100 YEARS AGO...
Probably the most disastrous fire in the history of Cameron occurred when the Cameron compress was completely destroyed by fire, thought to have been of incendiary origin. Included in the loss were approximately 7,000 bales of cotton, and 26 railroad cars, nineteen of which were on the S.A.A.P. tracks, the balance on the Santa Fe.
Miss Leila Woolley, county tax collector, completed the tax rolls for 1920, and some have been submitted to the commissioners court and approved by that body. The rolls showed total valuations of $19,051,060, which was an increase of $468,450 over the previous year.
The Milam County Baptist Association, composed of 29 churches, met with the First Baptist Church, Rockdale. The attendance was unusually large and enthusiastic.
Regal Rockdale claimed all these years that it was the best town in Matchless Milam in which to trade. Now the old town proposed to make good on the claim in a wholesale manner with the inauguration of “Trades Week.”
FORTY YEAR AGO...
Because of the generosity of the late George Hill Patterson, the newly-expanded and renovated Lucy Hill Patterson Memorial Library became a reality.
The final decision on where to locate Texland Electric Co-Op’s two 500 mega watt generating units, to be fired with lignite coal from Shell Oil Company’s Milam Mine, wasn’t made until the spring of 1981.
The Rockdale County fair celebrated its fifth weekend ever and was another success for the area.
Milam County veterans organizations donated a monument with the names of all the Milam men and women who have given their lives in recent wars. The monument is on the grounds of the courthouse.
TWENTY YEARS AGO...
A 20th District Court jury awarded seven plaintiffs a total of $2,700,000 after it returned a positive finding of asbestos-related illness in the latest asbestos case in Milam County.
City Council members met and let Central Texas Waste Management Manager Scott Whinery know in no uncertain terms that if service didn’t get better soon, the gig is up.
Attorneys acting for 15 companies named as defendants in a recent rash of asbestos lawsuits filed in 20th District Court sought to have District Judge Charles Lance disqualified from hearing any further asbestos suits for the 2.5 months remaining in his term.
Only two things kept H.H. Coffield Municipal Airport from being a bustling regional aviation center – money and land. Area businesses and flying enthusiasts hoped to change that and sought ways to upgrade the facility.
TEN YEARS AGO...
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2078 members, employed at Luminant mines and power plants, voted on new contracts.
Rockdale police made monthly checks on registered sex offenders that were living within the city limits, and those patrols yielded one arrest.
The new Rockdale Municipal Development District elected it first officers at a Tuesday meeting and heard Mayor Larry Jones urge a redirection of focus onward.
It didn’t take long for it to sink in that Kathryn Dodd was named the Fair Queen for 2010. It was the second year for the pageant to be held before that start of the fair.
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