THIS APRIL 6TH, 1910 YESTERYEAR PICTURE is of Stockton’s Main Street during the Modern Woodman Convention. Notice the businesses on the north side, which included H. C. Sweet’s Office, Butler-Vallette Clothing Company and The Big Store.

* And So They Say: Jack Berkley: “John doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to cut his wages for calling that strike on me.” Dean King: “I’ve managed to air condition everything except my favorite fishing holes.” Freddie Baughman: “Well, we went to the lake Sunday and barbecued ourselves.” Leighton Marshall: “There is some advantage to being old. You remember the Drought of 1934 and don’t get as excited about this hot weather as the younger people.”

The search for Zelma Osborn, a Codell girl, continues a mystery with the parents. S. A. Turner, a Kansas City electrician, is charged with inducing the girl to go with him under the pretense of going to Middleton, Ohio to visit the girl’s sister. Mr. Osborn says Turner came to Codell to visit in May. He is the brother of Osborn’s second wife—the girl’s stepmother. Hearing Zelma Osborn declare she wished to visit her sister in Ohio and being dissatisfied at home, Turner proposed to take her to Kansas City in his car, promising to pay her railroad fair on to Ohio. The father remonstrated and advised the girl to remain at home to continue her music studies with her stepmother. On May 15th, Zelma left for Ohio with Turner and has not been heard from since. The father became anxious because he had not heard from the daughter, but supposed she had arrived safely in Ohio. Last week the sister from Ohio came to Codell and it was then Osborn first learned that Zelma had never reached Middleton. He immediately began a search and notified authorities. Turner is 43 years old, weighs 185 pounds, is married and has three children. He is tall, has red hair and false teeth. The girl is dark, weighs 130 pounds and her hair was not bobbed when she left home. The car was an Overland touring model number 85. Osborn has been informed that parties answering to the description stopped in Salina the day of Miss Osborn’s disappearance and ate in a restaurant. The girl was said to have expressed a wish to return home. Turner’s family in Kansas City cannot be located. The girl’s mother died of the influenza during the war. One hundred dollars in reward is offered by the father for the return of the girl or Turner.

FRANK WALKER stands near the remains of an oven that was hand-shaped from wet clay. The oven provided warmth to horse thieves who made frequent stops at Robber’s Roost Cave located just south of Stockton. Walker had said that the cave was named so because horse thieves used it. The only visible remains of the hideout in 1994 were the piece of the clay oven. The large cave had been demolished years before because it was feared someone would be trapped inside the hole.

* And So They Say: Kenneth Buss: “You won’t believe it, but my wife has a tomato plant with 75 tomatoes on it, and another with 60.” Kenneth Currie: “Duane says it’s hotter than a dollar pistol—but I say it’s hotter than a two-dollar pistol.” Lester Maddy: “I always tell my company they can’t stay if they don’t work.” Mrs. Ruth Marshall (looking at the thermometer registering 100 degrees): “There goes our grass.” Frank Mitchell: “Anything I earn after six o’clock, I get to keep for myself.”

The Stockton Area Arts Council held a pizza party at Stockton City Hall on June 26 for everyone who volunteered their time and artistic abilities to the newest and most colorful addition to the town of Stockton. The Children’s Mural is truly a work of art and something in which everyone can take pride, as it did take a village to make this dream a reality.

The time for the annual Fair of Rooks County is close at hand. The officers are working hard to make this year’s Fair eclipse any former meeting of the Fair. The free acts have been contracted besides a number of other entertaining features. There will be no airplane flying and stunt work, also there will be no auto races. These features are not becoming of interest to fair patrons as in past years and the officers decided it best to bring other entertainment in place of these. Other changes of note will be found in the departments of poultry, grain and floral. The Rooks County Fair is the oldest in this part of the state, and its directors say that they hope to make the 1924 event the best ever held.

IN A STOCKTON SENTINEL INFORMATIONAL SERIES about the Rooks County Offices, the clerk’s office was highlighted during the summer of 1994. Pictured were the staff of the office (from left): deputy clerk Doris Schamel, Ruthie Muir, Noelle Vohs and clerk Clara Strutt.

* And So They Say: Don Grieve: “Don’t blame the new cars or their manufacturers for accidents as 90 percent of all accidents are caused by the ‘nut’ behind the wheel.” Blackie Randall: “I’d like to trade some fishing tackle for an old yeller dog. The dog would do me just about as much good as the fishing tackle.” Ray Bigge: “I don’t think it was a friend that Les Eckart loaned his battery charger to.” Elvin Keiswetter: “By the looks of Roy Slansky, he either spent the weekend in the harvest field or sunning himself in the backyard.”

Oil valuations for 2008 were up nearly $17.9 million from the year before, a 46% increase. The 2008 wheat harvest was running behind due to the devastating storms of a couple weeks earlier.