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Looking Backward 2.5.2015

25 Years Ago

February 1, 1990

 

Forsyth defeated Ava for the third time this season last Saturday night to claim the championship of the Ava Invitational Tournament. But Coach Jess Blevins said he would welcome an opportunity to play Forsyth again, despite Ava’s 0-3 record with the Panthers.

City utility customers will receive their new sewer rate increases on or about the first of February of this year. The rates are as follows: $5.19 for the first 2,000 gallons; $1.98 per 1,000 gallons over the initial 2,000. In most cases this will double the average sewer charge, not only to residents but also to commercial and industrial customers.

Miss Lillie Gann of Sparta observed her 90th birthday Thursday, Jan. 25.

Lynn Case, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bob Case, escorted by Matt Maggard, son of Mr. and Mrs. Etcyl Maggard, was crowned Bradleyville High School Homecoming Queen on Jan. 18.

A 20-lb. striper was caught Jan. 20 by Dewayne Stephens of Ava. The fish was caught on Liner Creek on Norfork Lake. Dewayne caught the fish on a buck tail Buck Brush jig.

JEFFERSON CITY –– State Agriculture Director Charles Kruse has called on Missouri livestock rangers to develop procedures to prevent animal thefts. Kruse said livestock theft has become a major problem in an 11-county area in southwest Missouri. He said at least 500 animals have been stolen from Barton, Cedar, Christian, Dade, Dallas, Greene, Jasper, Lawrence, MacDonald, Newton and Stone counties in the last six months.

MOUND –– Happy birthday to little Carissa Armour, who will be one-year old Feb. 3.

Justin Watterson hit a hole-in-one at the Ava Country Club golf course Friday afternoon, Jan. 26. Watterson holed out on the par 3 No. 7 green using a pitching wedge.

 

50 Years Ago

January 28, 1965

 

Work continues on the reconstruction of Highway 5, south of Ava.

The Ava annual invitational basketball tournament will get under way at the high school gymnasium Tuesday night. The Ava Bears who are seeded eighth in the tournament will meet Bradleyville, a number-one rated team in the area in the first game of the tourney at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

A one-vehicle accident at 10:30 p.m. Saturday near Davis Corner resulted in the injury of two youths. Hurt were Bart Monger, 17, of Ava, driver of a 1955 Pontiac traveling south, and Howard Strong, 18, a passenger in the car. Two other youths apparently escaped injury.

Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe Spurlock of Ava will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary Sunday, Jan. 31, at the American Legion Hall in Lockwood.

BASHER –– Bernie Deatherage underwent surgery Friday morning in Barnes Hospital in St. Louis.

SAN ANTONIO – Airman James C. Detherage, son of Clifford W. Detherage of Route 2, Ava, has completed Air Force basic military training at Lackland AFB, Texas. Airman Detherage is being assigned to a Strategic Air Com­mand (SAC) unit at Offutt AFB, Nebr., for training and duty as a construction specialist. His unit supports the SAC mission of keeping the nation’s intercontinen­tal missiles and jet bombers on constant alert.

Mr. and Mrs. Elton Johnston of Route 2, Ava, announce the engagement of their daughter, Ardyce Ann, to Verle Johnson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ora Johnson, also of Route 2.

Eight members of the Ava Methodist Youth Fellowship attended Mid-Winter Institute held in Lebanon Saturday and Sunday. Leaving to make the trip were Miss Janet Curry, Miss Jennifer Tallent, Miss Diane Taber, Miss Carolyn Leeper, Jim Williams, Lyndell King, Roger Hailey, Jim Pitts and the counselor, Mrs. Edwin Hailey.

Larry Oxley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Nigel Oxley of Ava, completed Army basic training at Fort Leonard Wood and was graduated on Jan. 21.

Mrs. Wesley Scott, former Arlene Stephens, was honored with a baby shower at the home of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Ellis Stephens, on Jan. 23 at her home in Ava.

The Rev. F. William Spindler of Springfield, chaplain of Burge-Protestant Hospital, was one of 49 chaplains accredited by the American Protestant Hospital Assn. at its annual meeting held in Chicago last week.

Mr. and Mrs. L.R. Swearengin observed their Golden Wedding anniversary with open house Dec. 27 at their home at Honey Branch Cave. Mr. and Mrs. Swearengin have lived 46 of their 50 married years in Douglas County. They moved to Ongo on the day they were married and lived there 34 years.

75 Years Ago

February 1, 1940

 

The thermometer at the U. S. Forest Service ranger station here registered all the way from 8 degrees below zero to 43 above zero during the month of January. The lowest reading was on the morning of January 19. The highest was Wednesday afternoon, the last day of the month.

German warplanes ranged wide across the North Sea Monday to pepper bombs and bullets against fourteen British merchant vessels scattered 400 miles up and down the east coast of the British Isles, it was reported by the Associated Press. The air raid broke a lull in the fighting between Nazi Germany and the allied forces of Great Britain and France.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard Pettit, Miss Betty McClendon, Miss Jeanne Gentry, Harlan House, Ruskin Norman, Basil Spurlock and Lowell Osborn were in Springfield Monday night and attended the dance given at the Shrine Mosque. The music for the dance was played by Tommy Dorsey and his twenty-one piece band. Approximately 6,000 persons heard this nationally known swing bandleader and his band.

Fifty-three friends and relatives gathered at the T.J. Freeman home near Dora Sunday for a surprise birthday dinner honoring the sixtieth birthday anniversary of Mrs. Freeman.

Netter’s, Springfield, Mo., What will you wear this spring?

ARNO –– Mr. and Mrs. Audie Posey and son, Jimmie, were all day guests of Mrs. Posey’s mother, Mrs. Clarence Bray.

ROBERTSON –– Murriel Alms, who is in the CCC camp at Pondfork, spent the weekend with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Alms.

A group of friends surprised Willie Mahan Tuesday night with a birthday party in his honor. Those present were Mr. and Mrs. W.O. Bristow, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Gauer, Mr. and Mrs. George Rowe, John Privett, Mr. and Mrs. Andy Deckard and two daughters, Lotus and Lorene, Mr. and Mrs. Harp and tom Boatman.

Tuesday afternoon Mrs. Rondo Burdett entertained a group of children at a birthday party in compliment to her older daughter, Dola Mae, who was celebrating her eleventh birthday. During the party hours the children played games and contests and at the close of the afternoon refreshments were served to these guests: Patsy Baker, Helen Cudworth, Anna Lee Sanders, Joanne Stewart, Mary Ann Exline, Olis Taylor, Donnie Meeker, Conway Stewart, Eula Ann Kropp, Mary Ann Burdett, Ernestine Whetsten, Willamae Burdett.

 

100 Years Ago

February 11 1915

 

Deputy Sheriff Robt. F. Jenkins made a trip to Elwood, M., the first of the week and took in charge one Chas. Silvey of Elwood, charged with a very serious crime, and landed him in the Ava jail to await his trial at the March term of the Douglas County Circuit Court.

The building of the school of the Ozarks, at Forsyth, which was recently destroyed by fire, is to be rebuilt at the same place.

Jealousy was the cause of a double tragedy at the Horton Hotel in Willow Springs, Jan. 29, when Chas. E. Perkins, a traveling salesman of Kansas City, shot and killed Mrs. Ina Hicks, an old sweetheart, and then blew out his own brains. Mrs. Hicks had just recently married W.J. Hicks, at West Plains.

At a dance at his home southwest of Rome in Decker town last Monday night, John Cunningham was shot with a 44 pistol, the ball passing through his left wrist, left side about the waist line and lodged in the flesh near the surface in the right side of the body, inflicting wounds from which he died Wednesday morning about 4:30 o’clock. It is reported in Ava Cunningham stated before he died that he was shot by Etcyl Guthrie. Other guns were also exhibited at the scene of the tragedy, and Etcyl Guthrie received a shotgun wound in the left wrist, and his hand was amputated the following day. It is stated that the shot which Guthrie received was fired by John Cunningham.

Mr. Roscoe Spurlock and Miss Nora Billingsley quietly surprised their many friends by being married at the home of the groom, Mr. and Mrs. P.R. Spurlock, Sunday. Rev. Lukey Marler performed the ceremony. After the wedding of the bridge and groom, they drove to the home of the bride Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Billingsley accompanied by Miss Agnes Spurlock and Vernie Huff, where an eight o’clock dinner was served.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Klineline Jr. of northeast of Ava are the proud parents of a fine baby girl, which made its arrival last Sunday.

Constable Wm. Silvey of Seymour, who was shot Dec. 31, by Lew Peters, is reported to be almost recovered from his wound. Peters is still at large.

Notice of a stock law election for townships of Findley, Benton, Washington, Spring Creek and Campbell is being officially published in the Herald setting the date of the election for March 9. The law would restrain sheep, goats and swine from running at large.

Little Marion Plummer fell off of the upstairs porch at the back end of the central office last Monday afternoon, and for a time seemed to be seriously hurt, but a few days time have developed the fact that her injuries are only slight. It would seem like a narrow escape when we realize the ground was frozen hard and the fall was from a fifteen-foot porch. The little girl is able to be up at the present.

 

125 Years Ago

February 6, 1890

 

Morgan County has the largest zinc mine in Missouri.

During last year, 57,710,815 gallons of beer were manufactured in St. Louis, and a large amount of it consumed right there.

Richard Hoops, a Negro living on the banks of the Osage River near Jefferson City is said to be the oldest man in Missouri. He is 119 years old.

A cow which had been previously bitten by a dog went mad recently and created quite a scare as well as a sensation among the citizens of Marshall.

The Mexico, Mo. Intelligencer thinks that when it takes a bushel of corn to buy a drink of whiskey there is something radically wrong with the country.

There still exists a good many brainy Americans who are, though they will not admit it, greatly controlled in their actions by old time superstitions. Facts show how utterly absurd these old superstitions are. The Thirteen Club of New York City sat down to its annual supper, thirteen at the table, for years before death invaded the circle. People deny they take any stock in these old grandmother notions, but actions belie their words.

An amusing telegraphic difficulty arose through the misspelling of two words. A gentleman telegraphed to a relative in Cleveland an interesting family event as follows: “Sarah and little one doing well.” The telegram reached its destination, but the message read: “Sarah and litter are doing well.” The started recipient may well have been excused for telegraphing back the following query: “For heaven’s sake, how many?”

There are some women so talkative that nothing but the toothache will make them hold their jaws.

It is the greatest possible praise to be praised by a man who is himself deserving of praise.

A.C. Kice and A.S. Eslick purchased a block of lots in the southwest corner of Potter’s addition to Ava last week and will shortly erect a dwelling house there.

The preliminary trial of the State vs Wm. Vaught was held, Vaught is charged with killing General Johnson. Vaughn was bound over in the sum of $ 180 to await the action of the grand jury at the coming March term of the circuit court.

  1. P. Armstrong, cashier of Sumner County Bank at Conway Springs, Kansas, was attacked by a mob of 100 men and came near being lynched. He is connected with a sugar mill, and the company had promised the farmers certain prices for cane and workmen in the factory wages. The farmers claim $28,000 is yet due them, while the employees claim $9,000 in overdue wages.

United States Minister Palmer is sick with the Dengue Fever, which is prevalent in Spain. The death rate at Madrid, Barcelona and Seville is stated to exceed that caused by cholera when that disease is epidemic.