Looking back...

100 YEARS AGO...

The Reporter was asked by the Ladies’ Cemetery Association to call attention to the necessity for the public to take more interest in the three Rockdale cemeteries. First the funds these ladies get are not sufficient to keep the grounds in first-class condition. This was due in a great part to the apathy on those with loved ones there.

Mr. W.E. Gaither, Rockdale businessman and town booster, made an interesting offer through advertising columns. The offer was directed to the young farmer lads of Rockdale. Mr. Gaither would sell from his herd of fined registered Jerseys to any worthy farm boy of this community a registered Jersey bred heifer, taking the boy’s note for same to be paid later.

Seeing the futility of depending upon the cotton crop for the coming year, and realizing the necessity for the greater diversification of crops, the Rockdale Chamber of Commerce called a meeting of farmers of Rockdale and nearby communities to be held at city hall next week.

FORTY YEARS AGO...

A Cameron area rancher and his son-in-law were injured when their light plane crashed on US 190 during a landing attempt at a private airfield near Cameron.

Seven Milam County landowners filed an appeal with the Court of Civil Appeals, seeking to overturn the decision of a Corsicana district judge who ruled in favor of Milam County in a lawsuit seeking to overturn county action creating an appraisal district.

A pickup reported stolen in San Antonio was found in Rockdale by two Rockdale police officers.

City taxes could be paid at City Hall through Jan. 5. Sammy Claiborn said the tax statements were mailed late because of a countywide reappraisal and some work on the tax roles.

TWENTY YEARS AGO...

Add an extra 1.6 patients per day. Decrease the average length of a patient’s stay by just over half a day. Reinstate some profitable programs like home health, do a better job of billing and collecting, and financially troubled Richland Memorial Hospital would be self-supporting in 3.5 years.

While the Texas Department of Criminal Justice continued to receive almost daily “sightings” of seven escaped criminals, one with Rockdale connections, the group remained at large for a third week.

Raylene Marie Story was the first baby born in Rockdale. She arrived at 3:12 a.m. Jan. 2 at Round Rock Hospital. Her parents live in Rockdale.

Rockdale’s surging Tigers ended 2000 on a positive note, grabbing a fourth-place finish in the Troy Holiday Tournament and taking a ton of momentum into the heat of the District 18AAA campaign.

TEN YEARS AGO...

Kayden Lee Sanchez was Rockdale’s first baby of 2011. The son of Trisha Ebba and Sherman Sanchez, Kayden made his arrival at 9:02 a.m. Jan. 2 at Scott & White Hospital, Temple.

It wasn’t O.J., but it would do for a Milam County show trial. Biggest news story of 2010 was a three-week early summer clash of industrial heavyweights and in the end it was Luminant over Alcoa by a knockout. The jury didn’t believe Alcoa had been damaged by the energy company in the months leading up to closure of Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations smelter.

Area volunteer fire departments spent much of the final hours of 2010 answering calls to grass and brush fires. Black Jack volunteers battled a grass fire which consumed 11 acres of pasture and two of woods on New Year’s Eve.

Four law enforcement agencies, including Rockdale Police Department, converged on a rural Milam County residence and arrested a 26-year-old man on federal drug charges. Stephen Gardiner of Limestone County was wanted on a federal charge, issued in Waco, alleging his involvement in conspiring to deliver “large quantities” of methamphetamine, according to Deputy Sheriff Chris White.