Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, society president
Highlights of the local news reported by the May 1875 Valley Falls New Era, included spelling matches, grasshopper invasions, name changes and AT & SF Railroad activity.
May 1 "The spelling match epidemic struck Valley Falls last Friday evening. Dr. Wilson is good at pronouncing and the way he leaps from monosyllables of two letters to French phrases is startling to the best spellers in America.
"The Hon. R.H. Crosby went down on the first round at the spelling bee last Friday. He never sang 'Hazel Dell' or he would not have tripped on so small a thing as 'Hazel.'
"There will be a spelling school at the Baptist Church next Friday evening. A Webster's New Counting House and Family Dictionary will be given to the best speller and a Higuly Illustrated Primer to the poorest. A.V. Jewett will pronounce the words. He has already selected 'monysontetoirtriggelypherlyphizeigokraut' and a few other light words for the spellers. Admission for the events is 25 cents for couples and 10 cents for children."
May 8, "Brix went to the spelling match last night. About an hour after he'd gone home and to bed, his wife poked him in the ribs and said, 'Brix, wake up! There's a burglar in the house!' Brix sat upright in bed burglar — b-u-r-g-l-a-r, burglar,' he spelled, rolled over and went back to sleep.
"The sidewalk around Block 21 to the depot is finished and now one can walk to the depot and cars dry-shod.
"Hillyer's Hall has been furnished with seats for an audience of 125 and is just such a room as our city has long needed. Posts have been provided for the room below that makes the floor secure and our citizens can now have gatherings without placing the authorities of the city churches in the embarrassing position of refusing to open the church for an entertainment because of those who think churches should be used for religious instruction only."
May 15, "Today the act of changing the name of our city to Valley Falls takes place and hereafter, all legal papers in which this place in an important point, must date from Valley Falls; township instruments from Delaware Township.
"The dome of the eight-gabled Octagon Hotel is the first object which greets the eye of the traveler approaching Valley Falls. The building is situated on the eastern brow of the hill descending gently to the depot. The site was chosen, the edifice designed, built, and is still owned and now kept by Dr. L. Northrup, an old 'fifty-fiver' of the town.
"R.H. Crosby of Valley Falls recently sold 100 head of cattle in Chicago for $8,225, which is pretty good for a grasshopper year and a winter of destitution."
May 22, "778, 451, 97, 651, 863, 132, 901 grasshoppers are what ailed our lettuce bed and early garden.
"Fifteen trains came in to Valley Falls Thursday and as many went out. The A.T. and S.F. is a driving business and they are in better order than any road in the west.
"There was a special passenger train that stopped for two days at the Depot. Two days since it carried on it persons representing $3,000,000. "The governor of Missouri has appointed a day of fasting and prayer in view of the grasshopper ravages. If there is a state in the union that needs the prayers of the righteous, that state is Missouri."
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