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May 14: Years Ago…
Years Ago

‘Years Ago’ is a compilation of newsy tidbits as published in the Crawford County Independent & Kickapoo Scout on this week ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or sixty years ago.

TEN YEARS AGO

MAY 13, 2010 –             Christina Volden, from the Soldiers Grove Branch of Peoples State Bank, read to the kindergarten and second grade classes at North Crawford School for National Teach a Child to Save Day on Tuesday, April 27… Russ Brockway stands next to the large morel mushroom he carved from a tree stump in his backyard in Seneca… Havana Lloyd celebrated her eighth birthday last Sunday by being chosen Poppy Princess of Unit 20 American Legion Auxiliary in Soldiers Grove.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

MAY 18, 2000 – Jeannette McCormick, 6, was one of the youngsters riding very wooly sheep in the Mutton Bustin’ segment of the Little Britches Rodeo held over the weekend in Gays Mills. She is the daughter of Gary and Kris McCormick of rural Gays Mills. They loaned the sheep used in the rodeo… A mild winter resulting in a complete lack of snow days was the basis for a discussion at the meeting of the North Crawford School Board. The board was undecided at the end of the meeting with some members hoping to end the school year two days early, but with reports that contracts may not allow for that to happen.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

MAY 17, 1990 – Four individuals were arrested at a raid conducted by federal deputy marshals, officers from the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department and Gays Mills Police Friday night. The four were picked up at a farmhouse that was rented from Robert Scott Johnson on O’Neil Road in rural Gays Mills. They are Roy Vernon Dean, 33, who has been the subject of an intense search since being added to the U.S. Marshal’s service ‘15 most wanted’ list of fugitives a month ago; Dean’s sister, Mary O’Guinn, 42; Roland Ramos, 25, and Tammy Johnston, 22… The Mt. Sterling Homemakers Club donated 14 lap robes made by members of the club to the residents of Sannes Skogdalen in honor of Nursing Home Week.

FORTY YEARS AGO

MAY 15, 1980 – A couple of fast-talking con men tried to take advantage of an elderly couple in Mt. Sterling this past week. A pickup truck with two men made an offer to Ole and Inga Helgerson to black-top their driveway for $8.50, but after the job was done it turned out that it was going to cost them $8.50 per gallon of seal coat needed to cover their driveway. The Helgersons paid the men with a check. When the two men came into the bank around 3 o’clock Friday afternoon to cash the check, the banker, Gary Gordinier at the Gays Mills Bank, called Crawford County Sheriff Bill Fillbach. The sheriff went to see the Helgersons that night and got their statement. Ole told him, “I guess I got gypped.” At six o’clock the next morning, the sheriff, undersheriff and two Grant County officers knocked on the door of a camper parked at Wyalusing State Park. Fillbach explained to the man who came to the door- a man who matched the Helgerson’s description – that he and his friend had misrepresented their services to an elderly Mt. Sterling couple and the sheriff wanted their $200 back. “I told them I’d be back with a warrant for their arrest if they didn’t cooperate,” Fillbach said. They were able to get Ole and Inga’s money back and it was returned to the grateful couple.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

MAY 13, 1970 – Candy and Penny Clark are pictured at the sawmill owned by their grandfather, Harry Helgeson of Towerville. They are the daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Larry Clark. The girls realized that one can find ice and wild plum blossoms on the same warm May day. Snow and ice buried in the sawdust pile stay intact until they are dug out. If not disturbed they would keep until well along in the summer. 

SIXTY YEARS AGO

MAY 12, 1960 – Crawford County highway crewmen, in the midst of a steady downpour of rain and at times in swirling, soggy snow, worked around the clock Friday to keep county thoroughfares free from rock and landslides. Numerous boulders, one the size of a non-compact car, slid into the ditch along the Mississippi River bluff country’s Highway 35. At Mt. Sterling, about 30 feet of the stone retaining wall in front of the schoolhouse gave way to water pressure and soil behind it. This same wall was extensively repaired several seasons ago and for the same reason.