May 1963: “Picketers paraded in front of Gegner’s Barber Shop on Xenia Ave. today and the shop remained closed for the second consecutive day as proprietor Lewis E. Gegner refused to grant the picketers’ demands that he ‘desegregate’ his barber shop.” (YS News archives)
News from the Past: May 2025
- Published: June 9, 2025
75 years ago: 1950
Fourteen Bryan seniors graduated. “Mary Elizabeth Esterline and Mary Flo Oelslager were announced as scholarship winners at the climax of ceremonies at Bryan High School last night which led up to the awarding of diplomas to 14 Bryan students.”
Fly spraying. “The fly elimination committee of Community Council, following a meeting last week, has announced May 27 as the date of the first DDT spraying of the year in the continuing program of the committee to rid the community of flies. In case of rain the spraying will be done on June 3.”
Town & Gown Friday. “Parker Hamilton will be the speaker at Town and Gown meets tomorrow (Friday) night at 6:30 p.m. at the Upstairs Tearoom. He will speak on ‘Some Practical Application of the Use of Polarized Light’”.
Lightning killed six cattle on Funderburg Farm. “A bolt of lightning about 12:30 a.m. Saturday killed three cows, two young heifers and a pedigreed bull on the Faye Funderburg farm on Hyde Road. The cattle were standing under a tree on a little knoll overlooking a gravel pit, according to members of the Funderburg family. The lightning apparently traveled down the tree through a root and struck the cattle, plowing two furrows through the ground for a distance of several feet. Two cattle were flung or fell over the crest of the knoll into the gravel pit and the body of the 1,600 lb. bull was wrapped around the trunk of the tree. The tree lost bark, but was not split by the bolt.”
50 years ago: 1975
Deer sighting. “Don’t be surprised if one day soon you see ‘Deer Crossing’ signs popping up along Hyde Road. Laura Hasser … and her father Cecil were driving on Hyde Road toward Yellow Springs from Route 235 Sunday night when they spotted three deer out for a stroll.”
Grow slow? “Village Council said ‘no’, 5–0, to a request for water and sanitary connections for a projected housing development on the Peterson farm along East Enon Road.” [The development would have been located across the road from the current homes on the west side, 3841–3997 East Enon Road, just south of YS High School.]
Greene Met. “Council voted 4–1 to ‘encourage Greene Metropolitan Housing Authority to proceed with plans for as many (housing) units as they think reasonable.’ The vote was in response to a request of several weeks ago for Council to advise GMHA whether the Authority can go ahead with plans for the construction of a part of the 140 housing units Council authorized for GMHA two or three years ago.”
Kenneth Welch. “Former local resident Kenneth D. Welch, 72, died Monday in Laguna Hills, Calif. … A graduate of Yellow Springs schools and Antioch College (1923), he taught school in South Dakota and Long Beach, Calif. Surviving him are his wife, Evelyn, a brother, Elder Welch, Dayton Pike [the Welch Farm], and three sisters: Mrs. Edward Keenan, Dayton, Mrs. Donald Loobey, Ventura, Calif., and Mrs. Howard Kahoe, Hyde Road.”
25 years ago: 2000
Noxious, invasive weed. ”To the Editor: Yellow Springs is being invaded. To the untrained eye, this interloper may seem benign — occasionally even attractive. In fact, on a nice sunny spring day there are probably dozens of these foreigners nearby. No, I am not talking about tourists (oops, I mean ‘visitors’) — I am talking about alliaria petiolata. You also might know this menace as Garlic Mustard.”
Best at pancake flipping. “Boy Scout Troop #78 attended a camporee (a campout comprised of many troops) May 5–7 in Xenia. The theme was cooking and many stations were set up with cooking themes. The troop went to each station and performed whatever task was assigned to that station. Troop 78 did best at pancake flipping, winning first place. It also won first place overall, when all the scores were combined. Adult attendees were Scoutmaster Scott Hoskett, Dan Halm, Chris Rea and Jim Mayer. Scouts in attendance were Matthew Halm, Brian Mayer, Will McCuddy, Jeremy Rea, Aaron Zaremsky and Matthew Zaremsky.”
Dog clean-up boxes. “Scott Hammond and his daughter, Megan, built two ‘dog clean-up’ boxes, filled with plastic baggies, to help local residents clean up after their dogs, for a project with Mary Jo White’s first grade class near the Big Toy at Mills Lawn School Saturday.”
Kindergarten shrinking. “Even though only 31 children are enrolled in the Mills Lawn kindergarten program, the low enrollment issue ‘is not a panic situation,’ school superintendent Tony Armocida said. The ideal number of students is 50, he said. … ‘One of the things we’ve done is really encourage the open enrollment option. … It is cost-effective to have those students coming in.’”
Ten years ago: 2015
Police Report. “At noon on May 1, a caller reported a reckless driver on Xenia Avenue near Woodrow Street. Police issued the driver a verbal warning about the hazards of eating while driving. … At 2:30 a.m. on May 2, a West North College Street resident reported that neighbors at a hot tub party were enjoying themselves too audibly. Police warned the revelers, who said they got overly excited listening to their favorite song.”
Roosevelt to leave in December. “At a meeting attended by several hundred in the Antioch College community … College President Mark Roosevelt announced that he will no longer lead the college when his five-year contract expires at the end of 2015. … Hired as the college’s first president a year after Antioch reopened in 2009, Roosevelt faced the daunting task of relaunching a liberal arts college at a time when liberal arts colleges are closing their doors.”
Mills Park Hotel opening delayed. “The new downtown hotel modeled after a 19th-century village home [Mills House] won’t open until later this year, its owner said this week. … Ground broke on the Mills Park Hotel in spring 2014 after local residents Jim and Libby Hammond purchased the 1.6 acres known as the Barr property in 2012 for $379,000. Jim Hammond previously restored the Grinnell Mill in a partnership with Miami Township Trustees. … The three-story, 24,000-square-foot hotel was designed by local architect Ted Donnell. Many local builders and contractors are working on the hotel, including Tommaso Gregor of Gregor Construction, who is completing some of the more intricate woodwork, Hammond said.”
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