‘County’s oldest building doomed’
Excerpted stories in Crawford County newspaper archives
100 years ago
May 6, 1926
City and county authorities today were attempting to trace down the identity of thieves, believed to have been two in number, who at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon trapped James Lasure, mine foreman at the No. 7 Radley mine, near Radley, and Walter Manley of Arcadia far back in the shaft with a rapidly diminishing supply of air while they proceeded to loot the fan house. Lasure was with Manley in the mine, working at a point about a mile back from the entrance, deep down in the workings, when they noticed coal dust and stale air collecting.
Arrangements for feeding the throngs of people expected in Pittsburg for the golden jubilee celebration May 20 will be made Saturday afternoon during a conference of members of the basket dinner committee of the celebration commission and representatives of the various churches. The conference Saturday afternoon will be in the commissioners chambers at the City Hall. Members of the basket dinner group met yesterday afternoon at the City Hall at the call of Leo Chrysler, chairman of the committee on dinners. John P. Curran, chairman of the general committee, and Mayor C. Mart Montee conferred with them.
Girard, May 6. - Someone set fire to and almost completely destroyed the E. L. Rayborn home here early this morning, Fire Chief Hugo Michle declared today. The Rayborns were away from home when the fire was discovered raging in the home at 2:45 o'clock this morning. Mr. Rayborn is reported to have gone to Wichita yesterday, and Mrs. Rayborn is in Colorado. Firemen found the house in flames and thoroughly saturated with coal oil when they arrived upon the scene. Oil saturated one bed, several rugs, a davenport, numerous sofa pillows and the floors and walls of the house.
50 years ago
May 6, 1976
GIRARD - Girard's Hotel Keys, the oldest building in Crawford County, will be demolished next month to make room for a new office building. The hotel, known as the St. James when it was erected in 1881, cannot be renovated economically because of severe structural defects, owner Clayton Adair, manager of H&H Realty in Girard and proprietor of Adair Construction and Supply Co., said Tuesday. "We looked at the hotel and it didn't look to us like it could be renovated," said Adair, who recently bought the Keys from long-time owner Karl Stalker.
City maintenance workers sweep the alleys every Monday and Thursday morning and clean the parking lots "religiously" on Fridays as they have the past several years, Public Works Director Bob Yaeger said Wednesday night, answering complaints dealt at Tuesday's meeting of the Pittsburg Downtown Businessmen's Association. The merchants voted unanimously Tuesday to ask the city government to clean up downtown alleys and parking lots. The problem of trash blowing out of trash containers in the alleys is out of the city's area of responsibility and control, Yaeger said.
Sharon Wulfekammer, 510 Utah, will be one of three teachers from around Kansas to receive an award from the Kansas Arts Commission for innovative and creative teaching of the fine arts. Mrs. Wulfekammer teaches music at Eugene Field and Westside elementary schools in Pittsburg. The $250 award will be presented to her formally Monday in Topeka by Gov. Robert F. Bennett. Mrs. Wulfekammer was nominated for the SPARK (Special Programing in the Arts in Kansas) Award last fall by George Neaderhiser, music educational specialist for the Kansas Department of Education in Topeka.
25 years ago
May 6, 2001
JOPLIN, Mo. - A year ago, Pittsburg State head track and field coach Russ Jewett issued a warning to his men's team as it left Carnie Smith Stadium after the first day of the MIAA Outdoor. Jewett warned the Gorillas that though they held a 22-point lead on Central Missouri, the meet wasn't over just yet. He was right, and his Gorillas heeded the warning en route to PSU's first MIAA title since 1997. But on Saturday, Jewett stood on the track at Missouri Southern's Fred G. Hughes Stadium and said he was pleased as his team finished Day 1 of the conference meet in third place with 34 points - 12 behind first-place Central Missouri. Northwest Missouri is in second with 34.5.
TOPEKA - Negotiators took Saturday off from their deliberations on a bill to allocate $2.26 billion to public education. House members said the differences are few and will be resolved, while senators grew impatient over what they viewed as delaying tactics. Rep. Ralph Tanner, lead House negotiator, labeled "ridiculous" the suggestion that representatives were stalling. "This is an example of anxiety that seizes people under pressure," said Tanner, R-Baldwin City. Tanner noted that the conference committee was scheduled to meet Sunday afternoon.
TOPEKA - The fate of a compromise budget proposal rested with six tax and fiscal policy bills, and two of them failed to win House approval Saturday. The most contentious parts of a plan drafted by legislative negotiators would increase taxes on motor fuels and for insurance companies. The Senate approved both Friday night, with the vote 21-19 for the motor fuels tax bill and 22-18 for the insurance tax bill. Senators had added the proposals as amendments to unrelated House bills. But House members voted 96-26 against the motor fuels tax bill and 77-45 against the insurance tax bills.
