Robbers bind, slug circus owner, escape with payroll of $16,000
— Sequoyah County Times, Oct. 21, 1924
From the files of Your Sequoyah County Times
25 Years Ago
(From the Oct. 21, 1999, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Sallisaw police are investigating the death of a 27-year-old woman who was found dead of unknown causes at about 1 a.m. Sunday.
The woman’s body was sent to the medical examiner’s office in Tulsa, Det. David Bethany said.
Bethany said the woman was given permission Friday evening to use a travel trailer at a friend’s home in Sallisaw. She told the homeowner she was waiting on a ride and, since the home and trailer owner was leaving, he let her wait inside the travel trailer. The travel trailer’s owner assumed the woman’s ride had arrived Friday.
However, on Sunday the trailer owner thought he should check the trailer. That’s when the woman’s body was found, Bethany said.
50 Years Ago
(From the Oct. 17, 1974, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —The Sequoyah Water Distribution Authority met Thursday night, Oct. 15, and discussed alternative plans of obtaining and distributing water throughout Sequoyah County in light of Fort Smith’s recent decision to withdraw its participation in active discussions.
The authority, a newly formed organization of representatives from various county communities, invited Jo Hall, of the Bureau of Reclamations, Wayne Ferguson, chief planner for the Corps of Engineers, and Charles Gale, regional planner of EODD, to come to the meeting and present possible courses of action open to the county in solving its water problems.
—Apathy on the part of towns in Sequoyah County affected by the AOG rate increase request may cost communities a higher utilities bill in the very near future. Sallisaw was the only city in the district affected by AOG that sent representatives to the state Corporation Commission hearing in Oklahoma City.
AOG presented its reasoning for the rate increase at the meeting. They pointed out the increased cost of labor, materials, gas and taxes. Also there is a new regulation in the gas pipeline code which will require extensive capital outlay and a considerable amount of operation and maintenance expense.
75 Years Ago
(From the Oct. 21, 1949, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Arkansas state police and county officers were searching the back roads in the mountainous section near Berryville, Ark., Wednesday for three men in a late model black sedan and a $16,000 circus payroll.
Kelly Miller, one of the owners of the Al G. Kelly-Miller Bros. Circus, reported he was bound and slugged early Wednesday at Berryville by three men who robbed him of the show’s payroll, $5,000 in five dollar bills and between $11,000 and $12,000 in one dollar bills.
He said they also took two diamond rings from his wife.
According to Sallisaw night police officer Bob Cotton, local police are checking a possibility that the three men might have been here Wednesday night, looking for a place to hijack. Three men answering their description were seen leaving a local snooker parlor and entering a 1949 black sedan, said Cotton.
—Television is now a “going thing” at Orendorff’s Modern Home Appliance Store, and the boys down there are getting good reception right along on their big set, announced C.M. Orendorff, today.
“We have had very good luck with our reception since we changed aerials,” he said. “The one we had just wasn’t sensitive enough.”
—There were three admissions to the Sequoyah County Memorial Hospital during the past week, and one baby was born, according to Mrs. Zelda Atteberry superintendent-lessee.
A 10-pound, 9-ounce boy was born to Mr. and Mrs. Harmon Riggs of Sallisaw on Saturday, Oct. 15.
100 years ago
(From the Oct. 17, 1924, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat) —W.O. Luton, manager of Palace Drug Store made a business trip to Dallas, Texas, this week where he purchased a splendid line of Christmas goods. This is the first time in four years that this concern will offer Christmas goods to the public and the doctor did not overlook anything that would be of interest to the holiday shoppers in Sequoyah County.
