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JIM: Car sales were booming in Adair County 100 years ago JIM finds fascinating connections to Adair County of today, though the idea of a railroad is not currently part of the Adair County goals; oughta be, but there has been no suggestion of building one since the late R. Hughes Walker suggested one from Columbia to Kentucky's other two important hotspots, New Hope and Louisville, KY. He leads with the 1916 equivalent of the Franklin Family Group and the then auto boom, interweaves it with nuggets of information about many of the Great Families of then and today, and ends with an item to wow coffee drinkers about the genius of two great businesses of today - both of which can claim common progenitors! Amazing. And he alludes to personal plans in a future incarnation. - CM Click on headline for complete story By JIM, By gosh Adair County Historian & History Cousin of Mike Watson All sorts of spicy bits (in the language of the day) graced the front page of the Adair County News a century ago this early June week. Autos were all the rage, with Messrs. Golan Butler and J.P. Beard the most recent purchasers of "Ford machines" and Dr. Jas. Taylor the proud new owner of a Ford runabout for "use in his practice." Noted the paper, "Columbia has been buying two cars a week upon average for several weeks." Also on the ttransportation front, a less bright note, the latest railroad proposition was fading into the sunset. The initial plans had fallen through and many who had pledged money for the original had not re-subscribed. "We yet lack several thousand dollars in getting our old subscriptions to our railroad proposition resubscribed" informed the first sentence of an above-the-fold article. Editor C.S. Harris, a member of the railroad committee, laid to with the word-strop, baldly stating that "There are yet many who will be benefitted that have not helped us a cent. They should help bear this heavy burden..." (In January 1917, the railroad committee dissolved and all pledged monies were returned, members of the committee covering expenses from their own pockets. Later that year, Editor Harris, no doubt frustrated and exhausted from his many years of seemingly fruitless efforts to improved Adair County's transportation system, sold the News to the Hamlett family, and in 1918, most of the Harris family removed to near West Point, Mississippi.) Dr. Z.A. Taylor, optometrist, announced that during the summer months, his office would be open only on "public days." Otherwise, he would be traveling over the county to do eye exams "for the benefit of the older people who seldom come to town." Ed Brooks, who had up and vanished "from the Green River section" of Adair some months previously, had been spotted recently in the Kinnaird section of Metcalfe, near where he'd once lived. It seems Mr. Brooks had gone to Alabama, where he'd taken unto himself a wife. The article ended with the solemn intonation, "This report is authentic." When an intense thunderstorm swept through the county some days earlier, a daughter of Robert Gideon and Octava Lee Dohoney was struck by lightning. The report stated, "The bolt split her arm and injured her head. She is living, but has not spoken since the occurrence." In the "lost & found" department, "two stray sow hogs" had taken up residence at J.N. Johnson's, near Pellyton, and Brack Massie offered cash (amount unspecified) for information about the whereabouts of a pair of two-years steers, "mostly red" that were missing from his farm. Jo Sandusky had bought a house and lot (location not given) from Mrs. Taylor, with plans to raze the old house and put up a "handsome cottage" in it's place. Mr. Sanddusky's kinsman, John, and John's wife Gertie had just returned to Columbia from Indianapolis, where they visited family and attended the auto races. (1916 was the 6th running of the Indy 500, shortened that year to 300. The winning speed was 84.001mph.) J.T. Page announced that his commercial building, formerly used as a garage, had been rented to Mr. Thomas Watson of Campbellsville, who intended to "engage in the furniture business" therein. Meanwhile, Geo. H. Nell was in Louisville for the express purpose of buying equipment for a gitney show to be located in the space just vacated by the Parlor Circle theater. The Parlor Circle had recently moved to better quarters on the Square. This same edition of the paper mentioned that owners Reed & Young had "purchased a new machine for the Parlor Circle...[that] will reach here in time to be installed this Wednesday [June 7th], an expert coming with it." With the new equipment and location came a name change, Parlor Circle being rechristened The Paramount in a tip of the hat to the firm's then sole supplier of moving pictures. Gordon Montgomery was having porches added to two sides of his house; J.A. Rosson of the Rugby country had enrolled in telegraphy course at the Chillocothe Business College in Missouri; the Adair Spoke Company had temporarily removed its equipment to Gradyville to turn spokes for two months or so; well-digger Lew Dixon had struck a "bold stream" of water at the E.L. Feese residence at a depth of almost 71 feet; and the Goff Brothers had moved their livery business "to the stable owned by Judge Junius Hancock, back of Hancock's rooming house, on Burkesville Street." (A personal aside here: in my next incarnation, I intend to start early in life working on the tangled skein of livery businesses in Columbia from the late 1890s through the early 1920s. If I live right and avoid oncoming trains, there should be a sufficiency of time to complete the first couple of volumes.) The handiwork of Columbia craftsman- businessman J.F. Patteson drew high praise from the News, to-wit: "One of the most finished wood workmen in all this country, is Mr. J.F. Patteson. He has a work bench in the back room of his store which he employs for his own use, when business days are dull. He has recently made with his own hands, no machinery, a Victrola, and for workmanship and tone it is unexcelled by any like music cabinet made by machinery, in the best of factories."Mr. Patteson, a carpenter of some repute, was the lead carpenter in 1904-05 of the John D. Lowe and S.D. Barbee residences. In July 1919, three years and month after the Victrola piece appeared, the News made this announcement: "Mr. M.L. Grissom and Jo F. Patteson have formed a partnership and will enter the undertaker's business over the firm name of Grissom & Patteson. Mr. Grissom met, a few weeks ago, with the State Board of Embalmers, was examined as to his qualifications, passed, and received his license.(Over the years, the Grissom & Patteson undertaking business evolved to become the parent firm of both of Columbia's current funeral homes.) Compiled with great ardor and accuracy - in his current incarnation - by JIM This story was posted on 2016-06-05 07:27:05
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