100 YEARS AGO...
Rockdale entertained the East & West Texas Highway Association in elaborate style. The 40-odd delegates who were present all went home feeling that they had indeed been guests of a most hospitable citizenship, and before the final session of the association closed strong resolutions of appreciation for the many courtesies shown were presented.
City Tax Assessor E. T. Kemp completed his assessment rolls for 1920 and had them ready for the approval of the City Council. The rolls showed great neatness and accuracy, and Mr. Kemp also made a record for celerity in preparing them.
The City Council voted to loan the city’s opera house piano to the Rockdale Public School.
One of the most delightful parties of Halloween night featured a bright yellow cosmos and jack-o-lanterns.
FORTY YEARS AGO...
Rockdale and Milam County were Carter islands in a sea of Reagan votes, favoring President Jimmy Carter over Republi can Ronald Reagan. Carter carried Rockdale by a margin of 1,333 to 985. He carried Milam County 4,230 to 3,251, but the president lost the state of Texas to Reagan, a landslide winner nationwide.
Blowouts of main steam lines at Sandow 4, Texas Power & Light Company’s newest lignite-fired unit at Alcoa’s Rockdale Works were completed. The blowouts were occasionally heard as far away as Rockdale.
The best stew chefs from the Rockdale area, and throughout Central Texas, were set to compete at the VFW Hall as Post 6525 hosts its third annual Stew Cookoff.
Some newspapers have been referring to Rockdale businessman Weldon Williams and his following of concerned taxpayers as “tax protesters.” “Doggone it,” he said in an interview with The Reporter. “We are not tax protesters. We know we have to pay taxes. We’re concerned with the Milam County appraisal, the errors made with it, and whether or not there is recourse.”
TWENTY YEARS AGO...
Tuesday was general election day with Rockdale and Milam County voters to help elect a president and chose a county prosecutor.
Alcoa’s proposed 3 Oaks Mine in Bastrop and Lee counties—a project the company has said will assure the continued existence of Rockdale Operations for 40 years—was to be the topic for public comment Thursday, and possibly Friday, at the Lee County Courthouse.
A package of corn apparently left overnight in a cooker was the cause of a smoke scare early Monday at Church’s Chicken, according to Rockdale firefighters.
Fifty years ago, some of the people Rockdale High School students want to honor for Veterans Day were racing toward the border of China under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
TEN YEARS AGO...
Led by County Judgeelect Dave Barkemeyer, the Milam County Republican Party rode the crest of a GOP wave in Texas to its first county-wide victories in modern times. Barke meyer outpolled threeterm county judge Frank Summers, the incumbent Democrat 3,250 to 2,749 in Tuesday’s spotlight county race, a 54-to-46-percent spread.
A 32-year-old Rockdale man who chose to let the court decide his fate in a 2009 vehicle-pedestrian death near Thorndale was sentenced to five years probation in 20th District Court.
Richards Memorial Hospital was enduring another period of financial troubles and Rockdale Hospital District (RHD) directors had not ruled out the possibility of reexamining a property tax.
Carl Rollyson, a journalism professor at Baruch College of the City University of New York, was set to host a program on actor Dana Andrews from, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the city library. Rollyson was writing a biography of Andrews. The program was entitled “Dana Andrews: The Road From Rockdale to Hollywood.” Andrews lived in Rockdale as a child in the World War I era. His father, Rev. C. F. Andrews, was pastor of First Baptist Church.
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