This weekend’s news highlights range from mundane to triumphant to bizarre — city and school elections wrap up, the Mules track team laps their competition, and livestock are killed by swarming bugs.
__Saturday__
April 6, 1924 — No issues available.
75 years ago
April 6, 1949
• City voters decided by an overwhelming majority to extend Poplar Bluff’s city limits. The extension was placed on the April 5 city election ballot after residences outside Poplar Bluff requested access to city services. The final count was 1,638 in favor and 375 against.
• In school elections, Poplar Bluffians voted in favor of a nine-month school year but narrowly declined a proposal to levy an additional 95-cent property tax. The measure had 1,118 yes votes and 837 against, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass.
50 years ago
April 6, 1974
• Mules track and field athletes won the East Prairie invitational by a mile last night — they captured nine out of 16 events and scored high in the remainder, giving Poplar Bluff a final score of 111. Jackson came in second with 44 points, followed by Charleston with 33, Caruthersville with 29, Dexter with 23 and Sikeston with 16. This is Poplar Bluff High School’s second consecutive year winning the invitational.
__Sunday__
100 years ago
April 7, 1924
• The April term of the circuit court opens today with seven cases. Six defendants pleaded guilty and one case was dismissed.
The dismissed case was an embezzlement charge that went to the Missouri Supreme Court and back. P.G. Woerth was accused of selling land he didn’t own in 1919 and was found guilty, but appealed. The Supreme Court ruled Woerth was convicted on insufficient evidence.
__75 years ago__
April 7, 1949
• A manhunt is underway for a Chester, Arkansas, man in connection with a string of Missouri break-ins. A post office and two grocery stores were burglarized on April 5 in Rudy, Missouri, and the Neal grocery store and post office in Cedarville were broken into early this morning. Postmaster Leslie Neal had yet to determine if anything was missing from the post office, but $3 and two packs of cigarettes were missing from the storefront.
Authorities arrested a suspect named Luther C. Cluck shortly after the first burglary and now seek Roy Kimes, a farmer from Northwest Arkansas, for questioning. Kimes is the cousin of Matt and George Kimes, described as “notorious Oklahoma-Arkansas desperadoes.”
April 7, 1974 — No issues available.
__Monday__
100 years ago
April 8, 1924
• Property owners on Sixth Street between Poplar and Cedar presented a petition to pave their road at last night’s city council meeting. The council found enough names present to classify it as a legal petition and directed the city manager to draw up plans.
75 years ago
April 8, 1949
• Several mules were killed by swarming gnats near Qulin earlier this week.
Bloodsucking black gnats reportedly kill livestock by clogging their nostrils and asphyxiating them. A team owned by James Trout, a young farmer, met this fate on April 5. County Agent W.F. James reported another farmer in the Qulin area also lost a mule to gnats.
The area bordering the St. Francis River is the most heavily infested, James said, and will continue to be so as long as cool and damp weather persists.
Farmers have several methods of combating the gnats: smearing vulnerable areas on animals with a mix of pine tar and used oil, spraying cattle with DDT, repelling the bugs with smoke, and keeping animals in barns.
50 years ago
April 8, 1974
• The Junior Scott Saw Mill on Highway 53 was destroyed by a violent fire yesterday. Butler County firefighters responded to the scene at 6:30 p.m. to find the building fully engulfed and collapsing. Chief Bill Verble reported it took 33 firefighters five hours to extinguish the blaze, and they were handicapped by onlookers blocking the highway. One fireman said he drove on the wrong side of the road for two miles to reach the scene.
The corner of a nearby home was ignited but quickly put out. Firefighters kept the fire away from tanks of creosote and propane on the property, and neighboring structures.
The mill contained railroad ties treated with creosote, plus more pressurized tanks. Residents reported hearing two or three loud explosions before seeing the mill go up in flames. All employees had left for the day about half an hour beforehand and no casualties were reported.
Firefighters made a second run to the scene after midnight to douse sawdust that reignited.