Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

We all have our holiday traditions, at this time of year. Personally I go to the garage and get out the decorations, swear vehemently at the lights that were untangled when I put them away last year, and usually go visit my father to pick up a Christmas tree from the family farm. There’s one other tradition that I’ve shared with the Record readers for over a decade now—I go through the files and write about what was happening for Christmas a hundred years ago.

That would be 1923, and I selected the Clinton County Times to dig through, because it was the most insane newspaper I’ve ever seen locally. The Clinton County Times loved reporting on the smaller, more bizarre happenings in the county, which made every issue absolute clown shoes.

In December of 1923, the Times had an extra section of Christmas advertisements that began on December 7th. The newspapers worked pretty closely with local merchants in those days, helping to drive customers into their stores, so this was not uncommon. They also mentioned the Christmas decorations that were going up on Main Street. Amusingly, they put the wrong stories under the wrong headlines in that issue, right on the front page—“Plan Christmas Decorations On Main Street” had an article about the extra holiday section, and “Extra Section Of Christmas Advertisements” had an article about the new decorations.

A tree was planned for Monument Place, which is currently about Triangle Park—At that time, the Civil War monument was still standing there. In addition to the tree, sparkling lights were planned for the local streets.
On the same page was the festive headline,“Mistaken For Deer And Wounded In Leg.” Beech Creek man Charles Heimer had been shot in the leg by Roy Heverly, who believed him to have been a deer. Heimer was then carried sixteen miles on a stretcher back to where he could see a doctor.

William Raymond, the WWI vet and opera singer, was performing at the Mackeyville Methodist Episcopal Church for the holidays. Raymond had been a talented singer and was recruited by a talent scout during training for the war, and later went on to be a big name opera star. He’d been the first African-American assigned to a white unit in the war, staying with the 305th Ambulance Corps in spite of the segregation of the time.

A week later, on December 14th, the headline was “Mistaken For Deer, Man Shot In Thigh.” Thomas Smith, of West Keating, was shot in the leg when….Wait a minute. This happened TWICE? Seriously? Was nobody telling these guys not to shoot their eye out?

Okay. So Thomas Smith of West Keating was shot in the leg when his hunting companion mistook him for a deer, because apparently in 1923 the fashion trend was to look shockingly like a deer. Smith, unlike the previous guy, weighed two hundred and forty pounds, and was therefore harder to drag around. He was moved, with some effort, to a local home, then placed on a horse and wagon and taken to local doctors Graydon Mervine and William Welliver, who treated his wound.

On Christmas day, in Farrandsville, family man Albert Williams was shot in the leg….No, wait. He avoided that. Williams had appendicitis, and had to be rushed to the hospital for treatment. At the same time, five of his children were down with chicken pox, and one had both pneumonia and whooping cough. Mrs. Williams was “under the care of a doctor,” and I hope the doctor was packing some serious mood-altering drugs. I have a feeling Mrs. Williams needed them.

That was Christmas of 1923, and I thank you again for letting me share our history with you. I wish all of our readers a happy and safe holiday season, and I wish for all of you to not get shot in the leg. These traditions can only go just so far.