| ||||||||||
 
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... 
|
August 14, 1979 Around Adair with Ed Waggener The article below first appeared in the August 14, 1979 issue of the Adair County News. Topics included a building boom in Columbia, a few stories from a 1909 issue of the News (making this a double-hop back in time), and speculation on whether the moped craze of the late 1970s would help or hurt the gas shortage. --Pen By Ed Waggener It happened at the Columbia Church of the Nazarene, Trilby Tupman said. The Sunday School class was being told about Jesus being a carpenter. The little fellows listened intently. Later, after the teacher finished with the story, she quizzed the kids on the lesson. "Now, the teacher asked, "who was the greatest carpenter who ever lived?" One bright eyed youngster raised his hand, "I know," he said. "Who?" the teacher asked. "Kendall Harvey," the youngster said. It was likely the second best answer the student could have given. Kendall Harvey, Mrs. Tupman's brother, is a cabinetmaker and carpenter of extraordinary skills, who builds everything from cabinets to entire houses to motor homes. My mother used to like to tell a similar story. She was teaching in a one-room school house. She asked, "Now class, can anyone tell me who the President of the United States is?" A youngster in the back of the room held up his hand. "Yes?" she asked. "Cuss Jeffries," the youngster drawled. The late G.G. "Gus" Jeffries was County Judge at one time in Adair County and was also elected to be Police Judge of Columbia. In the report on the 1930 election, the Adair County News reported his victory over Mont Cravens, when they were running to see who would succeed Judge George Wilson. The News said, "... (he) has always been fearless in doing his duty as he saw it. After he goes into office offenders brought before him for trial will no doubt receive penalties in accord with their misdemeanors." The indications point to a great deal of building "The indications point to a great deal of building in Columbia during the present year. Besides the block of business houses to be erected..., we hear that a number of residences will be built. This place is steadily and surely coming to the front." Those words, while applicable today, are from a January 13, 1909 edition of the Adair County News, one which had been addressed to F.B. Waggener, and which was given to me by Ralph Willis. Mr. Waggener's subscription, I noted, had expired in November of the prior year, but the News, then as now, was a lenient vendor. The newspaper management was in good hands at the time. It was edited by Chas, S. Harris, and it contained more news than many of the issues I've seen in the subsequent decades. Then, as now, the paper touted this town. The lead story was headlined, "COLUMBIA'S GOOD CONDITION-Endorsement of the Council Composed of Wide Awake Business-Men." The council at the time, which wasn't named, was endorsed by Editor Harris with these stirring words, "Here's hoping that 1909 will prove a record breaker for Columbia in public improvements, in industrial advancement and in moral and intellectual growth." I wish he could see us now. We may not have done so hot in industrial advancement, but I doubt he could find a more moral place or one with such intellect, some of it mind-boggling to the average man. Even then, Columbia had another claim to fame. I realize that it was one day the coldest town in the continental United States, back in the long-ago early 60s. There was another article of a superlative for this city. It read: "The Lowest in the United States" "The mortality list of the United States for the year 1908 is out. It shows that Columbia is given the lowest number of deaths of any town of twelve hundred inhabitants in the entire country. There were only ten deaths in the town, and two of them, the subjects were taken sick away from home. Columbia should be proud of her sanitary condition. As an evidence that the cleanliness of our streets are noticeable. A Columbian who is teaching away from home, came in for the holidays, and, meeting a friend, she said: 'The streets of Columbia look like they had been swept.'" Will the popular mopeds help reduce gas usage? Will the popular mopeds help reduce gas usage, or will the use be similar to what David Wells has cited before on walking? That question was posed by Joe Janes on Sunday. Several boys of all ages, and a few ladies, have purchased the popular part-pedal-, part-self-propelled bikes, which get 150 miles per gallon and more. The question Mr. Janes raises, is whether the mopeds will be just for fun, only adding to the gasoline consumption, or whether they will replace some automobile use. If the normal reaction to the moped use is to load them onto cars or pickups and drive to the parking lot at Green River Reservoir in order to drive the machines, the net result might be greater gasoline use than without them. I really don't look for that to be the case. The people who have bought them so far are generally trend-setters and also level-headed people. It just could be that when the little machines catch on here, they could make a dent not only in the problem with gasoline supplies, but in the parking and congestion problems as well. (The Wells question, earlier discussed in the Daily Statesman, is why so many walkers drive to where they are to walk, rather than walking to where they need to be.) Columbia City Councilparsons? Eldon Trubee, Don Benningfield, Raymond Martin, Michael Watts, Marvin Appleby, F.A. Hudson, Dana Watford? This story was posted on 2020-09-27 15:34:26
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Around Adair with Ed Waggener:
September 29, 1981 Around Adair with Ed Waggener November 20, 1979 Around Adair with Ed Waggener August 16, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener November 1, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener August 26, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener November 23, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener March 22, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener April 21, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener September 10, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener June 10, 1980 Around Adair with Ed Waggener View even more articles in topic Around Adair with Ed Waggener |
 
115 Jamestown St. Columbia, KY. 270-384-2496 
  
   
 Provided by the Adair Co Fiscal Court and the Adair Co. Emergency Mgt. Agency 
|
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
|
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
| ||||||||||
