The news is good, bad and ugly this weekend in history. Butler County’s nascent health department plans to open Feb. 1, a new prosecuting attorney is appointed and more singles are financially independent. However, there is also a violent robbery, a poisoning from careless exterminators and a trashy situation at the city landfill.
Jan. 13, 1924 and Jan. 13, 1974 — No issues available.
__Jan. 13, 1949__
• Four lawsuits by “informers” are being filed against four theaters in Cape Girardeau, Charleston and Sikeston, alleging they violate the aisle width specified by law. A state statute requires middle aisles to measure at least four feet wide and side aisles at least three feet wide for fire safety.
The theater owners said the law “has not been observed generally,” and one added, “If this case is lost, we are out of business.”
The penalties of the law are fines of between $20-5,000 per act of noncompliance. Half of the payment goes to the person making the complaint, and the other half to the city treasury.
• Three people were sickened by termite fumigation, and two families nearby vacated their houses because of the fumes.
Exterminators fumigated the Bilbrey residence in Poplar Bluff on Jan. 11. The next night the family evacuated because Mrs. Bilbrey was violently ill, while her husband and son got severe headaches and nausea. A doctor told the family it was a miracle they weren’t killed.
The Bilbreys said they weren’t notified their rental property was to be fumigated on Jan. 11, and no one warned them about the fumes. Two workmen from Bruce Terminix in Memphis, Tennessee who carried out the extermination reportedly made no effort to protect the home’s occupants from the chemicals.
Two families in adjoining houses also left because of the fumes.
Owners Mr. and Mrs. James Fudge said there was a contract with Bruce Terminix to treat all four of their houses in the neighborhood, and they had heard no other complaints from occupants.
__Jan. 14, 1924__
• Several teams of horses lose their footing on Vine Street this morning due to icy conditions. No one is seriously hurt.
• Two travelers from St. Louis asked to spend the night in the Poplar Bluff jail and were booked for a longer stay. Clarence Vicks and Frank Fisher approached police on Jan. 12 and asked to overnight in the jailhouse. The officers agreed and then filed vagrancy charges against them, extending their stay through Sunday. Judge H.E. Johnson dismissed the charges this morning.
__Jan. 14, 1949__
• An earthquake centered in the New Madrid region was felt for 100 miles. Southeast Missourians reported last night that tremors rocked beds, moved picture frames and opened doors. Poplar Bluff policeman Red Brothers said he received calls from people who thought their basements had been broken into.
A seismograph station at St. Louis University rated the quake between 3 and 4 on the Richter scale.
• The Daily American Republic reports Troop E handled 54,513 cases in 1948, making 1,900 arrests (including 400 on drunk driving charges), issuing 717,241 written warnings, correcting 521 head and tail lights, investigating 1,019 accidents and rendering first aid to 21 people at the scenes, and recovering 102 stolen vehicles. The stolen property recovered by Troop E has a total value around $132,000. Troopers also rendered “some type of service or another” to an additional 32,786 motorists,
__Jan. 14, 1975__
• A septuagenarian was violently robbed in her home last night.
Levora Hicks told police a pair of men forced their way into her house on Kentucky Avenue around 8 p.m. Jan. 13, then beat her over the head, tied, blindfolded and gagged her, and stole over $700 from her home. The pair left after threatening to kill Hicks if she called the police.
Hicks eventually freed herself and locked the door in case the men were still outside. Since they had also ripped her phone from the wall, Hicks eventually went to the home of a friend on West Henry Street, who called police.
Hicks was taken to Lucy Lee hospital for treatment of bruises on her head and face. Police are searching for the suspects.
Another resident, Hattie Leach, suffered a heart attack after learning of the robbery and was also taken to Lucy Lee.
• A national rise in single people owning homes is evident in Butler County.
According to the Census Bureau, 13.5 million men and women lived alone in 1973, compared to 7.9 million in 1960. In Butler County, the rate of dwellings occupied by singles rose almost 4% in that time frame.
Economics is believed to be a major factor. “Many unattached men and women” who lived with local friends and family “now found it possible to support themselves and maintain their own living quarters,” the article stated. Plus, more jobs are available to unmarried women.
The “unattached” group encompasses unmarried people as well as divorced and widowed persons who remain single.
__Jan. 15, 1924__
• A Campbell postmaster convicted of fraud is struggling to get into jail.
James Pollack was found guilty last year of forging a soldier’s name on a check and was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison. He appealed the sentence, but no action was taken. This meant when he went to Leavenworth to serve his sentence last week, he lacked commitment papers and the penitentiary refused to admit him. The papers will not be granted until action is taken on his appeal, but at publishing time Pollack was still trying to enter custody.
__Jan. 15, 1949__
• Plans were completed last night (Jan. 14) for the opening of the Butler County Health Center on Feb. 1. The Health Center Committee and Butler County officials will open a temporary unit in the courthouse while a building is planned. The Health Center was formed after a vote by Butler County county citizens last year.
“The initial program of the Health Center will be venerial [sic] disease control, tuberculosis control, inspection of schools and school children, collection of statistics and special clinics,” the article stated.
• The local Porter-DeWitt Construction Company was awarded a contract to alter railroad grades and realign tracks on the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The $957,000 job stretches from Gads Hill to Vulcan. The rail line says the reducing the grade and straightening tracks will make faster train travel possible between Poplar Bluff and St. Louis.
__Jan. 15, 1974__
• Poplar Bluff’s landfill has drawn negative attention from city officials for “apparent deficient operation.”
The landfill is south of Butler Street on Highway 67 south. Several weeks of daily observation by a DAR reporter revealed trash was dumped, but never covered with dirt as the law requires. A landfill employee also came forward, saying a machine broke down a week ago and had yet to be replaced.
The owner, Bradley Jolly of Fisk, was in hot water with the Missouri Health Division last year after inspectors found seven “unsatisfactory features” at the site and labeled it “nothing more than an open dump.” These problems were apparently rectified before a follow-up visits in July and September of that year.
City Manager David Pence plans to inspect the landfill as soon as weather allows.
• Ernie J. Richardson, a 29-year-old Poplar Bluff attorney, is the new prosecuting attorney. He fills the unexpired term of former prosecutor Clinton Summers, who resigned effective Jan. 1 but was reappointed as acting official after no replacement was nominated by the governor’s office.