Good Afternoon: We have another week of the newspapers on the web site. The week of March 7, 1918, which gives some new obits and the docket for the circuit court, too, was just added. http://www.rootsweb.com/~mobarry/news/7/index-7.htm New obits added to the obit section are for: Nancy Jane Barker, Robert Lewis Barr's Baby, Mayme Cantrell, Charles A. Williams, William A. Fly's funeral item was added to his obit, Jack Hisey's daughter, James Riddle, Mrs. Joe Vermillion, Mrs. E.W. Bowman, Homer Pennel's Baby, Andrew Jackson Russell. http://www.rootsweb.com/~mobarry/data/obits.htm The 1918 Cassville papers are filled with items about people who had smallpox and about boys who were going away to the service. In the early weeks of 1918 some were shipping out to France but most were still in training camps. The second draft call from Barry County was being made and reports from some of the camps were being sent to the papers. Smallpox appears to have come into the county from Oklahoma and it seems to have first occurred in the Sparkman family of near Washburn. There was an item that stated that they thought it was brought to them by some out of town guest from OK. By March 7th this awful disease had spread around the county and several people seem to have been suffering with it. It appears that most survived somehow or another, but I did see where one member of the Sparkman family died from it. The George Hall family of Exeter had it, too - they were Sparkman relatives. I don't know how many cases the paper reported in the county but several. These early papers are on micorfilm from the State Historical Society in Columbia and are on microfilm. They can be sent to your local libray on an interlibrary loan. You are welcome to save the items to your computer for your own personal use, but you don't have permission to post them on other websites unless I gave you the permisson to do so. Remember that referencing your items when you save them is the mark of a good genealogist. Have a good day and enjoy these old bits of history. Donna Cooper