Pickings from Pike’s Past: 25 YEARS AGO: AMERICAN RED CROSS RECOMMENDS PREPARATIONS FOR Y2K
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150 Years Ago
Dec. 31, 1874
Everything is most pleasant in Griggsville. We were treated to the most sticky mud and then, for a change to the roughest freeze up you ever saw. Christmas has come and gone.
Mrs. Jennie Clough has been appointed postmistress in Griggsville during the rest of Grant’s administration. This lady is in every way competent to fill the position and will be credit to our citizens without regard to politics.
At the Pittsfield Christian Church on Christmas Eve, there was novelty in the way of a Christmas boat bringing into port a cargo of goodies for the children.
The Sunday-school folks of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church had their Christmas tree and their church decorated with evergreens in accordance with their annual custom. The tree was laden with gifts and many a heart was made happy by its fruit.
The third annual ball given Christmas night at Bush’s Hall was a most enjoyable affair, although an experiment in the way of sanding the floor didn’t add a great deal to its pleasure. About 35 couples attended but there was a large surplus of ladies not coupled off.
Those who have not yet sold nor contracted to sell their pork are squealing louder than their hogs, so low down has the price got, and of which we are whom.
The Christmas festival in Milton was a decided success and not a few of the little ones went away wishing that such days might come once a week. The “Grasshopper band” received a full complement of instruments.
125 Years Ago
Dec. 27, 1899
Sunday was cold and blustery, Monday very cold with a slight fall of snow in the afternoon and early evening. Tuesday thermometer 16 above, ground frozen hard and roads awfully bad. This is the record of Christmas weather for 1899 in this locality.
The greenhouse presents a beautiful sight to visitors this winter.
Prof. Hatfield and all the teachers of the city schools, except Misses Clare and Reeves, are attending the State Teachers’ Association in Springfield this week.
Hail, all hail the new year 1900. Next week the DEMOCRAT will reach you after the beginning of the last year of the 19th century, and invites you to travel with it until that century closes. Hail, all hail!
100 Years Ago
Dec. 31, 1924
The telephone company is busy rebuilding lines which were down following last week’s severe ice storm. It is estimated that 1400 poles and 800 miles of line are down in Pike County. Damage amounts to between $25,000 and $30,000. Fifty men are at work restoring the phone service.
Two outside electric crews, 18 men in all, came in Monday to assist the local CIPS force in getting the wires up and the lights going in the portion of the Pittsfield residential district that is still in darkness. Most of us have been using such coal oil lamps that had been left from the days when we had nothing better. But their light doesn’t seem nearly as bright as it did in previous years.
Pittsfield Good Fellows, sponsored by the Lions Club, spent $600 and distributed 80 Christmas baskets.
Isaac Strauss, Sr. will be observing his 85th birthday Jan. 6, 1925.
Methodists in Pittsfield will watch the old year out. We will gather at 8 o’clock in Memorial Hall and be entertained for an hour by our splendid and loyal orchestra. Immediately following the concert several young men will dramatize the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. After a luncheon served in the parlor we will pass to the auditorium where the choir will inspire us with a musicale. The closing hour will be a midnight worship, featuring a display of colored lights whereby all the effect of sunset and sunrise may be thrown upon the walls and ceiling.
75 Years Ago
Dec. 28, 1949
The last passenger and mail train on the Wabash through Pike County will run on Friday, Dec. 30.
Pittsfield’s Saukee basketeers wound up their pre-holiday season last Thursday night, turning back a hard-scrapping Winchester team, 51-43.
The wedding of Miss Jacqualine Louise Wheeler of Pearl and Dean Laverne Neese of Pleasant Hill took place in Pittsfield Nov. 26 at the home of Rev. Joe T. Maynard, who performed the single ring ceremony.
Dec. 30, 1949
Rotarians had a jolly Christmas party at the Community Center. A banquet was served to the Rotarians and their ladies and the juniors. Seventy-six were present. Gifts were given to the young guests who included Johnny Litvan, David Awbrey, Keenan Barber, Jane Kraybill, Ann Kraybill, Bill Kraybill and Jack Barber.
Ten children in the Independence school became ill of chicken pox Saturday morning, the day before Christmas, and most of them had to stay indoors on Christmas.
50 Years Ago
Dec. 31, 1974
Plans to build a 250-seat “first class restaurant” at the Two Rivers Marina near the Louisiana bridge on the Mississippi River were outlined to the County Board last week by Robert O. Emrick, president of Two Rivers Sports Center, Inc.
Twenty-year-old Greg Willard has returned to Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. where he is a pre-law junior after an exhilarating semester with the Institute of European Studies. For three weeks Willard was at Oxford University, then to the London School of Economics for two months and finally at the University of Freiburg in the Black Forest region of West Germany. Willard found many Britishers bewildered by the American response to the Presidency. “They wonder why we considered Nixon too presidential and Ford not enough so.”
Three months into his 40th year with the Pittsfield post office, Lawrence M. (Tom) Bradburn is retiring today. Bradburn started working for the post office Oct. 1, 1935 in the old location on the south side of the square, the only one of the present employees to work there.
Mrs. Mary Tedrow of Pittsfield, vice president and secretary of M. D. King Milling Company, was recently awarded a diamond necklace in recognition of her 35 years of service with the company. Clark King and M. D. King are the only other recipients of the award.
25 Years Ago
Dec. 29, 1999
The American Red Cross recommends several steps to be prepared for Y2K, including stockpiling food and water, having some extra cash on hand, having your automobile tank full, having extra batteries and flashlights, etc.
Don Mellon, 67, died in his sleep last Thursday morning after suffering for years with cardiac troubles. Mellon was highly regarded by numerous students and educators in Pike County. A veteran of the Korean War, he started serving the Pikeland Unit 10 school district in the mid-1950s as a junior high English teacher at Higbee Junior High School. He later moved to Pittsfield High School, again serving as an English teacher, as well as coaching basketball. He was named principal in 1966 and served in that capacity until 1991 when he became assistant superintendent of Unit 10.
Addie Elizabeth, daughter of Stu and Rhonda Cunningham of Pittsfield, turned five years old on Dec. 17. She celebrated with family and friends at her home on the 19th.
10 Years Ago
Dec. 31, 2014
Pittsfield’s Cardinal Inn served record numbers in its 11th consecutive annual Christmas dinner. At least 386 were served a traditional dinner of ham and turkey, including 93 deliveries, according to owner, Luetta Swartz. More than 70 volunteers assisted with the effort.
The Pittsfield Moose Lodge has a new look, including new paint, a stone façade and a new awning.
Compiled by Michael Boren
