LOOKING BACK

At the Rooks County Spelling Bee, although Stockton didn’t claim the championship position, they were proud of the accomplishments of their 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place showings. Sage Penner finished 2nd, Leslee Damrow was 3rd place, and Blake Armstrong and Molly Schleicher claimed the 4th and 5th place spots. Winning the champion spot was Cole Smith of Plainville.

Rooks County Commissioners were moving forward with their plan to make the county-owned Rooks County Nursing Home a non-profit facility. The change gave the facility its own governing board and opened the way for grants to update the nursing home.

At the regular meeting of the Stockton Unified Sthool District No. 271 Board of Education on Feb. 13, 2006, resignations, effective the end of the school year, were accepted from teachers Don LaRue and Mary Miller.

Tyler Johnston, a Stockton High School freshman, was able to wrestle his way to a fourth-place finish at the Regional Wrestling Tournament in Oberlin, qualifying him for State competition.

Stockton High School StuCo representatives Savannah Lowry, Grant Kollman, Lizzy Moll, Kristen Lingg and Levi Earl were pictured in front of the new Stockton High School sign, facing Main Street. The previous sign had been destroyed in the June 9, 2005 storm.

A five-generation photo featured Velma Elliott of Akron, Colo., holding her great-great-granddaughter Coryn Hahn, surrounded by great-grandmother Dena Beck, grandmother Debbie Hahn, and father Travis Hahn. Another five-generation photo showed Velma Elliott holding her great-great-grandson Jaryn Wildeman, surrounded by his great-grandmother Dena Beck, grandmother Debbie Hahn, and mother Tara Wildeman, of Ellis.

And So They Say — Darrell Small: “It’s 41 days until the Opening Day of the 2006 baseball season.”

Billie Covington and Riley Voss, Logan, announced the arrival of their daughter, Ruthie Ann Voss, on February 9, 2006.

Showing at the Nova Theatre was “When A Stranger Calls.”

Stockton’s first high school band was the subject of the Yesteryear photo, dated 1898.

Obituaries were published for Adolph J. Laska (1926-2006); Claude E. Archer (1909-2006); Emery Dale ‘Red’ Berry (1922-2006); Claire T. Anderson (1947-2006).

Looking Back 14 Years Ago, Spotlighting the Year... 1992 — Rooks County District Court Clerk Virginia Doughty was acquitted of two felony counts of misuse of public funds of around $160, after a special audit, costing over $2,000, found no wrongdoing. Alvy and Betty Bobbitt were in satisfactory condition in a Salina hospital following a car accident 10 miles north of Russell. Charlie McDonald and Corey Johnston brought home championship medals from state wrestling.

56 Years Ago, Spotlighting the Year... 1950 — The Stockton community was shocked by the sudden deaths of Lt. Loren Grover, who had been killed in an airplane accident, and Oliver Crowell, who had been found dead at the Wyatt Station and Bus Depot where he was the nighman. Forrest Van Horn was set to mix up another batch of pancakes for the Methodist Men’s Pancake Supper on Feb. 23. The J.C. Penney’s Dollar Day ad was printed upside down in the paper to attract everyone’s attention to it, and it worked! Many people thought the newspaper had made a big mistake!

What Stocktonites Were Doing 98 Years Ago, Spotlighting the Year...1908 — Dr. Book’s automobile collided with a post Sunday down near Jackson’s and his wife and three babies were thrown out. Mrs. Book was stunned but not seriously hurt. The auto, however, will require an anesthetic and a surgical operation. Ben Allen received a very red Buick automobile this week. It is a very fine machine and makes a swell appearance. Janitor Lomax cut a deep gash in his head in the furnace room of the grade school building, while trying to imitate Roikjer’s chair balancing act. He was stunned and unable to work the rest of the day.