Four burglars were stymied in 1924 by a sleepless Poplar Bluff man, who patrolled the street after interrupting an attempted break-in. In 1974, court news was dominated by a massive lawsuit filed by a local dentist against his bookkeeper.
100 years ago
July 30, 1924
• Front Street residents got a rude awakening last night, but their sleeplessness thwarted a burglary.
Cecil Berry was hailed today as the hero of the hour. His wife woke him sometime after midnight because she heard breaking glass at a store across the street. He stepped out to investigate and encountered a stranger standing on his front porch, likely acting as a sentry. Berry ran back inside and the man dashed off the porch, allowing Berry to rouse his neighbors and scare off another porch sentry in the process. The store was found to be unharmed except for a broken window.
Berry took up watch with a borrowed revolver in case the men returned. His patrol was quiet until he stopped near a ditch of high weeds and rested his hand, with the gun, on a fence post. He quickly learned he wasn’t alone — a man hidden in the thicket snatched the gun and took off running. Comically, the other man tripped in a hole several yards away, lost the gun and fled again. A few figures hiding behind the store joined him.
Berry gave police a detailed description of the man on his porch in the morning. Ward believed they were professionals and likely cased the business yesterday.
75 years ago
July 30, 1949
• Poplar Bluff Hospital has 10 additional beds ready for polio patients. Statewide, hospitals in 13 counties added 375 extra beds in case the disease becomes an epidemic. Missouri’s count of total cases reached 300 this week.
50 years ago
July 30, 1974
• A local dentist and his wife are suing their bookkeeper for $50,000.
The plaintiffs are Dr. Robert W. and Marjorie Flatt. They filed a two-count suit against K.Q. and Mildred Lewis over two lots of property. The Flatts charge they were behind on their federal income taxes and so conveyed the Lester Street properties to the Lewises in escrow, with a clause in the title transfer specifying the property could be recovered within three years for $7,800. When Flatt tried to pay Lewis that amount earlier this year, Lewis refused it and said the properties would cost $20,000. The three-year deadline on the transfer agreement doesn’t expire until August.
The Flatts are suing the defendants for $50,000 in punitive damages for breach of fiduciary trust, rents and profits from the real estate, and an order stating the Lewises have no right to the land. This comprises Count I. Count II demands a full accounting of “all the moneys and properties due them from the defendants,” the Daily American Republic stated.