25 years ago: April 29, 1998

The high school will be getting a new band director next year. Charles Van Middlesworth will be the vocal and music director. He was officially hired Monday night at the school board meeting.

Ed and Daisy Gergick were featured with their pigeons. They raise rare breeds of pigeons, including Thai Laughers and English and Drunner Pouters. With their daughter, Teresa, they also raise miniature horses.

Wayne Yorkavich and his son-in-law Eric Juneman were picture with the 15 lb. flathead they caught in Stranger Creek.

50 years ago: April 26, 1973

Fred Zoellner passed away on April 26th at the age of 71. Mr. Zoellner was born May 23, 1901, in Tonganoxie and had lived in Tonganoxie his entire lifetime.

The City Council has passed an emergency ordinance revising the rates for using the city’s dump and has initiated a new ticket purchase system for the dump’s use. City Clerk, Harriet Hughes, said the fee schedule primarily affects large truck trash dumping. The changes were made because large trucks from Kansas City have been bringing trash to Tonganoxie’s dump about three miles west of the city. Anyone living in the city or immediate surrounding area must buy a ticket at the city hall.

Postmaster John White disclosed today that customers attending the Tonganoxie “Postal People Day,” observance at the local post office April 30th will be given attractive free souvenir envelopes. Ceremonies will be held for issuances of a unique new set of ten 8 cent postage stamps honoring two-thirds of a million postal people across the nation, including the seven Tonganoxie employees.

The Mirror was started in April 1882, so this issue of the paper turns over a new leaf after finishing 91 years without missing an issue. The paper was started by an adventurous British ex-sailor by the name of George Broadbere, who hired a Tonganoxie youngster, Wm. Heynen, to help him. Mr Broadbere sold the newspaper to Mr. Heynen, who bought it with unpaid wages and continued to publish the paper for 35 years, selling it in 1919 to Ben Williams. The Neibarger family purchased the paper in 1926 and has now published it for 47 years. The Mirror is the oldest established business in Tonganoxie operating under the same name.

75 years ago: April 22, 1948

A joyous celebration happened Saturday, April 3 at Sacred Heart Church in Tonganoxie when Miss Nadine Kenton and Mr. Thomas Holton were united in holy matrimony. The bride wore a blue wool suit and a gold bracelet that her mother wore on her wedding day. The couple’s siblings, Doris Kenton and John were the attendants. The couple left on a two-week honeymoon and will reside on a farm southeast of Tonganoxie. We welcome them to our community and hope they’ll be here for a long while.

Mabel Stephenson and pupils of Pleasant Prairie School enjoyed a picnic at Swope Park in Kansas City Missouri. It was a long ways from home but an enjoyable ride there and on the return.

Several adults in the community have been struck in the jaw by a nasty assailant. The sneaky culprit is none other than the MUMPS! Beware and steer clear of anyone sporting a swollen neck and throat!

Rumsey Quisenberry Furniture reminds brides that a better rest makes a better husband. So, be sure and get the best mattress that money can buy. Only $29.95 and features anti-bulge and anti-sag components for years and years of wonderful comfort. Come and see.

100 years ago: April 26, 1923

The better cream campaign which was inaugurated a month ago in the state has met with general success. Producers of first grade cream feel that the 3-cent premium is a just reward for merit. Farmers who have formerly been careless in caring for this highly perishable product are now making rapid strides in improving their methods.

Oscar Botts, of Kansas City, formerly of Tonganoxie and Mrs. Minnie Dietrich, of Lawrence, who confessed to the McLouth bank robbery were arraigned in Justice Leech’s court last Friday afternoon, where they waived the preliminary hearing and were bound over to district court in the sum of $5000 each. The court room was filled with people from Oskaloosa and McLouth. Attorney Ed Riling, who represented Botts, and J.B. Wilson, for Mrs. Dietrich, asked the court for a small bond on the grounds that while the parties had plenty of friends they were not persons of large means and could not furnish large bonds. They also citied Judge Bender’s release of Ingalls, after conviction, on a thousand dollar bond. They argued further that such genteel and ladylike bank robbers, who would not have don’t anything more rude that to tweak the bookkeeper by the ear, as it were, should be given their liberty until such time as the state might prove them guilty.

County Attorney Worswick and H.N. Casebier, special prosecutor, asked for a substantial bond. Judge Leech set the figure at $5000, for each party. They were returned to Douglas County jail, the jail at Oskaloosa not being safe.

We are informed by officers of the Union State Bank that the amount taken was $701. Of this $291.50 was reported recovered but was still held by Douglas County officials. Botts declares he threw away the balance at Kansas City when he saw a policeman approach a streetcar which he was aboard. However, as there is evidence of Botts having been in touch with confederates before he even reached Lawrence with his loot, not much credence is given to this tale.

125 years ago: April 21, 1898

Last Friday was Creamery pay day and the patrons received their checks that day for the month of March. The sum paid was eighteen cents per pound butter fat, two cents more than the corresponding month last year, and the same sum as was paid for butter fat for the month of February. The figures paid seem to indicate that butter will not go so low as last year, but markets are uncertain at best.

Eighteen cents is a better figure than most creameries in Kansas paid for the month of March, and the number that equaled it are few.