Greenwood County History-
1930s
(Part 8 of 10)
The following history of 1930 is the continuation of the column created by Mike Pitko in a chronological order.
Effective Sunday, April 17, 1938 the Santa Fe motor passenger train north to Emporia and south to Moline will be discontinued. Services to Emporia and Moline will be continued by a combination train carrying passengers, mail, baggage, express and freight. This train will leave Eureka going south at 8:15 a.m. and leave Eureka going north at 2:55 p.m.
Phil Rogers, who lives south of Quincy, just off Highway 54, reports that he has killed about 80 per cent of the grasshoppers on his farm through a poisoning campaign. Mr. Rogers has made three application of poison bait on about 20 acres of alfalfa on his farm, and believes that the time and money he has spent on this poisoning campaign has been well worthwhile.
Rogers has used poison bait secured from the poison bait mixing station at Eureka without adding any flavoring material. He says that he has secured equal results with mash which he has stored for awhile and had to remoisten before using. He has followed the instructions closely in spreading the bait and says he got the best results by spreading on mornings when there was very little dew.
In order to speed up the work of spreading the bait he has rigged a platform on the back of his car on which he stands to broadcast the bait while someone else drives the car.
In July of 1938 Kansas Highway No. 11 was officially abolished and will be known here after as Highway K99. It will connect with Nebraska Highway 99 and Oklahoma 99 to give the same markers across three states.
Mr. and Mrs. D.C. Montford, who moved from the farm to Eureka last week, are of the opinion that life in town has its disadvantages, one of which is the presence of light-fingered gentry, who have no regards for the rights of others. When the Montford’s came to town they brought along 63 full blooded Plymouth Rock pullets which were placed in the henhouse at the residence, corner of Second and Pine streets. That was last Saturday. Tuesday morning when Mrs. Montford went out to feed the chickens 44 of the pullets were missing and they have not been located. The door to the henhouse was closed and there seems no question but that the chickens were stolen.
Citizens of Greenwood County are well behaved, according to County Attorney J.F. Darby, who informs The Herald that since last Saturday, July 25, 1938 , there have been no prisoners, city or county, in the Greenwood County jail. While Mr. Darby does not go as far as to say there are no person in the community who should be locked up, he is of the opinion this is a good record and speaks well for a county of 17,000 population. ( yes, you just read Greenwood County at one time had 17,000 people) The Eureka City Commission has received numerous complaints from sportsmen to the effect that certain individuals have been fishing in Lake Eureka. This is a violation of Ordinance No. 1448, which provides for a penalty of not to exceed $100- and 30-days imprisonment for the violation thereof.
The City was fortunate in obtaining approximately 100,000 fish in April 1937. These fish were received only after the City Commissioners had assured the State Fish and Game that no fishing would be allowed until spring 1940. The public is asking cooperation for the public. The lake is being policed and any anyone caught violating this ordinance will be arrested and fined. The State Fish and Game refuses to send any more fish to Lake Eureka unless the no fishing rule is strictly enforced.
On September 25, 1938 a crowd estimated at between 8,000 and 10,000 swarmed the shore line of Lake Eureka to see the boat races. Amateur and professional boatmen competed in the events. In addition to the boat races there was ski jumping and surf board exhibition. The races were sponsored by the Eureka Boat Club. The club issued invitation to boatmen in surrounding communities, but no one envisioned such a turnout of participants and spectators.
A meeting was held Saturday, October 2, 1938 of coaches, principals and superintendents of the eight high schools in the Neosho Valley and Tri Valley Leagues to form a new league to be called “The Tri Valley League.” A constitution was adopted which provides for a double round robin basketball schedule and a leagues tournament to be played at Neodesha or Fredonia; music festival at Burlington; track meet at Fredonia; dramatics at Yates Center; and speech at Neodesha. The golf and tennis tournament will be arranged at a later date. It is planned to have a full schedule of football games for the season of 1940. Teams included in the league are Humboldt, Burlington, Eureka, Fredonia, Cherryvale, Garnett, Neodesha and Yates Center.
In October 1938, the board of education for Eureka schools voted to build a six-foot wide sidewalk on the north side of Highway 54 (now just Seventh Street) starting at the southwest corner of Mc-Ginnis athletic field and running two blocks west on Seventh Street. The base of this walk will be crushed rock covered with rock dust. This dust is watered and then rolled. S.J. Polhamus consented to have the fence along his lot moved back twelve feet from where it stood.
The older N.Y.A. boys under the supervision of the N.Y.A. supervisor of Greenwood County, are doing the work. “ The board believes this will make it much safter for people walking to and from the athletic field.”
