100 YEARS AGO....
Even though the Armistice had been signed, and World War I hostilities had ceased, letters from Rock-dale servicemen—written before the guns stopped firing—continued to be published in The Reporter. One described watching two ships collide in the North Sea, costing the lives of 500 men.
With the Armistice, the United States was demobilizing as 1.7 million soldiers and sailors prepared to stand down from the war and return home. “It will take some time,” said Gen. Peyton March.
As the war ended, three Rockdale servicemen were listed as missing in action, even though parents of one were clinging to the hope of mistaken identity, having received a letter from him written well after the date the Army listed him as a MIA.
The Reporter noted: “Leonard Isaacs was able to fight off several bouts of the flu, coming out as the winner and with a good crop of whiskers to boot.”
FORTY YEARS AGO....
Visitors at a Rock-dale City Council meeting expressed concern that a delinquent tax sale involving 17 pieces of local property was advertised in the Cameron newspaper and not in The Reporter.
Records in the United Steelworkers of America Local 4895 Union Hall were set on fire in what investigators termed an attempted arson. The building did not catch fire and Local officials said the majority of records could be re-typed.
Rockdale City Council East Ward Member Margie Abbott was named the 1978 recipient of the President’s Award by the Central Texas Council of Governments.
Lexington came from behind to defeat Flatonia with a last-quarter TD drive, lifting the Eagles to 9-0. Lexington was to go after the first 10-0 regular season in school history with a home game against Somerville.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
Public concern was growing as Brookshire Bros. corporate officers said the company had not yet decided whether to rebuild its Rock-dale store, leveled in a July 7 fire.
With endorsements from the City of Rockdale and Milam County, the Texas Dept. of Transportation pronounced itself “ready to move” on a US 79 loop around Rockdale.
Officers from the Milam County Sheriff’s Department, Department of Public Safety, Texas Parks & Wildlife and a constable teamed up to pull four Thorndale area youths from the San Gabriel River. Three of the youths had been attempting to rescue the fourth, who had been swept downstream.
Casey Creghan’s Tiger gridders defeated Taylor 29-14 and claimed Big Blue’s first outright district football title in 19 years.
TEN YEARS AGO....
It was over. Power to the last Alcoa potline remaining online was cut, ending the 56-year smelting history of Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations.
The Rockdale Ministerial Alliance was sponsoring a benefit for Alcoa employees affected by the smelter’s closing.
An 18-year-old Cameron man admitted to a series if rapes in that town in 2006 and 2007 and was to find out his punishment in a sentencing hearing.
It was a “win-and-in” final game situation for Jeff Miller’s Tiger football team and Big Blue won 42-21 over Taylor to punch its ticket to the state football playoffs.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.