Looking back...

100 YEARS AGO....

With 1920 set to become the first general election in which women could vote, The Reporter ran a front page story outlining the process for paying a poll tax. Its deck read: “Women Who Desire to Vote Should Not Overlook the Necessary Requirements.”

The Bartlett Tribune editor said a bad road between Bartlett and Davilla was resulting in Davilla residents taking their business to Rockdale or Cameron instead of Bartlett.

H. L. Lister, editor of The Milano Gazette said the newspaper planned to cease publication early in 1920, citing its continuing lack of profitability.

Cameron was in darkness after an explosion at the city’s water and light plant. A standpipe full of water was being kept in reserve in case there was a major fire.

FORTY YEARS AGO....

A 72-year-old security guard in Cameron’s Industrial Park was shot to death after an inmate in the Milam County Jail overpowered a jailer and escaped. He was later arrested in Austin and charged with capital murder.

Break-ins at two Childress Street businesses, and a US 79 feed store resulted in two arrests.

Growth was selected as the main Reporter story of 1979, a year which ended with the new Rockdale Junior-High School 80 percent complete. Also during the year, city voters approved a $973,000 bond program to upgrade city water and sewer systems.

The Rockdale City Council and RISD School Board agreed to split the cost of paving Bushdale Road, the street serving the new Rockdale Junior-High School, which was to open in 1980.

TWENTY YEARS AGO....

Combined efforts of Christmas Roundup, Blue Santa (Rockdale Police Department) and Thorndale Cares provided Christmas cheer for nearly 1,200 persons in South Milam County.

It was an “on-again, off again” week for Milam County’s outdoor burn ban as residents struggled through an early winter dry spell. The burn ban was imposed one week, then lifted a few days later as the county received two days of welcome rain.

Three Buckholts juveniles were taken to the Roger Hashem Juvenile Detention Center after a Buckholts water storage tank was shot with a rifle, causing the loss of 150,000 to 200,000 gallons of water.

Police Chief Tim Smith announced that Rockdale was joining the Central Texas Narcotics Task Force. Milam County had been a member for several years.

TEN YEARS AGO....

Rockdale Police Department officers raided a Hamilton Street resident and arrested a Rockdale man on a drug charge. It was the man police had arrested at the same residence on the same charge two months previously.

A Milam County Deputy Sheriff and a Hearne man traded four gunshots in a pasture in far northeastern Milam County. No once was injured.

The Rockdale Tigers saw their 11-game basketball win streak come to an end. Big Blue fell 60-49 to state-ranked Jarrell.

It was a sad holiday season for the Rockdale Athletic Hall of Honor as two of its members passed away within two weeks, Billie Jean Washington and Barbara Young Kastner.