Johnson County of Long Ago
The Following is excerpted from "The History Of Johnson County," Vol. I By Mitchell Hall 1927. It indeed gives great insight into the early life of those who lived in Johnson County.
Many Citizens who read this will recall to memory the time when:
Uncle "Conse" Conley ran the tan shop near where James Meek lives now.
Ladies rode on side saddles instead of limousines
Alex Blevins ran the butcher shop.
It took half an hour to shine the shoes with Mason's old-time blacking.
Men went to the oil fields on Paint with ox teams instead of by airplane.
Uncle Dan Hager, Frank Preston, John P. Wells and that bunch played checkers.
Men played mumble-the-peg instead of poker and the ponies.
Doctors worked their patients instead of the patients working them. That was when Doctors Turner, Atkinson and Bayes were making the circuits.
Neighbors asked about neighbors and meant it.
"Dick" Stafford ran the store on the corner near where Uncle Jesse now lives.
Ladies dresses reached from the neck to the heels, always.
Professors Tom Mayo, Wheeler and Randolph were the schoolmasters, the latter of whom engaged in some arguments. One was with Wiley Williams who had made some remark about Mr. Randolph's family, where the latter replied: "How dare you sir, you street scavenger, insult a man through whose veins flow the royal blood of John B. Randolph, of Roanoke, Va?."
Neighbors all got fresh meat at hog killing time, sausage maybe too!
Old Mace Mahan told his yarns at the livery stable.
A tin cup of red liquor for a nickel and it was worth it.
Buck Price had the first barber shop.
Folks used goose quill toothpicks, made at home, that lasted a month.
John "Dunk" Preston, Cyrus Preston and other played croquet.
Henry Mahan drove his hacks.
Farmers would have been offended at the offer to pay for a meal.
"Big Brother" William Vaughan sang bass at the Northern Methodist Church and Capt. John W. Castle sang soprano at the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Left over noon victuals were finished at suppertime instead of being made into hash for the next day.
Uncle John Hornett Blevins and his feeble minded son peddled daily from house to house in Paintsville.
Only crooks on record were "lightening rod" and "fruit tree" agents.
William Fairchilds had the only blacksmith shop in town.
Quinine was taken in coffee, jelly or molasses and no frowns.
Capt. Green Meeks had his boats all up and down the "Sandy."
Folks boiled coffee, settled with an egg and 'twas good.
Tom Akers ran the first jewelry shop in Paintsville.
Vermilion was used for hearth paint, instead of face coloring.
The Italian or Jewish peddler made his regular trip through with about three trunks strapped across his back.
The ladies took "Larkin" Orders to receive a set of dishes as a premium.
Dialogues and recitations were the main entertainment in the schools.
Everyone in a community gathered with their seines and had fish fries; or with an old fox horn, stood on a ridge directing, and listening to, the music of a Fox hunt.
Transients used buckboards instead of Fords.
C. M. Cooper opened the first drug store in Paintsville.
Girls were safe from the roughest class of men; whereas now a guy has to get pretty rough to hold his ground with a flapper.
They didn't marry in haste and divorce in pleasure, and men kept the same wife for a lifetime.
Wild pigeons could be killed with clubs while coming through low gaps to roost at dusk.
The old-time spinning wheel was seen in every home instead of antique shops.
The first automobile was built on lines of buggy design, and the driver, wearing goggles and a linen duster, was accompanied by ladies whose hats were tied securely on with long flowing automobile veils.
Men wore cravats.
The blacksmith shop gave way to the garage.
Women did not vote or serve on Juries.
Permanent waves were made with a hot poker.