Solar eclipse darkens morning sky in 1925

An 85% solar eclipse darkened the skies of Southeast Missouri on this morning in 1925, and crowds watched through pieces of darkened glass and camera film.

The front pages of 1950 and 1975 printed stories of clay mine expansion and railway accidents.

100 years ago

Jan. 24, 1925

• Poplar Bluffians and millions of other Americans were fascinated by the sky this morning. The workday halted for over an hour as a solar eclipse passed overhead.

The eclipse began near dawn and reached its fullest point around 8:08 a.m. Southeast Missouri only experienced 85% totality.

“At 8 o’clock this morning it appeared as though heavy clouds were hanging overhead,” The Daily American Republic noted. “At no time was it dark.”

Eclipse watchers used smoked glass and Kodak film to protect their eyes while sky-gazing.

75 years ago

Jan. 24, 1950

• A 67-year-old man is hospitalized today after an accident on a railway bridge. Sam Snead of Poplar Bluff was struck by a diesel engine while walking on the Cairo branch railway bridge, sustaining a broken hip and collarbone. The Daily American Republic reported he was caught next to a guard rail. Railway crew members said the train was moving slowly at the time of the accident.

50 years ago

Jan. 24, 1975

• The Bloomfield City Council has voted to hold a bond issue election on Feb. 6. The bond would provide $2.6 million to support development a clay mine in Stoddard County.

The mining operation, Southern Clay Co. of Cassopolis, Michigan operates on over 1,000 acres near Zeta and Avert. It intends to employ about 100 people from Stoddard County and expand its production line from cat litter to a grease absorbent. Officials also pledge to “return the landscape to its original appearance as much as possible after they begin mining,” the Daily American Republic said.

The proposed bond would be retired by Southern Clay Co.’s rental payments on the land, the city council explained.