition that the counties reduce their ad valorem taxes for roads by an amount equal to their quota; (it) also establishes a $500,000 equalizing fund to be disbursed by the state highway commission without regard to county or district lines.”

In “Cove Creek News Items” this week, the newspaper reported that, “(t)he play ‘All on Account of Polly,’  presented on Saturday night by the junior class was a decided success. The characters were especially well chosen and each did his or her part well. More than $60 was realized from the sale of tickets. Attention called to the notice elsewhere in this issue of the play to be given by the Mountain City high school on Friday night, March 22.”