- Fall River, Kansas 1918 - (Part 2 of 4) -
“This article appeared in The Eureka Herald and later in the Fall River Star in January of 1918. Two Eureka business houses, the Ladd & Bailey grocery and Millers Booterie, were entered Sunday night by burglars who ran sacked the stores, carrying away goods to the value of several hundred dollars. Entrance was gained to the Ladd & Bailey grocery by talking out a pane of glass in the back door, after which the burglars had no difficulty in unfastening the door from the inside. About $22.00 in money was taken from the cash registers. The safe, which was unlocked, was searched and papers strewn over the floor, but there was no money. The thieves helped themselves to a fine large ham and there is no way to tell how much other goods they carried off. At Miller’s Booterie they entered the building by breaking the glass in the rear window and unfastening the window catch. At this place they confined their depredations to stealing the highest class of men’s and women’s shoes. They came to the front of the store, took the shoes from the boxes on the shelves and placed the boxes back as they found them. At least $200 worth of shoes are missing. The thieves made good their escape. And yet again a few days later the burglars entered the M.A. Miller dry goods and clothing store and stole goods valued at $1,500. They took overcoats, suits, furs, ladies ready to wear goods and other highclass merchandise. This they packed in a trunk and several suit cases which were taken from the stock. They entered the store by picking the lock on the front door.
A small tornado hit Fall River in March of 1918 about 9 o’clock in the evening and destroyed considerable property. Some hail fell during the storm and a heavy rain also fell. The most damage done was in the southwest and southeast part of town and as far north as the bank. Nearly every old barn, chicken house, smoke house, etc., were blown down. The tin roof at the rear of the bank building was torn loose, a window light in the front of the City café was blown in, part of the depot roof was blown off and the building moved back from the south foundation. J.E. Robinson’s barn was blown away , the barn on the A. Sweet property in the south part of town was moved about ten feet off the foundation and badly damaged, the Lumber Yard received some damage, West’s garage also. This is only a few of those who received damage by the wind, as trees, outbuildings and small barns, as said before, were blown down all over town. Telephone lines were put out of service, and there is no gas as the regulator house was blown away.
An audience of 300 people or more sat in the new high school auditorium Wednesday night to listen to the dedication program, which would have been a grand success, but for the storm which was going on outside, the climax finally reached when word was announced that a storm had torn up part of the town and another was coming, and the audience then rushes for their conveyances (cars) and home.
An article in the March Fall River Star mentioned that Mrs. Emma Mayers of Eureka had died on February 21 at the home of her sister Miss Edith Random, while alone in the house. Mrs. Mayes had been failing in health for the past three years owing to heart trouble and complications, but had been able to attend to light household duties, and seemed to be in better health of late. Miss Random teaches in the Walnut Street school (located behind Memorial Hall and now a vacant lot) and part of the time does not go home at noon. Mrs. Mayes seemed to be in her usual health when Miss Random left in the morning. When she returned at five o’clock in the afternoon, she found her sitting in her rocking chair, dead. The fires had gone out and appearances indicated that she must have died early in the day. (Random School which was located at Seventh and Pine, now a vacant lot, was named after Miss Edith Random) Article out of the Abilene Reflector in March of 1918 that was reprinted in the Fall River Star. Kansas will buy 200,000 automobile tags for the next year at 11 cents each, delivered at Topeka, a total of $22,000. Then it will spend 8 cents each sending the tags and receipts to car owners, $16,000. Thirty or forty clerks will be employed at Topeka at a cost of probably $5,000, a total of $53,000, (math was not very good, should have been $43,000), most of which is clear waste.
No need whatever exists for new tags. The government is begging for metal yet Kansas throws away nearly 200,000 metal tags. California, to save money and metal, is using last years tag but giving each car owner when he pays his tax a small celluloid card which attaches to the front of his car, costing perhaps a cent each. It serves every purpose, helps win the war and save money.
The method of sending out tags from Topeka by mail is probably the most stupid action of the state government. They could be sent to each county by freight and the car owner could get his tag when he paid the county treasurer the tax, saving the state some $18,000 a year.
If Kansas would take the $1,000,000 paid for auto licenses and now largely frittered away by distributing it-after $50,000 is wasted in expensesamong townships to work dirt roads and use a lot of prison labor that is available it could in ten years build brick roads across the state east and west and north and south that would make Kansas a marvel in good roads construction.
An article in the June Fall River Star notified the public that Fred L. (Blackie) Grubb, who was sentenced to the state penitentiary from this county January, 25, 1918, having pled guilty to burglarizing the Miller, Brooks and Ladd & Bailey Stores, escaped from the prison farm at Lansing May 25 and is still at large. (The article on the stores being burglarize was in an earlier section of this feature) Sheriff Woods has been notified by the prison warden of Grubb’s escape.”
