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, 3 Mar 1927, Vol 40, No 43, Pg. 1 Col 1--LIVA SLY TAKES OWN LIFE--Shoots Himself in the Head With Shotgun--Body Found by His Wife Interment in Higbee Cemetery.--The town and vicinity were greatly shocked when it became known shortly after noon Saturday that Liva Sly, living near Oak Grove school house southeast of town was dead by his own hand. Coroner McLellan was notified and was shortly on the scene, and so clear was it that Mr. Sly had made an end of himself that no inquest was deemed necessary and he ordered the body removed to the home. So far as is known, Mr. Sly left no note explaining his act, but the presumption is that ill health and worry caused a temporary aberration and that in a fit of melancholy he decided to end it all. He had been working a half mile or more from his home for several days clearing a piece of land, and seemed his usual self when he went to work that morning about 9 o'clock. He took a single-barrel shotgun with him, telling his wife as he picked it up, that there were some rabbits where he was working and that he believed he would kill a few. As he seemed himself, perfectly, and as he had never made any threat of doing such a deed, Mrs. Sly never dreamed that she had seen him alive for the last time. When he did not return for dinner at the usual hour, Mrs. Sly went to where he was working to see if anything was wrong, and her feelings can be better imagined than expressed when she found him stark and cold in death. The coroner was called as soon as possible, as was Joe W. Burton, undertaker. The latter informs us that from the position of the body he is sure Mr. Sly was sitting on a stump with the gun barrel resting between his eyes at the base of the forehead when he fired the fatal shot, releasing the trigger with a forked stick, evidently cut for the purpose, and lying close by. The body was lying by the side of the stump with the left hand still tightly gripping the gun barrel. Despite the fact that the shell was loaded with three drams of powder and an ounce and an eighth of No. 6 shot, the charge did not tear the top of the head off as might have been expected, but plowed through the brain and lifted the skull at the crown, but not breaking through. Liva Sly was the son of David and Elizabeth Sly, and was born on December 22, 1869, at Flora, Ill., and died February 27, 1927. In 1903 he was married to Miss Maude Moore, who, with three children--Opal, Noble and Kenneth--survives. He is also survived by his mother, now Mrs. Elizabeth Eutsey, of Des Moines, Ia., and three sisters--Mrs. Rena Britton, also of Des Moines, Mrs. James Jobson and Mrs. I. N. Summers of this place, and one brother, Walter Sly, of Madison. Funeral services were conducted at the home Monday by the Rev. Notley Magruder, of the Baptist church, with which deceased united in 1915 at Ash, Mo., in the presence of a large concourse of sorrowing neighbors and friends. Interment was made in Higbee cemetery. We had known deceased for many, many years, and never had any reason to consider him anything other than an upright christian gentleman, hard working to an extreme, honest as the day was long and quiet and unassuming, and we never heard him say a word of harm of anyone. The hearts of all who knew him go out to his wife and children, but above all to his aged mother, who was all but crushed by the sad news and who on account of the infirmities of age was unable to attend the funeral. Thursday, 3 Mar 1927, Vol 40, No 43, Pg. 1 Col 1--IN MEMORIAM In loving memory of Henry Dale Orton, born December 4, 1925 and died February 13, 1927, and his brother, Harry Cecil Orton, born November 19, 1923, and died February 15, 1927, sons of Mr. and Mrs. George Orton, Jr. "As the sweet flower that scents the morn, But withers in the rising day, Thus lovely seemed the infants dawn, Thus swiftly fled his life away. Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade, Death timely came with friendly care, The opening bud to heaven conveyed, And bade it bloom forever there." "Another hand is beckoning us; Another call is given, And glows once more with angel steps, The path that leads to heaven." Thursday, 3 Mar 1927, Vol 40, No 43, Pg. 1 Col 1--Mrs. David Kelso, who was called to Taylorville, Ill., by the death of her father, Sam Smith, left for her home in Colorado Friday after a short visit with Higbee relatives. Thursday, 3 Mar 1927, Vol 40, No 43, Pg. 1 Col 2--WALTER DAVIES DOING NICELY--Walter Davies, who was taken to a Boonville hospital two weeks ago, and where he was operated on, is doing nicely, his many friends will be glad to learn. His trouble was diagnosed as appendicitis, and the operation disclosed, we learn, that the appendix had lapped around and adhered to the intestine, making any cure or improvement impossible without an operation. He was advised, we learn, that had he delayed his trip a week longer, his case would have been hopeless. He has had more than his share of poor health during the past few years, and along with his other friends The NEWS hopes he can soon return as sound as a new dollar. Thursday, 3 Mar 1927, Vol 40, No 43, Pg. 1 Col 3--THOS. WARFORD UNDER KNIFE. Tumor as Large as Duck Egg Removed From His Brain Monday.--Doing Nicely.--Thos. L. Warford of Madison, formerly of this place, was operated on in Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, Monday morning for tumor of the brain, and when last heard from was doing as well as could be expected, but what his chances for recovery are we are not advised, but understand that recovery in such cases is about one in forty, from which it will be seen that Mr. Warford is in a very precarious condition, although the early symptoms may be favorable. Mr. Warford had not been in the best of health for three or four years, and some two years ago was operated on by the Mayos for some stomach disorder. For a year or more his sight has been failing, and for several months one of his arms and legs would take spells of twitching and jerking, when he went to the Mayos for a further examination. He was advised, we understand, that he was likely suffering from prostatic trouble, but he returned home without taking any treatment, and a short time later, when he came to Higbee to attend the funeral of Dr. C. F. Burkhalter's little granddaughter, Lucille Warren, he was examined by the Doctor, who diagnosed the trouble as perhaps tumor of the brain. On going back home, Mr. Warford studied over the matter, and as he had every confidence in Dr. Burkhalter's ability, he having made his home with the Doctor for several years, decided that he would go to St. Louis for an examination by a brain specialist. The latter's diagnosis agreed with that of Dr. Burkhalter, and was proven correct by the x-ray. The operation was to have been performed last Thursday, but as Mr. Warford caught cold and developed a sore throat the day before, it was thought best to postpone the operation until Monday. Dr. Burkhalter went to the city Sunday night and was present during the operation. He advised us that Mr. Warford, who was given only a local anesthetic, was on the table just four hours, two hours being required to reach and remove the tumor, which was under and grown to the right side of the brain, and was of a size between a duck egg and a goose egg. The only evidence of pain exhibited by Mr. Warford, Dr. Burkhalter states, was when the last cut was made which freed the tumor, when he remarked, "Ouch! that hurt." The operation was performed by Dr. Saaks, the city's greatest brain specialist, and one of the best in the country. Because of this fact, and that he will be under that surgeon's care, as well as of special nurses, and the further fact that no adverse news as to his condition has come, Mr. Warford's friends are encouraged to hope for the best. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright notice: All transcriptions in this email are copyrighted by their creator. 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