A jail inmate was indicted by the Lincoln County Grand Jury for running a bogus check operation out of the Lincoln and Boyle county jails that involved more than $70,000 in fraudulent transactions. James Murphy, 38, was accused of forging financial drafts often used by long-haul truckers called COMCHEKS to get cash, buy cars and other items all from his jail cell. He was allegedly passing the COMCHEKS out of jail through visitors, mostly female, who came to see him at the jail. The grand jury charged in two separate indictments that Murphy forged the COMCHEKS and his accomplices attempted to cash them, succeeding in some cases. One for $5,500 was used to purchase a car in Harrodsburg. Others, all written in early November 1997, were for amounts ranging from $189.50 to $35,000. The court didn't say whether the drafts were cashed.
35 years ago...
Charles Schnitzler, a leading Lincoln County dairyman, addressed 450 Indiana farmers at the annual meeting of the Indiana Forage Council in Jasper, Ind. Schnitzler gave a slide presentation of his 109-acre dairy farm in the Ottenheim community. Some of the points emphasized in this program were high stocking rate and high production of milk per acre. His DHIA records showed that he produced 4,300 pounds of milk per acre. Alfalfa production, pasture renovation, rotational grazing and zero-tillage corn on a hill farm were some of the things that kept the group interested for 45 minutes.
Five of Lincoln County's six funeral homes, which had long provided ambulance service for Lincoln and adjacent counties, had unanimously decided to discontinue ambulance service after Dec. 31, 1973. The decision was based on recent government regulations that imposed such service which would cause them even greater financial loss in the continuation of such service. The decision was made by Beazley-Raney-Speaks Funeral Home and Morgan & Fox Funeral Home, both of Stanford, Pruitt Funeral Home, Moreland, Barnett Funeral Home, Waynesburg, and Beazley-Raney-Speaks-Martin Funeral Home, Crab Orchard.
70 years ago...
The eight members of the county school board voted to hire William F. Russell as superintendent at a salary of $2,400 a year. The Crab Orchard schools joined the county system and three board members from Crab Orchard gathered enough support to dump Russell before he started.
A burlap bag containing seven chickens, three of whom had smothered to death, was found one morning in the hall of the courthouse. Wesley Blankenship, a Knob Lick Road farmer, claimed the birds.
Tenderfoot badges were awarded to Boy Scouts Cabell Francis, Jack Givens, Brooks Hargrove, Eddie Harris, Charles Price, George Sandidge, Scott Smith and Bennie Walker.
120 years ago...
The temperature climbed to a balmy 70 degrees on Jan. 18 and 19, 1888, but by Jan. 22, it had plunged to only six degrees.
The law firm of Hill & Alcorn dissolved after an existence of 21 years. Col. T. P. Hill later joined with Peter Muir McRoberts to form a new partnership to be known as Hill & McRoberts.
Joseph Severance presented a gold watch to his son, Will, on his 21st birthday. Will earned the watch by not cursing, smoking, drinking or chewing before he turned 21.
Sexton J. M. Hendricks reported that during the previous year 22 adults and 10 children were buried in Buffalo Springs Cemetery.
