Johnson Jottings of 1914
May 8, 1914
-Walter Banks returned Monday from a business trip to Joplin, Mo.
-Postmaster Thompson and wife spent Sunday with relatives at Steele, Ark.
-Mesdames Phillips, of Washburn, Mo., and Whetstone, of Webb City, Mo., are guests of Mrs. Val Phillips.
-Uncle Phil McGuire spent last night with friends on the north side of Clear Creek on account of the big flood heading him off from home.
-Ben Johnson, Jr., got excused from service on the petit jury at Fayetteville on account of being the local blacksmith with a lot of rush work for farmer folks ahead of him.
-Several local folks have been attending court the past week, and the usual lot of “kids” are dodging around to avoid a grand jury interview about youthful indiscretions.
-Twenty-five members of Co. B. “hiked” out from Fayetteville Sunday morning and enjoyed a practice scout along Clear Creek. Part of the boys returned home on the afternoon train, while the others trudged back across the country.
-The local folks are not thinking a great deal of the A B C “mediation board” and Uncle Sam is liable to get a big surprise from some unlooked for source before he has to really roll up his sleeves and do a fancy job of house cleaning down in Mexico.
-Henry Inman, formery of Johnson, is doing wireless telegraphy with the U.S. Signal Corps at El Paso, Tex. Thousands of refugees from Mexico are in and around El Paso, and Henry writes that quite a bit of trouble was expected there some days ago, but that affairs are a little bit quiet now.
-The prospects are good for a big berry shipment from Johnson. Express consignments will begin to go forward this week, and car load shipments are expected to begin by Monday. Estimates vary as to the crop here this season. The berries are so much better than expected that some are guessing as high as fifty cars, while others who are pessimistic, say that not more than 20 cars will be shipped. Forty-two cars were shipped from this point last season, and the previous prospects were not nigh as good as at present.
-Archy Luper was up to Johnson just before the rain yesterday and bought a lot of feed and various articles. He was in his one horse wagon, and waited until he thought it was safe enough to try to cross Big Sandy, but the ford was deep, water very swift and the horse afraid—so there was a wreck there in the branch just west of Johnson. His niece, Miss Lula Maxey, was with him, and Archy managed to rescue her and get to land when the wagon turned over. A number of folks witnessed the wreck, and several willing helpers waded in and helped Archy rescue his horse and the running gear of his wagon. The bed floated down through Late's field and lodged where the branch empties into Clear Creek. It was re-captured this morning, but very little of the stuff that Archy had purchased has been found. His loss will amount to ten or twelve dollars, but he and Miss Lula were lucky to escape with their lives.
-The heaviest rainfall that has visited this vicinity for several years came from the west about four o’clock Monday evening after several hours of hot, sultry threatening weather. The downpour was almost continuous for more than an hour, and all local branches and rivulets were soon past fording. Quite a bit of damage was done on hill side and valley farms where crops were washed away or covered by mud. A little bit of hail accompanied the rain, but not enough to do any damage. There was but very little wind. The temperature dropped in a very few minutes from away up in the 80’s to 58 degrees. Clear Creek got on one of her usual big spring over-flows, and Big Sandy, the branch coming down through Johnson, tried to surpass former efforts. Both streams are docile today that storm clouds have vanished and folks are busy repairing damage caused by the rainstorm of yesterday.
--MULKEEPMO
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