The Index from Hermitage, Missouri • 1

State Hist Soe 7-1-05 st- Drug trials scheduled 4KD) Weatherreservoir report THURSDAY JANUARY 19 1969 VOL 104 NO 42 Established 1885 Hermitage MO 65668 USPS 261500-Phone 417 745-6404 "Serving Hickory County and the Lake Pomme de Terre Area" Five city officials leave at Wheatland City loses mayor two aldermen city clerk public works supervisor Another petition had been circulated during the past few weeks Henry said calling for the resignation of ail city officials This petition Henry speculated wu the last straw for the officials who resigned city operations The audit will just include the records of dty receipts and disbursements and fund balances The auditors won't died: utility rates because these rates are set by the council in compliance with (Continued to 1 Monday is no spirit of cooperation in Wheatland That's why the town is dying Everyone wants to work against one another" Alderman Dennis Henry said he was disappointed that the city officials chose to leave In such a manna He said the officials could have helped provide a smooth transition for the new officials a could have chosen to make the transition difficult and they chose the difficult way Henry is the mayor pro tom and hu assumed the responsibility of restoring governmental operations for the dty "We were in Henry said of the resignations in a bind now All of the city records are on the computer and none of us know how to run it It would have been better if they had waited until after the regular meeting (Tuesday) and the bills were paid The city also hu some proposed ordinances to Maya Patton said "I wu tired of the personal attacks and the harrassmeat I had put up with all the anonymous calls inuendos accusations and rumors that I could The mayor said she supported the dismissal of the two city employees but not because of any failure by the employees to perform their dutiu Henry echoed Mrs confidence in the employees "Beverly and Jeanne both did a good Job And there have been a lot of hassles and lack of cooperation in the dty It started with the start of the sewa project There wu a lot of hard feelings ova the sewa and the dty became divided There wu poor public relations (on the sewer project) from the very start "And there are lots of rumors going arauhd Fa instance Gary (Corum) took a vacation day and hired a contractor to do some sewa line work on a lot he owns here in town People immediately started telling me that he wu using dty equipment and working fix himself on city time The next day he went back to work for the dty and make the city connection to the sewa line And people started the rumors all ova again" City government at Wheatland ground to a halt Friday evening when the Wheatland mayor two aldermen the city clerk and the dty'i public worka aupetviiar all vacated their poaitiona Only two of the dty'a even officials continued in office and terms fix both of them will expire April 4 The resignations and 1 followed several weeks of disputes over dty operational procedures but caused a series of operational problems for the dty A dosed meeting of the Wheatland City Council was held Friday January 13 to discuss personnel matters After discussions of dty resident complaints about city operational procedures and disputes between city focthms Mayor Beverly Patton said she concluded that the best way to end the dissent was a wholesale change of dty person nd With the approval of the city dak and dty public works supervisor she recommended that they both be terminated All four aldermen voted in favor of the dismissals City Clerk Jeanne Boa and City Public Works Supervisor Gary Corum were then dismissed Following that council action letters of resignation were submitted by Mayor Beverly Patton Alderman reshears and Alderman Bob Kennedy The remaining aldermen are Dennis Henry and George Chaney Mayor Patton issued the following statement: wu with regret that we tendered our resignations as it became apparent that a small foctton of misinformed city residents were bent on bringing about dissatisfaction and dissent within the dty "When attacks became personal and abusive I did not feel it wu to my well bdng to stay and suffer these attacks City personnel were bdng harassed to the point of bdng unable to perform their normal duties "These resignations have nothing to do with the upcoming state audit (of the city) We do not feu an audit we are already audited annually by a CPA firm from Springfield and we know that another audit win result in the same findings" City Clerk Jeanne Box said Elkton man Authorities An Elkton mu wu shot and killed last Monday night near Louisburg Kansu in incident police are calling an attempted break-in Dennis Vincent 45 of Flemlngton and Russell Renwick 36 of Grandview were both shot and killed with a 44-caliber magnum pistol at the home of Dale Thorup The bodies of the two men were found in the front yard next to the porch according to Miami County Sheriff Du Morgan Henry said he had contacted the Missouri Municipal League and wu advised that he and Chaney could call a special meeting and the two of them could appoint an alderman Then after that appointee is sworn into office the three aldermen could appoint the fourth alderman and a all to serve the unexpired terms of the three elected officials who resigned The terms of the three will run through April 1990 A special meeting wu called for 6 pm Tuesday to make the appointments prior to the regular meeting that evening at 6:30 "We do anything until we have a full council" Henry said "But if we get officials sworn in we can pay the bills We really got caught with our pants down We have to be sure the sewa and water systems are tested and we get into trouble A petition had been circulated throughout the city lut fall calling for an audit of city government by the State Office The audit hu been approved and the cost of the audit will have to be paid by city residents Henry said the audit still begin in a few weeks Two appointed In a special meeting Tuesday night the aklermanic vacancies were filled at Wheatland but the position it still unfilled according to Donut-Henry mayor pro tern Dennis Hargiss wu chosen fa the south ward aldennanic position and Bob Harper fa the north ward Henry said no action wu taken on choosing a maya the council wanted more time to discuss the appointment with dty residents trying to unite everyone and we want to get the opinions of the people We want to find who the people might want to be in the city's best interest Right now we are doing Approximately 20 dty residents attended the Tuesday night meeting caked Thorup told officers that he shot the two mu Both mu had waked fix Thorup recently Thorup ud his wife and small son were in the home at the time of the incident The shooting occurred in east-central Kansas near Louisburg which is located abut 30 mites south of Kansas City and near the Kanus-Missouri border Vincent and his family had operated the Elkton Country Store according to Sheriff Ray Tipton Sometimes childless couples adopted them but often the children were adopted by families who saw them as another free hired hand Murphy became a ward of the Society when he was five years old His teen-age motha was unable to care fix him so the Society placed him in one of its lodging houses One day he wu told that he was to be rent west on an orphan train and the next day he was on a west-bound train Before the orphans left New Yak their destinations had already ban finalized However because he wss the lut orphan to ride the orphan trains Murphy was sent west without a predetermined destination He lived in several homes Including the home of a dentist and his wife but he wu neva adopted After a teaching area that took him to severs! districts In Iowa and north Missouri Murphy and his wife Christine came to the Hickory Counly R-l School District where they both Joined the teaching staff Through the years he had attempted to tecate his half-sister I believe there is any crookedness going on (in city government)" Henry said But maybe this audit will dew the air City residents will be disappointed with the audit because they are expecting a detailed investigation of NBC decided to continue the Mgment because of the historical and personal interest In the orphan train story So Mrs Murphy was flown to Los Angela for an interview for the program in which she explained that his family was still interested In finding his family that was left in New York The couple have four children This taping wu compteted Decemba 17 Mrs Murphy who still teacha at Skyline High School uid "We have ban waking on this since mid-July and he was very interested in it" The Murphys had visited in Springdale Arkansas with Mary Ellen Johnson secretary-manager of the Orphan Train Heritage Society of America which was aganized in 1986 NBC also sent Mrs Murphy a video tape copy of the complete interview with Mr Murphy "I'm so impressed with NBC" she uid "They were so interested in this story and they were so concerned and considerate to my husband and to me" killed in Kansas say break-in attempt prompts shooting NCB's 'Unsolved Mysteries' to feature former Skyline teacher A spokesperson for the office of Miami County Attorney David Miller add no charga would be filed in the incident His report of the shootings said that Vincent ud Renwick had arrived at the Thorup home had broken a window to the house and had entered the home with a loaded pistol A 10 mm pistol wu found next to Vincent's body when officers arrived The county attorney's spokesperson said the pistol was loaded and maintained by the society The society worked with orphanages prisons ud asylums and it also operated industrial schools for the orphans Most of the children went to Francis Murphy Thousands of Missourians are descendants of orphan train youngsters And orphan train organizations have sprung up across the Midwest in recent years A genealogy researcher spent forty years Interviewing orphans and their descendants and a humanities professor at the University of Missouri-Holla helped ha assemble ha information into a documentary that wu shown last year at the Governa's Conference on Aging Interest in the orphan trains spread across the nation until NBC hard of the program And NBC's reuarch led them to the test rider of the orphan the only rider not to have ban adopted Their search ted them to Francis Murphy and they taped his story just moments before he died Murphy was neva able to reach his test family In New York but he neva gave up his March And he certainly never guessed that his March and his life story would be viewed by millions of Amcriuns as a nationally televised feature story who was ban just before he was sent to the Midwest His March fix his original family had led him to discova that his motha had died very young But he neva found his half-sister NBC learned of his search and was interested in the colorful history of the orphan train program operated by the Saicty So the "Unsolved Mysteries" program directors made arrangements fa the Murphys to mat the taping crew in Springdale Arkansas fa the taping of a lengthy interview The taping was held in Arkanus because NBC wanted to um the Eureka Springs Railroad as historical train footage to be Included with the segment Auditions were held in Arkansas to Mlect a youngster to portray Murphy a youngsta on the (rein well as to select other people to re-enact the orphan train scena Alter the taping wu completed Murphy told the director "1 think I need to lie and then he suffered mauive heart failure and died in a Springdale hospital A former Skyline High School teacher will be the subject of a segment of the NBC television show "Unsolved Mysteries" to be aired on Springfield television Channel 3 Wednesday Januaiy 25 at 7 pm Francis Murphy who taught science several years at Skyline will be featured on the segment the last child to ride the "orphan trains from New York to the Midwest in 1929 Murphy who died Just as taping for the show concluded November 3 wu seeking information about his New York family The orphan tnins began operating in 1853 when the Children's Aid Society of New York started the Eram as a way of moving lus New York City children to the Midwest where they could be adopted An estimated 150000 oprhans were sent west on the trains and 6000 of them became Missouri citizens Aid Society members Matched the New York streets fa homeleu children and the youngsters were placed In lodging houses.