There are strange things happening in Missouri — and Hawaii. Twin 12-year-olds from Hayti embark on careers as miracle-working Pentecostal preachers. Decades later in Honolulu, a former Missourian minister claims he’s determined the date and time of Jesus’ birth and completed his horoscope. The Messiah was apparently a Pisces.
100 years ago
Jan. 3, 1924
• The funeral of Samuel Dorman was held in St. Louis on Wednesday, Jan. 2. Dorman was superintendent of the Dalton Adding Machine Company headquartered in Poplar Bluff. He died on New Year’s Eve.
• The Alexander Dry Good Company of Poplar Bluff is holding a clearing house on Jan. 5. Men’s dress shirts are marked down from $3.75 to $2.89, 50-cent handkerchiefs are three for a dollar, and leather ladies’ driving gloves valued at $2 are available at $1.69. The first 25 people to spend more than a dollar will receive a decorative bowl.
75 years ago
Jan. 3, 1949
• Two Neelyville stores were robbed of clothing and other goods early Jan. 2. The thieves broke a glass door at the Ward Store and stole three pairs of overalls, but took much more at the J.G. Spencer store where more overalls, flashlights, pocket knives and 12-gauge shotgun shells were found missing. The total loss at Spencer was around $150.
• Pre-teen evangelists Billy and Bobby McCool are gaining fame as miracle workers. The 12-year-old twins from Hayti just finished a 10-day Pentecostal revival in St. Louis. Their father, Davis McCool, claimed to have seen several miracles at their services, including a deaf teen suddenly gaining her hearing.
50 years ago
Jan. 3, 1974
• The law has caught up to five Neelyville juveniles charged with a string of break-ins. Sheriff’s deputies recovered about $600 worth of stolen tools, radios, batteries and auto parts. Thousands of dollars of items are still unaccounted for were stolen form Penrod Store, Magruder Store and Parish Laundry.
• The Poplar Bluff R-I School Board votes 5-1 to fire science teacher Charles DePriest following allegations in a “morals case” involving a 17-year-old student. DePriest taught in the district for 10 years.
• Travel warnings are issued due to frigid temperatures, ice and snow. The winter weather has continued across Southeast Missouri for several days. Local students enjoyed a snow day, including Danny Jackson, whose sled carried him down Kinzer and Seventh streets and onto the front page of the Daily American Republic, where his photo ran.
• A Poplar Bluff native believes he has completed the “Horoscope of Christ.”
Former resident Don Jacobs has claimed the star the magi followed was actually a planetary conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn, putting Jesus Christ’s birth at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 1, 7 BCE, and making him a Pisces. He plans to expand his theory into a book.
Jacobs was a Methodist minister for nine years in Missouri before moving to Hawaii, where he goes by “Moby Dick the astrologer” and regularly appears on television.