Excerpted stories in Crawford County newspaper archives
100 years ago
May 15, 1926
Girard, May 15. - A matter of five days as measured by jury service paved the way for a new trial for Fred Black, convicted of soliciting and accepting a bribe, according to a ruling handed down by Judge D. H. Woolley in division No. 1. of the Crawford County district court at 2:30 o'clock this afternoon. Jesse L. Cook, one of the Black jurors, had served as a member of the jury that heard the case of the state against Peto Rulutnik on April 25, 1925. The Black trial was called on April 19, 1926.
Special addresses and historical sketches will be given by ministers and laymen from the pulpits of the larger churches of Pittsburg tomorrow in emphasizing the growth of spiritual institutions of the city during the past 50 years. The observance was recently approved by the Ministerial Union as part of the golden jubilee celebration. Services have been arranged for either morning or night in all the larger churches and in many of the smaller ones. In several of the churches, appropriate song services will be held, with the tunes оf 50 years ago being sung by the congregation.
Two of the four men who were killed in the gas explosion at the Cigaret mine half a mile south of Cherokee yesterday afternoon plunged more than 100 feet down the shaft following the blast and were either dashed to death against the sides and wreckage in the shaft or drowned in water at the bottom of the mine investigation by state mine inspectors revealed today. Cries for help from one of the Jameson brothers, who were in the mine were heard by George Hollis, who lay fatally injured at the top, but James Jameson, father of the two boys in the mine, lay dead at the surface with a broken neck, having been, crushed to death by the falling tipple, and Hollis lay mortally injured, also crushed under the tipple crash.
50 years ago
May 15, 1976
Every class at Lakeside Elementary school pitched in Friday to send the school back 200 years. Pioneer Day was held Friday, with enough displays, exhibits and events taking place to keep any Daniel Boone busy. Events began promptly at 9:30 a.m. with the fifth grade program, followed at 10 a.m. with the fourth grade program. The seventh grade program for grades four through six was at 11:30. Lunches in Lakeside Park for grades one through three and four through six were held. Beginning at 11 a.m. and running until 2 p.m., classes were turned loose on the playground-turned-wilderness.
GIRARD - A funding request submitted to the Crawford County Commission by the Southeast Kansas Community Action Program (SEK-CAP) was denied at Friday's county commission meeting. A letter sent to the commissioners from SEK-CAP stated that due to a scheduled increase in matching fund requirements in 1977, the seven counties in the SEK-CAP region are being asked to help financially. Jim Garrison, executive director of SEK-CAP, said that SEK-CAP is currently funded 70 per cent by federal funds and 30 per cent by local funds.
The Arcadia-Mulberry Citizens' Association will continue busing over 100 Northeast Unified School District 246 children to school in Girard despite an attorney general's opinion that safety features on the buses are improper, Irvin Tingley, committee spokesman, said Thursday. The association intends to keep operating its two buses for the last two weeks of the school year unless stopped by the Kansas Highway Patrol, Tingley said. Also, the Arcadia-Mulberry group intends to buy another bus in the near future to fulfill the growing demand of students who prefer attending Girard schools, he added.
25 years ago
May 15, 2001
USD 250 Board of Education members passed out the honors Monday night at their regular meeting, the final one of the school year. The next meeting has been rescheduled from May 29 to June 4, to accommodate bids for construction at the new elementary school. Honors were given to the nominees of the second semester Globe Awards, given to an outstanding staff member of the district, and to the Friends of Pittsburg Community Schools winners.
Debra Davidson, director of Mt. Carmel Regional Cancer Center, has a cool new look for summer. But the brunette hair she had shorn wasn't simply swept off the hairstylist's floor and thrown away. Instead, Davidson has chosen to donate her hair to Locks of Love, a Florida-based charity that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children with medical hair loss. Janet Mayhew of the Mane Event, who coordinates the local hair collection program, is also a recent donor.
Pittsburg businessman Gene Bicknell is one step closer to consolidating his ownership of NPC International Inc. and appears to have pacified NPC share-holders who sued to block the move. NPC's board of directors approved an agreement last week in which a company controlled by Bicknell will purchase the 35 percent of NPC's outstanding stock that Bicknell does not own for about $90 million. Under the agreement, newly formed Mergeco Inc. will pay minority shareholders $11.55 per share, 15 cents higher than Bicknell originally offered in December.
