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Looking Backward 8.15.2013

  25 Years Ago

August 11, 1988

 

Bradleyville’s 8th annual “Tater Festival” is planned for Saturday, Aug. 13.

The list of elementary classroom assignments for Ava Elementary School is being published in the Herald this week for the convenience of parents and students.

Brenda Holmes, daughter of Mrs. Bette Holmes and a 1977 graduate of Ava High School, graduated on July 23, from the Missouri National Guard Military Academy Officers Candidate School, commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant.

Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Goss will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary on Sunday, August 14, with a reception at the Ava Community Center.  Theodore Goss and Marion Moore were married on August 11, 1928, near Ava, by the Rev. Harlo Hagee.

SFC Kenneth D. Tabor, platoon sergeant in charge of the Field Services Platoon and responsible for the health and welfare of 40 personnel, was recently given a superior evaluation by the U.S. Army.

Start your day off right with a good hearty breakfast.  Hutch’s Country Inn, 5 miles North of Ava On Highway 5.

On Saturday, July 30 at the Ava Community Center the family of Mrs. Virginia Scrivner gathered for a surprise birthday celebration given in her honor.

SQUIRES –– Coming home around 7:30 p.m.  the humidity had put a grayish blue haze over the countryside. It was so beautiful beyond description looking out over the country from the high points on Highway14.

The first yo-yo probably was used as a weapon thousands of years ago, when hunters in the Philippine Islands tied long leather cords to rocks that they hurled at game, says National Geographic World.

50 Years Ago

August 8, 1963

 

All children who are five years old by Oct. 1 may enter kindergar­ten, and all children who are six years old by Oct. 1 may enter the first grade.

Max Decker, who has taught English in Ava High School for the past seven years, was named high school pr8incipal, replacing Edwin Upchurch, who resigned three weeks ago to accept a position as principal of the St. Clair, Mo. High School. Decker had been employed as junior high school principal on July 1 when Clyde Bell was named as elementary school principal.  A new junior high principal was not employed.  Instead, the board named Etcyl Painter, an elementary school teacher, as building supervisor for the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, and Bell will be principal of the first eight grades.

Opening date of the Ava schools for the 1963-64 term will start Tuesday, Sept. 3.

Sgt. Major Theron H. Evans has retired from the Army after served since 1939, initially with the First Calvary Division, Ft. Bliss, Texas, where he was assigned to the horse-drawn artillery at a salary of $21 per month.

MURRAY –– Little Jeffery Degase, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Degase, caught his hand in the fly wheel of their washer last week and mashed it up pretty badly, but he is feeling better now.

The marriage of Miss Glenda Sue Hobbs and Gordon Alexander was solemnized in an 8 o’clock ceremony Friday evening, Aug. 2, at the Southeast Gospel Chapel in Springfield.

Mr. and Mrs. Ronnie Fleetwood (Phyllis Thomas) of Ava announce the birth of a daughter at 5 o’clock Tuesday morning, July 30, in Mansfield Hospital.

Drive-In Theatre – Tues., Wed., Thurs. Two Weeks in Another Town Starring: Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse. Absorb­ing motion picture drama in color.

Shady Inn, across from the new high school building: breakfast, steaks, sandwiches, pies, pies to go order, coffee, soft drinks, ice cream, and malts and shakes.  Friday and Saturday specials, 10¢ ice cream cones; and hamburger and large Coca-Cola, 25¢.   Mr. and Mrs. Fred Davis, formerly of the Davis Café.

In any debatable question there are two sides –– your side and the wrong side.

Every boy and girl needs a playmate!  New! Sinclair Dino Playmate, only $1.89 at Haynes Sinclair Service, three blocks north of square.

Two teams of Ava boys will participate in a Mountain Grove baseball tournament next week. Cub squad members are: David Miller, Beaver Sallee, Larry Plaster, Doug Monger, Randy Reid, John Wallace, Kenny Moore, Steve Sanders, Jimmy Huffman, Danny Silvey, Gary Welch, Danny Givans, Rickey Buchanan, Boyd Strong and Larry Herd. Managers are Joe Miller and Lawrence Plaster.   Members of the Bears squad:  Sammy Shipps, Leo Sanders, Ronnie Curry, Roger Williams, Don Thurman, Marvin Emerson, James Parsley, Lyle Gastineau, John Smith, David Litwiller, Randy McFarlin, Ronnie McFarlin, Junior Snelson and James Bourland. Managers are Bob McFarlin and Jay Monger.

 

75 Years Ago

August 11, 1938

 

An extensive remodeling job at the Citizens Bank got under way early this week, under the supervision of C.E. Arkson, contractor of Verona, Missouri.

A four-year-old boy, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Farmer of Dogwood, was brought here for medical aid Thursday after he swallowed a quantity of patent medicine pills containing strychnine (“Hinkle Pills”).  The child was rushed to a hospital in Springfield for treatment. He was taken there by Homer Marler. The boy is reported to be recovering satisfactorily.

Three cars and a truck figured in an accident Wednesday morning about 8 o’clock on the street in front of the Ozark Hotel. No one was hurt but considerable damage was done to the machines.

Hobart (Son) Gentry ahs proof that cats like rabbits, but it so happens that this cat was a member of the fish family.  Son, who with Mrs. Gentry and his nephew, Harry Gentry, spent from Wednesday until Saturday at Hollingsworth Mill, on Little Northfork, Thursday evening killed a rabbit with a rock, cut off a leg for bait, and on the first cast hooked a blue cat that weighed six pounds when brought to Ava Saturday.  The fish measured twenty-five inches.

The Ava organization of the Womens Christian Temperance Union is sponsoring a temperance rally Sunday at the Methodist Church. Superintendent Ray Hailey will preside over the program. The public is invited. Mrs. J.L. Garrett is president of the Ava W.C.T.U.

Radio Singer To Be On Dance Program Here –– A girl who has sung over national radio networks will be a featured attraction Saturday night in a dance program offered by Howard Pettit and his orchestra at the Roscoe Spurlock Hall here.  She is Mrs. Jerry Pettit, who sings under the name of Margie Gillette.

On July 15, Miss Olivia Gordon and Amos McMurtrey, both of Dora were married in Springfield with the Rev. Francis Bishop officiating.

The Ava Lions and Lionesses journeyed to the Hoffmeister Spring Friday night for a fish fry and watermelon eating contest, and ended up with an initiation ceremony and swimming party, which was very impromptu.  Claude Hibbard, latest member of the club, was slated for a bath in the spring, but the boys liked the idea so well that all of the Lions, with the exception of Harolod (Runfast) Platt, Dr. J.H. Coffman, Dane Tillman and Lowell Gaulding, finally joined in the swim.  Hibbard, who has an idea that it is not the best thing in the world to go swimming alone took Rev. Jewell Smoot and Clarence Clinkingbeard into the water with him.

EAST VANZANT – Mrs. Frank Penner, who has been visiting her daughter, Mrs. Willie Elliott, at St. Louis, came home Sunday. Mr. and Mrs. Elliott are the proud parents of a fine baby boy.

 

100 Years Ago

August 21, 1913

 

Ava has another electric light proposition.  J.W. Pettit and his associates are asking the people for a franchise to light the city –– to use Big Spring at the Wilson Mill as the motive power.  Election to be held August 25.

The eyes of the world are just getting turned our way, and there are great things before us.  This is the best country in the world and a few of the people of the united States are just beginning to find it out.

Stock water is now very scarce and stock is suffering for feed and water.

The Herald force has been out working the roads Wednesday and Thursday of this week and we are a little late and may be a little short on our regular reading matter. We have been trying to build roads on “paper” for several years. We are trying it on the roads this week.

The situation in Mexico continues to grow more gravely.  It is beginning to look as though war is inevitable. Japan is probably figuring in the affair.

Harry K. Thaw, murderer of Stanford White, escaped from the asylum in New York last Monday, and is at large. It is said that he is on his way to Europe, and will possibly maintain his freedom.

Although England, Russia, and a number of European nations have signified their intention not to exhibit at the San Francisco exposition, our governmental agents are hopeful that they will be able to show that in the case of the great and only exposition that the Europeans ought not to let their inclination to “get tired of expositions” influence them to stay away from this particular big show.

TIGRIS –– Arthur Ellison can be seen most any time going up the creek on his motorcycle.

DRURY –– Our young men who left on the peach picking tour are back singing the praises of Drury.

W.M. Connelly, who shot and killed his brother, Ed Connelly, at a country dance near Gainesville, December 21, 1912, was found guilty of murder in the second degree at the regular term of circuit court in Gainesville and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary. The brothers, both of whom were drinking heavily, engaged in a fight while attending the dance.

 

125 Years Ago

August 23, 1888

 

A German in Cleveland claims to have perfected a device for generating heat from electricity that shall take the place of fuel in the economy of every household and place of business.

The singular “canals” seen on Mars are explained by M. Fizeau, on the supposition that the planet has glaciers much larger than those of the earth, and with greater crevasses and movements.

Mrs. Farnham, of New Orleans, has invented a “car starter and combination brake” for streetcars. From the description it appears that the brake winds up the starter, and relieves the horses of the strain of starting the car.

A remarkable strip of the new railroad from Buenos Aires to the Andes is probably the longest tangent in the world, extending 211 miles without a curve. It is further notable as having no bridge in the entire distance and no cut or fill exceeding about a yard in depth or height.

Inventor Thomas A. Edison is a hearty eater. Perhaps he has perfected some device which prevents dyspepsia.  At all events, this is what he ate for dinner a few days ago: plate of soup, cut cabbage, plate of roast beef, some baked chicken, an ear of corn, stewed tomatoes, two boiled potatoes, two slices of bread and butter, a piece of huckleberry pie and a plate of ice cream.

Sioux Indians Defiant – Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota, August 19 –– There was a great commotion here yesterday when it was learned that a large band of Sioux had gone to the Cheyenne country on the Tongue River in defiance of objections interposed by Agent Gallagher. They left word that they were going to attend a hunt, but it is feared they have more serious intentions as they have often threatened to join the Cheyennes and massacre the unprotected whites along the Tongue and Powder rivers.  As soon as it was learned the Indians had gone, Gallagher wired Colonel Dudley at Fort Custer to send out troops at once to intercept them. It is believed that a bloody battle will be fought before the Sioux are taken back to their reservation, as they are in a bad state of mind and well armed.

It is stated from Bismarck, Dak., that the Indians on the Standing Rock agency have not begun to give in to the commissioners.  Sitting Bull is leading the opposition.

The petrified tusk of a mastodon measuring 13 feet 7 inches was found on a farm near Bismarck, Dakota.

FOUND –– Two false teeth, owner can have the same by calling at the office and paying for this notice.

Married – on Wednesday, the 22nd inst., George Turner and Miss Emma Holmes. Suire Casad officiating.

Wash Silvey, living in the northwestern part of the county, was arrested Monday and taken to Springfield charged with intimidating homesteaders.

Two of Jas. Meek’s children – boy and girl – near Mansfield, were bitten by a mad dog. The girl was at once taken to Paola, Kansas to seek relief from a mad stone. After his sister had gone, the boy told his parents that he, too, had been bitten by the same dog and showed the wound the bite had made, but we have not learned what was done with the boy or the dog.