Forum Flashbacks: Aug. 12-18
FORUM FILE PHOTO
5 YEARS AGO: Mutton Bustin’ — Jardaci Wilmes, 7, of Maryville competes in the Mutton Bustin’ competition at the Dakota Bronc Sisk Memorial Rodeo in Graham on Saturday.
5 years ago
The Burlington Junction city council met Wednesday night in regular session.
Highlighting the agenda was a discussion on a years-old property tax levy the city has apparently never collected.
The original property tax levy allows the city to collect $1.30 per every $100 of assessed property value. The city tried unsuccessfully to increase the levy to $1.60, but the vote failed.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the council voted to collect the money from the tax levy to help pay for street repair projects.
Early in the summer, the council met with contractors to determine the extent of wear on all streets within the city’s borders.
After those meetings, the city decided to go with a four-year, four-phase plan to gradually fix its streets.
15 years ago
As the sky darkened, the lightning crackled and the wind and rain buffeted the countryside Sunday afternoon, more than 1,000 homes in Nodaway County found themselves without power due to downed power lines and lightning strikes.
Both United Electric and Aquila, the two electric service providers in Nodaway County, were contacted concerning the power outages. A media representative from Aquila said hundreds of homes were affected in the company’s service area. An Aquila customer in Hopkins reported power was out for about two hours. A United Electric official said most of the power outages occurred in the Maryville vicinity and a few smaller areas around Skidmore and Conception.
25 years ago
In a case Maryville Department of Public Safety Director Keith Wood is calling more organized than what is normally seen by his department, the main loss of three stores that share a common door was a large amount of Magic cards and games and an undetermined amount of cash from a register. The burglary occurred between 8 p.m., Sunday, and 7:15 a.m., Monday, at a business in the northeast corner of the Northside Mall, called The Keep.
The Keep shares a common door with Card Connection Plus and The Pet Shop; however, after an initial inventory count, The Keep is the only store which is missing items, according to a public safety report.
Wood said public safety suspects a rope was used to climb in and out of the breezeway of the mall, from a skylight in the roof of the building.
100 years ago
WREN CONFESSES TO MURDER OF HAMMOND
Signs Statement Telling of Killing Following
Quarrel—Says Hammond Called Him a Vile Name
CRIME WAS NOT PREMEDITATED
Hammond Looking for Needle to Mend Trousers
— Wren Lost Temper and Shot Him
Raymond “Mike” Wren, arrested late yesterday afternoon by the St. Joseph police at Gower, Mo., confessed this morning that he murdered Ross Hammond, former Nodaway County man, whose body was found in a cornfield two miles north of Braddyville on last Tuesday afternoon. He signed a full confession giving the details of the quarrel which led up to the murder, the disposal of the body and his subsequent actions. …
Wren’s story in the signed confession is that he and Hammond camped in the edge of the cornfield on the night of Friday, August 5. When they were awakened at about 5:30 o’clock on Saturday morning, Hammond was anxious to get to Barnard for the last day of the Barnard Picnic and Wren wanted to get to his home at Gower as soon as possible. The two men had been having slight quarrels for several days — nothing serious, says Wren, but they were just “chewing the rag” at each other.
On Saturday morning Hammond refused to start on the way again until he had sewed up a rent in his trousers. Wren agreed to wait and told Hammond that there was a needle and thread in his (Wren’s) suitcase. Hammond began to search for the needle and thread, but instead of looking carefully he threw the articles belonging to Wren out of the suitcase onto the ground.
Wren remonstrated and told Hammond that he would get the needle and thread for him. “No you won’t you little ___ I’ll get it myself,” said Hammond. Wren says he then lost his temper and reached for the gun, a .32 caliber Colt automatic, shooting Hammond through the head just above the left eye, and killing him almost instantly.
The original 100-year article ran in the Aug. 16, 1921, edition of The Maryville Tribune, a predecessor of The Maryville Forum.
