Looking back...
100 YEARS AGO....
Legendary Rockdale attorney E. A. Camp was set to appear before the Texas Supreme Court. His Rockdale v. Cureton suit—C. M. Cureton was the Texas Attorney General—sought to compel the state to release $75,000 in bonds okayed by voters to construct a new high school. The attorney general maintained the 1911 law governing bonds did not cover towns like Rockdale.
An 89-year-old woman identified only as “Grandma Westbrook” in Milano was cutting the third set of teeth in her lifetime.
The Reporter came out a day late but it wasn’t planned. A cold front brought an ice storm to much of Texas and the 12-hour power outage happened during “paper day.”
One Texas weekly found a unique way to cope with the outages. The Brady Sentinel borrowed a pickup, backed it into the newspaper office, jacked the wheels off the ground and belted the axle to the press. Reporter Publisher John Esten Cooke had come to Rockdale from Brady.
FORTY YEARS AGO....
Richards Memorial Hospital observed its five-year anniversary and administrator Charles Upshaw said the facility was “over the hump” financially.
The 1980 census was gearing up. Estimates were that Milam County would go over the 20,000 mark. A 1977 estimate had pegged the county population at 19,700.
An estimated 2,000 people turned out for the grand opening of Rockdale’s newest financial institution, Community Bank & Trust (current City Hall building).
Coach June Owen’s Rock-dale Tigerettes won their invitational tourney with victories over Bastrop, Snook and Austin LBJ.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
Brookshire Bros., closed in Rockdale after an epic July, 1998 fire, was seeking to hire an initial 70 employees and planning on opening its newly rebuilt facility in February, 2000.
The body of a 40-year-old Milano man was found in Lake Somerville, one of three persons who drowned in an incident still under investigation by the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.
The Rockdale Historical Society purchased the former International & Great Northern Railroad Depot from the Adolph McVoy family. The society announced plans to restore the 1906-era building.
About 900 children from Rockdale Elementary School got to experience “real theatre” as a troupe from Austin’s Zachary Scott Theater performed in the RHS auditorium, an appearance sponsored by the Alcoa Foundation.
TEN YEARS AGO....
A Thorndale-area father and two of his sons were arrested in a sheriff’s department raid on their home and charged with offenses ranging from theft to drug possession.
A 22-year-old Milano man, wounded in a shootout with a Rockdale policeman, was released from the hospital and jailed on $250,000 bond on a charge of attempted capital murder of a peace officer.
There were a rash of burglaries in local RV parks, mostly targeting electronics and alcohol.
It was a game befitting the situation. Thorndale’s Lady Bulldogs edged the Rockdale Lady Tigers 39-33 in overtime in the first basketball game held in Rock-dale’s new high school gym.
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