Though demonstrations are almost entirely peaceful, tensions rise after independent local truckers join a nationwide strike against high fuel prices in 1974, and one out-of-state rig driver is arrested after firing a shot at a truck stop.
100 years ago
Feb. 2, 1924
• The Kiwanis Club of Poplar Bluff wants to book a Chautauqua camp this summer. This educational group toured rural America during the late 19th and early 20 centuries, featuring lectures, concerts and presentations by philosophers and preachers.
• A new city ordinance has failed to get rid of snake oil salesmen. Poplar Bluff started charging a $25 licensing fee for medicine shows, where hawkers use dramatics and free entertainment to sell patent medicines. The city regards these as a nuisance. The current show has planted itself on the corner of Broadway and Vine streets all week, but the salesman dodges fees by having customers follow him into a nearby drugstore afterward to make purchases.
75 years ago
Feb. 2, 1949
• A St. Louis man was shot and fined in Poplar Bluff yesterday, and he deserved both.
Leslie Elder, a 30-year-old former factory worker from St. Louis, periodically comes to Poplar Bluff to harass his estranged wife and her family, the Maxfields. Things came to a head yesterday (Feb. 1) when Elder stood outside the family’s home, indicated he had a gun and threatened to kill everyone inside. Patriarch Hugh Maxfield slipped into his neighbor’s house, borrowed a shotgun and shells, and fired a shot. Elder was wounded superficially in the hip and arm. City police arrived on the scene and took him to Kniebert Clinic.
Maxfield surrendered to officers and was released after questioning. Elder was arrested for peace disturbance and fined $25.50.
Maxfield told reporters his daughter is suing Elder for divorce. The two married six years ago and have a four-year-old child.
50 years ago
Feb. 2, 1974
• A Texan trucker is arrested for opening fire at a truck stop, just days after local truck drivers joined a nationwide strike.
At 6:30 a.m. Donald William LaPreze, 25, of Terrell, Texas, circled the YTG Restaurant in his rig, taking out telephone lines and firing a pistol from the cab. He sped from the scene but was arrested 15 minutes later in Dexter by Butler County deputies. A .22-caliber semi-automatic pistol with a live round in the chamber was found in LaPreze’s truck, and his blood alcohol content was 0.8. He is so far only charged with flourishing a deadly weapon since Missouri law requires a blood alcohol level 1.0 for charges of driving while intoxicated.
An 18-year-old driver’s helper was also in the truck. He was not held.
When the shooting occurred, YTG Restaurant was preparing to serve breakfast to drivers at its adjoining truck stop. Proprietors David Mast and his wife reported no damage to the building and no injuries.
LaPreze is a company driver. The shooting coincides with a largely peaceful protest by about 50 independent local truck drivers seeking to lower gas prices or secure better compensation. The strike began overnight on Jan. 31 and the group pledged to the Butler County Sheriff’s Department there would be no violence or intimidation.
Most drivers interviewed by highway patrolmen reported they were treated courteously by protesters. Overall, company drivers are sympathetic to the plight of independent drivers, who are pressed by high diesel prices, but cannot strike alongside them. Some have pulled over until the situation settles down.
A picket line stood on the shoulder of Highway 67 near a stop south of Poplar Bluff this morning with signs reading “Shut Down Or Shut Up.”
A few incidents have been reported — a handful of protesters were arrested after deflating truck tires or obstructing traffic. A rock was thrown through a company driver’s rig as it left a stop, but the driver was not injured and no arrests were made.
100, 75 and 50 years ago
On all three dates, papers reported Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and forecast six more weeks of winter.