Museum Minute
May 20, 2021
Museum Minute Presents: This Week in History (According to Herrman’s Archives)
Third Week of May in the Year…
1880 – The Bates Co Record newspaper reports there are over 100 people in new Rich Hill, living in tents & wagons, awaiting the opportunity to buy lots.
1881 – West Butler (Depot Town) is rapidly growing. It has 4 or 5 businesses already.
1886 – The Butler Woolen Mills are operating, again. Mr. Fisher, proprietor.
1922 – After being delayed several days on account of a strike of local laborers, work resumes on paving North Main St., as a number of Negro laborers are imported and operations are moving at top speed.
1921 – The American Legion has accepted the Poppy of Flanders Field as the memorial insignia and urges all veterans to wear one on Memorial Day. The Butler unit is distributing them.
1915 – Petitions are being circulated in Rich Hill to bring up the local option question in Rich Hill, which is the only ‘wet spot’ (liquor sales) between Kansas City and Jasper County.
1889 – The new bandstand has been completed on the Southwest corner of the Bates Co Courthouse lawn. This compliments the one already on the Northwest corner.
1879 – The Board of Aldermen for Butler directs the City Marshal to notify all persons owning property on the South side of Dakota St. to construct sidewalks.
1895 – The drill in the boring of rich Hill’s gas well is stuck at 800 feet and machinery is being railroaded in to loosen it so boring can continue.
1912 – Earnest Light, of Hume, receives a telegram from his sister, Mrs. Edith Dean, that she and her two daughters were rescued from the Titanic, but her husband was lost.
1882 – Hume is overflowing, even for a Saturday afternoon as a count shows the square crowded with 54 wagons and over 75 saddle horses tied up.
1920 – Virginia Cemetery Asso, west of Butler, is planting 25 evergreen trees in the cemetery.
1871 – The Ohio Street Methodist Episcopal Church is dedicated. Cost $4,500.
1895 – 9 graduates receive diplomas at the 11th annual commencement of Rich Hill High School.
1858 – Joshua Durand is plotting out the town of Prairie City. (10 miles east of Rich Hill).
1919 – A crowd of several thousand participates in Soldiers & Sailors Day, on the square in Butler. Speeches, shows, ball games, & aerial exhibitions are held.
1921 – A large crowd gathers at the Cubbin Motor Company in Butler, as a monster truck, pulls into the street by Cubbins business. It is made by the Goodyear rubber company, is 12 feet high, 4 feet wide and weighs 2 tons.
1884 – 2 iron bridges arrive and are unloaded at Adrian, for the northern part of the county. 1 is unloaded at Rich Hill for Papinville.
