Through the Cabin Window – March, 2019

100 YEARS AGO, 1919

♦ J.W. James, proprietor of James Business College, moved his furniture and other equipment from his former location on the west side of the railroad to rooms on the third floor of the new Halter Building. His new quarters would allow him to better accommodate a larger number of pupils.

♦ The Racket Store, formerly owned by Percy Rankin, became the property of C.H. Nelson and Mack Seay. The business would continue under the same name and E.W. Rogers would be in charge of the store.

♦ The Lincoln-Jones Electric Company offices were remodeled. Space was gained by an additional room that allowed the company to handle a larger assortment of fixtures and supplies. Mrs. Rosa L. Hicks moved her office to the rear of the store.

75 YEARS AGO, 1944

♦ Conway Civic League met to discuss plans for enforcing the local option which would become effective in Faulkner County on March 18.

♦ The largest group of selectees ever to be sent to the Little Rock induction center from Faulkner County left the national guard armory. At 6 a.m., 135 men, including 12 high school students and six transfers from other boards. The record would only last one day, however, because 153 were scheduled to leave the following morning.

♦ Students from ASTC moved back into their old dorm rooms that were vacated by the WACs. Men students moved from Doyne Hall to Baridon Hall with Dr. and Mrs. Jeff Farris as host and hostess. Junior and senior women moved to Bernard Hall.

50 YEARS AGO, 1969

♦ A groundbreaking ceremony was scheduled for March 18 for Kimberly Clark’s $6 million tampon manufacturing plant—to be known as Conway Mills. The new facility would be constructed in the northeast corner of the Conway Industrial Park at Commerce Road and Exchange Avenue

♦ Nabholz Construction was building 30-bed addition to the north end of Conway Memorial Hospital. The addition would run east-west.

♦ Post Office officials were considering a former lumber company as the temporary location of the Conway Post Office while a new Federal Building and Post Office was being constructed. The 7,200 square-foot building at 1103 Front Street formerly housed Cash Lumber. Before that, it housed L.P. Crafton Flour & Feed and was owned by George Shaw.

25 YEARS AGO, 1994

♦ Frank E. Robins III, a fourth-generation publisher of the Log Cabin Democrat, announced his retirement. Michael Hengel, 39, editor of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, California, was named publisher of the Log Cabin Democrat. Stauffer Communications, which purchased a minority share of stock in the Log Cabin in 1989, selected Hengel and announced it would purchase the majority of the stock in the fall.

♦ The two-and-a-half story Colonial Revival-style Robins house at 567 Locust was being considered for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

♦ Dr. Bobby New, superintendent of Greenbrier Public Schools, asked that his contract not be renewed because he had been offered the superintendent position in another district.

10 YEARS AGO, 2009

♦ Graduates representing seven decades of Conway education filled the newly renovated auditorium, part of Conway High School-East, to rededicate the building. Jim Stone, a 1950 graduate, took his fellow “antique Wampus Cats” on a stroll down memory lane during the program. Members of the class of 1937, the first group to graduate from the building, were special guests.

♦ Nabholz Construction hosted a cocktail reception at the Clinton Presidential Center to celebrate its 60th anniversary. More than 200 employees, clients, company friends and current and past state legislators attended the event on March 3. The company was founded in 1949 when Bob Nabholz built a home for his bride, Barbara.

♦ Bill Ward, author of “Conway: As It Is, As It Was,” a book of photographs and commentary about Conway spanning from the early 19th century, was the guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Faulkner County Historical Society.