WATCHMAN

I was not aware until this came to my attention that not only was "carrying the clock" still a reality but that also new, updated technology was in use for the job. "Carrying the clock" was a phrase used by someone employed as a Watchman back in the day. They used a gadget such as this current one. They were -- and, surprisingly, still are -- used for security purposes.

 "Joemop!" is what Danny Williams would yell to on-duty Joe at the pool hall when someone would spill their drink on the table where we were playing the game of pitch for change. Joe would arrive with his towel and gruff demeanor and clean up the liquid spill. Danny seemed to relish saying "Joemop!" on such occasions.

 Former Fort Scott Juco Star Running Back

 Lucky

Zinc Ore Built the Southwest Ozarks

By Bryce Martin

Charles E. Wood was in the right place at the right time. His area, catering to Webb City and Carterville during the decade from 1907 to 1917, was an especially prosperous niche for a hardware store owner and a beehive of activity. During this time frame zinc ore hit an all-time high of $135 a ton, and the district had the richest such deposits in the world.

It wasn’t just the steady pour of miners who were attracted to the diggings; it was the speculators with their moneybags and all the multifold and related industries attracted to the region, such as machine shops, foundries, carpentry units and a list that went on and on.

Just as Joplin ran into Webb City without much clear distinction of boundaries, a streetcar viaduct joined Webb City and Carterville over the railroad track of the Missouri Pacific. A.H. Rogers established the interurban system in 1893. The lines reached from Carthage to Galena, Kan., and later extended to Picher, Okla.

During the early 1950s I often walked the old carline track that took me deep in the woods heading west on 21^st Street near our Short Street home in Spring Grove. It was an elevated line covered with gravel. The iron tracks and wood ties had been salvaged long before.

…

My grandfather Martin had been a member of the Odd Fellows in Short Creek as far back at least as 1903, as indicated by his old paid receipts. Membership in some of the fraternal groups required strict standards and guidelines for entry. The Masons and Odd Fellows were steeped in religious rituals. Others were secular and more accepting. A joke at the time concerning exclusivity of the Knights of Pythias was that that they would take anyone who could pyth.

 Great CD