Fridley page 23



[no source, no date]

TNT PEOPLE WILL CONDUCT A COMMUNITY AUCTION
Howell’s Main Street Will Be Auction Block Saturday; Families Seek New Homes
TWO AUCTIONEERS
If Merchandise Is Not Sold By Nightfall The Sale Will Continue At Softball Park

            A mammoth auction sale, at which personal property of a majority of the 200 families in the area absorbed for the TNT plant will be offered to the highest bidders, will be held all day Saturday at Howell.
            Although the auction is expected to attract several thousand people and state officers will be there to control traffic, the affair will be far from a cheerful one for the persons who are putting up their wares for sale.
            The auction has been brought on through necessity, Morris Muschany, Howell merchant said. People who are expected to get an order any day to move, have many things they will be unable to take to their new quarters and must dispose of them some way.
            Muschany pointed out that some lifelong residents of the area will move to places where they cannot have livestock and will not have an opportunity to sell after getting the short notice to vacate.
            Dust covered antiques, some of them dating back to almost a century and a half ago when Daniel Boone and other pioneer families settled in this county, will be offered for sale. Household goods, farm machinery, live stock and every imaginable piece of personal property is expected to be offered at the sale.
            Residents are expected to start moving their things to Howell before sale time as the affair will get under way at 9 a. m. Livestock must be there by 8 o’clock.
            The main street of Howell will be the auction block with George Pallardy of O’Fallon, and John Lowery of Defiance serving as auctioneers. The two will continue all day and if the goods and stock is not sold by nightfall activities will be shifted to the softball park behind Muschany’s store. Terms of the sale will be cash.
            Mr. Muschany said he was moving to New Melle where the funeral business will be transferred. The Muschany merchandise store will be set up in Weldon Spring. Two other brothers who are in the business, Claude and Carl will make their homes at O’Fallon and Chesterfield respectively.

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[no source, November 30, 1940]

Thousands Attended the Community Sale at Howell—3 Auctioneers
[handwritten: Nov. 30, 1940]
Clerks Report Articles Were Selling Cheap—Other Sale at Hamburg, December 4th

            More than two thousand people attended the Community Sale at Howell today. Three auctioneers were kept busy selling various articles, including household articles, farm machinery, live stock, etc.
            Antique dealers who had heard of the community sale several days ago, had bought up most of the old articles, but there were still many left for the attendants at the sale today.
            One youth paraded the street of Howell with a pet goat bearing the sign “For Sale: Give Me a Bid.”
            Clerks of the sale said articles were selling very cheap.
            A similar Community Sale will be held at Hamburg, Wednesday, December 4.

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[no source, no date]

Rush Work On Phone Circuits to TNT Plant
Telephone Employees Work on Thanksgiving Day to Speed Project.

            Fifteen crews of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company employees worked Thanksgiving Day to rush the completion of telephone lines between St. Louis and the TNT plant at Weldon Springs.
            Fraser-Brace Engineering Company of New York, plant contractors asked for at least five circuits to the outside world by Monday and the phone company hopes to have them completed by Saturday.
            Crews buried a 51-pair cable along Highway 61 from the Daniel Boone bridge to the company headquarters in the Miller School, using a special cable-laying plow. Other crews were stringing aerial cable from the school to the new buried cable.
            An 80-line switchboard and a maximum of 15 trunk lines also will be installed at the contractors’ headquarters.

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[no source, December 3, 1940]

100 FAMILIES GET NOTICE TO MOVE FROM TNT AREA
[handwritten: Dec. 3]
Instructed To Be Out of Area Within Ten Days[;] Majority Will Remain In this County
WORK STARTED
Construction of Railroad Into Area and Contractors’ Building Have Been Started

            One hundred families in the danger zone of the TNT area, who received notices Thursday and today to vacate their land within ten days are making plans to get out of the area as soon as possible.
            The notices to vacate were sent out by R. Newton McDowell, government purchasing agent. No specified time was set except that the people must be off the property within ten days. Most of the residents are expected to figure that time from the date on the letter.
            Majority of the families will move to the northwest part of St. Charles county, staying as close as possible to their old homes. Some are moving into adjoining counties while a few will leave the state.
            Construction on a spur track in the area was started today and work on the plant proper is expected to begin before the 100 families have moved out.
            About 100 more families reside in the safety zone and they will not be required to move until March. People living in the danger area will be allowed to keep stock in the safety zone until next March.
            Families in the area will conduct a mammoth community sale all day tomorrow at Howell. Two auctioneers will be kept busy and if all the articles are not sold by dark the activity will be transferred to the Howell softball park.
            Construction of an office for the contractors is under way on the Howell High School grounds.