Dec. 13, 1972

Portions of Barry County were crippled by a sleet, freezing rain and ice storm that pelted the area, forming a solid sheet of ice from 1.5-3 inches thick. Virtually every form of activity was cancelled due to the storm. Hardest hit of the areas appeared to be north Barry County, where power outages in the Butterfield and Purdy areas stopped all forms of communication. Dairy farmers in that area had not milked cows either Monday night or Tuesday morning, due to outages on lines of Ozark Electric Cooperative out of Mount Vernon and Empire of Joplin. Joe Preddy, manager of the Barry County Electric Cooperative of Cassville, said trouble along their 724 miles of distribution lines was concentrated in the Wheaton area.

40 years ago

Dec. 8, 1982

A visit to Cassville by John Justin, president of Justin Industries, brought good news for the Cassville boot manufacturing plant. Justin told the company’s local facility there would be an increase in employment and production. The reason for the increase in Cassville was placed at company plans to furlough the El Paso, Texas, facility for an indefinite period of time. Justin’s announcement that year marked the second production increase for the Cassville plant since fall of 1982. The October to December schedule called for increases from 800-1,000 pair of boots per day.

30 years ago

Dec. 2, 1992

Robert Benton, president of the Community Bank of Shell Knob, was named head of the Missouri Independent Bankers Association. He was installed president of the 230-member organization at the recently completed convention. He had previously served the state-wide group in a number of official positions.

November rainfall for the area in 1992 was the second wettest for the period since records began at the U.S. Forest Service Cassville ranger district of Mark Twain National Forest. Darlene Murphy, recorder, said 8.51 inches fell at the station. The highest in 41 years was 10.73 inches in 1968.