From Our Files
100 years –July 19, 1923
The past week has been a bad one for booze buyers and moonshiners locally. In fact, conditions are getting intolerable and unless relief is forthcoming shortly the art of making corn bring $4 per quart when wheat is only good for 90 cents a bushel is going to become a lost art. Some of the boys are willing to concede that if John Casey and Henry Howell could be planted out at the graveyard, the business might be conducted with a feeling of comparative security, but Casey and Howell are apparently in pretty good health and even the sultry temperature does not seem to interfere to any great extent with their persistent quest for the fluid manufactured by the light of the moon.
A baby girl was born to Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Whitener this morning.
The success with which the Marquand people have met in their struggle for a bridge across Castor, has encouraged them to go in for other highway improvements of particular interest to themselves. The Special Road District Commission this week received a letter signed by 26 of the most influential business men of Marquand asking that some steps be taken to improve the Fredericktown-Marquand road, particularly that section known as the Glaves lane just south of town.
Most sections of the county have become very dry. There are localities where no rain has fallen for a month. Conditions have been ideal for harvest, but the corn is beginning to suffer and garden crops are already damaged.
75 years —July 22, 1948
A Madison County farmer, Walter Stumbaugh of the Zion community, has added a new species of livestock to his barn lot. Mr. Stumbaugh and “Billy” a young deer that owes his existence, as a member of Missouri’s fast growing deer herd, to Mr. Stumbaugh who found him shortly after he was made an orphan by a pack of dogs. Billy was fed on Pet milk and thinks its fine stuff.
There are few developments this week in the strike at the St. Joseph Lead Co. properties. The strike continues and approximately 3,200 men remain idle. Business is at a standstill in the Lead Belt and Fredericktown is beginning to feel the pinch of the situation. Several local merchants told The Democrat-News this week that their business had fallen off considerably and others reported a slump of 25 to 50 percent in volume. While perhaps only 500 miners in Madison County are affected by the work stoppage, the merchants can and will continue to feel the effects.
Salaried employees of the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Co. said yesterday that the picket line at the mine southeast of Fredericktown prevented them from going to the plant.
The Democrat-News was notified at about 11:30 this morning that Judge Houser has issued a restraining order against the mass picketing at the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Co. and instructed the men to allow entry into mine property, all foremen, watchmen, office employees and salaried men at the mines.
50 years –July 19, 1973
The Fredericktown Post Office has a new mail carrier. A female mail carrier! Mrs. Ruby Link has joined the staff of carriers as a substitute.
The City Council met Monday night to discuss the contract with Revelle Lumber Co. to reconstruct the sidewalks in Fredericktown. The contract states that 50% of the cost will be paid by the city and 50% will be paid by the property owner.
More than 2,000 people are expected in the Fredericktown community this weekend for the 25th Camp Meeting Anniversary which is already underway at Pinecrest Nazarene Camp, located six miles south of town off Highway 67 at C. Local motels and homes are filled to capacity and there are many housing units occupied at the Pinecrest Camp.
The new sign for the General Federation of Women’s Clubs acknowledges that Fredericktown has two such organizations- The Quest Club and The Friday Club. Mrs. Bill Bryson, president of the Friday Club and Mrs. Oliver Ferguson, a member of that club, held “their” sign while Ed Eaves pours the concrete. Eaves of the Trogdon Ready Mix Concrete and Construction Co. kindly donated the concrete to seal the sign for the two clubs. The new G.F.W.C. sign is located just before the city limits of Fredericktown.
25 years – July 22, 1998
Three students from Black River Electric Cooperative’s service area recently experienced a once in a lifetime opportunity courtesy of their hard work and Black River Electric Cooperative in Fredericktown. Sarah Laut of Fredericktown, Lisa Murray, Marble Hill and Krista Tarvid of Ellington were among 72 high school juniors who traveled to Washington D.C. for Missouri’s thirty-fourth Rural Electric Youth Tour.
In the recent statewide meeting in Columbia, of the Missouri Association of Pupil Transportation, the Fredericktown R-I School District received a recognition certificate for having one hundred percent passage of all items on all buses in the annual March inspection conducted by the Missouri Highway Patrol. The district also received decals “TOTAL FLEET EXCELLENCE” to be affixed on a window in each of its buses.
ABC Redi Mix and Sargent Construction have joined together to beat the heat. Lights have gone up and work on the new Gifford Lumber floor slabs are being poured between the hours of 12 a.m. to 10 a.m. This helps create a quality job and is better on their workforce. You sometimes have to work around the extremes of mother nature whether it maybe rain, snow or heat.
