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, 18 Nov 1926, Vol 40, No 29, Pg. 2 Col. 2,3&4--HUNTSVILLE LETTER, By W. T. Dameron. (Edited by compiler)--When the "Stars" Fell.--Ninety-three years ago today, Nov. 13, 1833, the "stars" fell, visible in these parts of the world. Here is the story of their falling, as told to me by my father, 28 years ago: "The worst scare that I ever had, I think, was on the night of November 13, 1833, when the stars fell. I thought the end of time was at hand, and I with many others, expected to become consumed with brimstone and fire, if some good spirit did not carry me away above all this. A look at the elements was enough, as I thought, to convince the most skeptical that the day of judgment was at hand. It was the most wonderful sight I ever beheld. Stars and long fiery tailed comets fell thick and fast, and it looked more like raining balls of fire than anything else that I can describe. Occasionally I would go to the door and it seemed to me that the whole woods and fields were on fire, and I imagined that I could see the flames licking up the whole earth. The stars began to fall about midnight and kept it up until after daylight, and they made a peculiar noise when they hit the ground. this occurred on Sunday, as I remember, being up nearly all the night before at a social party at Gerrard McKinney's, on Silver Creek, south of Mt. Airy. As I came home from the party that morning I noticed quite a number of stars shooting through the elements, but gave it no further thought. It was about one o'clock the next morning when my mother came to my room and aroused me from sleep, saying, "George, get up, get up, the day of Judgment has come!" I jumped out of bed, pulled on my pants and ran into Mother's room, being frightened terribly bad. She was praying to God to save her children, and father walking the floor, wringing his hands, but not saying a word. I was an awful wicked boy at that time, but a peep out at the elements brought me to my knees in prayer to Almighty God, imploring Him to save my soul from sin before the imaginary fire reached me. My mother wished to have all her children at home before Gabriel's trumpet should sound. My youngest brother, William, who was about 12 years old at the time, was not scared quite as badly as myself, and was dispatched to Burton Palmer's, about 1 1/2 miles distance, for sister Frances, who had gone there to spend the night. I was 18 years old and was sent after sister Sallie and her husband, Hugh Dobbins, who only lived a few hundred yards, from us. It was hard to tell which was the harder sinner, Hugh or I. We would curse "blue streaks" at the least provocation and generally, without cause; but the sight of the stars falling brought Hugh to his knees as well as myself. When the family got together, that is, all of us then living in the neighborhood, we had a mighty noisy prayer meeting. I know that anyone could have heard Hugh and me praying a mile away. We prayed to God to forgive us of our wicked sins and of all the little mean tricks we had ever been guilty of, but we realized no peace of salving for our guilty consciences, and spent the remainder of the night in a most desperate frame of mind. I suppose we were too badly scared to pray right for the pardon of our sins, or our petitions would have been answered. During these awful hours my father's negroes were having a wild time and the shouts and noise they made were far ahead of our own. "Uncle" Jeff was the only religious negro among the whole number that my father owned. He spent the night in singing and praying for those who were crying for mercy. Sam, a young negro about 14 years old, came running into our room, shouting and praising God at the top of his voice, but he looked as if he were frightened nearly to death. Mother suspicioned that he was not converted, but frightened out of his senses. She called out and said, "Sam, stop that shouting; you are scared; get down on your knees and get to praying." Sam dropped to his knees and went at it for dear life, but Sam, like the rest of us was scared so badly that he realized no peace. I remember, during the highest pitch of our "exercises," an old lame gander, the only one we owned, came limping and quacking into our room, seeming to say, "Pray for me, too." Mother discovered it and said: "See, the poor old gander has come in too. It knows that Judgment Day has come!" and our exercises were carried on until daylight, and when the sun began to rise in its usual place, the scare with us began to wear off, and as we did not hear the expected sound of Gabriel's trumpet, Hugh and I got to laughing and joking each other about our "scared petitions," and we were soon back in the old ruts of wickedness. There were many things happened in that neighborhood that night as reported afterwards.. Most all the people were scared more or less. Our nearest neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Isaiah Humphrey, watched the stars fall for a while and went back to bed, thinking of the matter as an unusual occurrence only. They had not been in bed long, however, before some of their neighbors rapped on their door and cried out, "Get up, Mars' Isaiah, get up, you, Missus, Judgment Day am come!" Mrs. Humphrey called out and said, "You negroes go back to bed. Whoever heard of Judgment Day coming at night?" George B. Dameron, a cousin of mine, used to laugh and tell me about a negro Methodist preacher that his father, "Ball" Dameron, owned. When the stars were falling and in the midst of the thickest of the shower of the stars, Old Bob, the negro preacher knocked on Mr. Dameron's door and said, "Mars Ball, Mars Ball, get up quick. De Day of 'rection am come. De stars am fallin' already." Thursday, 18 Nov 1926, Vol 40, No 29, Pg. 3 Col. 1--A MURDER AT MADISON--George Farrell, 70, Shoots Cousin, 39, In Quarrel, Over Estate.--Madison, Mo., Nov. 14, George Farrell, 70 years old, attorney and former Mayor of Madison, shot and killed his second cousin, Lester Farrell, 39, a farmer, on the main street here Saturday afternoon. An argument between the two men is said to have arisen over the estate of Minerva Farrell, grandmother of Lester Farrell. Geo. Farrell is a petitioner for possession of the 80 acres of land comprising the estate and the two men had been on unfriendly terms. Under an agreement at the time of Mrs. Minerva Farrell's death two years ago, Lester Farrell's father, Thomas Farrell, received the land as compensation for caring for the aged woman during the later years of her life. Although the other heirs agreed to the arrangement at the time, George Farrell purchased the legal interest of several and brought partition proceedings. A public auction held under the suit is set for Nov. 29, at Paris. The value of the land is estimated at only $25 an acre. George Farrell told authorities that he shot Lester in self-defense. He said that Lester accosted him as he came out of the post office and threatened to maul him. "I told him to keep away, but he grabbed me," Farrell continued. "I am old and rather weak and I couldn't break away, so I pulled out the gun and shot him." George Farrell served two terms as Mayor here several years ago. He is a widower and lived with his daughter. Lester Farrell is survived by his widow and a year-old child. The shooting occurred in front of the Warford drug store as the pair was standing down the street together. Because of inclement weather, few persons were on the street at the time. George Farrell, who was elected Justice of the Peace of Marion township at the recent election, drew a revolver and fired three shots at Lester, witnesses assert. The bullets entered the younger man's body near the heart. Leaving his victim lying on the sidewalk, George Farrell walked into the John Forrest drug store, saying: "John, call the Sheriff to come and get me. I shot a man awhile ago." He is now in jail at Paris. Thursday, 18 Nov 1926, Vol 40, No 29, Pg. 3 Col. 3--SOUTH OF TOWN ITEMS--Mr. and Mrs. Mike Ridgway and sons, Hugh and Kenneth, Mr. and Mrs. Owen Asbury and baby, Rodney, were dinner guests of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Blaise, Sunday. Thursday, 18 Nov 1926, Vol 40, No 29, Pg. 5, Col 1--Born, on the 14th, to Mr. and Mrs. Earl Williams, of near Burton, a son. Thursday, 18 Nov 1926, Vol 40, No 29, Pg. 5, Col 1--MT. PLEASANT ITEMS--The stork has been quite a busy bird in this part of the country here of late having visited the home of Richard Atkins and wife last Sunday night, a week ago, leaving them a little daughter, and the next visit he made was at the home of James T. Dougherty and wife last Monday, leaving them a fine son. All are doing nicely we understand. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.