An ag student made headlines on this day in 1924 for more than tripling his hogs’ weight in eight weeks with a new feeding method. In later news, Butler County provides free chest x-rays to detect tuberculosis, and a former Kennett woman’s murder remains unsolved in California.
100 years ago
April 23, 1924
• Poplar Bluff snatched victory from Augusta, Kansas in a regional Sunday School attendance contest. The final score was 6,340 attendance points for Poplar Bluff, to Augusta’s 5,989. The towns were neck and neck until bad weather in Kansas cut church attendance last month.
• A Poplar Bluff High School student enrolled in the Vocational Agriculture Class is being praised for his hog handling. Herman Haag of the Ashcraft neighborhood acquired 17 pigs and raised their average weight from 535 lbs. to 1,700 lbs. in eight weeks. Their diet is a mix of corn and milk in a self-feed tankage, and Haag’s success is inspiring other farmers to adopt the method.
75 years ago
April 23, 1949
• The Butler County Health Center and Butler County Tuberculosis Society are providing free chest x-rays through a mobile clinic. The clinic belongs to the State Division of Health and has served thousands of county residents outside Poplar Bluff in the past weeks. It was welcomed to town today with a parade. It is parked on the courthouse lawn and will operate through May 7.
50 years ago
April 23, 1974
• A native of Kennett was found murdered in California.
Authorities are investigating the death of Eva Davidson Taylor, a resident of Goleta, after relatives found her body last week. Investigators believe she was hit over the head with a blunt instrument during a burglary. She was 73 and formerly of Southeast Missouri.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff said Taylor’s death was the first murder in the county since January 1973 that wasn’t solved within 48 hours. Burglaries are extremely rare in the county, he added.