Poplar Bluff’s leaders responded to the city’s traffic woes in 1924 after a spate of careless driving accidents. Also in 1924, a disgraced bank director and an accomplice were paroled. They and three others were convicted of robbing the Bank of Qulin three years prior.
Other headlines from this weekend include resourceful farm families and tragic gun accidents.
No issues available: Nov. 16, 1924; Nov. 17, 1974.
SATURDAY
75 years ago
Nov. 16, 1949
• The Huff family’s resourcefulness and hard work were recognized today in the Plant-to-Prosper competition, sponsored locally by the Daily American Republic alongside financial and agricultural institutions.
Evan Huff bought an 80-acre farm near Broseley two years ago through farmer and veteran loan programs. Since then, he and his family have renovated their farmhouse, installed a bathroom, bought a refrigerator, raised livestock, and planted alfalfa, vetch and cotton.
The family will get a paid trip to Memphis for the Annual Plant-to-Prosper Forum, a cash reward and a trophy.
50 years ago
Nov. 16, 1974
• The Missouri State Highway Commission will open bids next month for 83 state projects. Projects in Southeast Missouri include leveling and resurfacing routes 53, 67 and 142 in Butler County, routes 142 and 160 in Ripley County, and Route DD in Dunklin County.
SUNDAY
100 years ago
Nov. 17, 1924
• Two men convicted in a bank robbery conspiracy are about to go free.
Paroles for Charles Yates and Curt Adkins, both of Qulin, were signed by the governor after efforts by friends in their hometown. They were among five people arrested after the Bank of Qulin was robbed in 1921. Yates was the bank director at the time. During the robbery, he, Adkins and a cashier were forced into a vault by two masked men, later revealed to be Roland Nicholson and O.D. Brown, and $3,500 was stolen. Nicholson and Brown were arrested and implicated Yates and Adkins, plus a fifth conspirator named Tom Craft.
The missing money was never recovered. Officers were told it was hidden in the woods, and all efforts to find it failed.
Yates, Adkins, Brown, and Nicholson were each sentenced to five years. Brown was later paroled in a plea deal and Nicholson was released for health reasons. With the paroles of Yates and Adkins, the only one left behind bars is Craft, who is serving 10 years.
75 years ago
Nov. 17, 1949
• Five Missouri Pacific railroad workers escaped a deadly collision with only minor injuries yesterday. M.M. Carver and Jerry Robinson, both of Poplar Bluff, and three other workers from Bismarck leaped to safety as their motor car met an oncoming diesel train. The train reportedly hit the smaller transport at 65 mph on Bismarck’s main line. The men were scraped and bruised by their landings but otherwise unharmed.
MONDAY
100 years ago
Nov. 18, 1924
• A traffic law committee and plainclothes police officers are tackling road violations in Poplar Bluff.
Yesterday Mayor Davis and the city council named a committee to revise local traffic laws as careless driving accidents increased. Davis explained policemen were “tied” trying to enforce traffic regulations like braking at stop signs because they weren’t backed by laws. It made stop signs on some streets “worthless,” he declared. Plans for the revisions are expected at the December meeting.
He also appealed to the council to hire two plainclothes traffic officers to catch drivers operating without head- and taillights, speeding, cutting corners, ignoring stop signs, or other violations. The council agreed.
New stop signs will likely be approved for intersections on Main, Vine and Broadway.
75 years ago
Nov. 18, 1949
• The Poplar Bluff Lions Club’s annual turkey shoot opened with a roaring fire, roasting everything except birds.
Witnesses said a grass fire broke out shortly before the turkey shoot began yesterday evening and high winds fanned it to the event’s $250 rented tent. The shelter and most of its contents were lost, but attendees relocated the guns and ammo out of the fire zone and no injuries were reported. The shoot proceeded as planned once the blaze was extinguished and a new tent procured.
50 years ago
Nov. 18, 1974
• Communities are reeling after three accidental shootings in just as many days.
The first victim, a 10-year-old Doniphan girl, was killed on Nov. 16 when a shotgun discharged while her brother cleaned it. The gun was loaded for hunting by their father, but he left it at home while he went to the store.
A Bloomfield man named Melvin Duley accidentally shot himself in the leg on the same day. Duley said he dropped a .22-caliber pistol in his home and it went off. He remains hospitalized.
The third gunshot victim was 32-year-old Herschel Pace of Hornersville. Pace was killed in a hunting accident today in the Gainesville area. According to reports, his hunting partner Michael Gabbert of St. Louis opened the chamber of a cocked pistol, spun it, and closed it; the gun discharged into Pace’s back. He was pronounced dead on arrival at an area hospital.
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