October 20, 1898… H.P. Morancy, traveling salesman for Stratton & Terstege, has been at home in Versailles with his family for a few days. Will Steele is building a ladies’ waiting room at his livery stable in Versailles. Mrs. Henry Graddy suffered a slight stroke of paralysis Oct. 13 but has improved somewhat since. The beautiful residence of A. Schoberth, near Versailles, burned Monday night. This is the second fire to strike Mr. Schoberth’s property within the past few years. Yellow Fever cases are multiplying rapidly in Jackson and other Mississippi towns and the situation is growing more alarming. Cold weather is anxiously awaited.\ W.H. Donovan & Co. have opened a meat shop in the storeroom in Midway adjoining the Blue Grass Grocery. A.W. Saunders is engaged in building a handsome residence for Powhatan Wooldridge on his farm near Midway. Someone broke into the schoolhouse just beyond Mr. Mitchell’s on the Versailles­ Midway Pike Monday night and stole the stove pipe. The poles for the Midway Telephone Exchange are being put up and soon “hello, central” will be the main cry of our people. Dr. Joe L. Llehman was in Carrollton last week. He will locate there in the near future. Johnson Taylor has accepted a position at Nave & Arnett’s. R.R. Early has sold 245 acres of his Woodford farm to Mr. Dunnigan, a sawmill man from Frankfort, for $103 per acre. Mr. Early is moving to the farm he lately purchased on the Maysville Pike in Fayette County. The L & N Railroad has placed elegant new chair cars on its service from Lexington to Louisville and passengers are enjoying this great improvement. Two Kentucky firsts… The Rev. John Lythe, an Episcopal minister, conducted the first divine service ever listened to by a Kentucky audience at Boonesboro on Sunday, May 28, 1775. The first macadamized road built in the United States was from Maysville four miles towards Lexington. Henry Clay secured from Congress an appropriation of $150,000 to extend the road to Lexington, but President Andrew Jackson vetoed the measure. Soon after this, the legislature appropriated $212,000, or took half the stock in the road, and it was completed to Lexington, a distance of about 75 miles. October 14, 1920… Under the headline “Two Midway boys meet death at the hands of whiskey thieves,” the Clipper tells its readers of a break-in at 1:30 a.m. Oct. 8 at the Midway Distillery, which resulted in the instant death of Ben T. Rodgers and the fatal wounding of Homer L. Nave, night operator at the L & N Depot. One of the guards fired several shots as an alarm and Rodgers, Nave and Porter Hammond, who were at the depot, rushed over to the distillery to assist the guards. Hammond turned on the light when entering the building and discovered Richard James hiding behind the door. James fired two wild shots at Hammond and then shot Nave in the back. Rodgers then grappled with James and was shot twice, dying almost instantly. Hammond attempted to fire three times and his weapon failed to discharge. James made his escape through an upstairs window. James was finally wounded by one of the two guards or by A.C. Pettit, local merchant, all having fired shots as James was heading to Tin Cup Alley. The other thieves, number unknown, made their escape. The thieves were in the process of removing 11 cases of whiskey. Because James had said, “Watch out, Monk,” the officers were able to identify James “Monk” Kennedy and later arrested him at his home. The following night John Bohannon was the third man arrested. Feeling was very high against James and a large posse was formed when it was heard that he was hiding in a cornfield belonging to Milton Davis, near town. James was finally brought to the home of Deputy Sheriff W.B. Cogar by three of his friends. James was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital and is expected to recover from his wound. Kennedy and Bohannon were placed in the Franklin County jail. Homer L. Nave was 29 and was the oldest son of Mrs. Icie Nave. He died at Good Samaritan Hospital on the evening following his wounding during the distillery robbery. Besides his mother, he was survived by a sister, Miss Lelia Nave and a brother, Fred K. Nave. Burial was in the Midway Cemetery. Ben T. Rodgers, 38, the other victim of the distillery tragedy, had been a resident of Lexington for 10 years after spending his early life in Midway. He was in Midway at the time of the shooting because he was substituting for his brother, rural mail carrier John A. Rodgers. He was the youngest of six children of S.N. and Susan M. Rodgers. Burial was in the Midway Cemetery.