100 YEARS AGO....
In a bizarre lawsuit, City Tax Assessor-Collector J. F. McCalla sued the city, claiming he was owed for assessing Rockdale school taxes. The city and schools operated under the same government.
A phantom salesman appeared in Cameron and sold 30 quarts of tea, claiming it to be fine whiskey, for $20 each. The peddler, who left town overnight, had dipped corks in real liquor and sealed then in the tops of the tea-filled bottles.
Rockdale physicians had agreed upon a fee schedule for their services: $2 for calls in-town, $1-per-mile (physician’s car odometer) for out-of-town and $1 extra for night calls.
The I&GN Railroad added two new trains to its Rockdale service, one each northbound and southbound. You could catch a northbound train between 12:10 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. daily.
FORTY YEARS AGO....
Rockdale’s top stories of the 1970s were pegged as economic growth, the 1974 Rockdale Centennial celebration and, oh yes, a state football championship in 1976.
A Gause man was facing criminal prosecution after he bit a Milam County State Trooper who had pulled him over to issue a speeding ticket.
Two men were killed when a tunnel collapsed at the Anderson-Clayton oilseed processing plant in Thorndale.
Kevin Sumuel and Vincent Banks led Jerry Franklin’s Rockdale Tiger cagers to the title in the annual Taylor Basketball Tourney.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
It was a big dud. The dreaded Y2K came and went without a problem. City employees sat up until midnight to be sure nothing happed to city systems as the numbers rolled over to 2000.
Jan. 1, 2000, was a special day for Grace Berry of Thorndale. Mrs. Berry, 101, became one of th few people to live in three centuries. She was born in 1898.
Four area volunteer fire departments, and Rockdale police, battled a 100-acre grass fire near Alcoa’s Rock-dale Operations, saving four homes which were threatened by the blaze.
While Y2K may have been a bust, the predicted flu bug arrived in full force. Between a Friday evening and Monday morning, 106 persons were treated at Richards Memorial Hospital, three fourths of them for flu or other respiratory problems.
TEN YEARS AGO....
Blackhawk Health Care submitted a bid of $822,000 to purchase Richards Memorial Hospital. It was thought the looming purchase was the first step toward construction of a new, 26-bed hospital. (It wasn’t.—Editor)
The shutdown of Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations in 2008-09 was selected as the story of the decade for 2000-09.
The Texas Dept. of Transportation announced its list of highway intersection upgrades for 2010, including the corner of US 77 and FM 487 south of Rockdale.
A massive anti-pollution project at Luminant’s Sand-ow Power Plant Unit 4 was expected to bring 1,400 workers to town and become a major temporary boost for the area’s economy.
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