50 years ago

Sept. 8, 1976

— Looking Forward To 100…

Today is the birthday of one of Barry County’s most senior of citizens. In fact, it’s his 97th birthday. Observing the special event is John James Laney of Exeter. And frankly, we believe him when he said right now he’s looking forward to reaching the century mark. Born in the year of 1879 in Greene County, west of Springfield in an area that now includes Wilson Creek National Park, Laney came to Barry County when he was 18 years old in 1897. That was 79 years and a lot of changes ago in case you had started to figure. With a twinkle in his eyes you might think was reserved for a much younger individual, the near-centurian was one of 10 children in his family. Eight of them made the initial trip to Barry County in two days by wagon. The Laney family settled near Wayne. His father was a farmer and Baptist preacher. During his developing years, Laney was a section hand on the North Arkansas railroad, starting this job in 1909 and working on the 32 miles of track from Wayne to Neosho. ‘Really got big wages too,” he remembers, *twelve and one-half cents an hour for a 10-hour day.” But, “we rented a house for three dollars a month in those days,” he also recalled. Also, “we could buy a load of wood to keep us warm in the winter for $1.50,” he said Tomatoes and strawberries were the big things on the Laney farm when he took a turn at the farming trade. *Those were the days when canneries were around to buy tomatoes and “we got $5 a crate for strawberries shipped out by the trainload.” Back to his birthday observance today, Laney was proud of having his family with him for the event. He was also proud of the birthday cards he received, including one from President Gerald Ford. Surprisingly spry for his age, Mr. Laney uses glasses only to read. But he doesn’t need them when he reads the Bible, he has been provided a large print issue. He enjoys television although he sometimes has difficulty understanding some of the programs. (He’s not by himself in this department.) Asked why he appears to be in good humor all the time, he “supposed” it was because he hasn’t been in bad health for the past nine or 10 years. He does admit he never smoked more than “what I could quit at any time.” Quizzed about activities in his youth, he said they were confined mostly to work, hunting and attending church services. “Those were the main goings-ons in those days,” he recalls. Laney admits his family comes from pretty tough stock, his grandfather came from Tennessee and his mother came from Kentucky, a familar trait of many Ozark families. He took his first auto ride while walking down a road one day and a friend overtook him in a Model-T. He isn’t all concerned about travel these days and never really got too enthused about it. The family did go back to Greene county and lived in Stone for a combined time of two years, but for the remainder of his life, John Laney has either railroaded, farmed or been retired. He was married in 1909 and raised eight children. One daughter was killed by a horse in her youth. Included in the children Sunday are i who sponsored a special party Sunday are: Helen Berning and Gerald Laney, Exeter; Clara Cooper of Wheaton and Maud Woods of Cassville. He also has a brother, R. C. of Ridgley who is 90 years young and a sister, Ollie Weatherly, 80, of living. Joplin Asked this week to comment on how it feels to be among the county’s most senior of citizens, Mr. Laney said “I would like to be in as good health when I reach 100 as I am today.” You know….we think he will be.

— Crowds Over Labor Day Set New Records

As predicted in advance, Labor Day weekend 1976 set new records of visitation throughout the Barry County Ozarks recreational area. Firm figures are available at this time from Roaring River State Park only. Army Corps of Engineer figures have not been tabulated. John Hardin, park superintendent, said the trend for increases at the park over the weekend also dated back to the June through August period. During these three months, campers in the park were up 31% over the same period last year. During the long holiday just completed, Roaring River had 798 camping units counted, compared to 654 for 1975. People using the camping facilities were also up, 3,988 this year compared to 2,741 last Labor Day, said Hardin. Through the Labour Day weekend, total camper numbers stand at 83,806 this year, compared to 72,320 last year. Fishermen numbers are showing equal increases this year according to Charles Curry, hatchery superintendent. Over the holiday weekend just past, 2,579 anglers bought tags, compared to 2,006 last year. To date the total fishing tag sales number is 70,018, which is an 8,076 increase over the 61,942 recorded last year. Complete tabulations of attendance at public facilities on Table Rock will not be available until later this week. However, visual accounts of traffic and campsites place the crowds every bit as large as anything seen previously for the last summer holiday of the year. I can also keep the same exact formatting convention for the next batch, including preserving apparent OCR errors and historical spellings rather than silently correcting them.

40 years ago

Sept. 10, 1986

— Former Mayor Lectures City; Action To Revise Fire Dept.

Objecting to being singled out in notices and advertisements, former mayor Bill LeCompte lectured the Cassville city council Monday night. The immediate past mayor of Cassville used 14 photos and a list of 17 other locations where weeds were in comparable height to those on property he owned. LeCompte’s examples included some city property locations. He also cited private property locations, some owned by council members. The one-time chief executive said in some areas the city “looked trashy”, while council “harasses one person.” Mayor Rolland Meador agreed with LeCompte in a position of “fair being fair” in handling the weed situation and solutions. Three council members, Bob Mizer, Gary Fields and Sue Brat-tin, asked LeCompte to leave his comparison list with the board of aldermen. First refusing, LeCompte later relented and provided the information. Causing the concern of the now private citizen was council action on weeds growing on property he owns in Oak Hill sub-division. Meador explained the action resulted in a petition from action. LeCompte also expressed criticism of council action in changing schedules of use of city sales tax funds. When the tax was voted, council told the people 60 percent would be used for streets, 25 for administration and 15 for parks and recreation,” he said. “This year’s cutback in street contracts obviously doesn’t follow that schedule,” he reminded the council. The former mayor was also critical of paving outside city limits streets on County Road and near Crystal Springs. Another point made concerned removal of a concrete wall on private property owned by Leon Jackson and Mrs. Lucille Wooten on Main Street. Meador countered the remarks with a requirement of other uses for sales tax funds this year due to water rebates, a lack of knowledge about street work outside of city limits and a safety factor in spending $45 for wall removal. Meador told LeCompte the city would proceed with clean-up efforts. He also said the council “appreciated his appearance” before the group. In other major action, council agreed on the appointment of Millard Andrews as chief of the volunteer fire department. Unanimously appointed by council, including late arriving Bill Shiveley, the new chief asked that Jeff Beattie, city employee and Merle Rogers, be assistants. The department, operated through a 10 phone system for 14 volunteers, will be revised, by council direction. Mayor Meador said the department should review personnel and equipment needs, reporting back to the council. Since the firing of Tim Miller, water-street superintendent, Beattie and Mike Pace have temporary chiefs. Meador also directed the department people to meet with Cassville Rural Department. He said the rural directors needed to provide personnel for the depart-ment. He said they needed to be covered in the phone alarm system. “Cassville houses the equipment and sends two men on rural fires, but the entire volunteer force can’t leave town fire possibilities uncovered, “ Meador told the council. “We must pay more attention to the fire department than we have in the past,” he said. Plans ahead include possible extension of monthly meetings to twice a month and addition of signal lights at firehouse to stop traffic as equipment departs. Volunteers on the department are paid $10 for night and $9 for daytime calls. In an earlier public hearing, council heard no objects to Continental Telephone Company’s proposal to construct a new 10,328 square foot building at property on Sixth and Townsend. Full approval will be reviewed in the October meeting. In a personnel session, council offered Owen Anglum of Cassville the position of construction permit officer. Anglum, a retired official with a petroleum company, has resided here four years. He replaces Henry Scroggs, former building inspector, who resigned several months ago. Bills payable in the meeting were $32,643, according to Jo Ledgerwood, clerk. Lonnie McCullough, police officer who has been serving as emergency management director, agreed to continue on the job. Pointed out to council that delayed bids on a siren warning system for Cassville was the most important project of the department. Reports received by council were from Mike Pace, waste water superintendent; Jeff Beat-tie, water-street superintendent; and Ray Burnett, police chief. Council commended all departments for operations. Monett radio station KRMO advised $50 monthly charge would be required to install commercial antenna on water storage tanks.

30 years ago

Sept. 4, 1996

— Labor Day weekend drew “typical” crowds to the area

Labor Day drew the typical number of visitors to the Barry County area. Two key attractions, Table Rock Lake and Roaring River State Park, drew their share of end-of-the summer vacationers, according to area officials. Steve Crain, officer with the Missouri Water Patrol, said the three-day weekend on the lake was fairly routine. “We had a real good weekend but not a super busy one,” Crain said. “The rain showers may have kept some people off the water.” He said there was only one boating accident reported. The one incident occurred in the Shell Knob area when a personal water craft ran into the back of a boat. Crain said the jet ski driver was cited, and there was some damage done to the boat. One death did occur on the lake over the weekend. Crain said Dennis Kern, 55, Galena, died while waterskiing on Aug. 31 at 12:15 p.m. as a result of an apparent heart attack. Crain said the man was skiing in the Big M area when he gave the boat driver the signal to cut the motor. When the boat turned around, Kern was lying face down in the water. People in the nearby area and Cox Paramedics attempted to revive Kern with CPR. He was eventually airlifted to St. John’s in Joplin. Crain said there were some citations issued for careless and reckless operation. He did not issue any B.W.I. (boating while intoxicated) tickets this Labor Day. Roaring River State Park campgrounds attracted 1,803 campers over the weekend. According to park statistics, there were 649 campers on Friday, 611 campers on Saturday and 543 campers on Sunday. Park visitors totaled 16,807 for the three-day holiday. Numbers are up considerably over last Labor Day’s statistics. The increase in campers is due to the fact that park crews were still working last Labor Day to recover from a tornado and flood that hit the park early in the summer. By the first of September 1995, the park still had one and a half campgrounds closed. As of Sept. 3, 1996, Roaring River’s annual usage tally stands at 18,657 campers and 561,035 visitors for the year.m About 100 more anglers gathered on the banks of Roaring River this weekend, according to Tom Whelan, assistant hatchery superintendent. He described the weekend draw of fishermen as “typical” and the fishing as “good.”

—Golden fiddlers’ contest draws a crowd of 500 people Saturday

The Golden Circle Shores Association sponsored its annual fiddlers’ contest Saturday night in Golden with more than 500 people in attendance. Twelve fiddlers came from near and far to compete in the con-test, which awarded $575 in prizes in adult and junior divisions. According to Fran Brown, treasurer for the organization, the contest attracts fiddlers by registering with the Old Time Fiddlers’ Corporation. She said the corporation sends the fiddlers notices about upcoming contests. Those competing were: Lacey Hartsey, Brookline; Les Tucker, Simsboro, La.; Shawn Pittman, Springfield; Charlie Brattin, Cassville; Steve Williams, Aurora; Kara Grewach, Troy; Glen Wright, Gillham, Ark.; Levin Roden, Purdy; Jenee Keener, Springdale, Ark.; Cliff Tresler, Barnsdall, Okla.; Steve Jordan, Pea Ridge, Ark.; and Lynn Wells, Boonesboro. Judges for the event were Rose McCormack, Jewel Farwell and Winona Sandlin. Brown said judges had to have some type of musical background to qualify for their positions. Brown said 50 percent of the score was based on underhand, overhand and straight playing, 25 percent on tone and tune, and 25 percent on showmanship. The rules called for each fiddler to play three songs – one waltz, one hoe down and one of their choice. Adult division winners were: first place, Shawn Pittman; second place, Jenee Keener; and third place, Steve Jordan. Junior divi-sion: first place, Levi Roden; and second place, Kara Grewach. According to Brown, all proceeds from the event are used for the upkeep of the old Golden school building. Brown said the building is now used for voting, receiving flu shots for senior citizens and providing space for several different health clinics, a bingo hall and library facilities.