Stories from Friday, September 22, 2006

100 YEARS AGO (1906) "Closed for Inventory" was the sign posted on the window of the Kress store today. No business was being transacted. H.A. McLean, who recently resigned as manager, was to have been relieved this morning by a Mr. Birmingham. Mr. McLean, acting on the advice of his attorneys, J.I. ...

Jack Eldon Grubb Jr., age 49, a resident of Garland, died Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at his home. He was born January 8, 1957, in Wichita, the son of Jack Eldon Grubb Sr. and Marjorie J. Byington Turner. He was originally a diesel mechanic, but later received an Associates Degree in Computer Technology from Washburn University. He then worked for eleven years in the information technology department at the S.R.S. central office in Topeka...

The Rev. Sylvester Earl Travis, age 94, a resident of Fort Scott, died Thursday, September 21, 2006, at the Medicalodge of Fort Scott. He was born July 28, 1912, in East Peru, Iowa, the son of Martin Beatty Travis II and Nellie Francis Hoover. He married Evelyn Lorraine Brooker-Finch on February 22, 1953, in Winterset, Iowa. She preceded him in death in 2002. He was employed by the Union State Bank of Winterset, Iowa, for10 years...

A judge will decide on Monday whether there's sufficient probable cause to allow a jury decide the fate of a Richards, Mo., man accused of raping a 16-year-old Bourbon County teenager. The preliminary hearing of 42-year-old Edward E. Thomas is set for 1:15 p.m. Monday at the Bourbon County Courthouse, 210 S. National Ave...

A bill headed for the floor of the U.S. Senate later this fall could cut funding for a weatherization program managed by the Southeast Kansas Community Action Program that is headquartered in Girard, a SEK-CAP statement said. Earlier this week, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported legislation that includes a 16 percent cut to the U.S. ...

Crawford County authorities are currently trying to determine exactly what happened when a Ford van on Tuesday struck an 11-year-old boy riding a bicycle in Girard. Jacob Daniel Gobl, Girard, was rushed to Girard Hospital District No. 1 and later transported to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., where he died on Wednesday from injuries stemming from the accident, according to statement by Girard Police Department...

A recent addition to the Gordon Parks collection of works exhibited at Mercy Health Center has a special and unique meaning. Nine of the famous Fort Scott native's most popular poems, all of which he signed and which are accompanied by a photograph of him, are now on public display at the hospital. The collection includes such poems as "Homecoming" and "A Sign by the Road," which were written about Parks' relationship with his hometown...

100 YEARS AGO (1906) H.J. Goff, a farmer living near Pawnee, will this week have a public auction of his personal property with a view to moving to Fort Scott. He comes here to educate his children. The annual horse show at Richards, nine miles east of Fort Scott, in Vernon County, Mo., will be held Friday and Saturday. ...

To the Editor: We have been working very hard to try to save the park at U.S. 54 and K-7. We have also gotten other people involved to help who feel just as strongly as we do about the park at the corner of U.S. 54 and K-7. We have involved lawyers, Senator Jim Barone, Representative Lynne Oharah, Congressman Jim Ryun, Senator Sam Brownback's office, business men and women, my family, and neighbors...