A look back

By Staff
Researched by Dr. Bill Stewart
A couple of these holiday season news items look forward to joyous times in the very near future.
1905 -December 18, J. E. Stevenson of Danville grew a yellow yam 17 inches around and weighing six pounds. Mr. Stephenson raised a hundred bushels of yams on his farm this year, many of which will go into candied yam dishes on Christmas dinner tables.
1942 -December 18, The Strand Theatre benefit show was held this morning. Children were welcomed on their presentation of a toy or canned good for donation to the less fortunate in Hartselle.
1893 -December 19, Christmas will continue to be wet in Hartselle for the time being. In today's wet-dry referendum, the liquor supporters were victorious by a 111-58 vote.
1943 -December 19, A beautiful pageant, "A Birthday Gift for the King," was presented at a special Christmas service at the Methodist church late this afternoon.
1940 -December 20, Margaret Payne, Jean Freeman, Elizabeth Houston, John M. Puryear, and Billy Don Mitchell, students at the University of Alabama, are at home for Christmas.
2003 -December 20, Amy Rakestraw and Barney Lovelace will be married today at the West Hartselle Baptist Church.
2003 -December 21, Hartselle First Baptists church-wide will go out caroling as an outreach to the community.
1898 -December 22, The authorities of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad have now formally stated that every man within its employ will have his salary increased at least 5 percent on the first day of January. Many Hartselle men are among those who will benefit from this holiday announcement.
1940 – December 22, Rudolph Smith of Maxwell Field in Montgomery will spend Christmas with his parents, Rev. and Mrs. Frank T. Smith.
2000 – December 23, Victoria Widner, 6, a student at Danville-Neel school, is excited about Christmas because she "loves Santa" and "likes the reindeer, too."
1980 -December 24, Hartselle Catholics worshipped for the first time in their new sanctuary this Christmas Eve. This blessed occasion brought both the Babe of Bethlehem into the new worship center and the realization of one of the dreams of the Catholic families in Hartselle.