100 YEARS AGO....
Rockdale was shocked by the sudden death of 53-year-old John Hale Sr., manager of Scarbrough & Hicks firm. Hale had locked up the store, asked his daughter, Louise, to drive him home and passed away from what was termed “acute indigestion.” He had worked for the Scarbrough & Hicks firm for 37 years.
The Hale funeral was said to be one of the largest ever in Rockdale and its funeral procession was termed probably the largest collection of automobiles ever in the city. Also passing during the
Also passing during the week was Agnes Bushey Cooke, 41, wife of Reporter Publisher John Esten Cooke. Mrs. Cooke was a native of Michigan and came to Texas with her family at age six.
It was to the first general election in which American women could vote and Mrs. Bennett Smith Temple announced she was a candidate for state representative in a district composed of Milam and Bell Counties.
FORTY YEARS AGO....
Early returns from the 1980 census showed Rockdale and Cameron running next and neck to become the largest city in Milam County. Preliminary numbers showed Rockdale with a population of 5,429 and Cameron at 5,427.
County Judge Phil Smith appointed a committee to study the possibility of bringing a synthetic fuel operation to Milam.
“Prudent outdoor watering habits” by Rockdale residents were credited with helping to avert a water shortage, after a pump went down at the city’s Texas Street waterworks.
Texas Football magazine picked the Rockdale Tigers to repeat as District 23AAA champions.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
The Rockdale Hospital District was headed to court seeking an injunction which would allow an Aug. 12 election to raise the district’s property taxing authority to 50 cents to proceed.
A ‘Good Samaritan’ passing motorist flagged down a Rockdale Police patrol car to report a fire on the RHS roof and was credited with saving the structure from possible extensive damage. The Rockdale VFD extinguished the blaze quickly.
With high temperatures up to 108, the Rockdale VFD was answering almost daily grass fire calls.
Milam County commissioners were mulling how to integrate a handicapped access ramp into the extensive remodeling-restoration work which was going on at the 18th-Century structure.
Arson was suspected after an isolated, locally-known “haunted house” near Brushy Creek burned. Authorities said the house, which had been unoccupied for decades, was so old it was resting on tree stumps instead of blocks.
TEN YEARS AGO....
Rockdale and Cameron city councils met on consecutive nights and came to the conclusion more information was needed on the 911 emergency system.
Rockdale police were investigating the theft of $8,000 in rings from National Pawn & Jewelry.
A curling iron left laying on some clothes in a bathroom was thought to be the cause of a fire which destroyed a home just west of Rockdale.
Milam County Chief Deputy Sheriff Ted Retchloff— who worked on hundreds of drug cases, many of them undercover—retired after a 33-year career.
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