Serving the High Plains

Pages Past— July 15

On this date ...

July 12, 1975: A 16-year-old Logan boy was killed in a farming accident on the Gene Smith farm four miles west of Logan.

Robert Wesley Hix was riding on a tractor when he apparently slipped off the back and was run over by a tandem disc the tractor was pulling, the Tucumcari News reported.

Robert had only been in the community for a year, moving in from Norwalk, California.

July 9, 1965: The body of pioneer banker Sim McFarland was found in Ute Lake near the spot where his car plunged into the water a night earlier.

Witnesses said the McFarland car was parked about 50 feet from the lake’s edge. The car began rolling toward the lake after its occupants had exited.

Witnesses speculated McFarland attempted to get in the rolling vehicle, though no one saw him in the car. It crashed down a 10-foot embankment and came to rest on the lake bottom.

Two women standing in front of the car were knocked down, but only Cynthia McFarland suffered injury. She was hospitalized overnight with a sprained ankle.

Sim McFarland was 90 years old and he and Cynthia, 89, had recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

McFarland was president of Logan’s McFarland Brothers Bank, one of the few remaining privately owned banks in the United States, the Tucumcari Daily News reported.

July 11, 1950: The Woodmen of the World clubbed Tucumcari Office Supply, 11-4, in a Tucumcari Amateur Softball association game at Yessler field.

Grau Furniture led the league standings with a 5-1 record.

It’s their business ...

July 14, 1955: Martin’s Corner Grocery, at Main and First in Tucumcari, promoted itself as “Some bigger, but none better.”

“We serve to serve again,” a newspaper ad proclaimed.

July 9, 1945: Tucumcari Flying School was a “government approved school” that offered “reasonable rates,” according to a paid advertisement in the Tucumcari Daily News.

The phone number was 481-W.

Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. For more regional history, check out his weblog at: http://www.highplainsyesterdays.com