125 Years Ago: 1901
John Price, who was with the grocery store Herron & Braniger, invented a churn dasher last September. The device worked by a rotary dasher that drew air into the milk and drew cream into the center of the dasher to compress and agitate the cream. He received his patent papers this week.
The “stag dance” given by the young men of Calumet Club at their hall in Maryville was quite successful. The attendance was good, and the receipts will help the club recover from its current financial difficulties.
Six Maryville young men enjoyed a hunt on Saturday. The group broke all past records by bringing in 197 rabbits. After having killed 65 rabbits, they came to Maryville and had a rabbit feast at Mike Lahr's lunch room. Once they were fed, the group set out again for another hunt. The group consisted of George Colgrove, Hina Schmidt, Robert Kane, James Peter, and John R. Gallagher.
A young Maryville resident died this week of pneumonia. The man was a senior in high school and had been sick for 15 days.
The O’Reilly Hotel on East Third Street in Maryville, which had been vacant for some time, was rented. A man from Des Moines would move into the lower story of the building and would use the former hotel office as a storeroom.
G.W. Fink and his sister, Nettie Fink, were enjoying a sleigh ride on Prather Avenue when their horse became frightened and got away from its driver. Fearful of the danger, G.W. told his sister to jump out. The horse was eventually found further west. Luckily, no one was hurt, and the sleigh and harness were only slightly damaged.
Local resident Lafayette Van Briggle recently received a memento of the Civil War. It was a letter he wrote while at the siege of Corinth. He had sent the letter to his brother, who recently sent it back to Lafayette as a memory of the war.
75 Years Ago: 1951
Staff Sargeant Robert L. West, the army and air force recruiter for this area, received word from Kansas City that 12 men from Nodaway County had been accepted for 4-year enlistments in the US Air Force. This included 5 men from Maryville, one from Conception Junction, one from Ravenwood, one from Clyde, and two students at the college. They ranged in age from 19 to 21 years old, and they would report to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for basic training.
It was a dangerous time on the road this week. One man was killed and six people were injured in traffic accidents reported in Nodaway County over the weekend.
A woman on Rural Route 4 outside of Maryville filed a $900 damage suit in circuit court against someone from Conception Junction. She alleged that the person entered her property without permission and cut and carried away 12 walnut trees valued at $300. She claimed that under Missouri law she is entitled to triple that amount in damages.
With the school year only half over, three 7th and two 8th grade students in Maryville already had completed their reading circle requirements by finishing over 24 books each.
The manager of Wilver Dell Farms in DeKalb, Missouri gave a talk at the annual Nodaway County Farm Bureau. He was one of several farmers to make an agricultural tour of Europe the past summer under the sponsorship of a Kansas City radio station. His talk here in Nodaway County was about what he learned on that tour.
Four local physicians, a local dentist, and a veterinarian registered with the local draft board. They were part of an estimated 4,500 Missouri doctors under 50 years of age who were not members of the armed forces or military reserve units who were required to sign up in a state-wide registration.
50 Years Ago: 1976
Between 150 and 200 people listened to Dr. Arthur Mallory, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, deliver a dedication address for the West Nodaway R-I school district’s new industrial arts facility.
A proposal calling for an initial water and sewer rate hike of 40 percent was presented to the Maryville City Council by the city manager. The proposal came after a study by Larkin & Associates that recommended an immediate 86% increase in the rates.
The schools in Nodaway County jointly announced revisions to the policy for free meals and free extra milks in the hot lunch program. This came after a new regulation that required schools to extend free and reduced-price meals to needy children and to adopt a criteria based on family size and income to determine eligibility.
Cancer death rates were up in the five-county area of Atchison, Gentry, Holt, Worth, and Nodaway. Over the last three annual reports, the number of cancer deaths in Nodaway had averaged 43 per year, with 11 of them from lung cancer. This compared to Atchison with 22, Gentry with 21, Holt with 20, and Worth with 8.
Three citizen band (or CB) radios were reported stolen from cars within two days this week. The radios were valued at $100, $125, and $159, respectively.
The West Nodaway R-I board meeting focused its discussion this week on a recent break-in at the Quitman Elementary School. Food totaling $100 to $150 was taken from the school kitchen.
The county sheriff’s office, state highway patrol, and a large number of volunteers conducted a massive search Wednesday night for a light plane reported to have crashed in the south part of Nodaway County. Despite more than five calls reporting the crash, no evidence of the plane was found. The sheriff department said the plane may just have been flying very low.