It’s feast and famine for local businesses. The destroyed Bimel-Ashcroft Manufacturing Company announced it will only partially rebuild its sawmill after a massive fire. However, a local bakery is raking in dough after only a couple years in business.
100 years ago
May 29, 1924
• At its recent luncheon, the Poplar Bluff Chamber of Commerce looked to encourage local dairy operations and evaluated the next steps for a sawmill gutted by fire.
M.C. Horton, chairman of the Agricultural Bureau, spoke on “the importance of the community developing along agricultural lines,” according to The Interstate American. With this in mind he urged the chamber to offer $25 cash prizes for cows and other livestock at the county fair.
The chamber also heard of potential plans to partially build back the Bimel-Ashcroft Manufacturing Company. The combined sawmill and spoke factory suffered catastrophic fire losses this week, and Chamber President Bacon said he knew of plans to rebuild the mill portion of the factory and hire a reduced workforce.
• A local bakery announced it’s expanding after only two years in business. Wielpuetz Bakery Company has ordered a new oven costing “several thousand dollars” and “the fastest bread wrapping machine that can be bought,” said The Interstate American. The bakery was located at Fifth and Oak streets.
75 years ago
May 29, 1949 — No issues available.
50 years ago
May 29, 1974
• Who steals a boat just to sink it? According to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, an 18-year-old named Allan Price might be the culprit. Deputies put a warrant out for Price in connection with a stolen motor boat case from May 16. The boat was taken from the Paradise Point Resort near Chaonia Landing and discovered sunk in the vicinity of Milan Creek on May 27.