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, 17 Feb 1927, Vol 40, No 41, Pg. 1 Col 3--SCHOOL NOTES--The Higbee Boys basketball team went to Marshall Thursday evening to a tournament. They played Alma first and were defeated. Alma won the cup in "A" class. They next played Grain Valley and defeated them. The third game was with Sedalia. As Sedalia won the cup in class B, they defeated the Higbee team. The boys returned Saturday night. Those that went were Earl Durnill, Emerson Hare, Joe Jones, Franklin Atkins, Carl Lloyd, Virgil Ancell, Wilford Ware and James Cadmus. They were accompanied by their coach, William Paulfrey. Thursday, 17 Feb 1927, Vol 40, No 41, Pg. 1 Col 3--DOUGHERTY-PEMBERTON--Mr. Jas. C. Dougherty and Miss Ruby Evelyn Pemberton, two of the community's popular young folks, stole a march on family and friends Tuesday by being quietly married by Squire T. B. Magruder at his home in this place, taking the train north before anyone was aware of the wedding and returning the next day. The bride is the pretty daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Pemberton and is popular among a wide circle. The groom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Dougherty of Howard county and is a hard working and most worthy and deserving young man. The NEWS joins other friends in best wishes. Thursday, 17 Feb 1927, Vol 40, No 41, Pg. 1 Col 4--SURPRISE BIRTHDAY DINNER--Thursday, the 10th, being Arthur Hudson's 47th birthday, his daughter, Mrs. Harrell Dinwiddie, surprised him with a big birthday dinner, the guests being Mr. and Mrs. George Morgan, Moberly; Mr. and Mrs. John Chesser, Mr. and Mrs. John M. Hudson, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Kelso and Marvin Hudson. The day was most pleasantly spent by all, and by none more than by Arthur, whose friends hope he may enjoy many, many more such occasions. Thursday, 17 Feb 1927, Vol 40, No 41, Pg. 1 Col 5--SENIORS ENTERTAINED--Mr. and Mrs. Martin Robb and son, Billie, entertained the senior class of the Higbee High School on Tuesday evening from 7 to 11 o'clock. Those present: Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Korgel, Misses Claudine Robb, Juanita Walton, Marjorie Burton, Nellie Edwards, Dorothy Wheeler, Gladys Laight, Ruby Edwards, Charlotte Burkhalter, Mary Roberts, Helen Jones, Messrs. Franklin Atkins, Wilford Ware, Rankin Little, Dallas Wheeler, Virgil Ancell, Lewis Harris, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Kelso and Mr. and Mrs. John Ware. A most enjoyable evening was spent in games. Refreshments were served. Thursday, 17 Feb 1927, Vol 40, No 41, Pg. 1 Col 5--A SAD, SAD HOME--Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Orton, Jr., Lose Their Two Youngest Children From Croup--The home of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Orton, Jr., is the saddest in the community, the Death Angel having invaded it twice this week, taking the baby boy, Henry Dale, aged one year and two months, on Sunday, and the next to the youngest, Harry Cecil, aged 3 years and 3 months, Tuesday night, death in each case being caused from croup and tonsillitis. The oldest child of the family is suffering from measles, while two others are quite sick, but their condition is not at all serious, we are glad to state, although under the circumstances the parents are tortured with apprehension. Funeral services for the baby were held Monday at the home by Elder W. C. Chapman, and the little boy laid to rest in the Higbee cemetery. Services for the second one will be held at the home today by Mr. Chapman at 1 o'clock and the little body laid to rest by the side of the baby brother. In their double sorrow Mr. and Mrs. Orton have the profoundest sympathy of all. Thursday, 17 Feb 1927, Vol 40, No 41, Pg. 1 Col 6--S. D. EDWARDS SERIOUSLY INJURED--The many Higbee friends of S. D. (Doug) Edwards, who was here on a visit a few weeks ago from Pearl, Ill., where he has been located for several years, he has been located for several years, will learn with regret of a very serious accident which befell him Thursday night of last week, he having his skull fractured in a collision between a handcar and a railroad velocipede or speeder. With his section crew Mr. Edwards was returning from a wreck, when the speeder being driven by an operator who was going to work, and going in the opposite direction met head-on in the dark, neither car, it is said, carrying a light. The operator escaped with a broken leg and other less injuries, while Mr. Edwards had his skull fractured. He was taken to a hospital in Springfield, Ill., and up to Sunday had not regained consciousness, and was operated on that day since which time he has been conscious part of the time. When heard from yesterday he was doing as well as could be expected. The NEWS joins his legion of friends in the hope for his speedy recovery. Thursday, 17 Feb 1927, Vol 40, No 41, Pg. 3 Col 1&2--THIS WEEK IN MISSOURI HISTORY, Compiled by The State Historical Society of Missouri. Floyd Shoemaker, Secretary, Columbia, MO.--February 19, 1821, one hundred and six years ago this week, there was born at Lexington, Ky., one of the most illustrious of Missouri's adopted sons--Francis Preston Blair, Jr., better known to Missourians as Frank Blair. "This great man," said Champ Clark, on the occasion of the presentation to Congress of the statues of Blair and Benton in Statuary Hall in Washington, "this great man, for great he was beyond even the shadow of a doubt, enjoyed the distinction unique among statesmen, of being hated and loved in turn by all Missourians, of changing his political affiliations violently twice long after he had passed the formative and effervescent period of youth, and, while spending nearly his entire life in the hurly-burly of politics, of dying at last mourned by every man and woman in the state whose good opinion was worth possessing. In that respect his career is without parallel." Born in Kentucky in 1821, the third son of Francis P. Blair, Sr., who was the devoted friend and champion of Andrew Jackson; reared in Washington in friendly intimacy from childhood with "Old Hickory; the pupil of one of Kentucky's ablest lawyers and most famous teachers of law, Lewis Marshall; the life-long friend and later political protege of Missouri's stern old free-soil senator, Thomas H. Benton, Frank Blair was steeped almost from infancy in the principles of Jacksonian democracy. He could scarcely have been expected to embrace any other career than that of politics, and, in the light of the political issues so soon to be become dominant in state and nation, eventually to have followed any other profession than that of a soldier. Blair was educated at Chapel Hill College, North Carolina, and at Princeton University, later completing the law course at Transylvania University in Kentucky. His early life was spent chiefly in Washington, where his father, Francis P. Blair, Sr., as editor of the Washington Daily Globe, was the light and guidance of the democratic forces during the administrations of both Jackson and Van Buren. Upon the advice of Senator Benton, young Blair came to St. Louis in 1843 to begin the practice of law. At the outbreak of the Mexican war in 1846, he enlisted in the famous regiment of Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan, which served with such distinction in the memorable campaign that led through Santa Fe, Chihuahua, Monterey and Sacramento. Returning to St. Louis in 1847, Blair again became active in politics, as one of the followers of Benton and a Democratic leader in the State. In 1852 he was elected to the legislature on the Benton ticket and was re-elected in 1854. In 1857, following Benton's final defeat, he served in the 35th Congress as Representative from the St. Louis district, and again in 1861 in the 37th session. However, the stand of the Democratic party on the question of slavery and the imminence of civil war over this issue, caused Blair to withdraw from the ranks of the Democracy and to join the Republicans. He resigned his seat in Congress early in 1861, and returning to St. Louis, without "leave or license" from any authority, either state or national, began the recruiting and training of four regiments of infantry, mostly Germans, which he armed in part with guns bought with money solicited from Northern and St. Louis Unionists. These regiments he offered to President Lincoln when Governor Jackson refused to supply Missouri's quota of the 75,000 volunteers. They were promptly accepted and from that time until the close of the war, Frank Blair was a soldier in the service of the Union and Missouri. The story of his zeal in fostering Union sentiment in St. Louis and the state at large; of his foresight in organizing and drilling troops; of his daring in ignoring constituted authority and defying interference; of his strategy in persuading General Scott to send General Nathaniel Lyon into Missouri with soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas, that the St. Louis Arsenal might be held by Federal troops; of his cooperation with Gen. Lyon in capturing Camp Jackson--all of this is the story of the fight for Missouri and its ultimate success. Whatever one's personal bias in regard to the issues involved and the methods used, it must still be conceded that to Frank Blair more than to any other one man belongs the credit of Missouri's allegiance to the Union. At the close of the war, when he returned to St. Louis, Blair soon reentered the political arena, this time as a Democrat and as the champion of the restoration policy of the martyred Lincoln, as opposed to the reconstruction program of the Republican administration. In 1868 he was nominated for vice president of the United States, by the national Democratic convention, but the ticket was, of course, defeated. In 1871 he was again returned to the lower house of the Missouri General Assembly, and was at once elected to the U. S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Charles D. Drake. Blair served as a member of the senate until 1873. He died in St. Louis on July 8, 1875, at the age of 54. When Missouri was called upon to select her two most illustrious sons whose lives were to be commemorated in bronze in Statuary Hall in the national capitol, she chose to stand beside the figure of her veteran senator, Benton, that of her greatest soldier and statesman, Francis Preston Blair, Jr. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.