10-20-40-100
YEARS AGO
100 YEARS AGO...
Our readers noted that Mr. L.B. Jones of the Surprise Store was advertising to sell out and quit business in Rockdale. Mr. Jones advised the editor that this is a bona fide statement, and that he expected to wind up his business Jan. 1
Milano experienced one of the worst fires in its history when the big general merchandise establishment of J.B. Newton & Sons was completely destroyed, including the main warehouse. The loss was estimated at approximately $30,000 with insurance of $20,000.
Rockdale was the mecca for hundreds of prominent Southern Negro Methodists when the Central Texas African Methodist Episcopal Conference met here for its annual session.
The tick eradication campaign started in Milam County.
FORTY YEARS AGO...
A representative of the Texas Aeronautics Commission told a group of civic leaders he was optimistic about the possibility of state funding for a municipal airport for Rockdale.
E.C. Westbrook Jr. of Milano was named the new Veterans’ Service Officer, replacing Porter Young who was to become the county’s new tax assessor-collector.
The second big prize drawing of the Christmas was held at the city library. The lucky winner received $250 in “Rockdale money” that was redeemable at 43 stores which sponsored the awarding of prizes. Ten other people each won $100 gift certificates.
San Antonio was gaining an actor. For the record, San Antonio was actually gaining a mining engineer—Dennis Price, who starred as Joe Benjamin in the Rockdale Community players’ “God’s Country,” joined an engineering firm in the Alamo City.
TWENTY YEARS AGO...
Rockdale’s “ground zero,” the historic corner of Milam and Main streets, was finally being recognized for its significance in the town’s past. Rockdale Historical Society was renovating the town’s 1906 International & Great Northern Depot.
Christmas Roundup, the largest holiday project of its kind in Milam County, had one word for Rockdale residents with the Christmas spirit: Help. Delivery day was approaching and volunteers were needed.
A 21-year-old Fort Hood soldier became Milam County’s 23rd traffic fatality of 2000 when his car collided head-on with an 18-wheeler south of Milano on Texas 36.
Two Milano intersections that have been the site of numerous accidents and monumental holiday traffic tie-ups were set to get stop lights when funding became available, thanks to a crusade by a Milam County state trooper, Jimmy Morgan.
TEN YEARS AGO...
Milam County commissioners enacted an outdoor burning ban in the county’s rural areas, citing concerns over increasingly dry weather and fire danger.
Brady Nelson Jr. was named the Rockdale Volunteer Fire Department’s Firefighter of the Year Monday as the department held its annual Christmas party and banquet in the Rockdale Junior-High School commons.
A 40-year-old parttime Milam County resident, who was pronounced dead at Richards Memorial Hospital, was the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the Milam County Sheriff’s Department.
A prankster using a cell phone managed to lock down the Rockdale High School campus for an hour and trigger what amounted to a high-tech panic.
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