90 YEARS AGO – August 21, 1930
Alleghany Fair Getting Ready
The officials of the Alleghany County Fair Association are busily engaged this week making preparations for the opening of the seventeenth Alleghany County Fair.
The gates of the fairgrounds will be thrown open on the morning of Tuesday, September 9th, at 9 o’clock for the first day of this great event, which always proves to be a pleasant affair for the people from other towns and counties nearby.
Mr. Thomas B. McCaleb, secretary and manager of the Fair Association, said today that this is going to be the greatest and the most interesting fair that has ever been held here.
A radio broadcasting station will be installed on grounds and musical programs and other announcements will be made daily.
The Celtin and Wilson Shows and the Golden Bell Exposition Shows combined will furnish the attraction along the White Way.
Celtin and Wilson brought their show to Covington last year and exhibited at the fair and they proved to be most popular among the people.
A band will furnish the music each day and there will also be many added attractions in front of the grandstand in the afternoon and at night.
Extensive preparations are now being made to handle a crowd that is expected to be the largest that has ever attended a fair here.
75 YEARS AGO – August 21, 1945
Mallow Boy In Nine Bloody Campaigns In The Pacific
Elbert A. Meeks Jr., 20, hospital apprentice, first class USNR, son of Mrs. Flossie V. Batten, Mallow, Alleghany County, serves aboard the USS Solace, a Navy hospital ship which has gone through nine bloody campaigns in the Pacific.
The vessel evacuated and treated wounded at Tarawa, Eniwetok, Kwajalein, the Admiralties, Saipan, Guam, Pelelie, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
For treating wounded at Pearl Harbor, the ship won a Navy Unit Commendation for skill and speed shown while the enemy attack raged around her.
At the Gilberts, she became the first hospital ship to enter a combat zone to evacuate casualties.
At Kwajalein, when blood was needed, 100 Marine volunteers produced a blood bank aboard the Solace, which set a precedent for later large-scale employment of whole blood.
Crew members worked around the clock at Iwo Jima handling 2,000 patients in three evacuations.
They doubled their tempo at Okinawa, handling 4,000 casualties in seven trips.
50 YEARS AGO – August 21, 1970
Area Manhunt Is Launched
An armed posse of more than a dozen lawmen launched the Alleghany Highlands’ largest manhunt in eight years this morning, in search of two youths who tried to burglarize a general store about midnight last night, in the rural Sharon community, located in Alleghany County’s eastern panhandle.
A third person, identified as 18-year-old Jack Charles Kline of Washington, D.C., suffered a shotgun wound in the right leg and is being treated in the C&O Hospital in Clifton Forge.
His condition is not considered serious.
A 24-hour armed guard of sheriff’s deputies has been posted at the door of his room on the fourth floor of the hospital.
The youths were reportedly shot by Jake Cook, owner of the Riverview Market, after he caught them in the process of looting his store, about seven miles east of Clifton Forge on U.S. Route 60.
The incident happened about 11:45 p.m. Thursday.
Cook told the Virginian this morning that shortly before midnight Thursday, while he was preparing for bed, he heard a noise coming from in the store, located just down the hill from his home.
Armed with a 4-10 shotgun, he made his way down the concrete stairs, just in time to hear one of the youths scampering up a steep, honeysuckle-covered cliff immediately in back of the store.
He escaped into the woods behind a nearby trailer court.
It was the second time in two nights that burglars had struck the Riverview Market, located near the Cowpasture River.
Wednesday night, someone broke the lock on an outdoor cold storage locker and stole seven cases of beer.
25 YEARS AGO – August 21, 1995
Callender, Caldwell Honored For Service On School Board
Two former Alleghany Highlands School Board members were honored Monday night for their 23 years of combined service to the school system.
The board, by a unanimous 7-0 vote, approved resolutions commending Ione Callender of Clifton Forge and Wayne Caldwell of Alleghany County.
Callender represented Clifton Forge on the school board for 12 years and Caldwell served Alleghany County’s Jackson River District for 11 years.
Callender did not seek reappointment when her term expired in?June.
Clifton Forge City Council appointed Carolyn Barnette as her successor.
Caldwell sought reappointment but the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors appointed T.J. Humphries to his seat.
10 YEARS AGO – August 21, 2010
Lone Star Advent Christian Church Turns 100
Lone Star Advent Christian Church on Nicelytown Road in Alleghany County will celebrate its 100th anniversary Monday.
As part of the ongoing observation of the church’s 100th anniversary, a celebration and homecoming have been scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 12.
In the 1890s and early 1900s, circuit riding Methodist preachers initiated a ministry in Highland County and by 1910, the denomination had become firmly established there.
The Adventist movement expanded southward through the efforts of two circuit riding preachers, James W. Gardner and S.A. Mundy.
Residents in the Longdale area responded to the Adventist message and in August, 1910, Lone Star Advent Christian Church was formally organized.
Twenty-seven men and women became charter members of the new church and Gardner served as its first pastor.
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