In July, 1926, Pike County continued to struggle with this new experiment called the automobile. At a meeting a resolution was passed “requiring horse drawn vehicles to follow the one-way traffic henceforth and thereby eliminate the element of danger and the discrimination that has existed in the past.” At a previous meeting, the council passed an ordinance “requiring all cars to stop before turning into the main channel of traffic.”
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Badly Shot Up But Still Living
This is from the March 19, 1926 issue of the Pike County News. Remember that this takes place during Prohibition.
BADLY SHOT UP BUT STILL LIVING
“Riddled with bullets but still living and evidencing strong chances for recovery, Will Leslie of Beaver Creek was brought here to the Methodist Hospital Monday after a pistol duel with Willie Miles.
“The trouble arose in a crap game about three o’clock Sunday morning, when both were decidedly intoxicated. According to the story which Leslie told to G. D. Ryan who took him from the train to the hospital, they were trying to fix up a bet and could not agree, and Miles said, ‘We’ve both got guns, let’s shoot it out.’ At that moment Leslie dropped a ten dollar bill and stooped to pick it up and the other man started firing. Bullets went through both hands and through two places in his leg, and one pierced his neck, went clear down one side, and came out between the seventh and eighth ribs.
“Bystanders got Leslie on the train and brought him up here, but the other man managed to elude the law and got away.”
Woman Shoots Neighbor in Row Over Well Bucket This Morning
Believe it or not, this July 23, 1926 article in the Pike County News is not unique:
WOMAN SHOOTS NEIGHBOR IN ROW OVER WELL BUCKET THIS MORNING
“An argument last night over the ownership of a well bucket let to the killing of Sarah Luster by Armina Hall…..” “…..the two women came out from their homes on the side of the hill and engaged in a violent row. Mrs. Hall, who is badly crippled, started down the road with Mrs. Luster behind her, each of them berating the other all the time. Mrs. Hall then drew her gun and fired three times at the other woman, evidently to scare her, as the shots kicked up the dust fifteen to twenty feet away from her. As they reached the crossroads she fired twice more, striking Mrs. Luster in the leg and in the heart. The woman fell to the ground and died instantly.”
“Her four little children came out of the house screaming and sat down to keep the flies off their mother’s body until the undertaker, G. D. Ryan, could get there.”
The Problem of Crime
Southeastern Kentucky in the early 1900s had its genteel society. There was a Rotary Club and a Kiwanis Club; there was a DAR chapter. Women had their bridge clubs and church socials. That said, if one reads only the front page of The News it could easily be concluded that lawlessness and gun violence were rampant. Even beyond that, the reader gets the sense that many had hair trigger tempers that could instantaneously produce kill-or-be-killed rage. Crime certainly took place in the city of Pikeville, but the county seemed to produce the bigger share of violence and felonious behavior.
Much crime involved alcohol, which was illegal during prohibition. Prohibition began with the ratification of the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution on January 16, 1919, and became effective January 16, 1920. It ended on December 5, 1933, when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st amendment, repealing prohibition. The beginning days of the widespread removal of consumable alcohol from society was not as dramatic as it could have been since over half of the 48 states already had some form of prohibition laws. The Volstead Act, after its author, Andrew Volstead, R-Minnesota, was passed about 10 months later and defined intoxicating liquor and the amendment’s enforcement provisions. The Act was passed over the veto of President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson supposedly was opposed to prohibition and kept a supply of bootlegged liquor in the White House.
The legal loopholes of the Volstead Act and widespread willingness to violate its letter and spirit made liquor discretely available in many places. The law allowed for limited amounts of wine and hard cider to be produced at home. Some alcoholic beverages were still produced but were available only through government warehouses. This alcohol was legally used for religious services, such as Catholic communion, and for medicinal purposes. Physicians could prescribe liquor for medicinal purposes and pharmacies would fill them, usually without question. This provision was abused, as would be expected. But alcohol was often truly used for medical purposes. It must be remembered that today substances are produced for the sole purpose of medical use, but in those days there were few such remedies. Instead, people were forced to rely on the real or perceived medicinal properties of common substances, or they could take their chances with the numerous “snake oil” remedies widely touted.
Prohibition was not a unique American experience. Most Scandinavian countries, as well as some Canadian provinces and Muslim countries, have or have had prohibition laws.
Pike County in Central Time Zone?
There are some things most people take for granted, and one is the time zone boundaries. We all assume they were established long ago and never change. But eastern Kentucky was actually in the Central Time Zone in 1927, and unstated individuals petitioned the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission to change to the Eastern Time Zone, as reported in the October 22, 1927 edition of the Pike County News.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Demographics is Destiny, Part 2
The early twentieth century saw additional, tremendous change in southeastern Kentucky brought about the exploitation of natural resources, primarily coal. The prospect of employment brought large numbers of new residents. According to the 1920 United States Census the counties of Harlan, Perry, Letcher, and Pike were the fastest growing Kentucky counties since the 1910 Census (percentage increase in parentheses):
Census Harlan Perry Letcher Pike
1910 10566 11255 10623 31679
1920 31546 (299%) 26042 (231%) 24467 (230%) 49477 (56%)
Letcher County is situated on Pike County’s southern border, and Harlan County borders Letcher County’s southern border. Perry County borders Letcher County’s western border.
This large, rapid population growth presented infrastructure and social problems. Housing was in such short supply that coal mine operators were forced to construct entire communities for their employees if they hoped to acquire the necessary manpower for ongoing operations. Several of those communities grew into actual towns that still exist today.
In 1920, over 51,000 Kentuckians, or two percent of the population, were employed in the census category “extraction of minerals,” and they produced over 33 million tons of coal that year. Pike County contributed 4.7 million of that amount. By contrast, in 1999 only 17,000 Kentucky citizens were employed in coal mining and produced over 144 million tons. Pike County set the single county annual record in 1999 with over 35 million tons.
Illiteracy was a significant problem in 1920, where six percent of the U.S. population over the age of 10 was illiterate. In Kentucky, the figure was 8.4%. Among whites, the percentages were 2.5 and 7.0, respectively, while for blacks they shot up to 22.9 and 21.0 percent.
The U.S. Census Bureau considered 51.4% of the country’s 1920 population as residing in an urban area, as opposed to rural. But Kentucky was still largely rural, with only 26.2 % of its people living in urban areas.
The population of America was also very much younger. In 1900, 45% of the U.S. population was under the age of 20 years, and in 1920 the figure was 41%. In 2000, it was 14%. Part of this was due to the greater number of children born, and part to the shorter life expectancy. In 1900, the life expectancy at birth for a white child was 47.6 years. For a black child it was 33 years.
Immigration had a tremendous impact on population demographics. Most were from Europe and they came in staggering numbers. In the years it served as an immigrant processing center from 1892 to 1934, Ellis Island process over 22 million people, adding about 25% to the U.S. population. So it is no surprise that in 1920 almost one quarter of the U.S. population had one or both parents born in another country. In New England, the percentage was just under 50%.
Today, it is generally accepted that there are more females than males in the general population, but in the early twentieth century that was not true. For example, in 1920 there were 103.2 white males for each 100 white females. But in the black population, there were more females than males. About 1950, the percentage of females permanently surpassed the percentage of males.
In 1920, 21.7% of all deaths were in children under age five. In 1880, the percentage was 44.
Friday, June 3, 2011
The Ascendancy of the Auto
This is an April, 1926 example of the community news of the Pike County News. Probably unpaid social gadflies from various local communities would submit for publication items that sometimes were more gossip than news. Nevertheless, the editor obviously appreciated the free and interesting content for his publication. This item originated in the Jonancy community of Pike County.
Public works infrastructure was a hot topic, and politicians often got an earful from constituents about it. As this item and the two below show, the automobile was in its ascendancy. And to make matters worse, it often clashed with existing modes of transportation.
JONANCY NEWS
“A sure sign that summer is coming is the fact that two autos passed through our community last Sunday. This is something new and makes us feel that the roads are now in better shape.”
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