Election news dominates headlines today. In 1924, the tallies were interspersed with other reports: Poplar Bluff’s ongoing water quality issues prompted a boil order from the city physician, and a local couple traded the summer heat for an icebound cruise to Nome, Alaska.
100 years ago
Aug. 7, 1924
• Butler County races are running close, and all precincts but one are counted. The treasurer, assessor, sheriff, constable and district commissioners seats were all contested this year. County assessor was the closest race, with a difference of only 12 votes across 26 precincts, and as of printing, the votes from Fagus were still in the air.
By an unofficial count, the elections for county judge, prosecuting attorney and sheriff were basically concluded.
• Poplar Bluff’s water problems continue. City physician Dr. I.N. Barnett warned citizens to boil their tap water whenever storms make the Black River high and muddy.
“It is not fit to drink when it is muddy. The entire filth of the valley is in it and chlorine treatment at the pumping plant cannot sterilize it,” he said.
There is an ongoing push to add settling tanks to the Poplar Bluff water plant to better filter sediment.
• A Poplar Bluff couple just returned from an 11,000-mile vacation to the far north.
Mr. and Mrs. W.N. Barron embarked on a six-week trip to Nome, Alaska by train and steam ship. The train took them to Seattle, Washington, where they boarded the ship for a four-week cruise. Passengers only disembarked at an isolated whaling station and spent the rest of the trip on the water. The Barrons found Nome’s August climate to be “as cold (as) in December here” and wore heavy winter clothes.
The Barrons’ round-trip mileage was partially calculated using the ship’s log: 5,800 miles from Seattle to Nome and back.
75 years ago
Aug. 7, 1949 — No issues available.
50 years ago
Aug. 7, 1974
• On a front page dominated by calls for President Richard Nixon to resign, a corner of local election coverage stated Butler County’s only two contested races were won by landslides. Incumbent democrat Lenard Hanley, judge for the eastern district of the Butler County Court, defeated republican Bob Montague 749-410. Robert Hunter, also a democrat, beat out Mac Carmichael 965-229 to become presiding judge of the county court.
• The Associated Press reported less than a third of Missouri’s registered voters showed up to the polls at the 1974 primary election.