All towns, large or small, have problems and Tipton, of course, is no exception. A few of the problems have changed little down through the years while others were unique to an earlier era. It's fun to take a look at some of Tipton's problems as found in the files of The Tipton Times.

Robberies

Burglaries are often thought to be a modern problem only. However, there are reports of house and business robberies in the local paper from Tipton's earliest days. The following article is from the Tipton Times, date unknown:

Two Homes in Tipton Entered, and a Shot Gun Barks

Last Sunday night the citizens living in the neighborhood of the public schools were awakened by the report of a gun, and upon peering through the windows they beheld a man with a single garment flapping ominously in the wind. The long white figure with slightly drooped shoulders, held a shotgun in its hand and it stepped so cautiously that one would imagine the pavement set with pins--pointed ends up. The ghost afterward proved to be our townsman, F.M. Fry, and he was returning from a fruitless burglar chase.

During the silent hours of the night, Mrs. Fry heard the hall door creak upon its hinges, and arousing her husband, a sneak thief was headed off ere he had a chance to lay hands upon valuables.

Grabbing a shotgun which stood in the corner, our townsman took after him, only to find the gun unloaded, which was told by a loud snap. After getting two loaded shells and chasing the unknown half a block, Mr. Fry sent a load of bird-shot after the man and at a distance of about seventy-five yards. But when the smoke cleared away no blood, no dead nor wounded, not even a trace could be found, and as Mr. Fry's toenails rasped the boards on his return, he satisfied his mind that the unloaded gun didn't always kill.

On the same night, someone entered the home of George W Hays and after sampling a pie, took the family pocket book, which he carelessly stumbled over in the darkness. The book contained about two dollars in money and two deposit slips. On Tuesday evening the book and deposit slips were found on the east porch, but the money was gone, which plainly shows that the burglar was not so "powerful bad at heart."

Mr. Frv describes the man he saw as being low and heavy set, wearing black clothes and a cap, with his pant legs in his boots. A suspect is under surveillance, but no name has been mentioned.

Police protection

One of Tipton's early city problems was securing a reliable constable as shown in this 1874 advertisement:

"Tipton: We want some good man for town constable here the ensuring year, a man who will tend strictly to business.. .to get such a man, our town council must pay a salary of $25 per month in order to accept the office."

Evidently this effort was not entirely successful because a later report states: "Tipton: Monday was a good day for plain drunks, but as the town constable was pretty well corned himself, no arrests were made."

Pollution

The cattle yards, located as they are in the midst of the business portion of our town, constitute a plague spot and nursery of the germs of disease, thus exposing to their pestilential exhalations all whose business in that locality brings them in daily contact with these multifarious odors. Where they are, these cattle yards are a public nuisance and in the absence of health commissions it is the duty of our town council to so declare them.

The railroad company should be respectfully asked to abate this nuisance by the removal of these offensive yards to their grounds in the vicinity of their ponds in the eastern suburbs of the town. If they fail to comply with this request, then the courts must be appealed to for a redress of grievances.

Under the laws of this state and of this republic, we are happy to know that "soulless corporations" cannot always have everything their own way. The people have rights as well as they, and it is not too early for monopoly men to understand this fact. We understand that the contract between Seely and company is such that, whenever the yards cease to be occupied for the purpose for which they were granted, they will revert to Seely and his heirs. Very well; let them revert. What difference does that make to the people of Tipton? Better so, by far, than to suffer the company to force and perpetuate an intolerable nuisance under the nostrils of our citizens. Again, the scales used in connection with the stock trade at these yards are in the public street - the main thoroughfare of the city - a circumstance which makes the nuisance still more annoying.

"The time cometh and now is," when sidewalks should be extended from the Times office to the bank, an improvement which will render the removable of the scales indispensable. When this work is commenced, a decree must issue from the council demanding the "right of way," and then what? Why gentlemen, the solution of the whole matter is easy - Begin at the right end. Cause the stockyards to be removed; if the company refuses to do it, make them do it and all other obstacles will readily yield before the irresistible chariot of progress.

April 2, 1920

Kissing is insanitary until sunshine and fresh air have sterilized the lips, according to Dr. Lawison Brown of Saranac Lake, who told the New York State Medical Society at a session of its convention that: "it's a good thing for the human race that courting is done at night and in the late afternoon."

Speak king on T.B., Dr. Brown described a kissing test made at Saranac to determine whether the disease can be transmitted by contact of the lips. "We selected a pretty young lady with a bad case of tuberculosis and had her kiss a sterile," said Dr. Brown. "We found the morning kisses gave forth a few germs but those in the afternoon and evening were a plenty healthy risk."

Health

In today's papers we find doctor's columns which give general health advice. The health of the people in the community made news long ago, also. In our papers we see news items telling what kind or type of flu is prevalent each year. In the winter of 1890 the Russian influenza was raging in this city and hardly a home was not invaded. Although there were no deaths reported from the Russian influenza, the physicians were constantly on the go tending to the sick. There were too many sick for the editor to attempt to list them.

In 1889, when colds were very common, the editor tried to cheer up his readers by printing poetry about the "La-grippe."

Little grins of quinine,

Little drinks of rye,

Makes la grippe that's got you

Drop its hold and fly.

This will quickly help you,

If you'll only try;

But don't forget the quinine

When you take the rye.

Backward, turn backward, 0 Time in your flight,

Give me the nose I breathed through last night.

Bring back the smeller that two days ago

Knew not the trouble of continual blow.

Wipe from my mustache the moisture of sneeze.

Put wooded splints on my poor weakened knees,

Rub my red nose as you oft have before--

With tallow, dear mother, oh, it is so sore,

Backward, flow, backward, 0, tide of the nose;

I am so tired from my head to my toes,

Tired out with mopping, and coughing and sneezing,

Weary from handkerchiefs, constantly seizing.

I have grown weary of sniffle and snuff,

Of wiping my bugle until it is rough,

Stick my head in a big pillow slip,

And sew it up, mother, I have the la grippe.

Good old days

People of this era can have very frustrating times --perhaps the electricity will be off, the telephone out of order, and the car not start all on the same day. But we shouldn't believe that this kind of feeling is unique to our generation. In 1887 there was a human-interest story in The Tipton Times about A.B. Alexander:

Sept. 1, 1887:

Everybody knows A.B. Alexander, the rotund farmer and stock-dealer of Cooper County, and few have ever seen him except with a smile and a cheerful greeting for everyone he meets with. But he dropped in by us last Thursday with a face as long as a fence rail and an expression as a crab apple. ""Hello, Alf, what's the matter?" ""Matter? I'll be darned if I don't think there's enough the matter. Just sit down and let me tell you all about it, and see if you don't agree with me.

"Well," he began, ""on Monday a big boar I've got at home got out of his pen and cut three of my mules very badly. I started to our farm on Hickum Island, in the Missouri River, and when I got to Prairie Home, stopped and talked awhile with the boys and went off leaving my coat, with checkbook and all my papers in the pockets. I stopped to eat a watermelon and handed a fellow a knife and he put it in his pocket and let me drive off without it. On Tuesday I started home leading Jeff Renshaws's mule behind the buggy while he rode with me, and the mule jumped upon one wheel of the buggy and broke it down--my brand new buggy at that. Yesterday I came to town to hear that my cattle had gotten out of a pasture into an adjoining cornfield and now I am expecting every minute to have a bill for damages stuck under my nose.

That's a list of my misfortunes so far this week. What the rest of the week has in store for me, I don't know, but if it closes and leaves me alive, I shall go to church on Sunday and return devout thanks."

January 20, 1920

Tick-tacking, over turning milk bottles, and in some instances drinking the milk by night prowlers should be stopped. This is another case of the children controlling the parents!

Accidents which occurred during the "horse and buggy" days were routinely reported in the weekly paper just as the automobile accidents are reported today. All accidents are more or less freakish and quick thinking on the part of the drivers, whether they are driving cars or horses, can prevent serious trouble as shown by this report printed in the Nov. issue of The Times in 1887:

Nov.18, 1887:

A Serious Accident. "'Don Cook, who has well earned the sobriquet of the Sage of Willow Fork, dropped in on Saturday and related a rather startling experience he met with recently.

He was coming to town on a wagon without a bed and was riding astraddle of the tongue, just in front of the axle, and one of the animals he was driving was a young and spirited mare. As he was bowling along at a swinging trot, the coupling pin of the wagon came out, the axle turned letting the tongue down on the ground, and the coupling pole rose in the air frightening the team, and away they went.

Don's position was a perilous one, and one from which it was impossible to extricate himself, as he was hedged in by a stay chain on each side, the tongue in front and the hounds behind.

Nor was the danger of the situation its only objectionable feature, for his legs were dragging and great patches of skin were being rubbed off. But he preserved his presence of mind and, reining the team into the fence, succeeded in stopping them.

His legs were still pretty sore when he told us of his mad ride, but he was too glad of his escape from worse injuries to utter a word of complaint."

Jan.13, 1887: ""Messrs. W.M. Fry, Jno. G. Hoehn and Joe Dueber were out sleighing Monday afternoon and their team took fright and ran away. Hoehn and Dueber tumbled out, taking the lines with them, but which fortunately became wrapped around them and their weight stopped the team at Lander's corner." (Stop and Shop corner today.)

May 17, 1888: "The rattlingest runaway that has occurred in this city lately was that of Dr. S.H. Redmon's ponies attached to a buggy on Tuesday. They collided with a telegraph pole on Moniteau Street--completely wrecking the buggy."

Water

The skyline of Tipton is dotted with the silhouettes of several water towers. Our constant supply of good water is a luxury that we all take for granted in 1976 but down through the years, water supply has been a major problem.

The first few years after the City of Tipton was founded, families got their water supply by catching water off the roofs of buildings in rain barrels or cisterns. As the editor of The Tipton Times wrote in 1881, "Our cistern water gets flat and full of wiggling reptiles in hot weather, and unless we desire to take our meat and drink together, we might as well dig a well."

During this year an enterprising businessman, M.L. Culler, who owned the Central Missouri Stables at Tipton had a well drilled and a windmill setup. The apparatus was called a "wind wheel" and it raised enough water up into a trough to water 200 head of mules a day with ease.

In September 1881 a stock company was formed with A.F. Spayde as the organizer and they purchased a first class drill and boring apparatus for $500.00. It was immediately put into service drilling wells for farmers so they could have a dependable supply of stock water.

Several people in town had windmills installed also and a September issue of The Tipton Times in 1881 said, "Dr. Redmon's windmill looms up to sight grandly, before the passers down East Moniteau Street. This makes three good windmills in town now."

The first public well was drilled in 1884 and is described in this article from the July 3, 1884 Tipton Times:

"Tipton has at last succeeded in obtaining a public well of 250 feet in depth and a supply of good, pure water, exhaustless in volume. The next thing proposed is a windmill, pump and tank. The tank is to be raised to a height sufficient to force water to any point in town if needed in case of fire. At convenient places troughs will be placed on the ground for convenience in watering teams. This is one of the grandest public benefits that Tipton ever experienced."

In 1976 the municipal water plant is capable of producing 960,000 gallons of water per day (670 gallons per minute).

Weather reports

Today, farmers and townspeople alike turn on the radio or TV for weather news. In the spring of 1888, the people of Tipton tried to find some way to let the residents of the town know the expected weather conditions. They ordered a set of weather instruments, erected a pole of 65 feet tall (This was tall enough that it could be seen at a great distance in the country as well as over town.) and hired Ira J. Robertson to take the local weather observations each day. He was to notify the population of the weather by flying flags on the weather pole.

The March 29, 1888 issue of The Tipton Times had this instruction for the public: "Now we have arrangements perfect for receiving the weather signals, a pole up and flags are being displayed. It now becomes necessary that the people should learn the signification of the signals. Cut the following out and keep it for reference:

There are four flags described and numbered as follows:

No.1, White flag - 6 feet square - indicates clear, fair weather, no rain.

No 2, Blue flag - 6 feet square - indicates rain or snow.

No.3, - Black triangular flag - always refers to temperature. When placed above No. 1 and 2, indicates rising temperature. When placed below No.1 and 2, indicates colder weather. When not displayed, temperature will remain stationary.

No.4 - White with black center -indicates approach of sudden storm and sharp drop in temperature."