by Ralph Barnes
Citizen Voice & Times
February 20, 1997
The first week of November in 1915 started off like any other week in the
sleepy little backwater town of Irvine. E. P. Campbell’s livery stable
advertised reasonable rates for feeding and stabling and claimed that special
attention was paid to the horses of traveling men. But a new product was also
being advertised that would soon destroy the livery business. V. M. Gains, a
local insurance agent, was offering new Overland touring cars for only seven
hundred and fifty dollars. There was a Welch grocery, then as there is now, but
that one offered free delivery by horse and wagon. The Gem Store, Irvine’s
first five-and-dime, was offering bargains galore as was the Irvine Drug
Company. The venerable drug store, popularly known as Rexall Drugs, was
operated in the modern era by Clive Rogers. The latest in women’s fashions were
on sale at Lena Wallace’s ladies apparel shop.
Europe was in the middle of World War I but the small village of Irvine was not
directly affected and took little notice of that faraway conflict. Local boys,
Everett Snowden, Robert Flynn, Charles Henry and a good portion of the U S Army
had been spent the last year, down on the Mexican border trying to catch the
bandit Poncho Villa, but that was not cause for major concern. The town was
pretty much as it had been since the decline of the Iron Furnaces several
generations ago.
Two important projects, completed during the intervening years, boded well for
Irvine’s future economic development. The railroad to the eastern Kentucky coal
fields was completed and the final lock on the Kentucky River was constructed,
making the river navigable all the way to the Ohio. Both projects were designed
to offset the often impassable roads that hindered the development of the more
mountainous regions. Luckily, Irvine was sitting smack dab on top of both
commercial arteries and the little village was primed for growth.
The anticipated boom hit the town like a thunderbolt during that memorable
first week of November and Irvine was never the same afterwards. The RNI&B,
Irvine’s first railroad, had been bought by the L&A Railroad. The
Louisville and Nashville Railroad acquired the L&A in 1909 and another
small line, the L&E that carried mostly coal, a year later. On November the
first, L&N officials announced that the two lines would be combined into
the Eastern Kentucky Division of the L&N to be headquartered in Irvine. The
offices of the General Superintendent, Chief Dispatcher, Claims Agent and
numerous other administrative offices were relocated to Irvine. In addition the
L&N announced the opening of a new locomotive roundhouse that would employ
a large number of repairmen. The L&N facilities were built on a tract of
railroad land that included much of present day Ravenna. The move by the
railroad created hundreds of new jobs in Estill County. Many of the jobs were
filled by existing employees of the two former lines. So a multitude of
soon-to-be residents flooded into town looking for a place to live. To ease the
housing crisis, the railroad offered to sell lots to its employees in a planned
community called Ravenna. Many of the people living in Ravenna today can trace
their roots to the railroaders that moved here in 1915.
If the onslaught of the railroaders was not enough, an oil boom peaked at the
same time. Oil had been discovered in the county a few years earlier but in the
fall of 1915 a large number high-volume wells were drilled. Speculators flocked
to Irvine from all over the country. Get-rich-quick schemers were thicker than
fleas on a dog’s back in "River City". The situation got so bad that
the newspaper felt compelled to warn oil men to arrange for accommodations
before coming to Irvine or they might have to sleep under the stars.
Oil production had increased so dramatically by November of 1915 that oil
interests proposed that a pipeline be built to carry the crude to the railroad
and the river for transportation to refineries down state. There was talk of
building a refinery in Estill County to process the oil produced here. That
proposal eventually resulted in the construction of a refinery at Pryse.
Estill County would soon be producing more crude oil than the rest of the state
combined. Taking advantage of an opportunity to promote sales, Lena Wallace ran
full page advertisements to announce an "Oil Boom Sale". Lena was
obviously way ahead of her time in merchandising techniques and would feel
right at home with today’s Madison Avenue promoters.
The reaction to the railroad and the oil boom activity peaking in one week must
have dazed Irvine’s residents being as unaccustomed as they were to change of
any type, much less such monumental upheavals. But alas, Irvine’s stunned
population was to receive more heady news before that momentous week was
concluded.
On November 6, 1915, the city announced that electricity was coming to Irvine
and there shortly would be street lights running from the Christian Church on
Main Street to eastern limits of Miller’s Creek Street. Service was only turned
on at night but would soon be available all of the time and for devices other
than lights. Plans were also announced for a new ice plant to meet the demands
of a growing population.
As if to prove the old adage "When it rains it pours," J. D. Haley
announced the construction of Irvine’s first soft drink bottling plant. The
plant bottled a drink called Parfay. The soft drink company would eventually
mix several hundred bottles of the popular soft drink daily.
More good news was soon to follow. The Association of Kentucky River Valley
Counties announced at a meeting, being held in Irvine, that a new road was to
be built from the Virginia line to follow the course of the Kentucky River and
eventually connect to the new Dixie Highway at Richmond. The road was to be
called the Mountain Highway (now known simply as State Highway 52). Kelly Kash,
Hugh Riddle and R. C. Music were Estill’s representatives at the meeting.
The Irvinites were reeling from all of the momentous events that had hit them
in that dizzy week. Robert Bergman must have been glad that he had finished
remodeling the front of his store with modern plate glass windows and an
ornamental iron cornice before the building boom hit. M. F. Taylor sped off to
Cincinnati to buy stock for his Blue Front Store. Harry B. Wilson and Green
Miller were contemplating the anticipated increase in business for their
insurance and real estate concerns. Irvine had finally arrived and in one magic
moment was transformed from a sleepy little backwater village into a bustling
boom town.
Not everyone benefited from the avalanche of good news. One man, who shall
remain unnamed, so as not to alarm his relatives who may share his
predisposition to madness, went stark-raving mad with excitement when oil was
struck near his property. He eventually was committed to Eastern State Asylum
for Idiots in Lexington. The fate of that poor man is a recurring nightmare
that many people share. They fear that if their ship ever comes in, the fickle
hand of fate will somehow find a way to nullify their good fortune. Of course,
one could argue that its better to be a rich blithering idiot than a poor
blithering idiot. In any event they don’t confine idiots anymore, as can be
attested to by observing the crowd at any sporting event or political rally.
Back to newspaper articles
index