January 4, 1934 THE CHALLENGE OF

THE NEW YEAR

Nineteen hundred thirtyfour is brim full of challenges for every man and woman on the face of the earth.

The depression of the past five years is the greatest thing that could have happened in the life time of a people. It has been the greatest challenge of the past decade.

Some have stood the gaff. Others have lost grieved, sickened and died. Few have been unharmed.

Many have conquered and are facing the future with an untiring enthusiasm. Today we are making history for the world which means failure and disaster or peace and success. We are making history for the next one hundred years.

TEXAS FARMERS TO

RECEIVE AVERAGE $6.14 PER ACRE FOR

COTTON LAND

Texas farmers will receive an average of at least $6.14 per acre this year for withholding land from cotton production in the 1934-35 Government cotton plan, according to figures sent by the Texas A&M College Extension Service by C.A. Cobb, chief of the Cotton Section, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Washington.

The rental is based upon the five-year average production of 136 pounds of lint per acre as given by the United States Department of Agriculture.

The average rental payment in the new plan will be $4.76 or more per acre, the remainder of the benefit coming in the form of at least a one-cent-per-pound parity payment on 40% of the average five-year production.

Under the 1934 cotton reduction plan, Texas farmers are eligible to receive a total of $30,650,725 in rental payments if a full 40% reduction of the State's total acreage is achieved.

GINNING STATISTICS

FOR FREESTONE

COUNTY

There were 19,450 bales of cotton ginned in Freestone County, from the crop of 1933, prior to December 13th, 1933, as compared with 15,882 bales ginned to December 13, 1932.

The next and final report will be taken on March 1st, 1934.

January 1, 1959 FOUR INJURED IN

LOCAL TRAFFIC

ACCIDENT DEC. 25

Four persons were injured in an accident on U.S. Highway 84 about one and one-half miles east of Fairfield at about 7 p.m. Dec. 25.

Injured were Leo Hunt, Jr. of Houston, driver of one automobile, and James Albert Owens of Fort Worth, driver of the other car and other occupants, Henry Lewis of Fairfield, and Jefferson Willi, Jr. of Ft. Worth.

Highway Patrolman Allen Norcross investigated and said that, according to reports, a tire blew out on one of the vehicles causing it to pull to the left and almost directly in front of the other car.

WATT NEWMAN,

PEYTON AWALT CONTEST WINNERS

The Watt Newman home was selected winner of the first place award in the Lions Club annual Christmas decoration contest Dec. 22, and the Peyton Awalt home was awarded second place.

First place award was $25 and second place was $10.

Out of town judges announced their decision Monday night after viewing outdoor decoration, appropriate to the Christmas season, all over town.

They were unaware of the names of the residents until after they made their selection of winners.

Ivy's Dry Goods was selected as the best decorated store in the business district.

The following homes were given honorable mention: C.M. Wood, W.C. Blain, Hugh D. Reed, Jr., Travis Stripling and Penny Mims.

JEANETTE DAVIS COMPLETES WORK AT

DURHAM COLLEGE

Miss Jeanette Davis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Coleman Davis of Streetman, was among the students receiving diplomas from Durham Business College of Waco, on Dec. 19.

Miss Davis completed the executive secretarial course and received her diploma with honors.

January 5, 1984

OLDEST MEMBER SIGNED, JIM MCADAMS

JOINS LOCAL VFW

POST

Commander J. Nobles Richardson of Wilbur H. Bailey Memorial Post 5872, Veterans of Foreign Wars, signed up its oldest member to date when Jim McAdams was added to the roster. Mr. McAdams saw service as a World War I serviceman.

Mr. McAdams served in France from July 15, 1918 to Dec. 18, 1918, and in the Army of Occupation in Germany from Dec. 19, 1918, to Mar. 21, 1919. He is a native of Freestone County and, "incidentally, is 92 years young," Mr. Richardson stated.

TO SUCCEED PLATT,

HOBBS ON CC BOARD

Fairfield Chamber of Commerce directors have elected Doug Hobbs to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Ed Platt on the CC's board of directors.

Mr. Platt has assumed duties with Texas Utilities Generating Company's Rockdale operation while Mr. Hobbs has taken over the duties of Mr. Platt at TUGCO's Big Brown Steam Electric Station near Fairfield.

"The Fairfield Chamber of Commerce is happy to welcome Mr. Hobbs to Fairfield and to his position on the Chamber's Board of Directors," President Jim Hejl stated this week.

NAACP TO ASSIST

SIGNING VOTERS

The Freestone County Branch of the NAACP is participating in the Church Voter Registration Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Observance which has been proclaimed by the Texas State Conference of NAACP Branches on Sunday, January 15, for all units in the State of Texas.

The organization is asking every pastor of a church in Freestone County cooperate with this statewide program.

All pastors who are willing to be a part of the Special Day are asked to call or contact the Freestone County NAACP Branch and indicate your willingness to participate.

January 7, 1999

DROUGHT AND

ABUNDANT RAINFALL, 1998 WEATHER SHOWS

CONTRASTS

Weather for 1998 turned out to be downright squirrely with a record-breaking heat wave and drought, coupled with one of the wettest years tallied for the Fairfield area.

Rains came all at once, it seems from a summer drought in which just over two inches fell in April through June, to a year end drenching in which 21.48 inches was recorded in October-December.

Daily logs kept by Federal Weather Observer Barney Leach show that a total of 1.3 inches of rain for 1998 with a 42 percent of that amount coming in the last quarter of the year.

Temperatures last summer soared to 100 degrees on 44 days topping the record of 39 days set during 1980.

The triple digit weather started in June and continued in to September.

Hottest day of the summer, 107 degrees, was recorded by Leach on August 1, although June provided a 105-degree reading, 104 degrees was posted in July and the mercury reached 106 in September.

MARRIAGE NARROWLY

BEATS DIVORCE

FILINGS As in years past, a tally of marriages and divorces in Freestone county ran neckand neck in 1998, with marriage winning by a nose, 154 to 153.

Couples applying for marriage licensees peaked in the first half of the year, with the county clerk's office reporting 90 through the end of June and 64 from July through December.

Divorces followed the same trend with 89 couples filing in the district clerk's office in the first six months, and 64 for the second.

A closer look at the divorce figures, however, shows them to be skewed statistically in one way-- of the 153 divorce cases, 31 of them involve state prison inmates residing in the Boyd Unit in Freestone county.

COUNTY OFFICIALS OFF

SALARY HEARING

DUTY

Freestone county commissioners voted to take elected officials on the salary grievance committee out of the pay dispute resolution process by replacing them with private citizens.

The salary grievance committee has had a busy year in 1998, holding a series of hearings that ultimately resulted in raising two peace justice salaries by about $7,000.

The sole elected official remaining on the committee, County Judge Linda Grant, does so by statute but is not a voting member.