100 YEARS AGO, January 23, 1916

♦  About 700 lineal feet of street paving on West Main Street and the west side of the public square is all that remains to be constructed of more than four miles of paving laid in four improvement districts of Conway during the present year. They have made rapid progress during the favorable weather this week, completing Locust Avenue from Scott Street to East Main Street. A shortage of sand, however, stopped the work temporarily this morning, but the contractors hope to receive the material this afternoon and complete East Main Street tomorrow.

♦  A grave crisis in the financial affairs of the Conway school district has been reached and the schools will have to be closed unless the situation is immediately relieved. That was the substance of a statement issued by the board of directors today, which concludes with a call for a meeting of the citizens of the district Thursday night to consider the matter. According to the statement of the board, the district, which has been running behind revenue for several years, has now reached the point where the receipts from the taxes of the current year will not pay off the outstanding warrants for the preceding year. With this condition, the local banks, which have been carrying the deficit, will no longer do so unless means can be provided to increase the revenue.

75 YEARS AGO, January 23, 1941

♦  A new apparatus was being used for the first time at Conway Memorial Hospital — a face mask for administering oxygen. Superintendent Mrs. F. J. Swilling said the apparatus replaces the costly old style oxygen tent.

♦  State Rep. Eugene Hampton of Marianna proposed to set up a state-operated gar processing plant that would turn the much-hated, ugly fish into gar sausage, meal and other edibles.

♦  W. A. Camp & Co. advertised the following specials: men’s hats – Town Club, $1.98, and Knox, $2.98; Curlee suits, $18.75 (extra pants, $3.95) and Curlee topcoats, $14.75.

♦  Hendrix College announced it would not field a football team in the 1941 season. Dr. J. H. Reynolds, president, said in a prepared statement: “The Hendrix staff, including members of the athletic department, is strongly convinced that intercollegiate football, as now conducted in American colleges, has very little educational value.”

♦  Frank D. Cantrell of Greenbrier renewed his subscription to the Log Cabin Democrat. He had lived at Greenbrier 70 years and had subscribed to the paper since it was established in 1879. His family had moved to Greenbrier from Georgia in the fall of 1870.

♦  Newly installed County Judge J.I. Summers told 31 members of the Faulkner County Quorum Court that the county was virtually broke. He said the county was without funds or the machinery to work roads. “I may be an unpopular judge,” he said, “but I’m going to do things so our county can pay its just debts.”

♦  Census bureau figures put Conway’s populations at 5,782, up 248 from 1930. The figure placed the city 17th in size in the state. Faulkner County’s population dropped from 28,381 to 25,880.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Through the Cabin Window” features select items from the “Yesterdays” column that has appeared over the last many years in Conway’s Log Cabin Democrat newspaper. Here you will enjoy a focus on influential people from the City of Conway and Faulkner County’s formative years as well as significant events and perhaps even occasional trivia. As with other things judged to be “antique,” the entries will be at least 50 years old with the earliest at 100 years. Dates will be included as they will likely be different from the current date. These items, used with permission from the Log Cabin Democrat, are currently compiled by reporter Francisca Jones and earlier by Conway native Virginia “Ginny” Speaker Oliver.