MDJ Time Capsule: The Week of Aug. 5

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a watermelon growing contest, unusual car wrecks, a monkey rescue and the courthouse clock tower.

100 years ago ...

The Thursday, Aug. 10, 1922, edition of The Marietta Daily Journal reported that tax receiver’s books were complete and the tax returns for 1922 showed a loss of over $1 million. The tax returns for 1921 were $11,809,990 while 1922 had $10,692,930.

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During the American Legion’s regular monthly meeting at the Buick Showrooms, it was decided that the famous Newman Orchestra of New York, which was on tour in the South, would be brought to Marietta on Aug. 18, 1922, for the benefit of the local ballpark. Marietta needed an athletic field not only for Marietta High School but for summer baseball.

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In an annual report to the Board of Education, Superintendent C.A. Keith pointed out attendance at Marietta High School had practically doubled over the last five years. The 1921 enrollment was 242 with a graduating class of 45 and a record of 100 pupils in the freshman class.

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Traffic was blocked for a considerable amount of time that morning in front of the Dunn-Dickson & Company’s store where 30 watermelons were sliced and offered to the public. The melons were brought in by farmers from different sections of the county for a contest the store offered last spring when they were selling Kleckley seed. The prize of $5 in gold was won by J.F. Hembree of the Roswell area, who brought in a 39-pound melon grown from the seed. Geo. Brown of the Marietta area came in second with a 38.5-pound melon.

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Walter McKinney’s home on Cherokee Street escaped being burned the Saturday before when the roof around the kitchen flue caught fire. The flames were extinguished by a garden hose before the fire department arrived.

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The Editorial Page had the following blurbs:

♦”Considerable action was reported in the state senate (the day before) when two senators engaged in a physical encounter on the floor of the senate. Sen. Johnson tapped Sen. Brown on the head with a mucilage bottle. Reminds us of school days.”

♦”A Senate investigating committee has reported that the American Government committed some blunders in Haiti. That is easily explained — the Government evidently thought Haiti was a part of the United States. — Kansas City Star.”

♦”What we wish is that Henry Ford would now concentrate his genius on the quantity production of parking places. — Ohio State Journal.”

75 years ago ...

The editors picked up a United Press story out of Fairmount, Georgia for the Monday, Aug. 4, 1947, edition of The Marietta Daily Journal. Charles O. Cook reported that his automobile had a collision with a cub plane in flight. According to Cook, he skirted the airport and reached the highway just as a plane came in low for a landing. The aircraft struck the car, then hit a bank on the road and flipped over in a cotton patch. The pilot escaped unhurt.

The following day, the paper carried a local story about a bee causing a car accident. A woman lost control of her car while fighting a bee and went over a 20-foot embankment on Clay Street. The driver and her two passengers, both women, were treated at the Marietta Hospital — one with a broken wrist and ankle, while the others suffered only severe bruises.

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Mr. Monk, a pet monkey, was reported in the Friday, Aug. 8, 1947 paper as having climbed up a pine tree the Wednesday before and the Marietta Fire Department was called out 24 hours later to help retrieve him. The Brown family became worried about their pet because its dangling chain became tangled around a high limb and they couldn’t coax him down. On Thursday, the Browns called first the police station, then the fire house and finally the telephone company’s office. When firemen arrived on the scene, Mr. Monk had already come down. A passing venetian blind hanger had climbed up the tree and untangled the monkey’s chain.

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The Monday, Aug. 10, 1947, paper reported that if L.W. Cash, the Cobb County courthouse custodian, ever ran for public office he would have 80-year-old Laura Margaret Hoppe’s vote. The week before, Mrs. Hoppe made the news saying that she would vote for any candidate that would fix the gong on the bell in the clock tower. The Friday after that statement was published, Cash accomplished the task. For the past four months, he had been unable to purchase a large spring needed for the repairs. After learning how much the sound of the clock meant to Mrs. Hoppe, Cash showed some real ingenuity and made the repair with a spring from an old bed at the welfare office.