Thursday, April 12, 2012 Clinton County News Page 13

we have a family of Wrens. They Harvey, would be pleased to Schoolhouse are a small bundle of energy with know that the bird box I built in quick movement. Their song is her memory has a class at last! wrens bubbly and so refreshing. They Forest Harvey Headlines in History Class in session! hold their slim tail upright, some- times bent over their back. Got a story to tell - try our April 12, 1861 April 16, 1972 new feature The Civil War begins Apollo 16 departs for the moon by Forest Harvey Today as we sat in our garage enjoying the lovely day and blue 1945 1789 Seven years ago I built a bird skies, one of the little Wrens Let the President Franklin Roosevelt dies Washington leaves house. It was designed much like landed in the driveway. It went readers Mt. Vernon for his inauguration one room school houses in which under my truck and out the other side looking for a bug to feed the April 13, 1997 1943 my mother taught for twenty four write Tiger Woods wins first major years. It had a metal roof and a family. Hallucinogenic effects of LSD discovered stovepipe out the top. The out- My mother, Mary Abston The Clinton County News is side was painted white, it had seeking short, personal stories April 14, 1865 April 17, 1970 two windows on each side and a from you, our readers, for our Lincoln is shot Apollo 24 returns to Earth metal stoop over the door. new feature area, “Let the read- I fastened it to an eight foot ers write” 1947 1790 pole with Tell us about an experience Auto pioneer Henry Ford dies Benjamin Franklin dies six feet that resulted in a life-long mem- Let the above the ory, something that happened ground, during your childhood or even April 15, 1947 April 18,1906 readers in my yesterday. No hidden agendas. Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier The Great San Francisco Earthquake write back yard No politics. No religion. Don’t 1865 1983 which I try to sneak in coverage for your President Lincoln pronounced dead Suicide bomber destroys like to call 3rd grader’s basketball team. No US embassy in Beirut Outback. poems. For seven In your own words, hopeful- Titanic hits iceberg years my ly between 300 and 600 words, house was submit your article, along with a April 14, 1912 available photo of yourself, via email to: This year marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ‘unsinkable’ RMS Titanic. but I had [email protected], or bring As most people know through movies and Discovery Channel specials, the Titanic failed to divert an no renters. a typewritten copy in to our of- iceberg rupturing the hull, sinking the luxurious ocean liner along with over 1500 passengers. This fice at 116 N. Washington Street After stopping at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland to pick up some final passengers, the spring, in Albany. If you don’t have a massive vessel set out at full speed for New York City. However, just before midnight on April 14, the June, my recent photo of yourself, we’ll ship hit the iceberg, rupturing five of the 16 compartments along the starboard side. At about 2:20 a.m. wife of make it for you. on the morning of April 15, the massive vessel sank into the North Atlantic. 58 years, You can also mail your sub- Because of the storage of lifeboats and the lack of satisfactory emergency procedures, more than Forest Harvey and I were mission to P.O. Box 360, Albany, 1,500 people went down in the sinking ship or froze to death in the icy North Atlantic waters. Most of sitting in KY 42602. Include an address the approximately 700 survivors were women and children. A number of notable American and British our swing “Just-A-Swangin”. and phone number that we can citizens perished in the tragedy, including the noted British journalist William Thomas Stead and heirs to She said, “A bird just flew inside Forest Harvey’s use for verification purposes the Straus, Astor, and Guggenheim fortunes. your box with a feather.” “Yes” “wren schoolhouse” only. The sinking of the Titanic did have some positive effects, however, as more stringent safety regulations were adopted on public ships, and regular patrols were initiated to trace the locations of deadly Atlantic icebergs. There is little left to the imagination after 100 years of the Titanic sinking, as researchers and historians have documented almost everything possible pertaining to the romaticized ocean liner. In 1985, the location of the shipwreck was found and thousands of artifacts were recovered from the sea and put on It Puzzles Me! display at museums around the world. Today the Titanic remains at the bottom of the sea, disintegrating Original Puzzles and at a depth of 12,415 feet. Word Games Journalist Ernie Pyle killed by Sam Brents April 18, 1945 During World War II, journalist Ernie Pyle, America’s most popular war correspondent, is killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Shima in the Pacific. Pyle, who was born in Dana, Indiana, first began writing a column for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain in 1935. Eventually syndicated to some 200 U. S. newspapers, Pyle’s column, which related the lives and hopes of typical citizens, captured America’s affection. In 1942, after the United States entered World War II, Pyle went overseas as a war correspondent. He covered the North Africa campaign, the invasions of Sicily and Italy, and on June 7, 1944, went ashore at Normandy the day after Allied forces landed. Pyle, who always wrote about the experiences of enlisted men rather than the battles they participated in, described the D-Day scene: “It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn’t know they were in the water, for they were dead.” The same year, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished correspondence and in 1945 traveled to the Pacific to cover the war against Japan. On April 18, 1945, Ernie Pyle was killed by enemy fire on the island of le Shima. After his death, President Harry Truman spoke of how Pyle “told the story of the American fighting man as the American fighting man wanted it told.” Pyle is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. Clinton County News Headlines: Thursday, April 12, 1950 - Volume 1, #24 Teachers for rural schools hired for 1950-51 school year The following teachers were employed April 8, to teach in the rural schools of this county, the next school year (1950-51), under the condition that they have their certificates by July 15, 1950: Davis - Wanda Vitatoe; Pleasant Ridge - Hershel Denney, Irlene Branham; Owens - Eugenia Craig; York Chapel - Luther York; Pine Grove - Mrs. Otis Brown, Nola Talbott, Rodell McFall; Cumberland City - Otis Brown, Emogene Mullins; Williams - Helen Daniels; Cartwright - Madge Smith, Mary Ewing; Caney Gap - Rena Piercey; Story - Mary Harvey; Seventy Six - Frances Vincent, Marie Johnson; Fairland - Nellie Bow Hunter; Wells Bottom - Gladys Pennycuff; Willis Creek - Haley Jane Ballew; Beech Corner - Mary Lee Morrison; Ida - Margaret Cook; Snow - Billy Hay; Five Springs - Lucille Gibson, Alleene Gibson; Mt. Vernon - Betty Sawyer Cross; Cave Springs - Mildred Denney; Willow Grove - Marceda Sells; Highway - Anise Pickens Buford; Evans - Vicie Cash; Glidewell - Howard Thrasher; Lettered Oaks - Elizabeth Mullins, Joe Lee Groce; Willen - Dorlese Shelley; Shipley - Juanita Abston; Dicken - Lucille Duvall; Hopkins - Ada Stokes Long; Ewing - Ethel Vitatoe; Cole - Mary Fay Woodrum; Speck - Elsie Shipley; Churntop - Willa Dean Armstrong; Locust Grove - Robert Polston; Maupin - Hugh Guthrie; Beaty - Geneva Miller; Beech Bottom - Bessie Farmer; Central Union - Marie F. Baker; Oak Grove - W. C. Farmer, J. W. Albertson; Concord - Dorothy Dalton; Clearfork - J. D. Thrasher, Sallie Burchett, Bessie Kennedy; Cowan - W. L. Cole; Pikeview - Lena Masengale; New Hope - Randolph Williams. (There were 44 schools listed as rural schools in Clinton County.) Wolf Creek cases in federal court Twenty one condemnation cases involving property owners of the Wolf Creek Reservoir area are scheduled for the spring term of Federal Court in London. Federal Judge H. Church Ford will hear these suits the week of April 10, April 17, May 1, and May 15. Kentucky Facts and Trivia: In 1888, “Honest Dick” Tate the state treasurer of Kentucky embezzled $247,000 and fled the state. James William Tate was born the only child of Nancy Taylor Tate and her second husband, Colonel Thomas L. Tate, in Franklin County, Kentucky. He received his education in Franklin and Woodford counties and finished his schooling in 1848. Later that year, at age 17, Tate began work as a clerk at the Frankfort post office. His political career began with an appointment by Governor Lazarus W. Powell to the position of Assistant Secretary of State for the state of Kentucky in 1854. A model Democrat, he resigned the post when Governor Charles S. Morehead was elected in 1855. Four years later he was appointed to the same position under Governor Beriah Magoffin where he remained until 1863. From 1865 until 1867, Tate served as Assistant Clerk to the Kentucky House of Representatives. At the end of his service in the house, Tate successfully ran for state treasurer, a post he would be re-elected to every two years for the next two decades. In 1887, Republican challenger William O. Bradley made an issue of the need to examine the treasury. Though Bradley ultimately lost the race, the idea of auditing the treasurer’s records took root, and the General Assembly began calling for a commission to undertake the audit in the 1887-88 session. Tate claimed to need time to get his books in order; this effectively delayed the establishment of the commission, but it was ultimately formed. In the first quarter of 1888, Tate began a pattern of behavior that should have aroused suspicion, but because of the nature of his job and his perceived record of trustworthiness, nobody found his actions questionable. He began depositing only checks in the state’s bank account, instead of cash as was usual. In a short period of time, he paid a number of personal debts. In March of 1888, one of Tate’s clerks noticed him filling two tobacco sacks with gold and sliver coins later determined to be worth about $100,000. He departed for Louisville, leaving a note saying he would return in two days. After a week passed with no word from Tate, it became clear what had happened. Records would later show Tate boarded a train for Cincinnati and then vanished, leaving his wife and daughter behind. The investigation that followed found Tate had given some state officials loans that were many times left unpaid and advances on their salaries, including an advance of several thousand dollars to Governor Preston H. Leslie (native of Clinton County) in 1872. Tate had also made personal investments in mines and real estate with the state’s money. When the investigation had concluded, it was learned Tate had misappropriated $247, 128.50 from the state’s treasury. Tate was convicted on four counts and removed from office but he was still no where to be found. The General Assembly offered $5,000 to any information leading to his arrest, but he was never located. His daughter did receive letters from him postmarked from all over the world, and one friend of Tate’s received a letter in 1890 postmarked from Brazil. The New York Times claimed he died in China in 1890.