Pickings from Pike’s Past: 50 YEARS AGO: PITTSFIELD VOTERS REJECT AIRPORT– CITY COUNCIL VOTES FOR IT

By Editor | January 25, 2022 |

150 Years Ago
Feb. 1, 1872
A teachers’ institute will be held Feb. 3 at the high school hall in Pittsfield. Topics to be discussed will include elementary reading and spelling, mental arithmetic, written arithmetic, primary geography, calisthenics and music.

Mr. A. H. Lacy is no longer connected with the Pike County Democrat. Our son, W. C. Bush, will be found in the office to attend to all financial matters connected therewith.

125 Years Ago
Feb. 2, 1897
If we had written of the weather a week ago we would have said no cold weather yet this winter, but since that time we have had it as cold as anyone would wish—from one to eight degrees below zero five mornings this week. The ice men are busy filling their ice houses, as they think the time for such work is short.

This is a doctor’s harvest, so multitudinous are their patients just now. Grip and its kindred ailments are the ruling order.
Something over $180 has been paid out for sparrow scalps.

The Mozart Symphony Club will furnish the third entertainment in the K.P. lecture course. They will use the 14-string viol and the ten-string viol and the Roman triumphal trumpet, five feet in length. These instruments have been out of use for more than 200 years.
Our new telephone exchange sent its first message out on Nov. 3, 1896. There are now 58 telephone instruments in Pittsfield, with hopes to increase that to 75 to 100 telephones.

100 years Ago
Feb. 1, 1922
South Pike is having the worst spell of winter it has experienced in several years, the temperature having been near zero for several days.

The committee appointed by the mayor to decide the location of the new deep well has decided on the north end of the lot on which the town hall stands on west Adams Street, a block-and-a-half west of the northwest corner of the square.

Directors of the Citizens State Bank in Pleasant Hill held their annual meeting. Officers elected were W. A. Windmiller, president; E. T. Barton, vice president; C.C. Thomas, cashier; and C. W. Thomas and J. L. Laugharn, assistant cashiers.

A group of Pittsfield ladies has organized a bowling club known as the “Bold Bowlers.”

In a fast and exciting game Saturday night the red and black quintet defeated the Bluffs five by a score of 37-26. The same men were used as in the victory over Camp Point the night before, with the exception of “Wildcat” Cummings subbing for “Tiger” Bolin, who was unable to attend the game on account of a death in his family.

75 Years Ago
Jan 29, 1947
Last week’s temperatures ranged from a high of 56 to a low of four degrees.

Major General Hobart Gay has received the highest award from the government of Belgium for his brilliant staff work in the critical Battle of the Bulge. He is at present commander of the 2nd occupational force, headquartered in Munich, Germany.

The best news the Pike County Republican has for its readers this week is that Western Union Telegraph is electing to continue “as is” here on the Pittsfield square.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Seybold and son have gone to Houston, Texas to visit her sister. They are having The Ice Cream Bar in Pittsfield decorated, and plan a short vacation before reopening on Feb. 15.

J. S. Windsor has sold his blacksmith shop in Pleasant Hill to Russell Borrowman of Nebo. Mr. Windsor, 79 years old, is going to take a well-deserved rest after having followed the blacksmith trade for 67 years, starting with his father at Martinsburg when he was but 13 years of age.

50 Years Ago
Feb. 2, 1972
Saturday, in an advisory–not binding– election, Pittsfield voters rejected building a new airport by a vote of 663 yes and 852 no; and Tuesday the city council by a vote of 5-3 voted to build the new airport. The council chambers were filled with 75-100 citizens in a standing room-only meeting. Bryce Irving was the spokesman for those who favored the new airport. Ray Peters, whose property borders on the proposed airport site, spoke as an opponent “for both community and personal reasons.”

Carl Fredrickson, administrator of Illini Hospital, said that inflationary trends are causing hospital costs to go up faster than revenue, as the hospital faced a net operating loss of nearly $60,000 for the year ending Sept. 30, 1971.

Seventeen Democrats and 8 Republicans are on their respective party’s primary ballots for the new nine-member Pike County Board.
Coach Bill Ferguson’s team handed Carthage their third defeat of the season 59 to 56. Reserve guard Dwight Dyer got his first opportunity to play when Steve Smith got in foul trouble in the third quarter. Dwight came through with a very fine performance, which indicates that the Saukees now have at least two dependable reserves in Dyer and Mike Roseberry, who played most of the second half.

Many were standing at a Democratic-sponsored public meeting Monday night in the Legion Hall in Pittsfield when Lt. Governor Paul Simon was the speaker. The crowd was estimated at around 600.

25 Years Ago
Jan. 29, 1997
Higbee School sold at auction Saturday morning. Bryan Curless was the auctioneer, and the purchase was made by means of a cell phone used by the purchaser, Robert Johnson, who was near Elkhart, Indiana when he bought the Pittsfield landmark for $25,500.

Pike County school students have been out of school a total of 10 days since Christmas vacation, and many are getting “cabin fever.” Final exams for first semester have still not been taken at PHS because the weather keeps moving them back.

The first Teen Court training session brought 27 students from all four high schools in the county to the Pike County Courthouse. In a mock sentencing hearing, Lillian Bowen played the defendant. Assistant State’s Attorney Steve Hlavach was the prosecutor and attorney Elizabeth Miller was the defense attorney. She is the Pike County Public Defender.

Farmers State Bank in Pittsfield held its 108th annual shareholders meeting Jan. 1, 1997, and reported assets of $91,000,000. Lewis M. Grigsby, Jr. is the bank president. Other directors re-elected were Lewis M. Grigsby, Sr., Dr. E. Frederick Berry, Dr. Frank J. O’Connell, Walter E. Meuller and John M. Koehler.

10 Years Ago
Feb. 1, 2012
Cameras will not be coming to Pike County courtrooms in the near future. Judge Michael Roseberry said the judges of the 8th Judicial Circuit voted against it, “based on the fact that at this time there are just too many unknowns.”

Land sales remain high in Pike County and surrounding areas. A 27-acre plot at the south edge of Milton sold Monday for $12,225 per acre. Seller was Randy Lemons of Pittsfield. “That’s the highest price I can remember for land on the Milton prairie,” said auctioneer Robert Evans, “I expected $10,000 per acre.” John Alvin Hoover purchased the property which adjoined property he already owned.

■ Compiled by Michael Boren