100 YEARS AGO…
Foundation on the new Rockdale High School building was being completed and the contract called for turnkey job by Aug. 1. C.H. Page & Bro. of Austin were the architects. J.J. Wattinger of Austin was the contractor. J.B. McFarland of Dallas was the building superintendent, while O.G. Moore was general foreman of construction. (Editor’s note: This is the three-story building that was torn down near the elementary school.)
The “dollar-down, balance C.O.D.” shoe salesman had been around Rockdale. Shoes were sold for $1 down and $3.95 more to be paid at the post office when they were delivered.
The Reporter congratulated the good women of Rockdale on the interest manifested by them in the perfecting and organization of the Parent-Teacher Association for this city.
The fire department received 500 feet of brand new hose which was placed on the auto truck. At the same time the water pressure of the new standpipe was tested and found entirely satisfactory. With the aid of the auto pump water was thrown 30 feet higher than the city flag pole, and without the pump, to a height greater than any building on the street.
40 YEARS AGO…
New superintendent Bill Ortego, RHS principal Walter Pond and their wives were honored with a reception hosted by the RHS faculty and the Parent-Teacher Organization. In the cafeteria the honorees opened gifts including a duck decoy for Louisiana-native Ortego and an armadillo paperweight for Pond, a Texas A&M graduate.
John Sonntag, 57, announced that he was a candidate for the office of Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4, subject to the voters in the May 1 Democratic primary.
Miss Felicia Louise Harris, daughter of Mrs. Margaret Harris, became the bride of Lawrence Kevin Wesley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Wesley, at 4 p.m. Jan. 9 at Springfield Baptist Church.
20 YEARS AGO…
Milam County’s birth rate quadrupled in 2001, but it wasn’t exactly a population explosion. There were four births logged in the county in 2021, compared to one in 2000 according to the annual statistics issued by County Clerk Laverne Soefje.
Rockdale resident Overton Smith turned 100 years old and a come-and-go reception was held in his honor.
A crowd of over 125 welcomed the first Rural Business Service Center in Texas to Rockdale. Dedication cer emonies for the center drew state and local dignitaries to the downtown One-Stop Center.
10 YEARS AGO…
The first of five Kay Theatre Foundation spring productions were set to “laissez les bon temps roulez” (let the good times roll) when the Patterson Center transformed into a New Orleans Mardi Gras, complete with Dixieland music.
Rockdale Band Boosters raised just over $6,100 and sold 651 plates of spaghetti in the junior-high commons in their largest fund raiser of the year.
The deluge which hit South Milam County was anything but a “two-acre thunderstorm.” Totals between five to seven inches were reported along 55-mile stretch of US 79 in Milam stretching from the Brazos River to the Thorndale blackland.
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