90 Years Ago

Work on sand graveling No. 1 Highway between Stockton and Plainville commenced this week. The Hardman Construction Company of Alton is the contractor on this project which was let at Smith Center on August 25th. The specifications for this project calls for 14 miles of sand-gravel surfacing.

Although laboring under such obstacles as having some of the buildings destroyed by fire and nearly all crops ruined by drought, it can be said that the Rooks County Free Fair was a success.

This reporter was surprised when he walked through Floral Hall at the fairgrounds this morn and saw the number of fine exhibits on display. When one looks at the agricultural products, flowers, etc., it is hard for him to conceive that we have been sign through such a terrific drought period.

The directors and officers of the Rooks County Free Fair held their final meeting on Tuesday evening and are now ready for the opening of the next big attraction for Rooks County and the surrounding communities.

According to Miss Pearl Rorabaugh, commissioner, there will be but two more chances for young men to enroll in the CCC Camps. The dates are August 23rd and August 30th. Only one young man from this county entered a camp this week. He was John Conger.

Over 100 spectators attended the park on Friday evening to see the youngsters from the FERC playground classes exhibit their pets and dolls. The children were out in full force, too, despite a threatened thunder shower. One worker estimated there were seventy girls and fifty boys present.

Details of the new Works Progress Administration (WPA) were explained to representatives of several political subdivisions in Rooks County here on Thursday morning by Paul Jackson, the engineer of the new setup.

Rooks County taxpayers will have to dig up about the same amount of money for the county’s operating expenses next year as they did in 1935, under tentative levies set by the county commissioners after preparing the 1936 budget, which is published in this issue of the Rooks County Record.

Fire from an unknown cause raged at the Rooks County Fairgrounds on Thursday night, destroying the Stockton Sales Pavilion, a stock barn, and the racehorse barn.

The harvesting of Rooks County’s wheat crop is now underway, but so small are the yields that farmers are evidently not bothering to take the grain to the elevators. Reports from Stockton show that only two or three loads have been marketed.