October 25, 2023

Oct. 26, 1923 • The Witch of the Romines invades Poplar Bluff for a three-day stay, during which the Chamber of Commerce fall festival is to be staged. It is the second annual carnival and President Patterson of the Chamber declared “It is going to be the biggest thing the community has ever attempted.”...

B. Kay Richter

100 years ago

__Oct. 26, 1923__

• The Witch of the Romines invades Poplar Bluff for a three-day stay, during which the Chamber of Commerce fall festival is to be staged. It is the second annual carnival and President Patterson of the Chamber declared “It is going to be the biggest thing the community has ever attempted.”

W. Iri Brite, the secretary of the Chamber said “We are going to be ready when the time comes.”

75 years ago

__Oct. 26, 1948__

• Cotton, the white gold of the Southland, is pouring dollars into the pockets of Butler County planters and the coffers of cotton families all over Southeast Missouri. In Butler County, the harvest is about half complete, slowed by the lack of a sufficient number of pickers. According to County Agent W.F. James, the product is of higher quality than the average and the yield is heavier than it has been for many years.

Favorable weather has helped to maintain the quality of the cotton as has the fact that most of the cotton picked so far has been picked by members of the the family that grew it. These pickers are more careful in their work than hired pickers, the article states, and the result is that the final product is cleaner and therefore brings a higher price.

All Butler County gins are working almost at capacity. The heaviest production in the county centers in the Broseley, Qulin and Fagus districts, with the Neelyville district coming in with a large acreage but a lighter yield per acre. However, almost all county plantings are producing around a bale to the acre and with prices high and stabilized, cotton is still the leading cash crop of the county.

50 years ago

__Oct. 26, 1973__

• A Pocahontas, Arkansas area man is accused of stealing a truck from the Charles C. Meek Lumber Company in Poplar Bluff. He was apprehended near Harrison, Arkansas after he escaped briefly in an Arkansas State Police captain’s patrol car.

Billy Ray Easton, 28, was spotted in the lumber truck by Captain Billy Bob Davis, commander of the Harrison State Police headquarters. Davis said Easton was driving erratically and was under the influence of alcohol.

After stopping the truck and placing Easton in his patrol car, Captain Davis walked back to the truck to drive it off the highway. That’s when Easton took off in the officer’s car. Davis said in a telephone interview that Easton was captured about 30 minutes later when roadblocks were set up in the region.

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