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The Truman Area Community Network
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Chronology of Henry County - 1950's
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[1950]
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[1952]
[1953]
[1954]
[1955]
[1956]
[1957]
[1958]
[1959]
1950
- Henry County closes the Henry County Poor Farm, located just west of Clinton (Highway 35 - now Highway 7 - and what is now NW 221 Road). The building is leased to J. D. Arnold for use as a rest home.
- May 3: The Henry County Library moves into a renovated building at 123 East Franklin Street, in Clinton. This building had been built around 1887 by the Lemp Brewery of St. Louis and before the purchase of the building by the library, had housed the Hudson Motor Car dealership.
- June 25: Korean War begins.
- November: The Henry County Fairgrounds Association purchases 34.5 acres on Highway 52 just outside town for a fairgrounds. The fairgrounds itself will occupy the 23.5 acres to the east of the highway and the 11 acres west of Highway 52 will be used for parking.
- November 2: New Washington Grade School (Corner of Clinton and 6th Street) and Jefferson Park Grade School (corner of Franklin and Orchard) are dedicated. The old Washington School at the corner of 6th & Ohio street is closed; the old Jefferson Park school had been demolished to make way for the new school.
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1951
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- February 2: Missouri Public Service dedicates the new Clinton water plant, located at the corner of Rogers & Artesian Avenue. This plant replaces the old plant located south of Artesian Park.
- April: New plan submitted for reorganization of the remaining single-room rural school districts in Henry County, to be voted upon in October.
- May: Radio Station KDKD (1280 AM) begins operation in Clinton, the first boradcasting station in Henry County. Studio located on Highway 13 just south of the Antioch Cemetary.
- May 27: McClane Chapel at Englewood Cemetary in Clinton is dedicated.
- July 1: The Missouri Power & Light Company sells the electric distribution system in the city of Clinton to the Missouri Public Service Company. MPS already operated the gas and water system in Clinton and had a electric generating station on North 3rd Street in the city, which supplied power to Clinton and surrounding towns.
- July 12: Severe flooding on the Missouri River closes the MKT line between Boonville and St. Louis.
- August 23: MKT reopens its St. Louis line, which had suffered major damage from the Missouri River floods.
- October 25: At the school reorganization election, the R-1 (Windsor), R-2 (Merritt) and R-14 (Montrose) districts are approved, and the R-7 (Land), R-10 (Greenridge), R-15 (Deepwater) and R-16 (combined Norris - Shawnee) districts were defeated.
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1952
- Spring: Power Coal Company begins construction of a new open-pit coal mine located several miles north of Montrose, off KK Highway.
- April 19: Open house at the newly completed 26-bed Windsor Community Hospital in Windsor.
- June 3: Election approves a $65,000 bond issue to build a new county jail, 966 to 392.
- June 12: 52 Drive-In Theater opens just outside Clinton.
- September: Clinton High school Athetic Field open in tract south of Clinton Street, east of 8th.
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1953
- State aid for county roads increased.
- State Park Board set up.
- Golden Valley Speedway opened, on Highway 18 west of Clinton. Dirt track stock car races were run here for a number of years.
- April: Work is begun on a 161,000 volt power line from the Bull Shoals Dam in northern Arkansas through Clinton and Missouri City to Maryville, Missouri, where a connection is to be made with a similar line extending north past Omaha to Randall Dam on the Missouri River above Yankton, Missouri.
- May 13: New Henry County Jail is dedicated, on South Washington Street in Clinton, across from original Henry County Jail.
- July 27: Korean War ends.
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1954
- The U. S. Congress approves the construction of the Kaysinger Bluff, Stockton, Pomme de Terre and Hacklemans Corner dams by the Army Corpos of Engineers. (The first three were built, Hacklemans Corner dam, to be located northwest of Caplinger Mills, was cancelled and never built.)
- The 52 Drive-In Theater is opened, on Highway 52 just north of the Henry County Fairgrounds. It was ther area's first drive in movie theater.
- January 22: The Henry County Historical Society is organized. Its original museum was located in the Henry County Courthouse.
- May 27: Last Frisco passenger train on KC - Clinton - Springfield route.
- November: Kansas City Power & Light Company announces its intention to build a major coal fired generating plant on Deepwater Creek, west of Ladue and northeast of Montrose. The plant would utilize coal from the nearby Power Coal mine and involve construction of a 1,800 acre man-made reservoir on Deepwater Creek.
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1955
- Construction work is begun on the Montrose power plant site.
- October 4: School Foundation program passed by referendum in the state of Missouri.
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1956
- Addition built onto Clinton General Hospital.
- Clinton gets its first "shopping center" when the Plaza Shopping Center opens at Douglas Street, between 2nd and 3rd Streets. The initial tenant is the Plaza Grocery Store.
- Twilight Garden Club buys 1 acre along Highway 35 (now Highway 7), west of Clinton, for a roadside park.
- May 15: Union state Bank transfers a tract of land on North Main Street to the Clinton School District, to be a park. Named Hurt Park after Emory Hurt, then president of the Union State Bank.
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1957
- Clinton School Board leases part of its property off Bodine Street, west of 8th, for a Little League baseball field.
- May 8: Lima School District votes to annex to Clinton.
- May 26: The Golden valley Roadside Park on Highway 35 (now Highway 7) is dedicated.
- May 27: First game played on the new Little League baseball field in Clinton.
- Fall: Montrose Lake, the cooling lake for the new Kansas City Power & Light Company plant, is completed. It covered a total area of about 1,800 acres. The 3,500 ft long, 30 foot high dam abutted Sissons Bluff on Deepwater Creek and included a concrete spillway section with 4 35-ft wide Taintor gates to control release of the water. Normal operating level of the lake is now 750 feet above mean sea level, although the power plant can operate with the water as low as 744 ft.
- October 25: Montrose Wildlife Area opened to hunting for the first time.
- November: Stuart Underwood, Chief Engineer of KDKD, was able to pick up the transmissions from the Russian Sputnik II satellite.
- November 21: Clinton School District $600,000 bond issue for the construction of a new High school is passed (on the fourth try, earlier attempts on September 20, 1955, November 15, 1955, and October 9, 1957 all failed).
- December 10: Election approves the formation of the R-15 (Deepwater) Reorganized School District, comprising the Prairie Grove, Columbia Hall, County Line, Diamond Point, Hay creek, Brownington, Tranquility, Deepwater, Shiloh, Fairview and Plesant Valley districts, plus Smith Bend and Harris Bend districts in St. Clair county.
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1958
- Peabody Coal Company opens the Tebo Coal Mine, just west of Calhoun, to supply additional coal for the Montrose power station of Kansas City Power & Light Company.
- May 30: Montrose Lake is opened to fishing for the first time. KCP&L leased about 3,600 acres consisting of about 2,100 acres of land and 1,500 acres of water, including most of Montrose Lake, to the Missouri Conservation Commission, as the Montrose Wildlife Area and uses 900 acres for the plant.
- July: Unit 1 of the Montrose Power Station goes into commercial operation, providing 175,000 kilowatts of electricity.
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1959
- National Guared Armory in Artesian Park is dedicated.
- Wetzel Clinic Building is built, at the corner of Ohio and Main Streets in Clinton.
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[1820-1829]
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[1890-1899]
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[1940-1949]
[1950-1959]
[1960-1969]
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[2000-2009]