Remember When?

Officers Arrest Eight on Marijuana Charges

April 2, 1974

A couple and six other people from Houston were arrested for possession of marijuana after local police officers stopped a Ford van on Sunday afternoon on the east side of La Grange.A two-year-old child was among the passengers. Earlier, a Bastrop County deputy sheriff observed the vehicle’s occupants passing around what appeared to be some kind of cigarette on Hwy. 71 about 2 p.m. west of La Grange. He notified Highway Patrolmen A.F. Hall and Norman B. Ball, and La Grange Police Chief J.R. Ulrich. Officers making the stop detected a strong odor of marijuana.

Building construction in La Grange got off to a fast start in the first quarter of 1974. Construction permits for a new dental clinic, fabric shop, restaurant and residence were highlights of the $224,575 total, which also included various improvements on existing structures. The amount was more than two and a half times greater than for the same prior year period.

Cathleen Nitschke of Fayetteville won the Fayette County Spelling Bee. An eighth grader at Fayetteville High School, Cathleen was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Curtis J. Nitschke. She was to represent Fayette County in the East Texas Spelling Bee in Houston, sponsored by the Houston Chronicle. The contest winner would compete in Washington, D.C., in the national bee.

About 50 Model A Fords, the car so popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s, visited La Grange on their annual club tour of Austin, San Antonio and Houston. After the vehicles were on display around the Square, their drivers and guests gathered at Cottonwood Inn Restaurant for a banquet attended by 149 people.

Funeral services were held for: Leon Schmidt, 59, of La Grange; Glenn M. Weikel, 64, a native of Walhalla; Sam W. Ingram, 88, of La Grange; and August E. Nollkamper, 70, of Flatonia.

The almost forgotten crafts of woodworking, soap making and fireplace cooking were returning to Fayette County through the efforts of the University of Texas outdoor museum at Winedale. Pancho Howze of Austin, Loraine Kneip of Round Top and Betsy McCormick of Warrenton were practicing their respective crafts in continuous public demonstrations every weekend until May 12. Mr. Howze was ‘riving’ cedar shingles from a section of a huge Eastern Red Cedar using an iron ‘froe’ and a club made from a bois d’arc root to split the shingles. He would clamp them in a shaving horse before tapering them with a draw knife. Miss Mc-Cormick, a senior at La Grange High School, was preparing meals based on food descriptions left by travelers in the Round Top area in the 1850s and cooking them in a stone fireplace. Visitors were encouraged to try her cornbread made from corn shelled at Winedale and ground in a hand grist mill and baked in a Dutch oven. Loraine Kneip was presiding over two boiling kettles of homemade soap made from lye, used lard and fatty drippings in back of the house. Some of the soap would be sold to museum visitors. The rest was being donated to Lutheran World Relief in return for used lard donations from members of local Lutheran congregations.

The Spring Antique Fair at Round Top was scheduled for April 6 and 7 in the Rifle Association Hall. The annual meeting of the Carmine Volunteer Fire Department was called to order by Chairman David Eilers on Thursday, March 28. The following members answered the roll call: Tony Buban, Lloyd Bray, Otto L. Fuchs Sr., Howard Fuchs, Stuart Bruchey, Raymond Lehmann, Gus Krause, Perrie Hinze, John Mueller, Walter Fuchs, David Eilers, Emil Mueller, Charles Mueller, I.A. Ulrich, W.L. Heemer, W.O. Rauch, A.P. Kiel, Alvis Mueller, Floyd Etzel, Darrell Neutzler, Berrie Etzel, Larry Pohl, Erich Braun, Reinhardt Georges, Otto L. Fuchs Jr., Kermit Renck, Frankie Weidemann, Arnold Peters, J.C. Pohl, Jerry Dean Harzke and Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Noak.

Below are ads from 1974

Mr. and Mrs. Edwin L. Jaster of Oldenburg celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on Saturday afternoon, March 23 at the Quade-Werchan Legion Hall in Round Top. A meal of barbecue chicken was served. The Rev. Wayne Walther read the newspaper write-up about the wedding 25 years before.

Terry Krebs of the Fayetteville FFA Chapter was beef showmanship winner at the 15th Fayette County Junior Livestock Show with a 748-pound Charolais cross calf that received a blue ribbon. Darren Kolbe of the La Grange 4-H Club showed the best groomed blue-ribbon broilers at the livestock show, which sold for $160. Also in the best-groomed broiler category, Becky Wagner of the Round Top-Carmine FHA Chapter sold her red ribbon winner for $167.

For more great stories, visit Elaine online at www. elainethomaswriter.com/blog/ or call her at (979) 263-5031.