100 years ago

July 14, 1881

Mr. Gene Schaeffler and Mayor Maas of Hillsboro were in Marion on business Tuesday. Town boosters there are starting a movement for some street paving in Hillsboro, which if they are able to secure, will help the town wonderfully. Nothing improves the appearance and adds to a town more than paving and we hope Hillsboro will succeed in this movement.

Forest Ray, who had been home for a week’s visit, left Friday for Chicago to join the nine-piece orchestra with which he has been traveling as leader. After a few more weeks with them he will quit traveling and go up into Canada to study Cornet work with Prof. Clark, one of the finest teachers in that line on the continent.

A terrible accident happened at Elmdale last Friday evening when two ladies, Mrs. James Johnson and Mrs. Ella Watson, were both killed at the crossing by a freight train. The ladies are sisters and are related to the Johnson families of the Elk neighborhood. They were walking and it is presumed their attention was drawn elsewhere so that they failed to notice the train coming. They were killed instantly.

C.R. Leggete’s Show will exhibit in Marion all next week starting Monday. The shows are one of the cleanest carnivals on the road and are spoken of very highly by the press from other cities where they have played. Ten first class attractions are carried besides three mammoth riding devices and Big Ben, the largest snake in America. He weighs 808 pounds and is 27 feet in length.

A young man by the name of Fisher who has been confined in the jail on the charge of disposing of mortgaged property and who had been taken out for work on the county roads with several other prisoners escaped from the guard the last of the week and no trace has yet been found of him.