10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO
100 YEARS AGO....
Thomas Chandler, 24, of Cameron, who had returned home from serving overseas in the World War a few months previously, died when a binding machine he was repairing at the Cameron Cotton Oil Mill came loose and fell on him.
About 200 “Dallas boosters” spent a half-hour in Rockdale, marching from the train station to the corner of Ackerman and Cameron, where a speaker’s stand had been erected. Their spokesman termed Rock-dale “a real live-wire burg.”
Three McLane Company trucks became stuck in deep mud four miles north of Rockdale on the Cameron road. The Reporter reported “Preston Perry’s little caterpillar tractor,” went to the scene and pulled both trucks into Rockdale, “an exhibition of its pulling power.”
The Rockdale High School graduating class of 1919 contained 16 persons, nine of the them boys. It was the largest number of male graduates in school history.
FORTY YEARS AGO....
Rockdale State Bank was nearing the opening of its new building at the southwest corner of Ackerman and Cameron (FM 487 and US 79). Preparatory to the big move the bank transferred contents of its safe deposit boxes, under armed police guard, across the street to the new facility.
Sheriff Leroy Broadus said the Milam County Sheriff’s Department uncovered a marijuana growing operation on a county road south of Milano.
Twenty-one persons from Rockdale and Cameron attended an organizational meeting to form a Little Theater group for Milam County.
Fire Chief Ralph Walters Jr. asked the public’s cooperation in not blocking access by firefighters to fire scenes after onlookers hampered RVFD access to a blaze in a Sixth Street home.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
Deanne Masur was the valedictorian and Lance Schielack the salutatorian of the 108-candidate Rockdale High School graduating class of 1999.
In what was believed to be the first installation of its kind in Texas, the Texas Department of Transportation installed an “at grade” crossing across FM 2116 to assist lignite haulers coming to and from Alcoa’s mining area.
Eleven members of the Cameron Junior-High Band were checked over at Scott & White Hospital after the school bus in which they were riding was in a collision which killed the driver.
Larry Pipkin’s Rockdale Tiger baseball team defeated Mexia 4-3 and 15-9 to claim an area Class 3A title and send the Tigers into the state quarterfinals.
TEN YEARS AGO....
A select group of Rockdale voters approved the creation of a Municipal Development District (MDD) by five votes, 49 to 44. Only voters living in areas of the city annexed since 2002 were eligible to vote in the special balloting.
Milano and Thorndale school board voters were in an anti-incumbent mood. Challengers to two Thorndale ISD trustees won by 4-to-1 margins and the only incumbent Milano member to seek re-election ran last in a field of four.
The city council was seeking ways to get an owner of an east-side business to clean up the location along East Cameron Avenue (US 79). Council members termed the area “a junk yard.”
Coach Jarad Richards guided the Rockdale Tiger baseball team into the post-season for the first time in 10 years. RHS was to face Huffman Hargrave in bi-district action.
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