The following are selected articles from a Newspaper titled, "The Higbee News" which was issued out of the town of Higbee, in Randolph County, Missouri from the years 1888 through 1953. The editors were W. H. Welch and his son H. Scott Welch. This paper covered the Higbee area and also a great deal of the northeastern part of Howard county. The copyright notice at the end of this transcript is there for the sole purpose of keeping this work free to the public, and to ensure that it is not harvested by a fee-based corporate genealogy site, or published in any format for profit. If you decide to use the information from this transcription, PLEASE LIST ME AS THE SOURCE, rather than the paper. My transcription is another generation removed from the microfilm, and would thus be a third generation copy of the original paper. For proper documentation, a researcher should obtain a photocopy of the microfilm for their own permanent records, and use my transcript as a guide or index. The microfilm is available for interlibrary loan through the State Historical Society of Missouri, and a copy is also on file at the Moberly Public Library, generously donated by the Higbee Historical Society. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thursday, 7 Oct 1926, Vol 40, No 23, Pg.2, Col 3--OUR HUNTSVILLE LETTER, By W. T. Dameron--(Edited by compiler)--According to a diary kept by Dr. D. A. Barnhartt, it rained here the first day of this month, October, and according to an old prophecy, by the late Colby Gibson, we are to have 15 days of rain during the month. I have kept check on Colby's "sign" in other days and it generally proved true. He drove the livery bus here to the railroad station for many years to meet all passenger trains, and traveling men far and wide knew him, and all liked him. Like most individuals, Colby, in some respects, was peculiar, but he was everybody's friend, and some interesting stories might be told of his life. Sitting in Dr. Barnhart's office the other day and speaking of some of Colby's characteristics, reminded the Doctor of one time how Colby expressed himself in his characteristic way about high school graduates at that time, and graduates in his school days. Mr. Gibson and wife had no children of their own, but they reared a niece of Mrs. Gibson, who is now the excellent wife of Jim Malone, south of town. She graduated from our high school. A day or two after her graduation the Doctor met Colby on the street and proceeded to congratulate him on the successful studies of his niece and her graduation. Appreciating the compliment, of course, Colby expressed himself about as follows: "Well, Doctor, don't you know the young graduates under this grade or room advancement system they have don't know anything when they do graduate. That is, they forget all about what they learned in rooms from which they are shoved up to higher ones, that is from one grade room to another, and when most of these graduates hire out to teach in any grade school they have to go to some college a portion of the year to further equip themselves to teach in the lower grades, and this is followed from year to year, and their salary for each year is all gone, and a plea for an increase in salaries is made. But it wasn't that way under the old system when all sizes and ages sat in one room, and when students advanced as far then as the high school graduates do now. They wasn't "graduated" but were sent to some college to further prepare themselves to instruct others if wanted to teach in any of our country schools. The advantage of the old one-room system was when a student advanced from one book to another, or to higher classes in the room they heard the recital of all the classes, from the lowest to the highest, and they would advance faster and better retain what they had gone through or passed by reason of hearing it repeated so much, and they grasped and retained ideas and facts from higher classes as they went along. When a student got to the top in a one room school he was prepared to teach or impart information to any class in that school, but as a rule, if he expected to teach, he had to attend some college before he was thought competent to teach. But now our high schools turn them out by the dozens with a graduate certificate and then most of them don't know enough to teach the class of tots and when they do get a job in our graded schools they have to commence with the lowest grades and lots of them are employed to teach in the country districts where they learn much themselves from some of the advanced students. I may be a little old timey, but lots of these high or graded schools turn out young ones as graduates that don't know beans, so far as an educator is concerned." The Doctor said Colby expressed himself so earnestly along those lines that he was amused and could not help but laugh sometimes when Uncle Colby emphasized his sentences with a pyrotechnic display of words which he sometimes used to impress his meaning. Thursday, 7 Oct 1926, Vol 40, No 23, Pg.2, Col 3&4--OUR HUNTSVILLE LETTER, By W. T. Dameron--(Edited by compiler)--The picture of Dr. Robert Terrill hangs on the wall in Dr. Barnhart's office and our conversation led to some of his characteristics. Dr. Robert Terrill was the father of the late Dr. Willard P. Terrill, with whom Dr. Barnhartt officed so long. The elder Terrill was one of the old time practitioners of the county and one of the best men in the country, who spent most of his life in the country near Darksville. His practice extended in all of northern Randolph, southern Macon and eastern Chariton counties. Dr. Barnhart graduated from a St. Louis medical school in 1875, for a year or two after his graduation, and before coming to Huntsville, he resided in the country home of his old friend and neighbor, Dr. Robt. Terrill, and practiced his profession, the old Doctor having quit active practice, though he was frequently called in for consultation by other physicians. Dr. Barnhartt related a number of humorous incidents which Dr. Terrill played in his professional calls on people whom he knew were subject to hysteria, and of no serious ailment. But we pass these at this time. But here is one the Doctor told me that might be of some benefit to watermelon growers for next year, as the melon season is about over for this year. While residing with the Terrill family back in the 70's, he and the old doctor concluded to plant a watermelon patch, though the old doctor was skittish about it, as some of the neighborhood boys generally beat him to his patch and got the largest ones first. But they planted a patch and Dr. Barnhartt hoed it at odd times, and they grew some fine melons. One morning he and the old Doctor went to the patch, thinking they would find one or more ripe melons, but found none that they thought were ripe enough to eat except one or two big ones, but thought it would be best to let them remain on the vine one day and night longer. The old Doctor had a suspicion that the boys would make a raid on the patch and he said to Dr. Barnhartt, pointing to the biggest melon, "I'm mighty afraid we will lose that melon if we leave it here." But Dr. Barnhartt didn't think anyone would raid the patch for a while, at least, and they left it on the vine with expectation of feasting on it within the next day or two. The next day they again visited the patch, and sure enough the old Doctor's surmises proved true--the big watermelon, and also others, were gone. So they concluded to "doctor" a few of the nicest melons that seemed the ripest. They had an idea who the boys were that got the big melons and when they would visit the patch again. They decided on the remedy they should use. The next day the doctor went to the patch and gave a few of the nicest melons several hypodermic shots each with ipacac, and marked them so none of the family would pull them. In a day or two thereafter some of the "shot" melons disappeared and about the same time the old doctor was called to see two very sick boys in the neighborhood. The two physicians knew in an instant what the trouble was and Dr. Barnhartt was sent to "diagnose" the cases and apply the remedy which he did with suppressed laughter, and the boys soon recovered, but watermelon was not mentioned. When the young Doctor returned home the old Doctor met him at the gate with that characteristic smile, for which he was famous, and they had a good laugh over the matter, and it is useless to say that the boys gave their melon patch a wide berth after that. Thursday, 7 Oct 1926, Vol 40, No 23, Pg.2, Col 4--OUR HUNTSVILLE LETTER, By W. T. Dameron--(Edited by compiler)--Our old friend, Zack Taylor, of Roanoke was in town a short while Saturday afternoon on business. Mr. Taylor is a successful farmer and trader. He is also the owner of "Uncle Bing," the largest steer known in the United States or the world. Uncle Bing pulls down the scales to the 3600 pound notch. Mr. Taylor purchased this steer when it was three years old from a Kansas farmer when buying mules in that state, paying a fancy price for him. Uncle Bing is now seven years old, hearty and healthy, Mr. Taylor says. Mr. Taylor has exhibited the steer at country fairs in other states besides Missouri most every season since he purchased him, and says he has cleared more than enough money on the steer to cover cost. He has refused the offer of $1,000.00 for him on several occasions. He recently returned home from Iowa where he exhibited him at some of the country fairs. While there he was offered 160 acres of land for the steer, located in the northern part of the state, but turned it down because he had not time to go and inspect the land. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright notice: All transcriptions in this email are copyrighted by their creator. They may not be reproduced on another site or on any printed or recorded media, CD, etc. without specific written permission from Kathy Bowlin. Although public information is not in and of itself copyrightable, the format in which it is presented, transcriptions, notes & comments, etc. is. It is however, quite permissible to print or save the files to a personal computer for personal use only. Permission is granted to public libraries, and genealogical and historical societies to print and bind for the use of their patrons. Kathy Bowlin Additions, corrections, comments welcome.