Note: The newspaper at Hazel Green in Wolfe County published for nearly twenty-five years (beginning in 1885) has much Breathitt County news. Below is a letter of interest:

Jackson, Kentucky, June 19, 1899

(A letter written by W.P. Norris to the editor of the Hazel Green Herald, published June 29, 1899)

Editor of the Herald: It has been quite awhile since my many friends of Wolfe County have heard from me; the last time I believe when I was in the war, and associating with Alabamians on the now cotton fields of that state. I remember all of the Wolfe County boys who were with me in our line of patriotism, and will say to them that I had enough of the war, and will not try for any more. I am in touch with an up-to-date newspaper outfit, and in hunt for a good location to run either an up-to-date Democratic, free silver, 16 to one, anti-expansion newspaper, or a no-political good local paper. Should anyone know of a good location, and will throw some inducement out for me to come among them with such a laudable cause, let them communicate with me here.

Jackson shows wonderful improvements during the past year, due no doubt to my absence. A number one bridge spans the river here. Some 25 new dwellings built on the depot side of the river, and perhaps ten on the town side. There are about 20 stores in Jackson; three physicians; two dentists; one newspaper, The Hustler; 19 lawyers, one college, and a vote to be taken next Saturday for a graded school, which will carry. Hargis Bros. and Day Bros. mercantile houses, each do a wonderful wholesale business in counties above here. An 8,000 brick, four story, up-to-date of the latest modern hotel now to be in course of construction here. It will be lighted by electricity, heated by steam, and a first-class barber shop to be in it. It will be built by C. J. Little on the site of the present Jackson Drug Company, the latter building a fine drug store on the corner below. The hotel will be managed by our popular druggist, Dr. R. A. Bohannan, which is an evidence of a to be popular hostelry, and to be called "The Catalpa;" after a well-known tree of that variety now standing on the site, and which will be left standing. This is a long needed improvement for Jackson, and a boon to the traveling public who now have to trudge up a steep hill from the present hotels.

Considerable interest is being manifested here in the building of the Ohio and Kentucky Railroad from here into the Caney coal fields, and those on the inside "tell me that" it is only a question of short time for breaking dirt for same.

The moral and religious atmosphere of Jackson is wonderfully improving, due greatly to the vigilance of the police authorities and the hasty execution of the law against the guilty. The police court is presided over by C. X. Bowling, with Charley T. Byrd, a Wolfe County man, for city prosecutor. The "blind tiger" cannot thrive here, and other evidences of evil are conspicuously absent.

At the Democratic mass meeting here last Saturday, when some 600 men attended, I never saw a more orderly crowd, and perfect soberness prevailed; and the smoothness of it call for the lavish compliments and admiration of everybody. While it unanimously instructed for Goebel, Hager, and Hill, much harmony existed as to forestall any inroads in the large Democratic majority in this county by the Republicans no matter who the nominees may be. Alex Crawford is the nominee for the legislature. Edward Marcum, Walter Day, and Jas. G. Baily are each talked of as the republican candidate, but regardless of who is nominated he will be subordinated to Crawford's large majority, and who will be promptly in his seat at Frankfort at the proper time to vote for Joe Blackburn for U. S. Senator. I predict 25,000 majority for the Democratic state ticket this fall, which will make it an "easy sailing" for the Nebraskan Wm. Jennings Bryan, and a healthy rebuke to McKinleyism, Hannaism, and the Phillipineism in 1900.

The late grand jury of Breathitt is also to be commended for the noble week's work it has just recorded in history. One hundred and seventy-five indictments were returned against all offenses known in the calendar of crime, and all indications points to a good omen for Breathitt County.

In a talk with Hon. J. B. Marcum here, he intimates that he will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for Judge of the Court of Appeals from this district. While Mr. Marcum differs with myself in politics, I am quick to appreciate his legal ability and his enviable standing as a citizen, and that if elected, he will wear the judicial ermine with honor to himself and to his friends. In this connection allow me at present to express my preference for Hon. A. F. Byrd, of Campton, for our next circuit judge, and Hon. A. H. Stamper, of Campton, as our next congressman. These gentlemen will reflect great credit to their country if elected to theses position of eminence, and for which they are each particularly fitted.

--W.P. Norris