125 Years Ago: 1901
A mass meeting was ordered by J. O. Donnell, the Mayor of Maryville. The meeting was for all citizens of Maryville and was to be held on Friday evening, March of 22, at 7:30. The reason for the meeting is, “Business of urgent importance to the community will be considered.”
W.A. Vandaveer purchased the A.B. Hutchison implement store on West 3rd street and assumed possession of it. The previous owner of the store sold it in hopes of purchasing another implement store in the Kansas City area.
Dr. F. M. Blake of Maryville sold his dentist office and business to Dr. Jesse Miller of Greenview, Illinois, who will take possession of the building and business on June 1st. Dr. Blake had offered good services to the town, but was considering a move to Arizona. Dr. Miller, the new owner, was a Nodaway County native.
A substitute mail carrier in Hopkins was sentenced to one year in a reform school for stealing money from the post office. It is thought that he received a light sentence because he was just 18 years old and because several influential Maryville people spoke at his sentencing to the young man’s good character.
A Maryville man who had been missing from his home since March 3rd was found working at a hotel in Brookfield, Missouri. He and his wife had been visiting Hopkins; she returned to Maryville without him, but he was supposed to get home the following morning. He never arrived, and she had not heard from him since. It seems he instead travelled to St. Joseph and then to Brookfield.
75 Years Ago: 1951
Two St. Joesph men A.J. “Al” Kross and C.E. “Buck” Kelly opened a Hawkinson patented retread service in Maryville, to be called Buck and Al’s Tire Shop. This new business would be housed in the John Schneider building on South Main Street. The two men were both veterans of World War 1, and they planned to move to Maryville as soon as they could find houses for their families. Both of the men were former workers at the Michel Tire Company of St. Joesph. The equipment they had was franchised by the originator of the method of applying new treads to truck and passenger tires using a steam mold for application. The service shop men said that they had molds and equipment that could handle all sizes of truck and passenger tires for new treads. Tractor tires would be repaired by using the vulcanizing method.
An open house and free chick day at the Farmers Produce and Feed Store on 4th Street in Maryville brought in a crowd of 4,900 people. The store gave away 4,600 baby chicks during the first two and a half hours of the sale. After the supply ran out, they gave out coupons for the free chicks, which could be picked up later in the week.
More than 150 children up to ten years in age gathered at Franklin Park in Maryville to hunt for Easter eggs. The Lions Club sponsored the event and had hidden around sixty pounds of candied ages around the park.
A fire destroyed the Miles Ward farm home, located six and a half miles northwest of Burlington Junction. Only a few pieces of furniture and some clothing were saved. It was thought that the fire had been caused by a defective flue.
50 Years Ago: 1976
There was a meeting held at the Little Red Schoolhouse in Clearmont to gauge the local interest in building a tennis and basketball court in the community park.
Sgt. Karl Reichman from the State Highway Patrol spoke to the members of the Young at Heart Club in Guilford. Sgt. Reichman told 12 club members about safety on the highway and also showed the group a film about road safety.
According to Don Null, area agronomy specialist, a winter killing complex had caused a lot of wheat death in the past few months. The cause was a mixture of factors, including the freezing and desiccation of plant tissue during low temperature and low humidity periods in the absence of snow cover. Early as well as late-planted wheat had been affected. Null reported that it was possible to salvage partially killed wheat fields by drilling oats into the existing stand. The resulting crop would have to be used for feed rather than a cash crop, but if nitrogen and clover had already been applied to the field, this could be the only decent alternative available. It was reported that residents of the Northeast Nodaway R-V School District could rest at ease. The district had been considering bids to complete the improvements at the high school in Ravenwood, and they reported that they accepted the low bid because it included almost all the original specifications.