10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO
100 YEARS AGO....
The Reporter quoted The Williamson County Sun which noted the Williamson County Jail was completely empty for the first time in years Sheriff Lee Allen said: “We are hopeful the morale of our grand old county has been raised to such a high plane, and that brotherly love so fills the heart of our 55,000 population, that neither the spilling of blood of our fellow mortals, nor the lust for their gold, will cause the big lock to snap behind those who enter its portals again.”
Milam County livestock were under quarantine as Texas attempted to rid itself of tick fever.
Reporter Publisher John Esten Cooke was recovering in the Cameron Sanitarium after surgery for appendicitis.
Also recovering in the same facility was a five-year-old Tanglewood boy, son of Robert Spence, who had fallen from a tree and fractured his skull.
FORTY YEARS AGO....
City council member Margie Abbott resigned after moving from Rockdale and the city council was mulling appointing a successor. Mrs. Abbot was (and remains to this day) the most prolific vote-getter in city history, polling 1,009 and 849 votes in two elections.
The 21-year-old son of Rockdale Police Chief Felipe Martinez was shot and killed in Cameron and a 19-year-old Rockdale man was charged with murder.
A 29-year-old Thorndale man was electrocuted while drilling a water well south of that town when the drilling auger came in contact with a power line.
About 35 families were represented in a gathering at Fair Park as the new Rockdale Tennis Association formed.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
The Texas Dept. of Transportation had begun a massive renovation of US 79 through downtown Rockdale and the city and Chamber of Commerce were working to lessen the effect on parking .
For the second consecutive year, dry conditions were leading to cancellation of the annual Fourth of July fireworks display at Fair Park.
Suicide was ruled after a Milam County Constable found the body of a 48-year-old Rockdale man north of town.
Rockdale Girls Softball League was set to host a number of post-season tourneys in several age groups at its GSL Complex off Bush-dale Road.
TEN YEARS AGO....
With only one month down of Rockdale’s three hottest, the summer of 2009 had already recorded 12 consecutive 100-degree highs and was already being mentioned in connection with the town’s two hottest years, 1998 and 1980.
A 44-year-old Rockdale man received a 10-year prison sentence in a federal case adjudicated in a Waco court.
Rockdale ISD trustees adopted a 2009-10 budget reflecting a slight decrease from the previous year and decided to keep the same $1.21 tax rate.
Police Chief Thomas Harris and Sgt. J. D. Newlin appeared before a grand jury testifying in the case of the third suspect charged in the November, 2006, holdups of Rockdale convenience stores.
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